The National Catholic Weekly March 29, 2010 $3.50 of Many Things
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THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY MARCH 29, 2010 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES y love for the Southwest did evening prayer, going to Mass together not occur at first sight. In or using our shared car to provide rides EDITOR IN CHIEF Drew Christiansen, S.J. Mfact, my first views of the for neighbors. region were startling; from an airplane As time went on, I began to recog- EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT I saw the red rock cliffs of New nize the lessons I was learning from MANAGING EDITOR Mexico, a stark contrast to the lush community life in the desert landscape. Robert C. Collins, S.J. greenery of New England to which I On a day trip to the Grand Canyon one EDITORIAL DIRECTOR was accustomed. The landscape looked November weekend, when our attempt- Karen Sue Smith bare, almost sad. I mourned the luxuri- ed hike was thwarted by steep, ice-cov- ONLINE EDITOR ous, rolling grassy hills of the ered switchback trails, our lack of coor- Maurice Timothy Reidy Berkshires, the blue-gray water of the dination and a line of pushy mules, we CULTURE EDITOR Rhode Island coast, these flourishes of slid our way along the trail back to the James Martin, S.J. nature that were so familiar. By com- rim of the canyon. We stood taking in LITERARY EDITOR parison, the Southwest seemed the view, which left us in silence. Patricia A. Kossmann stripped-down, possessing only what it Together, we were content to just be POETRY EDITOR needed. But I would have to get used still, at the edge of the red and gold James S. Torrens, S.J. to it, as this region would be my home rock, as the canyon seemed to catch fire ASSOCIATE EDITORS for the next year. at sundown. I felt at once dwarfed by George M. Anderson, S.J. I was headed to St. Michaels, Ariz., the sight and made stronger by it; it Peter Schineller, S.J. a town on the Navajo reservation, with made me feel a part of something so Kevin Clarke three fellow volunteers. We were recent much larger than myself. ART DIRECTOR college graduates and through the The welcoming spirit of the Navajo Stephanie Ratcliffe Mercy Volunteer Corps, an organiza- people also made our transition to the ASSISTANT EDITORS tion run by the Sisters of Mercy of the simple life of a volunteer easier. We Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. Americas, we had signed on as full-time attended a dinner one evening at a co- Kerry Weber volunteers to teach at a school for stu- worker’s home, a trailer amid burnt- ASSISTANT LITERARY EDITOR dents with special needs. orange rock formations. As the sky Regina Nigro M.V.C. volunteer communities are turned blue-black, dozens of people gath- supposed to live lives founded on the ered outside around a few native dancers BUSINESS DEPARTMENT principles of simple living, community, wearing traditional clothing and colorful PUBLISHER spirituality and social justice. Of course, shawls and pounding the earth with Jan Attridge we arrived with our own personal inter- quiet footsteps. CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER pretations of these terms, but we did I sat on the dusty ground just Lisa Pope our best to move forward together. Our beyond the pool of light in which the ADVERTISING aim was to be conscious of one another dancers moved, listening to songs sung Julia Sosa within our shared home, to hold one in Navajo to the beat of a drum. I didn’t another accountable for the choices we understand the words, but each beat 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 made, to support one another in the sounded to me like a heartbeat, a call to process and to be truly present and lov- love, as I looked up at a sky unimagin- Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 ing. It was not easy. ably dark and yet bright with stars. And E-mail: [email protected]; We each lived on $100 a month, so in that moment, I loved the community [email protected] Web site: www.americamagazine.org. we had to strip away some material beside me, the earth below me and the Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 things that we clung to before. As One who created it all. The landscape © 2010 America Press, Inc. members of a small community, we no longer seemed bare, but full of the took seriously our responsibility to one evidence of God, whose work I too eas- another, knowing our lifestyle meant ily allowed myself to ignore when it did more than simply being roommates. not suit my tastes. I was, finally, truly Sometimes living in community meant present. And a passage from Hosea making dinner when I wasn’t hungry or came to mind: “I will lead her into the Cover: A boy sits in the market of Karu Chareh in Marja in Helmand cleaning when I hadn’t made a mess. desert and speak to her heart.” Province, southern Afghanistan, in But at other times, it meant sharing KERRY WEBER February. Reuters/Goran Tomasevic. CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org VOL. 202 NO. 10, WHOLE NO. 4888 MARCH 29, 2010 ARTICLES 11 DÉJÀ VU IN MARJA Our guiding illusions in Afghanistan Andrew J. Bacevich 14 THE NEW VIETNAM A Belgian priest revisits a country in transition. George M. Anderson 19 ST. RAFAEL’S CROSS The spiritual journey of a young Spanish saint Ann Prendergast 11 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial Medicaid and Taxes 6 Signs of the Times 9 Column Unplug Your Kids Thomas Massaro 22 Faith in Focus Kosher Catholics? Brian B. Pinter 25 Poem Woman Louis Templeman 29 Letters 22 31 The Word Beyond Hope Barbara E. Reid BOOKS & CULTURE 24 TELEVISION “The Buddha” on PBS BOOKINGS The life of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Andrew J. Bacevich, right, discusses the war in Afghanistan on our podcast, and from the archives, the editors on the fall of Vietnam. Plus, Carolyn Martin Buscarino reviews NBC's “Parenthood.” All at americamagazine.org. 24 . CURRENT COMMENT were linked to their reporting. Women and Parents Needed Besides murders, imprisonment also enters the “We can hypothesize that a greater female presence, not at report’s dark picture. As of Dec. 1, 2009, several govern- a subordinate level, would have been able to rip the veil of ments were holding reporters, editors, bloggers and pho- masculine secrecy that in the past often covered the tojournalists behind bars, with China jailing 26, the denunciation of these misdeeds with silence,” wrote most of any nation. Since then Iran has moved to the Lucetta Scaraffia, an Italian journalist and historian, in a top of the list. As of February of this year, Iran's govern- hard-hitting article on sexual abuse by members of the ment was holding at least 47 journalists, more than any clergy. “Women, in fact, both religious and lay, by nature other country since 1996, and the numbers of journalists would have been more likely to defend young people in jailed in China, Cuba, Eritrea and Myanmar remain cases of sexual abuse, allowing the church to avoid the high. The C.P.J.’s deputy director has appealed to U.N. grave damage brought by these sinful acts,” she wrote. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to speak out more Many commentators (both men and women) have forcefully on freedom of the press. Too many intrepid made similar observations since the abuse scandals broke journalists have paid a high price for highlighting human in the United States in 2002. The surprise is that this arti- rights abuses that otherwise would have remained hid- cle appeared in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s semi- den behind a blanket of impunity. official newspaper. Germany and Ireland have lately been convulsed by clergy abuse scandals, and the Vatican is tak- Historian’s Progress ing note. Scaraffia pointedly used the Italian word omertà, Tony Judt is a widely respected historian of Europe whose usually applied to the Mafia’s rigid code of silence, to incisive political analysis appears regularly in The New describe the secrecy around abuse cases. York Review of Books. Postwar, his survey of Europe after The L’Osservatore article explicitly called for more World War II, demonstrates both scholarly rigor and clear women in leadership roles in the church. The inclusion of writing, a rare combination of traits. Like any public intel- lay men and women in decision-making roles in local dio- lectual worth reading, Judt can also be pugnacious and ceses, archdioceses and in the Vatican would be a way to contrarian, and his criticism of Israel, in particular, has combat the clerical culture that led to the abuse. Parents, in been unflinching. particular, would have been far less likely to downplay Judt recently announced that he suffers from amy- abuses against children. Groupthink is a danger for any otrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a neurological disorder organization, including the Catholic Church. that has left him a quadriplegic. His essay “Night” for the New York Review (1/14) chronicled the quick onset of his Murdered Journalists illness and the “cockroach-like existence” he has been Murder took a heavy toll of journalists last year. According forced to endure in the hours he lies alone in bed, unable to the Committee to Protect Journalists, by December to sleep. Judt is unsentimental about his condition. “There 2009, 71 had been slain worldwide. The committee is no saving grace in being confined to an iron suit, cold described the year as the deadliest in over four decades.