MARCH 30, 2020 THE JESUIT REVIEW OF FAITH AND CULTURE What Do Colleges Owe Athletes? Kevin Jackson p18 Catholics and the Coronavirus p8 My Life in Five Masses p26 The Last American Grownups p40 1 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG MARCH 30, 2020 AMERICA | PB During this challenging and unprecedented public health crisis, the staff of America Media is praying for the health and well being of all our fellow citizens and for people throughout the world who have been affect- ed by the novel Coronavirus. We invite you to join us: A PRAYER AMID A PANDEMIC Jesus Christ, you traveled through towns and villages Be with the families of those who are sick or have died. “curing every disease and illness.” At your command, the As they worry and grieve, defend them from illness and sick were made well. Come to our aid now, in the midst of despair. May they know your peace. the global spread of the coronavirus, that we may experi- ence your healing love. Be with the doctors, nurses, researchers and all medical professionals who seek to heal and help those affected Heal those who are sick with the virus. May they regain and who put themselves at risk in the process. May they their strength and health through quality medical care. know your protection and peace. Heal us from our fear, which prevents nations from Be with the leaders of all nations. Give them the foresight working together and neighbors from helping one to act with charity and true concern for the well-being another. of the people they are meant to serve. Give them the wisdom to invest in long-term solutions that will help Heal us from our pride, which can make us claim prepare for or prevent future outbreaks. May they know invulnerability to a disease that knows no borders. your peace, as they work together to achieve it on earth. Jesus Christ, healer of all, stay by our side in this time of Whether we are home or abroad, surrounded by many uncertainty and sorrow. people suffering from this illness or only a few, Jesus Christ, stay with us as we endure and mourn, persist and Be with those who have died from the virus. May they be prepare. In place of our anxiety, give us your peace. at rest with you in your eternal peace. Jesus Christ, heal us. Kerry Weber is an executive editor of America. We hope that you can find consolation in America Media’s take and analysis on how the coronavirus is affecting our brothers and sisters around the world. You can easily access up-to-date news and spiritual guidance at our special topics page, www.americamag.org/coronavirus. 2 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG MARCH 30, 2020 AMERICA | 3 Rising Above I am writing this column from my every country priest who visits his pa- gency, the headquarters of America bedroom in New York on the seventh rishioners and has heard a man gasping Media in New York will close at 5 p.m., day of my self-quarantine. Last month for breath on his deathbed thinks as I Friday, March 13, and will remain I had the honor to co-lead America do. He’d try to relieve human suffering closed for the foreseeable future. All Media’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land before trying to point out its goodness.” America Media employees will work with Father James Martin. It is a fair point. I’ve heard varia- from home. It was a grace-filled 10 days, which tions on it before, often in connection There will be no disruption to the included trips to Galilee, Nazareth, with priests, and Jesuits in particular. production and distribution of the Jerusalem and Bethlehem. That last We sometimes enjoy the luxury of be- print edition of America. Readers and excursion, to the place of our Lord’s ing aloof—hovering above the real like subscribers should expect to receive nativity, is the reason for my isolation. uninstantiated Platonic forms. their print issues according to the usu- The Palestinian authorities put Beth- On the other hand, priests and al schedule. Digital coverage will be lehem on lockdown the day after our religious are often those who are the similarly unaffected. visit. Out of an abundance of caution— most deeply entrenched in the real. Four years ago, America Media to use the now ubiquitous cliché—the The countless men and women who changed to an all-digital workflow and four of us from America’s staff who form the outstretched arms and help- production process. This allows the attended the pilgrimage are now in ing hands of the church do not need to editors and staff to prepare the maga- self-quarantine. be reminded that no one is ultimately zine and to send it to the printer from It’s a strange sort of thing: I have spared from the ravages of life. Prick remote locations. withdrawn from the community for us and we will bleed. Even Father Pan- As we continue our work, we also the sake of the community. It seems eloux discovers that in the end. pray for the health and well-being of counterintuitive, if not absurd, at least As Camus reminds us, a plague all our fellow citizens and for people in the philosophical sense. So I de- presents an existential crisis for each throughout the world who have been cided this week to consult the master of us. But it also presents an opportu- affected by this crisis. If you would like of the absurd, Albert Camus, and his nity to learn anew, or for the first time, to join us, you can find a special prayer 1947 novel, The Plague, which de- that our destinies are inextricably in- on Page 2 of this issue. scribes an outbreak of a deadly pesti- tertwined and that it is precisely this For 111 years—through two world lence in French Algeria. reality that calls us into being, that wars, the Great Depression, 9/11— Camus shows how the various calls us out of darkness and into light. America magazine has been a witness townspeople react to the growing “What’s true of all the evils in the to our national life. Our experience threat in their midst, describing their world is true of plague as well,” Camus has taught us this: We can rely on the trajectory from vague indifference to wrote. “It helps men to rise above essential goodness, charity and cour- existential crisis as the plague claims themselves.” age of the American people to meet more and more of their neighbors. I should tell you, by the way, that the challenge of a perilous hour. Father Paneloux, the Jesuit in the I am fine, as are my colleagues. As of Above all, we have faith in the One novel, does not come off well, at least this writing, no one who accompanied who ultimately guides our earthly not at first. The priest is well-respect- us on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land pilgrimage; the One of whom St. Paul ed, but as questions of life and death has developed symptoms. Deo Gratias. wrote in his Letter to the Philippians: progress from the conceptual to the • “I can do all things through him who terrifyingly real, his philosophical The following message for our readers strengthens me.” musings and pious platitudes are less was sent from America Media’s and less helpful. digital platforms on March 12, Matt Malone, S.J. “Paneloux is a man of learning, a 2020. We reproduce it here, for your Twitter: @americaeditor. scholar,” says the more scientifically information: minded character, Doctor Rieux. “But Due to the public health emer- 2 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG MARCH 30, 2020 AMERICA | 3 THE ISSUE GIVE AND TAKE DISPATCHES FEATURES 6 12 18 YOUR TAKE WHAT THE CHURCH IN AFRICA THE RULES OF THE GAME Do you feel comfortable IS DOING TO COMBAT What does Catholic social teaching expressing your faith at work? CORONAVIRUS say about what a college owes its athletes? 8 Iraq’s Christians struggle as power Kevin Jackson OUR TAKE of Iran-backed militias is on the rise The Catholic response to coronavirus; 26 welcoming new Catholics Fear haunts Mexico’s monarch THE NEW AND ETERNAL butterfly reserve after activists’ COVENANT 10 murder How the liturgy has changed (and SHORT TAKE changed me) over the decades Chocolate’s child labor problem GoodNews: Student activists push Bill Cain Christie Klimas fossil fuel divestment at Creighton POEM 45 PASSION PLAY Emily Stoddard 4 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG AP Photo/Francisco Seco AP Photo/Francisco Gondoliers wait for customers near St. Mark's square in Venice, Italy, March 3. Venice in the time of coronavirus is a shell of itself. Cover: Gonzaga's Joel Ayayi plays in the final of the West Coast Conference men's tournament, March 10, in Las Vegas. THE ISSUE (AP Photo/John Locher) FAITH & REASON IDEAS IN REVIEW THE WORD 32 40 52 WHEN RUSSIANS SPOKE LATIN THE LAST AMERICAN The Passion invites us to recognize And how the Jesuits played a role in GROWN-UPS important models of faith in our midst their education The plight of Generation X Brian P. Bennett Elizabeth Grace Matthew The Easter Gospel reveals the very human responses to this mystery BOOKS of faith FAITH IN FOCUS Set the Night on Fire; Jesus Wasn’t Jaime L. Waters Killed by the Jews; Escape From Rome; 36 Timefulness THE SOUL OF SPORTS LAST TAKE How Ignatian spirituality can help CULTURE student athletes “Corpus Christi”; “Bojack Horseman” 54 Sherri Retif DANIELLE BEAN The vocation of the modern Catholic mother MARCH 30, 2020 VOL.