THE NATIONAL WEEKLY AUG. 27–SEPT. 3, 2012 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES ne of the great figures in con - statements, mass exoduses and acts of temporary Jesuit history died disobedience. That never happened. PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Othis summer. On June 22, Both Father Arrupe and Father JOHN P. S CHLEGEL , S.J. Vincent T. O’Keefe, S.J., died at age 92 O’Keefe pointed Jesuits worldwide to at the Jesuit infirmary at Fordham their vows of obedience. Later EDITOR IN CHIEF University in New York. “Vinny,” as he John Paul would speak warmly of both Drew Christiansen, S.J. was almost universally known (“Vince” the Society’s obedience and of Father EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT to his family), was not only a former Arrupe; the pope also visited Arrupe in MANAGING EDITOR president of Fordham (1963-65) but the Jesuit infirmary shortly before his Robert C. Collins, S.J. also served in as an assistant death in 1991. (Privately the Holy EDITORIAL DIRECTOR (beginning in 1965) and then as a gener - Father was said to have been dismayed Karen Sue Smith al assistant and general counselor (1975- about having been misled about the ONLINE EDITOR 81) to , S.J., the Jesuits.) In 1983 Peter-Hans Maurice Timothy Reidy general of the . After Kolvenbach, S.J., was elected superior LITERARY EDITOR Father Arrupe had a debilitating stroke general in a general congregation of Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. in 1981, he appointed Father O’Keefe to Jesuits from around the world, and he POETRY EDITOR be vicar general of the Society. became a trusted adviser of Pope John James S. Torrens, S.J. Shortly after Father O’Keefe’s Paul. ASSOCIATE EDITORS appointment, Pope John Paul II Many Jesuits credit Vinny’s faithful Kevin Clarke appointed his own “personal delegate,” response to the papal intervention as a Kerry Weber an Italian Jesuit, Paolo Dezza, to take calming influence in the Society of CONTRIBUTING EDITOR over the governance of the Society of Jesus at that critical time. For that rea - James Martin, S.J. Jesus, effectively replacing Father son, among many, he was beloved ART DIRECTOR O’Keefe. Jesuits worldwide were among thousands of Jesuits worldwide. Stephanie Ratcliffe stunned, and hurt, by the pope’s deci - For myself, besides being privileged ASSISTANT EDITOR Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. sion. Father Arrupe wept when he to listen to Vinny’s lighthearted recol - heard the news. lections of Father Arrupe and his more BUSINESS DEPARTMENT When Father O’Keefe was serving anguished stories about the papal CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER as superior of the America House Jesuit intervention, I will most remember Lisa Pope Community in the late 1990s, he was Vinny as a consummate host. After so often asked by Jesuit superiors to speak many years in the Jesuit headquarters 106 West 56th Street to young Jesuits not only about his own in Rome, where he welcomed guests New York, NY 10019-3803 life as a Jesuit and his work alongside from around the globe, he had a rare Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 Father Arrupe, but also about this talent for welcoming with a smile pret - E-mail: [email protected]; painful chapter in Jesuit history. Vinny’s ty much anyone who dropped by. He [email protected] take was that a few of John Paul’s advis - also told some of the best jokes I’ve Web site: www.americamagazine.org. ers had spoken against the Jesuits and ever heard. Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 had convinced the pope of the Society’s Vinny often told of the Jesuit superi - © 2012 America Press, Inc. (supposed) widespread disobedience. or general’s being asked (frequently), And, as Vinny frequently noted, when “Where is the Society of Jesus going?” Father Arrupe spoke to John Paul, he and surprising everyone with his was often so deferential that he was response. Father Arrupe, comfortable unikely to mount a “defense.” At the with the mysterious workings of the same time, Father Arrupe would say to Holy Spirit and with living in times of some Jesuits, “Please make it easier for uncertainty, answered, “I don’t know!” me to defend you!” Despite Father Where is Vinny going? To reside General’s efforts, the mistrust contin - forever, we pray, with his friend Servant Cover: A large portrait of Cesar ued. of God Pedro Arrupe, with all the Chavez at a Mass remembering him in May 2012 at the Cathedral of Our After the “papal intervention,” many , and with the Lord he served in Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. commentators predicted widespread both good times and bad. CNS photo/Victor Aleman, Vida disobedience among the Jesuits: public JAMES MARTIN, S.J. Nueva CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org Vol. 207 No. 5, WholE No. 4981 AUGUST 27–SEPTEmbEr 3, 2012

ARTICLES 11 THE NEXT BATTLE Veterans are fighting for jobs on the homefront. Clayton Sinyai

15 CESAR’S CHOICE How America’s farm workers got organized Barry Hudock

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 11 5 Editorial R2P Can Still Work

6 Signs of the Times

8 Column Suppressing the Vote Maryann Cusimano Love

27 Letters

29 The Word It’s About Holiness The Messianic Secret Peter Feldmeier 15 BOOKS & CULTURE 19 THEATER Shakespeare festivals BOOKS The Jewish Annotated ; The Variations; Catherine the Great

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB A report on ministry at the Olympics , and an analysis of vocations among women religious . Plus, David Van Biema talks about the life of . All at americamagazine.org 19 CURRENT COMMENT

pliance reflects budget woes, reduced staffing and other Foreclosure Forgiveness local setbacks. For four years the housing crisis has been dragging down The federal government must redouble its efforts and add the U.S. economy, impoverishing homeowners, preventing to its own budget the cost of setting up so many state a robust recovery and stifling job creation. The Obama exchanges. It must also aggressively counter the political fall - administration has taken a number of actions to relieve the out sure to follow. For state detractors, even those who have situation: reducing principal for some homeowners abdicated their duty, can complain about whatever the feder - through the Home Affordable Modification Program, urg - al government does or does not do. It is always easier to crit - ing mortgage companies to do the same through multistate icize than to lead, especially if local voters support tactical foreclosure settlements and assisting distressed homeown - defiance. Resistance by states also helps those members of ers with refinancing. Still, these efforts have failed to fore - Congress who are already prone to starve the federal govern - stall the cascade of problems gushing from the home-loan ment of revenue and appropriations for health insurance. debacle. Economists, and now the Treasury Department, Voters should look closely at the health care reform law. have begun to think the unthinkable: forgiving substantial Basically it is a long-range plan to see that nearly all repayment by homeowners whose properties are “under Americans are insured against the huge financial risk of ill - water,” that is, whose mortgages exceed their market value. ness and injury, whether chronic or sudden. The insurance Even Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner has exchanges, then, are vital to our nation’s health. come to hold this view. But Edward J. DeMarco, the acting head of the Federal Status of Christians Housing Finance Agency, the office that supervises the In this age of over-sharing, many Americans are still keep - country’s largest mortgage lenders, Fannie Mae and ing their religious identities to themselves—at least online. Freddie Mac, has rejected the idea of principal reduction. According to a new study from the Public Religion Mr. DeMarco, analysts say, has taken his action to uphold Research Institute, 50 percent of Americans refrain from the principle of debt repayment. In a country that can bail describing their religious beliefs in their Facebook profiles. out its banks and permit mega-bonuses for bankers, it is Of the half that choose to identify their beliefs, 20 percent unjust to hold the line on homeowners. Mr. Geithner has describe themselves as Christian, 9 percent call themselves written Mr. DeMarco, asking him to reconsider. The secre - Catholic, and 4 percent identify as atheist, agnostic or noth - tary argued that reducing payments on principal would ing. In addition, only 5 percent of Americans say they fol - relieve “a significant number of troubled homeowners, help low a religious leader on Twitter or Facebook. White evan - repair the nation’s housing market and result in a net bene - gelical Protestants are the most likely to have engaged with fit to taxpayers.” The F.H.F.A. should heed Treasury’s a religious group or leader online. Nearly 20 percent have request, and if it does not, the administration would be posted a status update about being in church (for Catholics, well-advised to find new leadership for the agency. the number is 2 percent), and 25 percent have listened to a sermon online (compared with 6 percent of Catholics). Marketing Health Insurance So should churches just give up on reaching out Despite a U.S. Supreme Court challenge, foot-dragging by through digital media? Not yet. Younger Americans are far opponents and 33 votes in the House for repeal, President more likely to engage with religious groups and leaders Obama’s health care reform law is crawling toward the fin - online. Four in 10 Americans between the ages of 18 and ish line of full implementation. Health exchanges, a sort of 34 say they use Facebook multiple times each day. The insurance supermarket to help people compare policies, are same percentage of younger Americans say that their supposed to be up and running for consumers in every church provides a Facebook page or a Web site where peo - state by 2014. But as the November 2013 deadline for ple can interact, and 26 percent say their church encour - putting them in place draws near, only 13 states have ages them to use social media. Still, it is possible to become applied to set up an exchange. Additional states probably too plugged in. Sixteen percent of young Americans admit will apply, but the federal government expects half of all to sending or reading e-mails during a worship service. In the 50 states to abdicate their role in creating an exchange. the end, it is real-life actions, not online identities, that So much for the federal “takeover” of health care. In some define a person’s commitment to his or her faith. One cases the failure is a blatant act of political rebellion, even hopes others will know we are Christians by our love— sabotage, against the federal law; in other states noncom - even if they cannot tell from our status updates.

4 America August 27– September 3, 2012 EDITORIAL R2P May Still Work he Responsibility to Protect, the legal doctrine that met in other ways than through an establishes a framework for international interven - all-out military intervention under Ttion, seems tailor-made for the current civil war in the authority of the Security Council. Syria. The principle affirms a common duty of nations to Hesitancy about intervention resist the mass killing of innocent civilians by their own gov - derives in large measure from the lack ernment. Evidence of indiscriminate Syrian government of unity among the opposition forces attacks on its citizens is sufficient to warrant an array of in Syria. The transition can be better measures under the doctrine to protect the Syrian people secured and postconflict instability reduced through efforts to from Bashar al-Assad and his murderous regime. unify them. This can be done through outside mediation Unfortunately, the United Nations has hesitated to do more between factions and through arms transfers and other aid than commission former Secretary General Kofi Annan to given on condition that the opposition closes ranks and undertake what turned out to be two ill-fated peace mis - accepts a unified command. The Syrian National Council sions to the region. should make public the elements of a transition plan prepared Commentators lay blame for the failure to intervene for it by the U.S. Institute for Peace, a federally funded militarily on the opposition of Russia and China, veto- research institution. Publicity will allow others in the diffuse wielding members of the U.N. Security Council. But even if opposition to buy in or negotiate for changes in a postconflict no vetoes blocked international action, there are many rea - regime. This could reduce the squabbling that is bound to sons to hesitate. Syria’s defensive capabilities would make come after the overthrow of the Assad government. armed intervention costly. The unsettled outcome of the A particularly thorny problem in regime-changing 2003 Iraq invasion cautions against outsiders trying to conflicts is the question of transitional justice—that is, how resolve ethnic and religious differences with an enforced set - to hold those responsible for atrocities accountable for their tlement. In addition, the fragmentation of the armed Syrian crimes. To wind down the conflict, Syrians may have to resistance strongly suggests that any post-Assad future will make a choice between full accountability and advancing the be afflicted by interreligious violence. end of armed conflict by extending amnesty to some of the All the same, the unremitting violence of the Assad perpetrators. A cessation of hostilities could be speeded up regime, not only against the current militia forces but espe - by extending amnesty to military and government officials cially, earlier, against unarmed demonstrators and their who surrender or defect by a specified date. sympathizers, provides ample reason to conclude that inter - Given the regime’s history of violence against its own national intervention to end the slaughter is justified. Before people, the opposition will be wary of amnesty; but except armed rebellion began and since its spread, the regime has in egregious cases, amnesty may be the price to be paid for kidnapped, tortured and assassinated civilians in their peace. Worries about former agents of the regime returning homes. The victims of torture have included many children. to power could be handled, as was done in some Eastern Sharpshooters have killed unarmed demonstrators as they European countries after 1989, by lustration (political marched, and artillery barrages have demolished entire cleansing) laws that prohibited their return to political or neighborhoods suspected of sympathy with the regime’s civil office. In any case, the tradeoffs between justice, peace critics. All the attacks on civilians are violations of the laws and the basic functioning of government should be made by of war and crimes against humanity. Without doubt there is the liberated Syrians themselves. just cause for international intervention. But altogether too Finally, neighboring states, the U.N. refugee agency much public debate has focused on the issue of internation - U.N.H.C.R. and the Syrian Red Crescent are doing good al military intervention as if it were the only option. work providing aid to refugees and others displaced by the The framers of the doctrine of responsibility to pro - fighting. The international community should take steps to tect anticipated situations in which the Security Council expand efforts to meet this complex humanitarian emergen - might be deadlocked and acknowledged that it would be cy, prepare for winter and begin the work of postconflict “unrealistic to expect that concerned states will rule out reconstruction. Given the global economic recession, plan - other means and forms of action to meet the gravity and ning and the acquisition of resources must begin as soon as urgency of these situations.” So the need for action can be possible.

August 27– September 3, 2012 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES RELIGIOUS FREEDOM State Department Issues Annual Report he State Department issued its annual report on religious freedom on July 30. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered Ta “sobering” global depiction of fundamental human rights at risk. “More than a billion people live under governments that system - atically suppress religious freedom,” she said. “New technologies have given repressive governments additional tools for cracking down on religious expression. Members of faith communities that have long been under pressure report that the pressure is rising. Even some countries that are making progress on expanding political freedom are frozen in place when it comes to religious freedom.” Secretary Clinton added, “When it comes to this human right, this key feature of stable, secure, peaceful societies, the world is sliding back - wards.” But the report also found some reason for hope in the near future regarding the expansion of religious freedom, including in some perhaps unexpected places like Myanmar and Egypt. “Several countries Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired arch - with diverse faith communities are now in the process of navigating bishop of , takes part in a demonstration for religious freedom out - transitions toward democracy,” she said. “They are wrestling with ques - side the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong tions of whether and how to protect religious freedom for their citi - on July 11. The Chinese characters on his zens. This goes from Tunisia to Burma and many places in between.” placard read, “Protest against restriction.” Secretary Clinton said that during a recent visit to Egypt she had a “very emotional, very personal conver - sation” with Christians who are deeply inclusiveness, passing an anti-discrim - eased some restrictions on church con - anxious about what the future holds. ination law, arresting and prosecuting struction and “generally permitted “What Egypt and other countries alleged instigators of sectarian rioting adherents of religious groups regis - decide,” she said, “will have a major and allowing dozens of churches pre - tered with the government to worship impact on the lives of their people and viously closed to reopen. as they chose.” will go a long way toward determining “Nevertheless,” it added, “sectarian China was again included on the whether these countries are able to tensions and violence increased.” list of nations of “particular concern.” achieve true democracy.” The report documented the According to the report, China experi - She said, “I personally feel very Egyptian government’s failure to curb enced a “marked deterioration” of reli - strongly about this, because I have rising violence against Coptic gious freedom in 2011, including fur - seen firsthand how religious freedom Christians and its involvement in vio - ther religious repression in the is both an essential element of human lent attacks, including an attack by “Tibetan Autonomous Region,” con - dignity and of secure, thriving soci - Egyptian security forces on October 9, tinuing repression of Muslims in eties. It’s been statistically linked with 2011, against demonstrators in Cairo China as well as continuing friction economic development and democrat - that left 25 dead and 350 injured, with Catholics loyal to the Vatican. ic stability. And it creates a climate in “most of whom were Coptic Other states designated as “coun - which people from different religions Christians.” The report notes that no tries of particular concern” for alleged can move beyond distrust and work government officials have been held violations of religious freedom includ - together to solve their shared prob - accountable for such abuses so far. ed three other Asian nations— lems.” In Myanmar, according to the Myanmar (Burma), North Korea and According to the report, the interim report, the government took steps Uzbekistan—and Eritrea, Iran, Saudi government of Egypt began to take toward overcoming a “longstanding Arabia and Sudan. Other countries measures toward greater religious legacy of intense religious oppression,” with notable religious conflicts includ -

6 America August 27– September 3, 2012 “The situation we are in at the small employers remained in grandfa - moment is terrible. What tomorrow thered plans in 2011. The numbers go will bring? Unfortunately, we estimate down to about 66 percent for large a worse situation,” Father Faddoul employers and 51 percent for small said. employers in 2013. Refugees in border communities in Jordan and Lebanon are fraught with Church Challenges concern for relatives and friends left behind as they were forced to flee the Female Feticide escalating violence with little advance Participants in sex-selective abortions notice. “People are feeling generally should be charged with murder, said broken and that they might not ever Holy Spirit Missionary Sister Helen become whole again,” Caroline Saldanha, secretary of the Catholic Brennan, senior communications offi - Bishops’ Conference of India Office cer for CRS, said. for Women. Her opinion comes as The United Nations said July 31 momentum builds to end female feti - that there were 34,096 displaced cide in India, a practice that finds fam - Syrians receiving protection and assis - ilies terminating a pregnancy because tance in Lebanon through the efforts the child they are expecting is a girl. of the government, the U.N. and non - Filing criminal charges for killing a governmental partners. However, child in the womb because of its sex Father Faddoul said the number of would “change the killer attitude” refugees in Lebanon could be well over toward girls in Indian society, Sister 100,000. Helen said. Although the practice of sex-selec - Few Health Care Plans tive abortions is illegal under Indian ed Pakistan and Nigeria, but law, there is no provision for criminal European nations also came under Change on August 1 prosecution. Recent census statistics scrutiny in the report. August 1 is the first possible date indicate that the practice appears to be According to the report, rapid when health plans could be required to widespread. The census data show demographic changes in Europe have cover eight new preventive services for that the national ratio of girls to boys been accompanied by “growing xeno - women—including all Food and Drug younger than 6 years old has dropped phobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim Administration-approved contracep - from 927 for every 1,000 boys in 2001 sentiment and intolerance toward peo - tives—under the Patient Protection to 914 for every 1,000 boys in 2011. ple considered ‘the other.’” and Affordable Care Act. The call for mandatory murder However, most Americans saw no charges was endorsed in July at a con - change in their health insurance that vention of more than 300 leaders from Syrian Refugees Face day, because their plans renew on village councils in northern Indian Uncertain Future another date or are covered by a one- states where there are now about 800 Refugees from Syria are in “complete year “temporary enforcement safe har - girls for every 1,000 boys. A similar darkness” about their future, said bor” or a “grandfathering” provision call came a week later from officials in Father Simon Faddoul, president of that delays changes. Maharashtra state when they urged Caritas Lebanon, which has been The Department of Health and the national government to amend the working with Syrian refugees in Human Services has estimated that up Indian Penal Code to require the filing Lebanon for 14 months. He said there to 87 percent of the 133 million of murder charges against parents as was a large influx of people during the Americans who get their health insur - well as physicians involved in female last week of July as more than 20,000 ance through large employers (those feticide. refugees fled violence in Damascus with 100 or more workers) and 80 and Homs. percent of the 43 million who work for From CNS and other sources.

August 27– September 3, 2012 America 7 MARYANN CUSIMANO LOVE

Suppressing the Vote? ill Cicciarelli, a high school civics Today in Texas, a gun license is accept - our leverage in the elections quite can - teacher in Florida, distributed ed as an ID for voting, but state photo didly goes up as the voting populace Jvoter registration materials to ID cards issued to students at state goes down.” Instead of competing for teach students about the electoral universities are not. votes, Republicans seek to bar the votes process and encourage 18-year-old When the Bush administration of those who might disagree with them. students to register to vote. By doing Justice Department ran extensive Photo ID laws are poll taxes, her job she and other teachers inadver - investigations on voter fraud, they because state issued photo ID cards tently ran afoul of Florida’s draconian found there were more deaths by light - are not free. The ID costs money, and new voter suppression laws, which ning strike in the United States each so do the supporting documents impose fines of up to $1,000 on third year than cases of voter fraud. The (copies of birth certificates and, for parties who help voters register if the Brennan Center for Justice at New women, marriage licenses to document registration forms are not returned York University School of a name change from within 48 hours. Since the postal ser - Law notes that most of the maiden name to mar - vice may take more than 48 hours to very few cases of irregulari - Restrictive ried name). If a person deliver them, the law has done what ties (only 86 cases in the voting no longer lives in the the Republican authors desired. whole country over a five- state where he or she It has stopped groups like the year period), were cases of laws are was born or married League of Women Voters from regis - clerical errors and misun - and cannot go in person tering people unlikely to vote derstandings about voter the opposite to that state’s office to Republican: the old, the young, the rules, not fraud. of electoral procure copies of poor, the working class, minorities and Why then are required forms, addi - women. Minority voters are twice as Republican legislators and reform. tional processing and likely as whites to register at a school governors squandering shipping fees are or through a voter registration drive. hundreds of millions of incurred. A U.S. pass - The poor, the elderly, the disabled and scarce taxpayer dollars in these diffi - port costs $165, not counting addi - those who lack the means to drive to a cult economic times on unnecessary tional document ($150) or expedited state office during business hours also measures in response to a nonexistent shipping ($60) fees. rely on groups like the League of problem? Republican legislatures in 16 Many Americans may not realize Women Voters to register. So states, including the battleground votes are being stolen months before Republicans passed laws making it states of Florida, Ohio, Virginia, the election. These are the tactics very difficult for such groups to regis - Wisconsin and New Hampshire, used by Southern Democrats to sup - ter voters. passed restrictive voter laws in the past press minority voters in the 1960s. In 2008 Democrats won more early year alone. The new laws restrict voter This shameful legacy is now being votes and absentee votes than registration, limit early and absentee revived by new sponsors. The laws are Republicans, so the Republicans have voting and remove many legally regis - being challenged in court, but legal now limited early and absentee voting. tered voters from official electoral lists. challenges take time. Many legal voters Twenty five percent of African- These laws are the opposite of elec - will be turned away in the meantime. Americans and 20 percent of Latinos toral reform; they are aimed at pre - The supports voting, lack government-issued photo ID’s, so venting the votes of citizens who and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Republicans enacted laws requiring might not vote Republican. Bishops urges parishes to help register the types of ID’s that minorities lack. Paul Weyrich, founder of the voters. Citizens must actively protect Heritage Foundation and the Moral their votes before election day. Voter Majority and an advocate for the new suppression has no place in our MARYANN CUSIMANO LOVE is professor of international relations at The Catholic laws, is quite candid: “I don’t want democracy, no matter which party University of America in Washington, D.C. everybody to vote. As a matter of fact, practices it.

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25_B_I_V = Live Area: 7 x 10, 7x10 Master_Installment, Vertical u h c i l o P k N A r Army Reserve veteran Peter Trost, right, walks past exhibits F / S r with his wife, Courtney, and daughter during a job fair in E T

U Naperville, Ill., in October 2011. The job fair was open only to E r

: current and former military men and women and their families. o T o h P

10 America August 27– September 3, 2012 VETERANS ARE FIGHTING FOR JOBS ON THE HOMEFRONT . The Next Battle BY CLAYTON SINYAI

fter 24 years in the military, including three tours in Iraq and service as a scout sniper in Afghanistan, Joe Tretta was ready for a change. “I wasn’t young anymore,” he said. “It was no fun sleeping on the ground.” Mr. Tretta had also spent six months in a hospital recovering from injuries to Ahis leg, head and shoulder after a roadside bomb exploded. He retired from the military in February 2010, but he still wanted to work. His Veterans Affairs representative directed him to Helmets to Hardhats, a national employment and training service that connects veterans with opportunities in the construction industry. Mr. Tretta, who now lives in Bel Air, Md., filed an application online and waited. Given the massive downturn in the construction industry, openings were few and far between. But a year later he got a call from the carpenters’ union apprenticeship program in Baltimore and jumped at the opportunity. His is a success story, but one to which fewer and fewer returning veterans can relate. With a decade of military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan wind - ing down, the armed forces anticipate a major reduction in personnel. The number of active duty soldiers in the U.S. Army is to be cut by near - ly 60,000; tens of thousands of marines, sailors and air force members will join them. This newest generation of veterans will soon re-enter a struggling civilian economy that is not generating sufficient employment for job seekers. They will face daunting challenges in the labor market. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, just over 8 percent of adults were unemployed in 2011. But among the 1.9 million who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001, that number rises to 12.1 percent. For the youngest veterans, between the ages of 18 and 24, the

CLAYTON SINYAI is a member of the Catholic Labor Network.

August 27– September 3, 2012 America 11 unemployment rate is 29.1 percent. cases, the employers involved are household names. Last It is no wonder, then, that for the second year in a row, November Justice reached a settlement with Lowe’s Hardware the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has in one such case; in April, the department filed suit against made veteran unemployment the focus of its “Storm the Home Depot. Justice said store managers in Flagstaff, Ariz. Hill” legislative initiative. The Great Recession has made life complained about a veteran’s absences due to military duties difficult for every American seeking work, but I.A.V.A. has and unlawfully fired the department supervisor. (Home helped shine a light on issues that complicate the job search Depot declined to comment for this story). In May, Home for post-9/11 veterans: (1) since veterans leaving the service Depot agreed to pay the supervisor a settlement of $45,000 are automatically enrolled in the reserves and subject to call- and to make changes to its military leave of absence policy. up, some employers hesitate to hire them; (2) stereotypes In February The Washington Post, relying on docu - about post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain ments gathered under the Freedom of Information Act, injuries cause unnecessary anxiety in potential employers identified the federal government itself as the single biggest and colleagues; and (3) employers—fewer of whom today violator of veterans’ employment and re-employment rights. than in the past have a history of military service—find it Of the 1,548 complaints filed in 2011, The Post reported, difficult to translate military experience into civilian job more than 18 percent involved federal agencies, with the qualifications. Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans In the fall of 2011, in one of the few successful bipartisan Affairs as the top two offenders. The report deeply embar - initiatives of the year, Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida, a rassed the White House. John Berry, director of the Office Republican, and Senator Patty Murray of Washington, a of Personnel Management, announced a “zero tolerance” Democrat, who chair the veterans’ affairs committees of policy for Userra violations by federal managers. But para - their respective houses, combined elements of each one’s ini - doxically, these figures remind us that the federal govern - tiative to create the “VOW to Hire Heroes Act.” By July ment is a remarkable success story when it comes to hiring 2012, the act offered tax credits to employers who hire vet - veterans. Uncle Sam racks up the most complaints because erans, expanded G.I. Bill opportunities for higher education he is far and away the largest employer of veterans. and vocational training, directed the Department of Labor Under the Veterans’ Preference Act of 1944, the United to help translate terminology for military skills and training States made a commitment to favor veterans for civil service into civilian sector job qualifications and strengthened jobs, a decision that has turned the federal sector (including antidiscrimination laws protecting service members. the U.S. Postal Service) into a major employer of vets. While veterans made up about 8 percent of the American work force Protecting Veteran Rights over all in 2011, they accounted for 28.5 percent of new hires “There is definitely evidence that members of the Guard by the federal government, according to reports by the Office and Reserve are finding it difficult to gain employment of Personnel Management. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures because employers appear to be increasingly reluctant to show that while 2 percent of the civilian work force is hire employees who may be called for multiple tours of employed by the federal government, over 14 percent of post- duty,” said Representative Miller. Although much of the 9/11 veterans with jobs work for Uncle Sam. public does not know it, employment discrimination against “Veterans’ preference means that, all things being equal, a person because of veteran status or military commitments the job will go to the veteran,” explained Mary Jean Burke, is unlawful. Under the 1994 Uniformed Services an American Federation of Government Employees execu - Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, employers are tive vice president who represents employees at the not only forbidden to discriminate in offers of employment Department of Veterans Affairs. Overall, about a quarter of but are required to provide prompt re-employment to those federal employees have served our nation in uniform. returning after a tour of duty. This is a critical protection in This generation of veterans, however, is leaving the mili - today’s military, which relies heavily on members of the tary during a time when the federal work force is being tar - Guard and Reserves who may have to leave a civilian job on geted by deficit hawks, whose proposed cuts would shrivel a short notice. (The Department of Defense reported that as major source of employment for those leaving active duty. of May 15, 68,734 reservists were on active duty with the Between 1969 and 1978, when the last generation of veter - various branches.) ans returned from Vietnam, the work force employed by Reports to Congress show that the Labor Department civilian agencies of the federal government grew steadily. looks into 1,400 or more Userra-related complaints per year. Today, by contrast, the White House anticipates freezing If a complaint is substantiated and an employer refuses to federal employee counts at current levels. And the budget make whole the employee in question, the complaint can be proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, calls referred to the Department of Justice for legal action. In some for a 10-percent reduction in these positions over two years.

12 America August 27– September 3, 2012 Outside of Veterans Affairs, there will be few federal open - said. But, he adds, many veterans from the National Guard ings in the coming years. And the jobs coming on line in or the reserves can easily fall through the cracks because Veterans Affairs are not the sort for which enlisted person - they do not return to a military base where these support nel readily qualify. services are available. Mr. Sliger’s program, Project HERO (Housing, Healing Invisible Wounds Employment and Recovery Opportunities) helps veterans Veterans Affairs, for example, recently announced plans to make the transition to civilian life and work. V.A. Hospitals hire 1,900 mental health professionals. “There are a lot and offices in the St. Louis area connect vets in need with St. more invisible wounds than visible wounds,” said Ms. Burke, Patrick’s, where Mr. Sliger and others help them stabilize “mental health issues, addiction disorders.” Improved medi - their lives, find housing, improve their interviewing skills cal treatment and body armor have increased survival rates and prepare resumes that translate their background into for troops injured on the battlefield. The war in terms that civilians can appreciate. “A strategic corporal in Afghanistan is the longest war in U.S. history, surpassing Afghanistan or Iraq is leading people, working with transla - World War II, Vietnam and Korea, with only a fraction of tors, executing missions—that’s middle management. But the fatalities. Multiple tours of duty and improvised explo - to get employers to understand that requires education,” sive devices have taken a toll on our servicemen and women said Mr. Sliger. Last year, HERO provided comprehensive in other ways, including traumatic brain injuries, post-trau - housing and employment assistance to 125 veterans. matic stress disorder and addiction problems. Dwain Sliger sees the results. Mr. Sliger, who served as a From Helmets to Hardhats Navy chaplain in Iraq, now counsels returning veterans at Although P.T.S.D. is widespread, civilian perceptions about St. Patrick’s Center in St. Louis, Mo. As part of the the disorder are overblown, said Robert Schwartz, a Archdiocese of St. Louis Federation, the Wounded Warrior program director at Helmets to center helps the homeless and those threatened with home - Hardhats, the agency that helped Joe Tretta begin his post- lessness. “Today’s veterans are coming back to a society Army career. “People see the worst-case scenario on the six- much more attuned to veterans affairs, with better behav - o-clock news and think that’s what P.T.S.D. is about. But ioral therapy options and treatment for P.T.S.D.,” Mr. Sliger they probably already have someone in their office who sees

August 27– September 3, 2012 America 13 a therapist every Wednesday night, and nobody says any - Back then, a budgetary earmark with bipartisan support thing about it.” Mr. Schwartz helps explain facts like this to provided the seed money to recruit and place vets. prospective employers in order to place veterans in jobs. Apprenticeship programs paid for the training. Union construction contractors call the union’s hiring hall “That $3 million earmark leveraged more than $30 mil - when they need a plumber, painter or electrician and in turn lion in training funds from the apprenticeship programs,” pay a fixed contribution, perhaps 50 cents per hour while that explained executive director Darrell Roberts, a Navy vet and worker is on the job, into a training fund. The fund is jointly former sheet metal worker. (Sheet metal workers construct administered by the union and contractors in order to train ductwork for air conditioning systems, among other duties.) new tradesmen to replace retirees. Helmets to Hardhats takes But in 2010 the new Congress prohibited earmarks, and the advantage of this system to place returning program’s funding disappeared veterans in construction industry careers. overnight. “I had to lay off the majority The program involves some classroom ON THE WEB of my staff,” Mr. Roberts said. “You never study combined with a great deal of on- Clayton Sinyai blogs at heard about the earmarks that were In All Things. the-job training under the direction of americamagazine.org/things about putting veterans to work.” experienced journeymen in the field. Contributions from the construc - Apprentices earn a prorated salary as they tion unions and employers keep the build experience, and they can become journeymen them - program running, albeit at a reduced level. But Mr. selves after four years of progressively more demanding Roberts worries about the future. “We have one million work. General Superintendent Rob McFaul, who supervis - veterans coming out of the service in the next five years,” es Mr. Tretta at Kimball Construction, based in Maryland, he said. “People who planned careers in the military are has been impressed. Vets like Mr. Tretta “are very grateful being told that they will have to leave. Where will these for what they have,” he said. “They appreciate a regular 9-to- people go?” 5 job after what they have been through.” That sentiment is echoed by Steve Kimball, senior vice Last year Helmets to Hardhats placed 662 veterans in president at Kimball Construction. “These guys put their joint labor-management apprenticeship programs. But that lives on the line for all of us,” he said. “If anyone should go is less than half the placement at the program’s 2008 peak. to the front of the line, it’s them.” A

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14 America August 27– September 3, 2012 Cesar’s Choice How America’s farm workers got organized BY BARRY HUDOCK

n March 31, 1962, the day he turned 35, Corps, to oversee the group’s operation in four Latin Cesar Chavez marked his birthday by quit - American countries. ting his job. This unusual (at the time many So quitting his job was not a move of calculated self- would have said called it foolish) choice of interest. A bit reckless, the choice destroyed the security he Obirthday observances changed the course not only of his had established for himself, his wife, Helen, and their young own life, but also of the U.S. labor movement and the children. Mr. Chavez’s later achievement would have been Catholic Church. Mr. Chavez quit in order to establish a impossible without the generous cooperation of his wife and labor union for migrant farm - workers. Two men hold up a large portrait of He knew well the life of the Cesar Chavez during a Mass celebrated campesino : backbreaking work in his honor in April 2010. under dangerous conditions for demeaning pay that did not begin to provide adequate food and shelter. Cesar Chavez spent his entire childhood and many of his young-adult years living in the miserable circum - stances he intended to combat with a union. But it would be a mistake to see his occupational move as a desperate effort to improve his own difficult situa - tion. Since 1952, Mr. Chavez had managed to achieve what most farmworkers could only dream of: steady and meaningful employment in a comfortable environment with pay and ben - efits that reasonably supported his growing family. As an employee of the Community children. For as he spent the next several months crisscross- Service Organization, an early and important California ing the San Joaquin Valley to talk with farmworkers in their Latino civil rights group, he conducted voter registration shacks and garage apartments, Helen worked in the fields to drives, protested police brutality and led evening citizenship support the family. A V classes at neighborhood schools. In 1962, he was C.S.O.’s E U N

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general director and, by all accounts, a success at it. He had Structures of Sin d i V

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already spent 10 years out of the fields. He had even turned Cesar Chavez’s organizing efforts also placed him at serious A m E l

down a job offer from Sargent Shriver, head of the Peace personal risk. For the previous half century, California A

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agribusiness had opposed, by means both legal and illegal, T c i V /

all attempts at labor organization. The Associated Farmers o T

BARRY HUDOCK is the author of The Eucharistic Prayer: A User’s o h P Guide (Liturgical Press, 2010). He lives in Albany, Minn., with his had coordinated a notoriously harsh campaign against early S N wife and children. unionization attempts by field workers; it included c

August 27– September 3, 2012 America 15 widespread violence and mass arrests. ed two years of organized grape boycotts in major cities The problem the field workers faced was not simply a few throughout the country. The N.F.W.A. and the A.W.O.C. unscrupulous businessmen, but the entire system. When merged to become the United Farm Workers Organizing New Deal legislation brought sweeping protections to Committee, headed by Cesar Chavez. (In 1972, with a char - American workers in the 1930s (unemployment insurance, ter from the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the committee became the regulation of hours and wages, age requirements and pro - United Farm Workers of America). tection of unionization efforts), field laborers had been California’s Gov. Ronald Reagan defiantly consumed specifically excluded. This allowed the agriculture business grapes and called the strikers “barbarians.” He ordered model to be structured on a presumption of cheap labor state agencies to send welfare recipients and prison provided by workers who were treated more like farm inmates to replace striking workers, a move the California equipment than people. State Supreme Court later struck down. President “Agribusiness in California has developed on cheap Richard Nixon appeared on camera, like Reagan, eating labor—and not by accident; it’s been planned,” Mr. Chavez grapes. And in 1969, the U.S. Department of Defense once told an interviewer. bought three million “To maintain cheap labor pounds of grapes more the growers have worked Many of the campesinos Cesar than in the previous year out a horrible system of to counter the boycott’s surplus labor—a surplus Chavez visited in mid-1962 effect. labor pool that they are Finally, in July 1970, experts at maintaining.” told him a union was an triumph came. The collec - The interests of tive bargaining contracts agribusiness were interwo - impossible goal. signed were the very first ven with banks, govern - in U.S. history between ment agencies and local law enforcement. Grower-main - growers and a farm labor union. With them came the hiring tained farm organizations set wage terms without the involve - hall (to eliminate the capricious and unfair hiring and firing ment of workers and made sure surplus workers were always practices common until then), bathrooms, drinking water, available. Labor contractors on both sides of the border were fixed hours and overtime. In 1975 the landmark a key component of the system and cooperated in the Agricultural Labor Relations Act codified collective bar - exploitation. Mr. Chavez believed this system, although legal, gaining rights for California’s farmworkers. was profoundly unjust. He insisted that it violated the human dignity of all of those involved, growers and workers alike. Rooted in Faith Many of the campesinos the labor organizer visited in The story of the following 25 years is rich and complex. mid-1962 told him a union was an impossible goal. There Alongside inspiring successes, courage and faith, there were was too much—money, law and history—working against also real failures and shortcomings as a leader and a him. He was undaunted. Six months after he turned 35, at Christian. These include a leadership marked by sus - a fall gathering of 232 farm workers in Fresno, Calif., the picion of disloyalty by those with whom he worked closest, National Farm Workers Association was born. (September a deep need for an enemy to battle and insistence on micro - 30, 2012, marks the group’s 50th anniversary.) managing daily U.F.W. business. The association was off to a good start three years after it Until his death in 1993, Mr. Chavez worked to help busi - was formed. Members had a credit union, an auto repair co- ness owners, politicians and workers themselves grasp that operative, burial insurance and a newspaper. Cesar Chavez campesinos were endowed with the same human dignity as knew it would take several more years of intense organiza - every other person, a dignity laws and business policies tion and fundraising before his organization could mount a must reflect. He also insisted that advocacy on behalf of strike. But the N.F.W.A. was not afforded that time. On farmworkers had to be nonviolent. Sept. 8, 1965, members of the Agricultural Workers The convictions that supported Mr. Chavez’s brave actions Organizing Committee, another new organization founded did not spring from a general sense of moral rectitude. They by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. in 1960, began a strike from the grape were rooted in his Catholic faith, passed on to him and his fields of Delano, Calif., with little enthusiasm or funding. siblings in childhood by their mother and learned more delib - The N.F.W.A. could either watch from the sidelines or join erately in adulthood through his study of Catholic social the fight; after intense deliberation, Mr. Chavez chose the teaching. Around 1950, Chavez had come under the influ - latter. ence of San Francisco-based missionary, the Rev. Donald The Delano grape strike lasted for five years and includ - McDonnell. The priest had explained to him the broader eco -

16 America August 27– September 3, 2012 nomics of California agribusiness and much more. stuff.” He once spoke of the long hours of work involved in “That’s when I started reading the encyclicals, St. Francis thinning acres of lettuce as “just like being nailed to a cross.” and Gandhi and having the case for social justice explained,” To the chagrin of many, even among his close associates Cesar Chavez later said of that time. By “the encyclicals,” he and supporters, he did not hesitate to incorporate his faith meant the major documents of modern Catholic social into the activities and mission of the United Farm Workers. teaching: Pope Leo XIII’s “” (1891) and The Eucharist was a central expression of this spirituality, Pius XI’s “Quadragesimo Anno” (1931). In the former, Leo and its fundamental form of nourishment. Cesar Chavez had in the midst of the Industrial Revolution taken a strong went to Mass almost every day. For decades under his lead - stand for the rights and dignity of the common worker; in ership, the celebration of Mass was a common element of the latter, Pius, during the Great Depression, called for a the union’s demonstrations, as well as part of his personal radical restructuring of the capitalist system. activities and fasts. Besides reflecting the teaching of these documents, Mr. A strong devotion to Mary, under the title Our Lady of Chavez’s work during the following decades anticipated and Guadalupe, also nourished his faith and that of many echoed themes being developed in further social encyclicals Chicano fieldworkers. Banners of La Moreñita led the first by Paul VI and John Paul II. Mr. Chavez’s life became marches, adorned altars and dotted prayer vigils. Marian a living illustration of the key ideas they proposed, especial - devotion is expressed in the name Mr. Chavez chose for the ly the importance of human solidarity, the church’s “prefer - union’s new national headquarters in Keene, Calif.: Nuestra ential option for the poor” and the call to confront the Señora Reina de la Paz (commonly known as La Paz). This “structures of sin” built into culture and law. devotion to Mary was complemented by warm acquaintance But Cesar Chavez’s Catholicism was about more than with other saints, including and Martin de social justice. It was profoundly Christ-centered, in a way that Porres. saw Jesus as both the motivation for the work and present in the suffering he sought to relieve. “I think Christ taught us to ‘¡Sí, Se Puede!’ go and do something,” he said. “We can look at his sermon, Fasting is another spiritual practice that played an important and it’s very plain what he wants us to do: clothe the naked, role in Cesar Chavez’s spiritual life and work. Short fasts on feed the hungry and give water to the thirsty. It’s very simple various occasions were frequent. Three major fasts punctu -

The Catholic Imagination Practical Theology for the Liturgical Year by Skya Abbate Inspirational, practical theology that captures the faith, richly grounded in Scripture and compassionate reflection. The Catholic Imagination, Practical Theology for the Liturgical Year, is a journey through the liturgical year by way of weekly reflections on the life of the church. Through reading, thinking, and discussion, the religious imagination is stimulated and structured so the reader can reflect on and act upon the richness of our faith to enter into a relationship with God. Reflections on the lives of the saints, their writings, their meaning for our times, the importance and value of creation and the natural world, the significance of the sacraments, sacramental devotions, and the timelessnesss of the message encourage the reader to coordinate their actions with the weekly topic. The book offers big ideas in a small package, a weekly lesson to learn as part of on-going catechesis on one’s own time. Orders available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle edition, ISBN: 978-1-62032-051-8 /$21 / 182 pp. / paper from your favorite book seller or order directly from the publisher www.wipfandstock.com via phone (541) 344-1528, fax (541) 344-1506, or e-mail us at [email protected] Media, Examination, and Review Copies: Contact: James Stock (541) 344-1528 ext 103 or [email protected]

August 27– September 3, 2012 America 17 ated his 30 years as head of the U.F.W.: a 25-day fast in 1968, a 24-day fast in 1972, and a 36-day fast in 1988. Each fast included daily Mass for him and his supporters, and each fast ended in the context of the Eucharist. Mr. Chavez made clear that he undertook fasting first for his own personal good and sec - ondarily for the good of the union. Cesar Chavez modeled an authentic integration of important elements of Catholic faith and life that is rarely seen today. Many Catholics today seem to think they must choose either the sacramental, spiritual or devotional aspects of Catholicism or its social aspects—a dichotomy that was as for - eign to him as it was to his friend Dorothy Day. To both of them, these different elements depended upon and nourished each other. Cesar Chavez died on the road, defending the U.F.W. against a grower’s lawsuit in San Luis, Ariz., on April 23, 1993, not far from the small family farm in the Gila River Valley where he was born. He is remembered on his birthday, March 31, with state holidays in California, Colorado and Texas. Today, the U.F.W. continues its work on behalf of American field laborers, though in far smaller numbers and with diminished strength compared with its heyday. This is partly a result of an internal power struggle that arose from Cesar Chavez’s late-in-life failures in leading the organi - zation. Still, his example has strength - ened and inspired millions who work for social justice on various fronts in the United States and abroad. Four years ago, presidential candidate Barack Obama borrowed as one of his major campaign themes the U.F.W. slogan “ ¡Sí, Se Puede!” (“Yes, We Can”). It is a legacy that runs dramatically counter to the notion of religion as an opiate of the masses. “I don’t think that I could base my will to struggle on cold economics or on some political doc - trine,” Cesar Chavez said. “I don’t think there would be enough to sustain me. For me the base must be faith.” A

18 America August 27– September 3, 2012 BOOKS &CULTURE

sion. Summertime is Shakespeare THEATER | JOHN A. COLEMAN time. I keep returning year after year SUMMERS WITH SHAKESPEARE because Shakespeare’s universal char - acters (Coriolanus, Hamlet, Malvolio America’s many festivals, indoors and out, stage the Bard. and Othello, for example) echo per - sons I have known or traits in myself; his year the Shakespeare because we need him,” said Harold his plays help me limn their character - Theatre Company in Bloom. “No one else gives us so much istics and qualities in greater depth. I TWashington, D.C., which for of the world most of us take to be fact.” agree with the critic Samuel Johnson, 25 years has given pleasure to some 2.5 Shakespeare, who was a great vitalist, who attributed Shakespeare’s emi - million theatergoers, won the Tony helps us celebrate life and at the same nence to his stunning diversity of per - Award for regional theater. In holding time “let it be” as we face our little sons. No one before or after, noted that honor the company joins two ear - lives, which are “rounded with a sleep” Johnson, created so many separate lier winners: the Oregon Shakespeare (“The Tempest”). His plays engage us selves and gave them depth. Festival in Ashland and the Utah with their drama and rich language, Perhaps we can best fathom life and Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. their intrigue, humor and fantasy. accept its vitalities and vagaries when Shakespeare is much appreciated, read For 35 years I have trekked from relaxing under a summer sky of stars and performed in the United States. my home in California to Ashland, or in a leafy grove listening to “We keep returning to Shakespeare Ore., for an annual Shakespeare infu - Shakespeare.

“Henry VIII” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Ore. m a h a r G

y n n e J

: o t o h P The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, currently in its 76th year, is the Grand Daddy of U.S. Shakespeare festivals. Most of the nation’s 150 or so other Shakespeare festivals are 15 to 25 years old. Ashland draws some 400,000 playgo - ers each season to its 11 plays (four of them always Shakespeare). While it boasts a longish season (from late February to the end of October), its Elizabethan outdoor theater only gets up and running in June. A profession - al equity company, Ashland’s produc - tions rival anything I have ever seen on Broadway. Like several other festivals (the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder, for example), Ashland is committed to performing the entire BRINGING Shakespeare canon over the years. HEALTH CARE TO LIFE This summer, besides “Henry V,” “As for the FAITHFUL You Like It” and “Romeo and Juliet,” they will present “Troilus and Cressida.” 2012 Homily Resources Similar to Ashland in scope, age The Catholic Health Association is pleased to offer a and reliance on professional equity collection of homilies for 2012 to help clarify health care issues actors are festivals in Alabama, Utah, for parishioners and the communities we serve. Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania and While each topic in the three-part series coincides with liturgy New Jersey. The Alabama festival for a selected Sunday or feast day through 2012, reflections draws some 300,000 playgoers a year; Utah’s 140,000 and Colorado’s 40,000. are appropriate for additional occasions as well. Written by Shakespeare festivals tend to show prominent Catholic theologians and bioethicists, the homilies plays for free or for a set ticket price bring important issues about health and healing to life in the and use one of three venues. The first context of Gospel and church teachings. venue (modeled on the New York’s Catholic health ministries are dedicated to continuing the Public Theater tradition in Central healing mission of Jesus by improving the well-being of the Park) presents Shakespeare plays in a communities we serve. One out of every six patients in America park or parklike setting. San is treated at a Catholic hospital each year. Francisco’s Shakespeare in the Park performs at Golden Gate National Park and travels to nearby Pleasanton, For more information, contact OCT. 28, 30th SUNDAY Cupertino and Redwood City. (You IN ORDINARY TIME Sr. Patricia Talone, RSM, Ph.D., CHA vice president, mission services, can find this kind of venue in Fort Bishop Richard Sklba at [email protected] Worth, Seattle, Buffalo, Richmond, or (314) 427-2500. Nashville, Louis, Louisville, View the entire 2012 collection of these homily aids with offerings by: Omaha, as well as Lake Tahoe, Clarke E. Cochran, Ph.D. Nevada and Pella, Iowa.) Other out - Rev. Gerald D. Coleman, SS, Ph.D. door settings include vineyards, water - Sr. Mary Aquin O’Neill, RSM, Ph.D. ways, valleys and green commons. at www.chausa.org/homilies The second venue is a university campus. Santa Cruz Shakespeare, noted for its somewhat daring takes, is

20 America August 27– September 3, 2012 August 27– September 3, 2012 America 21 staged indoors at the University of has at least one. Texas, Florida, New late August and the San Francisco California, Santa Cruz. Universities York, Massachusetts and California Shakespeare in September. This will like Brown, De Sales, Tulane, William have abundant choices. If you have allow me to compare different produc - and Mary, Dominican and Xavier also already made plans for this summer, tions of the same play. host Shakespeare festivals; some offer check out next summer’s listings. Shakespeare festivals are an summer camps for pre-teens and Most Shakespeare festivals, if not extraordinary feature of our nation’s teenagers. free, are relatively affordable theater, summer culture. As the bard himself An amiptheater or freestanding the - with $20 or $30 once noted: “Shall I ater is the third venue. Maryland seats. And many fes - ON THE WEB compare you to a Shakespeare uses the Annapolis tivals are staged near A review of the film summer day? Summer Garden. California other attractions. “Where Do We Go Now?” Summer’s lease has Shakespeare Theatre in Orinda (north Utah’s festival is not americamagazine.org/culture all too short a date.” of Berkeley) performs four plays each far from two nation - Yet, in the same summer in a large outdoor amphithe - al parks, Zion and Bryce; Tahoe, a gor - sonnet, he utters what can be truly said atre under the direction of Jonathan geous lake, is the backdrop to its festi - of his own works: “So long as men can Moscone, who is also a playwright. val; Ashland is near Crater Lake breathe or eyes can see, so long lives While some festivals produce only National Park, the Rogue River, for this and this gives life to me.” one Shakespeare play each summer, whitewater rafting trips, and the others may present three or four. Some Oregon wine country. JOHN A. COLEMAN, S.J., is an associate pas - companies (like Arizona’s Southwest This year I intend to take in the tor at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco. For many years he was the Casassa Professor Shakespeare Company) mount non- play “King John” in July at Marin of Social Values at Loyola Marymount Shakespeare plays too, including clas - Shakespeare and attend Ashland in University in Los Angeles. sics by Chekov or Ibsen and musicals and comedies. Ashland has a long his - tory of presenting world premieres, JOHN R. DONAHUE such as “Equivocation” by the Jesuit Bill Cain, which takes “Macbeth” as its ROOT STUDY background. Shakespeare festivals sometimes THE JEWISH ANNOTATED Testament scholarship and a beacon include extensive educational outreach. NEW TESTAMENT for future study. While Christian Southern Oregon University, near Eds. Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi scholars have written major commen - Ashland, offers summer workshops Brettler taries on the Old Testament, better and courses on the plays, plus “park Oxford University Press. 637p $35 talks” four times a week: midday, hour - long conversations with actors, direc - Among the major developments in tors, choreographers and set designers biblical scholarship and church life in about the plays. Alabama’s Camp recent decades has been the accumula - Shakespeare serves some 36,000 tion of a treasury of accurate knowl - schoolchildren each year through spe - edge of the world of first-century cial student performances and school Judaism, which gave birth to the New outreach. Fairbanks Shakespeare Testament. Once this world was Theatre, which has run two summer described mainly by contrasting a camps since 1992, sponsors an annual stereotypical legalistic and narrow- bard-a-thon in which, over a 24-hour minded Judaism to a Christian Gospel period for about eight days straight, of graced freedom. Now there exists a volunteers read aloud every word of substantial collection of studies by Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. All of Jewish and Christian scholars that we this is broadcast on the Internet. can hope has eradicated this way of Online, under “Shakespeare thinking. Festivals and Theatres,” you will find Ten years in the making, The Jewish links to festivals around the country. Annotated New Testament is a monu - Except for West Virginia, every state ment to past achievements in New

22 America August 27– September 3, 2012 described as the Tanakh by Jewish New Testament for the most part first century Jewish practice, beliefs scholars, this work is the first major contains writings by Jews and for and lives of ordinary people, includ - commentary on the New Testament Jews who accepted Jesus as a Jewish ing monotheistic faith at the center of entirely by Jewish scholars. The mod - prophet and a messiah. Jewish readers life, cycle of festivals and religious est title scarcely conveys the quality of will find significant information on groups, along with insight into the scholarship packed into its 637 pages. The authors are really a Who’s Who of Jewish experts on Second Temple Judaism who have educated a genera - The ground-breaking tion of Christian scholars. Adopting story of America’s quest the New Revised Standard Version as its for innovation, jobs, prosperity text and following a pattern found in for the middle-class and security works like the Catholic Study Bible and for those in need. Engages the the Oxford Annotated Bible , after a spirit as well as the mind. brief introduction of standard infor - mation on authorship, date and struc - ture, explanatory notes are offered on “cogent, well-constructed... every chapter of every book. deserves wide readership.” The work itself is both a model -Kirkus Indie Reviews one-volume commentary on the indi - vidual books of the New Testament and a compendium of necessary infor - mation for engaged reading and study Buy today at Amazon.com or Local Booksellers by scholar and student alike. The col - lection of maps, charts and diagrams, along with the short sidebar essays, are guiding lights throughout the volume, which contain a fund of information that leads readers to a rich under - standing of texts in their literary and historical context. Unique to this work is its demonstration of how utterly Jewish are the writings of the New Testament, not only in relation to their Old Testament heritage but also to the faith and culture of their origin. A major contribution of this work are the notes that list close similarities between New Testament statements and the writings of post-biblical

Judaism, especially the Mishnah and TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW EB0909 9

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August 27– September 3, 2012 America 23 social and economic context of first- anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism from tion of the historical critical method, century Judaism. ancient times to the present day.” But and the historic “Declaration on the But Christians, the second intend - she notes that this is a text that must Relation of the Church to Non- ed category of readers, may benefit be read in the context of John’s dual - Christian Religions,” which Cardinal most. The 18 extended essays that fol - ism, which “contrasts spirit and flesh, , president of the Pontifical low the commentaries could qualify as light and darkness, life and Council for Promoting Christian an independent collection and are death...belief and unbelief,” and fur - Unity, recently highlighted as a “yes to themselves, to use a commonplace, ther notes that this language is part of our Jewish roots; no to anti-Semitism.” “worth the price of the book.” I would a process of self-definition as John’s The Annotated Jewish New highlight the initial essay by Amy-Jill community distinguishes itself “from Testament should be either a primary Levine, “Bearing False Witness: the synagogue and so from the Jews.” text or required accompanying work in Common Errors Made About Early As Catholics celebrate the 50th every seminary and upper-division Judaism”; I recommend that it be read anniversary of the Second Vatican course in New Testament and should first. While others will have their Council, we realize that The Jewish leave its mark on all preaching. favorites I found especially helpful the Annotated New Testament bears the essays “The Law,” “Jewish Movements legacy of two historic conciliar docu - JOHN R. DONAHUE, S.J., is the Raymond E. Brown Distinguished Professor of New of the New Testament Period,” ments, the “Dogmatic Constitution on Testament Studies (Emeritus) at St. Mary’s “Messianic Movements,” “The Divine Revelation,” with its affirma - Seminary and University, Baltimore, Md. Concept of Neighbor in Jewish and Christian Ethics” and “Afterlife and Resurrection.” The authors face squarely the lethal PATRICK L. GILGER effect of such texts as the cry of the crowd, “His blood be upon us and our LOST AND FOUND children” (Mt 27:25), which have poi - soned attitudes toward Judaism over THE VARIATIONS the life of faith. At the outset of the the centuries but which Aaron Gale By John Donatich novel, Dominic is the associate pastor locates in their historical context. Of Henry Holt. 288p $25 of Our Lady of Fatima, a rundown Mt 27:25 he writes, “Matthew’s first in a rundown section of New readers likely related the verse to the In a recent essay, Marilynne Robinson Haven, Conn. Although a talented Jerusalem devastation in 70 C.E.” described the work of a writer as the writer who earns a book deal on the Of particular value is the superb continual attempt to “make inroads on strength of his written sermons, commentary on the Gospel of John by the vast terrain of what cannot be Dominic is an unsettled, anxious man, Adele Reinhartz, of the University of said.” If we can take our a frequent drinker Ottawa. Her introduction offers an cue from Ms. Robinson, and visitor of prosti - eloquent epitome of this Gospel: “The John Donatich’s first tutes. By turns pas - Gospel according to John...is one of novel, The Variations , torally sensitive to a paradox and contradictions both in its attempts inroads into young waif who seeks content and in the reactions it evokes this terrain, but does his help and yet tired in its readers. It presents a sublime not always succeed. And of his aging parish - vision of a future that is also for this simple reason: ioners, learned in some inexplicable way already a pre - with The Variations enough to quote sent reality.” Donatich has attempted Wittgenstein and yet Along with this praise and appre - to stitch two books into given to fits of road ciation Reinhartz confronts honestly one. rage that lead to his the sectarian quality of John and its at The first is the less arrest, Dominic times venomous comments on the compelling of the two. It remains a difficult Jews. She faces directly the destruc - deals centrally with character to grasp. tive power and use of, for example, Father Dominic, a All of these para - John 8:44: “You are from your father member of that endangered species, do xical traits certainly can coexist in a the devil, and you choose to do your the American-born, middle-aged person, but in a fictional character they father’s desires,” which “has fueled Catholic priest, as he struggles to live need to fit around some stable core,

24 America August 27– September 3, 2012 and the core of Dominic is inconsis - they rehearse Bach’s “Goldberg shelves who have struggled with words tently drawn. As a result he provides a Variations,” whose name is one source and thoughts and, by my lights, have rather weak gravitational pull for the of the novel’s title. It is here that lost the struggle.” It seems that this is minor characters who orbit around Donatich’s real voice and narrative skill what has happened in The Variations . him, and I found myself relieved when - emerge. Donatich has lost the struggle not ever Donatich allowed him to exit the An example: Describing James prac - because he is not a good writer; rather stage. ticing passages from Bach over and he has lost it because, as he said of Perhaps the difficulty in under - over, Donatich writes that he “corrects himself in a recent interview, he is standing Dominic comes from the fact his posture in the way that Father "somewhat like Dominic, a person for that Donatich wants him to represent Dominic advised their parish choir— whom the spiritual impulse has out - a question that many, myself included, ‘Imagine that a string from the top of lived its day-to-day utility." feel quite poignantly: Is there any need the sky was attached to your spine and A novel that attempts to depict the for faith in our secular age? I could not was lifting you up higher and higher’— variations of the life of faith cannot agree more with Donatich that this as if the discipline of good posture succeed if it forgets that, as in classical topic is worthy of serious exploration, didn’t deliberately push itself up from music, variations are developments of but much of the success of the explo - the abdomen but was an involuntary the original aria. In the same way, it ration hinges on the extent to which response to a pulling from above. To will remain difficult to write about the central character can evoke the live life less as a burden and more like a variations on the life of faith if the con - same struggle in us. submission to the force that would lift clusion has already been drawn that The descriptions of Dominic’s you.” If Donatich’s writings about the the original is outdated. It is difficult struggle are not compelling. Donatich’s spiritual life of Father Dominic showed for any of us would-be writers— prose here is choppy, repetitive and precision like this, the novel would Donatich included—to tell an engag - stylistically overwrought. In the effort have been stronger by far. ing story about a struggle in which we to describe spiritual drought, for In the essay mentioned earlier, Ms. are no longer engaged. example, Donatich piles descriptive Robinson describes her personal sentences one atop another. This cre - library, saying, “I love the writers of my PATRICK L. GILGER, S.J. , is a theology stu - dent at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa ates the impression that he lacks a firm thousand books.” She even loves “the Clara University and editor in chief of the Web grasp of the experience of faith slip - large minority of the writers on my site The Jesuit Post. ping through one’s hands. With the challenge of conveying the struggle with faith unmet, the reader is left understanding neither Dominic nor ELAINE M AC KINNON why losing contact with the divine might move the heart. Without this IN A MAN’S WORLD tension to drive the novel, the story of Father Dominic’s departure from the CATHERINE THE GREAT teller as he describes this passionate priesthood lacks the cathartic mixure Portrait of a Woman and precocious woman who rose from of feelings over something lost and Robert K. Massie minor Prussian nobility to become the something gained. Random House. 656p $35 empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. It is certainly possible that any The author crafts a richly textured priest may lose both his faith and his Catherine II (or as history knows her, portrait of Catherine’s life both as a vocation, and to my mind Donatich’s Catherine the Great), remains one of woman and as a ruler and draws the questions press upon many today; but the most intriguing women in history. reader into her world through his lively the first of the two books in The Thanks to the Pulitzer Prize-winning descriptions of the Russian court and Variations maps little of that vast ter - author Robert K. Massie, she is once the personages whose lives intersected rain we call the struggle to believe. again in the public eye. In Catherine the with her own. Assuredly Catherine has The same cannot be said, however, Great: Portrait of a Woman , Massie, not lost her power of seduction, for of Donatich’s second book. It tells of who has previously written highly Massie is clearly in awe of his subject. James, a young African-American acclaimed biographies of the Russian By Massie’s account, Sophia pianist at an Ivy League conservatory, rulers Peter the Great and Nicholas II, Augusta Fredericka was a plain but and his teacher, the aged and increas - doubles as both an academically intelligent girl who rose to greatness ingly forgetful Signora Rosa. Together trained historian and a lively story - through a combination of fortuitous

August 27– September 3, 2012 America 25 circumstance and her own determined coverage of Catherine as ruler, Massie selling author. It also skillfully explores will. Through her mother, Joanna, she devotes chapters to major issues and the interplay between individual will was connected by birth to the events like her intellectual engagement and personality and the larger forces of Romanovs, the ruling family of Russia, with the Enlightenment; her unsuccess - history. and through this her family scored a ful attempt to codify laws through the Massie shows how Catherine took major coup. In 1744, at convening of a repre - charge of her own destiny, defied social age 14, she was sentative legislative conventions and as ruler played a sig - betrothed to the heir to commission; the mas - nificant role in the reshaping of the the Russian imperial sive popular rebellion European map; yet at the same time throne, the future Peter led by an army deserter, she herself was bound by the historical III, a duke of Holstein Emelyan Pugachev; her context within which she lived. Given and grandson of Peter wars against the her insecurity as an interloper and a the Great. Ottoman Turks; and woman, she could not defy the As was typical of the the significant expan - Russian nobility to reform the system time, Sophia had no sion in territory that of peasant servitude known as serf - voice in the matter and she accomplished, in dom, even if she had wanted to do so. found herself a virtual part through her lead - She did not believe that enlightened prisoner in a loveless ing role in the three ideals of liberty and representative marriage to an imma - partitions of Poland. government applied to Russia and ture, capricious bully. Massie gives equal rejected any alteration in the absolute She was forced to weight to her personal power of the monarchy. spend 17 years living with him at the life, including detailed portraits of her More specialized readers may ques - court of Empress Elizabeth, who was relations with a succession of lovers tion the diminished focus on herself quite jealous and often harsh to (“favorites”), particularly the man Catherine’s reforms as well as the rela - Sophia, who upon marriage took the Massie suggests she may have married, tive absence of critical analysis of her Russian name Catherine and convert - Gregory Potemkin. But he does this policies and actions. Massie relies heavi - ed to Russian Orthodoxy. Yet during without sensationalizing her situation ly upon Catherine’s own memoirs in this time she took charge of her own as a single woman who craved physical telling much of her story but without fate by learning Russian, educating and intellectual companionship but much discussion of personal bias or herself, particularly in the writings of whose position as empress made it offering a different perspective. He the European Enlightenment and, per - extraordinarily difficult to form lasting seems to accept her version of events at haps more significantly, building a bonds. face value, and does not probe too solid network of friends and allies. Massie may not bring new insight deeply into her contradictions, including When Peter III finally ascended the into Catherine, but he does provide a the fact that she refused to apply throne in 1761, apparently intending to multidimensional picture of her as a Enlightenment principles to her own replace Catherine and marry his long - resourceful and talented woman oper - power and unabash-edly carved up standing mistress, she masterfully out - ating in a world Poland, dividing the maneuvered him with the help of the largely dominated by ON THE WEB spoils with her fel - Imperial Guard, who deposed Peter men. He does not David Van Biema talks low Prussian and and proclaimed her Autocrat of All the separate Catherine about the life of Mother Teresa. Austrian rulers. Russias. This high-stakes gamble paid the woman from americamagazine.org/podcast Nonetheless, this off, but it left Catherine with a perpetu - Catherine the is an impressive al sense of insecurity, always aware that empress who sought to continue the book about a remarkable woman who she was a foreigner and usurper. efforts of her predecessor Peter the not only took power from her husband’s The book follows a standard Great to expand Russia’s stature in the hands but held onto it for 34 years, rul - chronological narrative, divided into world and integrate her subjects into a ing over 20 million subjects in the vast seven parts, each of which covers a par - wider European culture. While much Russian empire, all with a son and three ticular period in her life. Massie, more of Massie’s treatment is familiar, what male grandsons waiting as possible chal - than many of Catherine’s biographers, makes this biography special is that it lengers in the wings. devotes nearly as much attention to her makes Catherine accessible to a broad - life to taking the throne in 1762 as er audience, thanks to Massie’s gifts as ELAINE M AC KINNON is a professor of history he does to her reign as empress. In his a writer with a reputation as a best - at the University of West Georgia.

26 America August 27– September 3, 2012 LETTERS low citizens” and seems “disposed ‘to Act does have some provisions that I vex and oppress.’” In doing so, Dr. don’t favor. But in its totality, I believe Permissible Lobbying Cafardi ignores the fact that all the it well serves the vast majority of reli - Re “Politics and the Pulpit” by rights of marriage have been granted gious citizens. It is extremely difficult Nicholas P. Cafardi (7/30): Dr. to registered domestic partners in to craft any legislation with such a Cafardi seems to imply that Washington State, and so even if the widespread focus and not infringe on J. Peter Sartain of Seattle same-sex marriage law is overturned, someone’s rights. And the bishops have engaged in impermissible lobbying by these rights will remain intact except not made the correction of the law an assisting in gathering signatures in for the description of these relation - easy task, especially when they appear ships as “marriage.” to provide additional fodder to those support of Referendum 74 in (MOST REV.) BLASE CUPICH Washington State to undo the same- who already want to demonize this Bishop of Spokane, Wash. president. sex marriage legislation. The tax code MICHAEL F. VEZEAU allows tax-exempt organizations to Don’t Demonize Bluffton, S.C. engage in lobbying as long as the lob - Re “After the Fortnight” (Editorial, bying does not form a substantial part 7/30): While I fully understand the Perilous Pounding of the organization’s activities. overall goal of the Fortnight for Thank you to Nicholas P. Cafardi for Dr. Cafardi acknowledges this but Freedom campaign, I don’t believe that “Politics and the Pulpit” (7/30), a clear seems to minimize to the vanishing there are “evil” government forces with and informative argument on the sep - point the degree to which lobbying is grand antireligious motivations behind aration of church and state that permitted. Whether it is “substantial” the decisions which serve as the basis secures tax exemption and the now or not is judged in relation to an orga - for the protest. The Affordable Care perilous blurring of that separation by nization’s totality of activities in terms of time, effort and expenditure. Dr. Cafardi should be familiar enough [email protected]. The position is available as early CLASSIFIED as Aug. 31, 2012, but no later than Oct. 1, 2012. with the activities of Catholic dioceses Résumés and letters of application are due by Sept. to know how “insubstantial,” though Positions 22, 2012. still important in itself, this effort of THE CENTER OF CONCERN is a Washington, the archdiocese is in proportion to all D.C.-based research and advocacy organization, Retreats that it does in worship, education and whose work on behalf of people living in poverty BETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, Ind., offers private and individually directed silent social service. And Dr. Cafardi does around the world spans the last four decades. The Center seeks a new PRESIDENT who will be its retreats, including dreamwork and Ignatian 30 not sufficiently emphasize the fact that public face, will lead the staff and volunteers, will days, year-round in a prayerful home setting. this limitation is placed on all non- manage the implementation of its strategic plan Contact Joyce Diltz, P.H.J.C.; Ph: (219) 398- 5047; [email protected]; bethanyre profit organizations that come under and will represent the Center before many domes - tic and international organizations including treathouse.org. 501(c)(3) of the tax code—not just CIDSE, , the U.S. churches. Conference of Catholic Bishops and others. Candidates must be familiar with Catholic history Wills Moreover, Professor Cafardi seems Please remember America in your will. Our legal title and culture, be rooted in the Catholic social justice is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New to draw into his discussion the totally tradition, have a global worldview and possess York, NY 10019. extraneous issue of the “separation of graduate-level academic credentials or equivalent experience. The President reports to the Board of church and state” to have the opportu - America classified. Classified advertisements are Directors. The application deadline is Sept. 30, nity to quote James Madison in order accepted for publication in either the print version of 2012. For more information, please contact the America or on our Web site, www.americam - to characterize the church’s opposition Center at [email protected]. agazine.org. Ten-word minimum. 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August 27– September 3, 2012 America 27 indiscreet pounding from the episco - Perhaps the Catholic Church needs to power of the state is simply beyond pal pulpit. In addition to calling the bite the bullet and renounce its tax voter comprehension. That is why bishops to be more thoughtful in their exemption so that it can have the free - Miller’s call for positive action to messages to the faithful, however, we dom to proclaim the Gospel and put serve the common good is more a need to challenge our local pastors and that Gospel into practice through question than an answer. What is the parish priests. prophetic ministry. Justice William O. common good after a leviathan gov - Too often I have read comments in Douglas thought that a good idea, and ernment has staked its claim on the church bulletins referring to meetings so do I. commons while allaying our fears being held on church property to GARY NICOLOSI with runaway spending on national London, Ontario “defeat the awful Obamacare program” and social security? and similar comments made to suggest ERNEST MARTINSON Voter Fraud Hayward, Wis. that a Catholic must oppose any effort In “Saving Subsidiarity” (7/30), to discuss issues that are pressing on Vincent J. Miller ends by noting that Boundless Teaching our civic and moral consciences. The subsidiarity demands vigilance against Thank you, Vincent J. Miller, for set - church is mirroring the Congress: both state and corporate power. But ting the record straight. I am a mod - divided and uncaring. MARY ANN FLANNERY, S.C. corporate power exists only with the erate independent and am forever Cleveland, Ohio permission of the state. It is the state arguing with both the right and the that lavishes monetary, fiscal and regu - left, trying to get them to see the wis - Whole Preaching latory advantages on ever-increasing dom of the church. It is not So when does a prophetic word about capital concentration. either/or; it is both/and. Catholic social issues constitute political action How can the state get away with social teaching principles are not or speech? Should the church be muz - this? It is directly legitimized at the meant for any specific age, and they zled in order to keep its tax exemp - voting booth by the passive recipients are boundless. tion? And how does one distinguish of trickle-down advantages like subsi - We Americans are so self-centered. between “spiritual” and “social” issues dized energy, housing, food and It is not all about us. Church teaching when churches are called to proclaim a health care. More relevant may be speaks to all the different situations “whole” Gospel for the whole world? that the legalization of the centralized people in need encounter in every soci - ety around the globe. To say that the To send a letter to the editor we recommend using the link that appears church’s stand on unions is out of date below articles on America ’s Web site, www.americamagazine.org. This allows implies that the church has nothing to us to consider your letter for publication in both print and online versions of say to workers in India, or Brazil or the magazine. Letters may also be sent to America ’s editorial office (address China. on page 2) or by e-mail to: [email protected]. They should be ROBERT KILLOREN brief and include the writer’s name, postal address and daytime phone num - Winter Haven, Fla. ber. Letters may be edited for length and clarity .

Correction: Because of an edit - WITHOUT GUILE ing error, credit for authorship of the essay “How to Create Jobs,” in the forum “Voting Matters” (8/13), was incorrect. The cor - rect identification follows. Teresa Ghilarducci holds the Bernard L. and Irene Schwartz Chair of Economic Policy Analysis at the New School for N I Social Research; Richard E T S

K McGahey is a professor at the C E

B Milano School of Urban Policy, O B

Y The New School, and a former B

N

O economic policy advisor to O T R

A Senator Edward Kennedy. C

28 America August 27– September 3, 2012 THE WORD

the verb used in Greek drama for “playing a part.” It is simply the case It’s About Holiness that for some people intense devotion and commitment can, ironically, result TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), SEPT. 2, 2012 in moral rigidity and an obtuse spirit. Readings: Dt 4:1-8; Ps 15:2-5; Jas1:17-27; Mk 7:1-23 One looks devout, but without interi - or transformation one is really just a “Why do your disciples not follow the traditions of the elders?” (Mk 7:5) pretender playing a religious role. We can think of Inspector Javert, esus’ ongoing controversy with while ignoring what really matters. the evil (or is he tragic?) inspector in the Pharisees heats up in today’s The big question at hand is, what Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Les J Gospel. Some of his disciples does it mean to live a holy life under the Miserables . His commitment to the were eating their meals without law of God? But answers are not law produced extraordinary washing their hands, and the Pharisees so easy. The law tells us to inflexibility and cruelty. He objected to this. The disciples violated keep holy the Sabbath day. was not interested in the the tradition of the elders, they main - Pretty vague stuff. The common good, which is tained. Talmud, a Jewish com - the very purpose of law. Jesus is sharp with them, quoting pendium that wrestled with His life is contrasted Isaiah: “In vain do they worship me, how to interpret the law, with that of the hero, teaching as doctrines mere human pre - needed two whole tractates Jean Valjean, who had cepts.” The first reading, from the Book (260 pages) to wrestle with broken the law several of Deuteronomy, would surely support how this command ought times but devoted his life the Lord. Moses proclaims, “In your to be lived out. observance of the commandments of The Pharisees in Jesus’ day strove to PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE the Lord, your God, which I enjoin live such a devout life that they imitat - upon you, you shall not add to what I ed the ritual purity that priests them - • Ask the Lord to give you one way to command you nor subtract from it.” selves needed at the temple. In their deepen your observance.

Not included in today’s Gospel religious imagination, all Jews could or E N

• Ask the Lord to reveal where you are N qorban U reading is the example of that should live as a priestly people: “You d being judgmental or a pretender. d A T

Jesus gives. Qorban was a practice of shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a : T r dedicating something to the temple. holy nation” (Ex 19:6). The Pharisees A Jesus points out that one could renege might frame their posture as being par - even on the support one owed one’s ticularly zealous in their faith and the to kindness and generosity. parents by dedicating it to the temple, law. What could be wrong with that? In the Gospel, Jesus was not inter - thereby disregarding God’s command. It is clear in the that such a ested in canceling laws, whether ritual This would be an instance of both seemingly devout posture actually or otherwise. Nor is there any evidence adding to and subtracting from the law. took a toll on the common people, that he dismissed his religious culture Jesus has a case. The law of Moses whose ordinary lifestyle made it that practiced additional pious expres - nowhere demands washing for ordinary impossible for them to attain that level sions of it. But he did regularly criti - meals, providing one was not compro - of observance. “Woe to you scribes cize misuse of laws, particularly when mised by an “unclean” object (Lv 15:11). and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You they were advanced on the backs of We might ask ourselves: How could lock the kingdom of heaven before those least able to adhere to them. washing undermine a law of God? It human beings. You do not enter your - We would do well to keep the pre - certainly would not. Jesus is clearly using selves, nor do you allow entrance to miere question always before us: What the controversy to discuss how we can those trying to enter” (Mt 23:13). does it mean to live a holy life? And we lose ourselves in traditions and rules In both this passge and in our would additionally do well to embrace Gospel reading today, Jesus calls the the often-repeated dictum: In essen - PETER FELDMEIER is the Murray/Bacik Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Pharisees hypocrites. The term is tials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in Toledo. revealing. It means “pretender,” from all things charity.

August 27– September 3, 2012 America 29 THE WORD

happens only after the healings of the deaf and blind men. Still, this insight does not keep them from further blun - The Messianic Secret ders. TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), SEPT. 9, 2012 The messianic secret can be alive Readings: Is 35: 4-7; Ps 146:7-10; Jas 2:1-5; Mk 7:31-37 and well in our lives. While some reli - gious people may be more generous He said to him, “Ephphata!” —that is, “Be opened!” (Mk 7:34) and moral than nonreligious folk, most are not dramatically so. The soci - id you ever wonder why Jesus I personally lean toward the first ologist Christian Smith argues that would perform a miracle and explanation, though two or even three most religious people in effect live a Dthen command the person of these could be true at the same time. faith he calls “moral therapeutic healed and the bystsanders not to tell There is one more explanation: deism.” It boils down to this: God anyone? Jesus seemed to do this regu - Jesus’ full identity and mission was a wants them to be happy and modestly larly, and it never worked. In today’s secret to all, including his disciples. moral; God makes few demands on Gospel, he cures a mute and deaf man. Framing the matter this way gives us them; God promises heaven to anyone “He ordered them not to tell anyone. some insight into the healing story in who is not egregiously evil; and God is But the more he ordered them not to, todays’ reading, as well as the next one not imagined to be actively part of a the more they proclaimed it.” in which a blind man is given sight person’s everyday life. Religious skep - We see this scenario repeated, espe - (8:22-26). The afflictions healed mir - tics rightly ask: What real difference in cially in Mark’s Gospel. Scholars have ror the disciples themselves, who are your life does being a Christian make? called this Mark’s messianic secret. too often both deaf and blind. Among “He put his finger into the man’s Numerous speculations are offered to the four Gospels, the disciples in Mark explain this oddity. One explanation is are particularly clueless. They are PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE that Jesus did not want to be confused found with little to no faith (4:40); with a political messiah, which was they cannot follow Jesus’ teachings • Beg the Lord to deepen your faith. surely the expectation of some. In con - (7:18; 9:32); and after the passion trast, “the Son of Man did not come to prediction, James and John ask for • What is one way to more clearly witness be served but to serve and give his life premier seats of glory in his king - your faith? as a ransom for many” (10:45). dom, which only angered the others, Another explanation is that Jesus who had not thought of this first was intent on proclaiming the king - (10:35-41). It ultimately takes a pagan ears and, spitting, touched his tongue, dom of God; it was about the king - centurion to declare at the crucifixion, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’—that is, dom, not about him. “Truly, this man was the Son of God!” ‘Be opened!’” We must receive Jesus’ Or perhaps the secret works like a (15:39). ministry for ourselves, when we are far narrative irony that shows the message In both of these healing stories, too deaf and dumb to hear and speak simply could not be kept down. Mark, Jesus takes time to heal, even applying Christ’s authentic mission. “Then he in fact, tells his Gospel with a style that his saliva on the tongue and eyes laid hands on his eyes a second time suggests great urgency and power. The respectively. This reflects the time and and he saw clearly” (8:25). We must good news of Jesus and his kingdom was patience Jesus must show to his disci - allow Jesus to open our own eyes that just exploding. A counter explanation is ples. In next week’s Gospel reading we we may see his kingdom and discern that this secret explains why many Jews will hear Peter’s confession of faith, the movements of the Spirit in our did not end up believing in him. “You are the Messiah,” (8:29). This hearts. Discipleship is daunting; it is unnerving. But if we call ourselves dis - HAVING PROBLEMS WITH ON -TIME DELIVERY OF AMERICA ? ciples, we need to follow the Lord, pro - Postal regulations require that there be at least 3 instances of late or no claim the Lord, serve the Lord in one mail delivery before requesting a publication watch. You should notify your local post office and make a complaint and/or request a publication watch. another and actively allow the Spirit of the Lord to transform our hearts. The You may also notify us at 212-581-4640 ext 118 or by e-mail at subscrip - [email protected], and we will contact the USPS . Messiah should be no secret. PETER FELDMEIER

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