Also: Spring Books OF MANY THINGS PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES

pen these words during the octave of ment of large numbers of both domes- EDITOR IN CHIEF Easter and the onset of official tic and farm animals. The public is Drew Christiansen, S.J. I spring. We had a long winter here encouraged to report instances of ani- on the East Coast, but trees at last brim mal abuse, if possible adopt a pet from EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT with buds and the ground swells with a a shelter or rescue and, above all, MANAGING EDITOR medley of new life—colorful blooms that become informed about policies and Robert C. Collins, S.J. like Easter itself renew our hope, lift our legislation that bear on the problem. EDITORIAL DIRECTOR spirit and tell us to rejoice and be glad. Mother’s Day, most will agree, is the Karen Sue Smith And glad we are about our Spring centerpiece of the month. One can Books issue this year. It contains thank Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis (1832- ONLINE EDITOR Maurice Timothy Reidy reviews of a potpourri of new titles in a 1905), a devout Christian who orga- variety of categories. The first book is a nized women’s work clubs during and CULTURE EDITOR James Martin, S.J. chronicle of the greatest achievements after the Civil War. Her daughter Anna in American intellectual thought, by Jarvis dedicated her life to establishing a LITERARY EDITOR the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian nationally recognized Mother’s Day (but Patricia A. Kossmann William H. Goetzmann. Next out of she protested against the eventual "secu- POETRY EDITOR the gate is the beloved and critically larization" of the holiday). On this day James S. Torrens, S.J. acclaimed poet Mary Oliver with a new we recognize the gifts we have received ASSOCIATE EDITORS collection of poems, permeated with from our mothers, living or deceased. Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J. her customary attentiveness to nature’s But we honor as well the gifts of all George M. Anderson, S.J. mysteries. Then comes a history of the women who exercise a nurturing role in Dennis M. Linehan, S.J. Jim McDermott, S.J. papacy, by Roger Collins, a serious and others’ lives: godmothers, older siblings, Matt Malone, S.J. stately book that is informative and teachers, mentors. James T. Keane, S.J. illuminating (as well as occasionally The Fourth Commandment enjoins Peter Schineller, S.J. entertaining). us to honor our parents always. But on ASSISTANT EDITOR In her stirring memoir, Marilyn this one particular day we focus on a Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. Lacey, of the Religious Sisters of lifetime of connection and memories, a DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Mercy, shares stories from her 25 years bond that can never be broken—and Stephanie Ratcliffe working with refugees, migrants and we are glad and rejoice. We may pick a displaced persons on several conti- bunch of spring blooms, fashion a cor- BUSINESS DEPARTMENT nents. Her living out of God’s call is, as sage for Mom and indulge her as queen PUBLISHER the book’s subtitle has it, a story of for the day. (I recall as a child once ask- Jan Attridge “God arriving in strangers.” The best- ing my parents, If there is a Mother’s CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER selling author Thomas Cahill has taken Day and a Father’s Day, when is it Lisa Pope a break from his “Hinges of History” Children’s Day? My father’s response: series and written a deeply moving Every day is Children’s Day!) MARKETING Eryk Krysztofiak account of a young black man on death The merry month of May also row and the flawed Texas judicial sys- brings family and friends together to ADVERTISING Julia Sosa tem. Finally, a noteworthy book on the celebrate first Communions and per- culture of punishment in the United haps confirmations or weddings. As it 106 West 56th Street States and what underlies our nation’s is the month dedicated to Mary, there New York, NY 10019-3803 shameful record on cruelty. will be processions and “May crown- Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 Reading any or all of these books is ings” of statues—still popular practices a good way to kick-start your May in many parishes across the land. All E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] activities. But this month presents us around us are signs of joy, rebirth and Web site: www.americamagazine.org. with other special opportunities and renewal. Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 celebratory occasions. One that is per- May I suggest, readers, that you gift © 2009 America Press, Inc. haps not widely known is “Be Kind to Mother (and all your loved ones) this Animals Week,” from May 2 to 9. Our holiday with a good book. You are like- Cover: A girl stands in front of pho- tos at the tomb of slain Bishop Juan nation’s deep economic slump has ly to find the right one in the pages of Gerardi Conedera of Guatamala prompted the neglect and abandon- America. PATRICIA A. KOSSMANN City. CNS photo from Reuters. CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org VOL. 200 NO.14, WHOLE NO. 4854 MAY 4, 2009

ARTICLES 11 LESSONS IN MERCY Justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of atrocities Daniel Philpott

17 LIBERIA’S TRIALS The challenge of forging a lasting peace John Perry

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 11 5 Editorial A Modest Proposal 6 Signs of the Times 9 Column Rock and Sand Margaret Silf 21 Faith in Focus Soulful Leadership Margaret Benefiel 37 Poem Omens, Warnings, and Advice Leonard Cirino 42 Letters 46 The Word Already Pruned Barbara E. Reid 21 BOOKS & CULTURE 27 SPRING BOOKS Beyond the Revolution; Evidence; Keepers of the Keys of Heaven; This Flowing Toward Me; A Saint on Death Row; Cruel and Unusual THEATER Dan Golden’s “Irena’s Vow”: A review and an interview

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Justin Catanoso (right) talks about his book, My Cousin the Saint, and John W. O'Malley, S.J., and Msgr. John J. Strynkowski discuss the pope and collegiality. Plus, photographs from America’s centennial Mass and a report from James Martin, S.J. 3527 CURRENT COMMENT

Nothing in Archbishop Dolan’s homily, however, invit- No Train, No Gain ed such an intense reaction. Even as he spoke of the A recent online search of The New York Times for the church protecting the weak and helpless as a “mama bear” term “high-speed rail” returned this headline as the third protects its cubs, the archbishop was careful to broaden result: “High-Speed Rail Line Is Planned by Japan.” The the scope of that concern to include not only the sick, the date? July 14, 1958. Also included in the results was elderly and the poor but also others who often go unmen- another headline, this one from 2009: “Obama Seeks tioned, like people who are mentally or physically handi- High-Speed Rail System Across U.S.” Has the United capped and addicts. His plain-spoken, overriding idea that States finally decided to do what most industrialized “everybody is somebody” was far from sloganeering. countries have been doing for over 50 years—namely, Indeed, it offers a highly positive and very useful way of make a meaningful investment in mass rail transit? We explaining the church’s position to the world. hope so. The chronic underfunding of the U.S. rail sys- Church leaders around the country could enhance the tem is an international embarrassment. President Barack public conversation about life issues by following Arch- Obama’s announcement in April that he was making bishop Dolan’s lead. Such inviting rhetoric would likely available $8 billion to develop high-speed intercity rail help the church accomplish its goals. transportation in 10 regions of the country is a welcome change indeed. A properly funded rail system would cre- The French Paradox ate jobs, reduce travel times and increase mobility. It It is a truism that French youngsters, growing up in fami- would also reduce congestion on the highways and in the lies accustomed to wine with their meals, learn how to air and curtail carbon emissions, a leading cause of global handle alcohol. But pending legislation suggests otherwise, warming. now that alcohol-related illnesses are the second largest Mr. Obama’s plan has already run into considerable cause of death in France. (Tobacco-related illnesses are the criticism, mainly from the same tired coalition of first.) To combat problem drinking among the young, automakers and pseudoconservatives who claim that the Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has introduced a bill that nation’s rail system should sink or swim on its own, with- would raise the age for beer and wine consumption to 18. out the added buoyancy provided by government subsi- Young people currently can buy beer and wine at age 16, dies. Such a critique would have some validity if the gov- and bartenders and shopkeepers seldom require proof of ernment were not already in the business of heavily subsi- age. The bill also stops bars from allowing customers to dizing transportation. Ten billion dollars per year goes to drink as much as they want for a modest fee, a practice the highway trust fund, and almost $3 billion annually popular at student parties. The National Assembly goes to the Federal Aviation Administration (not counting approved the measure in March. The bill still needs the airport construction). And let us not forget that the feder- approval of the French Senate. al government is now practically running General Motors. Binge drinking by French youth is of special concern. We have no quibble with these programs per se, but rail The number of people between the ages of 15 and 24 hos- should get its fair share. Japan figured that out 50 years pitalized for alcohol-related illnesses jumped 50 percent ago. We would still do well to learn the lesson. between 2004 and 2007. Although the overall amount of wine and liquor consumption in France has dropped over Everybody Is Somebody the past 50 years for the population at large, among the One unexpected event during the installation of young it has been rising; hence the worry among health Timothy M. Dolan as head of the Archdiocese of New officials. France banned the advertising of alcoholic bever- York on April 15 was the dramatic reaction of the con- ages on television in 1991. New regulations passed in gregation to a passage about life issues in the archbish- March 2009, however, allow alcohol advertising on the op’s homily. At the mention of the unborn, the congre- Internet, a concession won by the powerful wine lobby. gation leapt to its feet and cheered with the sustained France’s high levels of alcoholism cause appropriate alarm passion of a political rally responding to a cue. Nothing among its health authorities, and whatever practical suc- else in the entire ceremony received a similar response, cess the bill may have, it is at least a step in the direction of not even the formal announcement of the archbishop’s trying to protect French youth from a life-threatening installation. addiction.

4 America May 4, 2009 EDITORIAL A Modest Proposal

ilence and fervent prayer for vocations are no longer temporary world and, in particular, adequate responses to the priest shortage in the will open examination of the various SUnited States. As the church prepares to observe the ways the shortage of priests can be Year of the Priest, which begins on June 19, open discussion addressed honestly and with imagina- about how to sustain the church as a eucharistic communi- tion. New vocations can be promoted ty of faith and fortify the pastoral life of Catholic congrega- through youth rallies, the Internet and, tions has become imperative. For making do within the lim- as always, with prayer. In addition, the pastoral needs of its set by present demographic trends presents a double parishes may also be met in part by more effective pastoral threat to Catholic life: Catholic communities will become assignment of permanent deacons and by increased leader- only infrequent eucharistic communities, or eucharistic ship by lay men and women. communities will be severed from the pastoral care and What about the recruitment and training of married public witness of priests. men as priests? Married priests already minister in the In 2008 the sociologist Dean Hoge said: “We need at Catholic Church, both East and West. Addressing the mar- least a doubling of ordinations to maintain the American ried clergy of the Eastern Catholic churches, the Second priesthood as we know it now. But this is impossible.” Of cur- Vatican Council exhorted “all those who have received the rent diocesan priests, only 70 percent are available for parish priesthood in the married state to persevere in their holy ministry, with the rest sick, retired or absent for a variety of vocation and continue to devote their lives fully and gener- reasons, according to Mary Gautier of the Center for Applied ously to the flock entrusted to their care” (Decree on the Research in the Apostolate. An increasing number of Ministry and Life of Priests,” No. 16). That exhortation Catholics are unable to participate in a Sunday or weekday now applies to the more than 100 former Anglican priests Mass. All this prompts the question, Will the priest shortage and Lutheran ministers who have entered the Catholic impose a eucharistic famine on the Catholic people? Church, been ordained and now serve in the Latin rite. As The de facto remedy already applied in many places— we face the challenges of the priest shortage, some of the making the priest a circuit rider moving from parish to more than 16,000 permanent deacons in the United States, parish to dispense the sacraments—risks narrowing the many of them married, who experience a call to priestly ministry of the priest and impoverishing the Christian life ministry might be called to ordination with a similarly of the communities he serves. A narrowly sacramental defi- adapted discipline. In addition, the views and desires of nition of priesthood satisfies the requirements of only one some of the more than 25,000 priests who have been lai- of the three canons that define the pastoral responsibilities cized (and are now either single or married) should also be of the priest, Canon 530. As a consequence the sacramental heard. office is as a practical matter severed from its integral con- Our plea is modest. The bishops of the United States nection with comprehensive pastoral care. Canons 528 and should take greater leadership in openly discussing the 529 provide a broader understanding of the priestly min- priest shortage and its possible remedies. These should not istry. The first sees the priest as one who instructs, cate- be conversations in which we face a problem only to find chizes, fosters works of justice, shows special care for the every new avenue of solution closed. Rather, they should be education of children and brings the Gospel to those who exchanges fully open to the possibilities offered by the have ceased to practice the faith. The second requires that Spirit. he should come to know the faithful entrusted to his care, In March, Cardinal Edward Egan, the newly retired visit families, share their concerns, worries and griefs, help archbishop of New York, said in a candid moment that the the sick and seek out the poor, the afflicted and the lonely. topic of married priests “is a perfectly legitimate discussion.” Diminishing numbers make it difficult to carry out this He added, “I think it should be looked at.” The cardinal holistic vision of the priest’s pastoral ministry. later nuanced his statement, but the need for a creative re- We hope that the upcoming Year of the Priest will visioning of priestly life to sustain the eucharistic life of the lead to a broader discussion of the priesthood in the con- church in its fullest sense can no longer be delayed.

May 4, 2009 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

JERUSALEM Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud In Israeli Jewish Schools, No Olmert at a school in Rami, Israel Teaching About Christianity aniel Rossing uses one word to sum up the extent of teaching about Christianity in Israeli schools: none. D“The answer is very simply no. Israeli students do not learn about Christianity in school,” said Rossing, director of the independent Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations. “All indications are that there is a very widespread ignorance with regard to Catholicism in general and in particular in regard to the revolutionary changes which have taken place in the Catholic Church regarding Judaism and the Jewish people,” said Rossing, who is an Orthodox Jew. The Jerusalem Center and the independent Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies recently released the results of a survey looking at Jewish Israeli attitudes toward Christianity. Given the lack of exposure young people have to Christians and Christianity, Rossing said, he was not surprised by results that showed young Israeli Jews tend to be less tolerant of Christians than people over 30. People under 30 “are solely the product of the educational system and don’t have contact with Christianity, while [older people] have had other influences and ing about the local Christian commu- anything about the pilgrimage to Israel opportunities for encounters,” said nities in the schools so students can at by Pope John Paul II in 2000. “I have Rossing. least learn about “our neighbors in this never heard about someone in Israel Sixty-eight percent of non- land,” Rossing said. In schools where taking [it] upon himself to educate Orthodox Jewish respondents said there are some local educational initia- Jews about post-Vatican II Christians,” that Christianity should be taught in tives, there is more freedom in the cur- said Rabbi Kronish. Israeli schools and 52 percent said that riculum and more exposure to the his- Rossing said that without a basic the New Testament should be studied. tory of Christianity as a religion, but it understanding of the history of Seventy-three percent of Orthodox is not a formal program reviewed and Christianity and the influence of Jewish respondents, however, and 90 approved by the ministry of education. Christian culture, Israeli students are percent of ultra-Orthodox Jewish “Jewish kids in Israel who finish left with a big gap in their historical respondents opposed teaching about high school will be totally ignorant understanding of the world. “It is hard Christianity in schools in any form. about Vatican II. They will not have a to understand today’s world without a Only 3 percent of the respondents said clue,” said Rabbi Ron Kronish, direc- good concept of Christianity and they had no opinion, indicating that tor of the Interreligious Coordinating Israel, not to mention our neighbors,” the vast majority of people feel strong- Council in Israel, which conducted its said Rossing. He said that during ly about this issue one way or the own study of the issue 10 years ago. At workshops, representatives of his cen- other, Rossing said. the time there were a few attempts to ter have also discovered that Currently, if anything about approach the subject in cultural stud- Muslims—even those who live in Christianity is taught, says Rossing, “it ies classes, but not much has changed mixed villages with Christians—are is about the Crusades and the in the past decade, he said. In fact, almost as ignorant about Christianity Inquisition. There is no teaching of according to Kronish, the situation as their Jewish counterparts. comparative religion.” In response, may be worse. Most school-age chil- some educators are pushing for teach- dren, for instance, will not have heard From CNS, staff and other sources.

6 America May 4, 2009 to award Irish President Mary intellectual advancement and real lead- McAleese an honorary degree even ership by Catholic higher education in though she has publicly supported gay this nation,” McGuire said. rights and women’s ordination. David M. O’Connell, the Fordham University’s law school pre- Vincentian priest who is president of sented U.S. Supreme Court Justice The Catholic University of America, Stephen G. Breyer with a prestigious said, however, that while Catholic edu- ethics prize despite objections because cators should not fear views or posi- of the justice’s votes to uphold the tions contrary to Catholic teachings, legality of abortion. And the they should be respectful of the University of San Diego revoked the church’s moral values. “We should be faculty appointment of a theologian— concerned when legitimate education- Rosemary Radford Ruether—after al activity about such matters becomes learning that she was a member of the advocacy or the perception of it,” board of an organization that supports Father O’Connell said. “Positions con- legal abortion. “It is a part of the con- trary to the church are not, cannot and tinuing evidence that Catholic univer- should not be presented as equally sities are becoming intellectual and valid to what the church holds or cultural ghettos where the controver- teaches on our Catholic campuses.” sial issues cannot be discussed,” Giving voice to a similar concern, Ruether said following the revocation Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, of her appointment. N.J., said, “We cannot justify such Other Catholic intellectuals have actions, and the [U.S.] bishops have expressed their concerns, and have stated so clearly and strongly.” He cited NOTRE DAME DEBATE defended their institution’s decisions. the U.S. bishops’ 2004 document, “We don’t see a conflict with our Invitation Stokes Catholic identity if we have a speaker on campus who may have views that a National are in conflict with Catholic teachings,” Controversy said Kristine Maloney, a spokeswoman for the College of the Holy Cross in he University of Notre Dame’s Worcester, Mass. “We consider the invitation to President Barack contributions the speaker has made to TObama to speak at its com- society as a whole, and that doesn’t mencement in May—and the honorary necessarily mean we endorse all of their degree it will bestow upon him—is the positions or views. We’re committed to subject of the latest in a series of con- a Jesuit tradition, which doesn’t sup- troversies that has fuelled a national press educational issues and intellectu- debate on how Catholic colleges and al debate,” she said. universities should express their Patricia McGuire, president of Catholic identities. Trinity Washington University, In Scranton, Pa., Bishop Joseph F. argued that Catholics have long strug- “The Dome” at Notre Dame Martino engaged in a public dispute gled to make their colleges and univer- with the leadership of Misericordia sities the widely respected institutions “Catholics in Political Life,” which University after a gay rights activist that they are and not simply the agents states that “the Catholic community was invited to give a lecture there. At of parochial concerns. “The diminish- and Catholic institutions should not the University of San Francisco, some ment of the idea of the university by honor those who act in defiance of our Catholics were angered by the decision [some critics] betrays two centuries of fundamental moral principles.”

May 4, 2009 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Scholars: Promote Religious Freedom NEWS BRIEFS A group of scholars has urged U.S. reli- Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore has written to Pakistan’s gious communities to persuade president expressing concern over a regulation that allows Islamic President Barack Obama that the pro- law to be implemented in northwestern Pakistan. “We note with motion of international religious free- sorrow that your government has failed to take stock of the concerns dom is vital to national security. During of civil society,” he said. • By proposing to allow the use of federal a panel discussion at Georgetown funds for stem-cell research on embryos, the National Institutes of University on April 15, there was agree- Health opens “a new chapter in divorcing biomedical research from ment among the panelists that the U.S. its necessary ethical foundation,” said Cardinal Justin Rigali of State Department has underused the Philadelphia on April 21. • The Catholic bishops of New York State International Religious Freedom Act, a called for the defeat of legislation proposed by New York Gov. David 1998 law that was intended to promote A. Paterson on April 16 that would permit same-sex marriages. • religious freedom as a foreign policy of U.S. Catholics are generally optimistic about their church, accord- the United States. “There is this erro- ing to the 2009 LeMoyne-Zogby Contemporary Catholic Trends neous notion that it’s unconstitutional if survey released in April. Close to three-fourths of those responding we are talking to religious leaders said they were at least somewhat optimistic about the church’s around the world,” said Thomas F. Farr, future: 36 percent said they were very optimistic; and 37 percent a professor of religion and international were somewhat optimistic. • The Benedictine priest Stanley L. Jaki, affairs. For decades the State a Hungarian-born author, physicist, philosopher and theologian, Department has operated on the phi- died on April 7 in Madrid. He was 84. losophy that religion must be kept out of U.S. diplomatic policy, Farr said.

nor and he just repealed the death recent remarks about Israel at a U.N. Richardson Honored penalty.” The archbishop added, “And conference on racism as “extremist and in Rome the pope nodded very happily in agree- unacceptable” and said the comments ment.” Richardson, a Democrat and a promote an atmosphere of conflict. At Catholic, had been a supporter of the the same time, Vatican officials, includ- death penalty; he also supports legal- ing Pope Benedict XVI, emphasized ized abortion and embryonic stem-cell the importance of participation in the research, which the church opposes. conference, which was being boycotted Archbishop Sheehan said, “We were by the United States and several other able to help him understand our oppo- Western countries. Ahmadinejad told Bill Richardson and Pope Benedict XVI sition to the death penalty and he did conference participants April 20 that indeed change his view and signed the Israel had “resorted to military aggres- After making what he described as law. One thing at a time.” The arch- sion to make an entire nation homeless “the most difficult decision in my polit- bishop pointed out that it was not the under the pretext of Jewish suffering” ical life,” Gov. Bill Richardson of New Vatican or the Catholic Church that and had established a “totally racist Mexico was given a front-row seat at a was officially honoring Richardson, government in the occupied Palestine.” papal audience and saw Rome’s but the Catholic lay Community of His comments prompted a temporary Colosseum lit up in honor of his state. Sant’Egidio. walkout by dozens of diplomats. The Governor Richardson signed a bill on Vatican spokesman, Federico March 18 abolishing the death penalty Lombardi, S.J., said “The Holy See in New Mexico. Archbishop Michael J. Vatican Objects deplores the use of this United Nations Sheehan of Santa Fe said he intro- to Remarks on Israel forum for the adoption of political duced the governor to Pope Benedict, The Vatican has criticized Iran’s positions of an extremist and offensive saying, “Holy Father, this is our gover- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nature against any state.”

8 America May 4, 2009 MARGARET SILF Rock and Sand

he water babies class was pro- warned us that we cannot trust our words “trust in God” have to go way ceeding noisily. I watched my own estimation of what is solid and beyond the creedal statements; other- Tlittle granddaughter splashing what is not. Things are definitely not wise faith becomes little more than an around happily with her dad. Neither always what they seem. inflatable island. We feel the wobbles, holy Scripture nor world economics Never in my lifetime have we been in spite of what we profess. was at the forefront of my mind. I was so brutally reminded of this as in the The God who was holding those just intrigued by the fact that it is pos- present economic downturn. The first children safe was not coming down sible to teach very young children to indicator of the slide into recession in from heaven on a pink cloud but was swim, because actually they already the United Kingdom came two years holding them through the arms of know how and have not yet learned ago with the fall of the financial insti- their parents. And that, perhaps, is the about fear. tution Northern Rock. Many people secret of how we actually allow God’s The teacher did a little exercise had built their houses on love and rock-like solid- with them that is worth reflecting on. that particular rock. It ity to become incarnate In the middle of the pool was an turned to sand beneath We cannot in our very unstable inflatable platform. Each child in turn their feet. Now the rock of trust world. We are called, was invited to clamber up onto it. market forces is turning to challenged and empow- Clinging to their parent’s hand, they quicksand all around the our own ered to extend this kind then staggered across it, discovering globe. We have stored up estimation of loving hold to each how wobbly the whole contraption treasure for ourselves in other. God has no arms really was. At the other side they then barns where the moths of of what is but ours in which to flopped back into the water. All this to irresponsible lending and solid and hold God’s people. the accompaniment of nursery the rust of unregulated The challenge of our rhymes, of course. profiteering have gotten in what is not. day is not just economic I noticed, first, how eagerly the chil- and destroyed it. but spiritual. Can we be dren climbed up onto the island refuge As I watched those little children in to others the rock of love, trust and in the middle of the pool and how the pool, I asked myself: “Why are they support that Jesus models for us? It quickly they realized that it was not as able to let themselves plunge into the sounds as flimsy and unlikely as the solid as it looked; then how they fell water so fearlessly and risk its depths?” ripples on the pool, but in the end it is back into the water and discovered The answer was obvious. Each of them the water, not the artificial platform, that it really would hold them up. I was close to a loving parent, who was that provides the buoyancy. thought of Jesus’ words about the only waiting to catch them, hold them, God asks us to provide that base of house built on rock and the house embrace them, praise and encourage trust for each other in our everyday built on sand—wise guidance. But them. Not one of them had yet experi- dealings—to be a ripple on the ocean what if the things we think are rock enced any reason to move through the of God’s love. It is not an esoteric mys- turn out to be sand, and what we world with anything but perfect trust. tery. How to do it is clearly spelled out might dismiss as sand turns out, after It would be easy simply to draw the for us in the life and death of Jesus. It all, to be rock? Those children thought conclusion that all we need to do is is not something to be left solely to the inflatable island was a rock. They trust God as we flounder in the quick- our governments. The potential for soon found out how unstable it was sand of recession. That may be easily personal trustworthiness lies within and that the water was a more reliable said, especially on a Sunday morning, each of us. We are simply asked to let support. Jesus, of course, constantly but not so easily trusted when Monday it grow and show. And historically, comes. Those children trusted their there is no more opportune time to MARGARET SILF lives in Staffordshire, parents because they had never had discover the power of mutual trust, England. Her latest books are Companions of Christ: Ignatian Spirituality for cause to doubt that trust. Most of us, support and love than when our man- Everyday Living and The Gift of Prayer. sadly, cannot say that about life. The made platforms are sinking.

May 4, 2009 America 9 PHOTO: CNS/REUTERS

10 America May 4, 2009 JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION IN THE AFTERMATH OF ATROCITIES Lessons in Mercy BY DANIEL PHILPOTT

hree tales about bishops find their setting in what may be called our “age of peacebuilding” in the church and the world. The work of Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Uganda, Bishop Juan Gerardi of Guatemala and Bishop Carlos Belo of East Timor has been part of a global wave of efforts to deal with past injustices inT order to build peace and stability. These efforts take place in the wake of a third wave of democratization that has brought an end to dictator- ships in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and East Asia; after the end of civil wars in locales as diverse as Yugoslavia and Mozambique, El Salvador and Cambodia; and in the aftermath of interventions by the United States and NATO in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. On July 14, 2002, donning full episcopal regalia, Archbishop John Baptist Odama traipsed through the bush of Northern Uganda with a del- egation of religious leaders to visit the hide-out of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, whose war of two decades against the Ugandan government has resulted in over 200,000 deaths and the abduc- tion of thousands of children who were then forced into combat. Odama’s diplomatic safari helped to elicit peace negotiations with the L.R.A. The archbishop advocates reconciliation, opposing the International Criminal Court’s indictments of war criminals and instead urging Ugandans to for- give perpetrators—even Kony—and to practice traditional mato oput rit-

DANIEL PHILPOTT, an associate professor in the department of political science and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, is currently writing a book to be titled Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation.

May 4, 2009 America 11 uals of reconciliation that can help reintegrate soldiers into initiatives for reconciliation and trauma healing have com- civilian communities. bined in an unprecedented entrepreneurship of social repair. Another bishop who advocated reconciliation, Juan Nunca mas! (“Never again!”) is the dominant answer to Gerardi of Guatemala, was bludgeoned to death by army the question of justice within the community of human officers in the garage of his home in Guatemala City on rights activists and international lawyers. The prosecution April 26, 1998. Gerardi’s murder came two days after he of human rights violators and war criminals is their chief had delivered the report of the Recovery of Historical demand; the International Criminal Court is their signature Memory Project, which he had launched in 1995 to bring accomplishment; the blanket granting of amnesty common exposure to and healing from the atrocities committed dur- in Latin America during the 1980s is their chief nightmare. ing Guatemala’s genera- Their natural partners are tion-long civil war. Remhi Western governments and was unique among the A global wave of societies struggling the United Nations, for globe’s truth-recovery whom peacebuilding has efforts for its personalist to restore justice makes the present meant building regimes approach to taking testi- based on human rights, mony, involving several moment a propitious one for democracy, free markets hundred animadores, or the church to offer a teaching and the rule of law. volunteers, who fanned out Other voices, though, across the countryside to on social reconciliation. have articulated an alter- hear the stories of ordinary native approach: reconcili- peasants and to offer them ation. They come dispro- spiritual and psychological support. portionately from religious communities and include the A third bishop, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Carlos likes of Bishops Odama, Gerardi and Belo. Though they Belo of East Timor, stressed judicial accountability for usually embrace human rights and sometimes punishment human rights violators, particularly for Indonesian army also, these voices advocate a far more holistic restoration of generals who committed atrocities against Timorese civil- right relationships, one that addresses the wide range of ians during Indonesia’s long occupation between 1975 and wounds that human rights violations and war crimes inflict 1999. But Belo has also spoken for reconciliation, which and that involves a far wider set of practices for healing these East Timor has pursued through community justice panels wounds. that combine truth-telling by victims with apologies and It is only natural that the Catholic Church would take an community service that aim to reintegrate perpetrators of interest in reconciliation. At the source and summit of atrocities back into their societies. Christian life is the Eucharist, the sacramental re-enact- As each bishop’s story attests, the age of peacebuilding is ment of the event through which sin, evil and death are fraught with contentious questions about justice. Should defeated and friendship with God and justice are restored. top war criminals be granted amnesty in order to secure a Is not peacebuilding an imitation of just this transforma- peace agreement or a transition to democracy? Is amnesty tion? And does not a global wave of societies struggling to for them ever justifiable? Should victims forgive them? May restore justice make the present moment a propitious one leaders apologize on behalf of nations? Do representatives for the church to offer a teaching on social reconciliation, of past generations merit reparations? Who owes them? just as it has offered teachings on war, economic develop- Beneath all these is the question: Of what does justice con- ment and democracy in past encyclicals? sist in the wake of its massive despoliation? The foundations of such a teaching can be found in the life and writings of Pope John Paul II. Living under Nazism Teaching Reconciliation and Communism in Poland taught him the need for recon- Over 30 truth commissions have been established in recent ciliation and led him to a personal devotion to mercy. He decades. Two international tribunals and a permanent made it the subject of his second encyclical, Rich in Mercy International Criminal Court have been erected. Trials in (Dives in Misericordia, 1980), which he ended with the national courts, laws to disqualify perpetrators from hold- striking declaration that forgiveness and reconciliation ing office, reparations, apologies, museums, monuments, could be practiced in politics, not just in personal relation- acts of forgiveness, traditional tribal rituals and civil society ships or in the confessional. He developed this teaching in subsequent addresses for the World Day of Peace, culmi- Page 10. Guatemalans march April 26 during a candlelight vigil for deceased Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi of nating in 2002, when, just after the attacks of Sept. 11, Guatemala City. 2001, he supplemented Pope Paul VI’s famous dictum, “no

12 America May 4, 2009 peace without justice,” with the phrase “no justice without given the numerous wounds of injustice. One such wound is forgiveness.” Pope Benedict XVI affirmed his own commit- the loneliness and isolation that victims experience when ment to this teaching in part by taking a papal name remi- their suffering is unrecognized by the community, a redou- niscent of Pope Benedict XV, who gave strong witness to bling of the violation itself, as the South African political reconciliation during and after the First World War. philosopher André du Toit has argued. Acknowledgment, the second practice of reconciliation, Building on New Foundations imitates the God who hears the cry of the poor and remem- Now the task is to construct on this foundation an ethic bers the suffering of his people. In the political realm it is that can address the dilemmas of dealing with the past to accomplished most thoroughly by truth commissions, but which the age of peacebuilding has given rise. Such an ethic also by public burials, monuments, museums and the might claim that reconciliation is itself a concept of justice. rewriting of textbooks. Acknowledgment is at its best when That claim will sound strange to Western ears accustomed it is most personal, as modeled by the animadores of to thinking of justice strictly in terms of rights, punishment Guatemala’s Remhi. and the distribution of wealth. But in biblical texts, justice The third practice, reparations, also involves a bestowal means a comprehensive right relationship among the mem- upon victims by the state, but here it involves material pay- bers of a community and God. Reconciliation, which ment. While reparations can only partially alleviate eco- appears often as a concept in the letters of Paul, means nomic loss, their deeper purpose is, like that of acknowledg- restoration to a state of right relationship and thus to a state ment, a symbolic recognition by the political community of of justice. Strong resonances of this meaning can be found victims’ suffering. in Second Isaiah, which uses justice to describe God’s holis- A fourth practice, punishment, may seem out of place in tic restoration of Israel, ultimately through a messianic suf- an ethic of reconciliation. Debates worldwide pit reconcilia- fering servant. tion against retribution and punishment against mercy, but Closely related is the biblical notion of peace (shalom or it need not be so. From a Catholic perspective, punishment eirene), which connotes a holistic condition of right rela- is a practice that restores shalom. The Compendium of the tionship and of justice. One other biblical concept is essen- Social Doctrine of the Church affirms its purpose as “on the tial and may be thought of as reconciliation’s animating one hand, encouraging the reinsertion of the condemned virtue: mercy. As Pope John Paul II described it in Rich in Mercy, mercy is “manifested in its true and proper aspect when it restores to value, promotes and draws good from all the forms of evil existing in the world and in man,” a broad, transformational virtue that resembles reconciliation. Reconciliation as justice, peace and mercy—how are these concepts manifested in the politics of recovering soci- eties? Through a portfolio of six practices that together address a wide range of wounds that political injustices PRESIDENT, SAINT IGNATIUS COLLEGE PREP inflict and that, if left unhealed, beget hatred, revenge and CHICAGO, ILLINOIS further injustices. Saint Ignatius College Prep, a Catholic, co-ed high school committed to its Jesuit Catholic identity and Six Ways to Reconciliation and Justice mission, seeks candidates for the position of President. In the first of these practices the social teachings of the church converge most closely with the commitments of the The new President shall be a man or woman, religious human rights community: building socially just institutions or lay, who is a practicing Catholic and who is, or is to become, conversant with the Spiritual Exercises and based on the rule of law, human rights and a commitment to share in the pastoral care for the community. The new economic justice. The relationships between citizens and President will assume office on July 1, 2010. states that these institutions embody are the very goal of For additional details about the position and reconciliation in the political realm and should not be com- application requirements, as well as information promised by other aspects of reconciliation. Such was the about the school including its mission, students, message of the South African black theologians who wrote and academic, athletic and extracurricular programs, visit www.ignatius.org. You may also contact the Kairos Document in 1985 against fellow church leaders William Kunkel, President Search Committee Chair, who called for reconciliation while too feebly opposing at [email protected]. All application apartheid. materials are due by May 15. But human rights and the rule of law are not enough,

May 4, 2009 America 13 person into society; on the other, fostering a justice that rec- own redemption of the world—a world that includes the onciles, a justice capable of restoring harmony in social rela- perpetrators of atrocities—through the cross. Politically, it tionships disrupted by the criminal act committed.” For the can be restorative, sometimes dramatically so. Eugene de masterminds of war crimes, only long-term imprisonment Kock, South Africa’s most brutal enforcer of apartheid, can communicate the gravity of their offense. Other crimi- came to repent of his past after being forgiven by the wife of nal combatants, however, might be inte- an anti-apartheid activist whom he had grated back into their communities ON THE WEB murdered. The Catholic Church has through restorative public forums like From the archives, Joseph A. O’Hare, encouraged victims to forgive in many those Bishop Belo advocated in East S.J., on the mercy of John Paul II. locales, including El Salvador, Chile, Timor. Incompatible with just punish- americamagazine.org/pages Northern Ireland, Guatemala, East ment are amnesties, which abandon Timor, Uganda and Poland. restoration altogether; only when demonstrably necessary These six practices can work together, each aiming to for a peace agreement ought they to be adopted. heal a different dimension of woundedness, each exercising Public apology, the fifth practice, is becoming more com- mercy toward the restoration of peace, thus bringing about mon around the globe. It involves the repentance of perpe- a greater degree of justice. In politics, the practices will trators and sometimes also a head of state speaking on the always be incomplete: compromised by the powerful, ham- state’s behalf. Following the demise of the dictatorship of pered by differences over the meaning of justice, burdened Augusto Pinochet, for instance, Chile’s President Patricio by their sheer complexity and weakened by political institu- Aylwin, who is a Catholic, issued a national apology to tions that have been destroyed and only partially rebuilt. thousands of Pinochet’s torture victims with great healing This partiality, too, contains a theological dimension: origi- effect. nal sin is also a component of a Catholic ethic of reconcilia- Forgiveness is the sixth and crowning practice. It is also tion. But faith, especially when guided by the Spirit and the most dramatic, for it is initiated by the victim, who not lived as a participation in God’s redemptive action, wins vic- only relinquishes his or her own claim against a perpetrator tories too. Even in politics there are moments when, in the but exercises a constructive will toward restored relation- words of the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, “hope and history ship. Theologically, forgiveness is a participation in God’s rhyme.” A

BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR REST • REFLECT • RENEW JAMES MARTIN, SJ The Ministry to Ministers Sabbatical Program

“Fr. James Martin joins the company of such men as Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, who • Holistic Program Theology Workshops sought the fulfilled life Integrative Spirituality Individual Wellness Plan in the tradition inaugu- • International Participants • First Class Accommodations rated by St. Augustine.” Private Rooms with Bath Over —RIGHT REV. JOHN DSL Computer Connections 22,000 • Contemplative Setting EUDES BAMBERGER, OCSO copies • Located in the heart of San Antonio sold! Abbot Emeritus, Our Lady of the • Program Dates Genesee Abbey, Piffard, NY August 17 - December 13, 2009 January 11 - May 09, 2010 August 16 - December 12, 2010 1-58768-036-X • 112 pages $10.00 • Paperback Ministry to Ministers Sabbatical Program Available at bookstores or from PAULIST PRESS . www.paulistpress.com Oblate School of Theology • . 109 Oblate Drive • San Antonio, TX 78216-6693 Call: 800-218-1903 Fax: 800-836-3161 (210) 349-9928 • Fax (210) 349-0119 • [email protected] • www.ost.edu

14 America May 4, 2009 Paid Advertisement Gain the Deep Understanding of the Mass NE You’ve Always Wanted with W Fr. John F. Baldovin, S.J. as Your Guide hat if you could explore the find its roots in the life, ministry, death theology and practice of the and resurrection of the Lord? How W Catholic Mass with one of has the celebration of the Mass devel- the world’s leading liturgical profes- oped over the centuries? What is the sors as your guide? Now you can. spiritual meaning of our celebration? How did Vatican II impact the Eucha- Whether you are looking for a deeper ristic Liturgy? Why do we read the personal understanding of the Liturgy portions of Scripture that are used in of the Eucharist, or have questions the Sunday lectionary? about the Mass, you will profit greatly from this course. In a series of twelve lectures Jesuit Father John Baldovin answers these The Mass or Liturgy of the Eucharist and many other questions. is the most important liturgy Catholics celebrate. Every time we gather to About Your Presenter celebrate, we are acting in obedience to Jesus’ command to ‘do this in John F. Baldovin, S.J. is currently Fr. John F. Baldovin, S.J. memory of me.’ Christians have Professor of Historical and Liturgical Professor, Boston College obeyed this command for nearly 2,000 Theology at the Boston College years. Some have given their lives as School of Theology and Ministry. He 12 Topics on 4 Audio CDs martyrs for the privilege of celebrating has taught at Fordham University and the Lord’s death and resurrection and the Jesuit School of Theology at 1. Introduction for partaking of His real sacramental Berkeley. Fr. Baldovin worked with 2. The Mass in History presence in Holy Communion. the International Commission on 3. The Entrance Right of the Mass English in the Liturgy (ICEL) from 4. Liturgy of the Word What Will You Learn? 1994-2002. 5. The Catholic Lectionary 6. The Prayers of the Faithful Gain powerful answers to your most His most recent books are Bread of and Presenting the Gifts important Mass questions. Life, Cup of Salvation: Understanding the Mass (Rowman and Littlefield, 7. What is a Eucharistic Prayer? Why is the Liturgy of the Eucharist so 2003) and Reforming the Liturgy: A 8. The Eucharistic Prayers Today important to so many Christians? Response to the Critics (Liturgical 9. The Communion Right How does what we celebrate today Press, 2008). and the Ministries of the Mass 10. The Ritual and Language of the Mass SAVE $30.00 ORDER BY AUGUST 11TH, 2009 11. A Theology of the Eucharist SAVE $30.00 Now You Know Media 10411 Motor City Drive, Suite 701 Bethesda, MD 20817 12. Why go to Mass? The Mass 4 CD Set Sale $39.95 (list price $65.95) + $10 S&H Order by phone, online or by using this coupon Coupon Code: A1292 www.NowYouKnowMedia.com 1-800-955-3904

Pay with: Check Verification Code:

Account number Exp. Date:

The Mass X $39.95 The Mass with Study Guide (E-Mailed PDF) $49.95 MD Residents, Add 6% Sales Tax: S & H:

Signature ______Total: Name (please print) ______

Mailing address ______

City/State/Zip ______Phone

E-mail ______for order confirmation YES! I want a FREE Catalog! Order Risk Free: 90-day no questions return policy No Purchase Necessary

May 4, 2009 America 15 NEWN CITY PRESS New Releases Spring/Summer 2009

15 Days of Prayer with 15 Days of Prayer with Dietrich Bonhoeffer Saint Francis of Assisi Matthieu Arnold Thadée Matura, O.F.M. Presents one of the boldest examples of Matura selects key texts and provides 20th century Christian witness. a commentary to the Poverello’s gospel-based message. ISBN 978-1-56548-311-8 paperback, 144 pp., $12.95 ISBN 978-1-56548-315-6 paperback, 176 pp., $12.95 15 Days of Prayer with Bernadette of Lourdes Mother to All, François Vayne Mother Forever Four Weeks with 15 meditations on one of the most Mary of Nazareth engaging spiritual figures of our times. Megan McKenna ISBN 978-1-56548-314-9 A month worth of daily meditations paperback, 152 pp., $12.95 on the Mother of Jesus. ISBN 978-1-56548-316-3 Marked for Life paperback, 72 pp., $8.95 The Story of Hildegard Goss-Mayr Richard Deats Pathways to Relationship The story of an Austrian Catholic pioneer in the philosophy and Four Weeks on practice of nonviolence. “Hildegard Simplicity, Gentleness, Goss-Mayr is my candidate for Humility, Friendship sainthood.” (Thomas Merton) Robert F. Morneau

ISBN 978-1-56548-309-5 Morneau helps us to focus on paperback, 150 pp., $13.95 our relationship with others and build up a better society. Elizabeth of the Trinity Always Believe in Love ISBN 978-1-56548-317-0 Marian T. Murphy, O.C.D. (ed.) paperback, 72 pp., $8.95 A collection of writings from one of the Homilies on the greatest mystics and spiritual guides of the twentieth century. Gospel of John 1-40 Saint Augustine ISBN 978-1-56548-313-2 Translated by Edmund Hill, O.P. paperback, 176 pp., $14.95 One of the greatest ancient Transformation in Prayer commentaries on the Gospel 99 Sayings by M. Basil Pennington of John. Jean Maalouf (ed.) ISBN 978-1-56548-289-0 An invitation toward the Center where paperback, 608 pp., $39.95 the Word of God speaks. ISBN 978-1-56548-319-4 ISBN 978-1-56548-308-8 casebound, 608 pp., $59.95 hardcover, 112 pp., $14.95 NEW CITY PRESS www.newcitypress.com 202 Comforter Blvd, Hyde Park, NY 12538 1-800-462-5980

16 America May 4, 2009 Liberia’s Trials The challenge of forging a lasting peace BY JOHN PERRY

fter a 14-year civil war in which more than Taylor and his rebel party, the National Patriotic Front of 300,000 people lost their lives and a third of Liberia, but then said, “I have absolutely not supported any those who survived became refugees or were warring faction and none of them can say I supported them.” displaced, the Republic of Liberia is attempting Catholics in Liberia, including their three bishops, have Ato come to terms with its painful past through its Truth and argued that both amnesty and a juridical process should fol- Reconciliation Commission. Modeled on a similar and suc- low the work of the truth commission. In 2004 the Catholic cessful program in South Africa, such commissions have Bishops Conference of Liberia, in their statement Liberia at been attempted throughout the world and are now being the Crossroads: Hopes and Challenges, called for a war crimes established in Canada and Kenya. A key question concern- tribunal to deal with the “culture of impunity” that is “so ing Liberia is whether something more will follow the commission and, if so, what that should be. The specific question is whether a war crimes tribunal will be established either within Liberia or under the auspices of the International Criminal Court at The Hague to deal with some of the grave human rights abuses revealed by the testimony of sur- vivors at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. If nothing more were to fol- low and if an amnesty were granted, it would have to be partial, because the most serious war crimes and crimes against humanity would be subject to international jurisprudence and prosecution. In the first part of its final report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission states that during the civil war there occurred “egregious” domestic crimes, “gross” violations of human rights and “seri- ous” violations of humanitarian law perpe- trated by unnamed individuals. With respect to various militia factions and mili- tary units involved, it distinguishes between “significant violator groups” and “less signif- icant violator groups.” Among the last indi- viduals to testify before the commission was President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who admitted initial sympathy with Charles

JOHN PERRY, S.J., an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada, is PHOTO: REUTERS currently doing research in peace studies and resid- A young rebel of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy carries a ing at Holy Family Parish in Monrovia, Liberia. weapon in a church yard in Monrovia in August 2003.

May 4, 2009 America 17 pervasive in our national life” (No. 11). More recently the tion at the University of Liberia. Edwin Snowe Jr., a son-in- bishops’ conference has issued a clarification, explaining law of Charles Taylor and formerly a key minister in his gov- that while they fully support the truth commission, they ernment of “Greater Liberia,” is an elected member of the reject a war crimes tribunal. House of Representatives and was formerly House speaker. It is easy to see why the hope of reconciliation would be Combatants, especially former child soldiers, have been attractive to the bishops and many others who long for offered special educational opportunities not available to national unity after so many years of internecine violence. other Liberians who suffered at their hands. The truth commission process offers Liberians an opportu- Whether the Special Criminal Court for Sierra Leone nity to review in detail their dark history between 1980, could be expanded to include Liberia and then to issue fur- when a violent coup led by Samuel Doe and a small group ther indictments for war crimes is not known. of soldiers toppled the elected government of William Tolbert, and 2003, when the Comprehensive Peace Accord When Justice Threatens Unity was signed in Ghana after 14 previously unsuccessful The most important argument against a recommendation attempts by the West African community to end the war to the government that a war crimes court be established and stabilize the region. within the Republic of Ordinary people have lis- The most serious war crimes and Liberia is the fear that this tened attentively to the would further harm hearings on radio, visited crimes against humanity would be national unity. Among the the commission Web site, 16 ethnic communities in read about it in the news- subject to international jurispru- Liberia, four were both papers or attended the targets of human rights hearings in person. dence and prosecution. abuses and perpetrators in Hearings usually are open response. The Gio and to the public. A novel feature of Liberia’s reconciliation pro- Mano tribal brothers and sisters of Thomas Quiwonkpa, cess is that the commission traveled to the United States who was accused of treason by Samuel Doe, suffered geno- and took testimony in Minneapolis from Liberians who had cide-like retaliation over many years by soldiers loyal to Doe fled the fighting by emigrating to the United States. who belong to the Krahn and Mandingo communities. Many members of Charles Taylor’s armed militia belonged Flagrant Impunity to the Gio and Mano; over time they took their revenge on While vivid, painful and tearful truth from victims was the Krahns and Mandingos. If members of these four com- voiced often at the hearings, the truth was carefully nuanced munities were indicted for war crimes or crimes against and partial from the lips of the warlords who chose to testi- humanity, the concern is that they would perceive it as fy. They expressed very little remorse, let alone contrition. unjust scapegoating. Many Mandingos, who are Muslim, Behind their caution lurked the specter of eventual legal are already disaffected because they have not yet been able jeopardy. All had made use of child soldiers during the civil to recover their homes in Nimba County, which they aban- war, and the present trial in The Hague of the Congolese doned to the Gios during the war. Indictments by a war warlord Thomas Lubanga precisely and solely for this crime crimes court would make matters worse for them. has reportedly troubled them greatly. Catholic social teaching prefers the “transformative jus- With the notable exception of the Taylors, father and tice” approach of the truth commission, without ruling out son—the former on trial since 2006 in The Hague at the the “retributive justice” of a war crimes tribunal. The Special War Crimes Court for Sierra Leone, the latter sen- Second Vatican Council’s “Pastoral Constitution on the tenced in a Miami court in October 2008 to 90 years in Church in the Modern World” called peace an “enterprise prison—the warlords and other combatants have given the of justice” and said that while the church “points out the word “impunity” new meaning. They have not retired to authentic and noble meaning of peace and condemns the private life but have taken prominent places in the commu- frightfulness of war, the Council wishes passionately to nity. Prince Yormie Johnson, the head of the breakaway fac- summon Christians to cooperate, under the help of Christ tion of Charles Taylor’s National People’s Front of Liberia the author of peace, with all men in securing among them- and allegedly the murderer of Samuel Doe in 1990, has selves a peace based on justice and love and in setting up the been elected to the Liberian Senate. He has publicly warned instruments of peace”(No. 77). What is not clear is Liberians that there will be trouble if anyone tries to arrest whether Liberia can achieve long-term “peace based on jus- him. Alhaji Kromah of the United Liberation Movement tice” without making use of judicial processes as “instru- for Democracy in Liberia (Ulimo-K), has a teaching posi- ments of peace.” A

18 America May 4, 2009 New titles to strengthen your personal relationship with God.

Children say the most wonderful things! This book of prayers, by Fr. Joe Kempf and his furry friend, Big Al, is written the way by children talk—and the way they think! My Sister is Annoying is a beautifully illustrated, fun way for Fr.Fr. Joe Joe Kempfwith Kempf children to talk to God about things that are important to them, such as the joy of playing outside, celebrating a birthday, and Big AlAl trying to figure out the right thing to do. Read the prayers and listen to the CD with a child you love as Father Joe and Big Al introduce these prayers read by children. My Sister is Annoying will help children—and their parents—to pray the way Jesus taught us to pray…simply and from the heart. 48-page hardcover with audio CD – 8 x 8 BIG AL™ Fr. Joe Kempf; BIG AL 978-0-7648-1827-1 • $16.95 illustrations © 2009 Fr. Joe Kempf Illustration by Chris Sharp

Scripture 101 introduces key elements to understanding the Bible. From the publishers of Every chapter includes resources for reflection and questions for Church History101 group discussion or individual study. 160-page paperback – 5⅛ x 7⅜ — 978-0-7648-1700-7 • $14.95

What happens when we With over 275 places of Praying for Peace Around This book joyfully expounds pray? What is this exercise of spiritual retreat in 17 European the Globe is a loving and the thoughts, memories, and communion with God? Th is countries, this book off ers a thoughtful collection of prayers reflections of this devoted book gives readers a chance wealth of religious information for those suffering in diff erent Franciscan woman, a proud to explore the mysteries of the and historical perspectives parts of the world. Illuminating maiden of Mississippi, a rosary and examine various of the countries and cities the unrest that affects so many prophetic preacher, and dimensions and aspects of in which the convents and souls, these prayers ask God to tenacious teacher. prayer. guesthouses are located. watch over people in countries 128-page hardcover – 5 x 7 across the globe. 96-page paperback – 5½ x 8¼ 256-page paperback – 5½ x 8¼ 978-0-7648-1782-3 • $14.95 978-0-7648-1784-7 • $9.95 978-0-7648-1780-9 • $18.95 128-page paperback – 5⅛ x 7⅜ 978-0-7648-1772-4 • $10.95

To order, call 800-325-9521. Mention Source Code MSA-09332 1 Liguori Drive, Liguori, MO 63057-9999 • www.liguori.org

May 4, 2009 America 19 now in paperback Anne Rice’s courageous and widely acclaimed continuing story of the amazing life of Jesus CHRIST THE LORD THE ROAD TO CANA

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“The Road to Cana succeeds in treating Yeshua’s humanity as an essential part of his divinity. . . . Readers will be lured by the promise of simply rendered holiness.” —The New York Times

“A masterful book written by an extraordinary writer at the height of her powers.” —David Kuo, All Things Considered

Browse inside the book, print a reading group guide, view author events, and more at www.readinggroupcenter.com

20 America May 4, 2009 FAITH IN FOCUS Soulful Leadership

Desmond Tutu’s quest for unity BY MARGARET BENEFIEL

wenty-first-century leaders are rewarded for their drive, deci- Tsiveness, productivity and long work hours. But what happens to the leader’s soul? Too often it shrivels and dies, harming both the leader and the organization the leader serves. This does not have to be the norm for leaders. This article focuses on one leader, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who nur- tured and led from his soul amid one of the most challenging leadership tasks of the 20th century: healing the South African nation after apartheid. After apartheid ended in South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was named in December 1995 to be head of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. South Africa had strug- gled to come to terms with how it would bring to justice perpetrators of crimes Archbishop Desmond Tutu dances off the stage after speaking at a pro-Tibet rally under the old regime. Retributive justice in San Francisco, Calif., April 8, 2008. (punishing perpetrators through the courts) was not only too costly for the leading with soul and manage to stay on standing with the courage to interrupt financially strapped country, but would track must eventually face the question the violence and opening the space for also result in winners and losers, and of whether they will persevere to the forgiveness that can create relationships could easily backfire. Blanket amnesty, end. The further the leader goes on the that fill the void left by violence. To on the other hand, would leave the vic- path of soul, the higher the stakes. illustrate these principles, this article tims unacknowledged, in effect victim- Among other things, the soulful leader will focus on the story of Desmond izing them again. How was the country must learn to break the cycle of violence Tutu, emeritus archbishop of the to move forward? South Africa had that arises in virtually all human insti- Anglican Church in South Africa. achieved independence. How could the tutions, whether nations, organizations country’s leaders persevere to the end or families. The question for leaders is Seeing With Compassion and bring about a stable government not whether they will encounter vio- Breaking the cycle of violence begins after so much turmoil? lence but how they will encounter it. with seeing compassionately, with the Leaders who choose the path of Leaders who want to persevere to the eyes of the heart. Through compassion, end, leading with soul, to bring about violence is transformed. MARGARET BENEFIEL teaches at Andover deep and lasting transformation must For Desmond Tutu, seeing compas- Newton Theological School in Boston, Mass. eventually face violence and their own sionately grows out of prayer. It was This article is an excerpt from her book The response to it. Addressing violence prayer that undergirded his work with Soul of a Leader (2008), adapted and used with permission of The Crossroad Publishing soulfully requires seeing both victims the Truth and Reconciliation

Company. and perpetrators with compassion, Commission, just as prayer had under- PHOTO: REUTERS/MARIO ANZUONI

May 4, 2009 America 21 girded his ministry before that. As the amnesty. By inviting perpetrators to there would be a peaceful protest Truth and Reconciliation Commission apply for amnesty in exchange for full march. “It seemed like God was saying began to work toward uniting a divid- disclosure of their crimes, South Africa that the response was to call for a ed country, Desmond Tutu turned to chose restorative justice, a justice of for- protest march,” he subsequently God for strength and guidance. Only giveness and reconciliation. Leaders of reflected. The march held on Sept. 13, through frequent, regular prayer was the commission had to learn to see which drew 30,000 people, was the Tutu able to regard everyone, both vic- with compassion as they carried out first in a series of major protests that, tims and perpetrators, with compas- their difficult work. Over the course of in Tutu’s words, “marked the begin- sion. “I wouldn’t have survived without 18 months, the commission heard case ning of the end for apartheid.” In fairly substantial chunks of quiet and after case, listening to victims as well as announcing, “We won’t stand for this meditation,” the archbishop declares to perpetrators. Tutu says: violence,” while at the same time mak- emphatically. “The demands that are ing the statement peacefully, the made on one almost always seem to be We in the commission were quite protesters were able to interrupt the beyond one’s natural capacities. There appalled at the depth of depravi- country’s cycle of violence. Less than would be many times when the prob- ty to which human beings could five months later, on Feb. 2, 1990, lems, the crises we were facing seemed sink.... We had to distinguish Prime Minister F. W. de Klerk about to overwhelm us. There’s no way between the deed and the perpe- announced the end of apartheid. in which you could have confronted trator, between the sinner and Archbishop Tutu interrupted the these in your own strength.” the sin, to hate and condemn the cycle of violence on another occasion, In addition to his own prayer, Tutu sin while being filled with com- when security forces killed 38 people has called on others to pray for him, passion for the sinner. in Sebokeng, a black township, in especially in times of great need: 1990. Word of the massacre came to Tutu found himself stretched to offer him during a meeting with his synod It is such a good thing to know compassion to perpetrators on both of bishops at a conference center in at those times that you are part sides, and his heart grew larger in the Lesotho. He left the meeting to cry of a wonderful communion, a process. and pray in the chapel, and then, feel- wonderful body, and there are ing directed by God, returned to the those who are far more holy Interrupting the Cycle bishops. Reflecting on the event later, than you who are able to wor- On numerous occasions, Desmond he recounted urging the bishops to ship God with a depth of feeling Tutu interrupted the cycle of violence in “suspend our meeting, which had and fervor which you are not South Africa—during his service on never happened before, and go [to feeling at all, which you are not the Truth and Reconciliation Sebokeng]. And the bishops, all of experiencing. And you are borne Commission and at other times. On them, unanimously agreed. We put on this current of worship and Sept. 6, 1989, for example, when aside our whole agenda, and went.” adoration, and all you need to apartheid was still in full force, peaceful The bishops left Lesotho for do is throw yourself into the protests were held in South Africa to Sebokeng early the next morning, cel- stream and you are carried.... boycott a racist election. Aiming indis- ebrated the Eucharist in a local church When we started with the criminately, state security forces shot when they arrived and then toured Truth and Reconciliation and killed 20 people, including children Sebokeng, visiting the injured and the Commission in South Africa, I standing in their own yards. Upon bereaved. While the bishops were wrote to the secretary-general of receiving the news, Tutu ran into the speaking with a crowd of young peo- the Anglican consultative coun- chapel of his Cape Town residence, cry- ple gathered in the streets, a convoy of cil and asked him if he could ing and beseeching God, “How could Casspirs (armored police vehicles with please put this request to the you let this happen?” It would have tear gas and machine guns) appeared. religious communities of our been easy to respond in fear, allowing John Cleary of the Australian church around the world, to say, the government to continue its intimi- Broadcasting Corporation reported “please pray for this enterprise.” dation of the country’s blacks or, con- what he observed: versely, to respond with hostility, join- By establishing the Truth and ing those who called for armed resis- I heard the archbishop say, “Let Reconciliation Commission, South tance. Desmond Tutu chose neither. us pray.” Then the noise of the Africa chose a third way, distinct from When the archbishop emerged vehicles stopped. The crowd both retributive justice and blanket from his prayer, he announced that went quiet. There was no sound

22 America May 4, 2009 from the Casspirs, no sound of response to the call for victims’ state- violence could be broken and the circle tear gas canisters. So I looked ments, only about one victim in 10 of transformation completed. around and there, behind me, received a public hearing. Those who were the Anglican bishops of did not receive a public hearing were Staying Centered Southern Africa—black, white, assured by the commission that their Even if it never comes to blows or bul- coloured, old, young—standing written statements would be taken just lets, leaders must invariably face their between the crowd and the as seriously as the statements of those own inner violence and that of the Casspirs, with their arms out- who testified publicly. people around them when anger fuels stretched. In that moment, I The commission heard from both action and reaction. The natural understood a little about what the sides, both victims of the white response in those situations is to fight Christian vision for a new South apartheid government and victims of or flee, but soulful leaders may create Africa cost people. I’d never wit- rebel forces. Tutu found himself a constructive third way out of the nessed that sort of courage before. inspired to forgive by the victims who conflict. This is accomplished by not forgave. “Mercifully and wonderfully, as taking sides but by staying centered The bishops of southern Africa suc- I listened to these stories of victims I while thoughtfully inserting them- ceeded in interrupting the cycle of vio- marveled at their magnanimity, that selves into the conflict, intervening by lence before it escalated even further after so much suffering, instead of lust- being a reflective or prayerful pres- in Sebokeng township. ing for revenge, they had this extraordi- ence. The goal of this intervention is nary willingness to forgive.” not to dampen or smother the con- Forgiveness The commission also opened itself flict, but to break the cycle by which Breaking the cycle of violence also to applications for amnesty from perpe- violent conflicts naturally escalate. includes forgiving. Once the cycle is trators on both sides. Many exhibited This opens the way for forgiveness, interrupted through openhearted invi- courage, providing full disclosure of their respect and shared values, what tation and apology, the circle of trans- misdeeds. Brian Mitchell, a police cap- Abraham Lincoln called the “better formation is completed by forgiveness. tain, asked for forgiveness from a devas- angels of our nature,” to rise in the Forgiveness formed the backbone of tated rural community where his orders conflicting parties, encouraging them South Africa’s Truth and Reconcilia- had resulted in the killing of 11 innocent to seek creative solutions together. tion Commission. As leader of the com- people, mostly women and children. He Being in the center of conflict, mission, unflinchingly facing the truth asked the commission to arrange for him whether physical, emotional or intel- of the horrors propagated by and on to visit the community, and expressed his lectual, takes its toll in stress, fear and South Africa’s people, Desmond Tutu desire to be involved in its reconstruc- despair. Leaders faced with violence, also prayed to forgive. tion. Desmond Tutu described whether bullying, threats or dominat- The commission was structured to Mitchell’s visit to the community: ing behavior, need to draw on their facilitate forgiveness by 1) setting a fixed deepest spiritual resources to stay cen- term of two years for its operation, 2) It could have gone badly wrong. tered in these situations and rely on collecting statements and 3) holding It was a difficult and tense meet- their everyday spiritual practices to public hearings. The two-year fixed ing at the beginning, with every- restore them from the virtual or literal term was chosen so that those who body a little awkward and the blows they absorb in the name of love. desired amnesty would have ample time community understandably These resources allow them to perse- to apply for it and so that the process hostile.... The atmosphere began vere from a centered place and to lead would have a clear ending, with no to change, to ease, after a while. by the example of their perseverance. unfinished business left for the new gov- While one or two of the victims Persevering to the end, as the ernment. The commission organized were still not too keen to forgive stakes on the path of leading with soul trained people to collect statements him, the majority were glad he get higher, requires that leaders learn throughout the country, collecting had come, and by the time he to break the cycle of violence. 20,000 victim statements in all, more left things had improved so Desmond Tutu learned to see com- than had ever been collected in similar much that they were waving him passionately, to interrupt the cycle and processes elsewhere. Public hearings goodbye quite warmly. to forgive. These three essential com- were set up in districts across the coun- ponents work, as he discovered, in try, both urban and rural, in such venues Through forgiveness, the Truth venues large and small. Once every as town halls, civic centers and churches. and Reconciliation Commission saw leader learns how to do this, the ulti- Because of the mammoth outpouring of time and time again how the cycle of mate goal becomes attainable. A

May 4, 2009 America 23 New noteworthy titles from the

Building a The Reinvention of Religious Music Olivier Messiaen’s Breakthrough Better Bridge Toward the Beyond Muslims, Christians, Sander van Maas and the Common Good “A penetrating and thought-provoking exploration of what might be entailed by Messiaen’s musical Michael Ipgrave, Editor ‘breakthrough to the beyond’. The Reinvention of Religious Music provides us with a wealth of fresh and “In a world in which Islamophobia original perspectives on this complex, endlessly (fed by militant right wing, anti- fascinating musician.” immigrant and anti-Muslim political —Jeremy Begbie, Duke University parties, clergy and neo-cons, as well Fordham University Press as religious extremism and anti- ISBN 978-0-8232-3057-0 | cloth | 224 pp | $55.00 Westernism) thrives, Building Bridges continues to be an important multi- Cathedrals of Bone lateral beacon of light. It represents The Role of the Body in the best of Jesus and Muhammad’s Contemporary Catholic Literature spirit and ‘inclusive’ vision and message.” John C. Waldmeir “One of the first Catholic literary critics to focus —John L. Esposito on the role of the body in contemporary Catholic Georgetown University literature.” —Susan Hill, University of Northern Iowa Georgetown University Press ISBN 978-1-58901-221-9 | paperback | 200 pp | $24.95 Fordham University Press ISBN 978-0-8232-3060-0 | cloth | 224 pp | $50.00

Encounters with Karl Rahner Constructing a Saint Constructing a Saint Remembrances of Rahner Through Images by those who knew him Through Images Andrew Batlogg, S.J., Melvin Michalski, The 1609 Illustrated Biography Encounters with Barbara Turner of Ignatius of Loyola Karl Rahner Remembrances of Rahner by those who knew him Marquette University Press Introductory essay by

Edited & translated by Andreas R. Batlogg & Melvin E. Michalski ISBN 978-087462-740-4 John W. O’Malley, S.J. Translation edited by Barbara G. Turner paperback | 383 pp | $39.00 In 1609 Pope Paul V beatified Ignatius of The 1609 Illustrated Biography of Ignatius of Loyola Loyola. To celebrate the event and to promote ALAN VINCELETTE Recent Catholic Philosophy RECENT CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY devotion to Ignatius, the Jesuits in Rome THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The Nineteenth Century produced a small-format volume of 81 copper-plate engravings depicting Alan Vincelette his life. The engraver was the distinguished Jean-Baptiste Barbé, a Fleming residing in Rome, who enlisted his fellow-countryman, the young Peter Paul Rubens, to contribute drawings for the project. Marquette University Press ISBN 978-087462-756-5 2009 is the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Vita beati patris paperback | 414 pp | $42.00 Ignatii Loiolae. For the occasion Saint Joseph’s University Press has pro- duced Constructing a Saint Through Images, which includes a facsimile edition, with English translation of the captions by James P. M. Walsh, S.J., and an introduction by John W. O’Malley, S.J., entitled “The Many Jesus Christ & the Religions: An Essay in Theology of Religions Lives of Ignatius of Loyola, Future Saint.” Hans Waldenfels, SJ ISBN 978-087462-739-8 |146 pp | $20.00 Augustine of Hippo: Philosopher, Exegete and Theologian, Roland J. Teske, SJ Saint Joseph’s University Press ISBN 978-087462-764-0 | 300 pp | $30.00 Abstracts of Karl Rahner's Unserialized Essays, Daniel T. Pekarske, SDS ISBN 978-0-916101-58-4 ISBN 978-087462-737-4 | 565 pp | $47.00 cloth| 212 pp | 2 color and 80 b/w images | $40.00

Creighton University Press Fordham University Press Georgetown University Press p: 402 280 1760 | f: 402 280 3040 p: 800 996 6987 | f: 212 995 3833 p: 800 537 5487 | f: 410 516 6998 www.creighton.edu/cupress www.fordhampress.com www.press.georgetown.edu Association of Jesuit University Presses forthcoming Summer 2009 The Meditative Art

The Studies in the Northern Devotional Print Meditative 1550-1625

STUDIES IN THE Walter S. Melion Art NORTHERN DEVOTIONAL PRINT 1550-1625

WALTER S. MELION The Meditative Art: Studies in the Northern Devotional Print, 1550-1625 asks how and why printed images were utilized as instruments of Christian meditation and contemplation. The book consists of an introductory essay on meditative image-making, followed by nine case studies focusing on various prints and print series produced in the Low Countries, that offered templates for visually- based processes of soul-formation anchored in the imitation of Christ. Engraved by such masters as Philips Galle, Hendrick Goltzius, Boëtius à Bolswert, and Jan, Hieronymus, and Antoon Wierix, among others, these prints served to mobilize the votary’s sensitive and intellective faculties, harnessing them to the task of restoring the soul’s likeness to Christ the Word made flesh. The images are seen implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) to allude to an image theory grounded in the mystery of the Incarnation, and in diverse ways to trope the themes of pictorial artifice and imitation. By calling attention to their status as pictorial images, the author argues, these prints claim to be sanctioned by the condition of representability espoused by Christ Himself. In addition to chapters on the illustrated meditative treatises of Benito Arias Montano, Jerónimo Nadal, and Antonius Sucquet, there are chapters on prints as catalysts of penitential and commutative self-reformation, as well as on prints as meditative sources of works in other media, such as Otto van Veen’s Carrying of the Cross. The book ends with an epilogue on the erotic form, function, and meaning of Hendrick Goltzius’s celebrated devotional print of the Annunciation.

“In my opinion, Walter Melion’s The Meditative Art is the most important book about the relationship of art and theology of this generation. . . . In a comprehensive Introduction and nine brilliant chapters, it reveals the myriad ways in which art during the Counter- Reformation and immediately afterward engaged meditative practices.” —Herbert L. Kessler, The Johns Hopkins University

“As one would expect, Professor Melion has worked out his ideas in considerable detail and with great care. His research is impeccable; the main argument and its subsidiary elements are both muscular and refined.” —Bret Rothstein, Indiana University

“At one level, this work is a cluster of close and deeply informed studies of graphic and painted images . . . produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for devotional use. In bringing those studies together, Walter Melion has produced a work of central importance for scholars of art, literature, and theology in early modern Europe. ” —Lee Palmer Wandel, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Saint Joseph’s University Press ISBN 978-0-916101-60-6 | cloth | 442 pp | 157 images | $90.00 Early Modern Catholicism and the Visual Arts series, Vol. 1

Marquette University Press Rockhurst University Press Saint Joseph’s University Press University of Scranton Press p: 800-247-6553 | f: 419-281-6883 p: 800 247 6553 | f: 419 281 6883 p: 610 660 3400 | f: 610 660 3410 p: 800 621 2736 | f: 800 621 8476 www.marquette.edu/mupress www.rockhurstpress.org www.sjupress.com www.scrantonpress.com

BOOKS &CULTURE

SPRING BOOKS | PETER HEINEGG ly any less exploitative than their European brethren. (Had he pushed his A ROCKY START timeline into the 20th century, Goetzmann would have had to deal BEYOND THE REVOLUTION Our nation’s independent beginnings with the gross environmental destruc- A History of American Thought had a strong utopian streak. Whether tion caused by the supposedly glorious From Paine to Pragmatism Christian, like the Pilgrims, or winning of the West: the annihilation of By William H. Goetzmann Enlightenment-secular, like Tom Paine, the buffalo, the draining of the Colorado Basic Books. 480p $35 the nation’s idealists confronted that River, the Dust Bowl and so on.) ISBN 9780465004959 So Americans stumbled onward, if not always upward. The fact that rofessor William Goetzmann despite everything, both then and now, has had a long and distinguished the country never did lose its peculiar Pcareer at Yale University and the power of attraction over oppressed peo- University of Texas, Austin, going all ple everywhere would seem to be an the way back to 1966, when he won the enormous plus. But while Goetzmann Pulitzer Prize for Exploration and concludes his story with reflections on Empire. The score of books he has writ- the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in ten or co-authored have concentrated Philadelphia, his account reaches its on the American West, so this popular high point with the Civil War, which review of intellectual history might seem may have fused the centrifugal chunks to mark a new departure (as he ends his of the Union into one nation at last eighth decade). But Goetzmann’s home (Lincoln stands out as Goetzmann’s base has always been the 19th century, a grandest figure), but at an unspeakable period that witnessed the nation’s great- price that we are all still paying. If World est geographical and intellectual voyages War I gave the lie to European myths of of discovery; and that is mainly what he progress, didn’t the Civil War suggest, deals with here. The results are uneven; among other things, a catastrophic but this wide-ranging, generous survey American intellectual bankruptcy? provides an extraordinary amount of most seductive of opportunities, a fresh And then there is the cultural scene. food for thought. start. They could draw upon centuries Pioneers, by definition, do not have In Goetzemann’s account of of sadder-but-wiser Old World experi- much time for the arts; and until the American civilization, American ence as they inscribed what looked like a American Renaissance, most of our lit- “thinkers” were rarely professional splendid tabula rasa. But because they erature could be rated, if not dismissed, philosophers. They were politicians and aimed so high, their failures, notably in as derivative and provincial. By contrast, statesmen, agitators and reformers, cler- the manifold injustices visited upon the work of Emerson, Thoreau, ics and heretics, poets and novelists, Indians, blacks, women (and, not inci- Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Whitman dreamers and cranks, most of them too dentally, Catholics and other groups), and Dickinson (and, later on, Mark busy with a country in the making to strike us as all the more depressing. Twain) was in many ways world-class, develop any organized system or Other American dreams, such as the but the optimistic elements in European-style ideology. They were, intoxicated vistas of Manifest Destiny Transcendentalism took a terrible beat- often in the best sense, amateurs; and or the pastoral-chivalric fantasies of the ing as the century progressed. And even their lives had more than academic antebellum South, played out in ways with The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick (a interest. The inevitable question—one that proved to be both brutal and commercial failure) and Leaves of Grass, we are still groping with today—is, how bloody. And American workers may how good, really, is American literature well did they succeed? Goetzmann’s all- have had the ever-moving frontier as an when measured against the English but-inevitable answer is, they won some escape hatch from their misery, but Romantics and the Victorians or the and they lost some. American capitalists were not necessari- continental giants, from Goethe to

May 4, 2009 America 27 Flaubert to Tolstoy? In any event, the ing Longfellow, not Whitman, the “good ent from the constant call of the purely philosophical fields of America grey poet.” Clarion River or the message of the were initially bare, if not sterile. But such blemishes aside, moon’s quiet light. Evidence is less an Goetzmann reminds us that until the Goetzmann prompts us to wonder, for argument for a system of scientific, emergence of James, Dewey & Co., the the thousandth time, who are we, any- philosophical or theological belief than country’s favorite thinkers belonged to way? And this is not just nationalistic a showing forth of examples, in all their the Scottish “Common Sense” school, narcissism. Unlike most of the places we splendor and particularity, of the victo- men like Thomas Reid, Dugald Stewart first came from, America can watch its ry of being over nothingness, of the and Adam Ferguson, whom nobody entire history beneath the bright light of goodness of creation and of the pulse of nowadays would mistake for outstand- biography, journalism and, even, before love that beats unceasingly at the heart ing minds. Democracy, as any glance at too long, the camera. It is all—a lot of it, of the universe. pop culture will show, feels comfortable at least—down in black and white, Accordingly, one might read with bland mediocrity, as opposed to, unlike the British Constitution or the Evidence as a compendium of testimo- say, unsettling creativity. origins of Stonehenge. So we can, and nials. Oliver draws on a number of These are only a few of the nagging must, ask what kind of country has genres and traditions to craft a varied questions that Goetzmann has raised— leaders as different as Thomas Jefferson collection of poems that function as and furnished documentation for and John C. Calhoun, cultural heroes as prayers, psalms, paeans and parables. addressing. No doubt he was right not different as Andrew Jackson and Included among these are three long to bother with footnotes (the vast con- Frederick Douglass, and novelists as dif- pieces that read almost as homilies, ventional bibliography on this subject, ferent as Harriet Beecher Stowe and openly engaging ultimate questions from F. O. Matthiessen to Louis Henry James. For a nation sometimes (“To Begin With, the Sweet Grass,” Menand, is already bristling with them); taken to be simple-minded, we are actu- “Evidence” and “At the River but he might have also skipped the pot- ally rather complicated. Clarion”). Each of these poems, deliv- ted plot summaries. His writing is ered in a voice that conveys both lumpy at times; and he makes some fac- authority and wonderment reminis- PETER HEINEGG, a frequent reviewer, is a pro- tual errors, such as twice misdating the fessor of English at Union College, Schenectady, cent of Oliver’s poetic mentor, Walt 19th Amendment by six years and call- N.Y. Whitman, attempts to marry percep- tion with understanding, to connect ANGELA O’DONNELL what we love with what we believe. The third piece in this trilogy address- LOVE’S PROOF es the mystery that lies at the center of her quest for evidence—the presence EVIDENCE lar attention to matters of meaning of God. The voice of the river speaks Poems and attempts to divine what the to the poet—in much the same way By Mary Oliver material world can teach us about the the sea whispers to Whitman the Beacon. 88p $23 truths that lie beyond it. secret linkage of love and death in ISBN 9780807097441 That the world has “Out of the Cradle meaning is the bedrock Endlessly Rocking”— For nearly 50 years, Mary Oliver has upon which all of Oliver’s teaching her hard truths been falling in love with the world work rests, but she has about God: “If God and writing poems that invite readers long been hesitant to exists he isn’t just butter to fall in love right along with her. claim certain knowledge and good luck./ He’s also Evidence, the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s of what that meaning the tick that killed my 19th book of poetry, offers a bounti- might be: “Truly, we live wonderful dog Luke.” ful collection of 46 new poems, many with mysteries too mar- God is no more contain- of which explore terrain featured in velous/ to be under- able nor tame than the her earlier books: the beauty of stood.... Let me keep my creation: “Said the river: nature, the miracle of life and the distance, always/ from imagine everything you search for a language capable of com- those who think they have the answers” can imagine, then keep going.” Oliver’s municating these mysteries. (“Mysteries, Yes”). The world speaks to poem, for all of its “doubts” and “hesi- However, in this volume, as the title us, but its messages are multivalent and tations,” finally concludes with an act would suggest, the poet pays particu- many. What the wolf teaches is differ- of faith: “I pray for the desperate

28 America May 4, 2009 earth/ I pray for the desperate world.” Indeed, Evidence is full of such acts and affirmations of faith, some of them explicitly Christian. In “Spring” the poet describes the ever-renewing season as a manifestation of Christ, “the Lord” who “was once young/ and will never in fact be old./ ...who goes off/ down the green path,/ carrying his sandals and singing?” Similarly, in the Lenten poem, “First Days in San Miguel de Allende,” the speaker mar- vels at the passion of Mexican Catholics for “the flagellated Christ,” whom they carry along “the sun flashed road” and acknowledges the thirst for God she shares with them. More often than not, however, Oliver looks beyond the language and tradi- tions of any particular institutional religion for evidence of God, includ- ing these as part of a broader, more universal search. Evidence is as much about the play of language as it is about the work of seeking truth. Keenly aware of the voices from the past that have shaped her own, Oliver frequently nods to her predecessors (most often Wordsworth and Frost, as well as Whitman). In “A Lesson from James Wright,” she invokes the name of another poetic mentor:

If James Wright could put in his book of poems a blank page

dedicated to “the Horse David Who Ate One of My Poems,” I am ready to follow him along

the sweet path he cut through the dryness and suggest that you sit now

very quietly in some lovely wild place, and listen to the silence.

Wright suggests that his missing

May 4, 2009 America 29 poem is no less a poem for having been that this, too/ is a poem.” ity when he told his former pupil, Pope eaten, and offers his dedication, con- Well into her sixth decade of writ- Eugenius III, that the pope was “not the veying the story of the poem’s disap- ing, Oliver is still stretching the lord of the bishops, but one of them.” pearance as a worthy substitute. Oliver boundaries of the art she has dedicat- He also warned Eugenius that one of his affirms this equivalence and goes a ed a lifetime to learning and of the cardinals was surrounding himself with step further, asserting that the inex- craft she strives to master. Evidence handsome young men and showering pressible silence that lies outside her attests to an artist operating at the them with favors. Contemporary enthu- book of poems constitutes poetry as height of her powers. Like the green siasm for the election of bishops may be well, a poetry composed not of words earth she has praised for most of her tempered by the realization that bishops but of the world’s own music. This is 74 years, Mary Oliver continues to were often chosen from the upper class- the poem spoken, paradoxically, by the break into blossom. es because of the social prestige that speechless wolf, the River Clarion, the they brought to the office. shining moon. Here she replicates Collins is instructive in tracing the Wright’s charming literary jest with ANGELA O’DONNELL teaches English, cre- persistent influence of the Roman sena- absolute seriousness. At the conclu- ative writing and Catholic studies at Fordham torial class on the papacy as well as the University in New York City, where she is asso- sion of the poem she states simply, ciate director of the Curran Center for development of the new Roman Senate, unabashedly, confidently: “And I say American Catholic Studies. the College of Cardinals, including the curious office of the Cardinal Nephew, which was filled by several scapegraces THOMAS J. SHELLEY and at least one saint, Charles Borromeo. The author’s fascination THE OLDEST LIVING INSTITUTION with the etiquette of the papal court adds a human dimension to the evolu- KEEPERS OF THE KEYS ry. An unusual and welcome feature of tion of a divine institution. Since the OF HEAVEN this book is the author’s penchant for time of Gregory the Great, popes have interlacing his narrative with a running called themselves “the servant of the ser- A History of the Papacy By Roger Collins evaluation of his sources, vants of God,” but this did Basic Books. 576p $35 inviting the reader to not prevent 17th-century ISBN 9870465011957 share his own role as pontiffs from requiring vis- scholarly detective. itors to kiss their foot One may question the need for a new This technique also (bishops were allowed to one-volume history of the papacy so enables Collins to explain kiss their knee) and pre- soon after Eamon Duffy’s widely the complicated and not scribing that letters to the acclaimed Saints and Sinners (1997), but necessarily deleterious pope should conclude with Roger Collins’s book can stand on its role of forged documents the phrase, “Most humbly, own merits. Although Keepers of the in the early centuries of I kiss your holiness’s holiest Keys of Heaven lacks Duffy’s literary papal history. Unaware of feet.” panache, it is a well-researched and emi- their tainted origins, later Collins provides reveal- nently readable account of the history of generations often accept- ing and ironic glimpses of the oldest living institution in the ed these forgeries in good the foibles of some of the Western world. The author’s spartan faith and used them as better known pontiffs. prose, reminiscent of the style of J. N. D. the basis for church reform. For exam- Innocent III, an accomplished canonist, Kelly’s classic Oxford Dictionary of the ple, the golden age that Leo IX and his decided to settle a complicated and Popes, enables him to condense an enor- advisors attempted to restore in the interminable legal case himself and got mous amount of information into 550 11th century was largely an illusion con- it wrong. Another impatient pope, pages, including 39 pages of endnotes. cocted from spurious sources, but it led Sixtus V, issued his own definitive edi- A seasoned historian, author of sev- to one of the great reform movements in tion of the Vulgate, only to have it with- eral books on medieval Europe and church history. drawn by his successor because it was research fellow at the University of Collins has a keen eye for the appo- full of errors. On his deathbed the iras- Edinburgh, Collins consistently demon- site quotation that suggests a contempo- cible Barberini pope, Urban VIII strates an evenhanded approach to the rary reference. Bernard of Clairvaux (Galileo’s nemesis), unleashed a torrent most controversial issues in papal histo- offered a succinct definition of collegial- of barnyard imprecations against dis-

30 America May 4, 2009 senting Venetians that cannot be quoted Collins maintains his evenhanded for this month. I was immediately in a family magazine. The vocabulary of treatment of the pontiffs right up to the struck by the overall similarity of the Benedict XIV, the author of the stan- present. It seems unlikely that any new two stories. In each, a decent, kind dard work on the canonization of saints, evidence will alter his assessment of person, in the midst of an ordinary life was so coarse that it was likened to that Pius XII as “a good Vatican diplomat (so, all right, Greg Mortenson was liv- of a trooper. rather than a natural leader of men in ing a rather less conventional life than Although Collins devotes almost a time of crisis.” While recognizing the most of us), has an accidental adven- fifth of his book to the last two cen- many merits of John Paul II’s pontifi- ture that radically changes the course turies, the coverage of this period some- cate, he wonders how many of the of that life. The first adventure sets off times seems thin and hurried, if only achievements of Vatican II have sur- a string of other adventures that because the landscape is so crowded vived and how many have been reversed. engage each of the protagonists with and the sources are so abundant. There He remains guardedly optimistic about the people in far-off lands. But is no mention of the modern liturgical Benedict XVI, noting the end of the Mortenson’s book documents the movement, the rise of Christian democ- cult of personality in the papacy and emergence and development of a racy in Western Europe after World (more questionably) a greater receptivi- proactive citizen of the world, work- War II, the nouvelle théologie and, more ty to episcopal collegiality. ing hard to affect the common good, surprisingly, the Second Vatican No one can possibly be an expert on the “ideal American” as many have Council’s “Declaration on Religious the 2,000-year history of any institution, described him. Lacey’s, on the other Liberty” and “Declaration on the but Collins has done the second best hand, tells the story of how she Relation of the Church to Non- thing. He has used a comprehensive became not only a citizen of the Christian Religions.” The reference to array of the best primary and secondary world, but also a more intimate friend Baltimore as the primatial see of the sources to produce a surefooted précis of of God, discovered in the tense, United States is also ambiguous. papal history that deserves a place on the painful experiences of the world’s con- Although Baltimore was the first shelf next to Duffy and Kelly. flicts. American diocese, on three separate Lacey’s narrative voice is engaging occasions in an age of creeping ultra- and personal but not intrusive. She montanism, Rome rejected the request MSGR. THOMAS J. SHELLEY, a priest of the reveals enough of herself to give her Archdiocese of New York, is professor of church of the American bishops to give the history at Fordham University in New York story its proper personal texture, but archbishop the title of primate. City. her tone is often ironic, and her style is understated. She has the wisdom to let the refugees’ stories speak for them- MARIE ANNE MAYESKI selves and, indeed, 19 pages of her modest text are the narrative of IN DIVINE COMPANY Gabriel, a Sudanese refugee who dic- tated his own account to Lacey. When THIS FLOWING TOWARD ME which Sister Marilyn responds out of she does tell a very personal story, it is genuine helpfulness, to be sure, but self-deprecatingly comic, or important A Story of God Arriving in Strangers also out of hunger for a for the wisdom she By Marilyn Lacey, R.S.M. little excitement to gleaned from the experi- Ave Maria Press. 224p $15.95 break up the dullness of ence, and often both. I ISBN 9781594711978 an administrative work shall remember her chap- day. From that small ter on spiders for a very Sister Marilyn Lacey’s account of her action, which fell like a long time. In it, she expos- journey to and through the experience seed into a receptive es her hatred of spiders, a of working with refugees can be read, heart, all the subsequent hatred she freely admits is first of all, as an adventure story. It is adventures flowed. irrational and excessive, her own adventure but also that of the As luck, or Divine through a number of sto- many refugees she meets, told with a Providence, would have ries involving spiders of simple directness that engages the it, I finished This almost mythic propor- reader from the outset. Like all good Flowing Toward Me tions. The reader is with adventure stories, it begins with and, almost immediately, began Three her all the way and quite ready to action: an urgent call for volunteers, to Cups of Tea, my book club’s selection acquit her of any fault. Then she

May 4, 2009 America 31 explains how her spider phobia has PPeacemakingeacemaking made her more understanding of other people’s fears, those that generate even Ambassadors of Reconciliation more dangerous hatreds than hers for Vol. 1: New Testament Reflections on arachnids. Nonetheless, that is not her Restorative Justice and Peacemaking last thought. “Still, one thing is sure: CHED MYERS and ELAINE ENNS When I get to heaven, if God has eight St. Paul called on followers of Christ to be “ambassa- legs, I am in very big trouble.” dors of reconciliation.” In reflections on this and other This observation leads to the heart New Testaments texts, Ched Myers and Elaine Enns offer a lens for re-reading the entire biblical tradition of Lacey’s book. Her understanding of as a resource for the cause of “restorative justice” and God has clearly been formed by the peacemaking. 978-1-57075-831-7 paper $16.00 Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, whose narratives reveal that God is to Living Beyond War be discovered in the concrete history of A Citizen’s Guide very particular lives. This is an incar- WINSLOW MYERS The dream of a world without war may seem hopelessly national sense of history and leads unrealistic. But, as Winslow Myers shows, what is truly Lacey to enter her own life deeply, to unrealistic is the notion that war remains a reasonable reflect on its very particularity, confi- solution to the conflicts on our planet. “This work will dent that God will be present to her enable a new Earth Community to blossom forth.” there. Although the interior journey —Brian Swimme, from the Foreword 978-1-57075-827-0 paper $16.00 raises painful questions about God and suffering, questions that lose none of their urgency from being both At your bookseller or direct: ORBIS BOOKS www.maryknollmall.org Maryknoll, NY 10545 perennial and universal, she perseveres A World of Books that Matter 1-800-258-5838 in her effort to understand. And she arrives at the Mystery that always con- firms, always confounds. Lacey does not attempt to domesti- cate the Mystery. Although she does Leading. Loving. Learning. not write about the inadequacy of lan- guage to capture the experience of Practical Theology? God, that truth is revealed in her Q Q Q method of reflection, in the way she oxymoron ecclesial illusion doctoral degree resorts to the poets and to the wisdom literature of all the known religious PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY: Practical theology is the heart and soul of our traditions. For her, no one poet’s CATHOLIC Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry degree. Are you at a THEOLOGICAL point in your life where you want to reflect seriously metaphor, no single religious story, can UNION upon your ministry, refine your skills, and grow in new capture how thoroughly and mysteri- ously God is other. Lacey will not be LUTHERAN SCHOOL directions? The Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry may OF THEOLOGY be the answer. This degree for experienced ministers surprised to find something in God AT CHICAGO weaves together theory and practice by integrating that is akin to those eight legs—trou- advanced study with your rich experience, all with a bled maybe, but not surprised. But it is MCCORMICK cross-cultural perspective. On top of that, you will not just the otherness of God that she THEOLOGICAL study with the most diverse and inspiring colleagues SEMINARY you could imagine. struggles to capture, that she discovers in her own life. It is the mysterious Contact: Rev. Edward Foley, Capuchin divine dynamism, God always present Ecumenical D.Min. Program Director 773.371.5522 or email: [email protected] in a divine flowing toward her that requires only that she attend, that she www.ctu.edu let herself be swept up in divine love. 5401 S Cornell Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60615 This becomes so central to her experi-

The Largest Roman Catholic Graduate School of Theology and Ministry in the U.S. ence that it stands as the title of her book.

32 America May 4, 2009 This is a slender volume, but I condemnations; she utters no dia- Murphy; learning that he was going to would suggest the reader not read it tribes. Her few criticisms are directed Houston, she said, “Then you can visit too quickly. Its 198 pages are divided at her own lack of understanding. But Dominique.” into 12 chapters, an ideal structure for the thoughtful reader will find her So impressed was Cahill by the pris- a programmatic, meditative reading. conscience pricked even as she seeks to oner’s intelligence and commitment that For the most part, each chapter has a attend to the God present in her own he resolved to write Dominique’s story. narrative, often an interweaving of life. As this book is all about transcen- He even contacted Archbishop Tutu Lacey’s experiences with the scriptural dence and transformation, it makes and convinced him to interrupt a U.S. story, and a thoughtful selection of the good spiritual reading not only in the book tour to visit the prisoner in jail. wisdom of others—poets, saints and Easter season but any time. Afterward, the archbishop said Mass seers. They are designed to stimulate and spoke about Dominique at a well- thoughtful reflection on one’s own MARIE ANNE MAYESKI is a professor of his- publicized dinner in a nearby Episcopal torical theology at Loyola Marymount life—a process that requires time as University, Los Angeles, and author of church. well as prayerfulness. Lacey makes no Women at the Table (Liturgical Press). Dominique was not initially dis- posed to open up to visitors. But Sheila Murphy, his new assistant counsel, JOSEPH CUNNEEN ignoring law school advice, began talk- ing about her husband and two children A SOLITARY LIFE only a little older than Dominique. He was fascinated to find “a mother who A SAINT ON DEATH ROW the young man’s lawyers and the cal- had an easy relationship with her grown lousness and incompetence of Texas children, full of humor, elasticity, love The Story of Dominique Green By Thomas Cahill criminal justice. More important, he and…pleasure.” Dominique began to Doubleday. 160p $18.95 helps us see how Dominique grew talk of his own family experiences: his ISBN 9780385520195 intellectually and spiritually under the concern for his brothers, his beloved eye of death. He not only trained him- paternal grandmother who had died Thomas Cahill has interrupted his self in the intricacies of law, but read when he was nine. series on “the hinges of history” to pre- Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s No Confidence was established; soon sent an inspiring example of human Future Without Forgiveness and com- Sheila’s son Patrick was enjoying visits development on death row. Dominique municated its spirit to fellow prisoners with the prisoner, and her law clerk, Green, a young black man awaiting execution. Andrew Lofthouse, three years younger who grew up on the In his effort to reach than Dominique, began a friendship streets of Houston, was out and make friends, based on honesty and humor. cared for by his mother Dominique wrote letters Dominique told him, “Being in here has for a few brief years before to editors, including one made me the person I’ve always wanted she fell victim to drugs published in an Italian to be.” and violence. Partly to paper in 1995. This came Dominique shared his growing support his younger to the attention of a young knowledge of legal strategy with fellow brothers, he began to sell female member of the prisoners, but the football pools he cre- drugs regularly. When he community of Sant’ ated offered a more widely shared plea- was 18, Dominique and Egidio, a dynamic Italian sure. He also developed a sprawling three others took part in (now international) group manuscript of prisoners’ writing, which an armed robbery during that grew out of the stu- he typed himself. His own essay ended, which Andrew Lastrapes, dent protests in the 1960s “I never had anyone in my life to teach an African-American truck driver, was and tried to follow Jesus’ command to me how to be me. That was something I shot dead. The white man who was part love our neighbor. The young woman had to take the time to discover on my of the group was never punished; two could offer friendship only from afar, own, and it was a hell of an experience.” African-Americans got prison sen- but others in the community became The book also includes Dominique’s tences. Charged with capital murder, interested, and an older member account of encounters with older Dominique was convicted in 1993 and engaged a retired Chicago lawyer, Sheila inmates, “More Than Just a Rosary,” a executed by lethal injection in 2004. Murphy, to work on his defense team. 2004 essay published in The National Cahill shows us the indifference of During a book tour in 2003, Cahill met Catholic Reporter.

May 4, 2009 America 33 Despite requests for a stay of execu- organized by Sant’Egidio at the Basilica tion, supported by the wife and two of Santa Maria in Trastevere. What he sons of Andrew Lastrapes, Dominique’s could not know then was that his ashes execution drew near. Cahill, in Prague would be brought to Rome and be 11th Annual visiting his son, wrote his friend, thank- placed in the shadow of that basilica. ing him and retrans- A sobering and Pilgrimage/Retreat lating a prayer from moving book, A TO CENTRAL AMERICA ON THE WEB the Book of Justin Catanoso talks about his book, Saint on Death Row FOR BISHOPS, Wisdom. On the My Cousin, The Saint. highlights as well americamagazine.org/podcast PRIESTS, BROTHERS prisoner’s last day he other instances of was visited by Jessica legal incompe- AND DEACONS Tanksley, his longtime sweetheart, tence—or worse—in connection with about to get her medical degree in the Texas murder trials. It is important January 11—22, 2010 Dominican Republic. At the end, reading for everyone concerned with the Dominique thanked Sheila Murphy, issue of capital punishment and flawed Maryknoll invites you to pray at who was overwrought, and reassured judicial systems. the shrines of modern-day martyrs others watching in a room facing the in the lands where they gave their execution room. He even seemed aware JOSEPH CUNNEEN was the founder and lives: Archbishop Oscar Romero that there were thousands praying for longtime editor of the ecumenical quarterly of El Salvador; Bishop Juan José him at that moment in an all-night vigil Cross Currents. Gerardi of Guatemala; Father Stanley Rother, diocesan priest from Oklahoma City who served in Guatemala; the four church- JOHN A. COLEMAN women and six Jesuits and their companions murdered in WHERE DOES IT END? El Salvador. CRUEL AND UNUSUAL ment of prisoners and other issues, Contact: The Culture of Punishment like corporal punishment of children. She also correlates theories of punish- Deacon Steven DeMartino in America By Anne-Marie Cusac ment to ideas about what humans Pilgrimage/Retreat Coordinator Yale Univ. Press. 336p $27.50 are—whether they are essentially ISBN 9780300111743 good, evil or something in between. Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers Some chapters review the severity P. O. Box 305 This is a book about police, television of early punishments in colonial times. Maryknoll, NY 10545-0305 and God. It argues that punishment In the 19th century Benjamin Rush Telephone: 914-941-7590, Ext. 2449 has changed in the past 35 years. For further information and the Quakers tried to reform the andtoapplyonline: Penalties are harsher, sentences longer, American punitive system. Rush http://www.maryknollpilgrimage.org prisons more crowded. The United opposed corporal punishment for chil- States, home to 5 percent of the dren, all public floggings and capital world’s population, houses 25 percent punishment. He argued they tended of the world’s prisoners—the highest to “de-sensitize” people. For Rush, the rate in the world. Seven million human heart is never wholly corrupt. Americans are either in prison or on He worked for what became the parole (most of them for nonviolent American “penitentiary” system. crimes). Only 19 percent of all crimes Solitary confinement, silence and involve violence. work were designed to lead to reform Anne-Marie Cusac, a professor in of the prisoners. Often enough, the Department of Communication at though, they generated madness. Roosevelt University, in Schaumburg, In one of her constant indictments Ill., posits a continuum between of religion, Cusac argues: “Physical changing attitudes toward the punish- punishments of the sort that involve

34 America May 4, 2009 intentional pain tend to have religious ers. Sometime in the mid 1970s, how- with Enlightenment philosophy or sources.... Punishments that focus on ever, the idea that prisoners are capa- incapable of championing torture or individual liberty (or lack of it) and ble of rehabilitation came to be reject- cruel punishment on their own, with- internal transformation, in contrast, ed. Rehabilitation ceased to be one of out some secret recourse to a crypto- have their source in the Enlightenment the explicit goals of the prison system. Christian code of vengeance! and liberal religious philosophy.” In an intriguing chapter on popular In places, Cusac knows better. She Cusac is persuasive in showing that culture, Cusac shows how much televi- acknowledges that Quakers, Sister throughout American history, punish- sion and newspapers exaggerate crime. Helen Prejean, C.S.J., Unitarians and ment methods have never Police dramas over- Chuck Colson’s evangelical Prison stayed put in the places emphasize successful Fellowship have worked for more with which we generally arrest rates and violent humane punishment. But she is associate them—in cells crimes. They instill fear intent on showing a pernicious with criminals. Cusac of criminals as somehow Christian cultural code, impervious claims there has been a being intractable and to reason, that lies deep in the kind of “punishment endowed with congenital American psyche about punishment. creep.” She notes that “criminal minds.” She Sociologists like me would demand restraining devices notes how in the period more concrete survey data about atti- designed for prisons (e.g., from 1993 to 1996, tudes concerning punishment and be restraint chairs, taser when the nation’s mur- less open to the kind of anecdotal evi- guns) are more and more der rate declined 20 per- dence and rhetorical analysis that employed in schools. cent, the number of mur- drives Cusac’s book. It is too bad that To be sure, my hair stood on edge der stories reported on prime time such an otherwise intriguing book is when I read Cusac’s accounts of right- news shows on ABC, NBC and CBS marred by this idée fixe. wing religious groups championing rose by 721 percent! I recommend her final chapters on “holy hitting” of willful children (to Readers may find difficult to digest how some United States jails antici- beat the devil out of them) and the the author’s claim that the myriad cop pated Abu Ghraib (in the use of dogs, link between strong support for phys- shows on television are secretly follow- forcing prisoners to wear women’s ical chastisement of children and ing a Christian narrative, representing underwear, creating circumstances in other cruel punishments, such as the a “pollution and purification” ritual. which they soil themselves and the death penalty or the new panoply of “The idea that Christianity is punitive resort to hoods and electric wires for sophisticated, often cruel and danger- and it is this characteristic—more restraint). Without question, ous, electronic restraining devices like than forgiveness and love—that marks American punishment has become stun belts or stun guns. In a somewhat this dominant genre of American tele- quite cruel and unusual. But I doubt lurid chapter, entitled “Flogging for vision is not likely to be a popular idea that its provenance can be so singly Jesus,” Cusac recounts children’s among Christians who prefer their traced to underlying religious beliefs. deaths and serious injuries as a result religion in its more kindly forms. It of these disciplinary practices. might also come as an unpleasant sur- JOHN A. COLEMAN, S.J., a sociologist, is Actually, she makes more of this prise to non-Christian fans of cop associate pastor of St. Ignatius Church in San right-wing Christian corporal punish- shows.” As if secularists are all imbued Francisco, Calif. ment than I consider justified, draw- ing a parallel to America’s current Celebrating Six Decades of Spirituality, Education and the Arts mania for cruel and unusual punish- ments, even for child perpetrators of Join us! violent crimes. May 4-9 - Quiet Days for Individuals In the 19th and early 20th century, 60 May 9 - Writing from Memory: for Mothers, progressive reformers believed in the Daughters, Sisters, Friends, Marie Bostwick rehabilitation of criminals. They May 9 - MLT Gallery Opening linked crime to malevolent environ- May 20 - Open House 60th Year Celebration ments of poverty. Such reformers invented probation, parole and the Visit www.wisdomhouse.org WISDOM HOUSE [email protected] • 860-567-3163 indeterminate sentence. They champi- oned the separation of juvenile offend- WISDOM HOUSE RETREAT AND CONFERENCE CENTER, LITCHFIELD, CT

May 4, 2009 America 35 THEATER | MICHAEL V. TUETH soldiers brutally slaughtered dozens of men, women and children, she vowed RIGHTEOUS AMONG WOMEN that she would save any life whenever she had the power to do so. During the Dan Golden’s ‘Irena’s Vow’: A review and an interview baby’s delivery, Irena drowns out the When my friends and I discussed this ible but true story of a young Polish mother’s screams by playing Wagner year’s Academy Awards, I frequently Catholic woman, Irena Gut Opdyke, full blast on the major’s phonograph. expressed my lack of enthusiasm for who, while forced to She finds similar ways of keeping the the Best Picture winner, “Slumdog work as a house- ON THE WEB Millionaire.” While I admitted that it keeper for an S.S. More culture reviews, including child’s cries from was beautifully filmed and cleverly officer, Major an appraisal of the Kindle 2. being heard structured, I could not buy the amaz- Eduard Rugemer, americamagazine.org/culture upstairs. The near- ing coincidences that connected every managed to hide a discoveries and the question with a traumatic event in the dozen Jews in the basement of the offi- various ruses to keep the Jews’ pres- young man’s life, as well as the similar- cer’s house. Her ingenious methods of ence a secret for two years, as Irena ly incredible escapes from the mortally keeping the people hidden, fed and herself admits to the audience, “would dangerous circumstances that led him cared for are especially tested when be farcical if they weren’t about life and to his beloved. The only rationale for one of the women in hiding becomes death.” such a tall tale comes in the final shot, pregnant. The playwright, Dan Gordon, which displays the words: “It is writ- While several refugees urge the whom I recently interviewed, is con- ten.” Destiny rules. woman to abort the child for their own vinced of the presence of a “divine Then I saw the new Broadway play, safety, Irena reveals that after she had hand” in the narrative, a design or a “Irena’s Vow.” It tells an equally incred- stood by watching helplessly as Nazi plan that matches the “Slumdog”

Tovah Feldshuh (kneeling) in “Irena’s Vow” PHOTO: CAROL ROSEGG

36 America May 4, 2009 belief in what is “written.” Gordon has did she decide that it was time to tell ison with the rich characterization of evidence to support his theory. While her story, especially to children, for Irena and the major. the play ends with the release of Irena whom she felt a special responsibility. At the end of the performance I and her Jewish friends when the The current production, which had attended, the audience gave a pro- Russians drive the Germans out of a successful run last year Off- longed standing ovation. I suspect that their town, the subsequent twists in Broadway, stars the award-winning this play will live on well beyond her fortunes only heighten the sense of actress Tovah Feldshuh, who first Broadway in a film version that is destiny that shaped the rest of Irena’s appears onstage as the 80-year-old being considered, as well as in many days. As the Germans were driven out, Irena telling her Irena was arrested by the Russians as a story to a group partisan and sentenced to a labor camp of high school Omens, Warnings, and Advice in Siberia. students. After a after Yang However, the very Jews who had few minutes, she hidden in the S.S. officer’s basement is transformed managed to smuggle her out of the into a 20-year- This poem is modeled on one from the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368, local prison camp. A United Nations old in the service in The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry. High Commissioner, visiting the of Major camp, heard her story and arranged Rugemer Don’t trouble over the moon, keep your back her transfer to the United States, (Thomas Ryan). to the wind. Never count on friends to be on time. where she worked in New York City Throughout the If you must, ask whether it’s night or day. for several years. By another sheer rest of the play’s coincidence, Irena and the U.N. offi- 90 minutes she When you leave, don’t bump into the door. cial met a few years later in New York, interacts with her Keep your teeth in a bowl by your bedside. married and moved to Southern employer, other During morning walks, don’t look back. California, where she spent the rest of Nazi officers and Avoid the sun. Drink when you are happy her life until her death in 2003. Her her Jewish name now appears next to Oskar charges, with an but not when you are strained. In the fall Schindler’s on the wall in Jerusalem occasional and winter, when it’s raining, swallow your pills. that honors the “Righteous Among address or side- And in spring, when the flowers open, be sure the Nations,” the title given to Gentiles remark to the to sniff the poppies. If you waste your money who risked their lives to aid and save audience, never Jews during the Holocaust. leaving the stage spend it on wine, tobacco, and high-mountain trout. Gordon, whose credits include the as her character Avoid spoiled fruit and get rid of your books! screenplays for “The Hurricane” and careens from cri- “Wyatt Earp,” the stage adaptations of sis to crisis in a LEONARD CIRINO “Rain Man” and “Terms of battle of wits and Endearment,” as well as several novels, physical daring. LEONARD CIRINO is editor and publisher of Pygmy Forest was captivated by Irena’s story when, Gordon Press and author of Ululations: Poems 2006 (Cervená again by happy coincidence, he heard describes Ms. Barva Press, 2008). her being interviewed on his car radio Feldshuh as “a almost 10 years ago. When he met force of nature” in Irena, he found her to be “totally at her portrayal of a woman who refuses regional theaters around the country. peace with herself, wise and even fun” to lose hope throughout one of the As a historical record of the horrors of with a “pixie-ish” sense of humor. He most horrible events in history. the Nazi regime, it joins the stories of discovered that she avoided bitterness Thomas Ryan presents Major Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler, Elie about the past and had, in fact, not Rugemer as a mixture of Germanic dis- Wiesel and others. As a testimony to talked about her experiences for cipline and the all-too-human loneli- the power of the human spirit and, almost 30 years. Only when she ness that accompanies an authoritarian indeed, of spirituality itself, it delivers answered the telephone one day from existence. The rest of the characters in a timeless message. a high school student who was taking the play, unfortunately, tend to fall into MICHAEL V. TUETH, S.J., is a professor of a survey on the question of whether the stereotypes of the Jewish victims or communications and media studies at the Holocaust had really happened the Nazi masochists, paling in compar- Fordham University in New York.

May 4, 2009 America 37 SABBATICAL Walk

Gift For A Season with the

t
$PVSTFT
XJUI
8PSME
$MBTT
'BDVMUZ Saints t
8FFLMZ
$PMMPRVJVN with this t
'MFYJCMF award-winning t
(MPCBM
$PNNVOJUZ
t
4QJSJUVBM
%JSFDUJPO

3FUSFBU
0QUJPOT book! t
6OJWFSTJUZ
3FTPVSDFT Winner of a Christopher Award t
-PX$PTU
)PVTJOH t
#PTUPO
JO
"VUVNO s Named a Publishers Weekly Now Accepting Applications ‘Best Book’ of the Year for Fall, 2009 s Winner of a Catholic Bringing together Press Association First Prize www.bc.edu/stmce the IREPM, in Spirituality 617-552-0185 Weston Jesuit, [email protected] and C21 Online

CALL FOR PAPERS

RENEWING THE FACE OF THE EARTH: The Church and the Order of Creation

October 29-31, 2009 The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity St. Paul, Minnesota The aim of this conference is to grasp anew the philosophical and My Life with the Saints theological principles that illuminate the vocation of stewardship and point toward a deeper understanding of the way forward. James Martin, SJ $15.95 s Pb s 2644-1 s 424 pp We invite papers that bring the wisdom of the Catholic intellectual tradition, especially that of St. Thomas Aquinas, to the articulation of an adequate vision of $22.95 s Hc s 2001-2 s 424 pp responsible stewardship – one that is coherent, meaningful and faithful.

Proposals are due June 1, 2009, to Dr. Deborah Savage at [email protected]. Two Easy Ways to Order: Visit www.loyolabooks.com For more information: www.saintpaulseminary.org/events/environment.html. or call 800-621-1008

38 America May 4, 2009 “The modern problem of justice in MICAH economic affairs is the non-existence of an intelligent and responsible account of economics.” Bernard J. Lonergan, S.J.

SETON HALL UNIVERSITY’S MICAH BUSINESS LEADERSHIP PROJECT FORGING A NEW ECONOMIC PARADIGM: PERSPECTIVES FROM BERNARD LONERGAN AN INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT CONFERENCE FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, JUNE 19 AND 20, 2009

DISTINGUISHED GUEST SPEAKERS: Philip McShane (Vancouver), Michael Schute (Halifax), Fred Lawrence (Boston College), Kenneth Melchin (Ottawa), Michael Stebbins (Washington State), Jamie Price (Baltimore), Peter Corbishley (London), Eileen DeNeeve (Montreal), Jim Morin (Chile), Patrick Byrne (Boston College), Stephen Martin (Philadelphia), Charles Clark (New York), Dan Finn (Collegeville, MN), Bruce Anderson (Halifax), Sean McNellis (Melbourne), Paul St. Amour (Philadelphia), Michele Tomasi (Bolzano), William Zanardi (Austin, TX) and others.

Seton Hall University South Orange, New Jersey

All are welcome. For more information or to register, please e-mail [email protected] or call (973) 275-2525.

May 4, 2009 America 39 Mills, N.Y., announces the following retreats: CLASSIFIED “From Religion Back to Faith: A Journey of the Heart,” Barbara Fiand, S.N.D., June 5-12; “God in TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW Education Transition,” Margaret Silf, June 22-28; directed ❑ New subscription ❑ Renewal OBLATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY offers an M.A. retreats, July 1-9, 12-20, 23-31, 1-31; “Where in the World Is My God?” (retreat for women), Yearly rates are $48 for each subscription. Add degree in spirituality. Regular semester and inter- $22 for postage, handling and GST on Canadian session courses. Visit www.ost.edu. Janice Farnham, R.J.M., and Rosemary Mangan, orders. Add $32 for foreign subscriptions. R.J.M., July 24-26; “Returning to the Garden as a Payment in U.S. funds only. Institutes Way of Life,” Teresita Morse, R.J.M., July 30-Aug. ❑ Payment enclosed ❑ Bill me 2009 SUMMER INSTITUTE, Oblate School of 2. Please visit www.bethanyspiritualitycenter.org. On occasion America gives permission to other organizations to use our list for promotional pur- Theology, June 22-24. “Demystifying Mysticism.” poses. If you do not want to receive these promo- Keynotes: Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O.; Kelly Seminars tions, contact our List Manager at our New York CARMELITE SUMMER SEMINAR. The annual offices. Nemeck, O.M.I.; Ron Rolheiser, O.M.I., plus break-out sessions on topics related to Christian summer seminar on Carmelite spirituality will take

W706 Mysticism. Registration $95; 285 Oblate Drive, place at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind., FOR San Antonio, TX 78216. For information, see 46556, June 14-20, 2009, with the theme “Carmel’s CHANGE OF www.ost.edu. Contact: [email protected]; Ph: Search for Wisdom: Prayer and Contemplation.” ADDRESS (210) 341-1366 x 226. For brochure: Ph: (574) 284-4636 or Kathy AND Guthrie at [email protected]. Speakers: RENEWAL: Parish Missions Chowning, Culligan, Egan, Frohlich, Kavanaugh, McMahon, Seelaus and Welch. Please attach the INSPIRING, DYNAMIC PREACHING: parish mis- mailing label from sions, retreats, days of recollection; www.sab- the front cover when bathretreats.org. Wills writing about service Please remember America in your will. Our legal title or change of Retreats is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New address. Allow 3 to York, NY 10019. 4 weeks for change BETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, Ind., of address to take offers private and individually directed silent retreats, America classified. Ten-word minimum. Submit ads effect. Thank you. including Ignatian 30 days, year-round in a prayerful by e-mail to: [email protected]; by fax to home setting. Contact Joyce Diltz, P.H.J.C.; (219) 398- (928) 222-2107; or by postal mail to the address on Name Address ZIP State City E-mail Mail to: America 5047; [email protected]; www.bethanyre- page 2. Rates are per word per issue. 1-5 times: P.O. Box 693, Mount Morris, IL 61064-7578 treathouse.org. $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28. We do not accept ad copy or call 1-800-627-9533 over the phone. For more information call 212-515- or visit www.americamagazine.org BETHANY SPIRITUALITY CENTER, Highland 0102 or visit www.americamagazine.org. PRESIDENT Our future Christ the King Preparatory School Newark,N.J.isseekinga dynamic, visionary President. depends on you.

The school is a member of the Cristo Rey Network, national network of high schools that provide quality, Catholic, col- lege prep education to urban young people with limited educational options. Reporting directly to the Board of Please remember Trustees, the President must demonstrate a record of sound fiscal accountability, executive management, and the America achievement of operational and strategic goals. He/she in your will. must be able to leverage business contacts to assist in secur- ing corporate sponsorships. He/ she must be sensitive to issues of cultural diversity and willing to build and nurture a cohesive faculty and leadership team. We seek an academic leader with secondary school experience who is a practicing Catholic and who can effectively articulate the school’s mission to its various constituencies. Interested candidates may submit a resume to: James Gonzalez, MPH, FACHE Our legal title is: Chairperson – Search Committee Christ the King Prep America Press Inc. 239 Woodside Avenue, Newark, NJ 07104 106 West 56th Street Electronic submissions can also be forwarded to: New York, NY 10019 [email protected]

40 America May 4, 2009 The impact of climate change falls heaviest on the poor. Our faith invites us to tread lightly and act boldly.

Our cars and power plants, more energy consumption and waste — we’re leaving a bigger carbon footprint. Scientists tell us that means more climate change. Here and around the world, it is the poor who will be hit hardest.With more droughts, floods, hunger and joblessness. As faithful Catholics, we have a moral obligation to care for both Creation and the poor. Pope Benedict XVI insists, “Before it is too late, it is necessary to make courageous decisions” to curb climate change.

Take the St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor. Pray Learn Assess Act Advocate.

Join Catholics taking action in our families, parishes, schools and communities to reduce our carbon footprint, care for “the least of these” (Mt 25) and raise our voice on behalf of Creation and the Poor.

Catholic Climate Covenant Care for Creation. Care for the Poor.

Go to CatholicClimateCovenant.org LETTERS smoking something to back Idi Amin and universities could prepare the and publish Ezra Pound. members of Generation S for lives of NADINE GALLO prudence and service for the common Amazing Grace Hadley, Mass. good. Thanks to Frank Moan, S.J., for his (REV.) JOHN F. CAIN reflections on prayer (“Finally, God’s Oops! Spencer, Iowa Voice,” 2/9). It takes courage to punch We Salesians were delighted with the through the veneers of doctrine and article by George M. Anderson, S.J., on Such a Fuss dogma and arrive at a place and time Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez, S.D.B., and Thank you to John F. Kavanaugh, S.J., that is infused with God. Moan speaks world poverty (“Advocate for the for his reflections on the controversy to the sterility of words that can so World’s Poorest,” 3/30). We do regret, over President Obama’s upcoming easily bind us up and lock us in. however, that America never seems to visit to the University of Notre Dame Fortunately for him, belated grace has remember that the cardinal is one of our (“Outrages,” 4/13 online edition). We morphed into amazing grace. Well Salesian confreres—not even an S.D.B. north of your border here in Canada done! after his name! scratch our heads when we see such a BILL WHALEN MICHAEL MENDEL, S.D.B. fuss. Yes, we have our disagree- Olympia, Wash. New Rochelle, N.Y. ments—some significant—but I thought the age of mindless confronta- Smoke Signals Teaching Virtue tion had passed. Humility is a good thing, and the arti- The issues of prudence, excess and To insult the holder of the highest cle in your 100th Anniversary issue by public service raised in “Generation S” office in your nation with an “uninvite” James T. Keane, S.J. (“Oops!” 4/13) and the Of Many Things column by is hardly a constructive way to engage detailing some of the errors in judg- Drew Christiansen, S.J., in the issue of others in the conversation that is nec- ment made in America’s past gave me March 2 remind us of the need for essary if any change is to take place. a whole new view of your magazine. ethics classes for all college students. Obama also stands for so much that The photo of suffragettes marching We remember when most colleges and reflects Gospel values. We have to in 1912 also lifted my spirits. The universities did not require an ethics keep perspective. daughters and granddaughters of class for M.B.A. students—and these BRIAN MASSIE, S.J. those women have also marched for are the greedy business executives who Winnipeg, Canada women’s issues in the recent past and have brought down the economy of have accomplished much to advance the entire world. They still do not Honoring the Good women’s rights. We are not the delicate seem stricken by conscience or repen- John F. Kavanaugh, S.J. (“Outrages,” flowers that were once kept at home. tant. 4/13 online edition), presented a well- And past editors must have been Ethics courses in all our colleges reasoned and realistic commentary on the recent firestorm over the invitation to President Obama from the WITHOUT GUILE University of Notre Dame to speak at its commencement ceremony. Obama had called for a national discussion about abortion in his book The Audacity of Hope. I am disappointed that he did not allow for that discus- sion to take place before he made a number of decisions after he took office, but this hardly makes him the Antichrist.

America (ISSN 0002-7049) is published weekly (except for 13 com- bined issues: Jan. 5-12, 19-26, March 30-April 6, April 20-27, May 25-June 1, June 8-15, 22-29, July 6-13, 20-27, Aug. 3-10, 17-24, Aug. 31-Sept. 7, Dec. 21-28) by America Press, Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019. Periodicals postage is paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Business Manager: Lisa Pope; Circulation: Judith Palmer, (212) 581-4640. Subscriptions: United States, $48 per year; add U.S. $22 postage and GST (#131870719) for Canada; or add U.S. $32 per year for overseas surface postage. For overseas airmail delivery, please call for rates. Postmaster: Send address changes to: America, 106 West 56th St.

CARTOON BY HARLEY SCHWADRON New York, NY 10019. Printed in the U.S.A.

42 America May 4, 2009 What about Obama’s compassion What parent would not reach out to a a century. The centennial issue (4/13) for the poor, his aversion to conduct- child who may have rejected one route contains a treasure trove of articles. ing unjust wars, his desire to care for to heaven to choose another? The writings of Elizabeth Johnson, the health of all Americans, his reach- Perhaps an appropriate image for C.S.J. (“An Earthy Christology”), ing out to the leaders of the world to the shape of the church to come is a never fail to surprise, delight and call us call for justice and to share the world’s “Hoberman Sphere,” which expands to God with her eloquence and gra- riches of food, water and natural and collapses around a core center. ciousness of expression, and the article resources? Does all of this count for With God in the center and all of by Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. (“The nothing? Can we not honor these good humanity on the circumference, we Shape of the Church to Come”) excites things he does and continue to encour- can come closer to God only by com- us with the positive possibilities for our age him to re-examine some of his ing closer to others; and coming closer church during a time when judgmental stances? to others brings us closer to God. fundamentalism seems to be on the ROBERT KILLOREN The exclusionary view of “I’m saved, rise. He presents a big, big picture and Gahanna, Ohio you’re not” just sends us all on our dif- encourages us with a profoundly hope- ferent ways—outward! ful view of the future. Straight Talk PAT BENNETT Also, the passionate and personal I enjoyed the article by Timothy Summit, N.J. article on vocation by Helen Prejean, Radcliffe, O.P. (“The Shape of the C.S.J., (“Ride the Current”) would be Church to Come,” 4/13), and particu- Cent’Anni! an inspiration for anyone at any point in larly valued his approach of looking to Congratulations to America on 100 one’s life. Thank you 100 times. where and how the Catholic Church years of publication, and thank you for ELAINE TANNESEN can make the greatest contribution to the magnificent banquet for mind, Woodinville, Wash. future times. heart and soul that you have offered for But I think it is a misrepresentation to portray Jesus as essentially a “con- To send a letter to the editor we recommend using the link that appears below articles on versational” man. In many situations, America’s Web site, www.americamagazine.org. Letters may also be sent to America’s edito- Jesus was uncompromisingly apodicti- cal, as when he said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” or “If your hand or foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.” JOHN MCCARTHY Weston, Mass. Global Vision We would like to thank those readers, Re “The Shape of the Church to Come” by Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. benefactors and friends, who kindly sent us (4/13): Since I was a young teenage both greetings and gifts for our centennial cel- girl, I have considered myself a pro- gressive Catholic. But, as Radcliffe ebration. We are also grateful to all who notes, viewing oneself as part of a tra- ditionalist/progressive dichotomy is attended the Mass and reception on April 18 polarizing and wounding to the in New York City, and to Archbishop church, and is counterproductive at this point. Celestino Migliore, the main celebrant, and There is far too much “circling of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the homilist. the wagons” going on today, and it only leads to the exclusion of others. Surely God loves all his/her children. How The editors and staff of America could it be otherwise? What parent does not love all of his/her children? What parent does not give each of his or her children chance after chance?

May 4, 2009 America 43 Something good is happening in the world … www.cfcausa.org … and we need priests to tell folks about it

rdinary people are making a real difference in the you will serve people living in poverty and the Catholic faithful Ostruggle against global poverty. They are joining by bringing them together in mutually life-giving relationships. with Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, a lay Our priests travel for weekend assignments only. Both Catholic organization, to help families in developing countries full- and part-time opportunities are available. Spanish put food on the table, send their children to school, access speaking priests are especially needed. We offer competitive health care and have a decent place to live so that together, we compensation. can end the cycle of poverty. To apply, contact Tim Deveney at (800) 875-6564 or [email protected]. A message of hope CFCA is an international movement of people who support We need priests with a passion for serving the poor and and encourage children, youth and the aging in developing dynamic preaching skills to share the CFCA message while countries. Founded by lay Catholics acting on the Gospel call to celebrating Eucharist in parishes across the country. In so doing, serve the poor, CFCA works with people of all faiths.

JOAN CHITTISTER The Gift of Years Growing Older Gracefully “Abounds in gentle insights and arresting aphorisms.” –Publishers Weekly “Chittister beautifully downplays regrets and accents the rewards of a mature life.” –Library Journal 9781933346106 240 pp Cloth $19.95 GEOFFREY MOORHOUSE

The Last NEW! For the months of Divine Office Henry VIII and the April and May Dissolution of the Monasteries all Web content is “This admirable study looks at the transformation of England’s FREE. religious life during...the 1530s So if you are not a subscriber, ...Moorhouse...respects his or know someone who has been subject and pays scrupulous attention to detail.“–Library Journal thinking of subscribing, now is the time to have a look. “As it mourns what was lost in the English Reformation, Moorhouse’s absorbing account takes stock of what was not.”–Publishers Weekly Just visit 9781933346182 304 pp Cloth $24.95 americamagazine.org. bluebridgebooks.com

44 America May 4, 2009 THE REVIEW OF FAITH & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

In quite a short time The Review has become an important point of reference for anyone interested in the relation of religion and global developments. I recommend it warmly. —Peter L. Berger, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University

Publishers are always looking for a new niche. The Review meets a need that was waiting to be filled. It is an indispens- able forum both for conversation among believers concerned about world affairs and for general readers interested in the place of religion in world politics. —Drew Christiansen, Editor in Chief, America

As an illuminating, educating, and edifying resource, The Review deserves wide support. —Mark Noll, University of Notre Dame

COMING THIS SUMMER ANNUAL “Templeton Lectures in Religion and World Affairs” SUBSCRIPTION Zuhdi Jasser, American Islamic Forum for Democracy; STUDENT $19.95 S. Abdallah Schleifer, Al Arabiya; David Rosen, American PROFESSIONAL $29.95 Jewish Committee; Max L. Stackhouse, Princeton Theological LIBRARY $49.95 Seminary; John Kelsay, University of Florida; Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi, British Commonwealth; Harvey Sicherman, ORDER ONLINE AT: Foreign Policy Research Institute; George Weigel, Ethics and www.RFIAonline.org

Public Policy Center; Dale F. Eickelman, Dartmouth College; OR CALL James Kurth, Swarthmore College; James H. Billington, 703-527-3100 Librarian of Congress; George Gallup, Jr., Gallup Poll.

May 4, 2009 America 45 THE WORD

indwelling has been spoken of since the opening chapter of the Gospel, Already Pruned where the first question asked by the initial two disciples is, “Where are you FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (B), MAY 10, 2009 staying?” (meneis) (1:38). Another Readings: Acts 9:26-31; Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32; 1 Jn 3:18-24; Jn 15:1-8 important moment is when the “Remain in me as I remain in you” (Jn 15:4) Samaritans ask Jesus to stay (menein) with them (4:40). In the Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus tells his followers, am not much of a gardener. As a There is a word play between the “those who eat my flesh and drink my city-dweller, I am lucky if I can verb airei, “takes away,” and its com- blood, abide [menei] in me and I in Ikeep a few houseplants alive. pound kathairei, “prunes.” Moreover, them” (6:56). True disciples abide in What is especially difficult for me is to there are verbal echoes of other Jesus’ word (8:31) and Jesus’ prune parts of a plant that still have parts of Jesus’ farewell dis- words remain in the disciples life in them, even if they are scraggly course at the supper (15:7). When Jesus tells his and have stopped flowering. I have no and the passion nar- disciples he is going to pre- problem clipping off parts that are rative. The imperative pare a dwelling place for them (14:2), clearly dead, but it is hard to bring form of the verb airei it becomes clear that the “abiding myself to trim off something still liv- is found in the cry of place” is not a geographical locale, ing. the people who call for but is Jesus himself (14:6), where In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks of Jesus’ crucifixion, also the Father makes his home the Father as a vintner who prunes “aron,” “Away with him!” (14:23) along with the Spirit branches that are bearing fruit so that (19:15). The adjectival (14:17). they will produce even more. There is form of the verb kathairei, which How can we insure that we are a strong emphasis on “bearing fruit”; literally means “to make clean,” occurs the expression occurs five times in the in the footwashing scene (13:10-11), PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE passage. It speaks not only of the where Jesus assures the disciples they fecundity in our relationship with are clean (katharoi). • Ask Christ to prune in you whatever God, but also of missionary outreach Pruning then is another Johannine impedes your “bearing much fruit.” and of interdependence with the other metaphor for the passion. It is akin to • Spend some quiet time today enjoying sim- branches on the vine. the image in Jn 12:24, where Jesus ply dwelling with the Triune One who makes The image of God as a vine grower speaks of the seed that must fall to the a home in you. and Israel as the vineyard is a familiar ground and die in order to bear much • Give thanks for the Word and the Eucharist, one in the Scriptures (for example, Is fruit. The emphasis is on the life that through which we abide in Christ and Christ 5:1-7; 27:2-5; Jer 2:21; Ps 80:8-18). sprouts forth from the dying and the in us.

Most often the metaphor is used to pruning. Expert gardeners know that ART: TAD DUNNE express God’s disappointment in the the place to prune is, paradoxically, abiding in Christ and he in us? In the lack of yield from a vine so tenderly where the nodes are bursting with life. second reading, 1 Jn 3:24 gives a sim- planted and nurtured. In the Gospel From pruning, the stress in the ple formula: “Those who keep his of John, this is not the case. The disci- Gospel shifts to the importance of the commandments remain in him, and ples Jesus is addressing in this Last branch remaining united to the vine in he in them, and the way we know that Supper scene are “already pruned” so order to bear fruit. A branch cannot he remains in us is from the Spirit he that they will bear more fruit. bear fruit on its own; cut off from the gave us.” The writer also spells out Branches that do not bear fruit are vine, it withers and dies and then is what it means to keep the command- taken away. good only for kindling. That remain- ments: “We should believe in the ing or abiding in Jesus is crucial for name of...Jesus Christ and love one BARBARA E. REID, O.P., is a professor of New disciples is evident in that the verb another just as he commanded us” (1 Testament studies at Catholic Theological menein, “to abide,” occurs eight times Jn 3:23). Union in Chicago, Ill. in these eight verses. This mutual BARBARA E. REID

46 America May 4, 2009 This spring, plant the seeds of personal and spiritual renewal

Save 30% on these inspiring titles!

Heroic Living Compass Points Praying the Way Discover Your Purpose Meeting God Every Jesus Prayed and Change the World Day at Every Turn Breaking through the Chris Lowney -ARGARET3ILF Barriers That Keep Us from Connecting with God $22.95 $16.07 $13.95 $9.77 -ARK,INK 3* (CsPGSs  0BsPGSs 

#OMBININGBUSINESSEXPERTISEAND 2ETREATDIRECTORAND)GNATIAN $11.95 $8.37 )GNATIANSPIRITUALITY BEST SELLINGAUTHOR SPIRITUALITYEXPERT-ARGARET3ILFSHARES 0BsPGSs  #HRIS,OWNEYHELPSUSNAVIGATEA SHORTYETPOWERFULMEDITATIONS -ARK,INK 3* HELPSUSDEVELOPA COMPLEX FAST PACEDWORLDINORDER BASEDONHEROWNSPIRITUALEXPERIENCES DEEPER RICHERCOMMUNICATIONWITH TOLIVEMOREAUTHENTICAND INTHEREALWORLD REVEALINGHOWWECAN 'ODBYLOOKINGCLOSELYATTHEPRAYER PURPOSEFULLIVES lND'ODINALLTHINGSANDATALLTIMES LIFEOF*ESUS

TWO EASY WAYS TO ORDER: VISIT LOYOLAPRESS.COM/STORE OR CALL 800-621-1008 A J ESUIT M INISTRY 0LEASEUSEPROMOTIONALCODE 2870/FFEREXPIRES3HIPPINGANDHANDLINGAREADDITIONAL NEW FOR SPRING

IGNATIAN Spirituality

Wayfaring Paperback / 256 pages / $16.95 This Flowing Toward Me Praying Our Goodbyes Paperback / 224 pages / $15.95 Paperback / 192 pages / $15.95

The God of Our Deepest Longings Paperback / 128 pages / $11.95

The Recollected Heart A Book of Wonders Paperback / 192 pages / $15.95 Paperback / 416 pages / $16.95

Available from your local bookstore or from ave maria press / Notre Dame, IN 46556 Finding God in All Things www.avemariapress.com / Ph: 800-282-1865 Paperback / 144 pages / $12.95 A Ministry of the Indiana Province of Holy Cross PROMO CODE: AH5Ø5Ø9Ø5MA