OF MANY THINGS he late Justice Louis Brandeis remembering the genetic fallacy of 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 was famously suspicious of informal logic: You have not necessarily Ph: (212) 581-4640; Fax: (212) 399-3596 bigness. As his biographer proven or disproven a belief simply Subscriptions: (800) 627-9533 T www.americamedia.org Jeffrey Rosen recently observed, for because you have accounted for how it facebook.com/americamag Justice Brandeis a truly democratic came to be held. Paranoid people can be twitter.com/americamag government “was only possible on victims of real conspiracies. President and Editor in Chief a human scale.” Big, impersonal But the Western elites (among whom Matt Malone, S.J. government bureaucracies, said Brandeis, I surely count myself ) would do well to Executive Editors tend to serve themselves rather than the look more closely at the Brexit result for Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy people who are their titular sovereign another reason. It reveals the radical shift Managing Editor Kerry Weber and can be just as dangerous as the that is taking place in our politics, one we Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent antitrust monopolies Brandeis battled in ignore at our peril. Kevin Clarke the business world. Increasingly, our political battles Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. It would appear that a majority of are being waged not by the traditional Executive Editor, America Films the British electorate agrees with Mr. forces of left and right but by the elites Jeremy Zipple, S.J. Brandeis. Britain’s decision to exit the or the establishment on the one hand, Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent European Union is in large measure and those who feel disempowered and Gerard O’Connell a justifiable reaction to the inhuman disenfranchised on the other. “That Associate Editor and Director of Digital scale of the European project in its dislocation may not lead to a repeat Strategy Sam Sawyer, S.J. contemporary incarnation and to the of Europe in the 1930s,” The New Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. York Times recently observed, “but Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga Leviathan-like bureaucracy that has Segura, Robert David Sullivan grown up to support it. As the editors it has fueled a debate about global Assistant Editor Joseph McAuley observe in this issue, Brussels’s “sprawling political trends. There is a tendency at Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder and opaque bureaucratic institutions” times to try to fit current movements Editorial Assistant Zachary Davis have inspired a fatal distrust in the into understandable constructs,” one Summer Interns Katherine Riga, project of “ever closer union.” Brexit is we should resist if we are going to Andrew Wallander Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., also one part of a larger trend in the accurately measure and respond to this Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. West away from consolidation and phenomenon. Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, toward a small-is-beautiful approach to As one Wall Street Journal columnist Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider Correspondents John Carr (Washington), An- governance. observed, never had “there been a greater thony Egan, S.J., and Russell Pollitt, S.J. (Johannes- Some of those who voted for coalition of the establishment than that burg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy Brexit had other motivations. As the assembled by Prime Minister David Padgett (Miami), Steven Schwankert (Beijing), David Stewart, S.J. (London), Rhona Tarrant (Dub- editors also note, xenophobia, fear and Cameron for his referendum campaign lin), Judith Valente (Chicago) nationalist fantasies played a part as to keep the U.K. in the European Union. Moderator, Catholic Book Club well. It would be a mistake, however, to There was almost every Westminster Kevin Spinale, S.J. conclude that Brexit was driven entirely party leader, most of their troops and Editor, The Jesuit Post Michael Rossmann, S.J. Editorial e-mail by such wayward motives. One of the almost every trade union and employers’ [email protected] more disturbing trends in contemporary federation.” In other words, the elites Publisher and Chief Financial Officer politics is the persistent belief that those went one way and the masses went the Edward G. Spallone Deputy Publisher Rosa who disagree with me about contestable other. Members of the political classes M. Del Saz Vice President for Advancement will need to keep this shift in mind if Daniel Pawlus Advertising Sales Manager public issues are not principled and Chris Keller Advancement Officer Kerry reasonable human beings who have they are going to successfully navigate the Goleski Programs and Events Coordinator reached different conclusions but are, currents of our contemporary politics. Nick Sawicki Business Operations Staff Khairah Walker, Glenda Castro, Katy Zhou, rather, stupid or hateful or both. The first step is to make an honest Frankarlos Cruz Advertising Contact ads@ This patronizing tendency is attempt to understand the real grievances americamedia.org; 212-515-0102 Subscription particularly pronounced among Western that lay behind Brexit and the emerging contact and Additional copies 1-800-627-9533 Reprints: [email protected] governing elites, here in New York populist movements here at home. © 2016 America Press Inc. and elsewhere, who appear unable to As Justice Brandeis once observed, acknowledge that there might be a “the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in reasonable argument for Brexit that is the insidious encroachment of men Cover: Pope Francis is welcomed as he arrives to not derived only from nationalist or of zeal, well meaning but without visit the Lutheran church in Rome on Nov. 15, xenophobic paranoia. It is also worth understanding.” MATT MALONE, S.J. 2015. Reuters/Tony Gentile Contents www.americamagazine.org VOL. 215 NO. 2, WHOLE NO. 5134 July 18-25, 2016

ARTICLES 16 LONGING FOR COMMUNION Catholics and Lutherans 500 years after Wittenberg Timothy P. O’Malley 21 A PASTORAL VISION A cliché, a council and, finally, Pope Francis John W. O’Malley 24 TO LOVE AND PROTECT Pope Francis’ systemic approach to safeguarding children Blase Cupich 26 IN THEIR SHOES Empathy is the key to the church’s ministry to families. John Strynkowski

21 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial After Brexit 6 Reply All 9 Signs of the Times 14 Washington Front Staying Consistent John Carr 29 Faith in Focus L’Arche Lessons Dani Clark 31 Vantage Point A History of Violence Kevin Clarke and James Martin 42 The Word Asking Always Soul Satisfaction 29 ; John W. Martens BOOKS & CULTURE

34 IDEAS Roald Dahl at 100 OF OTHER THINGS A Rite of Service BOOKINGS What’s on Your Child’s Reading List? POEM Visiting Day at Morningside

ON THE WEB ​Dan Barry, ​right, discusses his new book, The Boys in the Bunkhouse, and Kory​ Stamper​, a lexicographer, exposes the roots of the word “mercy.” ​Full digital highlights on page 30 and at americamagazine.org/webfeatures. 34 CURRENT COMMENT

The Parties Brace for Protest from even its recent history. In May, Secretary of State John Television news channels are betting on big audiences for Kerry and top officials from the four other permanent U.N. the Republican National Convention, which begins in Security Council member countries announced they were Cleveland on July 18, and the Democratic convention in ready to make exceptions to the arms embargo on Libya Philadelphia, which begins two weeks later. “They will be and ship weapons to prop up its fledgling government two of the most interesting conventions in modern political in the fight against the Islamic State and other militant history,” Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington bureau chief, told groups. Just a month later, without a hint of irony, the U.N. Crain’s Cleveland Business—which reports that CNN is Security Council, “expressing deep concern at the threat charging $40,000 to $100,000 for a 30-second ad during posed by unsecured arms and ammunition in Libya and the conventions, compared with its usual prime-time rate of their proliferation,” voted to allow E.U. maritime forces to about $5,000. seize illegal weapons off Libya’s coast. Instead of fueling the The parties, and their host cities, may have mixed arms trade, the United States should be making every effort feelings about the new interest in what had become fusty to stop the trafficking of refugees that has proliferated events where spontaneity went to die. Even if Donald J. there in the post-Arab Spring power vacuum. That means Trump and Hillary Clinton can manage comity inside supporting governance, not simply supplying guns. their respective convention halls, the TV cameras may find conflict outside, where groups opposed to the nominees The Pro-Life Agenda have vowed protests and civil disobedience. Cleveland A major Supreme Court decision handed down in June originally imposed a 3.3-mile “no protest” zone around the invalidated a Texas law that required abortion clinics to meet arena where the Republican convention will be held. After the same health standards as ambulatory surgical centers. a federal judge rightly ruled that plan unconstitutional, the Whether the ruling in the case, Whole Woman’s Health v. city shrank the heightened-security area, but protesters will Hellerstedt, marks a turning point in abortion jurisprudence still be kept out of sight of convention attendees. is still being debated, but there is little doubt that it will The host cities should allow nonviolent but visible embolden pro-choice lobbyists to target other abortion demonstrations as close as possible to the convention halls. restrictions in other states. Meanwhile, Donald J. Trump is Protest is an indispensable part of democracy, and it serves being held up as the only candidate who will appoint strictly as a safety valve for those who do not feel represented in pro-life judges, a bargain that even some Republican loyalists the halls of power. The presidential election itself is not are unwilling to make. sufficient as an opportunity to be heard. We need vigorous For a generation the pro-life movement has focused debate now in order to make an informed choice in on undermining Roe v. Wade. Now that Justice Antonin November. Scalia—perhaps the decision’s most powerful critic—is dead, and his conservative colleagues are in the minority Governance, Not Guns on the court, it may be time for the movement to consider The United States has a long history of arming its enemies. other ways to advance its cause. Hillary Clinton has From Afghanistan and Somalia to Haiti and Panama, U.S.- proposed an ambitious child care plan that would cap this made weapons supplied to former allies have a nasty tendency expense at 10 percent of a household’s income. Mr. Trump to turn on their maker. The Obama administration thought has suggested employers could take over some of the Jordan, a close partner in the U.S. fight against terrorism, costs of health care. Either proposal would go a long way would be different. But a recent investigation by The New to support young parents who fear they cannot afford to York Times and Al-Jazeera reveals that arms shipped by the raise a child. The pro-life movement could also increase its Central Intelligence Agency to train rebels fighting President support of crisis pregnancy centers, which are under fire in Bashar al-Assad of Syria were systematically stolen and sold some states for refusing to provide information on abortion on the black market by Jordanian intelligence operatives. services. The Hyde Amendment will also need defending It is not clear whether those arms have ended up in the if, as promised in the new Democratic Party platform, a hands of the Islamic State or other militants, but some Democratic president pursues its repeal. of the stolen weapons have been tied to the killing of two The courts are not the only place to pursue the pro-life Americans and three others at a police training facility in agenda. Muscular lobbying as well as willingness to cross Amman in November. the aisle will be necessary to resist the latest pro-choice Yet the United States seems determined to learn nothing surge.

4 America July 18-25, 2016 EDITORIAL After Brexit

he Brexit referendum revealed some deep divisions bad motivations—xenophobia and in British society: between Scotland and England, racism—that drove some voters. Tbetween London and the rest of England, between A more charitable and instructive young and old; the economically well-off and those the interpretation might be that such economy has left behind; and, perhaps most alarmingly, be- voters, given a choice between fears, tween those ready to welcome immigrants and those fearful chose the fear they felt they could of more immigration. It also revealed a fundamental divide identify with. The diagnosis, then, between the political, financial and journalistic leaders of is not just that “they” have bad motivations but that no one the United Kingdom and the society they putatively lead. they trusted offered them anything better. Despite warnings from experts that withdrawing from the The problem may be that the current social and eco- European Union would weaken Britain’s economy, 52 per- nomic order works well for the elite who wield political and cent of the electorate voted Leave anyway. economic power. Politicians, economists, corporate leaders At this juncture, it is natural to focus on the shape and journalists (including, of course, America’s editorial Brexit might take or on the possibility that a new prime board) are members of the educated, mobile, urban popu- minister or Parliament might be unable or unwilling to car- lation for whom globalism, by and large, is a win. No matter ry out the decision of the voters. Historic as they may be, how accurate, any advice the elites offer sounds like the wolf however, those next steps will not resolve the fundamental counseling the sheep about the benefits of natural selection. socioeconomic divisions the referendum has finally placed It may be true, but it is also self-interested. front and center. Pope Francis made this observation in “Laudato Si’,” These divisions require sustained attention, and not writing that “many professionals, opinion makers, commu- just within Britain. It would be a tragedy if the principal re- nications media and centres of power, being located in af- sponse of the European Union to Brexit were to stubborn- fluent urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with little ly insist that Britain cannot enjoy any of the privileges of direct contact with their problems.” He warns that “this lack membership in the common market without full participa- of physical contact and encounter…can lead to a numbing of tion in the European project. Much more important now conscience” (No. 49). This critique of inequality and indif- is an examination of institutional conscience: How have ference applies equally well within developed countries as it Europe’s opaque bureaucratic institutions, which many vot- does from a global perspective. ers perceived to be practically undemocratic, inspired such The recognition that we suffer from a “numbing of fatal distrust in the project of “ever closer union”? Likewise, conscience” should and does make us reluctant to propose it would be a mistake for the main economic lesson of the solutions and policies as if we had a clear answer to the referendum to be that nativism and xenophobia pose a risk problems our society faces. The first order of business to free markets and free trade, rather than the recognition must be an examination of conscience and an attempt to that contemporary neoliberal economics creates clear win- wake it, to feel not only the pain and suffering but also the ners and losers. frustration and lack of hope that are often the experience The questions Brexit raises echo across the Atlantic as of people who have been left behind by neoliberal econom- well. The current presidential campaign in the United States ic policies. is revealing similar divisions. In Britain, both campaigns It is also time to go “back to the well” of Catholic social were guilty of cynical overreach. The Leave campaign stoked teaching—which significantly inspired the European proj- fears of immigration and new arrivals “stealing” jobs and ect at its origins. Politicians and economists need to make burdening social services; the Remain campaign responded concrete and credible proposals that prioritize subsidiarity by playing to the fears of an apocalyptic economic collapse. and put the common good at the center of policies to pro- Visceral fears turned out to be more effective than accurate mote and govern global economic growth. The fact that we warnings in motivating voters. struggle even to imagine what such policies might look like One interpretation of the outcome is to focus on the only sharpens the need for them. PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/GEORGE CLERK

July 18-25, 2016 America 5 REPLY ALL the church is a much better use of his we need to get out of our glass houses and our time and study. and evangelize. TIM O’LEARY CHARLOTTE ANTAL Church Walls Online Comment Online Comment I could not agree more with Matt The Clerical Trap Malone, S.J., when he writes, “It will I am as liberal as one can get on Black Lives and the Church also be useful to have in Washington Catholic issues, and I definitely want Bishop Edward Braxton’s article a diplomat who represents the vicar to see a woman on the altar, but I still “Bridging a Racial Divide” (5/16) of Christ, the one who breaks down have one question that I have yet to was quite engaging. Most people I walls” (Of Many Things, 6/20). I only see addressed: What is going to keep work with and go to church with wish the church had not built so many women from falling into the same trap think Black Lives Matter is another during its long tenure. It has been a of clericalism as men? case of “give me something for noth- very divisive force at times. I am thank- From what I see in Catholic par- ing.” If protesters were working, they ful Pope Francis was elected since, in ishes, it is still “Father this, and Father wouldn’t get in trouble. Full disclosure: my view, he has made the church more that.” The men who serve as priests My coworkers are mostly white. But pastoral than any pope since St. John are given extraordinary deference just they look at black coworkers and say, XXIII. Community, with an emphasis because they are the priests. Will the “Anyone, black or white, can apply for on respect, diversity and equality, is a clergy change just because women are my job and get it.” I am not sure how I commitment the church has ignored in the role? Or will it be more “Mother personally feel about all this. I tend to or forgotten too many times through this, Mother that,” and before you feel a bit more sympathetic because I the centuries. know it they will be infected? have been downsized, laid off and had RICHARD BOOTH BETH CIOFFOLETTI a 23-year job move away. Economic Online Comment Online Comment forces are real. I also understand Bishop Braxton’s No Commission Needed Sinners and Stones observation that “the church was not Re “Studying Women Deacons” Re Of Many Things, by Matt Malone, a major force in the opposition to hu- (Current Comment, 6/6): Since com- S.J. (5/23): I disagree with the idea that man slavery.” They did not seem very missions have already addressed this living our faith out loud and calling evil aggressive in opposing the war in issue several times since Vatican II, and what it is is somehow smug self-righ- Vietnam either, an explosively divisive the historical situation has been exam- teousness. Authentic Catholics who issue (not to mention all those wars ined each time and further study is un- take tough stands on issues no one else since). And though the church might likely to reveal anything substantially will touch are constantly told that we have been working in the background, new, it seems to me these commissions should stop alienating others, being in- it seems to us on the front lines that are mostly busywork distracting the tolerant, causing offense by being who they might have been passively com- Christian community from the good we are. We are called to do nothing less plicit. I’m certain this is how Black news. than to offer ourselves up and to suffer Lives Matter feels about the church. Men and women are being mar- the violence of others’ shame and guilt JACK GOODWIN tyred at greater numbers than at any and fear to expose the truth in love. We Bradley, Ill. time in history, and the secular nations are not called to refrain from “throw- are moving further and further away ing stones from glass houses” because Punishing Women from Christ, the natural law and the of our own sinfulness; we are called There is a perplexing problem that re- family. Surely, there are more import- to openly acknowledge our sinfulness curs each time the subject of abortion ant things to consider than another while standing for the ideal. is mentioned, as in Bishop Braxton’s commission that will no doubt (just There are a lot of good people sit- article on the Black Lives Matter like the last two synods and “The Joy ting at home living in self-pity and in movement. Those of us who oppose of Love”) just reaffirm the faith? And if fear of reprisal for speaking out. This criminalizing abortion are thrown into clericalism is as much of a temptation is the easy way out. We need to get a category of favoring abortion or be- as the pope seems to think it is, surely comfortable with the idea that there is ing pro-abortion. When discussing expanding the role of faithful lay men a God and we are not Him! His will women’s reproductive rights, we who and women in the administration of will be done, in spite of our sins, but are against criminalizing abortion do Letters to the editor may be sent to America’s editorial office (address on page 2) or [email protected] will also consider the following for print publication: comments posted below articles on America’s website (americamagazine.org) and posts on Twitter and public Facebook pages. All correspondence may be edited for length.

6 America July 18-25, 2016 not see making abortion illegal as solv- The Other Catholics part of the “other Catholics,” with ex- ing the issue. When abortion becomes Re “The Compromise That Binds,” by ploration and experimentation to call illegal, someone who commits the Nathan Schneider (5/16): Thanks us forth and liturgy to bind us together crime suffers a penalty, usually a fine to Nathan Schneider and to Teri with those in the pew as well as all peo- or jail sentence with a criminal record Harroun, the woman priest who pre- ple in prayer and thankfulness. that makes future life difficult. sided at Light of Christ on the day Mr. SHEILA DIERKS I can understand why the Black Schneider was a part of the wonderful Online Comment

Lives Matter movement feels that congregation. It is, from the other side Outside the Tent once again they have become targets of the altar, in the mystery of bread Thanks to Nathan Schneider for of laws that penalize women who seek and word, very hard to describe the a thoughtful article. The Catholic an abortion and who may be choosing humble gladness that we women ex- Church is a big tent, and it is often eas- between feeding the children they have perience as we know that we are safe- iest to stay in the section that is most and losing a job that won’t give them ly where we are called to be. Women comfortable. Perhaps the experimen- time off for the necessary time needed at the altar bring a parallel and varied tation necessary for progress can take for delivery and recovery. Often these understanding of how Jesus, Spirit and place only outside the confines of the women are the main breadwinners at Creator are experienced in prayer and church. day jobs or low-paying jobs. celebration. LISA WEBER Many women, black or white, need We at Light of Christ bring per- Online Comment help, not condemnation and pun- spectives and uncover understandings ishment. I believe birth is a gift of a that have been in the past (and in most Faithful Physicians mother to her child, at least until the places, in the present) unavailable from Re “An Educator’s Influence,” by J. fetus is able to live outside her womb. the pulpit. Not better, just different, Joseph Marr, M.D. (5/9): In 1961, I Beautiful birth! Gift or obligation un- and sacred, too. Light of Christ, as was a student in the introductory zo- der penalty of law? well as the dozens of other Ecumenical ology class of Joseph J. Peters, S.J., for ELAINE BERNINGER Catholic Communion parishes, are safe first year pre-med students at Xavier Cleves, Ohio havens for Catholics who have found it University in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was No Enemies difficult or impossible to worship else- fortunate that the cornerstone for Re “Daniel Berrigan (1921-2016)” where. We have opened our doors to my nascent career in medicine was (Current Comment, 5/16): One did those who are sacramentally and spir- laid by such an eloquent and learned not need to know Father Berrigan itually homeless. It is an honor to be a priest. Dr. Marr accurately described for long to be touched the unique teaching envi- by his warmth and in- ronment created by Father sight. Many years ago, Peters, which was enriched in a particularly nervous and deepened with each time during the Cold subsequent course in his War, and in the midst department. Much is writ- of a tiredness and sense ten today about education of loss, he, no longer in in Catholic institutions— prison, gave a small group what exists and what should of us a weekend retreat. be. Dr. Marr articulated the Some denounced him as “what should be” very clearly a traitor to America or a with the example of Father disobedient, bad priest Peters, whose expertise in and Jesuit. He was clearly blending his faith, knowl- their enemy. Later, seeing edge and wonder grounded him alone for a moment, several generations of phy- I asked him “How do you sicians with both informa- respond to your enemies?” tion and perspective. I am He said with warm eyes: privileged and appreciative “I don’t have any enemies.” of having been among them. LEO CLEARY “German sparkplugs will not work in your JOHN L. WILHELM, M.D.

Online Comment mini-Cooper because of Brexit.” Chicago, Ill. HARLEY SCHWADRON CARTOON:

July 18-25, 2016 America 7

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

MINISTRY “My own view,” the bishop said, “is that much of the destructive atti- Bishop McElroy Calls for a Practical tude of many Catholics to the gay and lesbian community is motivated by a ‘Apology’ to L.G.B.T. Catholics failure to comprehend the totality of the church’s teaching on ho- UNITED IN GRIEF. Jaeynes Childers and Maria Balata, members of the Chicago mosexuality.” Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on June 19 That teaching includes mourned the victims of the June 12 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. the conviction that “moral sexual activity only takes place within the context of marriage between a man and a woman.” But “that’s not a teaching which applies just to gay men,” Bishop McElroy said. “It is teaching across the board, and there is massive failure on that.” Bishop McElroy argues that all Christians are called to a life of virtue, in emula- tion of Christ. Chastity is among the virtues of that life—others include self-sac- rifice, service and piety— and it is an important one, “but it does not have the uniquely pre-eminent role in determining the character of he pope’s call for Christians to offer an apology to gay and lesbian peo- a disciple of Christ, nor one’s relation- ple, issued during his flight back to Rome from Armenia on June 26, was ship with the church” that some may Tcarefully welcomed by Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego. “I think believe, according to Bishop McElroy. it opens up a very helpful pathway to dialogue and, hopefully, healing,” he told Finally, and most poignantly in America on June 28. Pope Francis, Bishop McElroy said, brings to this dialogue light of the recent attack in Orlando with L.G.B.T. Catholics who feel marginalized by or alienated from the church a on a gay nightclub that claimed 49 “renewed and deepened focus on the questions of accompaniment and the mercy lives, the totality of the church’s teach- of God for all of us.” ing includes the understanding that all “We all walk together in a life of virtue and discipleship,” Bishop McElroy said, Christians are “called to build a society “and all of us fail at times.” in which people are not victimized or He added: “We have to begin to incorporate that mercy into the depths of our violence visited upon them or unjustly hearts and souls in ways that are going to be uncomfortable for us…. We all need discriminated against because of their to be shown mercy; it is something that binds us together, not differentiates us.” sexual orientation.” “What we need to project in the life of the church is ‘You are part of us and we A practical expression of the apol- are part of you.’ [L.G.B.T. Catholics] are part of our families.” ogy encouraged by the pope, Bishop That is not going to be an easy process, he acknowledged. It is one that will McElroy thought, might be a re-eval- require preparation and “a lot of discussion and accompaniment and reflection in uation of the language the church the church.” In the past, he argues, diocesan and parish leaders have struggled with uses even in talking about L.G.B.T. two tendencies regarding L.G.B.T. people: “whether you had to sacrifice fidelity to Catholics. “We are not talking about the teaching of the church or sacrifice effective outreach to the L.G.B.T. community.” some group or person who is the ‘oth-

July 18-25, 2016 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES er,’” he said. “It has to be language that collaborate with those in society who terrorist recruitment. As if to punctu- is inclusive, embracing, it has to be pas- are working to banish discrimination ate the severity of that concern, reports toral.” and violence leveled against people be- emerged the day of his visit of suicide While the Catechism of the cause of their sexual orientation.” bombing attacks against Christian vil- Catholic Church on homosexuality Some church leaders may worry lagers in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley that and other teaching on pastoral care that the pope, in his recent comments left five people dead (in addition to for L.G.B.T. Catholics deplores vio- on outreach and apology to gay and the bombers themselves) and about 30 lence or unjust discrimination against lesbian Catholics, may be moving too people wounded. people who are gay or lesbian, it also quickly, too far ahead of his flock. Archbishop Paul Sayah, vicar gen- describes homosexual acts as “intrin- Bishop McElroy is not so sure, noting eral of the patriarchate, attempted to sically disordered.” Bishop McElroy the many Catholic families he has met put the nation’s crisis of destabilization thinks that phrasing ought to be re- with have been longing to hear some- into perspective. Pointing out that the considered. thing positive about the church and United States is home to more than “The word ‘disordered’ to most its pastoral relationship with L.G.B.T. 300 million people, he asked how well people is a psychological term,” he Catholics. “When I go out and meet it might fare with the sudden arrival explains. “In Catholic moral theolo- with laypeople,” he said, “so many of within its borders of more than 150 gy it is a philosophical term that is them have family members, brother million refugees. automatically misunderstood in our and sisters and sons and daughters, “I don’t know how Lebanon is sur- society as a psychological judgment.” mothers and fathers who are gay or les- viving,” the archbishop said. “It’s a mir- He thought the term is an example of bian…. For them it is a great and pain- acle it’s still functioning.” But beyond “very destructive language that I think ful thing to feel excluded from the life Lebanon’s trials, he added, the refugees we should not use pastorally.” of the church, and for that element… themselves are living in misery. “No hu- Another relatively easy step for we are not moving fast enough.” man should be subjected to such mis- most dioceses to take by way of insti- KEVIN CLARKE ery,” he said. tutional apology would be “to seek to Cardinal Rai warned that the con- tinuing crisis is “making refugees of the MIDDLE EAST Lebanese,” particularly its Christians, explaining that Lebanese are leav- Syria Refugee Crisis Presses Lebanon ing the country because of economic stress. The loss of Christians from the he plight and vulnerability of ugees within its borders. More than Middle East, he said, impoverishes Lebanon, surrounded by the 500,000 are Palestinians who have both Christian and Muslim communi- Tchaos of Syria on the north been residents in Lebanon for gener- ties and “harms the culture of dialogue and east and threatened by the ten- ations, but 1.5 mil- sions of the Israeli-Palestinian con- lion more fled into flict on the south, were brought into Lebanon in recent sharp focus during a visit to the United years to escape the States by Cardinal Bechara Rai, patri- bloody and inter- arch of the Maronite Catholic Church. minable civil war in During his cross-country pastoral visit, Syria. Their presence Cardinal Rai stopped in New York on has been an econom- June 27, where he implored reporters ic drain and a source to remain mindful of the precarious of deep political and state of Lebanon as it grapples with the social instability. region’s various crises. The cardinal add- Perhaps most acutely, Lebanon—a ed that increasingly AFTERMATH. Lebanese army soldiers and forensic multifaith nation of just four million destitute and des- experts inspect the site of multiple suicide bomb people—continues to shoulder the perate refugees have attacks on June 27 in Qaa, a predominantly Christian village in Lebanon’s Bekka Valley. burden of more than two million ref- become targets for

10 America July 18-25, 2016 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

and coexistence so desperately needed in the world today.” NEWS BRIEFS Cardinal Rai is the leader of the Rodrigo Duterte, a controversial town mayor Lebanon-based Maronite Catholic dubbed “Dirty Harry” and “The Punisher” for his Church, the largest of six Eastern tough stance on crime—and against the Philippine Catholic patriarchal churches with Catholic Church—was sworn in as the 16th pres- more than three million members ident of the Philippines on June 30. • Thousands worldwide, approximately 85,000 of of Syrians stranded on the Jordanian border face whom live in the United States. starvation and dehydration, the aid group Doctors In a prepared statement to the press, Without Borders reported on June 30, calling for he said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict an immediate resumption of aid deliveries. • Relics J.D. Long-Garcia is at the origin of the Middle Eastern of Blessed Oscar Romero, including a handkerchief problems and could be solved through with blood from the day he was assassinated, were part of the U.S. “the establishment of a Palestinian Catholic Church’s Fortnight for Freedom observance on July 1 in state alongside an Israeli state, the re- Los Angeles, Calif. • Introducing “Angelus News” on June 29, the turn of Palestinian refugees, and the new multimedia platform created by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Editor in Chief John David Long-Garcia said, “We hope that we can occupied territories of Palestine, Syria help people enter into a better relationship with God and also with and Lebanon.” The patriarch warned, their neighbor.” • During his trip to Poland for World Youth Day, “You cannot really come to agreement Pope Francis will go to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp or establish peace without justice.” on July 29, but intends “to go to that place of horror without speech- Now that the United States has es, without crowds…. Alone, enter, pray. And may the Lord give me made efforts to restore its relation- the grace to cry.” ship with Iran, the cardinal urged the Obama administration to go further, to help establish a dialogue between But Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is Kingdom. There were 437 incidents of Saudi Arabia (a Sunni power) and Iran “clearly” a retired pope, Francis said anti-Muslim hatred recorded in 2015, (the region’s Shiite power), suggesting during an in-flight press conference on up from 146 the year before. They that tensions between those regional his return to Rome on June 26 from included assault and verbal abuse, neighbors was at the heart of conflict Armenia, adding, “There is one single according to data from the organiza- throughout the Middle East. He said pope.” Francis recounted how Benedict tion Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti- regional Islamic powers were obligated has shooed away conservative support- Muslim Attacks). The report, released to take a stronger rhetorical and prac- ers who come complaining about his on June 29, was dedicated to the mem- tical hand against Muslim extremism. reformist papacy. His predecessor rein- ory of Jo Cox, a member of Parliament forced that dynamic at the celebration, who was killed on June 16. Her death offering an endorsement of the course came just days ahead of a British vote One Pope at a Time Francis has charted for the church. “We to leave the European Union, follow- A Vatican ceremony on June 28 marked hope that you can go forward with all of ing a campaign fueled by anti-immi- the 65th anniversary of the priestly or- us on this path of divine mercy, showing grant sentiment that Tell MAMA said dination of Pope Emeritus Benedict us the path of Jesus toward God,” said has had a negative impact on Muslims. XVI. It featured a rare joint appearance the retired pope. Tell MAMA recorded a spike in inci- by Pope Francis and his predecessor dents against Muslims after the terror- that seemed aimed at tamping down Attacks on Muslims in ist attacks in Paris on Nov. 13. Overall, speculation prompted by the unusual Muslim women were more likely than circumstance that there are two living the United Kingdom men to be attacked, while white men popes. In recent weeks debate has erupt- A new report dedicated to a British were most often identified as the per- ed over whether the two popes are shar- politician assassinated after promot- petrators of abuse. ing authority in the church or whether ing religious diversity finds a sharp rise Francis is the sole successor of St. Peter. in anti-Muslim attacks in the United From America Media, CNS, RNS, AP and other sources.

July 18-25, 2016 America 11 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

DISPATCH | CHICAGO “I was spoon-fed verses from the Old Testament that condemn homosexual- Two Communities, One Conversation ity and over the years I had to reconcile those verses with my own sexual orien- hicago has long been a center engage in a recorded dialogue at the tation.” of gay pride. Along a half-mile National Public Radio affiliate I work “We don’t have a checklist that Cstretch in the city’s Lakeview for in central Illinois. It was a rare op- says, if you were found on some neighborhood known as the Legacy portunity for two communities that L.B.G.T.Q. forum, you cannot come Walk, pedestrians can view a series of traditionally have had few interpersonal into the mosque,” Muftee told Bentlin. plaques celebrating the contributions of contacts to engage with one another. “Muslims, especially in the United gay men and women throughout histo- “I’ll be perfectly honest, I know very States, have their moral beliefs and ry to politics, science, world affairs, the little about the Islamic faith,” Bentlin verses and commandments, but they arts and entertainment. began the conversation, “and what I do don’t really put them on other people. Acceptance often has come harder know is mostly negative.” That’s one of the good things about in other parts of Illinois. Dave Bentlin “We are often segregated in our own Muslims in the United States, and I is chairman of the Prairie Pride hope the rest of the Muslim world Coalition, a group based in the For the most of the will learn from us.” more conservative, agricultur- The conversation ended with al central part of the state. Even Muslims, it was the first Muftee inviting Bentlin to break as recently as the late 1990s, time they had stepped the Ramadan fast with him and his Bentlin recalls, only the Unitarian- family the following weekend. He Universalist Church was willing to inside a Christian church. promised the Islamic Center would openly support the local L.G.B.T. hold an open house soon for mem- community. bers of the L.G.B.T. community. That has changed somewhat over the pockets,” Muftee acknowledged. Pope Francis, speaking about the years. A local Lutheran church swiftly Both men spoke of belonging to Orlando shootings, suggested that the organized an interfaith prayer vigil in communities frequently viewed with Catholic Church should seek forgive- the wake of the mass shooting on June suspicion. Bentlin said members of ness from members of the L.G.B.T. 12 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. the L.G.B.T. community can feel “in- community who have felt marginalized. When Bentlin stepped inside the sanc- visible” in a culture that prizes “hetero- Bentlin and Muftee said their conver- tuary, he saw something unexpected. normality.” sation was not so much about seeking In front of an altar lined with candles Muftee said many American forgiveness as finding a way forward for memorializing the dead about a doz- Muslims walk around fearing the both communities through friendship. en representatives of the city’s Islamic broader society might turn against “Just in the conversation we’ve had, I community had come to pay their re- them at any moment. “The first thing I feel ever more strongly that there are ar- spects. For most of the Muslims at the think about when I see something trag- eas of commonalities between our two service, it was the first time they had ic like the Orlando shootings is ‘I hope communities. That happens whenever stepped inside a Christian church or it’s not a Muslim [who is responsible],’ people talk,” Bentlin said. attended an event supporting the gay even though I know Islam does not al- “Regardless of what the religion says community. low those type of actions,” Muftee said. in Islam…we can come closer together A few days later, Bentlin and Like Catholicism, Islam teaches based on our humanity, based on be- Sheheryar Muftee of the Islamic Center that sexual relations are appropriate ing Americans, based on being part of of Bloomington—two men who had only within the bounds of marriage the same community, based on being previously been strangers—agreed to between a man and a woman. Bentlin friends,” Muftee said. “And we can find wanted to know if a gay or transgender ways to address some of the things that person showed up at the local mosque, may be uncomfortable for each other.” JUDITH VALENTE, America’s Chicago corre- would he or she feel comfortable and The world, Muftee mused, “is not really spondent, is a regular contributor to NPR and “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.” Twitter: @ safe? “I grew up in the Christian faith, either black or white. It’s really a shade JudithValente. as a Methodist,” Bentlin told Muftee. of gray.”

12 America July 18-25, 2016 July 18-25, 2016 America 13 WASHINGTON FRONT Staying Consistent or “Consistent Ethic of Life time for women who have abortions place I would rather be.” Catholics,” these are good times and defended the work of Planned At the federal level, the status Fecclesiastically and bad times Parenthood and now has reversed quo has been that abortion is legal politically. Within our church, Pope himself on both. He also promises to with some restrictions, but no one is Francis is making clear by word and defend marriage, but critics point out forced to pay for other people’s abor- deed that a consistent and compre- inconsistency here as well. tions. Now Secretary Clinton makes hensive commitment to protect hu- His support for torture, killing the a priority of repealing longstanding man life is morally right, theologically families of suspected terrorists and restrictions on federal funding of sound and pastorally powerful. With greater use of the death penalty are abortion, which would require pro-life his haunting metaphor of a “throw- not in question. He opposes limits on Americans to pay for the destruction away culture,” Francis calls us to pro- military force to protect innocent civil- of unborn human life. Clinton’s con- tect “innocent victims of abortion, ians. He talks glibly of using nuclear tinuing support for the death penalty children who die of hunger or from weapons and abandoning in some cases and her bombings, immigrants...the elderly or nonproliferation efforts. He vote for the Iraq war the sick who are considered a burden, demonizes immigrants and Catholics also trouble consis- the victims of terrorism, wars, violence promises to deport millions tent-ethic voters. and drug trafficking, the environ- who have fled violence and who support The Democratic gov- ment….” oppression. He has fanned a consistent ernor and legislature In his historic address to the flames of racism and of California enacted Congress, Pope Francis brought some nativism. There is hardly ethic of life “physician assisted sui- Republicans to their feet, insisting on an “intrinsic evil” listed in can’t avoid cide” and now insist, “our responsibility to protect and de- the U.S. bishops’ document with the approval of the fend human life at every stage of its “Forming Consciences for hard choices. Obama administration, development.” But many stopped clap- Faithful Citizenship” that that Catholic institu- ping and some Democrats rose when he has not supported at one tions must provide and he continued, “This conviction has led time or another. pay for abortion as part of health care me…to advocate…for the global ab- A group of Catholic leaders of- coverage. About a third of Democratic olition of the death penalty…. Every fered a damning case in the primaries: voters call themselves pro-life, but pro- life is sacred; every human person is “Donald Trump is manifestly unfit to life candidates and officeholders rare- endowed with an inalienable digni- be president of the United States…. ly get support or have a future in the ty.” This congressional confusion and Nothing in his campaign or record party. Who has a decisive voice in pro- polarization are signs of the difficult gives confidence that he genuinely gressive politics? Planned Parenthood days for the consistent ethic of life in shares our commitments to the right or the A.F.L-C.I.O.? Emily’s List or American politics. Its place seems to to life, to religious freedom and the immigrant groups? be threatened in both parties. rights of conscience.” Being politically homeless does not The Republican Party is about to The Democratic Party is about to mean that Catholics who support a nominate Donald J. Trump, who pre- nominate Hillary Clinton, who used to consistent ethic of life can avoid hard viously said he was very pro-choice say abortion should be “safe, legal and choices or engage in simplistic moral and supported late-term abortions. rare, and by rare, I mean rare.” She no equivalency on either issues or candi- He now claims to be pro-life, but longer says abortions should be “rare” dates in this election. Homelessness is his conversion seems incomplete and apparently opposes any restric- not a virtue but a sign that we need to since he simultaneously called for jail tions on them. When she became the find new ways, allies and arguments to presumptive nominee, she did not go make a persuasive case for the protec- to a union hall or shelter for homeless tion of the life and dignity of all—in JOHN CARR is director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at women but to a Planned Parenthood both parties and in a “throwaway cul- Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. rally, where she declared, “There is no ture.” JOHN CARR

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Longing for Communion Catholics and Lutherans 500 years after Wittenberg BY TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY n 1999, as a senior in a public high school abiding One of the gifts of Pope Francis’ pastoral interviews is within the buckle of the Bible Belt, I attended my lo- that he is genuinely answering the questions of those before cal parish’s Catholic-Lutheran celebration of the “Joint him. But in this case there is a possibility for confusion that Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.” In the requires some theological assessment. Is the pope really say- Icontext of common prayer, the clergy signed a copy of this ing that there are no restrictions on eucharistic intercommu- document, in which Catholics and Lutherans articulated “a nion as long as one believes in the real presence? common understanding of our justification by God’s grace Significant ecclesiastical figures, including Cardinal through faith in Christ” (No. 5). One of the theological bug- Robert Sarah (the head of the Congregation for Divine aboos of the Reformation was no longer an insurmountable Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments) rejected obstacle to the unity of the church. Pope Francis’ implicit opening for intercommunion among Recently, the two religious bodies have once again re- Catholics and Lutherans. The cardinal also stated that leased a highly significant document, “From Conflict to among Anglicans (and thus also Lutherans) there is no Communion,” this time discussing how Lutherans and “real” presence of Christ because priestly orders are null Catholics might commonly commemorate the 500th anni- and void after a church is separated from Rome. This argu- versary of the Reformation in 2017. Pope Francis has also ment, quite common among Catholics, is not entirely true. announced that he will attend an ecumenical gathering to Cardinal Ratzinger argued in a Lutheran-Catholic dialogue remember the Reformation in Sweden on Oct. 31, 2016, the that among the Christian churches there is a real yet imper- anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 theses on fect koinonia, or communion. This imperfect communion the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. To those with allows for the possibility that ministers ordained outside the even a basic grasp of Reformation history, attendance by a Catholic sacramental system can nonetheless celebrate the Roman Catholic pope (once depicted in Lutheran Bibles Eucharist in a way that makes available the salvific presence as the Whore of Babylon) at an event connected with the of the Lord. Validity, as Ratzinger notes, is not the only cat- 500th anniversary of Luther’s protest against ecclesiastical egory for assessing the presence of divine grace. corruption is certainly notable. This is not the first unanticipated ecumenical moment ‘From Conflict to Communion’ in the pope’s recent biography. At the Evangelical Lutheran The recent document “From Conflict to Communion” takes Church in Rome, a woman asked the pope about the sor- up where then-Cardinal Ratzinger left off: seeking what row that she experienced because she could not receive is common in eucharistic understanding among Catholics the Eucharist with her Roman Catholic husband. Pope and Lutherans. The document unambiguously affirms Francis’ response was that of a pastor, observing that among that Martin Luther did not object to the real presence of Lutherans and Catholics there is first and foremost a mutual Christ in the eucharistic celebration but that he denied the baptismal identity. And between husband and wife there is church’s understanding about how this transformation took a sharing in the sacramental life of marriage such that the place (No. 141). Rejecting transubstantiation, the Catholic graces enjoyed by husband and wife alike in their religious doctrine in which the accidents (or sensory properties) of traditions overflow into family dynamics. Pope Francis then bread and wine remain but the substance (the what-ness) is addressed the question of eucharistic presence, seemingly transformed into the body and blood of Christ, Luther in- advising (although careful to note that he had no compe- stead proposed what he considered to be a less philosophical tence to change doctrine or discipline in this regard) the account of how Christ is present “in, with, and under” the woman to look into her conscience and determine whether specifics of bread and wine” (No. 143). His own doctrine, she saw Christ really present in the eucharistic species. From called consubstantiation, was explained using the metaphor there, the Holy Father said that he would say no more. of an iron placed in a fire; the bread remains bread but the presence of Christ has created a sacramental union between TIMOTHY P. O’MALLEY is director of the Center for Liturgy at the bread and body, wine and blood. University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Lutherans and Catholics have drawn significantly clos-

16 America July 18-25, 2016 Longing for Communion

CLOSER TOGETHER Pope Francis receives a gift from children during a visit to Christuskirche, a parish of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rome, on Nov. 15, 2015

er to a common understanding of Christ’s presence in the acknowledge in the document that they lacked the necessary Eucharist since the Reformation. Although Lutherans still theological vocabulary to respond to Luther’s concern in a do not accept the term transubstantiation, both religious sufficient way. Still, Catholics “did not want to abandon the groups can proclaim that “the exalted Lord is present in the identification of the eucharistic sacrifice with the unique sac- Lord’s Supper in the body and blood he gave with his divin- rifice of Christ” (No. 151). In the 20th century, through the ity and his humanity through the word of promise in the sacramental and liturgical theology of the Second Vatican gifts of bread and wine in the power of the Holy Spirit for Council, Catholics and Lutherans both agreed that if they reception through the congregation” (No. 154). As Roman have a high theology of presence, then “not only the effect Catholic theologians and philosophers reread St. Thomas of the event on the cross but also the event itself is present Aquinas, they continue to discern an account of transub- in the Lord’s Supper without the meal being a repetition or stantiation functioning less as a philosophical justification completion of the cross event” (No. 159). Eucharistic sacri- and more as a guarding of the mystery of a divine presence fice is the presence of Christ’s sacrificial love made manifest that is wholly given by Christ. Here the work of Herbert to the church, and therefore Lutherans acknowledge that it McCabe, O.P., David Power, O.M.I., and Jean-Luc Marion is a genuine participation in the full paschal mystery. While remains invaluable for future dialogues. differences remain, “From Conflict to Communion” sees Of course, Christ’s presence was not the only eucharistic these differences as tolerable disagreements rather than seri- controversy during the Reformation. Luther also protested ous impediments to unity. against what he saw as an inadequate view of eucharistic sac- Yet, as Cardinal Sarah noted, the real problem in eucha- rifice, one in which at every Mass there was a re-doing of ristic dialogue in the present is the sacramental status of the Christ’s once and for all sacrifice upon Calvary. The Mass, minister. The document recognizes this, clearly stating, “For for Luther, was still a “sacrifice,” but not one in which Christ Catholics, Lutheran ordinations lack a fullness of sacramen- himself was offered but “the sacrifice of thanksgiving and tal sign” (No. 191). Ordinations take place in Catholicism praise…in that by giving thanks a person acknowledges that through apostolic succession: the college of Catholic bishops he or she is in need of the gift and that his or her situation alone has the power to ordain. Still, as the work of an “ec- will change only by receiving the gift” (No. 148). Catholics clesial community,” Lutheran eucharistic liturgies celebrated CNS PHOTO/MASSIMILIANO MIGLIORATO, CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO CATHOLIC CNS PHOTO/MASSIMILIANO MIGLIORATO,

July 18-25, 2016 America 17 by those lacking the fullness of the sacramental sign of or- the eucharistic altar. dination can nonetheless function as a means of salvation In light of the serious agreements and disagreements that (No. 194). Much work remains to be done relative to minis- remain among Catholics and Lutherans relative to intercom- try, but the document is nonetheless hopeful that if we can munion, if I had been in the position of Pope Francis and agree on justification and eucharistic presence, the question had been asked this question, I would have acknowledged the of ministry can be dealt with in time. very real sorrow that should be felt that such a couple cannot commune together at the table of the eucharistic Lord. Yet, A Response to Pope Francis because of this noncommunion, the couple serves to the en- This reading of “From Conflict to Communion” is not sim- tire world as a eucharistic sign of a unity that is not yet here. ply a way to avoid asking whether Pope Francis’ implicit There is a ministry that this couple offers in their baptized allowance for Lutheran Communion in Catholic liturgical and married priesthood to the churches. We cannot remain contexts (out of a sense of shared understandings of eucha- complacent in our desire for the totality of unity that would ristic presence) is accept- make possible intercom- able. Instead, the purpose munion. The couple invites is first to make clear that the churches to conversion Pope Francis is not wrong There is a mutual of heart, to see possibili- to say that Catholics and vocabulary relative to ties for communion where Lutherans share much in seemingly there are none. common relative to eucha- eucharistic presence and For as “From Conflict and ristic faith. There is a mu- Communion” describes the tual vocabulary relative to sacrifice that is undeniable. present situation: “Lutherans eucharistic presence and and Catholics are invited to sacrifice that is undeniable. think from the perspective And this shared vocabulary of the unity of Christ’s body was implicit even in the earliest days of the Reformation, and to seek whatever will bring this unity to expression and although historical polemics made it impossible for either serve the community of the body of Christ. Through baptism side to perceive this. The Lutheran tradition develops this they recognize each other mutually as Christians. This ori- shared discourse, and from the perspective of Catholics it entation requires a continual conversion of heart” (No. 239). has a value that must be acknowledged. Though we cannot eat the body and blood of the Lord to- This brief survey also requires us to admit that Pope gether, we must pray psalms of lament and praise together. Francis may not have been exact enough in describing the We must commune in one another’s homes around meals of very real differences that still exist among Catholics and fellowship. We must represent to the world in deeds of justice Lutherans, especially regarding ministry and thus eccle- and mutual love the eucharistic consequences of our partic- siology. A Catholic participation in the Eucharist is never ular communions, bringing all of humanity into the love of simply a matter of believing in the real presence. It is also Christ. We must manifest the unity that we do share. a deeper union with the church, which is one: “Those who Lastly, there should be caution against taking every in- receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. terview by Pope Francis (or for that matter Pope Paul VI, Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict XVI) as a develop- body—the church. Communion renews, strengthens, and ment of church doctrine. He was encountering this partic- deepens this incorporation into the Church” (Catechism ular Lutheran woman, who was longing for union with her of the Catholic Church, No. 1396). Communion implies husband in the eucharistic banquet. He was not providing union with the whole church, and the effects of disunity a catechesis on the Eucharist but expressing sympathy for brought about through the Reformation (an event caused her longing. It is the work of theologians to understand by both Catholics and Protestants) are still among us. The what is necessary for eucharistic intercommunion. But it is catechism notes that this disunity should be a real source the pastoral requirement of all of us to take seriously the of pain for Christians: “The more painful the experience of questions asked by our interlocutors. I see a real need for the divisions in the Church which break the common par- theological clarification in Pope Francis’ response. But I also ticipation in the table of the Lord, the more urgent are our see a pope who took this woman’s desire seriously, who took prayers to the Lord that the time of complete unity among her Lutheran faith as an authentic expression of Christian all who believe in him may return” (No. 1398). In this sense, life and who invited her to think about what this desire for Catholics should mourn the fact that Lutherans, Anglicans, Communion might mean. That, to me, is a fine way to start Methodists and Catholics themselves are not receiving at our common commemoration of the Reformation. A

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20 America July 18-25, 2016 A Pastoral Vision A cliché, a council and, finally, Pope Francis BY JOHN W. O’MALLEY rom the moment the Second Vatican Council the council was to be “predominantly pastoral in character.” opened, it has consistently been described as a pas- The prelates heard the message. From that point forward, toral council, sometimes so insistently and unthink- speaker after speaker at the council, especially those from ingly that the expression has become a cliché. The the so-called majority, insisted on the council’s pastoral Fword cliché implies that while the description might well character, implicitly contrasting it with a doctrinal council, express a truth, it at the same time trivializes the council and which presumably was more serious. produces yawns. So where is the cliché? What is wrong with designating The basis for describing the council as pastoral is unas- Vatican II a pastoral council? In response I say that there sailable. On the day the council opened, Oct. 11, 1962, Pope is nothing wrong with it. In fact, I want to vindicate it. But John XXIII characterized it as such. In his address that day, before it can be vindicated, it must be deconstructed. Once “Gaudet Mater Ecclesia,” he told the assembled prelates that deconstructed, it can be reconstructed and then emerge with greater force and deeper meaning, The cliché as currently understood tends to trivialize the JOHN W. O’MALLEY, S.J., holds the title of university professor in the theology department at Georgetown University and is the author of What council, principally by implying, at least for some commen- Happened at Vatican II. tators, that the council’s decrees are less substantial, more

HEART TO HEART. Pope Francis greets a Muslim woman as he meets residents at the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, on April 16. CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING CNS PHOTO/PAUL

July 18-25, 2016 America 21 contingent, more subject to reform or even dismissal than another of the council’s teachings, repeated again and again those from the supposedly great doctrinal councils of the after it first appeared in the “Dogmatic Constitution on the past. Vatican II, like certain beers and soft drinks, is council Church”: that the purpose of the church is to promote the lite—no heavy calories! holiness of its members. No previous council took the trou- Even more important, the cliché misdirects our atten- ble to tell us that. Holiness became a leitmotif in the coun- tion from what is utterly unique about the council’s pasto- cil’s teaching, appearing again and again in subsequent doc- ral character. Vatican II was pastoral uments. That is not a trivial teaching. in such a radically new mode when The constitution on the church compared with previous councils Vatican II did not also taught that the church is consti- that before we can correctly use the tuted by the people in it, so that the expression we must purify it of the define a single term “people of God” is a valid, cru- conventional understanding, recon- doctrine, but that cially important and, moreover, tra- stitute it in its proper breadth and ditional expression of the reality of depth, and only then let it return to does not mean it was the church. Since the people of God its rightful place in the world with its are everywhere on the face of the head held high. not a teaching or earth, the council therefore taught But if we judge a council’s dignity that the church is at home in every and gravitas by the number and im- doctrinal council. culture and needs to incarnate itself portance of its doctrinal decrees, does in each of them. Because the council not Vatican II really qualify as a coun- also taught that the sacred liturgy is cil lite or council not-so-serious? After all, Vatican II did not an act of the whole community at worship and is therefore define a single doctrine. In Vatican II there are no dogmas in essentially a participatory action, the liturgy has to admit the sense of solemn definitions, like the definition of papal into itself symbols and customs of every culture. infallibility of Vatican I. Yes, that is true. Vatican II did not Lex orandi, lex credendi—the norm for worship is the define a single doctrine, but that does not mean it was not a norm for belief. The council therefore taught that, while the teaching or doctrinal council. (Every dogma is a doctrine, but structure of the church is hierarchical, it is also collegial— not every doctrine is a dogma.) The council did not define that is, participatory, as is the liturgy. In particular it taught any doctrines because it adopted a mode of discourse differ- the traditional but formerly unexpressed doctrine that ent from that operative in councils that produced definitions, bishops when acting as a body with and under the Roman most notably Vatican I. Pontiff have responsibility not only for their own dioceses Not defining certainly does not necessarily mean that the but also for the church at large. It taught that just as the council’s more important teachings are less binding or less Roman Pontiff has, therefore, a collegial relationship with central to the Christian religion, solemnly approved as they other bishops, bishops are to foster a collegial relationship were the largest and most diverse gathering of prelates by with their priests and priests with their people. far in the entire history of the Catholic Church and then Vatican II taught that while the church has the heavy re- solemnly ratified by the supreme pontiff, Paul VI. We must sponsibility of proclaiming the Gospel to the world, it also remember, moreover, that the “Constitution on the Church” has the responsibility of exerting itself for the well-being of and the “Constitution on Divine Revelation” are specifically the world as such, or to exert itself for the well-being of the designated as “dogmatic constitutions.” If, indeed, we look so-called temporal order—to be concerned about social jus- at the number and importance of Vatican II’s teachings, the tice, about the heinousness of modern war, about the bless- council is not council lite but the very opposite. ings of peace and about the advance of every aspect of hu- Here are some of those teachings. I list them in no par- man culture. It taught that it is incumbent upon Catholics to ticular order, but certainly toward the top is the council’s work with others, even nonbelievers, to promote such goals. teaching that what God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ It at the same time taught that this is not a one-way street is not a set of propositions but his very person. In the same but that just as the church benefits the world, the world document on revelation, the council taught that the Bible is benefits the church. The church must therefore listen to the truly inerrant but only in what “serves to make the people of world and learn from it—a remarkable and utterly unprec- God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith.” The edented teaching. repercussions of that teaching are momentous. Taken seri- The council taught that it is the duty of the church and of ously, the teaching significantly reshapes how we henceforth every Catholic to respect the religious beliefs of others and must think about doctrine, as I try to show below. to work for reconciliation among the Christian churches. That teaching highlights and bestows great gravity on It taught that the church has the further and more difficult

22 America July 18-25, 2016 mission to seek reconciliation even with other religions, a Ottaviani introduced the now infamous draft document “On mission desperately needed in the world today. In that re- the Sources of Revelation,” he spoke for only five minutes, gard it taught that although proclamation is the privileged less as presenting a text for consideration than as defending Christian form of discourse, dialogue is also a legitimate it even before discussion began. He said, in part: “You have form and in some instances a more appropriate one. heard many people speak about the lack of a pastoral tone In the temporal order, the council taught the dignity and in this document. Well, I say that the first and most funda- excellence of political freedom. It taught the right of per- mental pastoral task is to provide correct doctrine.... Teaching sons to follow their consciences in the choice of religion, correctly is what is fundamental to being pastoral.” and, more generally, it taught in some of its most moving I could not agree more strongly, and that brings us to the words the dignity of conscience, “that most secret core and present. It is clear by now that Pope Francis’ blueprint for the sanctuary of the human person, where they are alone the initiatives of his pontificate has from the very first in- with God, whose voice echoes in their depths” (“Pastoral stant been the teachings of Vatican II. In his initiatives he Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,” No. 16). has been teaching us by word and deed. These initiatives The council explicitly taught that grace and the Holy have consistently been described by both his friends and his Spirit are operative outside the visible confines of the foes as pastoral, or, especially by the latter, as “only pastoral.” Catholic Church and that salvation is therefore possible out- Here the cliché returns, but in its unreconstructed form. side those visible confines. Finally, the council taught that When in mid-April this year Francis brought back with “The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of him to the Vatican 12 Muslim refugees from the island of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are Lesbos, was he only performing a compassionate act, in the the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of hope that others, especially governments, would be inspired Christ as well” (No. 1). to go and do likewise? Or was he not also proclaiming by a These and other teachings of the council are not trivial. deed more powerful than the words of any encyclical a doc- They are not of a secondary level of importance. They are not trine central to the Christian message, a doctrine on whose platitudes or pious palaver. True, they are not of the same observance St. Matthew tells us in Chapter 25 our very sal- constitutive level of Christian belief as are the doctrines of vation depends? “I was a stranger, and you took me in.” A the Trinity and Incarnation, but they are nonetheless truths of the utmost importance for understanding the practical implications of those doctrines for our lives as Christians. If we understand them in that sense, they become pastoral truths and pastoral teachings. “Pastoral teachings.” As opposed to what? What is the alternative to pastoral teachings? Is it doctrinal teachings, which is a tautology? Is it academic teachings? Did God re- veal academic teachings or academic truths? I find it difficult to name an alternative to the term pastoral teachings, espe- cially if we agree with “Dei Verbum” that what God revealed was “what serves to make the people of God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith.” Does this not mean, then, that by definition all truly Christian truths are pasto- ral truths? Are we then saying that Vatican II is a pastoral council by means of its teaching, by means of its doctrine? I think we are. When in the document on divine revelation the council determined that Christian truth, that is Christian doctrine, is what helps people be holy, it dismantled whatever might have been valid in the classic distinction between a doctri- nal and a pastoral council. Vatican II was pastoral through its teachings, that is through its doctrine. So the cliché that Vatican II was a pastoral council has returned to us vindi- cated—vindicated but radically redefined. Deconstructed, it now returns reconstructed. When during the first year of the council Cardinal Alfredo

July 18-25, 2016 America 23 To Love and Protect Pope Francis’ systemic approach to safeguarding children BY BLASE CUPICH year ago this July, as Pope Francis apologized to sive approach by providing a theological underpinning, an- a group of victims of sexual abuse by members nounced in the very title of the document. Like a “Loving of the clergy, he said the church must ask for “the Mother,” he observes, the church protects with a special af- grace to weep before the execrable acts of abuse fection the small and weak because Christ has entrusted this Awhich have left life-long scars.” He told them that his heart task to the whole church. This task is not just the pope’s will, weeps in anguish when he recognizes that what was done to or a pragmatic response to a crisis. Rather, it is what Christ victims was “something more than despicable actions. It is like wants his church to do day in and day out. Protecting these a sacrilegious cult, because these boys and girls had been en- little ones is a matter of our faith in Christ. trusted to the priestly charism in order to be brought to God.” As a matter of faith, it is up to pastors, those who oversee He also pledged decisive action that would bring this sense of particular churches, bishops and eparchs to see that this is horror, utter violation and sacrilege to the structure of church done with care and diligence. What the pope is really say- leadership by issuing policies that would hold bishops and re- ing to us bishops is that protecting children and vulnera- ligious superiors accountable. This spring, Pope Francis did ble adults is at the core of our ministry. It is not to be an just that, with the publication of “Like a Loving Mother.” aside or an afterthought. The pope is telling us to expand This decree has received wide coverage by the media and our vision of what our ministry entails and embrace the fact commentators. The major part of the decree outlines a pro- that the safety of children and the vulnerable is integral to cess for the removal of church leaders for acts that do grave our servant leadership. Just as a bishop exercises his office damage to the church. As a result, most reports and com- of teaching, sanctifying and leading, the care of the young ments (whether favorable or not) have framed this decree as and the weak must also be woven into each of these three a tool to punish church leaders. ministries. Just as a bishop organizes his diocese to ensure Those who applaud it note that finally church leaders will that the teachings of Christ are faithfully transmitted, that be held accountable. Those who criticize it object that noth- the sacraments are celebrated with the mind of the church ing has changed. They decry that there is no tribunal as orig- and that his episcopal leadership reflects Christ, the head of inally announced, and they question if handing this task off the body, so too he must lead and organize his local church to four different Vatican offices will dilute the resolve to dis- to ensure that the safety of children and the vulnerable is an miss bishops for negligence, as the new document promises. unconditional priority for the entire church. My reading of this decree leads me to believe that the Article 2 of the document drives home this point by stat- pope has a much more inclusive agenda than the punishment ing that even if the bishop is not subjectively morally culpa- of bishops, convinced as he is that church leaders should be ble, he can be removed if he has “objectively failed in a very held accountable and punished as a matter of justice if they serious way in the diligence that is required of him by his are negligent. There is ample evidence throughout the docu- pastoral office.” The removal of the bishop in such cases is ment that the Holy Father is more concerned with ensuring less about punishment and more about correcting the break- within the church the protection of the young and the vul- down in the system when it comes to keeping the weak and nerable in a sustainable way. In other words, while a process the small safe. That is the priority. of accountability that holds church leadership personally Since religious orders are very much a part of the church’s responsible at all times is an important first step, the pope is organizational structure and life, their superiors also share saying that the church also must approach the task of safe- in this duty and in this regard are “equivalent to the diocesan guarding the little ones in a systemic and holistic way. This is bishop and the eparch “ (Article 4). They, too, are account- to happen on a number of levels. able for keeping children safe and for contributing to a sys- temic approach to insure child safety. Christ’s Call Additionally, while some, even within the church, have Pope Francis sets the stage in calling for a new comprehen- attempted to portray child abuse by clerics as a problem unique to the Anglophone world or the West, the pope MOST REV. BLASE CUPICH is the archbishop of Chicago. makes it clear that the systemic transformation he is calling

24 America July 18-25, 2016 for is meant for the universal church. As such, bishops and priests have long complained that all penalties were directed superiors around the world will now need to take a serious against priests, and bishops were not held responsible. That look at how they will respond to this decree. This is espe- is no longer the case: this loophole has now been closed. cially true for those parts of the world where the state does But even beyond the issues of accountability and justice, not protect children through legislation or where society is Pope Francis has taken a historic step to ensure the protec- indifferent to such measures. In many cases this may require tion of the young and weak in a sustainable way. Touched in bishops and superiors to offer a prophetic witness, going the depth of his heart by the sufferings of victims, the pope beyond social mores and legal practice, as they conform to in this decree outlines an inclusive system of accountability the norm of the universal church. The status quo in a given that begins with holding church leadership personally re- country cannot be a defense, nor can ignorance of the church’s norm or its meaning. An objective violation is done at the risk of dismissal. Finally, by involving four congregations in addition to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in this process (Bishops, Evangelization of Peoples, Oriental Churches, and Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life), the pope is asking for a systemic change within the offices of the Holy See as well. Some critics ob- ject that the involvement of so many dicasteries will de- lay or impede action. But by A SURVIVOR’S COMMITMENT. The tattoo on the forearm of Paul Levely of Australia reads, “No more silence.” Levely had traveled to including all of these Vatican Rome on Feb. 28 to witness Cardinal George Pell of Australia testifying by offices in a system of ac- video link to Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to countability, Pope Francis is Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney. making clear that every lead- er in the Catholic Church has responsibility for child protection—those in missionary sponsible, but does not end there. It provides a comprehen- lands, religious superiors, eparchs and all diocesan bishops sive plan for integrating the protection of the young and vul- as well as Vatican officials. The intention is to bring about nerable into the very mission Christ has given to the church, a systemic transformation throughout the entire church in so that this great tragedy never happens again. order to respond to the will of Christ. The caution, of course, is that the details of this decree must be effectively implemented. That must involve, as A Place of Safety Pope Francis told the group of victims he visited with last Having ministered to many victim survivors of clerical sexu- July, “the training of church personnel in implementing al abuse, I believe this development can be a source of heal- (these) policies and procedures.” It will require all of us in ing and reconciliation. It also should give parents confidence the church to do our part. The pope’s program, in its very that their children are safe in the church, as no one is exempt breadth and structured internalization, entrusts the mis- from accountability. Victims and so many others have com- sion of protection not only to those in episcopal leadership, plained repeatedly, and rightly so, that the lack of account- but instead points to a sense of needed vigilance within the ability on the part of bishops has added to the suffering they whole community of the church, which makes up for epis- have already endured as a result of abuse. Victims now know copal leadership when it fails. He is reminding all of us who that not only will bishops and superiors be held accountable, we claim to be, a church the little ones should always be able but that they risk their office through neglect. Moreover, to count on, like a loving mother. A CNS PHOTO/ALESSANDRO BIANCHI, REUTERS

July 18-25, 2016 America 25 In Their Shoes Empathy is the key to the church’s ministry to families. BY JOHN STRYNKOWSKI here is only one mention of empathy in Pope the Baptist and withdraws “to a deserted place by himself ” Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation on the fam- (Mt 14:13), is he not filled with empathy for John’s suffering, ily: “A mother who watches over her child with recognizing in it his own destiny? tenderness and compassion helps him or her… Tto grow in self-esteem and, in turn, to develop a capacity Pastoral Sensitivity for intimacy and empathy” (No. 175). The idea, however, is In the exhortation Pope Francis is encouraging the church found in other passages throughout “The Joy of Love.” Pope to embrace empathy as the necessary source of compassion Francis writes, for example, that in communication with an- and mercy. His frequent call for more effective ministries to other person, “we have to put ourselves in their shoes and try couples and families on the parish level makes it especial- to peer into their hearts, to perceive their deepest concerns ly incumbent upon priests and other pastoral ministers to and to take them as a point of departure for further dia- embark on the way of empathy. For priests this has to begin logue” (No. 138). with their seminary formation. But empathy is not learned Indeed, I would suggest that empathy, although men- as an academic discipline. That is why the pope calls for an tioned only once, underlies the entire document and is a key interdisciplinary formation “in the areas of engagement and to its implementation. It is not farfetched to imagine that the marriage” and urges the participation of families and espe- pope’s many gestures of compassion—the affection he shows cially women in priestly formation (No. 203). to people at general audiences, his visits to prisons and refu- Empathy, as the pope’s own frequent references to novel- gee camps—are driven by empathy, by an ability to enter into ists and poets demonstrate, is also learned through literature and resonate with the joys and sorrows of others, especial- and the arts. Empathy is cultivated through imagination. The ly the poor and marginalized. Likewise, this same empathy lack of exposure to the humanities in much of higher edu- could explain his decision to place the challenging situations cation today has to be a serious concern for the church and of families today at the center of the church’s conversations especially seminaries. and the two recent synods. The pope’s exhortation caused some controversy by seem- Certainly his pastoral service in Buenos Aires allowed ing to leave open the door for certain divorced and remar- Pope Francis to experience and empathize with the vast ar- ried Catholics to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and ray of marital and family situations that are discussed in the Eucharist. He writes (No. 305): “Because of forms of condi- exhortation itself. But the cultivation of empathy has another tioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objec- profound and irreplaceable source found over and over again tive situation of sin...a person can be living in God’s grace, in Christians who embark on visible or even hidden journeys can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, of generous service of others. It is contemplation of Christ while receiving the Church’s help to this end.” crucified. Entering into the sufferings of Christ schools the The footnote adds, “In certain cases, this can include the human spirit in sensitivity to the sufferings of others. help of the sacraments” (No. 351). This, critics of the doc- In his public ministry Jesus demonstrated empathy, either ument assert, is a threat to the church’s doctrine of the in- indirectly or directly. For example, when he tells the parable dissolubility of marriage. This opening, however, is in accord of the shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep, does he with a centuries-old tradition of applying doctrines with a do so simply with the detachment of a teacher, or does he en- pastoral sensitivity born of empathy. The Greek Orthodox ter into the frantic and anxious mind and heart of the shep- tradition of allowing admission to the Eucharist after divorce herd? Does he not make his own the urgency of the shep- and remarriage was not an invention of theologians in an herd’s search and thereby express the urgency of his mission academic setting but an on-the-ground response to the life to gather to the Father even those who are most lost in the experiences of Christians caught in irremediable situations. community of Israel? Or when he is told of the death of John A helpful example of applying doctrine with pastoral sen- sitivity is the principle of integrity in confession. The Council REV. MSGR. JOHN J. STRYNKOWSKI is a priest of the Diocese of of Trent placed an anathema on those who would affirm that Brooklyn. “it is not necessary by divine law to confess each and all mortal

26 America July 18-25, 2016 sins…as also the circumstances that change the species of a sin.” It is by divine law, the council teaches, that the penitent must confess all mortal sins. Over the centuries, however, moral theologians and canonists have recognized with pastoral realism that this principle cannot always be observed. They have described situations of physical and moral impossibility restricting the abil- ity of a penitent to confess all mortal sins. Examples of physical impossibility would be soldiers rushing into battle or persons with the beginnings of dementia. The most common example of moral impossibility would be a person who suffers from scru- pulosity, in which case the confessor would insist on only a generic confession of sin. A principle declared by the Council of Trent to be of divine law is applied with pastoral sensitivity.

Widening the Circle In the exhortation, Pope Francis, following the final report of the 2015 synod, quotes the Catechism of the Catholic Church in rec- ognizing that “imputability and responsibil- ity for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and oth- er psychological or social factors” (No. 302; catechism No. 1735). This, too, is a pastoral realism born of empathy. Many Christians are hindered from achieving an ever more faithful following of Christ because of the factors mentioned above. Some struggle; others give up. But all must be treated with empathy. There has been criticism that the pope and some bishops are no longer upholding the demands of the Gospel in the ardent pursuit of virtue, especially chastity. It is an unfair criticism, especially in light of the pope’s relent- Every person has empathy toward those who are clos- less demands for authentic Christian living in his preach- est. The challenge is to rise from having empathy for a few ing. But pastoral realism acknowledges the limitations of to having empathy for many. Our distracted society often Christians. In the Office of Readings for Dec. 12, there is a does not allow the time for the cultivation of reflection and text from St. Jane Frances de Chantal, whose feast day it is, imagination so that we can put ourselves into the shoes of about the martyrdom of love that her sisters must embrace. others distant or different from ourselves, especially those But, she adds: “Our Lord does not intend this martyrdom who suffer most. And perhaps we are protecting our hearts for those who are weak in love and perseverance. Such peo- and minds as well. Empathy will move us to compassion, and ple he lets continue on their mediocre way, so that they will compassion will move us to conversion of thought and deed. not be lost to him; he never does violence to our free will.” Empathy makes us vulnerable. But it must be the way of the

“THE CHILD’S BATH” BY MARY CASSATT. PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/GOOGLE ART PROJECT PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/GOOGLE ART CASSATT. BY MARY “THE CHILD’S BATH” This is empathy. church today—and most especially of its ministers. A

July 18-25, 2016 America 27

FAITH IN FOCUS L’Arche Lessons From the home that Pope Francis visited BY DANI CLARK his past May, as part of his ongoing Fridays of Mercy Tministry, Pope Francis paid a surprise visit to the Il Chicco L’Arche community in Ciampino, Italy, just outside of Rome. In each of the 147 L’Arche commu- nities around the world, people with and without intellectual disabilities share life together. During his visit the pope “sat with residents and shared a snack with them and the volunteers who live with them,” Vatican radio reported. In the photos from the vis- it, the characteristic joy and spontaneity of L’Arche are on full dis- play. TABLE SERVICE. Pope Francis visits the Il Chicco In my favorite pho- community, part of the L’Arche movement, in Ciampino, Italy. ROMANO CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE to, Giorgio, an intel- lectually disabled com- mous person in the Fabio, a core member of the communi- munity member, smiles world—an enthu- ty (as they are known), and I were the from ear to ear, hug- siasm, I am not sur- only two in the house. Normally there ging the white-capped prised to know, he were eight of us, four core members pontiff, who hugs him would also bestow and four assistants. back with equal enthu- on the man who Each evening after dinner, we would siasm. Fabio, core member of the Il may actually be the light a candle, sit down and pray to- I knew Giorgio well. Chicco L’Arche Community. most famous per- gether in the living room. It was a short In the late 1990s, just son in the world. affair. We would sing, offer intentions out of college, I lived That wasand end with the song of L’Arche, a and volunteered for a year at Il Chicco. L’Arche. Amid the challenges of dis- slow and tuneful prayer to Mary. I remember how Roman Giorgio was, ability, there was total acceptance. But that would not work if only in looks and disposition: the aquiline Behind the veil of life’s toil, joy abided Fabio and I were there. Besides his in- nose and dark eyebrows, his penchant in the smallest things: a hug, a good tellectual disability, Fabio was deaf and for making espressos. I remember meal shared, a song sung together, a mute. how he greeted each person with such walk to the market to buy bread. The Housemates for 10 months by then,

CREDIT: FACEBOOK PAGE OF ASSOCIAZIONE ARCA COMUNITÀ “IL CHICCO” PAGE FACEBOOK CREDIT: glee, as if he or she were the most fa- spiritual reverberations of living at Il Fabio and I were friends. We were Chicco still throb quietly in my life to- born the same year, 1975. We knew day. One experience remains emblem- things about each other. For breakfast DANI CLARK is a writer and editor at an international development organization atic. he would eat sweet biscuits drenched in Washington, D.C., and a member of the It was a summer evening, and in milk while I sipped a café latte. He Community of Sant’Egidio. through a rare set of circumstances, loved hugging people and I loved re-

July 18-25, 2016 America 29 ceiving those hugs. His sign language nal in the Church of San Damiano in to embrace him, I could not decide. was his own, and we all became fluent. Assisi when God told him to repair I think about it both ways because Twisting an index finger on your cheek the church. At first Francis believed it in both ways it is true. meant you liked the pasta and wanted was the physical church that needed Fabio remained that way for a more. rebuilding, but later came to under- while: one broken man embracing an- Fabio also shouldered another, very stand his broader mission. The church other. Then he turned his body toward visible, burden. His face and body were was broken by power and greed and me, his arms still held out wide, like a marked by bone disfigurement. From Francis was called to change hearts. cross, his face still beaming. He was furtive glances to overt avoidance, He lived to bring the church back to inviting me in—into his brokenness, many people had a reflexive response the simplicity of the Gospel. into the brokenness of the cross and to seeing Fabio that I witnessed many I sat there with Fabio, before that into a paradox: I never felt so whole times. They were instinctively repelled, cross, feeling lost in my own thoughts as I did at that moment. I opened my at least at first. I did not hold it too and brokenness, as I often am when I arms wide too and smiled back. much against them. Our eyes may set myself to quiet prayer. At a certain So much of life seems broken— be for judging, but our hearts are for point, I looked over at him. Something from our inner lives of quiet despera- knowing. To know Fabio was to love was going on. tion to the outer, conflict-ridden world. him. Fabio was rapt, his eyes afire. He The church is also wounded and needs After our dinner together, I mo- was staring intently at the cross and repair. Pope Francis knows this and his tioned to Fabio to follow me into our smiling. His expression, his whole be- saintly namesake did too. But there is small basement chapel. I figured that ing in fact, indicated he was commu- a beauty in this brokenness that Fabio quiet prayer was probably best. nicating. But there was only the cross. taught me and that Pope Francis re- We sat together silently in the can- I wondered what he saw. I got goose- minded me of with his visit to L’Arche. dle-lit chapel facing the altar. Above bumps. And the beauty is this: It is our bro- it hung a replica of the San Damiano Then it happened. Still smiling and kenness that leads us into the embrace. cross. St. Francis, so the story goes, was still staring at the cross, Fabio opened We only have to recognize this and praying before the 12th-century origi- his arms wide, imitating Jesus or trying mercy will be ours. A

FROM OUR BLOGS After Brexit, Ireland Faces Partition Once Again Rhona Tarrant Pope Francis Prays for Full Unity RADIO with the Armenian Apostolic Church, Gerard O’Connell New York Times columnist Dan Barry discusses his new book, The Boys in the Bunkhouse, on “America Bob Dylan’s Church(es) This Week.” James T. Keane WHAT YOU’RE READING Reflections on Pride, James Martin, S.J. WEB EXCLUSIVE Kory Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, What a Difference a Word Makes talks about the meaning and the roots of the word Gerard O’Connell “m e rc y.” Pope Francis Says the Church Should Apologize to Gays, Gerard O’Connell Shanghai’s Bishop Ma in Surprise ART Reversal on ‘Official’ Church Group, Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., reviews “Pergamon and the Gerard O’Connell Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World” at the After Orlando Chicago Archbishop Metropolitan Museum of Art. Urges LGBT Outreach, Gun Control Kevin Clarke

“It would be better if, instead of apologizing, he made actual changes in church policy.” —”Pope Francis Says the Church Should Apologize to Gays,” Crystal Watson

30 America July 18-25, 2016 VANTAGE POINT: 1967–2013 A History of Violence Gun control in America BY KEVIN CLARKE AND JAMES MARTIN

A

A GRIM TALLY. Gun control activists rally in front of the White House in Washington on Jan. 4. The next day, President Barack Obama announced executive actions to reduce gun violence.

uring the 20th century, the In both instances, the National who had been wounded during the at- United States consistently Rifle Association helped craft the gun tempt on his life, and was signed into Dtook a reactive stance on gun control measures that passed into law. law by President Bill Clinton in 1993. control, pushing for stronger controls It took five years for Congress to The 1994 assault weapons ban, and greater restraints on gun sales based pass the Gun Control Act of 1968. which held until 2004, was similar- on perceived social crises or acts of vio- It would take the next significant gun ly inspired by public outrage after lence that shocked the nation. In 1934 control measure much longer to get a schoolyard shooting in Stockton, that meant restricting access to “gang- through Congress after the initial pub- Calif., in January 1989. The gunman, ster weapons” through exorbitant excise lic outrage over the attempted assassi- Patrick Purdy, had a long criminal taxes, and in 1968 it meant clamping nation of President Ronald Reagan in history, white supremacist views and down on inexpensive handguns and 1981. By then the N.R.A., under new hostility toward Southeast Asians. He mail-order weapons sales because of leadership, had transformed itself from used a Chinese imitation of the AK-47 rising urban crime rates and in response a hunting, hobbyist and gun safety or- assault rifle to kill five schoolchildren to the assassinations of President John ganization into an ardent defender of at Cleveland Elementary School and F. Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert Second Amendment rights. The group wounded 32 others before taking his F. Kennedy and the civil rights leader fiercely resisted the Brady Bill, which own life. Martin Luther King Jr. set higher hurdles to gun ownership by Two critical and related pivots are means of stricter background checks particularly important in this short and limitations on interstate and over- history: the N.R.A.’s turn away from KEVIN CLARKE is a senior editor and chief cor- respondent of America. JAMES MARTIN, S.J., seas commerce in guns. But the bill cooperation on gun control legislation

CNS PHOTO/CARLOS BARRIA, REUTERS is editor at large of America. was supported by President Reagan, after the passage of the Gun Control

July 18-25, 2016 America 31 Act in 1968 and the breakdown of a tration of all firearms and a ban on the ‘The Armed Society,’ May 20, connection between public outrage private possession of all handguns?” It 1967, The Editors over especially terrible incidents of would have been difficult for the edi- In the event of urban rioting such as gun violence and successful legislative tors of 40 years ago to imagine that major American cities have witnessed campaigns. Since the Stockton shoot- the United States would one day face in recent summers, what factor might ing, no gun rampage, not even one as an entirely new type of scourge: the serve as a “potential community stabi- horrific as the murder of schoolchil- semi-automatic rifle, of the type that lizer”? Why, private ownership of guns. dren, teachers and administrators at was responsible for the worst recent Who makes this constructive sugges- the Sandy Hook Elementary tion? An editorialist writing in School in Newtown, Conn., in If one is called to be a the May issue of that impartial, 2012, has provoked enough pub- humanitarian and tranquilizing lic outrage to overcome N.R.A. defender of life from natural organization, the National Rifle resistance and sustain a success- Association…. ful gun control campaign at the birth to natural death, how So, by the advice of the federal level. National Rifle Association, For decades, the U.S. Catholic can one ignore something American urban society reverts bishops have advocated stronger that so easily ends a life? paradoxically to the condition regulations on gun sales and, on of the gun-toting, lead-slinging, occasion, even suggested a pref- corpse-making frontier. This re- erence for a gun-free society in press mass public shooting in American his- view stands very far from entering a releases and congressional testimony. tory, the massacre of dozens of people plea for street rioting of any kind for But there has been no pastoral letter at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. any reason, but it has little stomach and few formal statements specifical- But America was not simply con- for the monstrous prescription of the ly on gun control, and the topic has cerned with public policy—that is, N.R.A. mainly been mentioned in the context tackling the complicated political is- of broader indictments of American sues around gun control (particularly ‘America the Violent,’ The Editors, society like “Confronting a Culture of Second Amendment rights) as a way 1971 Violence” (1994). of lessening the violence. The magazine Although, statistically, most homicides The most direct statement on has also approached the issue from occur in private situations—where the guns from the Catholic hierarchy what might be called a spiritual point parties involved know one another— can be found in “Responsibility, of view. In January of this year, Judith we live more and more on the brink of Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Valente, writing about the spiraling vi- public violence: dynamitings, sniping Catholic Perspective on Crime and olence in Chicago, touched upon the incidents, race riots, campus disorders. Criminal Justice” of November 2000: anger that victims’ families often feel Other nations look on in disbe- “As bishops, we support measures that toward God and outlined responses to lief. The homicide count for England, control the sale and use of firearms and the violence from churches and other Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Northern make them safer—especially efforts religious institutions across the city. Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, that prevent their unsupervised use And in the past few years in particu- the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark by children or anyone other than the lar, gun control has been increasingly and Luxembourg—with combined owner—and we reiterate our call for framed for Catholics as a “pro-life” is- populations 16 times that of New York sensible regulation of handguns.” sue. If one is called to be a defender of City—is surpassed by that for New life from natural birth to natural death, York alone. Granting the problems A Heated Issue how can one ignore something that so caused by population density, and other From as early as the 1960s, the edi- easily ends a life? social factors, the disparity suggests that torial board of America, as well as a Here are brief excerpts from arti- those countries are doing something variety of authors writing in print and cles published in America over the last right, we something wrong. online, have taken up the heated issue several decades, in which the editorial of gun control. In 1971 the editors, re- board and other contributors stake out ‘The Enigma of Public Violence,’ acting to a spate of homicides in ma- a position on a topic that is, sadly, al- The Editors, 1981 jor American cities, offered a sensible ways in the news. Additional archive As the nation searches its soul in the proposition: “Why not back two very material can be found at americamag- wake of the seventh assassination at- reasonable legislative proposals: regis- azine.org. tempt on a President in this century, ad-

32 America July 18-25, 2016 vocates of stricter gun-control laws will bodies lying on a rainswept sidewalk in the road. Surely it is not beyond us to once again urge their case. They will be Washington, the center of our nation- summon up the moral courage to intel- right; the absence of laws prohibiting al dignity and power, offered one more ligently regulate guns and rifles. the casual purchase of handguns is a warning that the fantasies of violence national disgrace. Yet the opponents of which we so often indulge are not just ‘Repeal the Second Amendment,’ gun-control laws, including ironically harmless entertainment. Feb. 25, 2013, The Editors many in the Reagan Administration, Americans must ask: Is it prudent to will also be right when they respond ‘Gun Control Is a Pro-Life Issue,’ retain a constitutionally guaranteed that such laws would not, by them- Dec. 17, 2012, James Martin, S.J. right to bear arms when it compels our selves, protect the President from any Religious people need to be invited to judges to strike down reasonable, pop- future assaults. meditate on the connection between ularly supported gun regulations? Is it The crisis lies deeper in American the more traditional “life issues” and the moral to inhibit in this way the power life, and its sources are not easy to iden- overdue need for stricter gun control. of the country’s elected representa- tify. Surely, though, one source is the The oft-cited argument, “Guns don’t tives to provide for the public safety? unhealthy fascination with violence kill people, people do,” is unconvincing. Does the threat of tyranny, a legitimate that runs through American culture. Of course people kill people; just as 18th-century concern but an increas- It is reflected in the fixation of millions people also procure abortions, decide ingly remote, fanciful possibility in the with the programmed brutalities of on euthanasia and administer the death contemporary United States, trump the professional boxing, hockey and foot- penalty. Human beings are agents in grisly, daily reality of gun violence? The ball and the increasingly graphic crime these matters. The question is not so answer to each of these questions is no. dramas of film and television. It can much how lives are ended, but how to It is time to face reality. If the American even be recognized in the toy guns we make it more difficult to end lives. Over people are to confront this scourge in put in the hands of children. Vicarious the years the government has legislated any meaningful way, then they must violence is so accepted in the American minute instructions on safety features change. The Constitution must change. imagination that it sounds like moraliz- for automobiles, to increase their safety The American people should repeal ing to even call attention to it. But those for the driver, passengers, and others on the Second Amendment. A

July 18-25, 2016 America 33 Books & Culture

(The BFG); Charlie Bucket versus IDEAS | ANNA KEATING Mike Teavee (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE His stories tell children about the harsh realities of life, just as fa- Roald Dahl loved children enough to leave nothing out. bles, Bible stories and the lives of the saints do, but they also acknowledge ver his decades-long ca- about death and suffering. that good has the power to overcome reer, the author Roald Dahl This Sept. 13 marks the 100th an- evil. Dahl seems to say, along with Openned 19 books for children, niversary of Dahl’s birth, and a film the American theologian Frederick including James and the Giant Peach, version of The BFG, directed by Steven Buechner, “Here is the world. Beautiful Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Spielberg, was released on July 1. His and terrible things will happen. Don’t Factory and Fantastic Mr. Fox. His wild, stories acknowledge that evil exists be afraid.” Or as Dahl put it in Matilda, dark and fantastical stories told us the but also that it can be undone. He “If you are good life is good,” even if it truth about life while still making us is famous for his heroes and villains isn’t easy. want to laugh and bounce on the bed. whose clever names identify them: Like J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Children were his main characters, the Miss Honey versus Miss Trunchbull series or the Brothers Grimm fairy heroes and heroines of his books. He (Matilda); James Henry Trotter versus tales, Dahl’s books have often been valued, precisely as children, our clev- Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker (James banned from school libraries by par- erness, imagination, sense of humor and the Giant Peach); Fantastic Mr. Fox ents and educators who think they and ability to endure; and so, impor- versus Bogis, Bunce and Bean; the Big are inappropriate or too scary for kids. tantly, he didn’t leave out the awful bits Friendly Giant versus Bonecruncher (Remember Oompa-Loompas taken

IMAGINE THIS. In Disney’s “The BFG”, directed by Steven Spielberg, a precocious 10-year-old girl from London named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) befriends the BFG (Oscar winner Mark Rylance). 2016 STORYTELLER DISTRIBUTUION CO., LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2016 STORYTELLER

34 America July 18-25, 2016 from their homeland to work in a facto- about them at dinner and before falling crashed in Libya. Of the 16 men in his ry, or people-eating giants in The BFG.) asleep. “How will Sophie stop the bad unit, only Dahl and two others sur- And yet most children are grappling guys?” he wondered about The BFG. vived. Most horrible of all, Dahl’s eldest with more than we know. They have I suppose children, like adults, learn daughter, Olivia, to whom he dedicat- not yet mastered turning their expres- more from messy stories of scoundrels ed The BFG, died at the age of 7 from sions into masks in order to disguise and saints (think Les Misérables) than measles encephalitis, her father by her their true emotions. Nor books full of bromides side. have they become numb without much plot. As Joan Didion once wrote, “We tell to the silliness, the trag- “Share your toys. Use ourselves stories in order to live.” We edy or the glory of it all. your words.” I know. I need to make sense of the “phantas- My young children know. I know. magoria that is our actual experience.” scream and laugh when My children want to We need to turn our sense memories someone makes a funny read what Dahl called, in into something meaningful that can be noise or startles them, Charlie and the Chocolate shared. The stories we tell are imperfect and they sob when Factory, “fine, fantastic and messy at best, and if they’re true, something breaks their tales, of dragons, gypsies, reflect something of our fears, suffer- heart. They do this not Roald Dahl in 1954 queens, and whales.” They ings and shortcomings, but telling sto- only in response to small want books about sly ries is infinitely better than pretending things, like the pranks foxes and little boys who that those things don’t matter, regard- and pratfalls Dahl so aptly describes in steer giant peaches across the sky. They less of how old we are. his books, but also in response to the want to hear about people-eating giants, big things. but mostly about the little girl named ANNA KEATING is the co-author of The I once discovered my 4-year-old in Sophie who took those giants down. Catholic Catalogue: A Field Guide to The tears at the breakfast table. When I They love humor and adventure, word- Daily Acts That Make Up a Catholic Life. She also runs a website on Catholic practice and asked him what was wrong, he said he play and rhyme. And I suppose I do too, culture by the same name, www.thecatholiccata- had just realized that all of the mem- as reading these books to my kids has logue.com. bers of his family would not die on the often been the highlight of my day. same day—that he could be left alone. Perhaps Dahl understood his read- “Daddy and I won’t die for a long, long ers so well because he first wrote these time,” I said. But it was no use. He was stories as entertainment for his own right. It was horrible, the thought of five children, often slipping in fatherly ever parting, so we just sat there push- advice like the list of books Matilda ing around our oatmeal for a while, my checks out from the library (Dickens, hand on his back. Hemingway, Kipling). His books were Another day he tried his hand at odes to literature and wonder, and dark humor, likely as a way to deal with though many have been successful- his fear. “When I am old you’ll be dead,” ly turned into movies, I am certain he he sang to me at the park. “That’s not would prefer you read them first. As very nice,” I said. “But it’s true,” he re- the Oompa-Loompas sing in Charlie plied. and the Chocolate Factory, “So please, When I read him Dahl’s books, I oh please, we beg, we pray/ Go throw changed nothing but the occasional in- your TV set away/ And in its place you sult. (Dahl was Welsh and apparently can install/ A lovely bookshelf on the a fan of calling someone an “ass,” which wall…. And later, each and every kid/ I’m sure plays differently on British ears Will love you more for what you did.” but probably wouldn’t go over well at Human suffering may have been my son’s preschool.) Of course, he was present in Dahl’s children’s books be- in heaven, asking questions, looking cause it played an outsize role in his at the illustrations and trying to guess own life. Dahl’s father died when he what would happen next. He looked was 4 years old. In his 20s he was a at those books in his room when no fighter pilot during World War II; he

PHOTO: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/CARL VAN VECHTEN OF CONGRESS/CARL VAN PHOTO: LIBRARY was reading them aloud. He talked started writing literature after his plane

July 18-25, 2016 America 35 OF OTHER THINGS | BILL Mc GARVEY A RITE OF SERVICE

t happened 10 years ago while I I’ve been reminded of that episode Our nation, like Haim’s, is engaged was stuck in traffic in Jaffa, an an- numerous times during this election in a protracted conflict, but except Icient district of modern-day Tel season. The anger and disaffection for a tiny fraction of Americans, that Aviv. I was part of a study mission to among our electorate has become so conflict is an abstraction. The truth Israel made up primarily of U.S. wom- extreme that the Republicans seem is, we’ve become abstractions to one en religious from nongovernmental or- about to nominate a another as citizens, ganizations at the United Nations. A candidate whose cam- We have living highly curated number of the sisters were blowing off paign, just a year ago, lives that minimize our some steam after an exhausting week of appeared to be a sur- become chances of intersect- travel and began launching into songs. real bit of political per- ing with anyone who After a slightly off-key rendition of the formance art. And on abstractions to differs from us. This “Star-Spangled Banner,” they asked the Democratic side, a one another, divide does not bode our bus driver, Haim—a good-natured recent poll found that well, but connecting 50-something Israeli—to sing Israel’s nearly half of Senator living highly us through some form national anthem, “Hatikvah.” He de- Bernie Sanders’s sup- of universal national murred when the sisters pleaded with porters don’t plan to curated lives. service could bridge it. him. “I’m sorry I cannot do this now. It vote for their own par- Opportunities for ser- is not allowed,” he said to their surprise ty’s nominee. vice include the mili- and disappointment. When the traffic Clearly something tary but also areas of jam became a standstill a few minutes is broken in our poli- national need like edu- later, Haim quietly opened the door, tics. There is a discon- cation, poverty, the en- stepped off the bus, stood at attention nectedness in our body vironment, etc. Given and sang the anthem in the middle of politic that politicians the cost of college and the street for us all. alone can’t fix; we must job training, service It was a stark contrast to my own confront it ourselves. could be tied to some experience in the United States, where Let’s do a brief experiment: How many sort of tuition credit. many of us struggle to stop stuffing our active members of the military do you Numerous bipartisan voices are al- faces for a few seconds before a ball- know personally? If my own anecdotal ready advocating some form of this. game so we can fake our way through evidence is any indication, the number Retired General Stanley McChrystal our own national anthem. Haim had is vanishingly small. proposed creating a million full-time completed years of mandatory national Approximately 0.43 percent of civilian service positions for Americans service in a country perpetually in con- Americans are in uniform, but accord- ages 18 to 28. “Universal national ser- flict; this was connected to something ing to a 2015 Los Angeles Times report, vice would surely face obstacles. But much more immediate and solemn. our military is “gradually becoming a America is too big, and our challenges The complex political/military/reli- separate warrior class…that is becom- too expansive, for small ideas,” he wrote gious reality of Israel raised many diffi- ing increasingly distinct from the pub- in The Wall Street Journal. “The objec- cult questions, but there was no doubt lic it is charged with protecting.” The tive must be a cultural shift that makes that for nearly every person I encoun- report makes the case that service is service an expected rite of citizenship.” tered, Israeli citizenship was not a pas- almost becoming a family business: “as When meaningful national service sive experience. They were passionate many as 80% of those who serve come falls on the shoulders of so few, it can’t stakeholders regardless of where they from a family in which a parent or sib- be healthy for a democracy. It is time stood on the political spectrum. ling is also in the military.” According to we asked ourselves a difficult question Rorke Denver, author of Worth Dying about whether the platitude “Thank For: A Navy SEAL’s Call to a Nation, “It you for your service” unconsciously BILL McGARVEY, a musician and writer, is can feel like military America is a sepa- submerges our nation’s uglier truth: the author of The Freshman Survival Guide, owner of CathNewsUSA.com. Twitter: @billmc- rate country within a country, with ci- “Thanks for serving so I [or my child] garvey. vilian America existing someplace else.” won’t have to.”

36 America July 18-25, 2016 BOOKINGS WHAT’S ON YOUR CHILD’S READING LIST?

hen my brother Dave and I were very young our father, a journalist who, were there and I read all of them in a probably because he couldn’t afford college, had gone right into newspaper week. Then I read them again; and after work when he returned from World War I, would grow agitated when that I reread my favorite pages, think- Whe saw us reading comic books. I remember him saying he had read all of Dickens ing all the while, as I did with many and James Fenimore Cooper when he was young. He may have exaggerated on “all” books when I was 12, that this was of Dickens, but his library attested that he read voluminously. I keep a dozen of his the best book I had ever read. Here’s own books from the turn of the century—including Jane Eyre, The Cloister and the what I liked about it. It was about Hearth and The Brothers Karamazov—in my own library for inspiration. When I Indians, and about two boys interested was in first grade, the nun kept a big box of books in front of the class and every day in Indians, and it was filled with draw- we had a reading hour in which I worked my way through several volumes of the Tom ings and instructions for how to make Swift series. The following years I moved into the Tarzan series, the Hardy Boys and teepees and moccasins. It was crammed eventually David Copperfield. with odd knowledge, like the fact that As the evidence accumulates that today’s children are reading less and less, I have Indians walked with their toes pointed invited a cross section of our writers and staff who have raised children to share their in. One of the characters was a witch wisdom on what today’s children should read. woman who knew how to poison peo- RAYMOND A. SCHROTH, S.J., is America’s literary editor. ple with plants. But the very best thing about the book was the savage realism of the author about life. America’s Original Sin as an eye-opening jour- Yan, the principal little Children’s books are like little paw ney on the Mississippi savage, had younger and prints in the virgin snow. The titles River with irrepress- older brothers who were aren’t particularly memorable, yet they ible Huck, his pal Tom unredeemed monsters. leave their indelible imprint. In first Sawyer and Jim, the slave Yan was not his mother’s grade I remember my genuine pride on the run who joins him favorite, and in addition in conquering Tip, our introductory on the raft going down she was a religious bully. reader about an erstwhile terrier, and the river. (Nothing like I sensed immediately and its not-too-inventive sequel, Tip and a book with a lot of ac- later understood more Mitten, co-starring a kitten. My sensi- tive verbs for the young clearly that Seton was bilities as a third-grade traditionalist mind!) Lastly, To Kill a oddly incapable of telling were shocked by Green Eggs and Ham, Mockingbird is a haunt- a phony story to a child. with its absurdist rhymes and almost ingly beautiful novel Dalí-like illustrations by Dr. Seuss. As about race, justice and THOMAS POWERS, a a young Yankees fan, I devoutly stud- adult life seen through the eyes of a lit- Pulitzer Prize-winner, has written several books, including The Death of Crazy Horse. ied Mickey Mantle’s heroic The Quality tle girl. It reflects America in so many of Courage, a tome that I realized years ways and leaves us with an internal later was written by a ghostwriter while voice by author Harper Lee that can The Ghosts of History the Mick was probably out having a last a lifetime. Growing up, I never entertained the beer with the boys. Nevertheless, it’s idea of running away from home. Yet always good for young people to have THOMAS MAIER, an investigative reporter for one of my favorite books was a tale Newsday, is the author of five books. The most a hero or two. recent is When Lions Roar: The Churchills of two siblings catching a train from Then there were books that truly and the Kennedys, excerpted in the Oct. 27, their home in Greenwich, Conn., to made an impact and I think should be 2014, issue of America. hide out in the Metropolitan Museum read by all youngsters. Mark Twain’s of Art in New York City. From the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn can be A Lesson in Savage Realism Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. appreciated on many levels, including I was 12 when I got my hands on Ernest Frankweiler is now a children’s classic, as a morality tale about America’s orig- Thompson Seton’sTwo Little Savages. but I did not know that when I first inal sin of race. It first appealed to me My copy was in tatters but all the pages picked it up in, I think, fifth grade.

July 18-25, 2016 America 37 What attracted me was the exotic no- peals to children of all ages, there was recall reading them themselves before tion of spending the night at the Met, C. S. Lewis. they were 10. They were captivated by a place I had been to many times be- And while American children the story, the characters and the les- fore, but always amid throngs of peo- may need some explanations of sons. It’s no surprise they are both huge ple and never on my own. Sleeping in mid-20th-century British language Harry Potter fans. antique beds, trolling the Met’s foun- and furniture, they can still become im- tains for loose change, spending each mersed in The Lion, the Witch and the TOM CURRAN is a former associate editor of The Newark Star Ledger. day in a new gallery—the adventures of Wardrobe. Claudia Kincaid and her brother Jaime For starters, it’s about children. The made learning seem fun and just a little youngest, Lucy, wanders into a ward- King Arthur’s Magic Childhood bit dangerous. Would they get caught? robe during a game of hide-and-seek In this retelling of the Arthurian leg- Would they have enough money to and ends up in Narnia, a world where end, T. H. White’s The Sword in the survive? And just who was this Mrs. it is always winter and Christmas never Stone, young Arthur grows up a foster Frankweiler, who kept inserting herself comes. son on the estate of Sir Ector, a minor into the story? Long before “A Night at Her brother Edmund goes through nobleman, and is educated by the wise the Museum” became a movie franchise the wardrobe, where he meets the and eccentric Merlyn. To adult eyes, (and a lucrative fundraising opportu- White Witch, who is responsible for all the book is an account of the future nity), E. L. Konigsburg introduced us the bad things in Narnia. She seduces king’s empathetic education and an to the thrills of camping out with the Edmund with sweets, taking advan- exploration of the structure of soci- ghosts of history. tage of his character flaws to turn him eties, authority and justice. To a child to her side in a war between good and it is a series of adventures, narrated MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY is an executive evil. The good is incarnate in Aslan, the with a certain ironic detachment, full editor of America. mystical Lion whose sacrifice gives the of very funny asides. Arthur gets lost other children a symbol to fight for. in a forest, meets Robin Hood and Where Christmas Never Comes When our daughters were small, his band, frees prisoners of a wicked Before there was J. K. Rowling, an my wife read this and the other Narnia sorceress and is transformed into var- English writer whose imagination ap- books to them. Both girls, now grown, ious animals. Arthur, as enchanted by

Visiting Day at Morningside

Come, let me strain the raspberries that settles on our dinner bell at dusk. tonight, stir the sauce—glassy the sugar, A man’s mind hovers not too tart—pour it, wipe up the crimson islands and return over brews and blends and recipes he to where I learned the revenue stored in sturdy, lifelong cabinets; of taste. Taste that’s acquired an appetite his lips keep company with old assorting for place, rich with accrued mobilities: hands. How quickly he becomes, once sun on the slender sill at early day, more, the hungry boy, perplexed by thick and simple sweeteners. For him sun on the orange brick—mid-morn— someone has stirred, all day, all night— sun in the cordons of a slingshot noon, long spoon along an earthen jar—this fruit.

SOFIA M. STARNES

SOFIA M. STARNES is the author of five poetry collections, includingA Commerce of Moments, which was a Library of Virginia Honor Book in Poetry in the year of its publication. In 2012 she was appointed Poet Laureate of Virginia. She is currently the poetry editor and poetry book re- view editor for the Anglican Theological Review.

38 America July 18-25, 2016 tales of brave knights and dramatic drinking water. symphony The Lord of the Rings. I’m battles as any 6-year-old gazing up at Stanley’s bad luck begins to change reading them The Hobbit first because, the mounted knights in armor in the after teaching another teenage boy as a hobbit would have it, that keeps Metropolitan Museum of Art, is eager at the camp to read. While digging a everything in its right order. Tolkien to go on his own quest and of course hole at the camp, Stanley finds a box has been praised to the heavens—and ultimately does, pulling the sword of treasure that had been stolen from thoroughly by Boston College’s Peter from the stone. But Merlyn, who lives his great-great grandfather. He learns Kreeft in The Philosophy of Tolkien: The backward through time and has seen much about himself and Worldview Behind The the horror and folly of militaristic so- others. He also learns Lord of the Rings. Also, cieties and the transience of power, is the real reason—besides quite fittingly I think, skeptical. He sends Arthur to meet a punishment—that the he has been scoffed at knight, but he is a slapstick fool, locked boys had to dig holes. by modern literary so- in a futile and endless contest. Louis Sachar weaves phisticates who seem to The most affecting episodes in the humor throughout the find beauty and morality book are Arthur’s education by expe- tragedy. The novel reads threatening. rience, as he becomes a small fish, a like a fast-paced mystery, None of that mat- hawk and a badger and understands with careful foreshad- ters as I lie in the bot- power, fear and community in new owing and many sur- tom bunk with my son, ways. The psychologically complex and prises. “That was such a reading by mini-light up finely drawn relationships between cool book,” said my son, toward my daughter in Arthur, Kay, Merlyn and Sir Ector res- Andrew, who read it in the top bunk. I am trans- onate with compassion. I read it aloud middle school. “Make ported to a particular to my sons. I’d press it into the hands sure you write about them running time in my childhood, when an uncle of another 10- or 12-year-old as an away and how the adults realized he lent me his Tolkien books, as each antidote to education that quests for was innocent.” paragraph lights torches in our three the predetermined right answer and as Holes is the story of life’s accidents minds. In this age of dull materialism protection against a world that honors and tests of character, and the prom- and high-tech chatter, it seems to me might over right. ise of ample rewards for developing that children need quiet, imaginative strength, both physical and emotional. nights with a hobbit more than ever. EILEEN MARKEY has just completed a biogra- phy of Maura Clarke, M.M., who was martyred First published in 1998, the novel won PETER REICHARD is a political journalist in in El Salvador. a Newbery Medal, a National Book New Orleans. Award and many other awards. The Secret of the Hole In Louis Sachar’s novel Holes, Stanley LORETTA TOFANI won a Pulitzer Prize The Prince and the Pilot while reporting for The Washington Post and is thrust into the cold, cruel, arbitrary served as the China correspondent for The I met Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de adult world away from the warmth Philadelphia Inquirer. Saint-Exupéry, in a freshman-year and protection of parents and home. French class, gave it to my wife as our Arrested for stealing a pair of used Torches in Three Minds first Christmas gift, and then 40 years sneakers, a crime he did not commit, Choosing one book every child should later gave it to our granddaughter. “It the judge gives Stanley a choice: jail read is a little like choosing one food is only with the heart that one can see or camp. Stanley chooses camp. But every child should eat. Through exten- rightly; what is essential is invisible to Camp Green Lake, in Texas, bears no sive bedtime reading, I’ve nourished the eye.” resemblance to the camp of Stanley’s my children, ages 7 and 9, on several. Saint-Exupéry’s downed pilot meets teenage imagination, a place of swim- They includeKidnapped and Treasure a curious child, come to earth from his ming lessons, water-skiing and rock Island, both of which stir a sense of ad- original home among the stars. An effi- climbing. Instead, Stanley and the ju- venture. Last summer we finishedSt. cient caretaker of his planet, he tended venile delinquents must dig holes all Patrick’s Summer by Marigold Hunt, a especially to a one and only rose. “It is day long, five feet wide and five feet theological tour de force that should the time you have wasted for your rose deep, under the relentless hot sun. The be required reading for every Catholic that makes your rose so important.” boys are the prey of rattlesnakes, scor- child in the English-speaking world. Before our strange land, he jour- pions and poisonous lizards, as well Right now we’re on The Hobbit, neyed to six asteroids with eccentric as of administrators who withhold the overture to J. R .R. Tolkien’s great characters. “I have not much time. I

July 18-25, 2016 America 39 have friends to discover, and a great ways...but my boys just did not “get” sequels are high up on the bookcase in many things to understand.” my affection for these books. the bedroom of my two young sons. The pilot and prince’s friendship, Skeptical, skinny things, afflicted They’re not quite ready yet, but I look narrated in lovely prose and illustrat- by iPhones and habitually thumbing forward to the day when they meet ed by the author’s original watercolors, through Calvin and Hobbes collec- Frank and Joe and stare, like so many will stir misplaced zest in the adult tions and one of the various Diary before them, in horror at that oncom- reader and laughter, furrowed brows of a Wimpy Kids kicking around the ing car. and joyful delight in the child listener. house, they admit to maybe “kinda” My granddaughter told me last liking Wind in the Willows, but Stuart MIKE WILSON writes a much-admired column on crime for The New York Times. week: “Pop Pop, I think it is just as im- Little? Come on. “It was boring; it was portant to care about other people and stupid…why does the mouse wear Rikki, Nag and Baloo to be very smart.” At nine, she gets it clothes?” Good reading should be a pleasure, not and the prince smiles appreciatively. Sigh. a chore. Books were my comfort on There is alwaysThe Lord of the sick days or during childhood pneu- THOMAS MCGOVERN is a professor emeritus Rings and Dune ahead of me. Master at Arizona State University. monia and a refuge from my father’s and Commander? absences. I resembled the girl in Jane Better luck to us all. Why Does the Mouse Wear Eyre who hid behind a curtain to lose Clothes? KEVIN CLARKE is America’s senior editor and herself in stories, hardly aware the af- I am going to start off by admitting chief correspondent. ternoon was waning until it was too that I failed, so there will be no unnec- dark to read. Some books I loved: To m essary suspense to this story. As my Trapdoors and Friendship Sawyer, Lassie, Heidi, Treasure Island kids grew into their early reading years, “Frank and Joe Hardy clutched the and, most of all, The Jungle Book. I couldn’t wait to introduce them to a grips of their motorcycles and stared Rudyard Kipling fired my imagi- couple of books I remember absolute- in horror at the oncoming car.” So be- nation with “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” about ly loving as a child, perhaps the first gins The Tower Treasure, the first in a mongoose (the location was India). books I ever loved. I thought my dar- the Hardy Boys series, I had to learn new vo- ling children would love these books in a lead sentence know- cabulary. What was a more or less precisely the same way I ingly crafted to deter mongoose, anyway? I did. They wereStuart Little, by E. B. its young reader from loved Rikki for his fierce White, and Kenneth Grahame’s The putting the book down protective streak. He de- Wind in the Willows. anytime soon. Horror! fended mother, father Certainly the wonderful illustra- Motorcycles! Who was and son from the wily tions by Garth Williams and E. H. that spooky figure on the cobra Nag and his mate Shepard respectively were a part of front cover? Nagaina. In contrast to their appeal to me as a child. They Adventure and Rikki was the muskrat made Stuart’s nobility, Toad’s near clues—the red wig, the Chuchundra, who clung mortal conceit, Badger’s steadiness and yellow jalopy—came to the wall. Animal char- Mole and Rat’s kindly companionable- and went before Hobo acters fascinated me: a ness palpable things. I remember how Johnny locked the he- bear named Baloo, a pan- desolate I felt as a child coming to the roes in a water tower. ther named Bagheera, wistful conclusion of Stuart’s adven- By then, the reader had learned quite a tiger named Shere Khan, as real as tures, and the mournful realization a bit, and not just about disguises and anyone I met in daily life. These stories that the book was over and I would trap doors. The stories are steeped in were about love, loyalty and character. hear no more of Stuart Little, nor dis- the rewards of hard work, cooperation, Tales and authors that helped me pass cover if he ever would find his Margalo. diligence, problem solving and, most of into adult reading were: The Diary of I learned about the value of adventure all, friendship and brotherhood. And Anne Frank, Dickens, Jane Austen, D. and friendship, marveled at the great those plot twists! The first book I read H. Lawrence, Robert Frost and Anne battle to recover Toad Hall, applaud- in a single weekend, something I had Sexton. A blessing for life, in good ed what must be the first depiction never heard of anyone doing before, times and bad. I’m grateful. of an “intervention” in 20th-century was a Hardy Boys novel. I was almost literature as Toad’s friends attempted 12. EMILIE GRIFFIN is a writer and poet in New to dissuade him from his vainglorious The Tower Treasure and its first four Orleans.

40 America July 18-25, 2016 Life’s Lessons on the Frontier ed in the Hundred Acre Wood of by E. H. Shepard. His black-and- What a torture to choose a book or Christopher Robin’s imagination. Why white sketches floating in blank spaces books that children under 12 should else would Frederick throughout the text em- read—or equally appealing, have read Crews write The Pooh body the real but fragile to them! An ever-growing amount of Perplex and Postmodern life of the stuffed ani- high quality children’s literature is out Pooh, in which wacky mals in Robin’s toy chest. there, and the classics don’t disappear. fictional critics like Milne was so pleased So with feet firmly held to the fire I’ll Woodbine Meadowlark with Shepard’s draw- cast my vote for the Little House series subject Pooh to literary ings that he suggested by Laura Ingalls Wilder. These auto- deconstruction? Then that he sketch Pooh and biographical books describe the 1880s there are Pooh and the Piglet on his tombstone, pioneering movements of the Ingalls Philosophers and What so that St. Peter would family from the Wisconsin woods to Pooh Might Have Said to immediately open the the Kansas prairie, to the banks of Plum Dante or The Tao of Pooh heavenly gates. “Unless Creek Minnesota, before finally taking and Te of Piglet to rein- you change and become up a land claim near the new town of force my point. It is be- like little children you DeSmet in Dakota territory. cause Pooh and all are so impervious to will never enter the kingdom of heaven” In each place Ma, Pa and the growing adult-eration that the works cited are so (Mt 18:3). children face the arduous challenges of hilarious or so revelatory. GEORGE DENNIS O’BRIEN is a former presi- survival and subsistence farming. The It is essential to read the books in dent of the University of Rochester, as well as an daily tasks, the animals, the land, the editions with the original illustrations author and critic. weather, the neighbors and social gath- erings are described in loving detail—in speaker Mary Sharon Moore. Packages include case you ever need to build a log cab- CLASSIFIED three-day parish mission plus your choice of in, plant a garden, churn butter or give domestic church workshops, youth talks, audi- a barn dance. Hard work and skilled Positions ence-specific mini-retreats, and parish and school THE DIOCESE OF GREAT FALLS- self-reliance are the order of the day, as staff renewal. One flat fee, with 10 percent tithe BILLINGS, Mont., seeks a Director of Youth to the social outreach initiative of your choice. well as keeping an eye out for new op- and Young Adult Ministry to provide vision and Catalog 2017 at marysharonmoore.com. portunities. 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July 18-25, 2016 America 41 THE WORD Asking Always SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C), JULY 24, 2016 Readings: Gen 18:20-32; Ps 138:1-8; Col 2:12-14; Lk 11:1-13 “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Lk 11:9)

he Catechism of the Catholic prayer of petition which leads us to pray we ought to offer: ceaseless, demanding, Church outlines five differ- as Jesus did” (No. 2634). forceful. The man in the parable who ent forms of prayer: prayer of That Jesus was in prayer is the first responds to his annoying friend does so T not out of friendship but “because of his blessing and adoration, prayer of peti- lesson, which the disciples took to heart tion, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer of when they asked him to teach them. The persistence he will get up and give him praise and prayer of intercession (No. second lesson is the Lord’s Prayer itself, whatever he needs.” Given grudgingly, 2625-43). These forms of prayer, in which focuses on the petitioner’s need, it is still the response that the their biblical exemplars and elsewhere, as we see also in Old Testament annoying friend seeks. often intermingle more than one form prayers, to be in right rela- We are not friends who of prayer, so that one sees together, for tionship with God. In prayer, annoy God, but persistence example, prayer of praise and petition, God comes first. We need to in prayer must become our thanksgiving and blessing, intercession approach God in humility, practice. Persistence in and petition. And this is what we find which is encapsulated by our prayer indicates that we in Luke’s Gospel. Chapter 11 offers appeal for forgiveness so that know to petition God forms of petitionary prayer, but there we can approach God’s holi- without ceasing because are also aspects of intercession, praise ness. Then we pray for God’s only God can meet our and thanksgiving. kingdom to come in glory in Prior to the Lord’s Prayer in Luke, order to transform us. “There is a PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE Jesus himself is found in prayer, which hierarchy in these petitions: we pray leads his disciples to ask that he “teach first for the Kingdom, then for what Contemplate the Lord’s Prayer and the parable of the “importunate” friend. How us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” is necessary to welcome it and coop- do you pray now? How do these passages This is the first request made of Jesus, erate with its coming” (No. 2632). help you to understand the nature of who answers by offering them the But as Jesus’ parable of the im- prayer? In what way do you need to orient or reorient your prayer life?

Lord’s Prayer. Luke’s version is more portunate friend, which follows the DUNNE TAD ART: concise than that found in the Sermon Lord’s Prayer, reminds us, humility on the Mount in Matthew, but it main- in prayer need not lead us to hold back deepest needs. What Jesus describes tains the same reverence for God’s holi- with reserved and measured requests. as “evil” parents, in contrast to God, ness and offers petitions for the estab- The parable encourages us; if we have know how to give their child good lishment of God’s kingdom, our daily something to ask of God, we need to gifts. How much more does God, who needs and the forgiveness of our sins, ask boldly. “The importunate friend,” as is goodness, desire to give us what we as well as our forgiveness of others and the catechism calls him, is persistent, need? And what we need is more than the ability to withstand the trials of evil. unrelenting, annoying, demanding, earthly gifts. The one who persists in This petitionary prayer is also a prayer forceful, overeager and harassing, as a prayer knows “how much more will of intercession, since “intercession is a quick check of a thesaurus suggests. the heavenly Father give the Holy Think of all these synonyms for impor- Spirit to those who ask him!” The tunate in the context of prayer! I will Holy Spirit provides all spiritual gifts, JOHN W. MARTENS is a professor of theology offer my own choice of description: the each attuned to our and the church’s at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. brazen friend. needs. God wants to hear from us, for The prayer of the brazen friend is a when we are asking always for all the prayer of petition, and it is indeed unre- things we need from God, it means lenting and annoying. This is what Jesus’ we desire the gift of God’s goodness parable proposes as the sort of prayer above all else.

42 America July 18-25, 2016 Soul Satisfaction EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C), JULY 31, 2016 Readings: Eccl 1:2, 2:21-22; Ps 90:3-17; Col 3:1-11; Lk 11:13-21 “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed” (Lk 11:15)

esus’ parable of the rich fool is sim- sonable. Besides, a good harvest could life, it is, as Ecclesiastes says, “vanity ple—so simple to understand that mean food for many. The focus of the of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of Jit’s a wonder we fall for the conceit, rich man, though, seems to be only vanities! All is vanity.” The preacher, not of the parable, but of riches. on his material needs, for he thinks Koheleth, asks, “What do mortals get The parable, at root, has to do with a to himself that when his big barns from all the toil and strain with which confusion of categories. At the center are built, his life will be settled: “I will they toil under the sun?” of this parable is a rich man, who be- say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample Certainly we leave behind all our lieves his wealth has made him great— goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, material goods, as well as the people perhaps it will even make Judea great drink, be merry.’” we know and the wisdom we have ac- again—and this has led to satisfaction The interpretive key to this para- cumulated, but Jesus clearly has a dif- with himself and with his life. But he ble is the rich man’s use of “soul” (psy- ferent answer to Koheleth’s question, has confused earthly goods for heavenly che) and his stated belief that when “What do mortals get?” There is a re- goods, a good harvest with a good soul; his goods are stored away and he has ality to which God has called us that is and in the midst of his bad interpreta- enough to “relax, eat, drink, be merry,” not dependent upon our goods but on tion of the state of his soul, he has been his psyche will be satisfied. This is the the preparation of our souls. Jesus tells called to account for his life. category confusion. Earthly goods are The parable begins with what seems necessary and give essential pleasures like a reasonable request of Jesus: and even great joy, but in themselves PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE “Someone in the crowd said to him, they offer nothing to our souls, es- Imagine yourself with great wealth and ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the pecially not when they are hoarded, goods. What is the attraction of this wealth for you? How do you want to use family inheritance with me.’” What not distributed to others, and when this wealth for yourself and others? What might seem like a matter of justice, a one substitutes wealth and physical might you do to create richness toward division of inheritance, turns out to contentment for spiritual wholeness. God and others in order to care for your be an opportunity for Jesus to warn To think that the “soul” is satisfied soul? the inquirer to “Take care! Be on your when the body has abundant goods guard against all kinds of greed; for is simply wrong. us throughout the Gospel of Luke of one’s life does not consist in the abun- In the parable, Jesus tells us: “God the dangers of wealth for our life of dance of possessions.” Jesus suggests said to him, ‘You fool! This very night eternity; but more than wealth itself; that a desire for possessions, which your life is being demanded of you. it is our attachment to wealth and our might initially seem to be about fair- And the things you have prepared, belief that our things will save us or ness, can smolder into an all-consum- whose will they be?’ So it is with those prove us wise or count us clever. The ing longing for “things.” who store up treasures for themselves proper use of our goods, for ourselves Jesus tells the parable of the rich but are not rich toward God.” Death and others, indicates that we must man to express his concern about how is the beginning of the evening-out have the proper orientation—namely, wealth can be opposed to a good life. process, which reveals earthly trea- generosity toward others and toward A rich man had land that “produced sure for what it is in light of eternity. God. It is only when we are rich to- abundantly,” in itself a good thing, so When used for one’s basic needs and ward God that we can say to our he decides to expand his buildings and to aid others, it is a proper but limited souls: Relax, all is in order. construct bigger barns. This seems rea- good; when used to orient one’s whole JOHN W. MARTENS

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