THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY AUGUST 13-20, 2012 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS
PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES ummer weekends afford me a dark, but what separates it from pure rare pleasure: long afternoons pulp is the sharp portrayal of its charac - PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Suninterrupted by chores or ters. Flynn has a talent for writing about JOHN P. S CHLEGEL , S.J. errands. You can find me at the Jersey damaged young women who somehow Shore, where my family and I have survive with their dignity and humor EDITOR IN CHIEF vacationed since I was the same age as intact. They may need a drink or two to Drew Christiansen, S.J. my daughter, who is now 3. It is one of do it, but can you blame them? EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT the few places where I can let the hours Flynn comes recommended by MANAGING EDITOR tick away unnoticed. It is also the best another doyenne of the crime genre, Robert C. Collins, S.J. place for me to read. Tana French. I raced through French’s EDITORIAL DIRECTOR I can mark my summers by the books a few years ago after discovering Karen Sue Smith books I have read and the authors I the stunning Faithful Place. Her stories ONLINE EDITOR have come to know. One summer was are set in Ireland and, in a neat trick, a Maurice Timothy Reidy spent with the Swedish crime writer supporting character from one novel LITERARY EDITOR Henning Menkel and his world-weary becomes the protagonist in the next. Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. detective, Kurt Wallander. Another It is clear by now that I enjoy mys - POETRY EDITOR summer found me in the company of teries, but I am picky about which I James S. Torrens, S.J. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the choose to read. I look for one element ASSOCIATE EDITORS heroes of Patrick O’Brian’s series of that elevates it above the genre. In Kevin Clarke novels on the British Navy. This sum - French’s books it is the writing: sharp- Kerry Weber mer I am exploring the work of three edged and free of clichés. One character CONTRIBUTING EDITOR women writers, two already known to drinks enough “to kill Peter O’Toole.” James Martin, S.J. me, one a new discovery. French’s latest, Broken Harbor , is a ART DIRECTOR It is not really accurate to call Gillian detective story set against the backdrop Stephanie Ratcliffe Flynn a discovery, since her latest novel, of Ireland’s housing crisis. It is already ASSISTANT EDITOR Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. Gone Girl , sits atop the New York downloaded to my Kindle. Times bestseller list. But she was new For something completely different, BUSINESS DEPARTMENT to me when I started my way through I have my eye on Hilary Mantel’s Bring CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER her novels. As with many writers, I Up the Bodies , the second in a planned Lisa Pope began at the end, starting with her trilogy featuring Thomas Cromwell, the newest book. You could describe Gone infamous adviser to King Henry VIII. 106 West 56th Street Girl as a crime novel, but I think a more The first installment, Wolf Hall , New York, NY 10019-3803 precise term is needed to capture the brought Cromwell out of the shadows Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 originality of the story. Maybe “mar - of the royal court and made him the E-mail: [email protected]; riage noir.” Told from the alternating hero of his own story. The novel found [email protected] perspectives of a husband and wife, the its rhythm in the relationship between Web site: www.americamagazine.org. novel begins as a disappearance story Cromwell and Thomas More, a contest Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 but develops into a disturbing tale of made famous in the play and film “A © 2012 America Press, Inc. betrayal and murder. And the first Man for All Seasons.” For a Catholic casualty is the reader. Consider yourself raised on that classic, it was shocking to warned. see More rendered as a prim idealogue The title of Flynn’s second novel, with a taste for torturing heretics. But Dark Places , could sum up her entire that is the genius of Wolf Hall . Mantel body of work. The narrator is Libby conducts a rich symphony around a Day, the lone survivor of a massacre that reviled figure in English history and, in killed her mother and two sisters. Her the process, forces the reader to reassess Cover: Two-year-old MacKenna brother, Ben, was arrested for the crime, historical assumptions. Rhoads opens the curtain as her but 25 years later a group of amateur A summer afternoon spent with father, Jerry, finishes voting in detectives contact her for help. They are Thomas Cromwell—how unlikely does November 2008 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Rochester, convinced he is not guilty. In summary that sound? N.Y. CNS photo/Mike Crupi, the book sounds unremittingly, well, MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY Catholic Courier CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org Vol. 207 No. 4, Whole No. 4980 August 13-20, 2012
ARTICLES 11 IN THIS TOGETHER How Catholics can overcome partisan divisions Richard E. Pates
14 CITIZENS OF FAITH Bringing morality into the voting booth Vincent Rougeau
19 VOTING MATTERS Issues to consider before election day Teresa Ghilarducci • Charles K. Wilber • Daniel Finn
23 CHANGE THE CHURCH? Reform requires will, skill and political organization. David J. O’Brien 11 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment
5 Editorial After Aurora 6 Signs of the Times
9 Column Broken Promises? John J. DiIulio Jr. 26 Faith in Focus Help Wanted James Martin 36 Letters
38 The Word Flesh and Blood; Making Hard Choices 14 Peter Feldmeier BOOKS & CULTURE 28 IDEAS How the media track presidential races BOOKS The End of the Chinese Dream; The Son of God in the Roman World; Rez Life
ON THE WEB ON THE WEB James Martin, S.J., offers a video prayer for frustrated Catholics . Plus, Stephen Martin , right, talks about his book, The Messy Quest for Meaning , and election resources from the U.S. bishops . All at americamagazine.org. 28 CURRENT COMMENT
awful chapters,” he acknowledged, but “a Catholic under - Libor Pains stands that every person is made in God’s image—every The rate-setting scandal involving the London interbank person black or white, rich or poor, born or unborn, inno - offered rate, or Libor, has ensnared financial traders on both cent or guilty. And every life must be held sacred from con - sides of the Atlantic. Authorities are investigating more than ception to natural death—natural death, death in God’s a dozen major banks for allegedly manipulating the rate, time, not the state’s.... We brought all different motivations which is the benchmark interest rate used for financial and philosophies, but we shared this in common—we transactions worldwide, in order to profit on trades. But loved our clients unconditionally.” special attention should be paid to regulators, who failed to Loving clients did not mean that defense attorneys rein in the practice. Officials at the Bank of England report - infantilized their clients or ignored the grief and suffering edly knew about the malfeasance as early as 2007; and in they had caused, or that they shied away from difficult 2008 Timothy Geithner, then at the Federal Reserve Bank choices. It meant they had to earn the trust of these men, of New York, sent an e-mail message to Mervyn A. King at “most of whom never had reason to trust anyone.” the Bank of England urging reform. Mr. King, however, Mr. Doyle concluded: “Love your clients. You will be deferred to the British Bankers’ Association, a private group better lawyers and you will be better people—and your charged with overseeing the rate setting, and both the Bank cases will turn out better.” of England and the Federal Reserve lobbied to keep their recommendations anonymous. As a result, nothing was In Corpore Sano done, and the problem remained unresolved. Twenty-one people were treated for burns following their The case is another example of the lax regulation of the attempt to walk a 10-foot length of hot coals at a recent financial sector. Even in a case of obvious misconduct, the motivational event that featured Tony Robbins. The cere - leaders of two major financial institutions were reluctant mony is part of a seminar meant to teach participants that to “go public” with their knowledge. By deferring to a pri - they can overcome any obstacles in life. Approximately vate banking association, the Bank of England allowed 6,000 participants attempted such a feat that day, willingly itself to be a pawn of the banking industry rather than a putting bare skin in contact with coals heated to tempera - leader of it. Because the matter is so complex, public out - tures ranging from 1,200 to 2,000 degrees in order to rage is likely to be muted. Arrests of individual traders are prove their mettle and determination. expected, but a broader and more sustained examination of But the bishops of the United Kingdom and Ireland regulatory procedures is warranted. The scandal is further have suggested an alternative method, perhaps a more pro - evidence that the banking industry cannot regulate itself, ductive one, for pushing one’s body to the limit. In celebra - and that regulatory bodies like the Security and Exchange tion of both the London Olympics and the Day for Life on Commission and the new Consumer Financial Protection July 29, Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark, England, Bureau should be more robust and better funded. chairman of the Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Love Your Clients England and Wales, urged Catholics to look to the training Kevin Doyle was so effective as New York State capital of Olympic athletes for inspiration. He reminded defender that no one was executed, the death penalty was Catholics that “after years of dedicated training, personal abolished, and his job disappeared. Recently the New York sacrifice and daily discipline,” the body can perform “feats City Bar Association honored him with the Norman that humanly we would think impossible.” Redich Capital Defense Distinguished Service Award. Mr. In a world in which many seek instant gratification, Doyle’s response to the award merits attention because in these words call to mind Aristotle’s belief that “we are the current political climate, the dignity of every human what we repeatedly do.” Character is not built in a single life tends to be lost. act but over the course of a lifetime. In their statement, In his remarks Mr. Doyle listed motives that inspired the bishops also reminded Catholics to take care of their death-penalty opponents: the “underdog ethic,” determina - bodies and to use their bodies to glorify God: “The ath - tion to carry on the work of the 1960s civil rights move - letes in the Olympic and Paralympic games…testify that ment, a desire to foster good government. “For some of us,” to achieve success in sport requires a harmony between he added, “it was a matter of religious faith.” the body, the spirit and the mind brought about through The church over the centuries has had some “pretty training and discipline.”
4 America August 13-20, 2012 EDITORIAL After Aurora
ntil mid-July, few Americans expected the words buyers) and a ban on clips that gun control to be spoken during this year’s presi - hold more than 10 bullets. Udential election campaign. But when James E. While the proposals might Holmes fired his weapons, including a semiautomatic rifle inconvenience gun owners, they with a 100-round capacity, in a packed movie theater in offer significant gains to law Aurora, Colo., the issue of gun control pinged back into the enforcement and public safety. nation’s consciousness, at least for an instant. And if gun manufacturers were required to stamp shell cas - Why is it so easy for a killer to stockpile an arsenal of ings for semiautomatic weapons, the police could identify guns and ammunition without anyone’s notice until the the guns used in crimes—a major step forward. The gun rounds rip into a crowd? Our society asked that question in lobby, however, has successfully fought each of these pro - 2011 after Jared Loughner’s rampage in Tucson, Ariz. We posals. are asking it again with the arrest of Mr. Holmes for alleged - In the weighing of rights, a gun-owner’s “freedom” ly killing 12 people and wounding 58 others. Is society pow - ought not to trump all the societal benefits to be gained erless to prevent incidents like these? Or could a strong from limiting it. That view is no longer popular. Instead, national ban on semiautomatic weapons plus a centralized gun ownership has increased; the National Rifle system of record-keeping, background checks, licensing and Association has become a more formidable political force; monitoring of purchases have prevented this slaughter of some states have expanded gun rights; and the portion of innocents? If some say that gun violence is the cost society Americans who favor gun control has shrunk. Even support must pay for citizens to exercise the constitutional right to for the assault weapons ban is at a record low. bear arms, then others must insist that the cost is too high. After a massacre, questions about the collective good Constitutional rights like freedom of speech, press and are typically raised. Yet they are put aside once the gunman assembly are subject to limits, and so should the right to be is portrayed as a lone actor among millions of law-abiding armed. gun-owners, whose constitutional rights ought not be Gun control requires strong leadership and a support - infringed because of one oddball’s misbehavior. Thus soci - ive electorate, both currently in short supply. Several states ety allows individuals to build an armory, heedless of the (including California, New York and Massachusetts) ban rights of all Americans to live in safety. assault weapons. Although Mitt Romney opposes gun con - Those who find legal limits intrusive and ineffective trol now, he was governor of Massachusetts when that make comparisons to diminish the toll of gun violence; state’s ban was made permanent. Barack Obama vowed as a each year more people are killed by cars than by guns, they presidential nominee to reinstate the ban on semiautomatic point out. Yet automobiles are not only licensed, but regis - weapons. During the Holmes case, however, he has not reaf - tration must pass from buyer to buyer; and every car firmed his vow, because tightening gun laws will not win owner must buy liability insurance. Society has a duty to him votes. Blaming politicians, though, is insufficient. As hold car owners accountable, because cars can (and do) “the self-governed,” we Americans should admit that no cit - cause serious injury and death. That duty extends to gun izen needs a semiautomatic weapon. Catholics ought to owners as well. champion gun control because restrictions would promote Extreme individualism underlies the tendency to life, as they do in the case of abortion, the death penalty and extend personal liberty at society’s expense. That attitude euthanasia. also distorts other public policy debates, like those over tax - The national ban on military-style assault weapons, ation and health care. passed by Congress in 1994, expired with mixed results in Until society’s preference for the unlimited exercise of 2004. The ban, neither clear nor strong enough, allowed individual rights over those of the common good is tem - too many exceptions, and foreign imports flooding the pered, our nation will remain hostage to the gun lobby. And market offset the gains. Efforts to reinstate a ban have our politicians will be reduced to offering victims condo - failed. So have such proposals as regulation of gun-show lences rather than solutions to gun violence. Is this the soci - sales (which are lax on background checks and third-party ety we want?
August 13-20, 2012 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES
SYRIA Massacre Looms in Aleppo; Opposition Seeks U.S. Response he fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria is weeks away, but could be accelerated with more support from the Obama adminis - Ttration, said George Netto, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the opposition Syrian National Council and the group’s U.N. liaison. Netto expressed gratitude for the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts on behalf of the Syrian resistance, now battling Syrian army forces in Aleppo, Damascus and other cities, and for the U.S. role in delivering medi - cal supplies and other nonlethal aid to Syrian refugees escaping the conflict in Turkey. But Netto wondered why the United States and other international powers, which had firmly defended the citizens of Benghazi when Libyan strongman Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi threatened its population, now seem incapable of similarly defending the embattled residents of the ancient city of Aleppo, home to one of Syria’s largest Christian communities. “It’s not enough for the State Department to say, ‘Our hearts are with the people of Aleppo,’” he said. “It’s not enough to sit by and be sympathetic.” Netto called for the United States to issue a warning that the bombing of civilians in Aleppo would cross a line. Even just the threat of a no-fly zone, against a modern army that has shown because of the Syrian army’s tactics. he said, “will go a long way to protect willingness to use heavy weapons, tanks Netto downplayed concerns that civilians.” and aircraft without discrimination. Christians and Alawites face repres - Netto also argued that the United Although more than 200,000 peo - sion or worse at the hands of the States should revisit its policy on arms ple have fled, most of Aleppo’s two Syrian opposition. “There are shipments to the Free Syrian Army. million residents remain trapped in Christians among the underground Netto said the F.S.A. controlled the city. Densely populated neighbor - leaders,” he said, “and there are enough territory within Syria, particu - hoods are being targeted in a bom - brigades of Christians among the larly near the border with Turkey, to bardment so intense the wounded and fighters” of the F.S.A. make aid delivery feasible. He com - dead are being left to lie in the streets, He said the opposition, with the plained that U.S. opposition to mili - according to Netto. “The fear of a help of the United States and other tary aid had discouraged Turkey and massacre is not exaggerated,” he said. Western powers, has been preparing Saudi Arabia from transferring “There is a big likelihood that the for months to assume control of Syria weapons to rebel fighters, essentially regime will drive the F.S.A. out” of if the Assad government collapses, leaving them at the mercy of the vastly Aleppo, he said, “but that is not going including plans for rebuilding, eco - superior Syrian Army. to change anything.” Netto said the nomic reforms and a new constitution “This is being portrayed as a civil regime’s escalating brutality was only that will protect religious and minori - war between two armies, but it’s not eroding what support it had left ty rights. He said the opposition was really like that,” Netto said. The volun - among Syria’s Alawite minority. also working on procedures for “transi - teers of the Free Syrian Army, he According to Netto, a member of tional justice.” explained, are loosely organized and the Syrian Orthodox Church, many “This is very important to us; we lightly armed, attempting to defend Syrian Christians, who may have want to avoid blind revenge,” he said. what began as a nonviolent protest reluctantly supported the regime as at “Those who committed crimes need to against the Assad regime—and now least a protector of religious minorities be punished,” Netto said, but the pro - their families, friends and neighbors— in Syria, are joining the resistance cess must be controlled and just.
6 America August 13-20, 2012 contraceptives and other family plan - tion, for a specific project, and has ning services to women. C.R.S. said strict restrictions on its use. the report, which made its way to sev - “The grant in question with CARE,” eral Web sites, contained “inaccurate the statement continued, “was used to and scurrilous accusations.” provide vitally needed food, clean water, John-Henry Westen, editor of sanitation services and basic nutrition LifeSiteNews and author of the arti - programs to desperately poor families cle, stood by the story. In particular, he in Zimbabwe, Madagascar and five pointed to the findings of John Haas, countries in Central America. Make no president of the National Catholic mistake about it, these programs are Bioethics Center in Philadelphia and a saving lives.” consultant to the U.S. bishops’ C. R.S. said on July 20 that it vetted Committee on Pro-Life Activities, its partnerships with CARE and other who said the distribution of funds to organizations in 2011 with Haas. The CARE could pose risk of “scandal.” agency said the center’s review conclud - Haas, however, also told C.R.S. that ed that none of the grants to partnering none of the grants in question that the organizations constituted support of or Catholic agency made to partnering involvement in immoral activities and organizations constituted support of that there was “little to no risk” of grant A devastated neighborhood after or involvement in immoral activities. funds being used for programs outside fighting in Homs, Syria, on July 27. “C.R.S. is not in agreement with of the grant request or for freeing up CARE’s policy on contraception money at the receiving organization for because we do not support any posi - immoral purposes. The review noted, DEVELOPMENT tions that would be in violation of however, that there could be a risk of Catholic teaching on human dignity “scandal over such partnerships if peo - Accusations Are and the sanctity of human life,” the ple become confused and wrongly ‘Inaccurate and church relief agency said on July 24. assume that C.R.S. was endorsing a “Any funding Catholic Relief Services partner’s position on other issues.” Scurrilous’ provides to CARE or any other inter - C.R.S. explained that it continues to atholic Relief Services said that national humanitarian organization work with the U.S. Conference of its decision to allocate $5.3 mil - comes from an outside source such as Catholic Bishops and the bioethics cen - Clion in emergency funding to the federal government or a founda - ter to address such risk. the humanitarian organization CARE in 2010 under a U.S. government grant did not violate Catholic teaching. In postings on its Web site on July 20 and July 24, the U.S. bishops’ international development and relief agency explained that the money it provided to CARE was specifically used for water, sanitation and nutrition programs for poor families in Central America and Africa and could not be transferred to other services provided by CARE. The C.R.S. statements came in response to an online report that criti - A homeless child stands in front of a make-shift hut in cized C.R.S.’s decision to work with Nosybe, Madagascar. CARE because that agency provides
August 13-20, 2012 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES
China Priests Pressured Chinese government officials have NEWS BRIEFS forced seven priests in Heilongjiang The Vatican announced on July 27 that Bishop province who resisted the illicit episco - Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland, Calif., has pal ordination of the Rev. Joseph Yue been named archbishop of the Archdiocese of Fusheng of Harbin to leave their San Francisco. • Bishop Richard Pates of Des parishes. The priests have either Moines, Iowa, on July 13 called on Secretary of stayed with parishioners, returned to State Hillary Clinton to “reinforce strongly” U.S. their hometowns or fled to other opposition to an Israeli commission that recom - provinces. Prior to the ordination on mends legalizing all settlement outposts in the Oswaldo Payá July 6, religious officials within the West Bank. • Oswaldo Payá , a prominent Cuban Chinese government warned that dis - dissident, died in a car crash on July 22 in an incident that his fami - obedient priests would face dire conse - ly claims was “not an accident.” • While sentencing Msgr. William J. quences. In recent weeks, they ordered Lynn of Philadelphia to three to six years in prison for child endan - priests with “dissatisfactory perfor - germent , Judge Teresa Samina said the priest turned a blind eye to mances” to take three months leave for “monsters in clerical garb” who “destroyed the souls of children.” self-examination. The seven priests • Church leaders in India hailed the growing public demand for mur - were either absent from the ordination der charges against those who aid and abet female feticide , a crime or openly expressed their opposition deep-rooted in India, which has only 914 girls for every 1,000 boys. to Father Yue, who did not receive a • A federal judge in Nebraska on July 17 dismissed a lawsuit papal mandate. The Vatican declared brought by seven states and a number of Nebraska-based Catholic that Father Yue incurred automatic entities that challenged new contraception requirements under the excommunication for participating in Affordable Care Act. the illicit ceremony. Despite the action, he continues to celebrate Mass in bish - op’s garb.
U.S.C.C.B.: Retain Tax Credit “lift millions of American fam - title as long as the institution “consid - ilies out of poverty and help them live ers it relevant,” said university direc - Credits for Poor in dignity and with greater economic tor Marcial Rubio. The Vatican has Congress should extend “tax credits security.” He said that a just framework accused P.U.C.P. of causing “serious that help low-income families live in for spending cannot rely on dispropor - damage to the interests of the church” dignity,” said Bishop Stephen E. Blaire tionate cuts in essential services to since the 1960s, when a Peruvian of Stockton, Calif., chair of the bish - poor persons and that it would be priest and instructor at the university, ops’ Committee on Domestic Justice unjust not to renew tax cuts for the Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P., founded the and Human Development. “Poverty in working poor while addressing tax institution’s guiding principle of “lib - this country is historically high and cuts for middle class and wealthy eration theology,” promoting social growing. Currently over 46 million Americans. justice and pan-Latin American soli - Americans live in poverty; over 16 mil - darity. P.U.C.P. is an “institution cre - lion of them are children. In America Peru University Rejects ated in Peru, governed by Peruvian today, the younger a person is, the law, not canonical law,” Rubio said. more likely they are to live in poverty,” Vatican Decree “This is the official name by which we Bishop Blaire wrote in a letter on July One of Peru’s top Catholic universi - are known domestically and interna - 25 to Congress. “Low-income tax ties will continue to call itself Catholic tionally,” he added. “The university’s credits are pro-work, pro-family and and pontifical, despite a Vatican assets are the property of the P.U.C.P. some of the most effective antipoverty decree on July 21 aiming to strip the and are protected by the Peruvian programs in our nation.” Bishop Blaire titles after decades of ideological ten - constitution.” noted that the Earned Income Tax sion. Lima’s Pontifical Catholic Credit and the refundable Child Tax University of Peru will preserve its From CNS and other sources.
8 America August 13-20, 2012 JOHN J. D I IULIO JR.
Broken Promises? ven among Americans who vote tion have persisted, while class-based reduce political inequalities, but that on a regular basis and are polit - gaps in organized interest activity remains to be seen. Eically active in other ways, a seem to have widened. Citizens with When it comes to political input, majority doubts that what average cit - incomes in the top fifth, for instance, the report concludes, Americans are izens want or do really matters when it are twice as likely to vote and eight unequal both at the finish line and at comes to who gets elected or what times as likely to make campaign con - the starting line. The authors advocate public policies get adopted. Ever more tributions as citizens with incomes in campaign finance reforms, lifting middle-class, working-class and low- the bottom quintile. restrictions on voting, toughening income Americans have come to As reported in The Unheavenly restrictions on lobbying and liberaliz - believe that they have no real political Chorus , interest groups in ing “rules governing public protests voice with elected officials and no Washington, D.C., that represent for- and rallies.” But they duly acknowledge actual influence over what government profit corporations out - that their well-meaning does or how it does it. number those representing Americans proposals are all pretty I wish I could dish up statistics, labor unions by nearly 50 to much political moon - studies and stories to document how, 1. About 72 percent of all are unequal shots. contrary to popular perceptions, pre - expenditures on lobbying The scores of mil - sent-day American democracy originate with organiza - both at lions of working people approximates the ideal of government tions that represent busi - the finish struggling to pay their of the people, by the people and for the ness. monthly mortgages, for - people. But the troubling truth is that With respect to lobbying line and merly middle-class folks today’s average citizens are correct expenditures, political at the now feeding families when they doubt their own political action committee money, with food stamps, de- efficacy. congressional testimony, starting line. unionized workers, the The latest and best evidence on this amicus briefs and other unemployed, welfare- sad subject is in the superb book The measures of influence, political activity dependent individuals and former Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political “on their own behalf by recipients of prisoners begging for jobs are living Voice and the Broken Promise of means-tested benefits barely exists.... “the broken promise of American American Democracy (2012), by the The interests of unskilled workers democracy.” These Americans are political scientists Kay Lehman receive none at all.” And for all the talk patriotic. They have civic spirit. But Schlozman of Boston College, Sidney about the rise of “public interest” lob - they are down on a government that Verba of Harvard University and bies and gender, race and ideological does not hear or heed them, and they Henry Brady of the University of “identity groups,” they too represent “a are disinclined to play a political game California, Berkeley. very small share of organized interest that they seem bound to lose anyway. As Schlozman and her colleagues activity.” So, what is to be done? I wish I stress, the fact that “political participa - Schlozman and her co-authors knew, but I suspect that the “erosion in tion in America is stratified by social throw cold water on the notion that union membership” (from about 21 class” is old news. Research dating participatory equality is being boosted percent in 1981 to 12 percent in 2010) back to the 1950s reveals as much. by the Internet and social media. In is an even more important piece of the But as economic inequalities have 2011, trade and other business associ - political inequality puzzle than become more pronounced, class-based ations averaged about 1.6 billion men - Schlozman and her co-authors suggest gaps in individual political participa - tions on Twitter per week compared it is. Without a rebirth of the with around 66.5 million for public American labor movement, our JOHN J. D IIULIO JR . is the co-author of interest groups and only 1.2 million nation’s interwoven economic and American Government: Institutions and Policies (2012) and other books on politics, for unions. The “interactive forms of political inequalities will only become religion and public administration. online political participation” may yet more sizable—and more sinful.
August 13-20, 2012 America 9 A c i r e m A / y l l o / k c o t s r e t t u h s
: e g A m i e t i s o p m o c
10 America August 13-20, 2012 HOW CATHOLICS CAN OVERCOME PARTISAN DIVISIONS In This Together BY RICHARD E. PATES
atholics who are serious about their faith and want to live it out in the public arena are challenged in today’s political environment. The choice of a party is difficult. The parties themselves have serious flaws, and they often appear to flaunt precisely the issues most at odds with Catholic teach - Cing. This teaching is rooted in the reverential respect and protection of the life and dignity of every human from conception to natural death. Our country’s founders employed the phrase “self-evident truth” to con - vey the universal applicability of such teaching. To their credit, Democrats have for at least a century recognized that government has a legitimate role in helping the poor and vulnerable. But these days Democrats more often grab headlines through their efforts to redefine marriage or by trying to determine which church activity is “reli - gious” or by attempting to force Catholic institutions to provide employ - ee health coverage for sterilizations and contraceptives, including abor - tion-inducing drugs. To their credit, Republicans for the last 50 years have opposed the abortion-approving Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and have espoused family values. But Republicans now make head - lines by advocating the slashing of federal programs, including those for the poor, and proposing anti-immigrant legislation. Catholics have responded in various ways. Ross Douthat, a New York Times columnist and Catholic convert, says Catholics use their most deeply held values, whether that means defense of the unborn or care for the poor, to choose a party, but sooner or later they join “the side they’re on.” This is the opposite of what the U.S. bishops advocate in their doc - ument “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” “As Catholics,” it says, “we should be guided more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group. When necessary, our
MOST REV. RICHARD E. PATES is bishop of Des Moines and chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
August 13-20, 2012 America 11 participation should help transform the party to which we of conscience and individual conversion. It requires Catholic belong; we should not let the party transform us in such a voters honest enough not to ignore principle in favor of par - way that we neglect or deny fundamental moral truths.” tisan preference. It requires legislators brave enough to risk The idea is that Catholics should work within their par - the acceptance of their caucus and support among their con - ties to change them, creating a diverse and substantial group stituents. It also requires a significant increase in trust and motivated not so much by ideology but by challenging cul - acceptance of people’s good will at face value. In a scorched- tural issues, large and small. earth political climate, partisans seldom raise a concern or This is easier said than done. The bishops are asking value of the other side unless it is to denigrate it (call it Catholics to raise uncomfortable issues in sometimes socialist, anti-woman, etc.) or to say why it should not mat - exceedingly hostile environments. Many Democrats have ter. worked strenuously since Roe v. Wade to purge dissenters U.S. Catholics make up 29 percent of the current on legalized abortion from party ranks. They have succeed - Congress—far more than any other single religious denom - ed to the extent that pro-life Democrats find themselves in ination—and hold 17 of 50 governorships. If any group can a no-man’s land, often reviled for their views and distrusted make an impact by unifying around its core principles, it is by pro-lifers because of their party affiliation. More recent - this formidable, diverse and culturally eclectic group. ly, Republicans have sought to purify party ranks of even the Pundits and pollsters point out that in the last few election slightest variations from party orthodoxy. Republican candi - cycles the candidate who has won the Catholic vote has also dates and legislators espouse increasingly hard-line posi - won the White House. But Catholics do not vote as a bloc, tions punitive to immigrants and cut disproportionately nor will they in the foreseeable future. Still, Catholics can programs that help the poor. make a positive difference on society. In this partisan environment, Catholics may feel “politi - Latino Catholics provide some hope. With strong pro- cally homeless,” to borrow a phrase from John Carr, execu - life, pro-family sensibilities and pro-poor and pro-immi - tive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and grant views, they defy easy classification. They could trans - Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic form either party that welcomes them and their concerns— Bishops. The parties’ retreat from the ideological center has a model for other U.S. Catholics. Pioneering modern left Catholics with the understandable, but unfortunate Catholic social teaching in 1891 with his encyclical “Rerum impression that their only political option is to choose a side Novarum,” Pope Leo XIII proposed a middle way between and join in to win the culture war. The resulting toxic acri - the socialist and laissez-faire philosophies of the day. A case mony has long since seeped into the church. Catholics must could be made today that a unified Catholic effort could reverse this trend. bring both major parties to openness toward Catholic views. One can only imagine the increased appeal of a A Faith-Based Worldview Republican Party that extends its pro-life concerns to the Cardinal Francis George of Chicago has advocated an end years between birth and infirmity and applies its family val - to the fixation over whether someone is a “progressive ues to poor and immigrant families. The same goes for a Catholic,” an “orthodox Catholic,” a “Vatican II Catholic” or Democratic Party that embraces the challenge to society a “traditionalist Catholic.” He urges instead a focus on being made by Edward Kennedy in 1971, to “fulfill its responsi - “simply Catholic.” In his final presidential address to the bility to its children from the very moment of conception,” a U.S. bishops, Cardinal George observed, “For too many, challenge later abandoned. politics is the ultimate horizon of their thinking and acting,” and the value of the church’s role in public discourse is Toward the Catholic Vision judged by how it will serve a partisan agenda. One catalyst for promoting such a change should be the Catholics must reject this mentality realization by people of both parties that and act in a way that reflects a belief in a ON THE WEB they need each other to accomplish even higher truth, seeing a greater horizon Election resources their partisan political goals. Sometimes beyond that of a partisan agenda. This is from the U.S.C.C.B. conservative goals have liberal solutions the essence of “Forming Consciences for americamagazine.org and vice versa. Both parties should pursue Faithful Citizenship,” which urges the common good more than partisan Catholics to place the church’s priority teachings at the heart advantage. For instance, as Catholics work for legal protec - of their worldview and moral decision-making. Practically tion for the unborn as a matter of justice, they can also speaking, this means that political positions should be advance pro-life goals by strengthening and enforcing anti- judged by how well they express the values and truths of the discrimination laws for pregnant women in the workforce. faith, not the other way around. This requires examination And they can advocate for more generous parental-leave
12 America August 13-20, 2012 benefits. The United States is one of the few countries in the world that does not require employers to provide paid parental leave for workers. If Bolivia and Haiti, among the poorest countries in this hemisphere, can offer two and three months of paid leave, the United States—among the richest nations in history—can certainly do more. Increased attention to this issue would show that the United States places a high value on human life. And it would help forge a cultural perception that pregnant women really do have options and that abortion does not have to be tolerated, even as a “necessary evil.” The pro-life cause is also helped by making poor families a priority instead of an afterthought, so that no one can hide behind the excuse that people need abortions because “they just can’t afford another child.” Meanwhile, the challenges of the highest domestic pover - ty rate in 15 years are too great for one party or philosophy to solve. Democrats must take seriously the concerns of Republicans that the government cannot be all things to all people. Republicans must take seriously the concerns of Democrats that the government has a role to play. Members of both parties must acknowledge the risk of future unsus - tainable deficits and put everything on the table to address the problem, including revenue, unnecessary defense spend - ing, and just and fair entitlement reform. The Catholic vision is one of collaboration, not coercion, among individuals, governments, businesses and other insti - tutions. Its focus is not on profit or a winning ideology. Its focus is on creating conditions in which people can develop and ultimately flourish, in which their lives enjoy non-nego - tiable protection from conception to natural death, and thus can fully reflect the dignity God intended. This applies to every level, from individual to global. Following the princi - ple of subsidiarity, the Catholic vision is to ensure that prob - lems are tackled in the best possible context and that all stakeholders meet their responsibilities to one another. Subsidiarity locates responsibility at the lowest feasible level of society and requires other levels to support them in meet - ing their responsibilities. Both parties lack this vision or at least do not trust each other enough to make decisions that favor the common good consistently. Catholics could help and lead by example. Catholicism has appeal across centuries, cultures and ideologies. Today the church can evangelize by working among people with various perspectives to counter the excesses of ideology. It might often make people angry, but it also would make the Catholic voice more difficult to ignore, elevating it above mere partisan agendas. It would give the church renewed credibility as a moral voice and force in the culture. In the words of “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” “We are called to bring together our principles and our political choices, our values and our votes, to help build a better world.” A
August 13-20, 2012 America 13 Citizens of Faith Bringing morality into the voting booth BY VINCENT ROUGEAU
or most of my formative years, until I was government promotes human dignity, the common good almost 30, the Washington, D.C., area was and meaningful participation in the life of the community home for me. Politics brought my family there; for all. my father initially worked for a U.S. senator The U.S. Catholic bishops have offered us a compelling and went on to work in the Carter administra - guide for thinking about faith and political life in their doc - Ftion. When I was in college, I spent two summers as an ument “Faithful Citizenship,” and much of what I have to intern for the same senator for whom my dad had worked, say about this topic draws on the themes they have devel - and I began my career as a lawyer in Washington as well. I oped so carefully. It is not my goal to restate what they have mention all this to say that from a very early age, my life was written, but to reflect more personally on how I understand filled with the day-to-day of American political life, and I my responsibility as a voter and citizen in the context of can say with significant personal knowledge that the opera - Catholic teaching. tion of democracy in the United States (never a pretty pro - How might that translate to specific issues relevant in cess here or anywhere else in the world, for that matter) has this election? Take, for example, our health care debate. become increasingly debased and cynical. Although the Supreme Court has relieved some of the pres - The sense of national responsibility and leadership that sure on the issue with its most recent ruling, the fact transcended party loyalties has all but evaporated, replaced remains that the idea of providing universal health coverage by a coarse pandering to public opinion. There is no end to remains extremely controversial in the United States. The what we must endure in this regard, from the heckling of House Republicans recently wasted precious public the president in a joint session of Congress, to the broadly resources by conducting a purely symbolic vote to “repeal” held assumption that the Supreme Court justices should the Affordable Care Act despite its survival of the Supreme behave like political hacks. Despite the physical grandeur of Court challenge. Mitt Romney subjected himself to 17 sec - our nation’s capital, one senses a slowly advancing internal onds of sustained booing by boldly repeating his intention rot driven by small-minded “principle” and personal self- to repeal “Obamacare” at the annual convention of the aggrandizement. N.A.A.C.P. Most countries with the necessary financial means (and Voting, Citizenship and Faith some without it) have provided universal health care to their Given this environment, I have been moved to think care - citizens and residents for decades because it was fairly obvi - fully, as we approach another presidential election in ous that human dignity required it. Universal health care is November, about what it means to be a citizen of the United a moral imperative, something a political community ought States who is also a person of faith. Although my faith has to offer if it hopes to encourage meaningful membership a great deal to do with how I think things ought to be, I and participation in the community, both of which are make political decisions based on the world as it is. The essential to a well-functioning democracy. United States I observe today is a place riven by two warring In the United States, however, many people do every - ideologies about the role of government that have reached thing they can to prevent the entire population from receiv - an impasse, lacking in a strong sense of common purpose ing health coverage because they cannot stand the idea that and rooted culturally in libertarian individualism. This sug - the government (as opposed to the free market) might be in gests to me that my political decisions need to be about the the best position to provide it or because they despise the “big tent” issues and not the political sideshows. As a president and his political party or because of disagreements Catholic, therefore, I am most concerned about how our about whether particular procedures should be covered. Although I take very seriously the role we as Catholics should play in bringing our values to the discussion of spe - VINCENT ROUGEAU is the dean of Boston College Law School. cific aspects of national health care policy, I think it is more
14 America August 13-20, 2012 important to make sure that everyone who needs health mented migrants in particular will create a new permanent coverage has it—period. Allowing people to go without underclass in American society. It is as if the agony of our access to decent health care in the midst of this nation’s nation’s relationship with slavery and segregation has taught extraordinary affluence is at best a shameful misdirection of us nothing. our priorities and at worst evidence of a nation blind to the Perhaps some of the political discord around this issue is basic requirements of social justice. rooted in the different daily realities experienced by those who live in the United States of the future—one of cos - Beyond Borders mopolitan metropolitan areas, multicultural neighborhoods Another hotly contested issue of great importance to me is and globally oriented workspaces—and those who live in the concept of citizenship itself and the question of who can be part of the mainstream People for and against the health care reform law demonstrate in Washington, D.C., on June 28. in American society. The philosopher Gary Gutting wrote recently in The New York Times about the moral questions raised by patriotism and the tensions it creates with a more universal morali - ty rooted in cosmopoli - tanism—a philosophical con - cept that proceeds from a belief in the existence of shared moral obligations that are owed to all human beings. To whom do we owe equality of esteem, dignity and respect? Is it primarily to our fellow citizens? Do geopoli - tics and nationalism create our moral boundaries? Certainly, there must be some sort of shared moral understanding among a defined group of people to give the America of the past—defined primarily by Anglo- meaning to concepts like human dignity and equality, but as Protestant cultural dominance, post-World War II econom - a Catholic I have always thought that my faith leaned heav - ic prowess and a firm belief in the United States as the ily toward a vision of human worth that was not necessarily world’s exceptional nation. This second America is passing limited to Americans. After all, the nation-state and the away, and, for better or for worse, nothing can be done to accompanying concept of nationalism are relatively modern bring it back. phenomena, and Christianity proposes a universal message I believe the faithful citizen casts his or her vote recog - about the dignity of the human person. This does not mean nizing the country as it is and with a vision of what it could that our particular loyalties to family and country are unim - be in the best of circumstances going forward. The United portant, but they exist in the context of God’s unbounded States will soon be a majority nonwhite nation in which the love for all of us. former American understandings of “white” and “black” will What, then, does this universality mean for a political lose their meaning. How will this affect U.S. culture and issue like immigration? The United States is a settler nation identity? and cannot be understood apart from waves of migration The U.S. economy will be driven by global economic r e l
over three centuries. Our ability to absorb new migrants has events and policies over which the U.S. government alone l o r
long been our strength. Yet, many of us are unwilling to own will have little control. Can we continue to speak seriously B o B / this history in the face of substantial non-European immi - about American exceptionalism? Social, cultural and politi - o t o h p
gration; we seem unable to appreciate the very real possibil - cal structures we have become familiar with over the last s N ity that ongoing resistance to the integration of undocu - two to three centuries will change, and some of these c
August 13-20, 2012 America 15 changes will occur much more quickly than we expect. Raw arate us from our common sense, something that has become assertions of political power may slow some of them down endemic in American public life. If I could ask one thing of but probably will not stop them. Trying to resurrect a world my fellow citizens prior to this election, it would be for them that has passed away is futile, and the attempt is often more to refuse to respond to infantile, reality-show politics and its destructive than the changes we seek to prevent. false assertions, half-truths and mindless chatter. Let the Recognizing the reality and inevitability of change, we Romneys ride their speedboat and the Obamas vacation on should remain focused on promoting core values of Catholic Martha’s Vineyard. What do the candidates for president teaching by seeking ways to make them propose to do for the country as the sum - intelligible in new social, political and eco - ON THE WEB mers get hotter and sea levels rise? Does nomic conditions. Health care for all can Read America on cutting taxes for the wealthy in the face of unite a diverse population around a shared the Nook e-reader. a historic recession create jobs? One candi - system of social benefits and promote a americamagazine.org/nook date says it does and the other says it sense of common purpose through digni - doesn’t. One of them is wrong or lying. fied provision for children, the poor, the weak and the elder - Neither political party in this country can be seen as a ly. A managed admission of immigrants and migrants to our proxy for being a “good” Catholic in political life. Each of us nation allows us to reap the benefits of global movements of must attempt to negotiate a role for ourselves as Catholic people, which can open up new possibilities for economic Christians in a secular society, one that allows us to share innovation, spark urban renewal and revive aging communi - what we believe with our fellow citizens while maintaining ties. Catholic social teaching provides important intellectu - our personal freedom to live out our faith in peace. There al and moral content to a public discussion about why pur - are no guarantees that we will convince them that our way is suing these policy goals would be a good thing, both moral - best. The notion of freedom of individual conscience with - ly and pragmatically. in a political system that protects religion without favoring one particular faith over others is at the heart of the No Pandering Allowed American experiment, but it can be very difficult to execute Finally, we must be very wary of attempts by politicians and in practice. It is, nevertheless, a tradition that makes me their handlers to pander to our most selfish instincts and sep - proud to be an American. A
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18 America August 13-20, 2012 Voting Matters Issues to consider before election day
Voting is no simple, single-issue game. Instead, it requires of the ernments cannot legally run annual deficits. In order to bal - electorate both breadth of information and serious discernment ance their budgets, states and cities are laying off essential about issues and priorities. In order to help readers make public workers. In 2010, for example, Newark, N.J., laid off informed choices in November, we composed a short list of issues 167 police officers; the following year crime in that city rose we think are important and asked experts to focus briefly on one by 21 percent. of them. What follows are three: on jobs, income inequality and Cuts like these also hurt the economy. Had public global trade. employment remained level throughout the recession, The Editors instead of declining by over 700,000 jobs, our national unemployment rate would be close to 7 percent at this point How to Create Jobs rather than at May’s level of 8.2 percent. BY TERESA GHILARDUCCI 3. Governments at all levels should make major invest - our-and-a-half years after the Great Recession began ments in America’s aging infrastructure. Bernard L. and more than two years since the official recovery Schwartz, an investment banker, and others have called for Fstarted in March 2009, 19 million Americans who major public investments in our roads, bridges, airports want a job cannot find one. Many economists (including and water and electricity systems through a national myself) are frustrated because, while there are many effec - infrastructure bank, monitored through a separate tive ways to create jobs, political polarization in Congress Congressional capital budget. This would help our long- has blocked necessary action to address the economic and term economic future and provide jobs in construction, human costs of unemploy - ment. Below are four specific ideas about how jobs could People wait in line to enter a job fair in New York, April 2012. be created now, with increased borrowing by the federal government. 1. States could extend the school day and school year by 25 percent, hiring new teach - ers and support personnel. That would be a triple win: for children, for working par - ents and for women, who would likely obtain many of the new education jobs. It also would improve the edu - cational performance of stu - dents, especially those in N poor neighborhoods, which o t e l would help their future p A t s
employment prospects. N o N N
2. The federal government A h s / must provide another round s r e t u
of aid to cities and states e r
: o
because state and local gov - t o h p
August 13-20, 2012 America 19 where unemployment in June was close to 13 percent. most secure option, especially given the ongoing financial 4. Tax policy can also be used to create jobs, though that crisis in Europe. When the economy does return to robust method is less effective than direct spending. Still, by growth, the federal deficit must of course be dealt with— extending unemployment benefits and lowering the pay - but not until then . roll tax for workers, Congress and the Obama administra - In recessions, tax cuts and government deficits can help tion created around one million jobs and added a full per - restore growth, but they are no substitute for a government’s centage point to gross domestic product growth in 2012 investment in the important things we cannot buy in private alone. markets with our tax breaks, things like bridge and road There are many other good ideas for job creation, includ - repairs, public parks and schooling for the nation’s children. ing retrofitting houses to save energy and to accommodate For these we need the political will to borrow money to pay the elderly and disabled. The Annie E. Casey Foundation our own workers to build, teach, care and guard. recently released a list of job creation measures that could In short, we do not lack effective ideas for immediate job expand our physical and human infrastructure, educate chil - creation. We lack the political will to create jobs. dren and adults and maintain and improve our infrastruc - ture and public spaces. TERESA GHILARDUCCI holds the Irene and Bernard L. Schwartz Job growth should be financed by increased federal bor - Chair of Economic Policy Analysis and is the director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis in the department of economics at rowing, which we can easily afford. Interest rates remain at The New School for Social Research. She was also an economic policy a very low level, and U.S. debt is still viewed as the world’s advisor for the late Senator Edward Kennedy.
Lost Opportunity? bottom fifth climb to the top fifth as adults. The United BY CHARLES K. WILBER States (with 42 percent of its population mired in the bot - ost people favor equality of opportunity, at least tom fifth) has the least mobility when compared to in principle. Few, however, believe equality of Denmark at 25 percent, Sweden at 26, Finland at 28, Moutcome is possible or even desirable. While it is Norway at 28 and Britain at 30. possible that attempts to force equality of opportunity Extreme income inequality also shifts ever more political through governmental intervention in the market might power from lower- and middle-class households to the rich - reduce individual incentives, which in turn might reduce est. The recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United output, it is already clear that inequality itself distorts incen - tives and restricts opportunities. How does this apply in the United States? Compare two groups of children. The first group is born into wealthy families with parents willing and able to pro - vide books, museum visits and high-quality schooling at pri - vate universities. The second group has parents who strug - gle to put food on the table, who live in areas where the schools are run down and understaffed, and where expecta - tions are low and hope for the future not reinforced at home or at school. Children from the first group almost invariably do better economically than those of the second. While some children from very disadvantaged backgrounds
achieve success, most do not. The truth is that our vaunted N o s l social mobility is mostly a myth. o h c i N
In fact the United States has less social mobility than y c u l
most other developed countries. Ron Haskins and Isabel / s r e
Sawhill of the Brookings Institution show in their book, t u e r
Creating an Opportunity Society, how poorly the United : o t o
States does. For example, 42 percent of those born in the h p bottom fifth of the income distribution remain there as People line up for lunch at a food bank in Los Angeles, adults. Only 6 percent of those born into a family from the Calif., in May 2011.
20 America August 13-20, 2012 v. Federal Election Commission, which made possible the From the past 40 years, however, there is little evidence to growth in “super-PAC” spending, is making this problem support this claim. Real median household income has worse by increasing the importance of money in politics. declined over the last decade; before that it had been stag - The disparity in the distribution of wealth (total assets) nant since the 1970s. Wages for males with a high school is even greater than the disparity in income—so great, in education have fallen substantially over the same period. fact, that the richest 400 people in the United States control Most of the benefits of U.S. economic growth have gone to more wealth than the entire bottom 50 percent of house - those in the top percentile of the income distribution. By holds. A number of these 400 are pouring in millions of dol - 2007, just one out of 100 Americans (the top 1 percent) lars to influence elections, which allows them to change the received nearly a quarter of all personal income, more than rules in their favor—banning collective bargaining by public the bottom 50 percent of households put together. employees in Wisconsin, for example, and enacting so- called right-to-work laws in Indiana. CHARLES K. WILBER is emeritus professor of economics and a fellow at Some claim that inequality is not a problem, that because the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of the rich invest and create jobs, helping them helps everyone. Notre Dame in Indiana.
Commerce as Compromise decided to expand trade, we are morally obliged to use part BY DANIEL FINN of the gains from trade to fully fund the shamefully inade - eo ple often misunderstand international trade quate “trade adjustment assistance” (used for retraining and because they misunderstand domestic commerce. relocation) for those unemployed because of trade. PCheaper transportation of goods by 19th-century When employment is lost here due to trade, jobs are cre - railroads, for example, made it possible for wheat to be grown ated abroad. This is a real moral gain in poor nations. by those who grew it most efficiently—Midwestern farmers. Hundreds of millions of very poor people now have greater The lower price of flour allowed the budgets of consumers in economic well-being because they make things we buy. The the East to stretch farther, giving them just as real a rise in common good today is global. economic well-being as a wage increase would have given. Most trade agreements are rightly criticized for ignoring The U.S. Constitution prevented eastern states from levying the abuse of workers and of the environment. The World protectionist taxes on wheat from the Midwest to shield their Trade Organization avoids such “non-trade” issues to pre - own wheat farmers, who as a result had to find other work. vent selfish protectionism, a well-founded fear. Nonetheless, Consumers were the winners. Trade is also why the 19th-century unification of Germany increased eco - nomic well-being there. It removed the perennial taxes and paperwork imposed on imports by tiny govern - mental districts. Europe today is wor - ried about the Greek financial crisis largely because it threatens to dissolve the euro-zone agreements that make trade and travel easier. The loss of jobs is typically the main complaint against trade, and it is a very
N A
real concern. Yet independent studies h c
D (those not paid for by interested par - l A N o D
ties) have shown that trade tends to cre - / s r e ate (some) more jobs than it destroys. t u e r
The problem is that the jobs lost in the : o t o
United States are low-skilled, which h p leaves the working poor to bear the Workers make shoes, which will be exported to the United States, at a factory in burden of trade. Since our government Henan Province, China, in April 2011.
August 13-20, 2012 America 21 trade agreements and the W.T.O. must include basic labor and environmental standards. Some criticize the use of fuel for the ships that carry 90 percent of the goods exchanged in international trade, but ships are remarkably efficient. Given, for instance, the fact that ships generate less than 4 percent of world carbon- dioxide emissions, improvements in auto and truck mileage would do far more for the environment than would a reduc - tion in trade. Then there is the energy used in production in different nations. It takes less energy to produce sugar from cane in the hot sunshine of Brazil and ship it to the United States than to produce sugar from beets in Minnesota. Which brings us to a final issue: U.S. subsidies and trade barriers. Both should be cut back dramatically. The United States spends about $25 billion each year on agricultural subsidies, but only $1 in $10 goes to a needy farmer. And subsidized U.S. farm products undercut local farmers in the global South. The U.S. exclusion of textiles and sugar simi - larly hurts the people we should be helping. Our brothers and sisters in the developing world can and should be pro - ducing many of the products we buy.
DANIEL FINN is a professor of theology and the William E. and Virginia Clemens Professor of Economics and the Liberal Arts at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. He is a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Society of Christian Ethics and the Association for Social Economics.
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 gospel 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]
22 America August 13-20, 2012 Change the Church? Reform requires will, skill and political organization. BY DAVID J. O’BRIEN
y friends and I have worked for many years (reforms that would have given shape to the term “the peo - for renewal and reform in the Catholic ple of God”) are not in place in a great variety of parishes, Church. We took heart from the Second dioceses and institutions. Church reform has its deep and Vatican Council, the 1976 Call to Action mysterious dimensions, to be sure, but the basics are not MConference, the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letters on racism, war rocket science. We know, and have known, how to ensure and economic justice in the 1980s, the awakening of Latinos transparency, accountability and shared responsibility in and the commitment of new immigrants and the amazing ways that support the mission of the church; that strength - generosity of Catholic women. To our great satisfaction, en, not weaken, the authority of pastors; and that ensure the renewal has happened, and is hap - pening, in our American church, but reform is another matter. A Vatican II report card might give renewal a B-plus. But reform, even in the very best dioceses, would only get C-plus, and in too many places a well- deserved F. At the end of the Call to Action D
conference (the American Catholic l A r e
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doing the work of the church in the e c u l United States.” If we had carried out m A s
the cardinal’s vision, if we had built y B
o shared responsibility in parish and t o h p diocesan pastoral councils, if we had s N formed self-confident associations of c Attendees at the national Call to Action Conference in 2004 listen to the Chicago diocesan priests, religious and journalist Robert McClory lead a workshop titled “Why I Stay in the Church and Why laypeople, and if Catholic academic, You Should Too —Despite Everything.” medical, social service and ministeri - al professionals had acted responsibly, then the scandals of integrity of the community of faith. But all that did not hap - clerical sexual abuse would have ended between 1984 and pen. What was lacking among us was neither knowledge 1993. Files would have been opened, new systems of nor imagination but will and skill, commitment, organiza - accountability established, pastoral priorities reordered and tion, strategy and tactics. Our failure was not theological or priesthood reformed. Criminals would have gone to jail and spiritual, but political. incompetent administrators would have been turned out of office. Talking Politics That did not happen, however. The moderate, realistic, If we are serious about changing the church, what we must nonideological reforms of Cardinal Dearden’s new way talk about is ecclesiastical politics. Keeping the faith may be pastoral and spiritual, but changing the church is political. DAVID J. O’BRIEN is the University Professor of Faith and Culture at People have many different ideas about changing the the University of Dayton. This article, adapted from a talk delivered 10 church. Politics is the process of sorting out those ideas and years ago, in July 2002, at the founding conference of Voice of the Faithful, makes points about the need for church reform that remain per - making choices among them. In history, Catholic factions tinent today. who were upset with conditions in the church would call on
August 13-20, 2012 America 23 the government, in best cases the king, to carry out reforms. Latinos struggle for self-determination through the encuen - But the state cannot help us; it is our responsibility as tro process, religious orders spend their limited resources Catholics to make our church a more genuine community of caring for their aging members, and middle-class Catholics shared responsibility and thus a more genuine witness to become more evangelical, more congregational and more the presence of Christ. detached from the organizational life of the institutional Three critical factors will shape the life of the church in church. Ours is the bewildering church the Rev. Andrew the United States in years to come: the universal church, Greeley once referred to as “do-it-yourself Catholicism,” American society and the social composition and location of with genuine explosions of new energy in the charismatic U.S. Catholics. Each factor has a political dimension. renewal, the peace movement, a distinctively Catholic The Universal Church. What happens in the Vatican and branch of the women’s movement and apostolic movements among our sister churches across the globe will make a big like Focolare and Sant’Egidio. Schools, hospitals and social difference for us. The Holy Spirit is at work through people. service institutions flourish with the help of lay profession - Some good people are working hard to slow the process of als and collaborative boards. Thousands of lay men and renewal, strengthen the church’s central offices, reverse its women carry on many of the church’s pastoral and social ecumenical and interfaith initiatives and moderate its min - ministries. istries of service to development and peace. But renewal is But the organization does not work well. After Cardinal not over; millennial-era synods around the world have Dearden’s Call to Action, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin strug - offered considerable evidence of post-colonial vitality and gled to build that new way of doing the work of the church. deep commitment to human rights in churches worldwide. But Vatican II bishops were replaced by more cautious men; There is still hope that Catholicism can once again be a priests’ organizations all but disappeared; religious orders communion of local churches rather than a multinational lost numbers and influence; and the burgeoning cadres of clerical organization with branch plants in each country. In deacons, pastoral assistants and directors of religious educa - the universal church of the future there will be winners and tion never organized. Their ministries continued, but the losers, as there were at Vatican I and Vatican II. As we have common life of the church in the United States shriveled. learned in our own American Catholic politics in recent Rather than contest the ground, pastoral leaders adopted years, organized people often gain ground, while those not the congregational option: we have a good parish and don’t well organized are disappointed. need to go to meetings. In the resulting vacuum Catholics Although we often trusted the powerful men’s religious became divided, even polarized. When Cardinal Bernardin orders to take care of our political concerns in Rome and suggested a Catholic Common Ground Initiative, other car - across the world, their political strength has now waned. dinals insisted that the only thing needed for unity was the That has left U.S. Catholics who are interested in church Catechism of the Catholic Church and guidance by the Holy reform standing alongside women religious outside the See. In that climate divisions deepened, pressing pastoral walls of the Vatican. Gazing down at us are the grinning problems were ignored, and our church experienced some faces of restorationists, who may have little support back yet undetermined degree of corruption. So we face a politi - home but are welcome in Vatican offices. cal challenge. U.S. Society. What happens to our country will to some extent determine what happens to our church. The An Organized Lay Movement American people’s radical freedom, restless quest for com - Few things would better serve the needs of the church than munity, accelerating religious and spiritual diversity, heroic an enthusiastic, self-confident, engaged Catholic lay move - and paradoxical dedication to their country and its highest ment to keep the faith and change the church. Toward that ideals touch us because we share them. So do their retreat end I make a series of appeals: from civic responsibility, temptation to narcissism and abuse 1. Ask in the church the political questions you would ask in of power. We Catholics are American insiders. Saying that any other public forum. Who is in charge and how did they U.S. society and culture will help shape our Catholic future get there? What is the relationship between power and does not mean that we are passive playthings of cultural authority? Are we depending on the good will of an indi - forces beyond our control. No, we are active participants in vidual bishop or pastor, or are we building systems that shaping a common life as Americans that is no less real express shared values and common objectives? because we deny responsibility for it. What we Catholics do 2. Say yes to all invitations to genuinely shared responsibility. to our America, not just what our America does to us, will Catholics do need to work together, and there is no virtue in make a difference in the future of our church. opposition. Say yes when our parish or diocese tries to find The Face of U.S. Catholics. How will we provide pastoral structures of decision-making that mirror the body of Christ care for this ever changing church? New immigrants arrive, and when we are invited to help make parish and diocesan
24 America August 13-20, 2012 pastoral councils more effective. Say yes when boards of the purpose, the work of the church. If Jesus came to make Catholic agencies doing good work need assistance. known the meaning of life and history, and if after Pentecost 3. Say yes to independent associations. You will be asked to Jesus lives on in his church, then there is great work to be choose: parish councils or school advisory boards, Voice of done. We can only do it together. Our mothers and fathers the Faithful or Call to Action? If you are a priest, your sought for us education and material resources so we could choice may be between the presbyteral council and an inde - have choices they never had. They did not expect us merely pendent forum for priests. The answer is a Catholic to maintain the church and hand it on, but rather to use our both/and, not either/or. Cooperation and negotiation work freedom and power to keep the faith and, if necessary, change well when participants are genuinely empowered. There are the church so we could change the world the way God would such things as premature, incomplete and phony collabora - want it changed. In a time of crisis for church leaders, we tion. Parish and diocesan pastoral councils will improve have to help one another keep that hope alive. when priests, pastoral staffs and laypeople are better orga - 9. The church is all about people. It is a voluntary organi - nized and better understand their distinct vocations. zation, as our children keep proving to us, that works 4. Make a preferential, but not exclusive, option for the laity. through persuasion, not coercion. Many of our past prob - Think lay. Ask what each church decision or proposal lems came about because we did not trust each other. means from the point of view of ordinary lay men and Restoring and preserving trust begins with simple encoun - women. Pastoral care in our society requires dialogue, com - ters, like the ones used in the interfaith organizing process. munication, relationships of mutual trust and understand - Changing the church begins with getting to know each ing. Any layperson, for example, could explain that having other well enough to work together to make our church, to two priests visit a family to determine whether their claim of make us, the presence of Christ. Our rootless young people clerical sexual abuse is valid is not a good idea. The lay view - have a deep hunger for friendship. It is a gift of grace in our point is vital. churches, mosques and synagogues. As we work toward 5. Think about the church as it is on a Wednesday morning church reform, let us look for leaders who genuinely like at 10 rather than on a Sunday morning at 9. The church is the people. As we do, we may witness a renaissance of pastoral people of God, the body of Christ, the very presence of life. All the rest will follow. In that spirit let us do the best Christ in this particular time and place—all the time, not we can to keep the faith and change our church. A just when people gather at the church. The test of Christian discipleship is the life we live. Catholics everywhere should recapture an idea once identified with Chicago Catholicism: that ministries, structures and prayers should be appropri - ate to the Catholic community, since its people are scattered in workplaces, households, neighborhoods and public squares. 6. Recognize lay holiness and talk about it. According to Vatican II: “It belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. They live in the world, that is, they are engaged in each and every work and business of the earth and in the ordinary circumstances of social and family life, from which, as it were, the very web of their existence is woven” (“Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,” No. 31). 7. Affirm and ask the help of laypeople who work for the church. Talk to lay ministers, sisters and deacons. Ask your - self: Are they paid well? Do they have good working condi - tions, access to adequate resources, a place at the table when pastoral policies and priorities are established? If not, why not? They are not mini-priests, after all. If they were orga - nized, and if they would work with like-minded groups, that could make a difference. 8. Wh en you get discouraged, think mission. The why of our church is as important as the what. Our piety and practice, our ministries and offices, are supposed to serve the mission,
August 13-20, 2012 America 25 FAITH IN FOCUS Help Wanted A prayer for frustrated Catholics BY JAMES MARTIN ear God, sometimes I get so Why would today’s church be any dif - in your church in the midst of those dif - frustrated with your church. ferent than it was for people who knew ficulties, so can I. Give me courage. D I know that I am not alone. Jesus on earth? Give me wisdom. Help me to be peaceful when people So many people who love your church Help me to trust in the tell me that I don’t belong in the church, feel frustrated with the body of Christ Resurrection. The risen Christ reminds that I’m a heretic for trying to make on earth. Priests and deacons, and us that there is always the hope of things better or that I’m not a good brothers and sisters, can feel frustrated, something new. Death is never the last Catholic. I know that I was baptized. too. And I’ll bet that even bishops and word for us. Neither is despair. And You called me by name to be in your popes feel frustrated. We grow worried help me remember that when the risen church, God. As long as I draw breath, and concerned and bothered and angry Christ appeared to his disciples, he bore help me remember how the holy waters and sometimes scandalized because the wounds of his crucifixion. Like of baptism welcomed me into your holy your divine institution, our home, is Christ, the church is always wounded, family of sinners and saints. Let the filled with human beings who are sin - but always a carrier of grace. Give me voice that called me into your church be ful. Just like me. hope. what I hear when other voices tell me But I get frustrated most of all when Help me to believe that your Spirit that I’m not welcome in the church. I feel that there are things that need to can do anything: raise up saints when Give me peace. be changed and I don’t have the power we need them most, soften hearts when Most of all, help me to place all of to change them. they seem hardened, open minds when my hope in your Son. My faith is in So I need your help, God. they seem closed, inspire confidence Jesus Christ. Give me only his love and Help me to remember that Jesus when all seems lost, help us do what his grace. That’s enough for me. promised he would be with us until the had seemed impossible until it was Help me God, and help your church. end of time and that your church is done. This is the same Spirit that con - Amen. always guided by the Holy Spirit, even verted Paul, inspired Augustine, called if it’s hard for me to see. Sometimes Francis of Assisi, emboldened change happens suddenly, and the Catherine of Siena, consoled Ignatius Spirit astonishes us, but often in the of Loyola, comforted Thérèse of church it happens slowly. In your time, Lisieux, enlivened John XXIII, accom - not mine. Help me know that the seeds panied Teresa of Calcutta, strength - that I plant with love in the ground of ened Dorothy Day and encouraged your church will one day bloom. So give John Paul II. It is the same Spirit that is me patience. with us today, and your Spirit has lost Help me to understand that there none of its power. Give me faith. was never a time when there were not Help me to remember all of arguments or disputes within your your saints. Most of them church. Arguments go all the way back had it a lot worse than I
6 3 to Peter and Paul debating one another. do. They were frustrated N g i s e D
And there was never a time when there with your church at times, / m o c
wasn’t sin among the members of your struggled with it and were occasionally . k c o
church. That kind of sin goes back to persecuted by it. Joan of Arc was t s r e
Peter denying Jesus during his passion. burned at the stake by church authori - t t u h
ties. Ignatius Loyola was thrown into s
: e g JAMES MARTIN, S.J., is a contributing editor jail by the Inquisition. Mary MacKillop A m of America. was excommunicated. If they can trust i
26 America August 13-20, 2012 SSELECTEDELECTED MMENDELENDEL MEDMEDALAL RRECIPIENTSECIPIENTS
iiss pleased ttoo announcannouncee Dr.r. FrancisFrancis S. CollinsCollins Director,Director, NationalNational CenterCenter forfor Human Genome ResearchResearch
DDr.r. GeorGeorgege VV.. CCoyne,oyne, SJ DirectorDirector Emeritus, VaticanVatican ObservatoryObservatory
Dr.Dr. Michael E. DeBakeyDeBakey Ahmed H. Chancellorhancellor Emeritus, BaylorBaylor CollegeCollege of Medicine DDr.r. PPetrusetrus JJ.W..W. DebDebyeye ZZewail,ewail, PhD NobelNobel LaureateLaureate in ChemistryChemistry Dr.Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone LLinusinus PPaulingaulingauling Chair PrProfessorofessor Professor,Professor, UniversityUniversity of North CarolinaCarolina atat Chapel Hill iinn ChemisChemistrytrytry and PrProfessorofessor in PhysicsPhysics RRev.ev. P.P. TTeilhardeilhard de CharChardin,din, SJ aatt the CalifCaliforniaorniaornia InsInstitutetitute of TechnologyTechnology Paleontologist,Paleontologist, NationalNational Geological SurveySurvey of China DDr.r. PPetereter C. DohertDohertyy thethe forty-secondforty-sec-second recipientreecipiencipient of the NobelNobel LaureateLaureate in Medicine Dr.Dr. PaulPaul FarmerFarmer MedicalMedical Anthropologist,Anthropologist, HarvardHarvard Medical School
Dr.Dr. Ralph Hirschmann MENDELMENDEL MEDALMEDAL PProfessor,rofessor, UnivUniversityersity of PennsPennsylvaniaylvania DDr.r. MarMargaretgaret DalzellDalzell LowmanLowman NorthNorth CarolinaCarolina Museum of NaturalNatural SciencesSciences
Dr.Dr. VictorVictor A. McKusickMcKusick Founder,Founder, Human Genome OrganizationOrganization
DDr.r. KKennethenneth R. Miller PProfessorrofessor of BiologyBiology,, BrownBrown UniversityUniversity DDr.r. Ruth PPatrickatrick AAcademycademy of NaNaturaltural SciencScienceses
Dr.Dr. PeterPeter RavenRaven TThehehe Mendel Medal is awawardedardedarded to outstanding scientists whowho hahaveve Director,Director, Missouri BotanicalBotanical GardenGarden done mucmuchh bbyy their painstaking wworkork to advanceadvanceance the cause of science,science, and, bbyy their lilivesves and their standinganding befbeforeforore the worldworldld as scientists,scientists, havehave demonstrateddemonstrated DDr.r. Holmes RRolston,olston, III Professor,Professor, ColoradoColorado StateState UniversityUniversity tthathat betwbetweeneen trtrueueue science and trtrueue religionreligion therethere is no intrinsic con ict. Dr.Dr. JanetJanet RowleyRowley Professor,Professor, UniversityUniversity of Chicago DDr.r. ZeZewailwail will dedeliverliver a publicpubllicic lecturelecture Dr.Dr. Philip A. Sharpe “REVOLUTIONS“REVVOLOLUUTIONSTIONS IN SCIENCESCCIENCEIENCE AND SOCIETY”SOCIETY” NobelNobel LaureateLaureate in Medicine DDr.r. Maxine FF.. Singer '3*%": 4&15&.#&3 toQN'3*%""::: 4&15&.#&3 t o QN President,President, Carnegie InstitutionInstitution of WashingtonWashington Dr.Dr. Charles H. TownesToTownes VVillanovaillanova UnivUniversityersity ttConnellyConnelly Center,Center, VillanovaViillanollanova RRoomoom NNobelobel LaurLaureateeate in PhPhysicsysics
RobertRobert G. WebsterWebster VVillanovaillanova UnivUniversity:erssity:ity: FFoundedounded bbyy the AAugustiniansugustinians in 1842 PProfessor,rofessor, St. Jude ChildrChildren’sen’s RResearchesearch Hospital wwww.villanova.edu/mendelmedalww.villanova.edu/mendelmedal
August 13-20, 2012 America 27 BOOKS &CULTURE
devote coverage to them? (It’s the IDEAS | MARK SILK economy, stupid reader!) Or should we PLAYING THE PONIES in the media survey voters on which issues they think are important and How the media track presidential races focus on those? What if we conclude that the voters wenty-five years ago I was become in newsrooms across the are more concerned with personalities given the job of covering country, it does not make all that much than issues in choosing their next pres - TMichael Dukakis, the eventu - sense to me now. ident? Should we still devote our al 1988 Democratic presidential nom - What are “the issues,” anyway? attention to issues because we think inee, for The Atlanta Journal Every presidential campaign has a issues should matter? And isn’t it a Constitution. This time, the political stack of position papers on just about race that we are covering anyway? editor told me, we are going to try to any issue you can think of. Are politi - I do not mean this sequence of focus on the issues, not the horse race. cal reporters supposed to work their rhetorical questions to suggest that In the end it was, as before and way through the stack, comparing and issues, however defined, may not mat - since, the horse race that we and the contrasting the positions of Candidate ter in a presidential campaign. Or that rest of the press focused on. The polit - A and Candidate B for the benefit of news organizations do not perform a ical editor’s vow was high-minded, but an uninterested public? useful service by giving the issues that it did not make much sense to me Or should the news organization matter a proper going over. Nor am I then. And, perennial as it would itself decide which issues matter and proposing that coverage of presidential k c o t s r e t t u h s / A c i r e m A
: o t o h p
e t i s o p m o c
28 America August 13-20, 2012 campaigns has not changed over the decades—or that there is no room for improvement. GiveGivGive UsU
Game Changer No single journalist did more to ThısDayThıhısDaayy® change the way presidential campaigns DAILYDAILLYY PRAYERPRAAYERYER FFOFORR TODAY’STODAAYY’S CACATHOLICATHTHOLIC are covered than Theodore H. White, author of the “Making of the President” series of best sellers that ran from the 1960s Pulitzer Prize-winner through the 1972 book that, thanks to Pre-order Watergate, nearly blew up in White’s the Advent- face. As it happened, the research assistant who cobbled the Watergate Christmas issue! story together for White in the spring 100 copies or more just of 1973 was me. Before the “Making of the $1.00 per copy Presidents” series, campaign coverage when you place your order focused on substantive pronounce - by August 31. ments and proposals—the issues—as hints of what a candidate would do in office. But these did not much interest White. He lived in New York, not Washington, and the beat he sought was out in the wards and the parishes, the bars and the Rotary clubs, the granges and the union halls. He dis - covered gold in the previously unre - ported arcana of endorsement mon - gering, delegate hunting, campaign financing and the demographics of race, region and ethnicity. His story Order before August 31, 2012— was the race, which he covered like the just $1.00 per copy! war correspondent he had been when he reported on China for Henry Luce in the late 1930s and 40s. “The wrecker of political journal - ism,” the screenwriter Frank Mankiewicz called him, only half-jok - Large Print Edition available—$4.00 per copy ingly, in 1988. Mankiewicz was the manager of George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign. “You give a speech on the U.S. getting out of the Persian Gulf and reporters only want to ask, ‘Did the Dukakises offer you 4VCTDSJCFt(JWFB(JGU4VCTDSJCFt (JWF B (JGGUU watermelon?’ or ‘How many delegates 3FRVFTUB4BNQMF3FRVFTUB 4BNQMF did Paul Simon give you in Illinois?’ That’s all people care about anymore: politics, not government.” www.GiveUsThisDay.orgwwww.Giv.GiveUsThisDayy.or.org Nowadays, “Teddy White” stories or call 1-888-259-8470 LLITURGICALLITURGICITURGICAL PRESS remain the norm, though because of
August 13-20, 2012 America 29 the current crisis in journalism there not the president’s birthplace but are an integral part of the cut and are fewer boys (and girls) on the bus to Romney’s apparent readiness to pan - thrust of a campaign. write them. The cheap alternative to der to the Republican fringe that is the But they are not the kinds of big, on-the-ground campaign reporting is issue—a legitimate one. complex things editors have in mind provided by the Then there are when they say they want to address seemingly endless ON THE WEB issues that particu - “the issues” rather than the horse race. supply of survey data Stephen Martin talks about his book, lar interest groups Those issues are all but impossible to The Messy Quest for Meaning . that rolls onto com - americamagazine.org/podcast manage to push into integrate into campaign coverage. puter screens from a public conscious - Sure, there will be (in The New host of pollsters of ness. The Catholic York Times and The Washington Post varying degrees of competence and bishops’ response to the Obama and maybe even the newsweeklies) disinterestedness. administration’s contraception cover - long take-outs on “health care reform” The surveys provide stay-at-home age mandate is a fine current example. and “financial regulation” and “eco - journalists with sufficient wherewithal Whether “religious liberty” is truly nomic policy” and whatever it is we are to follow the race and write about it, under threat, as the bishops claim, is a calling our military adventure in but without the human contact, the matter of debate. But there is no ques - Afghanistan. But they will stand apart sights and sounds and smells, that give tion that, at least prior to the Supreme from the ebb and flow of the cam - a campaign story life. Surveys also cre - Court’s decision on health care reform, paign, and they will not have much ate illusions: that voters have settled it was an issue worth writing about. impact on it. opinions worth reporting early in a Such examples could be multiplied. campaign cycle or that there is a single They are the kinds of limited things MARK SILK is a professor of religion in public national electoral contest rather than that political reporters have little trou - life at Trinity College in Hartford. He blogs for 50 state presidential races. ble addressing because they easily lend the Religion News Service and is co-author, most recently, of One Nation, Indivisible: themselves to short narratives and How Regional Religious Differences Issues Rising sound bites. Also, examples like these Shape American Politics. So maybe it is time to go back to focusing on the issues after all. The challenge is to figure out how best to BOOKS | LORETTA TOFANI do it. The simplest approach is just to MAINLAND MALAISE examine those subjects that get put on the table by the campaigns themselves, THE END OF THE CHINESE member Bo Xilai was party secretary, however real or unreal they seem to be. DREAM the problems he describes exist At this writing (the end of May), a Why Chinese People Fear throughout China. small but intense debate has broken The Future In The End of the Chinese Dream: out over the extent to which President By Gerard Lemos Why Chinese People Fear the Future , Obama has increased government Yale University Press. 320p $38 Lemos concludes that “the People’s spending. This is a factual matter, sub - Republic of China is now run by the ject to a certain amount of definitional Gerard Lemos, a former visiting pro - wealthy for the benefit of the wealthy.” dispute. It is also a poor substitute for fessor in China from the United Hundreds of millions of ordinary a discussion of the meaning of the fed - Kingdom, paints a disturbing picture Chinese are the losers. They are eral deficit and the size of government. of the failure of China’s extraordinary “deeply insecure about themselves and So be it. economic growth to benefit hundreds their future” he writes, just when the Meanwhile, the claim that of millions of Chinese citizens. After rest of the world has become “star- President Obama was born in Kenya conducting a remarkable survey in struck by the apparent prospect of has re-entered the campaign, promot - China, Lemos links the economic China’s imminent glory.” ed especially by the developer Donald problems and fears of ordinary The author, a social policy expert, Trump, the country’s foremost Chinese to the policies of China’s was a professor at Chongqing “birther.” Mitt Romney refused to authoritarian leadership, both local Technical University from 2006 to reject this view shortly before attend - and national. Although most of 2010. He was interested in whether ing a fundraiser hosted by Trump, but Lemos’s research occurs in Chongqing, policies to support people through the later said he disagreed. To be sure, it is where the recently deposed Politburo transformation to a market economy
30 America August 13-20, 2012 and I’m also worrying about my child’s that the chemicals they used or metals education fee. [I wish] to find a job to they breathed could kill them. Those support my child’s education and to who developed fatal silicosis or cadmi - have health insurance.” um poisoning were given paltry Such concerns are strikingly similar amounts of money as compensation. to those of Americans. But the “safety The Chinese government, Lemos nets” that exist in the West—unem - argues, should attempt to create a ployment insurance, pensions, work - national safety net. It should also pro - ers’ compensation—are extremely vide social services. stingy in China, mere tokens. Free Instead, Chinese must provide their health care no longer exists for most own safety nets. One of Lemos’s more Chinese citizens. interesting insights is that the large During the 1990s, I and other for - amount of income saved by Chinese is eign correspondents in China wrote not only the result of Chinese habits about the lack of safety nets. But our and culture, as is sometimes argued. stories were anecdotal, not based on The savings are essential in the surveys. Now, 20 years later, hundreds attempt to provide health care, educa - of millions of Chinese still have reason tion and stability during old age or to be anxious. I saw the lack of safety joblessness. nets again a few years ago when I inter - In China, much of the money lent were working. After conducting a sur - viewed factory workers in China who by banks for real estate and construc - vey of more than 2,500 Chinese citi - had developed fatal illnesses or suf - tion comes from ordinary deposits by zens in Chongqing and Beijing, he fered limb amputations because of fac - ordinary Chinese citizens. “So there is concluded they were not. On paper, he tory work. Although China has work - no incentive for the Communist party asked four questions: Who are you? er protection laws, they were not to change the model and provide social What event changed your life? What enforced. Workers were not warned services,” Lemos writes. is your biggest worry? What do you wish for? He designed the survey in a creative, innocuous way in order to get the necessary permission from offi - cials. Those surveyed worried about finding jobs, keeping their jobs, getting sick, affording medical treatment, pay - ing for their children’s education and having enough to live on in their old age. These modest ambitions, Lemos writes, “are the true Chinese dream,” but for millions “that short-lived dream has died.” Still, China has succeeded in drasti - cally reducing poverty, from about 85 percent in 1985 to 16 percent in 2005. But hundreds of millions still cannot find enough money to pay for the ser - vices that the government provided until about 1980. Lemos quotes many of those he surveyed. A 42-year-old man from Chongqing, for example, wrote: “[My greatest worry is] I couldn’t find a job and couldn’t afford to go to hospital
August 13-20, 2012 America 31 Lemos does not mention the esti - nary Chinese citizen? Lemos believes And the “Son of God” represented a mated billions of dollars that the that there may be a national uprising surprisingly dynamic, multivalent con - Chinese government has invested in China. “It has happened unexpect - cept that could embrace both divine overseas during the last decade, espe - edly in so many countries, why should adoption and begetting, including a cially throughout Africa. The invest - China’s citizens be different?” They are wide range of other elements like ments have been for mining and the different, I would argue, because of divine election, genealogy, virgin birth, acquisition of rights to the world’s rare China’s police state, which includes creation and pre-existence in varying earth elements; meanwhile Chinese cameras in cities (and some homes) configurations. It was not the issue of citizens worry about joblessness or and an extensive network of Internet orthodoxy that loomed large when paying for basic health care, education surveillance, cellphone surveillance Mark, as the first among the Gospel and retirement. In some ways the por - and an army of plain clothes citizens writers ventured into the uncharted trait Lemos paints of China has strik - paid to spy on fellow citizens and for - territory of transforming Paul’s mes - ing similarities to the current snapshot eigners. This year’s budget for the sage about Christ as the divine son into of the United States, where trillions of domestic security apparatus was $111 a narrative. dollars have been spent overseas—for billion, $5 billion more than the bud - What loomed large was the massive fighting wars—while citizens grapple get for the military. If China spent less and oppressive presence of that other with the lack of medical insurance and money on surveillance, it might have divine father who had just destroyed joblessness, which is at least partially more money for safety nets for its citi - Jerusalem and subdued the rebellious caused by millions of our jobs going to zens. And then it might need less Judaea with brutal force, claiming that China. surveillance. Lemos does not make all of humanity was under his paternal Lemos argues that democracy is not this particular argument, but it seems power and jurisdiction ( patria potes - necessary for the Chinese government perhaps another piece of the picture. tas ): the Roman emperor. to provide its citizens with a better Drawing on recent studies by histo - quality of life. Yet it is hard to imagine, rians of the ancient world like Ittai LORETTA TOFANI won a Pulitzer Prize while from Lemos’s portrait of the one-party reporting for The Washington Post and cov - Gradel, Clifford Ando and Monika government, that there will be signifi - ered China for several years for The Bernett, Peppard dispels some persis - cant improvements for ordinary citi - Philadelphia Enquirer. Her most recent inves - tent misconceptions among New tigative articles exposed the exploitation of zens any time soon. Chinese workers making products for the U.S. Testament scholars, who have tradi - Where, then, is hope for the ordi - market. tionally underestimated the signifi - cance of imperial ideology and played down the divinity attributed to the BRIGITTE KAHL Roman emperor. In Roman Palestine, as in all other parts of the Roman DIVINE GENEALOGY world, the emperor was omnipresent as universal God, universal Father ( pater THE SON OF GOD world of the New Testament, where patriae ) and Son of God ( divi filius ) IN THE ROMAN WORLD none of these questions through temples, By Michael Peppard would sound odd or out images, coins and public Oxford University Press. 304p $74 of place as they do today. manifestations of all The council of sorts—and he was wor - It is an iconic scene: Jesus being bap - Nicaea (325 C.E.) had shiped as such in multi - tized in the Jordan, with a heavenly not yet spoken, authori - ple ways. Imperial voice declaring him “my beloved son, in tatively condemning any divine fatherhood and whom I am well pleased,” while the “adoptionist” heresy. imperial divine sonship Holy Spirit descends from above as a Platonism with its static both played a pivotal dove. But what if an eagle had come divisions between role as empire-wide uni - down on Jesus instead and perched on humanity and divinity, fying power constructs his shoulder? What if a more adequate metaphysical essence that could draw on the translation of Mk 1:11 were, “You are (“begotten”) and histori - social microcosm of the my beloved son; I have adopted you”? cally situated status existing patriarchal In a fascinating tour de force, Michael (“made/adopted”) was household structure. As Peppard takes his readers back into the not yet the all-defining thought system. the emperor morphed into the divine
32 America August 13-20, 2012 OurOur priests areare messengers of hope
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August 13-20, 2012 America 33 super-father of the largest family on Roman patriarchal and imperial order dogmatic tradition does not lead to earth ( pater patriae ), the designation of that consequently turned Christians skepticism but instead breathes fresh his successor through an adoption as into martyrs. air into those compartments of “son” became a crucial issue of power Peppard has written a stimulating Christian doctrine where rethinking and political stability. and eminently readable book that and reimagining, instead of reciting old According to Peppard this has courageously cuts formulas, is urgent - direct implications for the opening through established ON THE WEB ly needed. Far from scene of Mark’s Gospel. If the heavenly theological conven - This week’s Catholic Book relativizing the “son father in Mk 1:11 in all likelihood pro - tions and presents Club selection. of god,” Peppard americamagazine.org/cbc nounces a divine adoption formula, new scholarship in a demonstrates this implies by no means a “low” careful and nuanced where the present- Christology devoid of divine essence, way without ever becoming tedious. He day relevance and true challenge of this nor a sort of heretic Proto-Arianism; uses the tools of his trade to reconstruct term might be located: not in meta - rather it competes with the “highest” the rich reservoir of meaning-making physics but in concrete social models possible and most potent divine adop - encapsulated in New Testament and for how the human family can truly tion story in place, the transfer of world early Christian traditions, enabling us become humane. power to Caesar’s divine son. Mark to see the “son of God” with entirely frames the beginning of the Jesus nar - new eyes. In an exemplary way, this BRIGITTE KAHL is a professor of New rative as the story of an adopted divine book shows that a fruitful encounter Testament at Union Theological Seminary in son who is going to be a counter- between critical biblical scholarship and New York. emperor. Peppard makes very clear that such an act of “colonial mimicry” does not simply duplicate Roman colonial ideol - CHRIS MANAHAN ogy but has strongly resistant traits. The “son” who is adopted to all-power - ANOTHER AMERICA ful divinity in Mark 1 will in the end be executed for his insubordination REZ LIFE University of Southern California. against Roman law and order, sharing An Indian’s Journey His first full-length work of non- the lot of the conquered rather than the Through Reservation Life fiction is a “hybrid,” he admits, in his glory of the conquerors. The dove rep - By David Treuer concluding note to the book, and “it is resents weakness, vulnerability and Atlantic Monthly Press. 368p $26 meant to be suggestive rather than peace in contrast to the violent majesty exhaustive.” It is this hybrid quality of the warlike eagle, which in Roman When reading Rez Life, be prepared to that may cause the reader to find no imagination was a common accessory have a struggle over what single part as satisfying whenever a new power figure appeared the book is and what you or complete as desired. on the stage of history. might like it to be. Part The lengthy histor - Furthermore, the sonship embodied history, part social analy - ical and political expla - by Jesus, especially in the Pauline sis, part memoir and part nations, summaries matrix, rejects all exclusivity. It inte - journalism, the book and synthesis of tribal grates the universal community of takes the reader through relations with the Jesus-followers, to use nonhierarchical the reservation life that United States are writ - and noncompetitive terms, into a hori - the novelist David ten in an easy-to-grasp zontal family of sisters, brothers and Treuer, who is Ojibwe, manner and remind mothers, where “fathers” have no more has experienced from his one of a conversation role to play, including the imperial days growing up among with a friend who is divine father. At the same time, the Minnesota’s reservations interested and well- paternal “inheritance” is no longer a to today, when he shares versed in a particular matter of individual privilege and his time between the topic. But without the power but a communally shared good. Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota footnotes that one might find in a All this marks a striking dissonance and Los Angeles, where he is professor scholarly, academic work, the reader is with the most basic ground rules of the of literature and creative writing at the left wondering if this is a complete
34 America August 13-20, 2012 understanding of the nuances of this schools, child welfare conflicts and the Rez Life readers have Treuer sitting complex history. loss of language and culture in the next to them to tell us who is who and The social analysis of reservation midst of fighting acculturation within how they fit into the reservation. But, life fostered by first-person stories, reservation life. more often than not, he may leave the conversations and memories is vibrant Black-and-white photographs reader wanting to know more. and raw, bringing the reader into the begin each section, stark and private tensions within reservation life; unadorned, like figurative road signs CHRIS MANAHAN, S.J. , formerly a parish but, because of its anecdotal presenta - welcoming readers to the reservation priest on the Rosebud Reservation and a teach - tion, the reader is left asking whether and piquing their interest in the per - er at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation, both in South Dakota, is the same is true for reservations gener - sons in the pictures. Unlike motorists currently superior of the Jesuit Novitiate of St. ally and whether common solutions who pass through without stopping, Alberto Hurtado in Saint Paul, Minn. for these social ills can be found? Finally, the author’s experiences and observations give the work its memoir quality, which stops short of indicating Looking for a job in the Catholic sector? what other people think or feel. So again, the reader is left to wonder about the people to whom Treuer introduces us: “Do I really know what makes them tick?” Treuer writes that he “refrained from speculating or giv - ing them feelings” so as not to blur fact and opinion. This is to his credit, yet THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY the reader wishes he had asked more questions and shared the answers. Hiring at your church or school? Get the word out with America! Still, Treuer has provided an excel - lent sense of reservation life, which is what he hoped to do. His stories tell Job Listings are accepted for publication in America’s print and web editions. what it is like to grow up on a reserva - For more information contact our advertising dept. at [email protected], tion, live there, leave and return as an Tel: 212-515-0102 or check us out at www.americamagazine.org. outsider. Focusing on individuals with repre - sentative experiences, he deals with tribal sovereignty, taxation and casino gambling while telling the homespun story of Helen (Bryan) Johnson, whose fight over a $147 county prop - erty tax bill led to the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that is credit - ed with opening the way for casino gambling on Indian reservations. As a 31-year-old Head Start worker raising six children with her husband, Russell, in a two-bedroom trailer on her fami - ly’s Leech Lake ancestral land, Johnson was an unlikely force for change, but Treuer reveals through her story the HAVING PROBLEMS WITH ON -TIME DELIVERY OF AMERICA ? practical aspect of tribal sovereignty. Postal regulations require that there be at least 3 instances of late or no The reader learns about treaty rights, mail delivery before requesting a publication watch. You should notify your local post office and make a complaint and/or request a publication watch. control of land ownership, reservation poverty, housing, politics and gover - You may also notify us at 212-581-4640 ext 118 or by e-mail at subscrip - nance, the effects of Indian boarding [email protected], and we will contact the USPS .
August 13-20, 2012 America 35 tem should be geared primarily to “Pastoral Constitution on the Church LETTERS achieve that. in the Modern World” and other Is it any wonder, then, that parti - council documents. Substance Abuse sans of all stripes are incapable of Like most sisters at the time, we Re “State of Disunion,” by Thomas R. understanding the substance of their took the invitation to renew our lives Murphy, S.J., (7/16): I cannot imagine own arguments, let alone understand - as perhaps the most significant act of any set of circumstances under which ing or even acknowledging facts that obedience that we would ever under - it will be possible to bridge the parti - threaten their self-reinforcing posi - take. We learned to see our vows as san divide in this country in my life - tions? deeper and broader than merely not time. The primary reason is that the CHRISTOPHER KUCZYNSKI having a bank account, not having sex Baltimore, Md. overwhelming majority of Americans or not having our own opinions. We are not properly educated in what it came to see poverty as including an means to exercise the awesome Invitation to Renewal active care for the earth and identifi - responsibility of citizenship in a “Into the Future,” by Nancy Sylvester, cation with all of her peoples. democratic society. I.H.M., (Web only, 7/16) rings true to Chastity, while it includes celibacy, Most of us are told that our prima - my own experience, having entered my became more and more about ry responsibility as citizens is to secure community in 1962, the year the healthy, loving relationships. And we a well-paying job that will enable us to Second Vatican Council began. My collectively came to know that obedi - purchase as many consumer goods as whole early formation was steeped in ence can never be limited to mindless possible and that our educational sys - the challenging message of the following, but includes active listen -
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36 America August 13-20, 2012 ing in community—a listening that then gently return to our sacred word. conscience. But not all moral consid - seeks to hear all of the voices of The idea of contemplating one’s eration have the same weight, and God’s people. sacred word is really foreign to the prudence may suggest that you can FRAN FERDER, F.S.P.A. centering prayer practice, as is focus - cooperate to some degree because of Lincoln City, Ore. ing and concentrating. Centering the benefits to the church and the prayer is not contemplation. public. Magisterial Affliction Contemplation is a pure gift from This is a complex business. It is not As someone who came into the church God. With all due respect, whatever well served by slogans or litigation in the 1980s, it was the spirit of the T. B. Pasquale was doing, it wasn’t that make shrewd compromise impos - women religious that appealed to me centering prayer. sible, but by reflective conversation and welcomed me. I would never have JAMES BYRNE invoking the cardinal virtue of pru - found a home in the pre-Vatican II Cape May Court House, N.J. dence. church, and I am struggling greatly (MSGR.) JOHN ROWAN with what is happening locally in my Capital Correction Southold, N.Y. home parish as well as the greater John Coleman, S.J., in “The Matter church. With Kansas,” his review of Red State Beyond Bars I am hearing messages that have no Religion, by Robert Wuthnow (7/2), The article, “Theology Behind Bars,” connection to serving the poor or rele - lauded Kansas for its early stand on by Kerry Weber (7/2) should be a vancy to the God of the universe. I women’s suffrage and the fact that it strong stimulus for penal administra - have always heard that the message of “never adopted capital punishment.” tors, prison ministers and us, the non - the Gospel was meant to comfort the Kansas has, in fact, abolished and rein - incarcerated, to seek more wisely and afflicted and afflict the comfortable. stated capital punishment three times, intensely the humanization and reha - What I am now hearing from the mag - and capital punishment is currently bilitation of our country’s inmate pop - isterium seems to be afflicting the legal, although the state has not car - ulation. We would all, as a society, be afflicted and comforting the comfort - ried out an execution since 1965. The the healthier for it. able. latest effort to abolish the death penal - There are other points of light in PATRICIA JANSEN ty failed in the Kansas state senate in the penal system. One is in the state Mason, Ill. 2010. of Virginia, at Buckingham BARBARA EMERT Correctional Center, where Jens Off Center Independence, Kan. Soering is serving two life terms for Re “Interrupting Grace,” by T. B. murdering his girlfriend’s parents in Pasquale (7/16): In centering prayer, Prudence and Compromise 1985, when he was 18 years old. He is the sacred word is a symbol of our Re “How Well Are They Being now in his mid-40s. intention, which is to consent to God’s Heard?” (Signs of the Time, 7/2): I am While incarcerated, Soering has presence and action within us. One among the 57 percent of American converted to Catholicism. Sadly, establishes his or her sacred word Catholics who do not believe that the despite being a model prisoner and a before entering the prayer, not during right to religious liberty is being decidedly different person from the it. Centering prayer has one intention. threatened in the United States today. man who was convicted, rightly or There are no expectations, such as Of course, involvement with the state wrongly, for homicides committed finding bliss, peace or union. brings complications. When the state when he was 18, he has been denied Mental hyperactivity or thoughts and a church enter into a contract to release seven times by the state are an integral part of the prayer. We deliver health services or adoption ser - parole board. Enlightened penal do not resist them. We let them come vices to the general public, neither the reform and inmate rehabilitation and we let them go. When we engage state nor the church will remain quite should enable us as a society to do a thought, we become aware that we as uncompromised as before. better than this. are engaged with the thought. We I’m not suggesting that anyone ARTHUR T. M CNEILL should contract away convictions of Alexandria, Va.
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August 13-20, 2012 America 37 THE WORD
Communion. A decade after John’s Gospel was written, the great bishop Flesh and Blood and martyr St. Ignatius of Antioch TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), AUG. 19, 2012 criticized those who “abstain from the Eucharist and prayer, because they Readings: Prv 9:1-6; Ps 34:2-7; Eph 5:15-20; Jn 6:51-58 refuse to acknowledge that the “The one who feeds on me will have life because of me” (Jn 6:57) Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.” For Ignatius, the esus is Wisdom in the flesh. In “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Eucharist was “the medicine of the wisdom books of the Old Man and drink his blood, you do not immortality, the antidote we take...to JTestament, God was understood have life within you…. For my flesh is live forever in Jesus Christ” (Smy. 6; as having created through true food, and my blood is Eph 20) Wisdom, who existed with God from true drink.” Such a procla - Jesus is the bread of life. We feed on the beginning of time (Prv 8:22 ff; mation seems scandalous. his life-giving word of wisdom Wis 9:9). Wisdom pitched her tent For Jews the consumption that we may see as he sees. We among us as the voice of the Lord and of any blood was forbid - feed on his self-offering, from the source of life (Sir 24:4-8; Prv 2:6; den (Gn 9:4; Lv 17:14) the Incarnation to Calvary, for it 3:18). John’s Gospel identifies Jesus and the use of the term brings us to communion with with all of this. flesh (sarx, “meat”) is the Father and with one another. In the first reading, from the Book particularly vulgar. And we feed on his flesh and of Proverbs, Wisdom is personified as Jesus’ teaching cre - blood that we may be trans - a grande dame who invites any and all ated both confusion formed by what we consume. It to her banquet, a great feast where she and disgust in his listen - offers the rich fare and choice wines of ers. Understanding his words on a PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE true insight. “Let whoever is simple superficial level, they imagine him to turn in here…. Come, eat of my food, be calling for cannibalism, with him - • At Mass, offer yourself on the altar along with Jesus’ eternal offering. and drink of the wine I have mixed! self as the victim. Yet there is some - e
Forsake foolishness that you may live.” thing quite literal in his intention, • Pray to see every communicant as part of N N
your own spiritual body. u D Wisdom’s banquet serves as a back - even as it is also symbolic. He really D A t ground to Jesus’ discourse on the bread meant it. Jesus real ly is Wisdom’s : t r of life, which we have been hearing true divine feast. A proclaimed these past three Sundays. Just as Jesus cannot be understood Jesus assures his listeners that “I am outside of the Old Testament context, is difficult to talk about the Eucharist the bread of life; whoever comes to me so too he cannot be understood out - because it represents so many layers of will never hunger, and whoever side of our ecclesial context. This is profound truths, each layer heavy in believes in me will never thirst” (6:35). obviously a eucharistic discourse. By symbol and metaphor. No wonder Two columns ago I pointed out the viewing Jesus’ words through this Jesus’ listeners were confused. imperative of making a choice for Jesus ecclesial lens, we see how he can be I even see confusion in the church and clinging to him. Last week we both symbolic and literal, for here the today. This is unfortunate, for the pro - experienced Jesus inviting us to com - symbols of bread and wine carry the fundity of the Eucharist and its trans - munion with him in his self-offering: objective reality with them. In this, the formative possibilities cannot be over - “The bread that I give is my flesh for climax of his discourse, Jesus identifies played. The Second Vatican Council the life of the world” (6:51). the eucharistic elements with himself. describes the Eucharist elegantly: “A In today’s Gospel reading, from the In fact, it would not be an exagger - sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a fin al portion of the discourse, Jesus’ ation to associate the first part of the bond of charity, a paschal banquet in words become positively shocking: discourse (on the 18th Sunday) with which Christ is consumed, the mind is the Liturgy of the Word, the second filled with grace, and a pledge of future PETER FELDMEIER is the Murray/Bacik Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of part (19th Sunday) with the sacrifice glory is given to us” (“Constitution on Toledo. of the Mass and today’s with the Sacred Liturgy,” No. 47).
38 America August 13-20, 2012 Making Hard Choices TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), AUG. 26, 2012 Readings: Jos 24:1-18; Ps 34:2-21; Eph 5:21-32; Jn 6:60-69 “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21)
esus lo st many disciples as a result four children in grade school, and the cultural dross is to see what the of his Bread of Life discourse, husband discerned God calling the inspired authors do with those cul - Jwhich we have been hearing over couple to have another. His wife dis - tural assumptions. That is, how does the last few Sundays. The collec - cerned no such thing. He then asked God shake things up? Consider how tive weight of his pronouncements—I her to submit respectfully to his it would be experienced in Paul’s day am the bread of life; I am the bread headship in the family. I told them to hear that a wife has authority over that came down from heaven; unless that he could not extrapolate his dis - her husband’s body (1 Cor 7:4), or you eat the flesh of the Son of Man cernment to what God’s will was for that husbands should give themselves and drink his blood, you do not have her. “You both need to experience the over to their wives completely as life within you (Jn 6:35, 41, 53)—was call for another child as God’s will to Christ did for the church (Eph 5:25). just too much. “As a result,” John tells go forward,” I told them. Obviously, I The greatest shock might come from us in today’s reading, “many of his dis - sidestepped the biblical problem. the first line in today’s reading, often ciples…no longer accompanied him.” The issue also came up in class this overlooked: “Be subordinate to one Peter, speaking for the Twelve, assures year. “The problem with femi - Jesus that their choice is with him: nism,” a student announced, “is PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE “Master, to whom shall we go? You that it encourages wives to think have the words of eternal life.” they don’t need to be subordinate • Think of several people who are culturally Making the hard choice is the issue to their husbands, which the word lowly. Joshua puts to the people of God. He of God clearly teaches.” This com - • Imagine the dignity of Christ radiating calls the elders and asks them who ment led to a handout and discus - through them. their God will be. “As for me and my sion during the next class. We household, we will serve the Lord.” looked at today’s reading from the The elders assure him their choice is Letter to the Ephesians and other another.” Given the cultural assump - also the Lord. In the text immediate - texts that say the same. The next part tions, the principle of mutuality looks ly following this reading Joshua chal - of the handout had even more New like a divine shake-up indeed. lenges them: “You may not be able to Testament citations—supporting To me, faithfulness to the word serve the Lord, for he is a holy God” slavery. How can you accept one set as would involve embracing this princi - (24:19). They commit themselves a a universal, timeless mandate from ple in our current cultural context. second time. Moses had also asked God and another as a cultural reflec - Consider Pope John Paul II’s state - twice (Ex 24:3-7). tion of the era and not God’s will? We ment in “Familiaris Consortio” (No. One of the hard choices (albeit of a also looked at a dozen other texts that 22): “Above all it is important to different sort) for pastors is the deci - illustrate the same problem. underline the equal dignity and sion whether to use the full version of Since the time of Pope Pius XII responsibility of women with men. the second reading, in which we read, (“Divino Afflante Spiritu”), the This equality is realized in a unique “Wives should be subordinate to Catholic Church has formally taught manner in that reciprocal self-giving their husbands as to the Lord.” The that one can understand the revela - by each one to the other.” Lectionary allows the omission of tion of Scripture only when one takes St. Paul’s challenge today: radical, this and similar verses. account of the cultural assumptions mutual, reciprocal self-giving. This is The issue of submission came up in which it is embedded, with their a hard teaching that calls for hard once pastorally as I was asked to adju - limitations and biases. One way to choices. Can we say yes? dicate a marital dispute. A couple had separate the revelatory gold from the PETER FELDMEIER
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