WCREIGHTONINDOW ■ WINTER 1996-97 WORLD OF THE CREIGHTONS: FROM IRELAND TO OMAHA

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS BUILDS NEW FOUNDATION ON TOP OF THE OLD

PROFESSOR STUDIES BOTH BIBLE AND COMIC STRIPS, FINDING LIFE LESSONS

WRITER SHOWS HOW AN AUTHOR APPROACHES HIS CRAFT ETTERS WINDOWLMagazine may edit Letters INDOW to the Editor, primarily to conform to space limitations. Personally signed W■ ■ Volume 13/Number 2 Creighton University Winter 1996-97 letters are given preference for publi- cation. Our FAX telephone number is: (402) 280-2549. E-mail to: The World of the Creightons: [email protected] Omaha and the University Bob Reilly takes you back in history to the world Addressing Issue of Race that saw the Creightons’ migration from Ireland to I was so pleased to see the WINDOW Omaha, and left Creighton University as their address the issue of “race” in Dr. Burk’s greatest legacy. Page 4 article. As Dr. Burk states, race is a social, not biological, construct. The of Business Builds Because Creighton touts in its fund- raising efforts to alumni the Diversity a New Foundation on Old Project Dr. Burk mentions, I recently con- tacted Dr. Fleming to learn more about it. Photographs show you the new Eppley College of As an openly gay man it is sad to say, Business Administration. Building a new school from though race and gender are included, the foundation up. Page 12 sexuality remains a “closeted” topic. For how long will Creighton University continue to deny its gay and The Professor Who Dips Into lesbian faculty, staff, students and alum- ni the opportunity to be treated equally? Both Dead Sea Scrolls and Denying that me and others are valuable the Comics members of the Creighton Family contin- ues to divide and hurt more and more Dr. Leonard Greenspoon, holder of the Klutznick every single day. Is this something to be Chair in Jewish Civilization, studies more than the proud of? Bible. He reads the comics, too. Page 14 Homophobia and hatred exist in this world because of ignorance. If Creighton’s continued neglect remains Creighton Alumnus Ron Hansen status quo, then I strongly question the Reveals the Mind of a Writer Diversity Project’s objective to “raise the awareness of all the members of the Ron Hansen, BA’70, has made his mark in the literary world, Creighton community about domestic turning out four novels, from Desperadoes to Atticus, his latest. and international human diversity.” He sees writing as sacrament. Page 20 Mark J. Murphy, BS’87 San Francisco Alumnews...... Page 26 University News...... Page 27 Government Intervention I highly concur with Mr. Dunn’s com- Publisher: Creighton University; Rev. Michael G. Morrison, S.J., President; Michael E. Leighton, Vice President for ments in the Summer issue of the University Relations. WINDOW staff: Stephen T. Kline, Executive Editor; Robert U. Guthrie, Editor; Pamela A. Vaughn, Associate Editor. Editorial Advisors: Rev. Donald A. Doll, S.J.; Charles J. Dougherty, Ph.D.; Richard L. O’Brien, M.D., Allen Creighton University WINDOW. B. Schlesinger, Ph.D, and David G. Schultenover, S.J. America’s increase in socio-economic Creighton University WINDOW (USPS728-070) is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178-0001. Periodicals postage paid at Omaha, , and additional problems is a direct result of increased entry points. Address all mail to Public Relations and Information, Omaha, NE 68178. Postmaster: Send change of address to government intervention. As “Uncle Creighton University WINDOW, P.O. Box 3266, Omaha, NE 68103-0078. Sam” gradually became our baby-sitter, COPYRIGHT © 1997 BY CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY he had to infringe upon our freedoms in Pursuant to our educational obligation to search for truth and to expand knowledge, WINDOW Magazine promotes the dis- cussion of a variety of issues. Although published by a Catholic, Jesuit university, the opinions expressed in WINDOW are order to implement the various not intended to be construed as the official teaching or position of Creighton University or of the Catholic Church. grandiose social plans we clamored for. This, in turn, absolved us of our self-

2 Creighton University WINDOW reached catastrophic levels. Why? Because basic human morality is now institutionalized within the collective DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...? state as opposed to the individual. Ever INDOW wants to do a feature on a place and era that is since FDR we’ve been told that the gov- Wgone. Do you remember Beal’s Cafe? There are some ernment will provide for us and protect campus reminders of that place today. In the Skutt Student us from ourselves, that we as individuals are no longer responsible for our fate — Center are three large black-and-white photographs and a now we’re paying the price. If we want sign that begs recall: “Memora-Beal-ia.” to save our country, we need to replace We’re asking you: What was your worst meal at Beal’s? group accountability with individual Your best? Did you meet someone important in your life at accountability. Unfortunately for Uncle Beal’s? Do you recall any special event that brought laugh- Sam, in order to be held accountable for ter or tears? Do you remember the late Walt Beal or do you our actions, we must be given back con- recall Howard Fiedler? Send us your “Memora-Beal-ia.” trol over our lives. This means old Sam would have to go on a drastic weight loss WINDOW Magazine program. Though he won’t be there to Creighton University watch over us like a mother hen, I’m sure we’ll all manage to get by somehow. Yes, 2500 California Plaza we’ll still have the potential to do wrong, Omaha, NE 68178 but at least we would finally have the incentive to do right. FAX (402) 280-2549 E-mail: [email protected] Kevin Paul Hamilton, MCSM’89 Roswell, Ga.

accountability, and even worse, our given the authority to seize any property Dental School on the Rise basic human dignity. it simply suspects was used in connec- I enjoyed reading the recent article in I must however take exception to Mr. tion with a drug violation. In 80% of the Fall issue of Creighton WINDOW Dunn’s portrayal of the U.S. being the property seizures, the law enforcement magazine concerning the Creighton freest, and hence, greatest nation on agency never charges the alleged perpe- Dental School. I believe the dental earth. No doubt we once were, but now, trator with a crime (because it knows the school is taking its place as one of the according to the report Economic victim is innocent!). The government leading dental schools in the country Freedom of the World: 1975-1995, we says it is only trying to protect us from with the increased emphasis on research rank fourth in the degree of market free- these dangerous chemicals, but why is it and the success of the students on their dom and even lower in standard of liv- that 95% of all drug-related deaths are boards. I feel confident that Dean ing. Though it is debatable whether pure due to alcohol and tobacco-substances Barkmeier and his faculty will do an capitalism ever existed in this country that are perfectly legal? Ironic, isn’t it, outstanding job of leading our school (outside of our underground economy), especially when you consider that the into the next century. the concept of producer and consumer primary financial sponsors for the exchanging goods and services without Partnership For A Drug-Free America Edward J. Schultz, DDS’62 any outside interference has been effec- are the alcohol and tobacco industries. Cincinnati tively crushed by the government. Not exactly what I would call “encourag- As for personal freedom, we lead the ing” developments in the land of the free. industrialized world in incarcerating the That’s because America is not “free” — In Touch highest percentage of our population but it certainly is for sale! Each quarter, I look forward to receiving behind bars (1 of every 167). Is this History will record that our country the WINDOW magazine, which not only because our society has become so vio- was the first to establish a government keeps me in touch with the positive lent? No, per capita rates for murder, that existed solely to serve the people, changes happening at Creighton rape, robbery and other violent crimes not vice-versa as had been the case with University, but also reminds me of the have remained relatively flat over the all previous governments. However, if wonderful traditions that led me to past two decades. The reason our prisons we don’t maintain our diligence, all that Creighton University as a freshman. are overflowing is because we now lock was gained will be forever lost. Where Keep up the good work! people up (and steal their property) for we’re going is more important than victimless crimes—crimes involving the where we’ve been. Violence, poverty, and Janet Lee Isom, BSN’82 peaceful exchange or possession of illegal drug abuse have been around since the Palm Springs, Calif. drugs. The government also has been birth of this nation but have only recently

Winter Issue 1996-97 3 The World of the Creightons: BEGINNINGS By Bob Reilly

he much-publicized U.S. News & fered bequest of Mary Lucretia and other variations. Even the Scottish World Report survey of America’s Creighton. name, Crichton, became Creighton dur- Tbest might have read If, if, if. ing the 17th century plantation in Ireland this way: The reality of Creighton University, of British settlers. Crehan, perhaps influ- “McCraren University, a Dominican however, began in what poet Patrick enced by the Scottish spelling, also institution located in Omaha, Nebraska, Kavanagh called the “stony grey soil of became Creighton. The Earls of Erne in and founded in 1877 by the wife of a ,” one of Ireland’s poorer County Fermanagh were Creightons and telegraph pioneer.” counties, stubbed against modern the name spilled over into neighboring History turns on minor events, on . Its rolling hills support Monaghan. simple decisions, and these often lose small farms, shelter chains of lakes, and Pinpointing a specific family line that themselves in the larger reality. If Irish lure fishermen from and the leads to Creighton University’s founders tenant farmers had not lost hope; if the States. The people here are reputed to be is risky business. Tenant farmers some- American frontier had not moved rapid- blunt though witty, with “razor edges times took the surname of their landlord, ly west; if transportation and communi- around their speech.” In ancient times, as apparently happened with my ances- cation had not become essential indus- this was MacMahon land, ruled by that tors from Cavan and Down. Socially tries; if the American Civil War had not powerful clan. ambitious Irishmen gave their names an occurred; if had not But some Creightons lived there, too, English twist, both at home and, when been at the right place at the right time; although their genealogy, like that of they emigrated, in their new home. if those abandoned cattle in western many Irish families, is not neatly Record keepers made errors, and illegiti- Nebraska had not survived; if Father accessed. There are variant spellings, macy and adoption further blur any Michael D. Lilly, vicar-provincial of the broken lines, misunderstandings, even search. For many years, in an area called Dominican Order in the United deliberate confusion. At least three dis- The Pale, which circled out from Dublin, States, had not turned tinctly different surnames blend to create Irish people were forbidden to use their down the prof- a series of anglicizations. There were Gaelic names. Thus MacGowan, based MacCrohans in Kerry, and Croghans in on the root word gabha for blacksmith, Roscommon, and Crehans in Mayo, Sligo and Donegal. These spawned Cregans, Grehans

4 Creighton University WINDOW became Smith, and James was the fourth of Protestant attorney allied with the Feeney became Hunt seven children born to French, spearheaded one more rising and Carrig became Bridget McCraren and a that failed. The Irish Parliament was Rock and husband who apparently then dissolved and restrictions against so on. died before the family Catholics reimposed. Irish unrest So Creighton trekked to America. continued. may not have been They lived on a small But in 1805, two years after Robert the original family farm near Clontibret, Emmet’s abortive rebellion, James name. southeast of Monaghan McCraren sailed from Newry, a border Fr. Patrick J. town, and close to the town some 20 miles east of Clontibret, Mullens’ early bio- 1595 site of a successful and, coincidentally, the birthplace of Dr. graphical sketches of battle by Hugh O’Neill Donal Magee, longtime Creighton physi- Edward and John against the English. ology/pharmacology professor. The Creighton and their wives James was born about crossing to Philadelphia took two tell us that “James 1788 (although this date months, aboard the Roe Buck, probably Creighton, a native of Mary Lucretia Wareham doesn’t compute with his one of those overladen and under- , Creighton was married stated age at immigration) manned vessels common to the period. Ireland, came to America to Edward. Her will into an era of turmoil and “Not all voyages were bad, however,” in 1805. Six years later, in established Creighton revolution. America’s exit writes Leonard Wibberley in The Coming Philadelphia, in St. Mary’s University. from the British Empire of the Green. “Usually the bad Church, he was married to and, in France, the and good were mixed Bridget Hughes, a native of County impending overthrow of Louis together. In foul Armagh, Ireland.” XVI, both combined to inspire weather, when However, the marriage certificate for the Irish to push for further hatches had to be that date, October 16, 1811, lists the freedoms. Volunteers, orga- battened down, groom’s name as “James McCraren” nized to meet threats of the immigrants while the bride’s name and other details invasion, soon became a were confined to fit. The passenger list from 1805, when force capable of influenc- the hold, while James arrived in America, carries a ing legislation that briefly the waters thun- “James McCrarin, age 21, a laborer from returned governance to dered like judg- Clontibret Parish, County Monaghan.” the Irish Parliament and ment about them. The name “Creighton” doesn’t appear. took a little sting out of the But in fair weather The wording of the wills of siblings also oppressive Penal Laws. they could go on confirms the McCraren title, and we do While James was toiling on deck, and on mild know that there were people with this that Monaghan acreage, proba- nights name resident in Monaghan in the 18th bly oblivious to the political sit- century. It seems likely that James uation around him, the sepa- Edward Creighton drove McCraren changed his name to ratist plotting by the newly the telegraph’s western “Creighton” sometime after he came to formed United Irishmen domi- advance and in doing so America, and we do have specific docu- nated the Irish domestic scene. made his fortune. mentation of that switch by his brother, In 1798, when James was 10, Christopher. Theobald Wolfe Tone, a

Winter Issue 1996-97 5 they would dance reels and jigs to the the year he arrived, Lewis and Clark attempt to defuse the growing debate tune of a fiddle, or they would sing finally reached the Pacific. In the next over slavery, and the Land Act of 1820 songs, often in Gaelic.” decade, America prevailed against the was signed into law to promote west- All of James’ siblings followed him, English in the War of 1812 (a fact that ward expansion. Prices per acre in the as did their mother, who family legend must have delighted the immigrant new territories were dropped to $1.25 declares was evicted from her Monahgan Irish). and holdings limited to 80 acres. homestead. The nation began to look west, Many settlers felt the law How they survived in the encouraging settlement in far- favored the rich. Philadelphia area is uncertain. Most of away places like Ohio. By this time, the the Irish immigrants were illiterate, In 1807, an elder Creighton name was in thanks to the Penal Laws that denied brother of James, who regular usage, and fam- them education, and they ended up in signed himself ily members were crowded, unsanitary slums, ghettoized Christopher probably taking with their fellow Gaels. Although largely McCrearen in pur- advantage of the unskilled at urban labor, these new chasing land in east- favorable land prices. arrivals had strong backs, an exemplary ern Ohio, became the James is described work ethic, and a willingness to erect first of the family to by Fr. Mullens as “a buildings, pave roads, dig coal, and leave the East Coast. man of robust manage households for as little as six Christopher, now physique and strong dollars a month. owner of 164 acres, mar- character, which left its The McCrarens may have tried their ried Margaret McKiggan impress upon his chil- hands at some of these occupations, and before a Justice of the Peace, dren” and as “living in James felt secure enough, just six years became a Methodist and the midst of people who after his arrival, to espouse Bridget changed his name to Sarah Emily Wareham despised his race and Hughes before Fr. W. V. Harold, pastor of “Creighton.” Soon, the rest of Creighton died in 1888, hated his religion.” St. Mary’s Parish and Vicar-General to the McCrarens took off for preceding husband According to Mullens, the Bishop of Philadelphia. The wed- Ohio. John Creighton by nearly James Creighton “asked ding’s three witnesses — Patrick Two other brothers, John two decades. The couple no favors, but suffered Hughes, Thomas McHenry and and Michael, were them- had no children. no insults.” Margaret Sweeny — testify to the tight selves married before a His wife, Bridget, is social ties of the Irish community. Methodist minister, even though they seen by Mullens as “a worthy compan- While Napoleon was dominating remained Catholic. There were no priests ion and helpmeet” who struggled to European headlines, events in America in this frontier location. make a home for her family in this were equally potent. Two years before James migrated to Ohio in 1813, farm- remote area, but who “found time to James McCraren stepped ashore in ing near Barnesville, Belmont County, look after the instruction of her children Philadelphia, the Louisiana Purchase where Edward, the fifth of nine children, in the essential points of Catholic belief.” had doubled the size of this country, and was born on Aug. 31, 1820. That year, To supplement his farm produce, Congress enacted the Missouri James hired out to help build the pike- Compromise in an roads across Ohio. He evidently earned enough by 1832 to purchase 80 acres next to his brother, John, in Licking County, Ohio, a place favored by

6 Creighton University WINDOW Bridget because of its proximity to a Creighton took the team and wagon his Edward with the dream of a telegraph Dominican mission church. Three years father had presented him and went into line which would link both coasts. The later, James added his brother’s 80 acres business for himself. He’d haul anything Gold Rush of 1849 brought that reverie and also bought from him 24 lots in the — timber for homes, foodstocks, con- to the planning stage. Meantime, nearby village of Mount Hope, plus land struction tools. His contracts took him to Edward soldiered on, and by the time north and west of the town. distant places like Wheeling, W. Va., and his mother died in 1854, he had 40 crews By now, the population of the United Cumberland, Md. In the 10 years working for him, with his brother States exceeded 13 million, the first cov- he spent expanding this John, a college dropout, along ered wagons had crossed the Rockies, enterprise, he learned how as special assistant. and the Monroe Doctrine, banning colo- to handle men and Ed Creighton wasn’t nization of the Americas, became a key equipment, how to infallible. A street- factor of American foreign policy. keep records, and paving venture proved Passenger train travel came into vogue. how to push himself so unprofitable, he lost In 1831, the last of James’ and to the limit. almost all his equip- Bridget’s nine children was born. When her hus- ment. So he headed Christened John Andrew, he would later band died at about west, with John, broth- partner with his older brother, Edward, age 60, Bridget er Joseph, and their becoming one of Creighton University’s Creighton moved cousin James. The year co-founders. again, this time to a was 1856, with James Farm work demanded a lot of the farm near Springfield, Buchanan in the White Creighton children. Keep in mind that Ohio. Edward returned to House, the Plains Indian the first steel plow wasn’t introduced by help her at harvest time. Wars a fresh concern, and John Deere until 1833, so there was con- One of the family legends with the nation edging siderable stoop labor required for plant- has him meeting some men Count John Creighton, closer to internal conflict. ing and harvesting. What crops the on a country road who were brother of Edward, The Creightons tra- Creightons tended or livestock they stringing telegraph wire. outlived him and was versed Indiana, Illinois owned is unknown, but Ohio was excel- Intrigued with the potential generous in supporting and Iowa, arriving finally lent growing country. of this new communication Creighton University. at the Missouri River and Like his moonlighting father, Edward method, Edward set off for Omaha City. This well- Creighton balanced farm chores with the Dayton the next day and negotiated con- located village of 600 consisted of sub- role of cartboy on the Ohio turnpikes, tracts to deliver telegraph poles as far standard housing and streets clogged twin duties which left little time for south as Evansville, Ind. with mud. Despite this inhospitable other pursuits. He attended school only John, at the urging of Edward, devot- panorama, Ed Creighton, whose glass as far as the fifth grade, but continued to ed his share of his father’s inheritance to was always half-full, decided to set read and to educate himself. Somewhere further his education. At St. Joseph down roots. He returned to Ohio only he mastered the art of pugilism and College, run by the Dominicans in long enough to wind up business and, in taught his better-educated brother John Somerset, Ohio, John took honors in October, to wed his fiancee, Mary how to box in return for tutoring. math, history, English, geography and Lucretia Wareham. No ordinary honey- (Among their friends and co-workers religion, but might have benefitted from mooner, Creighton transported a load of was Phil Sheridan, later to receive a speech course, since he never felt com- lumber on his trip back to Omaha, thus acclaim as a brilliant Civil War general.) fortable expressing himself in public. defraying the cost of the journey. All of these boys became men very early. While John studied, Edward carted Once settled in Nebraska Territory, In 1838, Samuel Morse was trying to poles and wire through Ohio and the experienced Ed Creighton landed a persuade a reluctant Congress to finance Illinois, supervising construction there job constructing a telegraph line between construction of his innovative telegraph and as far away as New Orleans. One of Omaha and St. Joseph, Mo. While he and line (a project that would prove impor- his early bosses, a Henry O’Reilly, had his crews stretched wire along the course tant to the Creightons later). inspired of the Big Muddy, they learned from the That same year, at age 18, Edward papers about the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the hanging of John Brown. They also weathered the Panic of 1857 and witnessed the creation of the short- lived Pony Express. This relay system of delivering mail to California and points between lost half a million dollars in 1860, but, along with the Butterfield

Winter Issue 1996-97 7 horse, and by allowing one chieftain to suffer an electrical shock when he touched the “singing wire.” The burly leader moves ahead of the work crews, disposing of unfriendly elements in towns along the way. He saves a man from being lynched. He cajoles, encourages, threatens. His crews swore by him. They wrote to their rela- tives, declaring their boss was “a steam engine of This street scene (for which no date is given) shows the Edward Creighton & Co. sign on one of the energy” and “a good fellow buildings in Virginia City, Mont. Cartage was a major part of Edward’s early business ventures. and fine teacher” and “a man who was close and Stage Line, was the only regular service silenced critics, and Congress anted up friendly but could command respect.” to the western reaches of this country. the $400,000 needed to link the continent Creighton reached Salt Lake City a The subject of a transcontinental tele- by wire. full week ahead of his rivals, on Oct. 17, graph was again introduced. The plan, conceived under the pres- 1861. Behind him stood 25 thousand Edward Creighton insisted the line sure of a fast-approaching war, was for functioning poles. From nearby Fort was a necessity. If war broke out, he the Overland Telegraph Company to Bridger he telegraphed Mary Lucretia, argued, California might be cut off from build east from California to Salt Lake saying: the rest of the country. Teamed with City, while Creighton and the Pacific “This being the first message Creighton in this campaign to sell the Telegraph Company (later incorporated over the new line since its comple- idea to the Federal government was into Western Union) moved west from tion to Salt Lake, allow me to greet Hiram Sibley, a former Rochester, N.Y., Omaha to the Mormon capital. The team you. In a few days, two oceans sheriff who created several small com- that arrived first at this destination will be united.” munication firms. In Washington, Sibley would receive from their competitors the Not exactly a Valentine, but Edward’s failed to win Congressional approval. sum of $50 for every day they were beat- wife was the first to learn of this success. Congress saw only treeless plains, en. Creighton had the most miles to When the two companies finally formidable mountains, and hostile cover, but Overland the toughest natural joined their wires, the message tapped Indians. Such a proposal was impracti- obstacles. out was from the mayor of San Francisco cal, even impossible. On July 4, 1861, a few weeks after the to the mayor of New York: To convince skeptics, Ed Creighton fall of Fort Sumter, Ed Creighton himself “The Pacific to the Atlantic set out alone to survey a feasible route, set the first pole. His three crews, super- sends greetings. And may both challenging winter weather and nearly vised by the Creightons and others, were oceans be dry before a foot of all 2,000 miles of difficult terrain. All the divided into those who dug the holes, the land that lies between them way he was dogged by problems, losing those who planted the poles, and those belongs to any other but our unit- his horse and gear in the icy Platte, who strung the wire. News of the war ed country.” struggling to Denver, travelling by stage- served as a stimulus, and they might A hundred years later in Omaha, in coach to Salt Lake City, where he met cover as much as 12 miles some days, 1960, the year the Reinert Alumni Brigham Young and became fast friends setting over 250 poles. Library was dedicated on the Creighton with the Mormon leader. Despite warn- This romantic tale has been recounted campus, we recreated that scene, setting ings about snowstorms, Creighton rode many times, in books, articles, and even up a platform on the courthouse lawn, off on horse and mule to navigate the one Hollywood film. Let’s shorten the with actors in period costumes, and 500 miles to Carson City. When he exited scenario and imagine this story being sending across a temporary telegraph the Sierra Nevada Range, he was snow- played out in a series of scenes: line the identical message. All along the blind and the skin had been peeled from Floods wash away supplies. Prairie fires route, Creighton alumni showed up at his face by blowing sand and alkali dust. have to be combatted. There are wagon break- their local Western Union offices to Recuperation in Carson City was shorter downs, dust, mosquitoes, savage rainstorms. retrieve their copies. The University than some current HMO confinements, Ed Creighton neutralizes the Sioux and sponsored a luncheon, pre- and he pressed on to Sacramento, com- Cheyenne by letting their tribal leaders pass sented the president of pleting the journey. These heroics messages along the wires, beating the fastest Western Union with

8 Creighton University WINDOW an honorary degree, and we circulated decision that insured the stories on the anniversary to the nation’s growth of the city. press. Arden Swisher, a Mutual of All of this energy finally Omaha executive, wrote the music to a spent itself in 1874. As was tune dubbed “The Singing Wire,” and I his custom, Ed Creighton contributed the lyrics. Gene Autry knelt by his bed that morn- recorded the song, I believe, but I don’t ing, joining his wife in think it ever hit the charts. Western prayer. Then he arrived at Union supplied the University with a the First National Bank, section of the original wire, neatly dis- working into the afternoon, played on a polished plaque. when he suddenly col- In payment for his success, Edward lapsed on the floor. Stroke! Creighton was given Western Union Two days later, without stock, ultimately worth well over $1 mil- regaining consciousness, lion. He re-entered the freighting busi- Edward Creighton expired Shown is the Creighton home on the day of the funer- ness, collecting goods from steamships at 7 a.m. on Nov. 5. Omaha al of Count John A. Creighton on Feb. 9, 1907. A large arriving in Omaha, hauling them to virtually shut down for his crowd gathered to form the cortege. Benson, an assembly point, and then car- funeral, and his obituary rying them by wagon over 1,000 miles to made the front pages of most American and the place burned down two years Virginia City, Mont. John and Jim papers. after, and they never found the one who remained part of this enterprise, occa- Edward and Mary Lucretia had one did it, but the girls who lived next door, sionally filling in as storekeepers, even child, Charles David, but he died at age one of them married a Creighton phar- vigilantes. For a time, Ed served as gen- four. Edward’s brother, Count John macist, and ...” Like that. eral manager of the Pacific Telegraph Creighton, who earned that title via Many of the Creighton-connected Line and continued to supervise con- Papal knighthood, died with no surviv- names persist in this area — McShane, struction. When nearly 50, he was sum- ing children. But there were plenty of McGinn, Cannon, Furlong, McCreary, moned to keep Indians from burning the Creighton relatives sprinkled around the Fitzgerald, Condon, Gallagher and oth- poles and disrupting communication. Midwest, including many who settled ers. Creighton, Neb., in Knox County, With a cavalry unit of 30 men, he kept in Omaha in the wake of their affluent which dates from 1885, commemorates open 300 miles of telegraph lines. kinsmen. the Count. Bluejay alumni have added Almost by accident, Creighton got The late Fr. Thomas Murphy, S.J., “Creighton” to the forenames of their into the business of cattle raising. A long-time Creighton treasurer, could offspring. There’s a family-run hotel in small herd of oxen he had abandoned recite the litany of those relatives like a Clones, County Monaghan, called the while surveying for the telegraph com- Jeopardy contestant, adding information Creighton Hotel. “All bedrooms en suite pany had grown fat when he rediscov- about each, sometimes crucial, some- and heated. Ballroom dancing every ered them a year later. This led to his times trivial. Thursday evening and live entertain- purchase of cattle and sheep to pasture “Oh, yes,” he might respond, “she ment most weekends. Newly refur- on the rich prairie. His other business was a cousin once removed on the “hats” included a CEO post with Omaha Driscoll side, and lived in that little & Northwestern Railroad and house on Burt Street where an old founder/president status with First man who claimed he National Bank. Creighton erected the rode with Custer Shoaf Building, Morgan and Gallagher’s later died, Mercantile House, the Central Block and the Grand Central Hotel — all within Omaha. He even lobbied success- fully for the designation of Omaha as the eastern ter- minus of the Union Pacific Railroad, a

Winter Issue 1996-97 9 Scottish clan and an agent for a Mayo family connection with the Dominican landlord. Order in Ohio, the new university was In 1965, while endeavoring to raise first offered to them. They rejected it, funds from New York foundations on partly because of the conservatism of the behalf of Creighton, I ran an errand for vicar-general, Fr. Lilly, who was nearing Fr. Tom Murphy. He’d seen an ad in The the end of his term, and partly because New Yorker for a Creighton Shirt the Dominican Master General did not Company and wondered if they were look with favor on the educational work kin to the University founders. I took the of the American Dominicans. elevator myriad floors up into the So Bishop James O’Connor called in Empire State Building tower, arriving at the Jesuits. a compact little clothing store. A young The years between the death of man, one of the owners, was on me in a Edward Creighton and his younger moment, mentally taking my measure- brother John were monumental ones. In ments. I told him I wasn’t shopping, but their native Ireland, independence was was from Creighton University in merely decades away. In America, Nebraska, and some people there won- Yellowstone became a national park, dered how this firm happened to bear Edison developed the electric light, Billy Ellen Moore, of Clones, Ireland, is a that name. Immediately, he smelled a the Kid was gunned down, The great, great grandneice of Ed Creighton. lawsuit and became docile, apologetic, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn hit the Mrs. Moore, 79, visited the Creighton defensive, the reverse of his salesman bookstores, 10-story buildings made campus in November 1996. This photo persona. He confessed that he and his headlines, the Statue of Liberty was ded- shows her in the office of the Rev. partner were seeking an upscale name icated, the Blizzard of ‘88 killed hun- Michael G. Morrison, S.J., Creighton’s for their establishment and reviewed a dreds, Wounded Knee left an ugly mark president. In the background is a paint- list of colleges and before in the quest of Native Americans for jus- ing of Ed’s brother, John Creighton. settling on “Creighton.” I assured him I tice, Omaha hosted the Trans-Mississippi was merely curious and not litigious, Exposition, the Spanish-American War bished restaurant offers freshly cooked and he settled back into his pitch. was concluded, immigrants streamed traditional meals in a cozy atmosphere.” “You’re about a 42, right?” through Ellis Island at the rate of 100 per Not bad for $30 a night. Of course, the greatest monument to hour, Jell-O was first marketed, Enrico I confront the Creighton name in var- the Creighton name is the University Caruso made his Met debut, an earth- ied places. In a textbook I learn that a they helped establish. Acting on quake ravaged San Francisco, and the John Creighton from Athlone introduced Edward’s stated desire to inaugurate a automobile became the preferred mode vaccination to Ireland. In Thomas free school for poor Irish Catholic boys, of transport. The World of the Flanagan’s masterful novel about the Mary Lucretia, who survived her hus- Creightons had come nearly full circle. 1798 Rising, The Year of the French, an band by two years, left $100,000 to estab- John Creighton, who received Andrew Creighton appears. lish Creighton University. Because of the $300,000 in Mary Lucretia’s will, Alas, he is of the

10 Creighton University WINDOW invested in cattle and real estate and amassed a small fortune. He was gener- ous to Creighton University, underwrit- ing a wing on the initial building, donat- ing scientific equipment, funding the Medical College, helping to create St. Joseph Hospital, building a convent, and paying for improvements on these properties. John’s portraits, often with the knighthood medal displayed, make him look stuffy and pompous, whereas con- temporary accounts make him out to be congenial, somewhat diffident in speech, and with considerable courage. He may appear portly, but the discreet Fr. Mullens characterizes him as possessing a “tall, well-proportioned figure.” The largest building at left, with the cupola, is “Creighton College” as viewed from Count John died Feb. 7, 1907, and about 20th and Dodge streets in 1878. was buried from St. John’s campus church, with William Jennings Bryan as sively poor, male, Irish or Catholic, tially obscured by the stadium wall, and one of the pallbearers and University should know from whence it came. wonder if a poor black youngster like students forming an honor guard. Since The rest of us need to be reminded of himself could ever aspire to such aca- his wife, Sarah Emily, sister to Mary the benefits of immigration, recalling the demic heights. He made it to the hilltop, Lucretia, had died in 1888, with John’s gifts of people like the Creightons, who graduating in 1976 with a bachelor’s demise the last direct tie to the founders emerged from poverty to leave an degree and earning a master of science was dissolved. enduring legacy. What looked like degree in 1983. In his acceptance speech Horatio Alger, born the year after opportunity to them has now flowered he catalogued the many blessings he Count Creighton, might have added this into opportunity for thousands of others. received at Creighton and thanked a ros- tale to his repertoire of young lads who I thought about that concept last ter of professors who had shaped his life. made good. We are more likely today to September, when South High principal, He closed by remarking, “You know, regard such stories as corny, exaggerat- Jerry Bartee, responded to his alumni there are many Jerry Bartees out ed, even suspicious. Our modern heroes award at a reunion dinner. Bartee grew there; there should be more are entertainers rather than up north of the Creighton campus and Creightons.” W entrepreneurs. But today’s Bluejay stu- said he used to look up on that hill, par- dent body, no longer exclu-

Winter Issue 1996-97 11 COBA Builds for 21st Century

reighton welcomed students and faculty back to the Eppley College of Business Administration in the fall with an attractively Crenovated facility. The $4.5 million renovation included rewiring the building for state- of-the-art computer technology. But the project also included a new elec- trical system, as well as new heating-ventilating-air conditioning and new plumbing. Among the facility’s new features are two large skylights that provide open, natural lighting to faculty offices on the top floor. Project architect was Holland Basham of Omaha. W

Dr. Juli-Ann Gasper, associate professor of finance and a US WEST computer fellow class graduate, teaches in one of the College of Business Administration’s technology centers.

At left is one of two advanced technology centers created for the College of Business Administration.

12 Creighton University WINDOW The new student lounge (left) is a place to relax or to study for students in the new College of Business Administration.

Hallways are bright, modern and carpeted, with benches provided throughout. Skylight (left) brings the sun to the top floor.

Fr. Cahill’s COBA History Out in Book In The First 75 Years: A History of the Creighton University College of Business Administration Fr. Neil Cahill, S.J., offers his own one-of-a-kind view of Creighton in 200 paperback pages. An assistant professor of economics and the Jesuit chaplain for the business college, Fr. Cahill charts the history of the school and gives a color- ful overview of its highlights. The book sells for $15, including postage and handling. To order, alumni should contact: Colleen Hendrick, College of Business Administration, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE. 68178, (402) 280-5520. Dr. Deborah L. Wells, associate profes- The book is also available at the Creighton sor of management, talks to a student University Bookstore. in newly refurbished offices.

Winter Issue 1996-97 13 INSIDE Sunday Creigh

Featuring: Greenspoon 6 Pages Com

GREENSPOON / The Comic Strip

BibleDr. Greenspoon Scholar Reads the CoMiCs, Too By Dr. Eileen M. Wirth, Assistant Professor Journalism and Mass Communication

e’s an internationally noted Scissors in hand, he reads all the the earth, the boy in Family Circus biblical scholar and translator strips, instinctively memorizing most asking if the donkey means Mary and Hwho can read a dozen lan- of them, searching for gems: Linus Joseph were Democrats. guages, but one of the first things he quoting “Proverbs” to a skeptical Later, Dr. Leonard Greenspoon, turns to every day in the newspaper Snoopy, Frank and Ernest asking God if holder of the Philip M. and Ethel is the comics. the meek can inherit Saturn instead of Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization

14 Creighton University WINDOW toniana-Times SECTION

Creighton University mics Winter 1996-97 G

at Creighton, will share these “biblical ful sense of humor,” said Gloriann Dr. Brian Hook, an assistant profes- interpretations” with a wide range of Levy, Omaha Jewish Cultural Arts sor of Classics and Modern Languages, audiences including high school reli- recalled Greenspoon’s first visit to gion students and readers of scholarly Creighton. Greenspoon, who holds a journals. doctorate in Near Eastern Languages To Greenspoon, president of a I enjoy and Civilizations from Harvard, had worldwide group which studies the been asked to lecture to a class on Septuagint (the first translation of the looking for “Gilgamesh,” an Assyrian text which is Hebrew Bible into Greek), it’s simple. quirkiness ... required reading in World Literature I. “You can look at something as seri- and how “He has this sort of New York - ous as a biblical text and have fun,” he South Carolina accent and made refer- said. “Someday I want to do a lecture translators ences to the comic strips,” Hook said. that biblical scholars take themselves work “He gave a fantastic lecture. He made too seriously and the texts not seriously the text come to life.” enough. You can have fun with some- Finding and showing others the thing without mocking it.” “life” in biblical texts animates And wherever this short, intense Greenspoon’s prolific scholarship Southerner who became Klutznick director. “People like to talk to him. which includes numerous academic chairholder last year goes, he creates a Because of him, Creighton has become articles and presentations. He also has sense of fun and excitement. a more visible presence in the Jewish written, edited or contributed to “He’s very homey ... with a wonder- community.” several books related to the Septuagint

Winter Issue 1996-97 15 the process of the translation. “I try to empathize with the people who are doing the translations,” he said. “I try to see where they’re coming from. I enjoy looking for the quirkiness. I like to ask how do translators work and how do their communities work. There has to be some (financial) back- ing and, when people put money up, they expect something in return. All of this is influenced by what is going on in the rest of society. We are using texts to look at the interaction of text and community.” This “quirkiness” hasn’t changed much in the past two thousand years, he said. Ancient translators had their bad days just as modern scholars do. “In one 20th century translation of Psalm 50, we have God saying ‘I will take no bull from your house,’ meaning no sacrifice,” Greenspoon said. “It’s obvious that no one read that one Dr. Greenspoon finds philosophy and humor in the comic strips, both applicable to aloud.” his studies of civilization. In another instance from earlier in and the Book of Joshua. soaps and like ‘Dallas’ and ‘Dynasty,’ this century, a translation of the Jewish But no matter how impressive his there was fighting among generations Bible transposed two lines scholarly attainments, Greenspoon says and fighting for power.” they aren’t most important to him. Greenspoon especially empathizes “Theory and theology don’t interest with the nameless scribes and me,” he said. “I’m interested in what scholars over the centuries people actually do with their beliefs.” who have translated the That, he said, explains his fascina- Bible. He’s fasci- tion with the people of the Bible and nated by how the people who have studied the Bible they worked, the throughout the centuries. impact their In Greenspoon’s vivid historical communities had imagination, the people of ancient civi- on them and the pol- lizations and their communities are itics of the translation very much alive, strongly resembling process – all of which go modern people and our world. They on today in translating shouldn’t be viewed through “rose-col- the Bible. ored lenses,” he cautions. Too often, he said, scholars “The patriarchs of the Hebrew Bible study only the “finished prod- were hardly paradigms of virtue,” he ucts” of the translators while there said. “Just like the characters on the is much to be learned from examining

16 Creighton University WINDOW from the Book of Isaiah when the type value,” he said. “Every translation fell on the floor, he said. The first one was the Bible to some community who noticed it was a rabbi whose mid- My of people.” dle name was Isaiah. students Greenspoon’s numerous current Greenspoon said perhaps his learned that projects include research and writ- favorite example of the perils of biblical ing a popular history of Bible trans- translation is the 1631 edition of the controversy lating. He’s also working on an King James Bible which omitted the is the introduction to a collection of his “not” in the commandment concerning articles on Bible translations to be adultery. spice of published in Rumania. “They call this the ‘wicked Bible,’” scholarly Greenspoon’s scholarly interests he said. “Translation is no different life include the Dead Sea Scrolls on than other types of work. Just like which he has written a number of some automakers have their bad days, articles. you can see that some scribes and This interest stems from his printers do.” work at Harvard with two profes- Greenspoon said that when he finds Greenspoon said. “The advantage sors who were members of the orig- an oddity such as lines that are repeat- of the more literal translation is that it inal team of scholars studying the ed or omitted, he wonders if the takes the reader to the text while the scrolls. At Creighton, he has already ancient scribe had had a fight with his more context-based takes the text to developed and taught an advanced wife or wasn’t feeling well or was wor- the reader.” class on the Dead Sea Scrolls in addi- ried about a child. Greenspoon said he’s sympathetic tion to teaching an undergraduate class Greenspoon said such incidents to both viewpoints and tries to under- on the Old Testament. help put today’s battles over such stand various translations in the con- Greenspoon said that his Dead Sea issues as inclusive language into histor- text of the times in which they were Scrolls course focused on the contro- ical perspective. written. versies which have marked the study In any era, Greenspoon said, trans- “Almost every translation has some of the scrolls ever since their discovery lators have to ask themselves basic, in a cave by shepherds in 1947. At the philosophical questions which help time, the area was under siege in determine the outcome of their the combat which accompa- work. Is it better to translate a text lit- erally even when that’s difficult or may not communicate very well to readers in the new language or is it better to emphasize pri- marily the meaning of the text? For example, he said, should a translator convert ancient “cubits” into more under- standable inches or feet, or retain the cubits of the origi- nal text? “Within Judaism, more than Christianity, there is great stress on the original language of the text,”

Winter Issue 1996-97 17 and the First Century CE and seem to religion at Clemson University in South have been hidden in the caves for safe- Carolina before moving to Creighton to keeping when the Romans were com- become the second holder of the ing, he said. The identity of the com- Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization, munity which produced them is in endowed by the Klutznicks in 1987. dispute although it formerly was Philip M. Klutznick, JD’30, is a for- assumed the people were associated mer president of the World Jewish with the Essenes, a Jewish group which Congress and a former U.S. secretary of developed in the area at about the time commerce. His $1 million gift establish- when the scrolls were produced. ing the chair stipulated that the holder “My students learned that contro- would spend part of his or her time versy is the spice of scholarly life,” he working with the Omaha Jewish said. “My students got a sense that Federation and the local Jewish scholarly controversy, even about community. antiquity, can involve the personalities This, said Greenspoon, was a major of scholars today.” attraction of the position. This course isn’t limited to theology “Working with the Jewish commu- majors, he said. Two students who took nity is not an add-on but a real plus,” it were biology majors, one using her he said. “For its size, the Omaha Jewish Photo by Amy Kroenke, BSChem’96 academic background to study how the community is the most active and gen- At the northwest corner of the Dead scrolls were dated. erous in the world.” Sea is the ruin of Qumran, where Greenspoon, a native of Richmond, The 6,500 member community is caves in nearby cliffs held the Dead Va., spent 20 years as a professor of small enough for one person to “make Sea Scrolls.

nied the creation of the State of Israel. After the partition of the area in 1948, the scrolls ended up in Jordanian territory, and no Jewish scholar was allowed access to them. Since the area became part of the territory controlled by Israel in 1967, the “enterprise (of studying the scrolls) has become more inter-confessional,” Greenspoon said. Greenspoon said that he and his stu- dents examined such issues as the authorship of the scrolls, their relation- ship to the New Testament, and whether they all came from the same place. Because most of the scrolls are in Hebrew and some are in Aramaic and Greek, “there’s some dispute now as to whether all of the scrolls came from the same place and if any are connected with the site (where they were found).” Dr. Greenspoon has an interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in jars The scrolls were produced some- similar to that in this picture. They were discovered, it is said, by shepherds who time between the Second Century BCE chased a sheep into caves where the jars and scrolls were found in 1947.

18 Creighton University WINDOW a difference,” he said. It is large enough functions,” said Levy. “He’s an Greenspoon said that in a short to support significant endeavors such excellent, dynamic teacher.” period, he has come to feel part of as the annual fall Klutznick Greenspoon said Creighton’s own the Creighton community because Symposium which this year focused on sense of community was another faculty members are happy to the Yiddish language and culture. attraction for accepting the Klutznick share the scholarly work they are Greenspoon’s involvements with Chair. He said he feels very comfort- doing. the Omaha Jewish community include able being affiliated with a Jesuit “In many places, you have turf serving on the Jewish Cultural Arts university. battles,” he said. “Here I find a very Committee, the College of Jewish “Catholics and Jews share a great productive faculty with opportunities Learning, teaching high school religion deal,” he said. “They have a particular- to share with others. No one is doing classes at Beth El Synagogue and ly strong sense of history, community exactly what I’m doing but we have lecturing to Jewish organizations. and ritual. Both interpret the Bible an interest in similar issues. This is a “He’s present at most community through their traditions.” community that works.”

Creighton’s Accessibility Was an Attraction

etween about 1910 and 1930, Omaha had numerous Greenberg, who operated South Omaha’s old Philips Bpoor Jewish youths who badly wanted a college educa- Department Store and was king of Ak-Sar-Ben, and tion but couldn’t afford to go away to school. They found many others. what they were seeking at Creighton. In addition, unlike A major bequest in recent years from Omaha real estate many private universities of the era, Creighton never had developer A.A. Yossem and his wife, Ethel, has underwrit- quotas for Jewish students. ten a chair in legal ethics and a scholarship fund for stu- According to Omaha attorney Milton Abrahams, dents of the Jewish faith to attend Creighton, Scholer said. Arts’25, Law ’27, and others, Creighton’s accessibility laid Yossem, who never graduated from college, highly the basis of a strong, mutually beneficial relationship respected Klutznick, said Scholer. His bequest to Creighton between Creighton and the Omaha Jewish community. was inspired by that of the Klutznicks. “We have numerous distinguished Creighton medical One of the favorite stories about Creighton’s ties to the alumni who came here because of restrictions (against Jewish community concerns the Rev. Carl Reinert, S.J., and Jewish students) in the Eastern schools,” said Steve his first capital campaign, which was led by Morris Jacobs, Scholer, director of estates and trusts for the University. a founder of the advertising agency, Bozell Worldwide, Inc. “They haven’t forgotten Creighton.” Supposedly, Jacobs had initially refused Reinert’s Abrahams, a founder of the Creightonian student news- request to head the drive, but Reinert was not a man to paper and generous donor to C.U., said he and other local take “no” easily. He said he would pray until Jacobs Jewish students had an excellent experience at Creighton. accepted. Later that night, Jacobs is said to have called There was even a Jewish fraternity, Pi Lambda Phi, which Reinert with his reluctant acceptance: has long been inactive. “Get off your knees, Father. I’ll lead your drive.” “I thoroughly enjoyed all of my time at Creighton,” Notable events involving Creighton and the Jewish Abrahams said . “I think all of us who went there felt community have included an lecture by strongly attached to Creighton. If we hadn’t gone there, we the late Yitzhak Rabin before he was prime minister of wouldn’t have had the chance to go to college.” Israel. Creighton’s Jewish students who later distinguished Creighton’s Jewish faculty members have included cur- themselves have included Philip Klutznick, former presi- rent Law Dean Lawrence Raful and his predecessor dent of the World Jewish Congress and U.S. secretary of Rodney Shkolnick. W commerce; noted Omaha attorney Henry Monsky; Samuel

Winter Issue 1996-97 19 Writing as

By Ron Hansen, BA’70

hen Saint term by defining sacraments as “signs per- Jerome trans- taining to things divine, or visible forms of an Wlated the Bible invisible grace.” into the Latin Vulgate, he Eventually more and more things were chose the Latin sacramen- seen as sacraments until the 16th century tum, sacrament, for the when the Reformation confined the term to Greek mysterion, mystery. baptism and eucharist, the two gospel sacra- We understand those ments, and the Roman Catholic Council of words to be highly differ- Trent decreed that signs become sacraments ent, but their difference is only if they become channels for grace. But an efficient way of get- 20th century theology has used the term in a ting at my argument that far more inclusive way, describing sacraments good writing can be a “as occasions of encounter between God and religious act. the believer, where the reality of God’s gra- In the synoptic cious actions needs to be accepted in faith” gospels mysterion gener- (Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, ally referred to the eds., The Oxford Companion to the Bible, 1993). secrets of the kingdom of Writing, then, is a sacrament insofar as it heaven, and in Saint provides graced occasions of encounter Paul’s epistles to Christ between humanity and God. As Flannery O’Connor noted in Mystery and Manners, “the —Photo by David Liittschwager as the perfect revelation Ron Hansen of God’s will. Tertullian real novelist, the one with an instinct for what introduced the term sacramentum as we know he is about, knows that he cannot approach it when he talked about the rite of the the infinite directly, that he must penetrate the Christian initiation, understanding the word natural human world as it is. The more sacra- to mean “a sacred action, object or means.” mental his theology, the more encouragement And Saint Augustine further clarified the he will get from it to do just that.”

20 Creighton University WINDOW Even secular interpretations point to the need and the confidence to face the great fiction writer’s duty to express the Mystery at issues of God and faith and right conduct the heart of metaphysics. In the more directly. famous preface to his novel The My first published book Nigger of the ‘Narcissus,’ Joseph was Desperadoes, a historical Conrad defined a fictional work That crime novel about the Daltons of art as: does not pay from their hardscrabble a single-minded attempt to is a Christian beginnings, through their render the highest kind of theme ... My horse-rustling and outlawry justice to the visible uni- own religious in Oklahoma, to the fatal day From the book jacket: verse, by bringing to light experience in 1892 when all but one of “This novel is rare — a the truth, manifold and one, the gang were killed in bank good read, a literary underlying its every aspect. does not fig- robberies in their hometown ure greatly in debut of astonishing It is an attempt to find in its of Coffeyville, Kan. That originality ... forms, in its colours, in its Desperadoes. crime does not pay is a Hansen has the light, in its shadows, in the Christian theme, as is the aspects of matter, and in the book’s focus on honor, loyal- imagination to deliver the facts of life what of each is ty, integrity, selfishness, and sheer storytelling that fundamental, what is enduring and reckless ambition — the highest calling Bob great adventure demands essential — their one illuminating and Dalton seems to have felt was to be as impor- and the craft and convincing quality — the very truth of tant as Jesse James. But my own religious compassion to turn their existence. experience does not figure greatly in adventure into art.” The highest kind of justice to the visible Desperadoes; most people read the book as a — John Irving universe often leads to the highest kind of — John Irving humility about ourselves. Writing about craft in The Art of Fiction, John Gardner held that “the value of great fiction ... is not just that it entertains us or distracts us from our troubles, not just that it broadens our knowledge of people and places, but also that it helps us to know what we believe, reinforces those quali- ties that are noblest in us, leads us to feel uneasy about our faults and limitations.” Writers seeking to express a religious vision often help their readers by simply providing, as Gardner puts it, trustworthy but inexpressible models. We ingest metaphors of good, word- lessly learning to behave more like Levin than like Anna (in Anna Karenina), more like the transformed Emma (in Jane Austen’s novel) than like the Emma we first meet in the book. This subtle, for the most part wordless knowledge is the “truth” great fiction seeks out. But I have identified in my own experience and that of many other Christian writers that there comes a time when we find the

Winter Issue 1996-97 21 From the book jacket: high-falutin Western, a boys-will-be-boys It’s a form of bad sportsmanship for fiction With Mariette in Ecstasy, adventure full of hijinks and humor and writers to complain that too few reviewers bloodshed. pick up their hidden agendas, but in fact I critically acclaimed I fell into my second book because of the was disappointed that the general reading of author Ron Hansen again first. The Assassination of Jesse James by the the book on Jesse James was pretty much as it powerfully demonstrates Coward Robert Ford is another historical novel, was for Desperadoes. Hidden beneath the his gift for brilliantly but is far darker than Desperadoes because I praise were the questions: Why is this guy recreating a time and was far more insistent on a Christian perspec- writing Westerns? When oh when is he going place. As intriguing as tive on sin and redemption and forgiveness. to give his talent to a subject that matters? The Name of the Rose, as These were bad guys I was writing about, In his essay “Tradition and the Individual guys who were sons of preachers but did the Talent,” T. S. Eliot asserted that great writing sensually hypnotic as wrong thing so blithely and persistently it required a perpetual surrender of the writer Marguerite Duras’s The was like they’d got their instructions all bol- as he or she is in the present in order to pay Lover, this is an intimate lixed up. If Jesse James was a false messiah homage and service to a tradition of literature portrait of a fascinating for those Southerners still in civil war with in the past. “The progress of an artist,” he young woman in the grip the finance companies and the railroads, then wrote, “is continual self-sacrifice, a continual of an intractable fate, Bob Ford was both his Judas and his extinction of personality.” I was following and it raises Barabbas, a self-important quisling who Eliot’s precepts in the wholesale subtraction hoped to be famous and who got off scot-free of my own personality and the submersion of provocative questions for the killing of his famous friend, but who my familial and religious experiences in my about the complex nature was hounded out of more than one town retelling of history in my first two novels, and of passionate faith. afterwards until he ended up as a saloonkeep- yet I was frustrated that my fiction did not er in Creede, Colo., where he himself was more fully communicate a belief in Jesus as killed at the hands of a man who claimed he Lord that was so important, indeed central, to was evening the score. my life. The English novelist and critic G. K. Chesterton wrote in his conclusion to Heretics: “A [writer] cannot be wise enough to be a great artist without being wise enough to be a philosopher. A [writer] cannot have the ener- gy to produce good art without having the energy to wish to pass beyond it. A small artist is content with art; a great artist is con- tent with nothing except everything.” Everything for me, and for Chesterton, was the mystery of the Holy Being as it was, and is, incarnated in human life. Everything for me, to go even further, was the feeling that Christianity is difficult, but that Christianity is worth it. I finally got around to a fuller expression of that in my third novel. Mariette in Ecstasy concerns a 17-year-old woman, Mariette Baptiste, who joins the Convent of Our Lady of Sorrows as a postu- lant in upstate New York in 1906. Her older sister, Annie, or Mother Celine, is the prioress there and on Christmas Eve, 1906, Mother Celine dies of cancer and is buried. On the next day, Christmas, Mariette is given the

22 Creighton University WINDOW stigmata — those wounds in the hands, feet, knew you.” and side resembling those that Christ suffered I was stunned and excited by that line. on the cross. Whether Mariette is a sexual Emotions like that, I knew, would be at the hysteric full of religious wishful thinking or heart of the novel. I hatched a tale influenced whether her physical wounds are indeed by both those books in which I pretended that supernaturally caused is the subject of the the nun I’d modeled on Saint Thérèse of novel. Lisieux would have a kind of love affair with I first thought about writing Mariette in Jesus, with all of a romance’s grand exalta- Ecstasy after finishing Saint Thérèse of tions and disappointments, and its physical Lisieux’s Story of a Soul. She was the third of manifestation would be Christ’s wounds from her sisters to enter the Carmelite convent of the crucifixion. And further reading about Lisieux where her oldest sister religious women and the phe- was prioress and, like Mariette, nomenon of stigmata From book jackets: she soon became a favorite there. Cribbing and acquainted me with Anne Nebraska is the first You may know that Thérèse was stealing from Catharine Emmerich, Louise collection of stories from just 15 at the time she entered hundreds of Lateau, Theresa Neumann, ... Ron Hansen ... (whose) religious life, and she did so little and, in particular, Gemma sources, I “storytelling of the that was outwardly wonderful Galgani — all of them stigmat- finally allowed highest order” (San during her nine years as a nun my factual ics in the late 19th and early that when she died of tuberculo- 20th centuries. Francisco Chronicle) here sis at 24, one of the sisters in the sources to be Some parts of the letters produces eleven gemlike convent with her feared there distorted and that Mariette writes in the tales, compressed and would be nothing to say about transmuted by novel are paraphrased from pure, ranging from the Thérèse at the funeral. She did figurative confessions written by Saint blue heart of the Blizzard perform the ordinary duties of Gemma Galgani in 1900 and language, of 1888, to the sweltering religious life extraordinarily well, forgetfulness, included in a hard-to-find emphasizing simplicity, obedi- book called Letters and jungles of war ... or by the ence, and self-forgetfulness over Ecstasies. Quotidian life in my the harsh physical mortifications personalities fictional religious order, the that were common then, and she of the fictional Sisters of the Crucifixion, is impressed some with her child- characters. based on Thomas Merton’s like faith in God the Father and account of the Cistercian life with her passionate love of Jesus. in The Waters of Siloe. The mass She can seem sentimental at times, and there hysteria hinted at in my book was a product are psychologists who’d diagnose Thérèse as of my looking into Aldous Huxley’s fascinat- neurotic, but then there are people like me ing history, The Devils of Loudun. Simple who have a profound respect for her in spite scenes of the sisters at work and recreation of her perceived excessiveness. When you were inspired by a book of photographs taken have a tension like that, you’re half the way to at the Carmelite convent in Lisieux by having a plot. Thérèse’s sister Céline. The first investigation About then, too, I happened upon Lettres of Mariette’s stigmata is taken from the medi- This (The Shadowmaker) portugaises, a collection of letters falsely pre- cal diagnosis of Padre Pio’s stigmata in the is a Junior Literary Guild sumed to have been written by Sister Mariana 1920s. Cribbing and stealing from hundreds selection, chosen as an Alcoforado about her frantic love affair with a of sources, I finally allowed my factual outstanding book for boys French courtier in the 18th century. At one sources to be distorted and transmuted by fig- and girls ... Once there point she supposedly wrote the Chevalier de urative language, forgetfulness, or by the per- C—: “I thank you from the bottom of my sonalities of the fictional characters. was a town where nearly heart for the desperation you cause me, and I I hoped to present in Mariette’s life a faith everyone was completely detest the tranquility in which I lived before I that gives an intellectual assent to Catholic happy — until the Shadowmaker came and opened shop... Winter Issue 1996-97 23 as Catholic fiction writers in the forties and fifties often were, to be conformist, high- minded, and pure, as if I were seeking a nihil obstat from the chancery. As Robert Stone pointed out in “The Reason for Stories,” his essay on moral fiction: It must be emphasized that the moral imperative of fiction provides no excuse for smug moralizing, religiosity, or propaganda. On the contrary, it for- bids them. Nor does it require that every writer equip his work with some edifying message advertising progress, brotherhood, and light. It does not require a writer to be a good man, only a good wizard. In fact there may be no obligation for a Christian writer or artist to overtly treat Christian themes. Writing about “Catholic Novelists and Their Readers,” Flannery O’Connor affirmed fiction writers whose only objective was being “hotly in pursuit of the real.” St. Thomas Aquinas says that art does not require rectitude of the appetite, that it is orthodoxy, but doesn’t forget that the origin wholly concerned with the good of that which is made. He says that a work of art is good in From the book jacket: of religious feeling is the graced revelation of the Holy Being to us in nature, in the flesh, itself, and this is a truth that the modern No story has ever and in all our faculties. If I may be permitted world has largely forgotten. We are not con- captured the American the immodesty of quoting a review, I was try- tent to stay within our limitations and make imagination so totally ing to stake claim, as Pico Iyer put it, to “a something that is simply a good in and by and so permanently as world as close and equivocal as Emily itself. Now we want to make something that that of Jesse James — his Dickinson’s, alive with the age-old American will have some utilitarian value. Yet what is good in itself glorifies God because it reflects heroic-criminal life and concerns of community and wildness, of sex- heroic-criminal life and God. The artist has his hands full and does his his ignominious death — ual and spiritual immensities, of transcen- dence and its discontents.” duty if he attends to his art. He can safely and his murderer, Robert Essentially, I was trying to say the leave evangelizing to the evangelists. Ford, whose ostensibly unsayable, but I felt free to try it because I Evangelization for Jesus was generally by heroic deed earned him knew the book would get published some- means of parables that were often so bewil- only scorn and infamy. where, even if it were a small press, and I deringly allusive that his disciples would ask for further explanations of his meaning. Mark And never have these two knew the books I liked best were not those that seemed tailored to contemporary tastes has it that, “he did not speak to [the crowds] men been portrayed, nor without a parable, but privately to his own their fascinating story but those that were unfashionable, refractory, insubordinate, that seemed the products not disciples he explained everything” (Mk 4:33- explored, with such gritty explored, with such gritty of a market analysis but of a writer’s private 34). Christ’s parables are metaphors that do precision and raw-boned obsession. not contract into simple denotation but broad- feeling as Ron Hansen has But in my rebellion against what Yale law en continually to take on fresh nuances and brought to this professor Stephen L. Carter has termed “The connotations. Parables invite the hearer’s interest with familiar settings and situations masterful telling. Culture of Disbelief,” I did not feel obligated, but finally veer off into the unfamiliar, shat-

24 Creighton University WINDOW tering their homey realism and insisting on bol is to kill it. So the Holy Being continually Hansen’s latest novel further reflection and inquiry. We have the finds new ways to proclaim itself to us, first (which was a National uneasy feeling that we are being interpreted and best of all in the symbols of Christ’s life, Book Award finalist) even as we interpret them. Early, pre-Gospel then in Scripture, and finally in created concerns Colorado versions seem to have resembled Zen koans things, whether they be the glories of nature rancher Atticus Cody and in which hearers are left hanging until they or art or other human beings. And those sym- find illumination through profound medita- bols will not be objects but actions. As theolo- his wayward son Scott, tion. We find a kind of koan in the Gospel of gian Nathan Mitchell puts it, “Symbols are who has taken up a Luke when Jesus compares the kingdom of not things people invent and interpret, but reckless life in the God to “leaven which a woman took and hid realities that ‘make’ and interpret a people ... Mexican town of in three measures of flour, till it was all leav- Symbols are places to live, breathing spaces Resurrección. Scott is ened” (Lk 13:21). that help us discover what possibilities life found dead and Atticus We are challenged, in Jesus’s parables, to offers.” goes to Mexico. figure out how we are like wheat sown in a The job of fiction writers is to fashion those From the book jacket: field, or lost sheep, or mustard seed, or the symbols and give their readers the feeling Written in the sensuous evil tenants of a householder’s vineyard, and that life has great significance, that something in the hard exercise of interpretation we imi- is going on here that matters. Writing will be prose style of Ron tate and make present again the graced inter- a sacrament when it offers in its own way the Hansen’s earlier works of action between the human and the divine. formula for happiness of Pierre Tielhard de fiction, Atticus is ... a My fourth novel, Atticus, was a retelling of Chardin. Which is: First, be. Second, love. novel about deeply what’s often called the parable of the prodigal Finally, worship. We may find it’s possible rooted, almost son, though it’s the father who’s most truly that if we do just one of those things com- unfathomable love, a excessive, having far more love and forgive- pletely we may have done all three. W mystery that (Hansen) ness than his son feels he deserves. Without explores with a passion giving away too much of the plot of what is, and intensity no reader after all, a mystery, I can offer this: Atticus is the story of a Colorado rancher named will be able to resist. Atticus Cody who, when he hears that his wild and wayward son Scott has committed suicide, journeys to a town full of expatriated Americans on the Mexican Caribbean in order to recover the body. While there, Atticus hap- pens upon enough factual oversights and inconsistencies to infer that his son was murdered, and he tries to find out who the murderer is. Mariette in Ecstasy is a parable of a young woman’s quest for the Holy Being; Atticus is a parable of the Holy Being’s quest for an inti- mate relationship with us. Each focuses on seekers, for religion and fiction have in com- mon the unquenchable yearning to achieve the impossible, fathom the unfathomable, hold on to what is fleeting and evanescent and seen, in Saint Paul’s words, “as through a glass, darkly” (1 Cor 13:12). I hesitate to say more for fiction is far bet- ter experienced than interpreted. And so it is with sacraments. To fully understand a sym-

Winter Issue 1996-97 25 PROFILE OF ACHIEVEMENT Hill Thrill: Soccer Team Goes to the Final Four

ongratulations to the Creighton Bluejay soccer team for its Cthrilling season of championship play. The Jays advanced to the nation’s “final four” soccer teams, losing to St. Soccer John’s, the eventual champion. Action Johnny Torres drives Several Bluejays were chosen to the for the goal in the All-MVC (Missouri Valley Bluejays’ game against Rhode Island. Torres Conference) team at was named an All- season’s end. American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

All-MVC Players Kneeling From Left: Ross Paule (Junior, Midfield, MVC Player of the Year), Richard Mulrooney (Sophomore, Midfield, 1st Team All-MVC), Brad McTighe (Senior, Forward, 2nd Team All-MVC) and Steve Bernal (Freshman, Midfield, MVC All-Newcomer Team). Standing From Left: Johnny Torres (Junior, Forward, 1st Team All-MVC), Bret Simon (Head Coach, MVC Co- Coach of the Year), Jeff Deist (Junior, Midfield, Honorable Mention All-MVC), Marc Madeley (Junior, Defender, 1st Team All-MVC), Jon Epperson (Junior, Goalkeeper, 2nd Team All-MVC), David Wright (Freshman, Defender, Honorable Mention All-MVC and MVC All-Newcomer Team) and Zion Renfurm (Junior, Defender, 2nd Team All-MVC).

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