Of Many Things

106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 s this issue goes to press, recognition of and protection Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 preparations are underway for for the unborn.... We must Subscriptions: 1-800-627-9533 acknowledge, however, that phrases www.americamagazine.org the March for Life, the annual facebook.com/americamag A such as “the right to life, liberty, gathering of pro-life activists, clergy twitter.com/americamag and civic leaders in Washington, D.C. and the pursuit of happiness”...are phrases with contested meanings President and Editor in Chief From our founding in 1909, America Matt Malone, S.J. has advocated for a consistent ethic of that others understand differently than we do.... The more attractive Executive Editors life in all our private choices and public Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy option seeks neither to flee nor to decision-making. In this commitment, Managing Editor Kerry Weber dominate situations of pluralism. we are allied with the sentiments Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. It commits us rather to a process expressed in the statement by the Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent of engaging those who initially Society of Jesus of the United States, Kevin Clarke disagree with us on some issues, “Standing for the Unborn,” which was Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. seeking to create an acceptable oetry ditor Joseph Hoover, S.J. published in America on May 26, 2003. P E consensus wherever possible by Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent Matt Malone, S.J. building upon those truths on Gerard O’Connell When we, the leadership of the which we can reach agreement.... Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. Society of Jesus in the United This path of “proposing, rather than Engagement and Community Editor Elizabeth Tenety States, survey the developments imposing,” was described by the Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga Segura unfolding in our culture, we are great American Jesuit theologian Assistant Editors Francis W. Turnbull, S.J., deeply distressed at the massive of the past century, John Courtney Joseph McAuley

injustices. A spirit of callous Murray. While emphasizing the Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder disregard for life shows itself value of tolerance and mutual Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., in direct assaults on human life dialogue, he also advised against Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. any sort of moral relativism.... Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, such as abortion and capital Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider, Robert David punishment, as well as in senseless Another way of describing Sullivan violence, escalating militarism, this stance is to say that Jesuits Correspondents John Carr (Washington), Antho- racism, xenophobia and the skewed are committed to narrowing the ny Egan, S.J. (Johannesburg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy Padgett (Miami), Steven accumulation of wealth and life- gap between the current civil law Schwankert (Beijing), David Stewart, S.J. (London), sustaining resources. These realities of our nation and the demands of Judith Valente (Chicago), Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M. compel us to speak out against the moral law as we understand it. (U.S. Church) what Pope John Paul II has called Our long-term goal remains full Moderator, Catholic Book Club Kevin Spinale, S.J. “the culture of death”.... legal recognition of and protection Editorial e-mail Some influential voices posit for the unborn child—from the [email protected] a zero-sum conflict between moment of conception.... In the near future, we cannot “women’s reproductive rights” and Publisher and Chief Financial Officer Edward the right to life of unborn children. realistically expect complete Spallone. Deputy Publisher Rosa Del Saz. Vice Jesuits ought to find their place agreement among all participants in President/Advancement Daniel Pawlus. Devel- opment oordinator Kerry Goleski. perations among those who demonstrate the abortion debate. We must listen C O Staff Chris Keller, Glenda Castro. Advertising the obvious confluence of women’s respectfully to others’ opinions, just contact [email protected]; 212-515-0102. rights and respect for life in all its as we expect a fair hearing of our Subscription contact/Additional copies forms. Pope John Paul II summed own arguments against abortion. [email protected]; 1-800-627-9533 this partnership up when he wrote: Our confidence in the persuasive “Therefore, in firmly rejecting power of well articulated defenses © 2015 America Press, Inc. ‘pro-choice’ it is necessary to of pro-life positions sustains us, become courageously ‘pro-woman,’ even as we acknowledge the long promoting a choice that is truly in struggle ahead.... In the meantime, favor of women.”... our common calling is to stand As Catholics and Jesuits, we in solidarity with the unborn, the would naturally prefer to live in a “least of our brothers and sisters”

country where every citizen, voter (Mt 25:40), through prayer and Cover: A suffrage parade, New York City, May 6, and court consistently favor legal political activism. 1912. Photo: wikimedia commons/fae Contents www.americamagazine.org Vol. 212 No. 2, Whole No. 5075 January 19-26, 2015

articles 14 The Feminist Case Against Abortion Recovering the pro-life roots of the women’s movement Serrin M. Foster

20 merton (Still) Matters How the Trappist monk and author speaks to millennials Daniel P. Horan

24 Which Side Are We On? Catholic teachers and the right to unionize Clayton Sinyai

20 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

4 Current Comment

5 editorial Torture Is Still With Us

6 Reply All

8 Signs of the Times

12 Column Internal Affairs James T. Keane

28 Vatican Dispatch Francis Returns to Asia Gerard O’Connell

29 the Word Following a Friend; Tell Me the Good News 24 John W. Martens BOOKS & CULTURE

38 film “Selma” of other things Hip-Hop, My First Love BOOKS The Good Spy; Women of Faith; Malcolm X at Oxford Union

ON THE WEB The Catholic Book Club discusses Jesus: A Pilgrimage, by James Martin, S.J., and Rob Weinert-Kendt reviews “Cabaret,”right, on Broadway. Full digital highlights at americamagazine.org/webfeatures. 38 CURRENT COMMENT

expressed concerns about moving additional prisoners, New Hope in Cuba but the individuals approved for release do not pose any Though the decision to re-engage with Cuba has outraged security risk. They were cleared for release in 2009 by an some in the exile community and certain U.S. politicians interagency task force that included the departments of eyeing 2016, President Obama’s decision to seize the Defense, State, Justice and Homeland Security, in addition opportunity presented by the release of the imprisoned to the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau American Alan Gross was the right one. Isolation has been of Investigation. given 50 years to “work” in Cuba; that has been more than The Organization of American States is pushing for enough time to demonstrate its ineffectiveness. more Latin American countries to accept detainees. An In his announcement of the diplomatic shift on Dec. 17, added push from the Argentine pope’s diplomatic corps President Obama acknowledged a simple fact the church has could help further the cause. But the United States must be been pointing out for years: the only people being hurt by the willing to resettle detainees within its own borders as well. unimaginative policy maintained by the United States have From both a practical and a moral perspective, the United been the Cuban people themselves. Creating a failed state 90 States has to lead by example. Otherwise President Obama’s miles off America’s shore is no way to resolve U.S. differences pledge to close the prison, which he promised to do on his with the Castro brothers or humanely encourage change first day of office, may remain unfulfilled on his last. in that one-party state. While the embargo whittled down living standards in Cuba, the United States achieved historic breakthroughs with previous Communist adversaries, Outreach in Belarus including China and the former Soviet Union. It is hard to When Communism collapsed in the early 1990s, many make the case that it is unable to do the same with Cuba. foresaw a brighter future for those who had been trapped Pope Francis is to be applauded for his role in securing behind the Iron Curtain. While the past two decades have this major diplomatic success. The church has made great seen success stories in Eastern and Central Europe, most strides in its relationship with Cuban authorities in recent notably Poland, other nations continue to grapple with the years. More important, because of this dialogue the church vestiges of their totalitarian past. Belarus in particular faces has progressively moved the Castro brothers to allow greater grinding poverty, divorce and soaring alcoholism, as well liberty and tolerance for religious expression. The process as an atheistic philosophy that left in its wake one of the has been imperfect and much more needs to be done, but highest abortion rates in Europe. In an attempt to redress the enhanced encounter with the United States will surely such issues, the church has stepped in to provide material have an accelerating effect on improving living standards and spiritual assistance to people in need. and human rights in Cuba—an outcome to which nobody It is not an easy task, as Magda Kaczmarek, a staff should object. member of Aid to the Church in Need, told the Catholic News Agency. Many searching for support “are open to God” Progress at Guantánamo but “were not able or not allowed to live out their faith for After years of delay, the campaign to transfer detainees any number of reasons.” She said the church is “committed from the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay is finally gaining to finding them, reminding them of their Catholic roots and momentum. Since the beginning of 2014, 28 detainees offering them pastoral care once again.” have been moved, and the Vatican is exerting pressure on Efforts to reclaim church patrimony and re-establish the United States to find “humanitarian solutions” for the places of worship confiscated during the Soviet era have remaining prisoners. Six captives were resettled in Uruguay been slowed by bureaucratic inertia. And while current in December, and five were transferrred to Kaszakhstan at President Alexander Lukashenko has not hindered the the end of the year. These men had been imprisoned for church’s charitable activities, the church does not receive state over 10 years and were never charged with a crime. funding. Yet in partnership with the Orthodox Church—a As of this writing, 127 individuals remain imprisoned positive development in itself—efforts are being made to at Guantánamo. Of that number, 55 have been cleared for patiently rebuild Belarusian society, sickened from extreme release or transfer. Most of these men cannot be repatriated secularism. By coming to grips with the social ills of Belarus because of the political instability of their home countries. while also working to renew religious vocations, the church Representative Howard McKeon, the Republican hopes to give the people living there a reason to believe again, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, has in themselves and in God.

4 America January 19-26, 2015 EDITORIAL Torture Is Still With Us hen America published “Facing Up to Torture,” and medically unnecessary—“rectal by Raymond A. Schroth, S.J., just over a year rehydrations.” Wago (11/11/13), enough was known about the Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair- shameful history of torture in the United States to shock person of the Intelligence Committee, the conscience. That report, however, pointed to unfinished was determined to publish the report business: the declassification of the Senate Intelligence before the end of the year, lest the findings Committee’s definitive report on the Central Intelligence be suppressed by the next Congress and Agency interrogation program and the punishment of those the American people never know what found responsible for torture. was done in their names. Those who hoped that the report On Dec. 9, 2014, the Senate released a 528-page could lead to contrition and reconciliation, even a restoration executive summary of that report. The results of the of justice, may be disappointed. Three former C.I.A. directors investigation into the treatment of 119 detainees between penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal arguing that the 2002 and 2008 present a serious moral challenge to all methods employed produced important information during a Americans, a fact that is unfortunately clouded by the partisan time of national crisis. Most disturbingly, in an interview on nature of the report. Republican members of the committee NBC’s “Meet the Press,” former Vice President Dick Cheney withdrew from the study in 2009 and have criticized the said of the interrogation program, “I would do it again in a report’s authors for failing to interview key witnesses. C.I.A. minute.” Director John Brennan defended the use of what he calls Those responsible for torturing have broken “enhanced interrogation techniques.” President Obama has international and U.S. law, no matter what “permissions” were condemned torture but stood behind the C.I.A. concocted by the George W. Bush’s legal team. Meanwhile, a We now know that among those held, 26 were passive American public devours television shows in which wrongfully detained; 39 were subjected to so-called enhanced police or special agents rough up suspects, overlooking that interrogation techniques; three underwent waterboarding; these “heroes” are doing something immoral. The argument and one innocent man was killed. The agency maintained that brutal tactics “work” is both a proven untruth and a five “black sites,” including one in Thailand, where Abu distraction from the moral issue. Zubaydah was held. At first he cooperated with C.I.A. and Without bold political and religious leadership, justice Federal Bureau of Investigation questioning; but once F.B.I. will not be fully served. Senator John McCain, who himself officers left the site, violence set the tone. In isolation for 47 was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, courageously days, he was smashed against the wall, stuffed in a small box broke with many of his Republican colleagues to commend and waterboarded 83 times until he vomited, coughed and the release of the report. In a powerful speech on the Senate trembled with spasms. C.I.A. employees appalled at this floor, he said victims tell their torturers what they want to treatment wept, shook and asked to be transferred. hear and, regardless of its efficacy, torture compromises “our Other interrogations, based on the “psychology of belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic helplessness,” belong in a horror film. Sensory and sleep human rights.” Bishop Oscar Cantú, chair of the Committee deprivation induce a psychosis in which people lose control of on International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of what they say and think. The C.I.A. interrogation guide favors Catholic Bishops, has declared torture an “intrinsic evil that the D.D.D. method, “Debility, Dependency and Dread,” which cannot be justified under any circumstances,” for it violates the breaks the captive’s will to resist. We live in a world where “God-given dignity inherent in all people.” shared values no longer exist, argued the C.I.A. psychologists; That so many innocent people were detained and often breaking down captives with this technique would “save lives,” abused demands a public apology and financial compensation. they told themselves. A New Haven University psychiatrist, The U.N. Convention Against Torture, which the United Charles A. Morgan III, told The New York Times (12/10) States ratified in 1994, bans torture and other inhumane that the C.I.A. psychologists had misunderstood the theory. treatment and requires that torturers be prosecuted. The These tactics were, in effect, “making people less reliable and American torturers imagined they could answer evil with more stupid.” Meanwhile, doctors cooperated in the violation more evil rather. If we allow this to stand, history will judge of five prisoners under the guise of excruciatingly painful— us to our nation’s lasting shame.

January 19-26 , 2015 America 5 REPLY ALL passion and tenderness that fill both. about my lived experience of marriage?” Differences are assigned where there Educated Catholics understand the Living Law need not be differences, or gifts of ge- need for fidelity, exclusivity and per- Re “Has Natural Law Died?” by John nius are underutilized when they show manence in marriage, and they know J. Conley, S.J. (12/22): Speaking as up in those of the gender less common- an awful lot about how people should a lawyer, I would argue that natu- ly known for expressing that gift. go about loving one another in every- ral law is, for the first time in the last Beyond that, treasuring the com- day life. Religion-speak only distances few centuries, actually starting to take plementary family calls into question such Catholics from those attempting hold—just not within the church. In the non-complementary family. The to catechize them, who give the impres- particular, natural law concepts are widow raising her sons without a fa- sion that they don’t have the foggiest now finding broad use in European ther, for example, could be considered idea what they are talking about. Unless legal systems. I’m speaking about the lesser. But God may have given her the church adopts a new language in concept of “human dignity,” which (as every strength and blessing to be all its catechesis of marriage, it will never even secular, atheist lawyers in Europe that her sons require in their parent, accomplish the goals of the new evan- admit) was placed within European and certainly she should not feel com- gelization. constitutions by directly borrowing pelled to find another husband imme- Thomas Severin from Catholic natural law theory. For diately because of some supposed lack. Connellsville, Pa. instance, Germany’s Basic Law (their Nontraditional families may not have Midlife Reading constitution) states, “Human dignity all the same blessings the complemen- Re “Life’s Second Half,” by James shall be inviolable.” tary family has, but God gives to each Martin, S.J. (12/8): I thoroughly en- Obviously, it is impossible to under- family unique blessings and graces that joyed Father Martin’s enthusiasm about stand this extraordinary commitment must also be treasured. In the race his readings on the second half of life to human dignity without acknowl- to praise the complementarity of the and concur with his recommendations. edging the historical context in which family, these nontraditional families Having been facilitator of many work- the Basic Law was created (i.e., the may end up condemned. shops on midlife and what follows, I Holocaust). Nevertheless, this concept Winni Veils Online Comment have often witnessed the excitement of of human dignity is widely understood people who discover that what they are to be a statement of a natural law right. Religion-Speak experiencing is normal and universal. I Furthermore, this article of the Basic “Family in Focus” (12/8), by the Rev. suggest that Father Martin might also Law isn’t treated as mere surplus; it is Robert P. Imbelli, impressed upon me want to acquaint himself and readers frequently used as a basis for legal de- the great need for new language on the with the work of Anne Brennan and cisions resulting in practical effects on part of our church leaders in talking Janice Brewi, Sisters of St. Joseph, who the lives of German citizens. It is fas- about marriage. One paragraph in the truly pioneered exploration of the spir- cinating to see natural law being used article particularly drew my attention: itual and religious implications of life with eagerness in secular states while “The ‘divine pedagogy’ which the synod cycle theory. receiving less attention within our own report extols, builds upon the primordi- Ann Wittman, S.C.S.C. church. Merrill, Wisc. Wendell Montgomery al relation of man and woman and leads Online Comment it to its consummation in Christian Embracing Uncertainty marriage, wherein it sacramentalizes Re “Call to Conversion,” by Gerard Family Blessings the spousal covenant between Christ O’Connell (12/8): Pope Francis seems Re “A More Perfect Union,” by Helen and his beloved, the church.” to be one of those rare persons who are Alvaré (12/22): Complementarity Having a master of divinity in entirely comfortable with uncertainty. can be a powerful and excellent thing, Catholic theology, I understand what Those who mutter darkly that he has and certainly the special relationship this passage is saying—and it rep- an agenda that will force the church between a man and woman building resents what I personally refer to as to outcomes that he has preordained a home and family is particularly valu- religion-speak. To the average Catholic might pause and reflect. Perhaps, in- able and to be treasured. Problems arise it is nothing more than “theological gob- stead, he truly believes in the working when valuing the differences between bledygook.” I can imagine the reader re- of the Holy Spirit. He may actually men and women leads to devaluing the sponding, “With all due respect, Father, trust that God can take care of his own. parts of either that are not different, would you please come down out of Whether or not we (the pope included) such as the intellect, will, courage, com- your tree and talk to me face to face know where all this upheaval may end

6 America January 19-26, 2015 is immaterial. God knows, and that’s Status Update enough to keep us going. from the whole experience. Maybe Readers respond to the final report of Francis has started a series of con- all of us can take a moment to show the six-year Vatican investigation of versations, and no one knows where appreciation to the women religious women’s religious orders in the United they will lead. We need to allow these we know. States released on Dec. 16, 2014. Annette Gape conversations to unfold, listening with respect and concern to all the voices I’m so happy to see this outcome. It I’m happy for the relief of the wom- that speak—both those that say what is unfortunate that any of this had to en religious, but I’m praying for the we wish to hear and those that speak happen, when these are the people day the men of the Catholic Church messages we’d rather not listen to. If the doing the actual work all the time don’t take the attitude that they need pope can embrace uncertainty, can the without recognition. But if the only to review the women of the church. rest of us not at least try to do the same? thing that we take from this is that Or is it now the nuns’ turn to review Carolann Cirbee Online Comment we have finally heard the sisters’ pain, the priests? then some good definitely has come Mary Krick-Nelson Ordinary Blessings Re “Everyday Sacraments,” by Angela to those currently monopolizing the government, the remaining tax revenue Alaimo O’Donnell (12/8): When my land, water and air, and paying scarcely could be distributed to each, making mother entered her mid-80s we knew any dues. for greater equity, since no other privi- she could not live alone anymore. She One way to update the sharing leges would be granted. Taxing the use did not want to move and was very modeled in the Acts of the Apostles and abuse of the environment instead comfortable in her own home, so we de- is to advocate the elimination of taxes of taxing the economy makes for a sus- cided to renovate her home, put on an on labor and capital. Instead, a limited tainable economy within a sustainable addition, move in and take care of her government could collect rent on those environment there. We moved in two years ago. We monopolizing the earth. Then after re- Ernest Martinson do the most ordinary of things. Trips to taining a pittance to fund a transparent Online Comment the supermarket become exercise as we walk up and down the aisles. Church events I took for granted now become stimulation and entertainment and ve- hicles for socialization that don’t require much traveling. I try to add lettuce and tomato to nearly every sandwich to make sure Mom is getting a varied diet. Our life could not be more mundane. But thanks to Ms. O’Donnell sharing her story, I can now see the sacramental nature of what we do every day. Monica Doyle Online Comment

A Sustainable Tax Re “Renew This World,” by Gary Gardner (12/1): Some years ago, I took part in a renewal process in which pa- rishioners throughout the Diocese of Superior met in small groups and gin- gerly waded into the sea of discourse after having listened on the shore for so many years. Something like that will be needed throughout the church as we extend our spirituality to include the earth that God gave to us all—not just

January 19-26 , 2015 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Syria Record Year of Suffering as War Takes a High Toll on Civilians he Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued a depressing portrait on Jan. 1 of a year in death in Syria. According to the Tgroup’s tracking of the many casualties of the ongoing and complex conflict, the civil war in Syria claimed 76,021 lives in 2014. Its researchers acknowledged that this figure is likely a deep under- count of the true toll, but even the conservative figure marks 2014 as the deadliest year in Syria since the violence began in 2011. It comes as no surprise that the fractured nation’s civilian population is enduring significant suffering. According to the observatory, 17,790 civilians, including 3,501 children and 1,987 women, died in 2014. The observatory tallied the death toll among the Pro-Assad regime Syrian military, militias and various sympathizing entities at 25,160. Rebel fighters suffered 15,488 losses, and deaths among Islamic State fighters and other Islamic militants groups totaled 16,979. “Worth noting,” the group said, is that its tally does not include “thousands of detainees inside regime prisons and thousands of those who disappeared during regime raids and massacres,” nor does it in- clude, among others, “hundreds of regular soldiers and pro-regime militants and supporters captured by [Islamic State] fighters, Al-Nusra aspirations toward freedom, equality Orbi” Christmas message. He im- front, rebel and Islamic battalions on and democracy and to exert all effort plored God on Christmas Day to aid charge of ‘dealing with the regime.’“ in guaranteeing that the perpetrators the victims of a “brutal persecution” The human rights group deplored and their wrong-doings will not go in Iraq and Syria. “I ask him, the the “silence of the international unpunished. Savior of the world, to look upon our community for the war crimes and Russian and Chinese Security brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, crimes against humanity committed Council vetoes have prevent- who for too long now have suffered in Syria.” That silence, it argues, “en- ed charges of crimes against hu- the effects of ongoing conflict, and courages the criminals to kill more manity from being referred to the who, together with those belonging and more Syrian people.” The ob- International Criminal Court, the to other ethnic and religious groups, servatory’s researchers add that 1.5 observatory called for the establish- are suffering a brutal persecution,” million people have been wounded ment of a special international court the pope said. in the conflict, many of them suffer- to investigate war crime allegations in “May Christmas bring them hope, ing permanent disabilities. Hundreds Syria. “We in the Syrian Observatory as indeed also to the many displaced of thousands of children have been demand the punishment of all perpe- persons, exiles and refugees, children, orphaned by the civil war, the group trators, instigators, collaborators and adults and elderly, from this region says, noting that more than half of all individuals and sides who used the and from the whole world,” Pope Syria’s people have been internal- Syrian blood as a political card and Francis said. “May indifference be ly displaced or become refugees and as means to carry out their personal changed into closeness and rejection that the nation’s infrastructure and agendas, as well as those who trans- into hospitality, so that all who now public and private properties contin- formed a revolution for dignity [into] are suffering may receive the neces- ue to be obliterated by the conflict. a sectarian and ethnic civil war.” sary humanitarian help to overcome The group calls upon “all sides to Syria’s suffering figured prom- the rigors of winter, return to their support the Syrian people in their inently in Pope Francis’s “Urbi et countries and live with dignity.”

8 America January 19-26, 2015 preaching against organized crime. ral workers worldwide, 14, were killed Father López Gorostieta’s abduction in the Americas. Breaking the statistics provoked more outrage in the State of down by continent, Fides reports that Guerrero, which is still reeling from 12 priests, one brother and one sem- the disappearance and apparent mur- inarian were killed in the Americas; der of 43 student-teachers just a few seven—two priests and five sisters— months earlier. “We are tired of pain were killed in Africa; two—a Jesuit and delinquency, injustice and corrup- priest in Syria and a woman religious tion,” Altamirano’s Bishop Maximino in Malaysia—died in Asia; a priest and Martínez Miranda told the media. a lay collaborator were murdered in “We want the incidents…as well as the Papua New Guinea; and in Europe, an death of so many people in Guerrero Italian priest was beaten to death in his state [to be clarified]. We live in a mo- rectory. ment of violence.” The survey drew special attention to Another Altamirano priest, the four members of the Hospitaller Order Rev. Ascensión Acuna Osorio, was of St. John of God, a religious sister and murdered in September. The two 13 lay workers who died at Catholic killings contribute to another grim hospitals in Liberia and Sierra Leone

City in ruins. A young boy of year for Catholic pastoral workers in after contracting Ebola. These 18 “gave Aleppo emerges from the rubble Latin America and around the world. their lives for others like Christ,” said with what little he could salvage In its annual survey, Fides, the news Jesús Etayo Arrondo, prior general of after an Assad regime attack in November. agency of the Congregation for the the Hospitallers. Evangelization of Peoples, reports The fates of five kidnapped priests that 26 pastoral workers were killed remains unknown, Fides said. Three Pastoral Workers in 2014—three more than in the pre- Assumptionist priests were kidnapped vious year—and 18 others were taken in the North Kivu Province of the 26 Killed in by the Ebola virus while responding to Democratic Republic of Congo in that devastating crisis in Africa. While October 2012; the Italian Jesuit Father Service to news stories last year depicted the bru- Paolo Dall’Oglio was kidnapped in Church tal persecution of Christians in Iraq, Syria in 2013; and an Indian Jesuit, ope Francis expressed his “deep Syria and throughout the Middle East, Alexis Prem Kumar, director of Jesuit sadness” and condolences on Jan. it is actually in the Americas where the Refugee Service in Afghanistan, was P1 to the ecclesial community of most deaths of Catholic pastoral work- kidnapped in June outside a J.R.S.-run the Diocese of Altamirano in Mexico ers took place in 2014. school in Herat. after the murder of the Rev. Gregorio According to Fides, 17 priests, López Gorostieta, before urging “the one religious brother, six religious priests and other missionaries of the di- women, a seminarian and a lay ocese to continue their ecclesial mission person were killed last year. Most with ardor despite the difficulties, fol- of the murders were committed lowing the example of Jesus, the Good during robberies, but, the report Shepherd.” adds, many of these robberies According to the diocese, Father were carried out with such “bru- López Gorostieta’s body was found on tality and ferociousness” that they Christmas Day, dumped in an alley in are signs of intolerance and “moral Ciudad Altamirano. Though author- degradation” as well as “economic ities have yet to identify any suspects and cultural poverty.” Circle of life. Health workers at prayer as or even a motive for the killing, Father For the sixth year in a row, the they start their shift in Monrovia, Liberia, in López Gorostieta had recently been majority of the murdered pasto- September.

January 19-26 , 2015 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES Catholic Numbers Rise The number of Catholics in the world NEWS BRIEFS has increased, with growth registered In his World Day of Peace address on Jan. 1, Pope across all five continents, according to Francis continued his promotion of a world free of hu- Vatican news agency Fides. The num- man trafficking and modern forms of slavery, calling ber of Catholics in the world stood at for a globalization of solidarity which rejects a global- nearly 1.23 billion people, with an over- ization of indifference. • The Italian coast guard took all increase of more than 15 million control on Jan. 1 of a cargo ship adrift without fuel in over the 2013 numbers. The Americas rough seas, carrying 450 mostly Syrian migrants. • The and Africa registered the biggest in- United Nations says conflict in Iraqclaimed 12,282 Iraq violence creases followed by Asia, Europe and civilians in 2014, making it the deadliest year since Oceania. The world percentage of 2007, with most deaths—nearly 8,500—occurring after the dra- Catholics stood at 17.49 percent, a de- matic expansion of the Islamic State insurgency in Anbar Province crease of 0.01 percent from 2011. The in June. • Three-term New York Governor Mario Cuomo, a pro- global number of priests increased by gressive Democrat who controversially sought to balance his Catholic 895 to 414,313. Europe once again reg- faith with the pressing social matters of his times such as abortion istered the largest decrease in priests and poverty, passed away on Jan. 1, 2015, at the age of 82. • Breaking (-1,375), followed by the Americas their silence against the “inhumane” power of the Mafia, the Bishops’ (-90) and Oceania (-80). In Africa the Conference of Calabria in Italy endorsed a document condemning number of priests grew by 1,076 and the local Mafia, or ’Ndrangheta, on Jan. 2, just two days after Pope in Asia by 1,364. There was an over- Francis took a strong stand on Mafia corruption in his New Year’s Eve all decrease in the number of women message. • Maryland’s outgoing Gov. Martin O’Malley on Dec. 31 religious worldwide, whose numbers commuted the death sentences of the last four inmates on the state’s dropped by 10,677 to 702,529. Once death row to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. again Africa and Asia showed increases, while Europe and the Americas showed the biggest decrease in women religious. ally more representation at the highest in confession and receive Communion The number of lay missionaries in the levels of the church to the poorer coun- in “particular justified instances.” The world decreased 19,234 to 362,488. tries in the global south. The new car- report said the exclusion of divorced Globally the church runs 71,188 kin- dinals will include the first in history Catholics was “no longer compre- dergartens, 95,246 primary schools and from Cape Verde, Tonga and Myanmar. hensible” to many priests. “For many 43,783 secondary schools. Charity and Three of the new cardinal electors hail Catholics engaged in church life, the health care centers in the world run by from Asia, three from Latin America, pastoral care of faithful with a civil di- the church total 115,352. two from Africa and two from Oceania. vorce and living in new unions is a test Of the five Europeans on the list, three of the church’s credibility,” the docu- Pope Names 15 lead dioceses in Italy and Spain that ment continued. “The church’s teach- Cardinals have not traditionally had cardinals as ing and pastoral work must uphold bishops—another sign of Pope Francis’ Jesus’ instruction on the indissolubil- Underscoring the geographical diversity willingness to break precedent. None of ity of marriage, but also his invoking of his selections, Pope Francis named the new cardinals hails from the United of God’s mercy on those who are sin- 15 cardinal electors “from 14 nations of States or Canada. ful.” The summary said most divorced every continent, showing the insepara- German Catholics considered their ble link between the church of Rome separation and new relationship “mor- and the particular churches present in Communion Change? ally justified” and viewed their conse- the world.” The pope announced the According to the findings of a German quent exclusion from sacraments as names on Jan. 4 and said he would for- bishops’ report released on Dec. 22, “constituting unjustified discrimina- mally induct the men into the College of most of the country’s 66 bishops now tion and being merciless.” Cardinals on Feb. 14. With these selec- favor allowing divorced Catholics liv- tions, the pope continues giving gradu- ing in new civil unions to participate From CNS, RNS and other sources.

10 America January 19-26, 2015 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

dispatch | Los Angeles of this holds up. And that’s the part of the Sony story that has been missed. Career Interrupted Trading on our instinctive inability to pass a wreck without slowing to look, t’s your typical Hollywood sto- feel about each other.” online media sites with telling names ry: In the late 1970s, a Jewish kid When polled by the Los Angeles like Gawker, Buzzfeed or dlisted have Ifrom Los Angeles answers an ad Times writer Steven Zeitchik, people driven the story, posting every leak to work as secretary to a film produc- in the film industry said of her, “More without context or hesitation, which er. She wants to get in “the business,” than any studio chief, she has been will- the mainstream media then pick up. but she doesn’t exactly have the pedi- ing to roll the dice on difficult films, the (Gawker created an entire site for the gree. Dad’s an economist; Mom runs a kind of films that make so many want leaks.) bookstore. Growing up, she’d gone to to be a part of this hair-raising world in The Buzzfeed writer Anne Helen what she called “a hippie school,” where the first place.” Petersen recently opined that the role students would sit on the floor and Then, according to the White of journalists today “isn’t as gatekeep- read Robert Penn Warren. All she ers, but as interpreters.” But a simple has is ambition. Google search reveals that most of Ten years later she’s an executive at Online media have these online “interpreters” are sim- Columbia Pictures, developing films posted every leak ply regurgitating one another’s in- like “Groundhog Day,” “Awakenings” formation, even using the very same and “A League of Their Own.” A few without context language, without fact checking or years after that, she’s president of or hesitation. analysis. the company. Three times under her And do any of us really want leadership Columbia has the high- reality interpreted by publications est grossing year of any movie studio House, North Korea hacked her com- whose headline articles include “24 ever. She is elevated to co-chairperson pany as retaliation for producing “The Times Grindr Brought Awkwardness at Columbia’s parent corporation, Sony Interview,” and the life of Sony’s Amy to a Whole New Level,” “Girls Explain Pictures Entertainment. Today Forbes Pascal became anything but that typical How They Flirt” and “Which ‘Love ranks her the 28th most powerful Hollywood success story. Actually’ Couple Are You and Your woman in the world. Plenty of questions have been asked Significant Other?” (These are all real And she has made her name on about “The Interview.” In what world headlines from Buzzfeed.) more than summer blockbusters. does a film about assassinating a re- Anyone who has worked in Throughout her career she has fought al-life world leader seem like a good Hollywood will tell you Pascal’s emails for more stories about women, like idea? Would anyone be crying “free are typical of the business. The media “Girl, Interrupted,” “28 Days” and speech” if it were a comedy about two industry is a never-ending series of high- “Sense and Sensibility,” and hired tal- guys who murder President Obama? stakes, high-stress negotiations; writer/ ented female creators like Nora Ephron, But also, can anyone deny that producer Judd Apatow aptly labels it “a Amy Heckerling and Nancy Meyers. America desperately needs films, ri- game of chicken.” Ugly compromises are She has also called for Hollywood diculous or otherwise, that consider made; awful things get said. “Everyone to end gay slurs in films, reminding her its shocking-to-the-point-of-absurd is insulted, and at the end of the day we fellow executives that “what the media willingness to assassinate people? In figure it out and we’re friends.” says about your sexual orientation and Pakistan today, drone strikes are so fa- That reality is not presented on the color of your skin and the shape miliar that the media there have pro- these sites because they don’t make for of your eyes and your ethnicity...really duced cartoons about a drone and its clickable headlines. News equals Buzz. sinks in. What we see teaches us about pal, a dengue fever-carrying mosquito. So instead of being gatekeeper or how to feel about ourselves and how to Between leaked emails and public interpreter, our press becomes more criticism from no less than President and more a circus barker, looking for Obama, Pascal has been branded foul- the next bearded lady or three-head- Jim McDermott, S.J., a screenwriter, is America’s Los Angeles correspondent. Twitter: mouthed, racist, sexist and a coward. ed goat to draw our attention. @PopCulturPriest. But for those familiar with her, little Jim McDermott

January 19-26 , 2015 America 11 JAMES T. KEANE Internal Affairs mong the charming figures has no ending says something about the drop in crime over the past decades of New York City civic life tension that exists in police life between has come at a terrible price. Ain recent decades has been solidarity with the people one guards The resentment many feel is Joseph O’Hare, S.J., who served as and solidarity with one’s fellow officers. not assuaged by folks like Patrick editor in chief of America from 1975 Finally, it’s a reminder of a grim truth Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s to 1984 and as president of Fordham about human nature: it’s easier to de- Benevolent Association, who suggest University from 1984 to 2003. Anyone monize your enemies when they don’t that protests against police miscon- who knows Father O’Hare (now liv- look, talk or think like you. duct led to the recent slaying of two ing back in his native Bronx) can attest Until very recently, most cops in N.Y.P.D. officers by a madman. Lynch’s that he is also a world-class raconteur. New York City looked like me. For logic—if you protest how we behave, Among his tales is one about his fa- most of my life, my own sympathies if you object to our violence, then ther, also Joe O’Hare, and my grandfa- were with the police, until the fall of there is blood on your hands when we ther, Michael Keane, fellow Irishmen 2011, when as a participant die—is the language who served together in the New York in the Occupy protests in It’s easier to of totalitarianism, and Police Department’s mounted unit. Berkeley and Oakland, I will only harden the One night during the 1930s, Troop saw police drag a wom- demonize hearts of many who B was summoned to break up an anar- an 20 feet by her hair. I see the N.Y.P.D. as the chist riot near Central Park. “Sidewalk ducked and ran as police your enemies enemy. That logic also to sidewalk, men,” their commanding fired tear gas into crowds when they eliminates the sympa- officer told them, “don’t let any of them of college students and hip- thy of the vast majority behind your horse.” Upon arriving at sters. I bailed a seminarian don’t look, of Americans who say Columbus Circle, the officers were friend out of jail who was talk or think “what kind of animal horrified to discover the supposed an- beaten by Oakland police kills a cop?” archists were in fact a group of fellow while walking away from like you. So where do we go Irish-Americans, protesting continued an Occupy protest. from here? British interference in Irish affairs. That last arrest resulted in a trial I would suggest that the insights of The boys of the N.Y.P.D. halt- in which an Oakland cop who could officers Keane and O’Hare 80 years ed. What to do? Spur their horses have been my brother lied repeatedly ago might make for a good start. We into a crowd of fellow countrymen? under oath. Astonishingly, the vic- would all do well to recognize that Ultimately, they half-heartedly fol- tim of his attack was the one found they—those people—look, act and lowed orders. O’Hare’s father found guilty—of obstructing a public street. think just as we do. Even when their himself confronted by a woman wield- It was then that I began to understand skin color, when their experiences of ing a long hatpin. “Look, look, it’s the a little better what many poor and mi- life, when their relationship with the bully of King George!” she shouted nority Americans face when they deal police and with society is radically dif- while poking him with the hatpin. “It’s with the police—to witness the illegal ferent from ours. Or even when they that tyrant who put you up on that and immoral use of force, then see its are cops. We’d all do well to hesitate horse!” victim punished for enduring it. (His before calling someone a criminal, be- That the story has lasted almost a victim—it’s a small world—is now the fore calling a cop a thug. century is a testament to its emotion- poetry editor of this magazine.) We’re going to need to think of al power, if not to its factual reliability The explosions of anger by many each other as fellow humans if we’re (sometimes the desire for good craic can New Yorkers over incidents like the going to make it through this, as fellow trump concerns over accuracy). That it death by choking of Eric Garner sug- countrymen in the land of the living. gest that many Americans feel the Because what could be more dishonor- same way: there is a deep resentment able than trampling a fellow country- James T. Keane, a former associate editor of America, is an editor at Orbis Books in over police misconduct. Such incidents man. And they are fellow countrymen, Ossining, N.Y. Twitter: @jamestkeane. also remind us that our city’s vaunted are they not?

12 America January 19-26, 2015

The Feminist Case Against Abortion Recovering the pro-life roots of the women’s movement By Serrin M. Foster

ot all feminists support abortion. Properly inists—facing conditions similar to those in developing coun- defined, feminism is a philosophy that em- tries today—were strongly opposed to abortion; despite their braces basic rights for all human beings own struggles, they believed in the worth of all human lives. without exception—without regard to race, Abortion was common in the 1800s. Sarah Norton, who religion, sex, size, age, location, disability or with Susan B. Anthony successfully argued for women’s ad- Nparentage. Feminism rejects the use of force to dominate, con- mission to Cornell University, wrote in 1870: trol or destroy anyone. The organization Feminists for Life continues a 200-year- Child murderers practice their profession without let or old tradition begun by Mary Wollstonecraft in England hindrance, and open infant butcheries unquestioned.... in 1792. Decrying the sexual exploitation of women in A Perhaps there will come a day when...an unmarried Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Wollstonecraft also con- mother will not be despised because of her mother- demned those who would “either destroy the embryo in the hood...and when the right of the unborn to be born will womb or cast it off when born,” saying: “Nature in everything not be denied or interfered with. deserves respect, and those who violate her laws sel- dom violate them with impunity.” In 1868 Eleanor Kirk, a novelist turned activist, Mary Wollstonecraft died from complica- linked the need for women’s rights with the need tions following the birth of her second baby to protect the unborn. When a woman told her girl, who was named Mary in her honor. Like that suffrage was unnecessary because she and her mother, the younger Mary would become her husband were “one,” Kirk asked what would a great writer, producing one of the greatest become of her babies if her husband ceased to novels ever to address the dangers of violating provide for them: nature—Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley. What will become of the babies—did you ask— Fifty years after Mary Wollstonecraft’s book was pub- and you? Can you not see that the idea is to educate lished, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled women that they may be self-reliant, self-sustaining, to England to fight for the abolition of slavery. Barred from self-respected? The wheel is a big one, and needs a speaking at the 1842 World Anti-Slavery Convention simply strong push, and a push all together, giving to it an im- because they were women, Mott and Stanton determined to pulse that will keep it constantly revolving, and the first hold a convention advancing the rights of women. revolution must be Female Suffrage. At that time, American women could not vote or hold property. They could not control their own money, sit on a Without known exception, the early feminists condemned jury or even testify on their own behalf. Women’s rights to abortion in no uncertain terms. In the radical feminist news- assemble, speak freely, attend college and maintain child cus- paper The Revolution, the founder, Susan B. Anthony, and tody after divorce or spousal death were severely limited. the co-editor, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, refused to publish ad- Marital rape went unacknowledged. The early American fem- vertisements for “Foeticides and Infanticides.” Stanton, who in 1848 organized the first women’s convention in Seneca Falls, Serrin M. Foster is president of Feminists for Life of America, the creator of the Women Deserve Better campaign and editor in chief of The N.Y., classified abortion as a form of “infanticide” and, refer- American Feminist. Since 1994 the author has focused her efforts on serv- ring to the “murder of children, either before or after birth,” ing women at high risk of abortion, including the poor, victims of violence said, “We believe the cause of all these abuses lies in the deg- and college-age women. This essay, adapted from the landmark speech“The Feminist Case Against Abortion,” is part of America’s coverage of issues radation of women.” related to the Synod of Bishops on the Family. Early feminists argued that women who had abortions

14 America January 19-26, 2015 ON THE MOVE. A suffrage parade, New York City, May 6, 1912

were responsible for their actions but that they resorted to bly pregnant. She raised a flag to celebrate the birth of her son. abortion primarily because, within families and throughout Stanton celebrated womanhood. She was in-your-face about society, they lacked autonomy, financial resources and emo- her ability to have children. tional support. A passage in Susan B. Anthony’s newspaper But like today’s pro-life feminists, our feminist foremothers states: also recognized that women need not bear children to share in the celebration of womanhood. Susan B. Anthony was once Guilty? Yes, no matter what the motive, love of ease, or complimented by a man who said that she “ought to have been a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the a wife and mother.” Anthony replied: woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for chil- death; but oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the dren of my own has it been to me to help bring about desperation which impelled her to the crime! a better state of things for mothers generally, so their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them. Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president (in 1872), concurred. In her own newspaper, Woodhull and In her later years, Anthony passed on the responsibility for Claflin’s Weekly, Woodhull wrote: “The rights of children, women’s rights to a new generation, just as we must prepare then, as individuals, begin while they yet remain the foe- to do. At the turn of the century, one young woman, Alice tus.” Woodhull and her sister, Tennessee Claflin, declared, Paul, assumed leadership. Paul fought tirelessly for passage “Pregnancy is not a disease, but a beautiful office of nature.” of the 19th Amendment, which in 1920 finally guaranteed to Clearly, we have a wealth of evidence contradicting the lie American women the right to vote. that feminists must support abortion. Some who begrudging- ly admit the early American feminists were anti-abortion have The Betrayal of Modern Women suggested that their stance arose from Victorian attitudes Much later in life, Alice Paul was asked by a friend what she about sex. That is not true either. Elizabeth Cady Stanton thought of linking abortion to women’s rights. The author of

Photo:wikimedia commons/fae shocked Victorian society by parading around in public visi- the original Equal Rights Amendment called abortion “the

January 19-26, 2015 America 15 ultimate exploitation of women.” Yet what earlier feminists their former research arm: called a “disgusting and degrading crime” was, in the 1970s, lauded as the most fundamental right, without which all oth- • Three out of four women who have abortions say er rights are meaningless. So how did the second wave femi- that having a baby would interfere with work, school nist movement come to embrace abortion? or the ability to care for a dependent. Two of the male founders of the National Association to • 69 percent are economically disadvantaged. Repeal Abortion Laws were among the first to portray abor- • 61 percent are already mothers. tion as a “right” rather than an act of violence. Larry Lader • Women of color are disproportionately at risk of promoted abortion as population control. His NARAL co- abortion. founder, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, saw a botched abortion • Half of all abortions are performed on women who in Chicago and reasoned that “legal” would mean “safer.” have already had an abortion. Nathanson later became pro-life. But in the early 1970s, the • 44 percent of all abortions are performed on col- men traveled the country advocating the repeal of what they lege-age women. believed to be antiquated abortion laws. After failing to con- vince legislators that anti-abortion laws were “archaic,” Lader All too often, the root causes underlying these statistics saw an opportunity. According to are shame and fear generated about Nathanson, Lader approached lead- pregnancy by the attitudes of parents, ers of the women’s movement. He In all its forms, abortion friends and the fathers of children. reasoned that if a woman wanted to Fatherhood has been diminished. be educated like a man, hired like a has masked—rather than Children are disconnected from their man and promoted like a man, wom- solved—the problems fathers, who have rights as well as re- en should not expect their employers sponsibilities. And millions of wom- to accommodate pregnancy. women face. en have paid the price. Women, many Forty-two years after the Roe v. impoverished because of the billions Wade decision legalizing abortion, owed to mothers for child support, many within the pro-life movement focus on the undeniable are struggling in school and the workplace without societal humanity of each unborn child, clearly visible through the support. After all, when “it’s her body, it’s her choice,” it’s her millions of sonograms obtained by proud parents each year. problem. But it is also a good time to evaluate the impact that Roe v. For all these reasons and more, more than a million times Wade attorney Sarah Weddington’s pro-abortion arguments a year in the United States, a woman lays her body down or have had on women. swallows a bitter pill called “choice”—driven to abortion be- In 1973, Weddington exposed the discrimination and cause of a lack of resources and support. other injustices faced by pregnant women who are poor or in Abortion solves nothing. Almost four decades after Roe, the workplace or school. But she did not demand that these we mourn the loss of 57 million American children that we injustices be remedied. Instead, she demanded for women will never meet. We will never know what they might have the “right” to submit to these injustices by destroying their contributed to this world. But we must also remember the pregnancies. Weddington repeatedly said that women need hundreds of women and teens who have lost their lives to le- “relief ” from pregnancy, instead of arguing that women need gal but lethal abortion because they did not want to inconve- relief from these injustices. nience us with their pregnancies. What if Weddington had used her legal acumen to chal- We mourn with the parents of Holly Patterson, who died lenge the system and address women’s needs? Women are not from sepsis after she took RU-486, and with the parents of suddenly stupid when they become pregnant. They can still Dawn Ravenell, the 13-year-old girl who never came home read, write and think. But by accepting pregnancy discrimi- after she had an abortion without her parent’s knowledge. We nation in school and in the workplace, by accepting the wide- mourn with the husband of Karnamaya Mongar, a poor im- spread lack of support for pregnant women and parents— migrant who died as a result of her abortion at the hands of especially among the poor—Weddington and the Supreme the convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell. Where is the outrage Court betrayed women and undermined the support women from women’s advocates? need and deserve. Hard Cases, Exceptional Choices The Failing Report Card Talking about abortion brings out raw emotions. Nothing is Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in more divisive than talk about pregnancy and rape, and noth- the United States. According to the Guttmacher Institute, ing challenges pro-life beliefs more than this heated issue. Just

16 America January 19-26, 2015 as we have challenged thinking about special-needs babies and their parents, we must help women who have conceived during rape and welcome children conceived in violence. We must help people have the courage to look into the face of a child conceived during rape and say, “You didn’t deserve the death penalty.” The circumstances of one’s con- ception do not determine a person’s worth. These children should not be regarded as “exceptions.” But their mothers should be recognized as “exceptional.” And as advocates of life, peace and justice, we will never trade one form of vio- lence for another. Today we stand in solidarity with women coerced into abortion because they felt they had no choice. We stand with women who were vulnerable because they were young, or poor, or in schools or workplaces that would not accom- modate their needs as mothers. We stand in solidarity with women who have been be- trayed by those they count on the most, with women who have underestimated their own strength, with women who have experienced abortion and are silent no more, with young men and women who mourn their missing siblings. We mourn with men who weren’t given a choice or who con- tributed to an abortion that they now regret. In all its forms, abortion has masked—rather than solved—the problems women face. Abortion is a failed ex- periment on women. Why celebrate failure?

Addressing Root Causes For decades, abortion advocates have asked, “What about the woman?” And pro-lifers have answered, “What about the baby?” This does nothing to address the needs of women who are pregnant. We should start by addressing the needs of women—for family housing, child care, maternity cover- age, for the ability to telecommute to school or work, to job- share, to make a living wage and to find practical resources. As pro-life employers and educators, we must examine our own policies and practices in our own communities, workplaces, colleges and universities. With woman-centered problem solving, we can set the example for the nation and the world. We must ramp up efforts to systemically address the unmet needs of struggling parents, birthparents and vic- tims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Because 61 percent of abortions are performed on moth- ers who already have dependents, Feminists for Life is deter- mined to help those facing tough economic times; FFL has published “Raising Kids on a Shoestring,” a national directo- ry filled with creative, frugal and free solutions for pregnant women, parents and advisors. And Feminists for Life advocates unconditional support for women who lovingly place their babies into the arms of adoptive couples. We applaud birthmothers like the former FFL board chair Jessica O’Connor-Petts, who tells us that

January 19-26, 2015 America 17 “adoption can be an empowering option for women.” Pro-life and pro-choice students came together at We must focus our efforts on collegians who have never Wellesley College to hold a rummage sale benefitting a known a day without legal abortion. Forty-three percent of pregnant student who lost her financial aid for housing. The all abortions are performed on college-age women, women young woman had her baby and graduated. A University who will become our future leaders and educators in every of Virginia student started a babysitting club. Berkeley field. For these reasons, Feminists for Life’s flagship effort is Students for Life held bake sales to pay for diaper decks. our college outreach program. Students for Life at St. Louis University started a scholar- In addition to teaching the rich, pro-life feminist histo- ship fund for child care. There are many other examples like ry that we have uncovered, we have been moderating FFL this as the ideas of Feminists for Life members and support- Pregnancy Resource Forums at campuses across the coun- ers go viral. try. The first such panel discussion was at Georgetown In 2010, FFL Pregnancy Resource Forums findings be- University in 1997. Administrators, community leaders and came the inspiration for federal grants to states through the students came together in a nonconfrontational setting to Department of Health and Human Services’ Pregnancy identify available resources on and off campus and to set pri- Assistance Fund. After the first 10 years of FFL’s College orities for new policies, resources and ways Outreach Program, Planned Parenthood to communicate nonviolent options. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and reported a 30 percent drop in abortions Susan B. Anthony Within two years, Georgetown among college-educated women. University’s board of trustees set aside endowed housing for parenting students. Women Deserve Better The Hoya Kids Learning Center was es- Abortion betrays the basic feminist prin- tablished. Pregnant and parenting stu- ciples of nonviolence, nondiscrimination dents had access to health services and and justice for all. Abortion is a reflection user-friendly information on the school’s that we have not met the needs of wom- website. Students created volunteer en—and that women have settled for less. babysitting services. A “safety net” team Women deserve better. of university administrators organized Forty years after Sarah Weddington to ensure that no pregnant women—in- capitulated to inherently unfair practices cluding birthmothers and international against pregnant and parenting women, students—fall through the cracks. And we say no to the status quo. We refuse to every year, Georgetown hosts a Pregnancy choose between women and children. Resource Forum to take another look at More than a century ago, the same ways they can improve. women who fought for women’s rights The first Georgetown forum started with the story of and for the rights of slaves to be free also fought to protect a woman who had an abortion because she did not know women and children from abortion. We continue their fight where to go for help. At the 14th annual forum, babies played in the spirit of Mattie Brinkerhoff, who wrote in 1869 in on the floor. Beaming mothers told us they have “everything The Revolution: [they] need.” This past fall I moderated the 19th annual fo- rum at Georgetown University. Because of our early efforts When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we can safely at Georgetown, Villanova and Notre Dame, this is the first assume that there is something wrong in society—so year that babies born with the support of administrators are when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it now likely entering college themselves. is an evidence that either by education or circumstanc- Other colleges have also expanded their support for stu- es she has been greatly wronged. dent parents. Pepperdine University created a task force to support pregnant women, adjusting policies to better suit Feminism was born of abolition. All people are equal. student parents’ needs and building family housing. A do- Not all choices are equal. We envision a better day, a day nor recently stepped forward to fund a housing scholarship. when womanhood is celebrated, mothers are supported, fa- Abbot Placid Solari and the monks of Belmont Abbey do- therhood is honored and every child is cherished. nated land adjacent to Belmont Abbey for “A Room at the If you refuse to choose between women and children, if Inn,” now called Mira-Via, so that women will not feel pres- you work to systematically eliminate the root causes that sured to terminate either their pregnancies or their educa- drive women to abortion, then you already follow in the tions. Pregnant women and new mothers can now have their footsteps of Susan B. Anthony and our other feminist fore-

babies and continue with school. mothers, whether you call yourself a feminist or not. A of C ongress Prints and Photogra p hs D ivision Library

18 America January 19-26, 2015

Merton (Still) Matters How the Trappist monk and author speaks to millennials By Daniel P. Horan

an. 31, 2015, would have marked the 100th birthday of the American Trappist monk and author Thomas Merton. But having died suddenly in Thailand on Dec. 10, 1968, while overseas to speak at conferences Jfor Catholic monastic communities in Asia, Merton never lived to see a birthday beyond his 53rd. Yet his wisdom, writing and model of Christian engagement with the world continue to be relevant and timely. Though Thomas Merton’s life was short, his output in terms of writing, poetry and correspondence was extraor- dinarily productive. The diversity of his work makes abun- dantly clear his importance in a number of areas related to Christian living, creative expression and social action. His continued popularity is confirmed by his perennial status as a best-selling author, a rare accomplishment. Many of his books have never gone out of print. The depth of his thought and spiritual genius is confirmed by the ever-growing bibli- ography of new articles and books written about Merton by scholars in diverse fields from theology and spirituality to American history, literature and peace studies. While a general consensus appears to affirm the endur- ing status and legacy of Merton’s life and work, there are detractors who claim he is outdated and his appeal over- stated. Among the most recognizable critics of Merton’s legacy and relevance is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the current archbishop of Washington, D.C. In 2005, when Cardinal Wuerl was bishop of Pittsburgh, he chaired a commit- tee that oversaw the production of a new United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, which was aimed particu- larly at young adults. Each chapter was to include a profile of an American Catholic whose life and work could serve many of my peers—let alone people younger than I—know as a model for Christian living. As the author and peace Merton in the same way that previous generations have, activist Jim Forest recalls in an afterward to his biography many of whom read Merton’s spiritual autobiography The of Merton, Living With Wisdom, Cardinal Wuerl decided Seven Storey Mountain and recognized Thomas Merton as that the profile of Merton originally planned for the cate- a household name. chism should be removed from the draft text. Among the Yet in another sense Cardinal Wuerl’s reported view dis- reasons given was that “the generation we were speaking to counted the power of Merton’s true legacy. Merton does, in had no idea who [Merton] was.” fact, resonate with the young adults who are introduced to As both a member of the millennial generation and his work, and it is the responsibility of the American church a professional scholar of Merton’s work, I take Cardinal to remedy precisely what the cardinal was diagnosing. We Wuerl’s remark very seriously. In a sense, he is right. Not must pass on to the next generation the wisdom and exam- ple of Merton so young Catholics can know him too. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., is a columnist for America and the author As we celebrate the centenary of Merton’s birth it seems of several books, including The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton. fitting to take a closer look at some of the ways Merton can

20 America January 19-26, 2015 continue to speak to us today. Several themes are especially Merton’s memoir bears the marks of what literary critics call timely, particularly for us millennials. the “unreliable narrator.” We are presented with a compelling narrative, undoubtedly grounded in truth, but one that nev- The Original ‘Slacktivist’ ertheless emphasizes certain elements and overlooks others. Conversion is arguably the most significant theme in With time on our side, as well as the resources of Merton’s Merton’s life. Those who came to know Merton first through journals, correspondence and the impressive official biog- raphy by Michael Mott, we know that his young adult life was probably much like the experience of the average college student. He questioned his beliefs, experimented with polit- ical associations, including Communism, developed his cre- ative and artistic side, made lifelong friends, got into trouble and was shaped by his undergraduate mentors. If anything, Merton critiqued Merton suffered most acutely from a closed worldview and lack of awareness of the needs of others, especially those the injustices of outside his immediate circle. This introspective worldview followed the young Merton his time— into the monastery and can be seen in his early writings. It is not that he was misanthropic or dismissed those who suf- racism, nuclear fered, but that he was preoccupied with his own spiritual journey. The 1940s and early 1950s saw the publication of armament, books and essays by an enthusiastic young monk who want- ed to share his faith with others, but the themes verged on the solipsistic: solitude, contemplation, asceticism, the mo- poverty—and nastic vocation. If we take Merton at his narrative word in The Seven Storey Mountain, then the conversion we are left reached out with is one from the self-centeredness of “secular life” to the navel-gazing of “religious life.” to support, But as Lawrence Cunningham of the University of Notre Dame has written, “The period of the 1950s was a time of comfort and deep change in Merton’s thinking, a change radical enough to be called a ‘conversion’ (or, perhaps better, a series of con- guide his versions).” Merton’s experience of graced conversion did not end with his profession of religious vows and the donning of a Trappist habit. Rather, the shifts in Merton’s outlook readers. on the world and God’s presence in it powerfully influenced his writing style and subject matter. It was as if a veil was lifted or his eyes were opened to the realities of violence, injustice and suffering around the world. He began to cor- The Seven Storey Mountain would recognize it as the thread respond with civil rights activists, world leaders and artists. that drives the narrative. Born to creative but largely unre- He established what he would later describe in a letter to ligious parents, both of whom died before Merton turned Pope John XXIII as “an apostolate of friendship” that al- 16, Merton grew up in an environment mostly devoid of re- lowed him to reach out to so many through his writing and ligious practice or reflection. From the time of his memoir’s correspondence. publication onward, Merton was hailed as a contemporary Merton’s turn toward the world and the prophetic shift St. Augustine, whose “modern-day Confessions” highlighted in his priorities seems to offer a timely lesson for today’s how God’s grace breaks through an all-but-atheistic young young adults. The neologism “slacktivism” has gained cur- man’s self-centeredness to inspire conversion to Christianity rency recently to describe the minimal efforts people engage and eventually religious life. This is how Merton present- in, often by means of social media, to “support” an issue or ed his story, which concludes with his entrance into the cause, but that have minimal or no practical effect. These Trappist Order at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. produce mostly a sense of self-satisfaction from having done But Merton’s conversion did not end there. Real con- “something good.” version never ends. In fact, like Augustine’s Confessions, In an age of hyperconnectivity and rapid communication,

January 19-26, 2015 America 21 young women and men are instantly aware of what is hap- them, the more real I am.... I will be a better Catholic, pening around the globe. The result is something like a pre- not if I can refute every shade of Protestantism [or liminary conversion, a move toward awareness of something other faiths], but if I can affirm the truth in it and still beyond oneself. But the slacktivism of today is not unlike go further. the religious interiority of Merton’s early conversion. Over time Merton came to realize that he was (to be anachronis- At the root of Merton’s engagement with people differ- tic) a slacktivist, someone who thought he was doing good ent from himself was the sense of “original unity,” which he for others but without taking the risk of putting himself in recognized bound all people together as children of God. relationship with those he sought to help. Millennials can He understood that he could not have an authentic conver- look to Merton as a model of someone who remained open sation about faith with others if he did not have a firm com- to continual conversion, open to the challenge of God’s spir- mitment and deep love for his own tradition. Before Vatican it, open to doing something more and risking much for the II promulgated “The Declaration on the Relationship of the sake of another. He used his social location within the mon- Church to Non-Christian Religions,” Merton already un- astery, on the margins of society, to critique the injustices derstood that “the Catholic Church rejects nothing that is of his time—racism, nuclear armament, poverty—and then true and holy in these [other] religions” (No. 2). reach out to support, comfort and guide his readers and help There is much that can be said about the still timely in- to organize change. sights Merton presents to us about engaging other religious Reading across Merton’s corpus, beyond The Seven Storey traditions. Perhaps the most pertinent is the need to live Mountain into his social criticism of the 1960s, can offer honestly in the tension between maintaining one’s own faith young people today a model for moving from slacktivism to- commitments and humbly learning from the experiences of ward solidarity, from Tweeting about an issue toward doing others, all the while holding onto the belief that we are in- something real about it. deed, somehow, “already one.” The Dalai Lama wrote in an op-ed in The New York Interreligious Dialogue Times in 2010, “While preserving faith toward one’s own In October 1968, near the end of his life, Merton concluded tradition, one can respect, admire and appreciate other tra- a talk to a group of monks in Calcutta and with these now ditions.” He went on to explain that it was none other than famous lines: “My dear brothers, we are already one. But we Thomas Merton, with whom he met personally in 1968, imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our who offered him this insight. “Merton told me he could be original unity. What we have to be is what we are.” perfectly faithful to Christianity, yet learn in depth from Merton’s ongoing conversion opened him up to a variety other religions like Buddhism. The same is true for me as of encounters and relationships that traversed the bound- an ardent Buddhist learning from the world’s other great aries of the early 20th-century insular world of American religions.” For Merton then, as for the Dalai Lama today, Catholicism to engage in dialogue with people of different compassion for and personal encounter with people of other faiths and those with no affiliation at all. As early as the faiths does not diminish one’s own religious convictions—if 1950s, Merton anticipated one of the monumental shifts anything, it strengthens them. Merton shows us as much by that would emerge from the Second Vatican Council. Even living out what he came to realize was his “vocation of uni- today Merton is criticized by some who hold to a naïve ty,” to borrow a phrase from the Merton scholar Christine reading of the patristic saying, Extra ecclesiam nulla salus Bochen. (“Outside the church there is no salvation”) and believe that Merton overstepped his bounds as a Catholic priest by par- The Potential Appeal ticipating in dialogue with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Merton continues to speak a prophetic word to us today, Christians of other denominations. Some have even gone but who is listening? Cardinal Wuerl may be correct that so far as to claim that Merton had “abandoned his faith” for Merton is not as popular as he once was, but it is not be- some syncretic religious view. This could not be further from cause Merton does not appeal to young adults. Courses on the truth. Merton’s life and work are taught at colleges and universities There is nothing in Merton’s published works, nor in his around the United States today. The International Thomas private journals and correspondence, that would indicate Merton Society (on whose board of directors I currently interest in leaving the Catholic Church. In his 1966 book, serve) established the Robert E. Daggy scholarship program Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Merton wrote: in 1996 to fund young adult participation at the society’s bi- ennial conference. Set up by the late Rev. William Shannon, The more I am able to affirm others, to say “yes” to them a renowned Merton scholar and the first president of the in myself, by discovering them in myself and myself in Merton Society, the scholarship has helped hundreds of

22 America January 19-26, 2015 young women and men delve more deep- ly into the popular and scholarly discus- sions about Merton’s life and work. My own travels speaking around the country and abroad offer anecdotal confirmation that when young adults are exposed to Merton’s writings and thought, they are captivated and often can relate to his experience of conversion, his openness to the diversity of others and his radical commitment to social justice and peace. Merton’s writings are having an im- pact in a variety of locations and among diverse populations. There are currently 43 local chapters of the Merton Society and more continue to spring up, espe- cially in Europe. But perhaps the most unexpected chapter is the one in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Shirley, Mass. Founded in 2013 by the retired educator and Merton enthu- siast John Collins, the chapter is an out- growth of a talk he gave about Merton at the inmates’ request. In an interview with The National Catholic Reporter, several of the incarcerated men—some who have been in prison for decades—spoke about the significance of reading Merton. Joseph Labriola recalled being in soli- tary confinement, discovering a copy of Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation in his cell and reading out his cell’s window to other convicts. One prisoner, Timothy Muise, said that the Merton group “af- fords men the opportunity to change, to re-evaluate their life in God’s light.” The increasing diversity of Merton’s readership is clear evidence that he is neither outdated nor irrelevant. It would seem that a century after his birth, Merton still has much to offer the church and world, and there is no indication that his reflections on peacemaking and interreligious dialogue will be outdated anytime soon. His wisdom speaks deep- ly to the hearts of those who encounter it. One can only imagine the possibilities that another century of his influence may have in bringing us all closer to that “orig- inal unity” about which he speaks, help- ing to lead us to recognize that “what we have to be is what we are.” A

January 19-26, 2015 America 23 Which Side Are We On? Catholic teachers and the right to unionize By Clayton Sinyai

atholic social teaching on the rights of workers cut expenses by transferring increasing amounts of their to organize is clear and consistent. “The repeated teaching load from expensive tenured faculty to cheaper calls issued within the church’s social doctrine, adjuncts, paid between $2,000 and $4,000 per course. beginning with ‘Rerum Novarum,’ for the Many of these instructors are aspiring professors unable to Cpromotion of workers’ associations that can defend their find a tenured position in the new education economy. An rights,” writes Pope Benedict XVI in the encyclical “Charity instructor stringing together a full-time teaching load on this in Truth,” “must therefore be honored today even more than piecework basis is fortunate to earn $25,000 per year. John in the past.” Manning, an adjunct professor at Duquesne, supplements What does this teaching imply for Catholic institutions? his wages by tending bar, observing, “I make more money After all, perhaps one million American workers are serving students beer than teaching them.” In addition, as employed by them, from hospitals and nursing homes to “part-time” workers, adjunct instructors seldom enjoy health parish offices and parochial schools. In their 1986 pastoral insurance or retirement benefits. letter “Economic Justice for All,” the U.S. bishops connected In 2012 adjunct faculty members at Duquesne resolved the dots. “All the moral principles that govern the just to form a union and turned to the United Steelworkers for operation of any economic endeavor apply to the church and help. (This may sound peculiar, but in Western Pennsylvania its agencies and institutions; indeed the church should be workers of all kinds have seen what the U.S.W. has done exemplary,” the bishops wrote. “All church institutions must for steelworkers and asked to join. Today most of the also fully recognize the rights of employees to organize and union’s members are employed outside the steel industry.) bargain collectively with the institution through whatever Duquesne was initially receptive and quickly agreed to association or organization they freely choose.” terms and conditions for a secret ballot election to be held In Pittsburgh, two groups of Catholic educators have under the auspices of the region’s National Labor Relations formed workers’ associations; they have received sharply Board office. If a majority of the adjuncts voted for union different responses from their employers. The teachers in representation, the union would be certified as their Pittsburgh’s Catholic high schools—and many Catholic representative for collective bargaining. elementary schools—have established a respectful and “We are very pleased with how the university has worked mutually rewarding system of collective bargaining. cooperatively with the Union in the initial process leading to Meanwhile, Duquesne University and its adjunct faculty the election,” said U.S.W. Senior Associate General Counsel are entering litigation with university administrators citing Dan Kovalik in May. “We take this as a very positive sign their religious identity as a reason for rejecting collective of how Duquesne views potential unionization and are bargaining rather than adopting it. confident that if we prevail in the election, the university will Duquesne has attracted more headlines. In the past few be a willing and amicable bargaining partner.” years, adjunct instructors at dozens of universities—public and private, Catholic and secular—have sought to organize Reverse Gear and thus improve their conditions of work. Yesterday’s The adjuncts voted for the union in a 50-to-9 landslide, but “adjunct faculty” were mostly working professionals who the university did an about-face. Duquesne hired Arnold taught a course now and then in their free time, earning a small Perl, a veteran union fighter from Memphis who boasts of stipend. Tenured professors carried the bulk of the teaching “extensive experience counseling organizations on remaining responsibilities and earned a generous salary and benefits. union free.” Duquesne now contended that collective This wage and benefit structure remains in place, but bargaining would be a threat to its religious mission and the adjunct instructors have changed. Universities have that it should not be under N.L.R.B. jurisdiction at all. “We are not unmindful of the teachings of the Catholic Church on labor,” President Charles Dougherty said in a Clayton Sinyai, a member of the Catholic Labor Network, directs the Catholic Employer Project, which monitors labor relations practices at letter published on the university website. “Nevertheless, we Catholic institutions. He can be reached at [email protected]. believe that, in the case of faculty who are central to the core

24 America January 19-26, 2015 of who and what we are, concerns for our religious mission the Mineworkers, the Teamsters and the Amalgamated are a higher priority.... We can never risk bargaining away Association of Iron and Steel Workers (predecessor to the core tenants [tenets] of our mission.” Duquesne has today’s U.S.W.) got their start, there was no federal labor taken its legal case to Washington. board. Workers who formed a union had to persuade or Does a Catholic institution’s mission foreclose collective compel employers to bargain with them, usually using bargaining by faculty? This would surely come as a surprise to strikes or boycotts. All too often labor disputes were marked Bishop David Zubik, the local diocesan bishop. In April, after by economic disruption and even violence. some tough bargaining, the Diocese of Pittsburgh signed a In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act (the five-year contract with a union representing 214 lay teachers Wagner Act) brought a measure of order to this process. at its eight diocesan Catholic high schools. Superintendent Workers covered by the act were free to advocate for or Mike Latusek described the schools’ relationship with the against unionization and could file a complaint with the teachers as “very positive and collaborative. We both want newly created N.L.R.B. if an employer fired or otherwise to do what’s best for the schools and preserve Catholic retaliated against them for their choice. Workers could also education in the Diocese.” ask the board to supervise a secret ballot election on union And how did the teachers overcome the hurdle of legal representation: if a majority of workers voted yes, the board jurisdiction? They didn’t. The diocese is exempt from certified it as their representative, and the employer was N.L.R.B. regulation. The Diocese of Pittsburgh does not legally obliged to negotiate with the union about wages and bargain with the teachers’ union because the government conditions of work. says they must; they do it because Catholic social teaching Some employees were explicitly excluded from says that is what an employer should do. They do it because N.L.R.A. coverage—for example, supervisory employees of their religious identity. and farmworkers. It is widely believed that these workers do not have the right to form unions, but that is not exactly A History true; they just do not have access to the Labor Board. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when unions like They have to operate under the pre-1935 rulebook. This

LABOR LESSON. Rae O’Hair, left, a Duquesne University alumna, and her friend Daniele Orosz rally for unionizing adjunct faculty in December 2013. G azette P HOTO :Lake F ong/Post-

January 19-26, 2015 America 25 is why Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers had Unions and Religious Freedom to use boycotts, protests and hunger strikes to press for Bishop Vincent Leonard of Pittsburgh shared many of recognition; they were not eligible to file for a labor board Cardinal Cody’s concerns about religious freedom. He election. Farmhands and foremen have every right to form did not conclude, however, that because the schools were unions and negotiate contracts, but they seldom succeed. exempt from federal jurisdiction they were equally exempt Employers fire the activists or lock out the recalcitrant from Catholic social teaching regarding the rights of labor. workers, and the workers have no legal recourse. Working with the diocesan counsel, Nicholas Cafardi (now In 1979 the Supreme Court added another category a Duquesne law professor); the superintendent, Rev. Hugh of workers to the list excluded from N.L.R.A. coverage: Lang; and the teachers, he crafted a system of labor relations Catholic school teachers. By the 1970s, lay teachers had preserving all the just rights workers enjoyed under the come to outnumber vowed religious in the Catholic schools. National Labor Relations Act without being subject to it. These teachers were dedicated to their faith and expected In place of the N.L.R.B., the two sides selected a mutually to sacrifice for their calling, but they had not taken a vow acceptable, neutral arbiter to supervise union elections and of poverty. Indeed, it would have been unsuitable for their collective bargaining. Faculty members at all eight diocesan station in life, as many of them had families to support. Catholic high schools and about half the elementary schools This was one reason that Catholic school teachers rushed have opted for union representation by the Federation of by the thousands to form labor unions. Bishops, priests Pittsburgh Diocesan Teachers. and principals across the nation reacted in different ways. This sort of arrangement is not unique to Pittsburgh. Cardinal John Cody of Chicago took a hard line, The National Association of Catholic School Teachers, refusing to recognize and bargain with the Windy City’s the Pittsburgh teachers’ parent body, claims thousands of Catholic teachers. When the teachers turned to the labor members in dozens of parish and diocesan schools across board, Cody contended that Catholic K-12 schools were the country. Their contracts share one unique feature, religious institutions exempt from federal labor law. In though, generally called the “bishop’s clause” or the “cardinal’s N.L.R.B v. Catholic Bishop (1979) the Supreme Court, by clause.” In the Pittsburgh contract, the clause states that a narrow 5-to-4 margin, ruled that the N.L.R.A. did not “the Diocesan Bishop shall maintain the sole prerogative cover parochial schools. to dismiss a teacher for public immorality, public scandal or public rejection of teachings, doctrine or laws of the Catholic Church.” Daniel Klisavage, the teachers’ union president, says that the clause is no problem for his members. “They knew there was a cross on the building when they walked in to teach,” he explains. They had, after all, turned down the superior wages and benefits available in the public school system in order to serve in Catholic education. The bishop’s clause helps explain why the K-12 Catholic schools have serious reservations about National Labor Relations Act jurisdiction. When we enroll our children in Catholic schools, we entrust their teachers with considerable responsibility for their faith formation. A teacher arguing against the real presence in the Eucharist in a middle school classroom or advocating on television for abortion rights does not belong in front of Catholic schoolchildren—this is not a negotiable matter. But is Duquesne proposing to discipline teachers who challenge Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist or who support legalized abortion? Catholic universities generally— and appropriately—permit a level of free inquiry not suitable to elementary or secondary education. Duquesne representatives did not respond to repeated requests to explain their concerns in more detail. If the university’s concerns in fact have merit, the obvious way to reconcile fealty to Catholic social teaching and their

26 America January 19-26, 2015 freedom of exercise concerns would be collective bargaining The ill-conceived mandate has made for some sloppy outside the N.L.R.B. framework, much the way Catholic analogies, opening the door to arguments like those K-12 schools in Pittsburgh do. The union actually proposed presented by Duquesne. But the circumstances could hardly this in late 2013, but the university declined to discuss the be more different: H.H.S. is directing the hospitals to violate matter. Catholic principles on contraception, while the N.L.R.B. is telling Duquesne and others to honor Catholic principles on The Elephant in the Room the rights of labor. Not every Catholic university has responded this way to the Duquesne and the other Catholic universities adopting organizing wave among our nation’s adjunct faculty. When the same position (including Seattle University, St. Xavier adjuncts at Georgetown began to discuss forming a union, University and Manhattan College) are trying to occupy an administrators reflected on the university’s detailed “just almost inconceivably narrow conceptual space. They are at employment policy” rooted in Catholic social teaching and once claiming to be too religious to be subject to enforcement concluded that it was the adjuncts’ decision to make. They action by the N.L.R.B. yet not religious enough to honor remained neutral, and the adjuncts voted for the union in their adjuncts’ right to organize out of simple fidelity to an N.L.R.B. election. Administrators at the University of Catholic social teaching, the way the Diocese of Pittsburgh St. Thomas did not contest adjuncts’ right to organize but does. argued strongly against a yes vote in the N.L.R.B. election. In 1986 the bishops rightly observed that church There, the union was defeated by a significant margin. institutions must be “exemplary” in their practice of The elephant in the room has little to do with unions or Catholic social teaching. When a Catholic hospital or universities. When Health and Human Services Secretary university respects the worker rights it preaches, it helps to Kathleen Sibelius told Catholic hospitals that they would evangelize the world; when it fails to do so, it runs the risk be required to provide contraception services for employees of scandalizing the faithful by suggesting these principles under the Affordable Care Act, she created a firestorm of do not count. As Klisavage, himself a Duquesne graduate, conflict between the church and the White House over observes, “How can the church support the rights of religious freedom issues. The legal issues are not resolved, steelworkers and grape pickers when we don’t support the and the bitter feelings will remain for a long time. rights of our own?” A

January 19-26 , 2015 America 27 VATICAN DISPATCH Francis Returns to Asia ope Francis’ second visit to Asia ber of very rich families who hold polit- Millions of Filipinos work overseas (Jan. 12 to 19)—to Sri Lanka ical and economic power, most of them today, as do an estimated 1.5 percent Pand the Philippines—is about educated in the best Catholic schools) of Sri Lanka’s population. Moreover, to take place as I write. I am one of and the poor, who are the vast majority. Sri Lanka has hundreds of thousands some 70 reporters accompanying him Many wonder why the church’s social of displaced persons because of the and will report for America. Here I teaching has failed to take root in the conflict that left some 100,000 dead— wish to simply highlight some similar- hearts and minds of most of the rich mostly Tamils. That conflict ended in ities and differences between the two and powerful of this Catholic nation, such a brutal manner that the United countries, from the religious and polit- and why corruption has thrived in its Nations opened an investigation into ical perspectives, and to frame some of political and economic arenas. It will be war crimes and crimes against human- the challenges Francis will face. interesting to see how Francis addresses ity, but Rajapaksa’s government refuses The Philippines, with 7,000 islands this reality. to cooperate. and 100 million inhabitants, is the dy- Corruption at the top of Most of Sri Lanka’s namic Catholic hub of Asia and home the political and economic The Sri Tamils feel they are sec- to over 50 percent of Asia’s 140 mil- sectors is not unique to the ond class citizens. Francis lion Catholics. Seventy-nine percent of Philippines; it exists also Lankan and is expected to address Filipinos are Catholics; 10 percent be- in Sri Lanka, a beautiful this situation and call long to other Christian communities; island with 21 million peo- Filipino for respect for their hu- and 11 percent are Muslims. ple, known as “the pearl of churches are man rights and reconcil- “Mercy and compassion” is the logo the Indian ocean.” Seventy iation when he visits the for Francis’ visit here, a reminder that percent of the population in different Marian shrine of Mahdu he is coming primarily to comfort sur- are Buddhist, 13 percent ways ‘bridge’ in the former war zone. vivors and relatives of the victims of Hindu, 10 percent Muslim Francis is the third Typhoon Haiyan and the 4 million and 7 percent Christian churches. pope to visit both coun- Filipinos it left homeless in 2013. He (including six million tries and, of course, their will also console those hit by recent Catholics). churches, which in different ways are earthquakes. His heart is taking him to The cardinal archbishop of “bridge churches.” Sri Lanka’s church this place of intense human suffering, Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith, is a close is home to both Sinhalese and Tamils, which at times verges on despair. He friend of the country’s president, while the dynamic Filipino church is wants to embrace people here person- Mahinda Rajapaksa, a Buddhist, and a bridge to China and Myanmar and ally and to give hope. his family—far too close, say many lo- provides assistance to other Asian Many hope that after helping bro- cal Catholics. He invited Benedict XVI churches. Francis will want to support ker the United States-Cuba accord, to come and bless a new Asian theo- and encourage all this and also promote Pope Francis can have an impact on the logical institute, but Francis is coming dialogue between the religions in both stalled negotiations to end the 46-year instead to canonize the country’s first countries. armed conflict between the Communist saint, Blessed Joseph Vaz, a 17th-cen- While the Philippine president de- Party and the Philippine government. tury missionary priest, and to comfort clared four days of national holiday for Both sides accepted a Christmas cease- the victims of the 25-year conflict that Pope Francis’ visit, Sri Lanka’s presi- fire that includes the time of his visit. ended in 2009 and to promote recon- dent took the controversial decision In the Philippines he will see the ciliation. to hold elections five days before his deep divide between the rich (a num- In recent decades the Philippines arrival, seeking a third term in office. and Sri Lanka have seen many of their Though the aftermath of past elections citizens emigrate because of poverty was marred by violence, Sri Lankan Gerard O’Connell is America’s Rome and, in Sri Lanka’s case, also because of Catholics are hoping peace will prevail correspondent. America’s Vatican coverage is sponsored in part by the Jesuit communities of the 25-year armed conflict between the this time, when Pope Francis comes. the United States. Twitter: @gerryorome. Tamil Tigers and government forces. Gerard O’Connell

28 America January 19-26, 2015 Books & Culture

The cast of “Selma”

film | John Anderson when our founding principles were questioned, challenged and born again. Up the Mountain Like “Lincoln,” the film is not a soup- to-nuts biopic in any traditional sense The powerful message of ‘Selma’ but the story of an episode in a nation’s maturation and a rigorous exercise in The making of a movie like Selma— isterial, flawed, a leader, a schemer, a hindsight. director Ava DuVernay’s powerful preacher, a politician, something of a Thanks to recent actions by some portrayal of the mid-’60s civil rights sorcerer and a man who seems to know national politicians, however, and the protests that helped changed the mind that his allotment of sand is streaming U.S. Supreme Court, and police de- of a president and a nation—consti- through the cosmic hourglass. This partments and grand juries in New tutes that rare thing, the no-lose/no- may be partly the viewer’s projection, York, St. Louis and elsewhere, “Selma” win situation. When the subject is as of course, but we know what we know. has exploded out of the past and land- near-saintly as the Rev. Dr. Martin And there’s no escaping history. ed squarely around our necks like a Luther King Jr., a filmmaker, even Nor is there any escaping current metaphorical noose. Efforts to limit if she wanted to, could not escape a events. While DuVernay is not out access to the polls—the very thing certain amount of reflected glory. At to make everybody happy, her film’s both blacks and whites are bleeding the same time, when the subject is as release and recent news events have for in 1965 on Selma’s Edmund Pettus near-saintly as the Rev. Dr. Martin converged in a manner that should Bridge—have found quite a bit of trac- Luther King Jr., putting a character on make the marketing department of tion, especially in the states where a screen who validates both the myth Paramount Pictures something close U.S. Supreme Court majority led by and the man is a near-impossibility. to deliriously happy, while leaving the Chief Justice John Roberts has rather Nevertheless: DuVernay succeeds rest of us slightly despondent. blithely rolled back restrictions of the despite the odds, with actor David “Selma” is a historical movie, of Voting Rights Act. This is the very

Photo:Paramount Pictures, Pathé, and H ar p o F i l ms. Pictures, Pathé, Photo:Paramount Oyelowo creating a King who is mag- course, a period piece about a moment legislation M.L.K. is seen strong-arm-

January 19-26 , 2015 America 29 ing Lyndon Baines Johnson (Tom vote like their white counterparts. This well—the knowledge is never absent Wilkinson) into supporting, at a time is the stuff of pathos, which isn’t always from Oyelowo’s face—that a caul- when the American president would so riveting either. dron is simmering back in Alabama. have preferred to be strategizing his Where DuVernay metes out her There Wallace rules, and men like War on Poverty. vitriol instead is among the politi- Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark (Stan There is no escaping, either, the cians—George Wallace, played with Houston) are allowed to keep their reflection “Selma” will cast on personal version of the “peace.” the ranks of police departments (Of Clark, James Baldwin wrote, across the land, whose public re- “One has to assume that he is a lations could not be much worse man like me, but he does not at the moment and whose tactics know what drives him to use at times seem, in light of “Selma,” the club, to menace with a gun, to be rooted in the grand old tra- and to use a cattle prod against ditions of Bull Connor, the Ku a woman’s breasts.... [White Klux Klan and a strain of sys- Southerners’] moral lives have temic racism that, as shown in been destroyed by a plague called the film, tends to manifest itself color.”) Black Americans—fac- in brutality. ing obstructions at the polls that Pure evil, however, is never can only be alleviated by a specif- that interesting in and of itself, ically targeted federal law—have any more than is pure insani- to take to the street to force that ty. There has to be a portion of law into being. complexity in the malevolence— Oprah Winfrey plays Annie Lee Cooper in “Selma.” It is an invigorating movie, the Iago factor, so to speak. What this “Selma,” with the charac- is it in “Selma” that lay behind the vi- cold-blooded cynicism by Tim Roth, ters and rhetoric providing much of olence, so artfully recreated by the di- and L.B.J., whom Wilkinson imbues the power. DuVernay’s portrayal of rector and perpetrated against all those with just the right amount of Texas King’s posse—among them the Rev. peaceful protesters pouring across the vexation at having his well-ordered Hosea Williams (Wendell Pierce), bridge and demanding their inalien- agenda upset by this soft-spoken au- Andrew Young (Andre Holland) able, God-and-Thomas Jefferson-given dacity called Martin Luther King. and Bayard Rustin (Ruben Santiago- rights? DuVernay doesn’t bother to ex- (For what it’s worth, Oyelowo, Roth, Hudson)—brings the supporting cast amine the roots of such hate displayed Wilkinson and Paul Webb, the screen- of the civil rights battle to full-blood- by poor white Southerners, who curse writer, are all British.) ed life as never before. The director is or spit or do worse against the demon- DuVernay, who up until a few years not a stylist, preferring to shoot the strators during the historical marches ago was working as a publicist for oth- story straightforwardly, mostly, with a of the movie. What the venom is about, er people’s movies, begins her narrative few flourishes that seem forced. The quite obviously, is the desperate rage of in 1964, with King about to receive murder of the four little girls in the a people who will have no one to look the Nobel Peace Prize in the cool, civ- 16th Street Baptist Church bombing down on, once black Americans get to ilized confines of Oslo, knowing full in Birmingham in 1963 is electrifying at first, but she allows the computer- ized aftershocks to go on too long. Similarly, one can feel the assault on Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey), but her Spike Lee-inspired slo-mo descent onto a receding sidewalk feels like film-school stuff. “Selma” is so moving—and immediate—that such distractions hardly seem necessary.

John Anderson is a film critic for The Wall Street Journal, Indiewire and Newsday and a regular contributor to the Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times.

30 America January 19-26, 2015 of other things | olga segura Hip-Hop, My First Love remember the first time I heard ful: the way it alters language. Hip-hop is also a pivotal part of Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues,” a Hip-hop artists alter the English social activism in today’s world. As the Isong about winning and losing in language in their music to create what is world continues to react to the deaths life. I was 10 years old, attempting to called “flow,” a combination of rhythms of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, explain the lyrics to my father. Sitting and rhymes. Whether through alliter- hip-hop offers communities of color across from me in the kitchen of our ation, assonance, similes or metaphors, the opportunity to see ourselves in a old apartment, his acoustic guitar artists use their flow to create a kind positive light. The strongest source across his lap, my father responded: of poetry for audiences. Adam Bradley, of this reflection is Kendrick Lamar, “Not the lyrics. Feeling. How does the a scholar of African-American litera- a 27-year-old rapper from Compton, song make you feel?” The focus for him ture, analyzes this in Book of Rhymes: Calif., considered by many to be the was always on the inspiration behind The Poetics of Hip Hop. greatest rapper in hip- the art: What was the artist trying to The flow used by rap- hop right now. From evoke in listeners? What experiences pers creates a different issues like the temp- was he or she describing? kind of storytelling, Hip-hop tation of gang culture Influenced by my parents, my collec- one that is more re- creates a (“But what am I sup- tion ranges from merengue artists like latable and colloquial. posed to do/ When the Johnny Ventura and Juan Luis Guerra Through this storytell- different topic is red or blue”) to to rock bands like Led Zeppelin and ing, Bradley says, the racism (“Racism is still Black Sabbath. But it wasn’t until I fell genre gives “voice to kind of alive/ Yellow tape and in love with hip-hop music that I tru- a group hardly heard storytelling. colored lines”) to the ly understood the point my father was before by America at perils of alcoholism emphasizing: how deeply music touch- large.” (“Now I done grew es the soul. For me, an immi- up/ Round some peo- One of my first encounters with grant woman from the ple living their life in hip-hop was “Get A Hold,” by A Tribe Dominican Republic bottles”), Lamar doc- Called Quest, a group known for op- who was raised in the uments the realities timistic lyrics like “positivity has ris- Bronx, hip-hop final- faced by people of col- en” and “Love it when God keeps on ly showed me a world or in the United States overlookin’.” From A.T.C.Q., I discov- I was familiar with. today, realities not ered other artists: Common and his As I grew up, televi- shown on CNN or classic “I Used to Love H.E.R.”, an sion screens were rarely populated by Fox News. Appearing on “The Colbert extended metaphor about a woman people of color. Screen starlets were Report” on Dec. 16, he emphasized the who represents hip-hop; Slick Rick’s blonde, blue eyed and, well, white; and importance of using these themes to “Children’s Story,” a parable disguised the cities on screen were also different remind his listeners that he is “coming as a bedtime story; Gang Starr’s “Code from the New York City I knew. I won- from a dark place and doing something of the Streets,” a recollection of the dered: Where are the people who look positive.” frustrations faced by black men in the like me? Where are the cities that look Hip-hop might be mistaken by 1990s. Most memorable was the dis- like the Bronx streets I travel? I found many for loud, unintelligible songs covery of Eric B. & Rakim. Arguably answers in hip-hop. I saw my face in dedicated to drugs, sex and violence. the most pivotal musicians in all of the characters described by artists like For my fellow “hip-hop heads” and hip-hop, the duo uses elements like al- A.T.C.Q. and Gang Starr; I saw the me, however, there is another side, the literation, allusions and metaphors to experiences of my neighbors and even side that emphasizes solidarity, posi- create classics like “I Ain’t No Joke” and the strangers in my communities. I saw tivity, hope. As the rapper Common “Follow the Leader.” They also embody the city I knew in songs like Rakim’s says in Bradley’s Poetics, the power of what makes hip-hop music so power- “New York (Ya’ Out There)” and Nas’s hip-hop lies in its representation of “New York State of Mind.” I was em- what many simply see as “the ghetto.” Olga Segura is an associate editor of powered. For the first time ever, my It is our voice. America. culture was popular culture. Olga Segura

January 19-26 , 2015 America 31 books | John P. Langan cess was rising, Ames decided to make a quick return trip to the Middle East The Company Man after an absence of five years. On April 18,1983, he happened to be in Beirut, where he was killed in the spectacular the good spy Salameh, an affluent Palestinian, both bombing of the U.S. embassy. At the The Life and Death of flamboyant and fatalistic, who was time of his death, he was a widely ad- Robert Ames a member of the inner circle around mired professional but unknown to By Kai Bird Yassir Arafat. Ames treated him as the general public; he was also a de- Crown. 430p $26 a friend and source rather than as an voted family man living in suburban “agent” or paid spy. Salameh was wide- calm of Reston, Va., and as far from Why should anyone bother to read ly thought to be involved in planning the James Bond world of blood, sex 400 pages about the life and the ca- the massacre of Israeli athletes at the and intrigue as can be imagined. He reer of a man who died 30 years ago, had made his career by carefully culti- an unknown second-level officer in the vated contacts with thoughtful persons Central Intelligence Agency, even if the in the Arab world, contacts achieved book is well researched and well-writ- and deepened through his grasp of ten? Answering this question requires Arabic language and politics. He was us to work out some prior questions. “the good spy,” both in the sense of This is quite appropriate, since we are having developed the skills needed for dealing with an agency whose stock high quality intelligence work and in in trade is the answering of questions, the sense of showing a character that even if the answers are not provided could inspire trust in the often murky to the general public. The initial easy corridors of Washington and the dark questions are: 1) Who was Robert streets of Middle Eastern capitals. Ames? and 2 ) why was his career im- Bird has through careful research and portant? extensive interviews with former offi- Ames, unlike the early stars of the cers of the C.I.A. built an absorbing C.I.A., came from a working class account of Ames as an inconspicuous family in Philadelphia and attended but not insignificant figure in the intel- LaSalle University. Being tall, he devel- ligence world of the Carter and Reagan oped an early and lasting enthusiasm administrations, a period when the for basketball; he was a “sixth man” attention of the intelligence agencies on LaSalle’s national championship was beginning to turn from the once team in 1956. He also excelled as a all-absorbing conflict with the Soviet student before doing two years service Munich Olympics in 1972. In 1979 Union to the more unstable and divid- in the Army working on signals intel- he was killed by Mossad, the Israeli ed world of the Middle East. ligence in Ethiopia for the National intelligence service, in an explosion in But the larger question we need to Security Agency, an agency which at Beirut. Salameh, Bird argues, provid- answer is what guidance does this bi- that time had a very low public profile. ed a back channel for communications ography, which can be seen as merely During his time there, he converted to between the U.S. government and the a fragment of a complex and still un- Catholicism, which, as Bird remarks, Palestine Liberation Organization. finished history, give us as our gov- “suited his future profession.” He also So the C.I.A. was not greatly pleased ernment continues to spend blood, began to study Arabic, which over the by this demonstration of the skills of treasure and credibility on the strug- years he was to master and to make a Mossad. gles of the Middle East. First, it re- cornerstone of his career. He began to By then Ames had returned to minds us of certain constant features work for the C.I.A. in 1961. Most of Washington, where his skills were now of these struggles. One is the difficulty his career was spent in the Middle East, highly valued and where in the early of combining our perception of our with important tours in Lebanon and ‘80s he became a regular briefer on the own interests and of the needs of the Iran, where he served under Richard Middle East for President Reagan and region with the political demands and Helms, a future director of the C.I.A. Secretary of State George Shultz. Just pressures created by our relationship In Lebanon he grew close to Ali Hassan as his influence within the policy pro- with Israel, which is far from being a

32 America January 19-26, 2015 client-state but is both a beneficiary duced by America’s use of overwhelm- McGeorge and William Bundy. Ames’s and critic of U.S. policy. ing force. Bird sees Ames as a signifi- problems are still largely our problems; Another is the problem of working cant contributor to the peacemaking his qualities of character and intellect within the political systems of the area, process in the Middle East. His por- are still what we need in intelligence which are badly divided with shifting trayal of Ames is a valuable addition work today. alliances and variable foreign connec- to the series of biographies he has tions. In the conflicts of the region, al- devoted to more prominent shapers John P. Langan, S.J., is a senior research fellow on the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Core liances are rarely stable and are nearly of U.S. policy since 1945, including J. Faculty at the School of Foreign Service at always limited by profound differences Robert Oppenheimer, John McCloy, Georgetown University. among the parties. The enemy of my enemy is likely to be both my enemy and my friend. The region which the United States wishes to stabilize and Mary Christine Athans hopes to transform brings us into a world which makes Machiavelli seem Mother McAuley’s Vision both highly relevant and comparatively innocent. All this has greatly changed Women of Faith share research. Connolly’s volume is since the 1980s. It has only become The Chicago Sisters of Mercy another contribution to the substantial more difficult. and the Evolution of a Religious work accomplished in individual con- Bird’s book also gives us a good an- Community gregations. gle for understanding continuing divi- By Mary Beth Fraser Connolly When Mother McAuley founded sions within the world of intelligence Fordham University Press. 372p $65 the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin in 1831 services. The longstanding division she rejected enclosure and her sisters between analysis and operations runs One need not be a Sister of Mercy to became known as “the walking nuns” through the C.I.A. and other agencies appreciate Women of Faith. Historian as they traveled the streets caring for and produces different ways of think- Mary Beth Frazer Connolly has done the poor. She believed that when a new ing and evaluating as well as differ- extensive archival work convent was established ent, sometimes conflicting, priorities. to bring to life the work it became independent. Ames built his career on the opera- of Mother Catherine Although she continued tions side of the house but was in most McAuley’s “daughters” to communicate with ways more like analysts in his personal since their arrival in the new foundations, style. The conflict between those who Chicago in 1846. This she was no longer their rely on intelligence drawn from human volume is one of recent superior. When she died sources (“spies”) and those who rely endeavors of women’s in 1841, her vision was on electronic methods of gathering religious congregations continued by her sisters information has a history, but it has examining the charism, around the world. recently been intensified by disclosures or animating spirit, of The first Sisters of about the resources and activities of their founders in order Mercy in the United the National Security Agency. Ames to live out that spir- States, led by Mother and Bird clearly favor an analytic ap- it with authenticity in Frances Xavier Warde, proach which emphasizes cultural, their various works of settled in Pittsburgh in personal and historical factors which ministry in accord with the Second 1843. Three years later Warde brought are not well captured by either elec- Vatican Council’s “Perfectae Caritatis” five young sisters to Chicago at the in- tronic eavesdropping or by invasive (“The Decree on the Appropriate vitation of Bishop William Quarter, operations on alien territory. Renewal of Religious Life”). the first bishop of the new diocese. The Ames’s approach is more likely to Although in-depth exploration of Chicago Mercys became the first reli- be effective when the task confronting the history of individual congregations gious community of women in that city. U.S. policy makers is to bring a conflict was given new impetus by Vatican II, They established St. Xavier Academy, to an end through agreement to move it was the First Triennial Conference expanded now to St. Xavier University. towards peace and when it is no longer of the History of Women Religious In 1852 they opened Mercy Hospital, a matter of forcing the participants in in 1989 which became a catalyst for the beginning of their multiple minis- local conflict to accept the results pro- many congregations to network and tries of mercy in the Chicago area.

January 19-26 , 2015 America 33 Connolly’s book is framed by the institutions or as advocates for those in It might also have been helpful to evolution of governance which the need. She discusses declining numbers know that the Mercy Rule was based Sisters of Mercy developed in the of vowed members, but also the gift of on that of St. Augustine. In addition, United States: (1) Until 1929, each Mercy Associates who bring the Mercy exactly what was the Fourth Vow of house was independent, as mentioned charism to life in a unique way. She Service and did it exist from the be- above. By the early 1900s there were briefly includes more recent challeng- ginning? I found it mentioned briefly eight independent Mercy commu- es including the Apostolic Visitation only later in the book. I was curious as nities in northern Illinois, Iowa and and the Doctrinal Assessment of the to what Connolly meant by “educators, Wisconsin. (2) The first merger in the Leadership Conference of Women whether religious, lay or secular.” In United States in 1929 was known as Religious. the Epilogue, Connolly includes im- “the amalgamation.” This formed the As one who is not a Sister of Mercy, I portant information on the Catholic umbrella group, the Sisters of Mercy would have appreciated knowing more Church in the United States. It would of the Union. The eight foundations about Mother McAuley, the origins of have been useful for that to be includ- in the Midwest came together as the Dublin’s House on Baggot Street and ed in earlier sections for the benefit Chicago Province. (3) The second the challenges she met from the hierar- of those who are not familiar with merger in 1991 formed the Institute of chy in Dublin and Rome in forming her that material. I loved the quotations the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. new group which eschewed the idea of from Mother McAuley and wondered The Chicago Province was named the enclosure. Similar religious groups “in whether “No Sister of Mercy is a fin- Chicago Regional Community. (4) her neighborhood” like Honora Nagel’s ished product until her death” was one By 2008, with declining membership Presentation Sisters, Mary Aikenhead’s of her gems of wisdom. and the need for sharing resources, Religious Sisters of Charity and Mary Connolly’s volume is a genuine the Chicago Regional Community Frances Clarke’s Sisters of Charity contribution to research on women’s joined five other groups—Auburn of the Blessed Virgin Mary (only an religious congregations. It will be of and Burlingame, California; Cedar informal group until they arrived in interest not only to Sisters of Mercy Rapids, Iowa; Omaha; and Detroit— the United States), offer us a view of and other religious, but to all explor- to form the new Sisters of Mercy West the spirit of young women of that era ing post-Vatican II renewal and the Midwest. The goal was to maintain who were part of the missionary thrust possibilities that exist for the church Mercy charism and identity. which blossomed after the Catholic in the 21st century. Connolly does not describe these Church had almost been destroyed in governmental changes without also ex- Europe during the French Revolution Mary Christine Athans, B.V.M., is profes- sor emerita at The Saint Paul Seminary School ploring the ministries of the Chicago and Napoleon. Were they the fore- of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas in Mercys in schools, hospitals and care runners of the Peace Corps or Jesuit Minnesota and adjunct faculty at Catholic for the poor, particularly women and Volunteer Corps of the following cen- Theological Union and Loyola University Chicago. Her most recent book is In Quest of children. Using letters, personal and tury? Or perhaps new forms of religious the Jewish Mary: The Mother of Jesus in public communications, the oral tra- life in the 21st? History, Theology and Spirituality. dition and interviews with a variety of sisters, she describes the Mercy spirit as not dissimilar to “the walking nuns” Jason Berry of Mother McAuley’s day. The author’s descriptions of the Belief in Brotherhood impact of the Sister Formation Conference and the renewal after Malcolm X at Oxford readable book by Saladin Ambar, an Vatican II will be recognizable by sis- Union assistant professor of political science ters from most active religious congre- Racial Politics in a Global Era at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. gations in the United States: return to By Saladin Ambar Ambar’s focus is Malcolm’s 1964 baptismal names; moving to smaller Oxford University Press. 240p $29.95 appearance at the Oxford Union communities, houses and apartments; Society of Oxford University in a de- experimentation with the religious Malcolm X’s ideological journey from bate on race relations. The precise habit and with new forms of prayer; the black separatist Nation of Islam topic of the debate was a phrase from ministry in other forms of education or to his standing as an independent ac- Senator Barry Goldwater’s speech that health care including pastoral work in tivist, renewed by a sense of Islam as year in accepting the Republican pres- parishes or hospitals, teaching in public a global faith, animates this probing, idential nomination: “Extremism in

34 America January 19-26, 2015 Poems are being accepted for the 2015 Foley Poetry Award. Each entrant is asked to submit only one typed, unpublished poem on any topic. The poem should be 30 lines or fewer and not under consideration elsewhere. Include contact information on the same page as the poem. Poems will not be returned. FOLEY Please do not submit poems by email or fax. Submissions must be postmarked between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2015. Poems received outside the designated period will be treated as regular poetry submissions and are not eligible for the prize. POETRY The winning poem will be published in the June 8-15 issue of America. Three runner-up poems will be published in subsequent issues. Notable entrants also may be considered for inclusion on our poetry site, americaliterary.tumblr.com. Cash prize: $1,000 CONTEST Send poems to: Foley Poetry Contest America Magazine 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019

January 19-26 , 2015 America 35 the defense of liberty is no vice; mod- national elite that had lost its empire. But where Martin Luther King Jr. held eration in the pursuit of justice is no “As the institution became less white, nonviolence as “a nonnegotiable prin- virtue.” less male, and less priv- ciple,” writes Ambar, Malcolm X arrived in an England ileged in the postwar “For Malcolm X, non- that had barely begun to emerge as period,” he writes, “the violence was premised the postcolonial, multicolored society politics of the nation upon reciprocity—a we see today. In the American South, and the university were form of equivalency in a lethal white backlash to civil rights compelled to address moral conduct.” demonstrations was jarring the nation- these changes, to grap- He drew applause in al psyche. President Lyndon Johnson’s ple with the extremist the debate for saying, “I 1964 campaign to secure an elected sentiments against this believe in Allah, I be- presidency, a year after he succeeded new field of race rela- lieve in Muhammad as the assassinated John F. Kennedy, used tions.” the apostle of Allah, I Goldwater’s lines to portray him as a On his trip to believe in brotherhood, reckless extremist. Johnson won in a Mecca, given fine grain of all men, but I don’t landslide. detail by Alex Haley in believe in brotherhood Goldwater’s de facto equation of ex- The Autobiography of with anybody who’s not tremism as a virtue in defense of liber- Malcolm X, the diversi- ready to practice broth- ty made for a riveting exchange at the ty of peoples within Islam sparked an erhood with our people.” Oxford debating society. As the author awakening that led to his break from It is hard to imagine a remark like points out, the university mirrored a the separatist Muslims in America. that in the coverage of today’s em- battled map of Islam. But Malcolm and others that the life of the mind and the life of was waging a war of words with pub- CLASSIFIED the spirit are intimately connected and mutually lic opinion in America, and indeed enriching. Western countries wherever he could Books Candidates will be Roman Catholic with a Religion & Civility (faith & reason) Together; www. doctoral degree in theology/spirituality or re- attract press. He had a wide viewfinder wordunlimited.com. lated fields, will have demonstrated excellence in on global events. academic leadership and familiarity with current In the Congo, the independence Positions issues in spirituality/theology and will have a ro- leader Patrice Lumumba won election Seeking an EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. The bust network of academic as well as other profes- Religious Formation Conference (R.F.C.), which sional colleagues and prospective lecturers. as prime minister only to be killed af- fosters and serves initial and lifelong formation Qualified candidates should submit a ré- ter speaking out against Western con- for members of religious congregations of wom- sumé to: Director of Human Resources, Saint trol of the region’s vast mineral wealth. en and men, is seeking a new Executive Director Mary’s College, Facilities Building, Notre Dame, for the national office located in Washington, IN 46556, or send electronically to hr@saint- C.I.A. historian Timothy Weiner, in D.C. The successful candidate must be a member marys.edu. Saint Mary’s College is an Equal Legacy of Ashes, reports that the CIA of a Roman Catholic religious congregation and Opportunity Employer. In keeping with the paid $250,000 to Lumumba adver- have experience with formation or leadership. College’s mission, Saint Mary’s is committed to Qualifications include a master’s degree in the- increasing racial and ethnic diversity at all lev- sary Joseph Mobutu, who had him ology or equivalent. Applications will be received els—students, faculty and staff—and seeks ap- kidnapped and shot dead. Mobutu as until March 10, 2015. Go to www.RelForCon. plications from candidates who share this com- dictator went on to steal billions from org/EDSearch for more detailed informa- mitment. American aid as a reliable ally in fight- tion and application process for the Executive Director position. ing Communism. Want your ad here? At the time, Malcolm X had Director, Center for Spirituality. Visit americamagazine.org. only hunches about how and why Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind., seeks a dynamic and creative Director for its Center for Email: ads@americamagazine. Lumumba died; but in the revolu- Spirituality, an internationally recognized center. org. tionary aftershocks of a destabilized Now in its 30th year, the Center fosters an aca- Call 212-515-0102. country, Malcolm rained his scorn on demic climate for the study of spirituality, devel- “American-trained pilots...dropping ops and facilitates programs, activities and proj- Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. ects that engage the College and civic community 1-5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 12-23 times: bombs on villages where they have in fruitful dialogue and in theologically grounded $1.23; 24-41 times: $1.17; 42 times or more: no defense whatsoever against such praxis. Grounded in the tradition of the Sisters $1.12. For an additional $30, your print ad will planes, blowing to bits Black wom- of the Holy Cross, the Center fosters engagement be posted on America’s Web site for one week. The with the multifaceted nature of spirituality and flat rate for a Web-only classified ad is $150 for 30 en—Congolese women, Congolese cross-disciplinary inquiry, reminding the College days. children, Congolese babies. This is ex- tremism. But it is never referred to as

36 America January 19-26, 2015 extremism, because it is endorsed by indeed, global race relations as and so I told her I have them, but the West, it’s financed by America.” part of a system premised upon I keep them hidden [Laughter] Ambar might have profitably treat- absurdity, a kind of color-in- unless someone draws them out. ed Malcolm’s rhetoric as an echo of fused, surrealistic world that of- George Orwell’s famous essay, “Politics fered you the back of the hand if We can only wonder where Malcolm and the English Language,” on the dis- you described it for what it was. X’s journey might have led had he not tortions of language in service of po- been murdered for speaking truth to a litical ends. Nevertheless, the author A year before his assassination in power structure of racial separatists. brings a keen interpretive edge to bear Harlem by three Nation of Islam gun- He never became an apostle of inte- on what Malcolm X achieved at the men, Malcolm X impressed his initial- gration; he wanted justice first and Oxford event, his oratory drawing the ly skeptical audience at Oxford with a last for people of color. In a poignant audience toward an understanding of lightning rod intelligence and flashes epilogue, Saladin Ambar writes of the the historical memory that he insisted of humor. Professor Ambar includes impact Malcolm had on his genera- on as a fundamental in discussing poli- a transcript that makes for an absorb- tion of young black males who “took tics. The irony of Goldwater’s language ing read in its own right. At one point, on new names—if not because of hangs heavy with each brush stroke in Malcolm makes reference to a dinner Malcolm, then at least with his ghostly Ambar’s textured portrait: that he had had the night before the assistance...Many of us made knowing debate at which a young woman told Malcolm a kind of vocation.” For Malcolm, extremism in the him: Malcolm X at Oxford Union is a tes- defense of liberty was a ratio- tament to the depth of that vocation. nal act. That black people had Well, I’m surprised that you’re to generate explanations for its not what I expected,” and I said Jason Berry is the author of Amazing necessity was the truly ‘radical’ what do you mean? [Laughter.] Grace: With Charles Evers in Mississippi, and other works, most recently, Render unto conception. In this way, Malcolm And she said, “Well, I was look- Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the saw the reality of American, and ing for your horns.” {Laughter}, Catholic Church.

January 19-26 , 2015 America 37 THE WORD

friend who guides us to the highest good, who calls us to the kingdom of Following a Friend God. Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Jan. 25, 2015 Jesus offers this guidance, announc- Readings: Jon 3:1–10; Ps 25:4–9; 1 Cor 7:29–31; Mk 1:14–20 ing that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; re- “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” (Mk 1:17) pent, and believe in the good news.” It hen is the best time to God’s gracious response to Nineveh is also personal guidance, for he calls repent? Now. Now is the puts Jonah’s petulant attitude in per- Simon and his brother Andrew as time. Now is always the spective: “When God saw what they they are “casting a net into the sea…. W did, how they turned from their evil And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me time. Who knows whether there will be time if you wait? This seems to be ways, God changed his mind about and I will make you fish for people.’ the approach of the Ninevites, who ap- the calamity that he had said he And immediately they left their pear in the prophetic book of Jonah as would bring upon them; nets and followed him. the most eager of penitents. Scholars and he did not do it.” As he went a little far- do not see Jonah as a historical ac- It is a humorous sto- ther, he saw James count of a mission to Nineveh, but a ry, but it illuminates son of Zebedee and didactic tale, even a satire, in which God’s universal com- his brother John, irony abounds. It features a recalci- passion and mercy. who were in their trant prophet, who would rather see Forgiveness is a sign boat mending the the Gentiles properly destroyed than of God’s power, cast in nets. Immediately saved, and sailors and denizens of a sharp relief here with the he called them; and city noted for its evil and cruelty, who weakness of Jonah’s human they left their father pettiness. cannot wait to repent of their sins to a PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE God they do not know. God’s call to repentance in the particular case of Nineveh, howev- Jonah is notorious for offering the Walk with Jesus along the seashore. Are pithiest prophetic message in the Old er, is a universal call that knows no you willing to repent and follow Jesus Testament, only five words in Hebrew: bounds except the human response: now?

“Forty days more, and Nineveh shall will we respond when the chance is a. dunne tad art: be overthrown!” The same verb used offered? Paul called the Corinthians here to describe the coming destruc- to see the world in its eschatological re- Zebedee in the boat with the hired tion of Nineveh is used to pronounce ality, “for the present form of this world men, and followed him.” Repentance the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah in is passing away.” While the apocalyptic here is less about giving up a former Gen 19:21, 25 and 29. But its use by end has not yet arrived, Paul’s warning life, though it is that, than about gain- Jonah worked on the Ninevites! Upon retains its bite today, since all of those ing a new life with Jesus. hearing Jonah’s message, the people whom he first warned in Corinth The immediacy of repentance in of Nineveh “believed God; they pro- had to face their own physical deaths. Mark is also on display, for the new claimed a fast, and everyone, great and Whether the kingdom comes in power disciples respond without question small, put on sackcloth.” The king of during our lives or we face our physical and follow Jesus. In this way it is no Nineveh becomes a model of true re- death as those who came before us did, different than the story on display in pentance, as he “covered himself with we must reckon that now is the time of Jonah when he brings his message to sackcloth, and sat in ashes” and called repentance. What other time is there? Nineveh. It seems strange, perhaps on his people to “turn from their evil Repentance, as the Ninevites unbelievable, that people would re- ways and from the violence that is in demonstrated, is a simple process: turn spond to God so quickly, but there is their hands.” from sin and turn to God. It is a pro- a reality buttressing these quick deci- cess of letting go and mourning, like sions. When the truth has been found, Augustine, the loss of the cruel com- and the time is right, why not turn to John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. fort of sin. But we ought to concentrate the truth in fullness? Why not repent Paul, Minn. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. more fully on what we gain, namely, a now? Why not follow now?

38 America January 19-26, 2015 THE WORD Tell Me the Good News Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Feb. 1, 2015 Readings: Dt 18:15–20; Ps 95:1-9; 1 Cor 7:32-35; Mk 1:21–28 “What is this? A new teaching—with authority!” (Mk 1:27)

e are all formally students from among the fishermen. How could Jesus’ teaching might affect their liveli- for some time in our lives, fishermen be teachers in the Bible and hood or authority, or because they dis- Wand it is best to remain in- Jewish law when they had not been agreed that Jesus’ authority was ground- formal students throughout our lives, formally trained? What did they know ed in the Scriptures or God. for there is no point at which there is that the experts did not? Yet, Jesus’ final act in the Capernaum not something we can learn. At the What the fishermen knew, or were synagogue is the demonstration of the same time, most of us function as teach- willing to encounter, was the only true divine ground of his teaching authority, ers at many points in our lives, some of subject: God. The unschooled fisher- for “just then there was in their syna- us professionally but most of us casual- men knew Jesus, spent time with Jesus gogue a man with an unclean spirit, and ly, guiding and directing people in ways and were willing to learn from Jesus he cried out, ‘What have you to do with that might even escape us. We teach by what they did not know. This is why, us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come how we live, how we treat people, how as Ben F. Meyer wrote years ago, “pro- to destroy us? I know who you are, the we respond under stress, how we repri- fessional interpreters appear to differ Holy One of God.’” Jesus healed the mand a child, how we help a neighbor, markedly from commonsense readers man of the unclean spirit, and the peo- as well as by more concrete and direct and, on technical aspects of interpre- ple were again amazed, referring to this ways of teaching. tation…they do. In other respects, Some of us, by training and voca- however, e.g., encounter with the PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE tion, teach religion and theology, and text, report on encounter, critique of Imagine yourself in the Capernaum it is those of us engaged in this voca- truth and value, the superiority of the synagogue. Are you prepared to learn from tion who must always remain students professionals is random and unreli- the one true teacher? in our area of expertise, for Jesus says: able.” It was not technical expertise “But you are not to be called rabbi, for that Jesus sought in his apostles but action of Jesus as a “teaching”: “They you have one teacher, and you are all the willingness to encounter the Word kept on asking one another, ‘What is students. And call no one your father of God as life-changing and life-giving. this? A new teaching—with author- on earth, for you have one Father—the It was the encounter with truth that ity!’” It is God’s presence and power one in heaven. Nor are you to be called led the students, the crowds of ordinary that is the lesson not only to learn but instructors, for you have one instructor, people in Galilee, Judea and elsewhere, to encounter. the Messiah” (Mt 23:9–10). This teach- to throng around the teacher Jesus; they It is necessary to have teachers in all ing is directed at all Christians, but it is responded as people hungry to learn the areas of knowledge, and this includes a difficult teaching for those called upon deepest reality about God and them- theology and biblical studies. Expertise to be teachers and instructors, for it is selves. So, “when the Sabbath came, he and properly ordered authority are easy to forget that in the things of God entered the synagogue and taught. They essential for all fields. But ultimately we are always students. were astounded at his teaching, for he we are all students of the one teach- It is telling, and especially hum- taught them as one having authority, er, whose authority is ordered to our bling for biblical scholars, to remember and not as the scribes.” The religious salvation and joy. From this school we that Jesus did not choose his apostles experts, the scribes, are mentioned, never graduate; this teacher is always from among the biblical interpreters though it seems they are not present, guiding us. This education is perfected or experts in Jewish halakha (roughly as a contrast to Jesus’ authority. Perhaps for our final purpose: to know God. equivalent to canon lawyers today) but the experts hung back, wary of how John W. Martens

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