OF MANY THINGS 106 West 56Th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 Ph: (212) 581-4640; Fax: (212) 399-3596 Rom 1951 to 1969 the State Are Not

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OF MANY THINGS 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 Ph: (212) 581-4640; Fax: (212) 399-3596 rom 1951 to 1969 the State are not. Perhaps this is what is meant Subscriptions: (800) 627-9533 of Florida was represented when presidential aspirants say that www.americamedia.org facebook.com/americamag Fin the U.S. Senate by George “we” are going to “take our country twitter.com/americamag A. Smathers, a Miami attorney and back.” Perhaps they are suggesting that future used car salesman who is best Peoria should reclaim from New York President and Editor in Chief Matt Malone, S.J. remembered for his close friendships what is rightly theirs? Maybe that’s Executive Editors with two U.S. presidents: John F. not what is meant, but then just who Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy Kennedy, with whom he would is the “our” in “we are going to take our Managing Editor Kerry Weber occasionally raise hell; and Richard country back?” And from whom are Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Nixon, to whom he sold his Key they (and or we) taking it back? Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent Kevin Clarke Biscayne home—what would become Such is the logic of demagogues, Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. Nixon’s Southern White House. which would be as laughable as Executive Editor, America Films My favorite story about the Smather’s Redneck Speech if it weren’t Jeremy Zipple, S.J. otherwise nondescript Mr. Smathers for the fact that in the current political Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. is largely apocryphal. But the fact that climate, this kind of politicking is Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent Gerard O’Connell no one ever substantiated the story akin to smoking near a tinderbox. The Associate Editor and Director of Digital didn’t stop Time from publishing electorate is anxious and afraid; their Strategy Sam Sawyer, S.J. it, nor has it stopped thousands of thirst for some sense of control is so Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. political junkies from retelling it. It great that they’ll drink the sand just Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga Segura, Robert David Sullivan involves the so-called Redneck Speech, because some would-be Moses tells Assistant Editor Joseph McAuley them it’s water. This shows in one of which Mr. Smathers was said to have Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder delivered to uneducated audiences the more disturbing trends in recent Editorial Assistant Zachary Davis during the 1950 election: polling: the growing authoritarian Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., “Are you aware that Claude Pepper sensibilities of voters. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, is known all over Washington as a Matthew MacWilliams of the Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider shameless extrovert,” Mr. Smathers University of Massachusetts found Correspondents John Carr (Washington), An- supposedly said. “Not only that, that “education, income, gender, thony Egan, S.J., and Russell Pollitt, S.J. (Johannes- burg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy but this man is reliably reported to age, ideology and religiosity had no Padgett (Miami), Steven Schwankert (Beijing), practice nepotism with his sister-in- significant bearing on a Republican David Stewart, S.J. (London), Judith Valente law; he has a brother who is a known voter’s preferred candidate. Only two (Chicago) Moderator, Catholic Book Club homo sapiens, and he has a sister who of the variables…were statistically Kevin Spinale, S.J. was once a thespian in wicked New significant: authoritarianism, followed Editor, The Jesuit Post Michael Rossmann, S.J. York. Worst of all, it is an established by fear of terrorism, though the Editorial e-mail fact that Mr. Pepper, before his former was far more significant than [email protected] marriage, habitually practiced the latter.” Publisher and Chief Financial Officer celibacy.” I note for the record that the Edward G. Spallone Deputy Publisher Rosa M. Del Saz Vice President for Advancement Daniel Clever, huh? Perhaps too clever to G.O.P. does not have a monopoly Pawlus Advertising Sales Manager Chris Keller be true. I thought of the story, though, on tactical demagoguery. As David Development Coordinator Kerry Goleski Business Operations Staff Khairah Walker, when I learned that Senator Ted Cruz Brooks recently remarked on the Glenda Castro, Katy Zhou, Frankarlos Cruz had accused Donald Trump of having PBS NewsHour, “the big question” Advertising Contact [email protected]; “New York values.” To be honest, I in both parties is “how deep is the 212-515-0102 Subscription contact/Additional copies 1-800-627-9533 Reprints: reprints@ live and work in New York and I don’t disgust in the country. It’s the tectonic americamedia.org know what that means. But I can tell question. There is a level of anger © 2016 America Press Inc. you that I have never heard a New which is not only there, but building. Yorker talk in a seriously derisive And that could sweep away all the manner about “Peoria values.” establishment candidates.” Whatever it means, however, there As scary as it seems, Mr. Brooks is a definite “us” and “them” at work is right. Then again, he’s one of the here: Peoria and Midland are the “real” smartest homo sapiens I know. America; New York and San Francisco MATT MALONE, S.J. Cover: istockphoto.com/ ilyast Contents www.americamagazine.org VOL. 214 NO. 3, WHOLE NO. 5115 February 1, 2016

THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION 14 OUR REASON FOR BEING Restoring the pillars of Catholic education Don Briel, Kenneth Goodpaster and Michael Naughton 18 A ROOTED VISION The Latin American origins of Pope Francis’ theology Rafael Luciani and Félix Palazzi 23 THE MERCIFUL FATHER Always ready to greet a prodigal son Peter J. Vaghi

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 18 4 Current Comment

5 Editorial The Saudis’ Little Cold War

6 Reply All

8 Signs of the Times

12 Column Fugitives From Injustice James T. Keane

26 Vatican Dispatch Interreligious Leaders Gerard O’Connell

27 Faith in Focus Interfaith Encounters Saadia Ahmad

30 Philosopher’s Notebook Ethics of Curiosity John J. Conley 27 42 The Word God Meets Us John W. Martens

BOOKS & CULTURE

32 TELEVISION “The Man in the High Castle” BOOKS The Graduate School Mess; Killing a King; The Francis Effect

ON THE WEB Nathan Stone, S.J., writes about the role of racial, religious and ethnic bigotry in today’s domestic and international relations, and Megan McCabe discusses the problem of pornography. Full digital highlights on page 16 and at americamagazine.org/webfeatures. 32 CURRENT COMMENT

authorization or, in some cases, overstayed their visas. The Unions’ Coup de Grâce? They have great potential to contribute to the future of our Despite a historic collapse in the private sector, public sector country but cannot yet do so because of obstacles they face union labor remains strong, representing about 36 percent of in pursuing higher education. Most other Jesuit colleges the workforce. That prominence has been under attack from and universities endorsed this research. many quarters in recent years as state-level “reforms” seek to In response, members of Loyola’s student government whittle away union strength. After hearing oral arguments and its Latin American student organization spearheaded on Jan. 11 in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the effort to build this $50,000 scholarship fund. Don the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to join the national Graham of TheDream.US, a web-based scholarship fund, legislative and executive thumping of public sector unions. matched the students’ contribution. Speaking for his fellow The case concerns objections from public sector workers students, Flavio Bravo explained, “As students at a Jesuit who have declined to join unions but who are required to university, we recognize that our personal development reimburse them for the cost of collective bargaining on their is shared among one another.” This student initiative is behalf. In a decision expected in June, the court may conclude a challenge to all to notice the needs of our brothers and that such a requirement constitutes a violation of workers’ sisters and to take the first small steps that can grow and free expression; union supporters argue that allowing such help build a better future for all of us. “free riders” would constitute a crippling blow to public sector unions. However the court decides, organized labor should use this opportunity to reintroduce itself to the Healthy Samaritans American public, which seems no longer to appreciate the Anyone with a passing familiarity with the Gospels or necessary role unions play as a counterweight to otherwise church teaching knows that helping one’s neighbor is unrestrained capital. The increase in economic and political good for the soul. Now there is growing evidence that acts inequity and the decline of the nation’s middle class correlate of service can benefit physical health as well. In a study neatly with the loss of union strength. Revitalizing unions published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, researchers will not be easy, but it must be done. found that Canadian 10th-grade students enrolled in a Unions should reconsider their misinvestments in volunteer program lost weight and had lower levels of political campaigns—more than $140 million in 2014 cholesterol compared with peers who did not participate. alone—and redirect those considerable resources to the And in Social Science and Medicine (January 2016), Eric hyper-local, street-level organizing that built Big Labor in the Kim and Sara Konrath report that among people over the first place. A public relations campaign suitable to our social- age of 50, volunteering was associated with higher use of mediated times should remind Americans what they owe preventive measures (like flu shots and prostate exams) and to organized labor and what they risk losing by its further 38 percent fewer nights in hospitals. diminishment. There is, however, a caveat: motivation matters. In an article in The Atlantic by James Hamblin (12/30/15) Students Hike Own Fees exploring the connection between volunteering and health Last year, undergraduate students at Loyola University outcomes, Mr. Kim explains, “Only the people who were Chicago voted to raise their own student fees by $2.50 per doing it for more outward reasons—compassion for semester to create a scholarship fund for undocumented others—had reduced rates of mortality.” So spending a few immigrant undergraduate students. In December, the nights at the soup kitchen this February just to keep one’s university’s board of trustees voted to approve this fund, to health resolutions for the new year on track might not have be called the Magis Scholarship Fund. The first recipients the desired effect. are slated to be selected this spring and are scheduled to Pope Francis has given Catholics ample inspiration to receive the scholarship beginning next fall. carry out the corporal works of mercy anyway. In his message This student initiative grew from a report presented for the World Day of Peace, the pope said that as a sign of early in 2013 by researchers from Loyola as well as the Jubilee Year of Mercy, we are “called to make specific and Fairfield and Santa Clara universities. The researchers courageous gestures of concern for [our] most vulnerable recognized that there are many bright, talented and highly members, such as prisoners, migrants, the unemployed and motivated men and women of college age whose parents the infirm.” Such service is surely its own reward; a papal brought them to the United States without government indulgence and healthy heart could be a welcome bonus.

4 America February 1, 2016 EDITORIAL The Saudis’ Little Cold War

n Jan. 2 the government of Saudi Arabia execut- The Saudis’ latest ed the prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The executions threaten to Ocleric, along with 46 other individuals, was accused undermine the Syrian of inciting terrorism within the kingdom. Following the ex- peace talks in Geneva. ecution, protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. A few weeks ago, the In the aftermath, Saudi Arabia—as well as Sudan, Bahrain prospect that Iran and and the United Arab Emirates—cut off diplomatic and Saudi Arabia might sit commercial ties with Iran. In a statement released on Jan. down to discuss ending the war—in which 300,000 Syrians 10, the Arab League also expressed support for the Saudis have been killed and millions more displaced—seemed like- and condemned the Iranian government for not doing more ly. Even though the Saudis are urging peace talks despite to protect the embassy in Tehran. tensions with Iran, the chances that the two nations will The increased tension over Saudi Arabia’s reckless de- agree to productive measures now seem quite dim. cision to execute Sheikh Al-Nimr has only deepened what Western countries, chiefly the United States, must en- many are calling a Middle Eastern cold war. The execution courage dialogue and peace between Iran and Saudi Arabia. and the predictable Iranian reaction to it risked further de- But the Obama administration should not be afraid to take stabilization of the region. Saudi Arabia, along with other stronger stands in criticizing Saudi actions. For too many members of the Arab League, accused Iran of fomenting years U.S. dependence on foreign oil has dictated how the sectarianism. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United States deals with the Saudis, despite accumulated U.A.E. foreign minster, who chaired the league’s latest meet- evidence of tacit and practical support for terrorist groups ing, said that Iran “doesn’t hesitate to use the sectarian card emerging from within the kingdom. But U.S. values and as a way to dominate the region and interfere in the internal comprehensive regional interests—not oil—should dictate affairs of Arab countries.” the U.S. posture toward Saudi Arabia. Yet this execution demonstrates that the Saudi gov- The administration should seriously consider applying ernment is also responsible for violence in the region. The what pressure it can on the Saudis toward moderating the execution of Sheikh Al-Nimr sends the message that the kingdom’s treatment of dissent and its increasingly brutal Saudis will not tolerate any kind of demand for political role in the skies over Yemen. It should freeze any future arms reform, particularly from the already marginalized Shiite deals with the kingdom. A more peaceful accommodation population. between Saudi Arabia and Iran will not just benefit Syrians The U.S. response has remained muted, partly be- who are being displaced by proxy wars but will also stem cause of its close relations with the Saudi government, a the growth of ISIS. Experts believe that continued tensions stance that dates back to the founding of the kingdom in between Iran and Saudi Arabia will allow ISIS to increase the 1930s. That is unfortunate. A stronger voice against the its influence and power, particularly in Yemen. execution of Sheikh Al-Nimr might have prevented the cri- The United States has managed to create a cautiously sis in the first place. But these latest events raise important improved relationship with the Iranians through the recent questions: Is the U.S.-Saudi relationship truly viable? And nuclear weapons deal. Last year, Pope Francis expressed should it be? hopes that this agreement would help foster fraternity with- The new leadership under King Salman, particular- in the Arab world. That hope can be achieved only when it is ly the actions of Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin accompanied by clear and credible action to reduce tensions Salman, has grown especially incautious in recent years. in the region’s little cold war. In his final State of the Union Faced with what Prince Muhammad describes as the con- address on Jan. 12, President Obama reminded Americans stant threat of the resurgence of Shiite jihadists, the Saudi that “the United States of America is the most powerful na- government says it has no choice but to adopt extreme and tion on Earth.” The Obama administration should use some uncompromising measures when dealing with even alleged of that power to push for greater moderation from its re- claims of terrorism or sedition, as the latest executions show. gional partner, Saudi Arabia.

February 1, 2016 America 5 REPLY ALL (12/21/15), may actually be a two-part Bernardino killings were terror related. business problem. First, the academy Then, in his speech to the nation, Middle Class 2.0 has clearly produced more Ph.D.’s who Mr. Obama seemed once again far more Re “Defending the Middle Class” fully expect teaching and/or research concerned about Islamaphobia than (Editorial, 1/4): The primary issue jobs in their chosen field without regard ISIS. I note the editors have the same with reversing the shrinking of the for the number of such professionals instincts, as the editorial is more wor- middle class is job quality. The service that might be needed to fill vacancies. ried about anti-Islamic “hysteria” in the economy has proven to be incapable of Second, sadly, too many bright peo- United States than the Christophobia supporting middle-class incomes. High ple have committed years of post-grad of ISIS. Just who is sinning the most school-level microeconomics explains work to attain their credentials with- against proportionality? why: Service businesses do not generate out carefully estimating whether the TIM O’LEARY enough gross margin to support mid- number of job seekers in their cohort Online Comment dle-class employee wages in addition will exceed the number of available po- High Standards to proper benefits. Place the blame on sitions. This is equivalent to a hobbyist Re “You Were Once Aliens” (Current greed, weak management or anywhere who decides to open a business because Comment, 12/7/15): Having read you would like. Whatever the under- “I like doing this,” without determining with interest the process by which lying cause, the result is a middle class whether customers will want the prod- Syrian refugees are approved for ref- being slowly destroyed as real incomes uct in sufficient quantity and at a price ugee status in the United States, it is decrease year on year. adequate to support the business. possible to conclude that those admit- Government subsidized housing is As a liberal arts graduate, I do appre- ted are tested, graded, documented and nothing but a Band-Aid on the hem- ciate the value of coursework devoted to certified truth-tellers. Of how many orrhaging middle class. Middle-class discovering how humans have thought governors, senators and congressmen wages need to result from two- and about and acted on the great questions can one say the same? four-year degrees and jobs with ongo- of life. That understanding, though CHARLES ERLINGER ing training for career development. never complete, is valuable in business, Online Comment Now is the time for state and feder- politics, medicine and most other pro- al economic development to focus on fessions. I do not think the problem A Curious Review commercializing the next generation reflects a lack of appreciation for the It was most curious to see the letter of manufacturing technologies for new humanities but a lamentable market by the Rev. John Feehily (Reply All, consumer products—pharmaceuticals, imbalance arising from a failure to con- 12/7/15) on the film “Spotlight”— electronics and the like. This is the path sider the numbers. which he doesn’t plan on seeing—giv- to creating companies that can support JOSEPH J. DUNN en prominence in a Jesuit magazine, a vibrant middle class. Online Comment given that it flies in the face of one of JOHN BREWER the cornerstones of Jesuit education. Online Comment A Predictable Response My 10-plus years of liberal arts educa- Re: “Staring Down Terror” (Editorial, Presidential Disqualifications tion under the Jesuits told me that one 12/7/15): Less than three weeks after reads or sees or hears the material that I heartily agree with Robert D. the Paris attacks, the United States one is going to address in a critical way. Sullivan’s comments in “Too Much suffered the largest terrorist attack at Thus if I am to dispute Nietzsche or Authenticity” (1/4). Can we imagine home since Sept. 11, in suburban San Richard Dawkins on matters of athe- any current candidate rising in the polls Bernardino, again by radical Islamic ism, I am obliged to find out what their with rhetoric like Abraham Lincoln’s? jihadists. And the Obama administra- arguments are before I can attempt to Love of country today begins and ends tion’s response (and that of his apolo- refute them. with waving the flag rather than put- gists in the press) is once again totally Father Feehily does not bother to ting shoulder to the wheel. Candidates predictable and completely inadequate. go through these steps, and thus his like Mr. Trump prove their presidential Just as they tried to categorize the Fort observations on this splendid film on disqualifications with every news cycle. JAMES AXTELL Hood massacre by Nidal Hasan as true journalism and what monumen- Online Comment primarily one of workplace violence, tal efforts it took The Boston Globe to claimed that ISIS had been contained “crack open” the full story behind the No Vacancy and said the Paris massacres were a pedophilia scandal in the Archdiocese The challenge described in “Humanities setback in a winning campaign, the ad- of Boston miss the mark. and the Soul,” by John Conley, S.J. ministration was last to see that the San I advise the reverend to see this film

6 America February 1, 2016 and he will come away impressed with Navy career of Capt. Jake Laboon, S.J. Conley describes has been happening the professionalism with which the His Naval Academy training gave him for generations, in my opinion. Several whole messy topic is treated. an understanding of the Navy that years ago our Supreme Court threw JOHN J. HOLLOHAN most chaplains do not have and al- out the existing federal law on abortion. Naples, Fla. lowed him to bridge the gap between The newly elected Liberal leader Justin the chaplains and the line Navy. Trudeau has banned persons that fa- Premature Believer There have been two warships vor pro-life positions from running for “The Fight for Religious Freedom,” named for Navy chaplains. One the Liberal Party. Perhaps this country by Barry Hudock (11/30/15) is in was named after the Rev. Vincent provides a glimpse of the future of the many ways more interesting for what Capodanno, a Navy chaplain serving United States. it does not say than what it does. For with Marines in Vietnam, and the WILLIAM RYDBERG instance, can there really be any doubt Online Comment second is named after Father Laboon. that those who opposed the views of There are mixed sentiments about John Courtney Murray, S.J., (Lefebvre, A Just Resolution having warships named after chap- Ottaviani, Siri, etc.) were in fact quite In Of Many Things (10/19/15), Matt lains. On the one hand, they are ships correct in saying that those views ran Malone, S.J., writes, “Both supporters of war; on the other hand, there is a completely counter to the church’s his- and opponents of same-sex civil mar- sense of pride in the history of the torical teaching on the evils of religious riage should be concerned about how Chaplain Corps, a reminder of the freedom and freedom of conscience? the matter was settled.” Given that cost paid by chaplains, men and wom- Were Gregory XVI’s “Mirari Vos” many people were affected by laws they en who serve worldwide to ensure that or Pius IX’s “Syllabus of Errors,” for felt to be unjust and unconstitutional, sailors and Marines are able to receive example, magisterial teachings? If not, it is hard to imagine the court refusing the sacraments of the church and have why not? Did Popes Gregory and Pius to deal with cases crying out for resolu- a moment of hope in one of the tough- believe they were subject to change? tion. Would it have been preferable for est times of their lives. Wherever one If so, how? Would I be a heretic, or the issue of marriage equality to have falls on that issue, however, Capt. Jake at least the first cousin of a heretic, been resolved through dialogue within Laboon, S.J., was truly a “Navy Priest.” society, involving the faith communities, if I were a premature believer in the (REV.) CHRISTINE MILLER values of religious liberty in 1910 but Online Comment all affected populations and ultimately thoroughly orthodox in those same the legislatures? Certainly. But was that dialogue not underway and making beliefs in 1970? Why? Simply because Canada’s Abortion Politics the church had changed its mind and progress while Obergefell was wending Thanks to John Conley, S.J., for giv- its way to the court? And how long were caught up with me at last? If so, what ing a larger perspective in “A New do such questions say of the place of those excluded from marriage to wait Subordinationism” (10/19/15). I live in “patiently”? the magisterium, the role of the magis- Canada, and, sadly, the subordination terium and so forth? (REV.) FRANK BERGEN of the church to the state that Father Tucson, Ariz. Obviously I do not expect a short article to answer such questions, but I think it should at OMG! least raise them, particularly since the American bishops, in their quadrennial “Fortnight for Freedom” are apt to sound as if Catholicism invented the whole idea of such liberty. NICHOLAS CLIFFORD Online Comment

The Church at Sea Re “Deep Catholic Waters,” by Peter Reichard (11/30/15): I was a young Navy chaplain on my first sea duty tour in 1980-

82, the last years of the active BY BOB ECKSTEIN S.J.; ART WRITTEN BY JAKE MARTIN, CARTOON

February 1, 2016 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Ten States Where Christians Were Most Persecuted in 2015 ith North Korea leading the way and Islamic extremism rapidly expanding, 2015 was the “worst year in modern his- Wtory for Christian persecution,” according to Open Doors’ 2016 World Watch List, a ranking of the 50 most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. Iraq was ranked just behind North Korea, the first of 35 countries on the list where Islamic extremism “has risen to a level akin to ethnic cleansing,” according to the report, released on Jan. 13. The nonprofit organization Open Doors has tracked persecution of Christians since 1955. On its World Watch List map, the top 10 nations where “extreme” persecution of Christians takes place are highlighted in blood red. North Korea, where as many as 70,000 Christians are held in labor camps because of their faith, topped the list for the 14th consecutive year. According to the report, in North Korea Christians hide their THE END OF MIDDLE EAST CHRISTIANITY? faith to avoid arrest. “Being Christian has to be a well-protected secret, Assyrian Christians, who had fled Syria and Iraq, demonstrate in front of U.N. even within families, and most parents refrain from introducing their headquarters in Beirut. children to the Christian faith in order to make sure that nothing slips their tongue when they are asked.” Number two, Iraq, was fol- unprecedented, spreading and intensi- Juma described in detail a heart- lowed by Eritrea, the first of several fying,” said Curry. breaking night of searching for her sub-Saharan African nations on the It’s vital to track such persecution, husband, Benjamin, who had gone list. Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, not only on behalf of its victims, but with a pastor to “share the word of Somalia, Sudan and Iran follow con- to recognize growing threats to glob- Christ” in a nearby Muslim area. secutively. Libya finishes up the top al peace and security, Curry said. “The Hours after the two men went 10, appearing there for the first time persecution of Christians is a lead in- missing, Juma went to a hospital near- in 2015. Saudi Arabia, which recently dicator of when countries are begin- by, where she was shown a gunnysack executed a Shiite cleric, came in at No. ning to tip into chaos.” of hacked and burned body parts and 14. David Saperstein, ambassador at a seared skull sitting in a burned tire In 2015 more than 7,100 Christians large for international religious free- rim. No one could say who they were. were killed for faith-related reasons, dom, added to Curry’s list of atrocities A few hours later, she learned that and 2,400 churches were destroyed or and crimes against humanity. those unidentifiable victims were, in damaged, said David Curry, president “In far too many countries far too fact, her husband and the pastor. of Open Doors. Curry gave a world many people face daunting, alarming “It hit us very hard,” Juma said. “In tour of murder, exile, terror, detention restrictions” on living and practicing Mombasa, we had had religious toler- and destruction at a press conference their religion; and yet, Saperstein said, ance for many years and suddenly the in Washington introducing the new most “refuse to surrender their faith or tables had turned with no warning. report. The militant groups Boko their God.” We are still healing.” Haram and al-Shabab, he added, are “Every one of the numbers in this That healing, for herself and her the “sinister” power behind persecu- report is a human being,” the ambassa- four children, relies on forgiveness, on tion in four African countries. dor said, as he stood at the podium di- trust in God and in her belief, she said, “The level of exclusion, discrimina- rectly in front of Gladys Juma, whose that America will act “to make sure tion and violence against Christians is husband was murdered in Kenya. people respect other people’s faith.”

8 America February 1, 2016 “This is so much bigger than abor- understand the inestimable worth of tion. This is about supporting mother- their child’s soul.” hood,” she said. Abria Pregnancy Resources is locat- Forty-three years into legalized ed within five miles of 10 colleges and abortion in the United States pro-life universities and a dozen low-income advocates say their mission to save ba- neighborhoods, positioning it to reach bies is broader than preventing abor- people in need of its services. It is also tions. These same advocates from sev- across the street from the state’s only eral Minnesota-based organizations Planned Parenthood site. have been working to change how Mealey said Abria’s biggest chal- pregnancy resource centers operate in lenge is reaching millennials, who are the era of smartphones and other tech- highly engaged through mobile devic- nologies. es and also are most likely to have an Pregnancy resource centers want to abortion. That is why Abria’s website be clear that they strive to serve women is mobile-friendly, and staff members with authenticity and sincerity because are capable of providing information by they care about them and their situa- online chat and texting. The next goal tions, said Sarah Mealey, a marketing is to create a mobile app, Mealey said. and strategic planning consultant who Under the Guiding Star model, a helped streamline a merger of two es- variety of fertility, pregnancy and med- tablished pro-life pregnancy resource ical service providers are considered centers in the Twin Cities to form tenants in a space the nonprofit owns. Abria Pregnancy Resources last fall. Jacobson said tenants agree to Guiding “And in the process, we hope and Star’s philosophy statement and are PRO-LIFE pray that she chooses life,” Mealey said. willing to work with others. Focusing on a woman’s or family’s Jacobson said full medical clinics New Strategies needs during an unexpected pregnancy are the way pregnancy resource cen- or other volatile time allows pregnancy ters truly can compete with Planned to Support resource centers to earn trust and build Parenthood, especially with services Mothers relationships. Mealey acknowledged that accompany women’s needs. “We’re that while some affiliates of the pro- really hoping we can eventually do s a mother of six, Leah Jacobson life movement might prevent abortions mammograms.” is watching other parents try to through shock or shame, Araise children in a society that advocates are asking, “At no longer supports sisterhood among what cost?” mothers. And that’s a shame, said the “We want these young founder and president of the Guiding women not only to choose Star Project, a Duluth-based organiza- life, but also to be effec- tion seeking to combine under one roof tive, strong parents, or a variety of holistic health care services to choose adoption,” said for women and families. Mealey, who serves on “If we stop duplicating services Abria’s board and is a pa- and start using donor dollars to share rishioner of Holy Family space...we can save thousands and in St. Louis Park. “A lot thousands of dollars that can be direct- of these women don’t un- ed to services” and better compete with derstand the inestimable MOTHER CONNECTION. Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, superior general of the Sisters of Life, Planned Parenthood through brand worth of their own soul, joins other pro-life advocates during the March for power, said Jacobson, 34, a parishioner. and so they can’t possibly Life in Washington on Jan. 22, 2015.

February 1, 2016 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

“We’re making strides in changing public opinion on abortion, but until NEWS BRIEFS we as a movement can find common ground, the underlying issues of the The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram killed 16 culture of death aren’t being addressed,” people in Nigeria on Dec. 25, continuing a gruesome Jacobson said. “Bigger is better to have tradition of village massacres on Christmas Day. presence and legitimacy.” • Delivering America Media’s John Courtney Murray lecture in New York on Jan. 12, Rabbi Dan Polish described 1965’s “Nostra Aetate” as the beginning of Supreme Court Stops a process that has charted a new course for the rela- Florida Death Penalty tionship between Jews and Catholics. • The board of Rabbi Dan Polish the United Methodist Church’s pension and health The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 fund voted to divest from Israel’s five largest banks because of their said the state of Florida’s death penal- involvement with settlements in the Occupied Territories. • On Jan. ty system is unconstitutional because 11 Catholics and Lutherans made another step toward a joint com- it allows judges, rather than juries, to memoration in 2017 of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation determine whether a convicted crimi- by issuing common liturgical guidelines for ecumenical services. nal should be given a death sentence. • Two refugee families are being hosted by the two parishes of the Michael B. Sheedy, executive director Vatican, responding to an appeal by Pope Francis during an Angelus of the Florida Conference of Catholic in September that every parish in Europe welcome a family of ref- Bishops in Tallahassee, said the con- ugees. • Because of security concerns, on Jan. 13 the Diocese of El ference was “pleased this decision was Paso scrapped plans for a Mass at the border at the same time as the issued so promptly” on the first day closing Mass of Pope Francis’ visit to Mexico on Feb. 17. of Florida’s 2016 legislative session. “This should compel the legislature to address the issue immediately,” he said ous environment they fled will serve legalized in Belgium in 2002 and has in a statement. Ruling 8 to 1 in Hurst as a deterrent for other children and been broadly supported. But opposi- v. Florida, the high court said that the families who are considering fleeing tion has grown as lawmakers extended state’s “capital sentencing scheme” vi- Central America,” said the Jan. 8 letter, the practice to terminally ill children olates the Sixth Amendment of the signed by Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio L. and people with severe psychological U.S. Constitution. Writing for the Elizondo of Seattle, chairman of the problems. In a newspaper interview majority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration, published the day after Christmas, the amendment, which guarantees the and Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Orange, the nation’s new primate, Archbishop rights of criminal defendants, “requires California, chairman of the Catholic Jozef De Kesel of Mechelen-Brussels, a jury, not a judge, to find each fact nec- Legal Immigration Network. “To send acknowledged that secular-minded essary to impose a sentence of death.” migrant children and families back to Belgians had no problem with abortion In Florida, the jury plays an advisory their home countries would put many or euthanasia. “But it is not obvious role, deciding if the defendant is eligi- of them in grave danger because they from my faith,” he said. “I think that we ble for the death penalty. would face threats of violence and for have the right, on an institutional level, some, even death,” they said. to decide not to do it.” Despite dwin- End Deportations? dling Mass attendance, the church still plays an important role in Belgium’s Two U.S. bishops wrote to Homeland Euthanasia Challenged mixed private and public health care Security Secretary Jeh Johnson seeking Belgium is embroiled in a religious free- system. Catholic hospitals, which re- an end to deportation raids that round- dom controversy after the new head of ceive state subsidies, officially offer only ed up more than 120 Central American the country’s Roman Catholic Church palliative care for end-of-life patients, immigrants early in the new year. “We demanded that church-run hospi- but not all of them have an outright ban disagree with the underlying rationale tals and nursing homes have the right on euthanasia in their guidelines. behind this action: that sending chil- to refuse to euthanize their patients. dren and families back to the danger- Euthanasia for terminally ill adults was From CNS, RNS and other sources.

10 America February 1, 2016 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

DISPATCH | CHICAGO we’re going to start all over.” The archbishop notes, however, Cupich: Confront Gun Violence that the point of “Faithful Citizenship” is not to tell Catholics what party or he late Cardinal Joseph know deep down we can do better and candidates to vote for but to offer them Bernardin of Chicago once we should do better,” the archbishop “a chance to reflect on the teaching of Tused the image of a seamless said. the church. For every person who goes garment to describe a Catholic ethic Expect to hear the bishops’ confer- into the voting booth, it’s like going of life that includes respect for the un- ence and individual bishops speak out into the confessional. They have to born; the dignity of the weak, disabled more forcefully on gun control in the own the decisions they make in going and elderly; and opposition to the run-up to the 2016 presidential elec- into those two boxes.” death penalty. Blase Cupich, the cur- tion, Archbishop Cupich says. “The The archbishop says he under- rent archbishop of Chicago, is seeking bishops do feel strongly about the tak- stands the fear many Catholics may to extend that fabric to include curbing ing of innocent human life whether feel in the wake of recent terrorist at- gun violence. it’s in the womb or in the streets, so I tacks in Paris and San Bernardino. “This is a pro-life issue and But, he says, Americans should should be front and center with ‘This is a pro-life issue avoid that trap. “ISIS is not ideo- all of the others,” the archbishop logical in the sense of wanting to told me recently in a far-rang- and should be front promote a particular faith or reli- ing interview that addressed gion,” he says. “Their motive is to a mounting homicide rate in and center with all wreak havoc, to create violence in Chicago, the strained relation- of the others.’ society. ISIS wants us to be divid- ship between that city’s minority ed, to be afraid. America should communities and its police, and not let ISIS win.” the growing fear nationwide over the think they will speak out.” In many ways, the issues of violence potential for domestic terrorist attacks. He expressed disappointment, facing the nation, Archbishop Cupich Archbishop Cupich is calling for a however, that the responsible com- says, serve to underscore the impor- ban on assault weapons, stricter back- mittee of bishops did not have ade- tance of the Jubilee Year of Mercy ground checks and prohibiting the sale quate time to revise the quadrennial that Pope Francis has proclaimed for of guns to people on the government’s voter guide “Forming Consciences for 2016. “A jubilee means there is a sense no-fly list. On assault weapons, he Faithful Citizenship,” which reflects of freedom, of release, of starting over. says, high-powered weapons that “real- Catholic positions on a number of It’s an opportunity to integrate mercy ly can only be used to create havoc and prominent issues. Archbishop Cupich into our conversations and actions,” he mass destruction need to be banned... worries that this year’s revision leans says. and the Catholic Church can be a voice too heavily on the original version, “We have a coarseness in our dia- for that.” published in 2007. In its current form, logue; we have a harshness in the way Archbishop Cupich’s call reflects curbing gun violence is dealt with we deal with conflict,” the archbishop positions already taken by the U.S. largely in one paragraph. There are says. “We see this in families with re- Conference of Catholic Bishops. What multiple references to other pro-life is- gard to domestic violence, across the gives his words heft is the perch from sues, like abortion and euthanasia. board to violence in our streets and which he is making these pronounce- “We are seeing an evolution of that to international politics. The Holy ments. Chicago experienced 468 ho- document,” Archbishop Cupich says. Father is looking for a way in which micides last year—more than any “There was very heartfelt debate on we to make sure mercy is a part of the other city in the United States. “We all the floor when [it] was presented.” He whole living process of relationships.” thinks it may have been a “mistake” By speaking out in a clear, prophetic not to rewrite the document “because voice about the scourge of violence, JUDITH VALENTE, America’s Chicago corre- it limited us in talking about these Archbishop Cupich seems to be seek- spondent, is a regular contributor to NPR and “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.” Twitter: @ other issues in a more ample way. The ing much the same. JudithValente. next time we write this document JUDITH VALENTE

February 1, 2016 America 11 JAMES T. KEANE Fugitives From Injustice rom the moment Daniel ing on this unlikely “Catholic Robin nation’s disposal, or the F.B.I. putting Berrigan took the stage at Hood,” and Berrigan’s message of non- on a nationwide manhunt to apprehend FCornell University on April 17, violent resistance to the American war Whitey Bulger. This was U.S. marshals 1970, he and everyone else there knew machine was heard by ears that had and Mexican police tracking down a he would be arrested. Among the thou- never before listened. teenager who had skipped a meeting sands of students present were count- Four months later, at William with his probation officer. less F.B.I. agents. Some had traded Stringfellow’s house on Block Island, Obviously no one is going to de- their blue suits for hippie disguises, but a dozen F.B.I. agents posing as bird- fend Ethan Couch. But shouldn’t we one could still pick out those Fordham watchers finally caught up with Daniel ask who has access to our cellphone and Boston College boys a mile away. Berrigan. The three-year prison stay activity, and when and how? Shouldn’t Daniel and his brother Phil had been that followed left him undeterred. we ask what it means for a free society ordered to report to prison a week be- After that came decades of when such surveillance fore for destroying draft records two peace activism. A photo- Might it is implemented for ev- years earlier in Catonsville, Md.; and graph of Dan after his ar- ery violation of the law, despite the crowd’s loud support, it rest—smiling gleefully as he be in our and extended beyond looked like Cornell would be Dan’s last flashes the peace sign with our borders? What hap- day of freedom for some time. cuffed hands—has become interest to pens when it isn’t Ethan But wait. As the house lights went an icon for the peace move- hear voices Couch but a more de- down, the slight Jesuit was led to a huge ment and for nonviolent fensible violation of the burlap-and-papier-mâché puppet of an protesters everywhere. that are law? Might it sometimes apostle, one of a dozen used that night But the merry chase temporarily be in our interest as a na- for a creative rendition of the Last could never happen today. tion to hear voices that Supper. Guided by unseen hands while Berrigan would be illegal? are temporarily illegal? hiding inside, he made a clean getaway caught within days, per- If the U.S. govern- into the Ithaca night. haps minutes, boxed in by ment had enjoyed this J. Edgar Hoover was enraged by a surveillance state that he himself has level of surveillance in the 1970s, we Berrigan’s whimsical escape and put warned against multiple times over the would never have heard Berrigan’s him on the F.B.I.’s Ten Most Wanted past four decades. He would be pho- “Sermon From the Underground.” list. The next few months proved to be tographed a dozen times daily from Daniel Ellsberg would have been jailed Hoover’s worst nightmare, as Berrigan, lampposts and taxicab cameras; every long before the Pentagon Papers ever calling himself “a fugitive from injus- phone and computer he used would made it to the Xerox machine. “Deep tice,” cropped up time and again at be tracked; he would be observed from Throat” would have found parking ga- churches, convents and campuses, al- the sky by drones. And every fellow rages poor hiding places from Nixon’s ways evading capture. Even the con- traveler who offered him assistance— security apparatus. And as a result, far servative scion William F. Buckley Jr. from the nuns who hid him in convents more malicious lawbreakers than these ridiculed the F.B.I., noting “it was much to the Catholic families who hid him would have been left to their own de- likelier that you would see [Berrigan] under their beds—would face charges vices. on Johnny Carson’s show, thumbing his that they had assisted a fugitive. There is little doubt that techno- nose at American jurisprudence, than Don’t think so? Just weeks ago, the logical advances in the detection, pre- behind the bars he belonged behind.” infamous “affluenza teen” Ethan Couch vention and prosecution of crime since Many others found themselves cheer- was caught almost immediately in his 1970 have made us all safer in many flight from the law because he used a ways. We should hold grave doubts cellphone in Mexico to call for a pizza. about whether or not they have been JAMES T. KEANE is an editor at Orbis Books in Ossining, N.Y., and a former associate editor of Note: this was not the C.I.A. hunting worth it. America. Twitter: @jamestkeane. Osama Bin Laden with every tool at the JAMES T. KEANE

12 America February 1, 2016 February 1, 2016 America 13 Our Reason for Being Restoring the pillars of Catholic education BY DON BRIEL, KENNETH GOODPASTER AND MICHAEL NAUGHTON

t the heart of leadership lies the responsibili- stage pattern. Institutional leaders 1) fixate on limited goals ty to develop one’s institution according to its and make them ultimate aims, 2) rationalize these goals as deepest purpose. Yet this task can be under- the principal purpose of the institution and 3) eventually de- mined in Catholic universities when faculty tach their institutions from their fundamental purpose and and administrators attempt to remake their “reason for being.” To carry the metaphor further, in a diag- Aorganizations in the image of other academic institutions. nostic manual describing institutional pathologies, teleopa- While vestiges of their original character remain, they begin thy would be as central a disorder as heart disease or cancer. to lose a distinctive Catholic vision and with that, ultimately, their true meaning, purpose and unique identity. Symptoms of Teleopathy The recent 25th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s apostolic Fixation: focusing on secondary values. The most apparent constitution on Catholic universities, “Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” sign of mission drift in Catholic universities is the avoidance presents an opportune moment to re-examine the charac- of language that connects a school’s brand of education with ter and role of Catholic universities in light of their deepest its foundations and religious beliefs—that is, the very thing purpose. One of the clear intentions of “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” that makes it Catholic. A vital, articulate Catholic vision of was to recall and emphasize the two basic pillars of Catholic the school’s intellectual life is often missing from mission doc- universities’ mission and distinctive character: the pursuit of uments, convocation speeches, curriculum designs, research the unity of knowledge and the ultimate complementarity agendas and strategic plans. Michael J. Buckley, S.J., observed of faith and reason. These two principles guide and inform this trend over 20 years ago and summarized his observations all aspects of a genuine university education, whether in the in America (5/29/93): arts and humanities, the professions or the sciences. It is also a good moment to take a fresh look at Catholic The “faith that seeks understanding”—what constitutes university leaders and their role in keeping their institutions the substance and richness of the Creed and inspired aligned with their original mission. Pope Francis’ frank call 2,000 years of Catholic reflection and life—is reduced to the Roman Curia to examine the ills of leadership offers to a morality or a general social ethic. One looks in a practical model of reflection for this task. In a recent ar- vain for very much beyond American civil religion. The ticle in Harvard Business Review (4/14/15), Gary Hamel Catholic, Christian character has shaded off into a va- adapts Francis’ concept of the “diseases” of leadership to the cuity that offers neither challenge nor much direction to problems faced by business leaders. We can bring the same the education given by the institution. frame of reference to an assessment of the governance of our universities. While some universities have heeded Father Buckley’s Whereas Francis and Hamel provide a list of multiple warning, others have accelerated the shading off of their diseases, we want to focus on one, which we call teleopathy, uniquely Catholic expression. In the last 25 years, many combining the Greek telos (end or purpose) with pathos (dis- Catholic universities have struggled to recognize the core order or sickness), described in the Encyclopedia of Business pillars of Catholic higher education articulated in “Ex Corde Ethics. It is an occupational hazard with a distinct, three- Ecclesiae”—namely, that 1) all subjects should be studied with an understanding of their relationships and relevance to other DON BRIEL founded the program in Catholic studies at the University disciplines, a study that clarifies both the strengths and limits of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., and now holds the John Henry Newman of each particular field of study (unity of knowledge); and 2) Chair in the Liberal Arts at the University of Mary. KENNETH E. GOODPASTER is a professor of ethics emeritus at St. Thomas. MICHAEL there should be dialogue between faith and reason that is at NAUGHTON is the director of the Center for Catholic Studies at the the heart of authentic human development and the complex University of St. Thomas, where he holds the Koch Chair in Catholic nature of truth (complementarity of faith and reason). Studies. This article is excerpted and adapted from the monograph “To Hold in Trust: The Purpose of Catholic Higher Education—Mission and The language of the two pillars is often supplanted by the Identity 25 Years After ‘Ex Corde Ecclesiae’.” general categories of ethics, wellness, service and leadership

14 America February 1, 2016 To limit the mission of the university to teaching around a set of moral and social principles will eventually undermine the principles themselves.

expressed in phrases like “committing to social justice,” “providing radical hospitality,” “educating for civic responsibility,” “sustaining the environment” and “cele- look. brating diversity.” While these values are laudable and im- The mor- portant to any Catholic university, when detached from the al and social values of theological and integral core of the Catholic tradition and its Catholic higher education should epistemological convictions they can become hollow. be understood as outcomes of a deeper purpose and not the Take for example the shrinking liberal arts core of most source of it. To limit the mission of the university to teach- Catholic universities over the last 20 years. While many rea- ing around a set of moral and social principles will eventual- sons exist for this reduction, if leaders on campus can articu- ly undermine the principles themselves. Here Vaclav Havel’s late only a vague moral rationale, the core curriculum becomes critique of international campaigns for human rights, which generic, resulting in a distribution of requirements bereft of appeared in the magazine Sunrise (Oct./Nov. 1994), is rele- an underlying pursuit of the unity of knowledge or dialogue vant. Without a connection to a deeper existential reality, he of faith and reason. And where the two pillars are expressed in argued, human rights are in danger of becoming mere slogans: Catholic universities, they tend to get left behind in professional schools. A study by Steve Porth, John McCall and Joseph Politicians at international forums may reiterate a thou- DiAngelo found that most of the Catholic business schools sand times that the basis of the new world order must they surveyed made references to ethics in their mission state- be universal respect for human rights, but it will mean ments, but very few connected such missions and their un- nothing as long as this imperative does not derive from derstanding of ethics to the Catholic character of the univer- the respect for the miracle of Being, the miracle of the sity. Without a robust root system, ethics in business schools universe, the miracle of nature, the miracle of our own tends toward economic instrumentality and a utilitarian out- existence. Only someone who submits to the authority

February 1, 2016 America 15 of the universal order and of creation, who values the Catholic universities. A vision informed by a distinctively right to be a part of it and a participant in it, can genu- Catholic articulation of the unity of knowledge and com- inely value himself and his neighbors, and thus honor plementarity of faith and reason is seen as too religious, and their rights as well. thus too sectarian, for today’s university stakeholders (students, faculty, donors and accrediting agencies). Religious Havel recognized that a generic commitment to “rights” claims might place the university at a disadvantage in re- or “justice,” “diversity” or “ethics” is prone to the “cut flowers cruiting faculty and diverse student populations. syndrome”: they may look attractive for a while, but severed As some Catholic universities distance themselves from from their cultural, religious and spiritual roots, they with- theological and doctrinal commitments, they begin to face a er. Without a deeper root system, such so-called universals particular challenge regarding what makes them distinctive. have “no integrating force, no unified meaning, no true inner If leaders of Catholic universities mute the fundamental con- understanding” to draw upon for sustenance. victions of their own tradition, then “diversity” and “pluralism” Rationalization: seeking pluralism at the expense of can become mere code words for institutional conformity. If Catholic identity. While few leaders in Catholic higher edu- pluralism, and in particular institutional pluralism, is to be cation would formally deny the two pillars of a Catholic uni- truly valued, then Catholic universities must be encouraged versity, their absence in convocation speeches, alumni mag- to bring forth their distinctive qualities; otherwise, they lose azines and strategic and curricular plans is rationalized on an important source of distinctiveness and move closer to be- the basis of an increasingly pluralistic culture. As economic coming a commodity in the educational marketplace. pressures increase, many universities, through marketers This is not to say that Catholic universities should em- and their branding strategies, adapt their public language to ploy only religious categories and ignore the realities of a be less overtly faith-based and more generic and often unin- pluralistic society. The Catholic university does have moral tentionally utilitarian. and social convictions; and it must speak, as it always has, University leaders rationalize this surrogate language in a language that is intelligible and accessible to those who with an appeal to be more inclusive and more palatable to do not share those convictions. Yet faculty and administra- the increasingly religiously diverse populations served by tors must not downplay the theological and ecclesial commitments that are central to being a Catholic university. FROM OUR BLOGS Detachment: the consequences of te- Christmas Mass on the Edge of leopathy. When Catholic universities Heaven, Richard G. Malloy, S.J. describe their mission in generic social New Moves on Old Crimes in El and ethical terms, they also tend to Salvador and Guatemala de-emphasize a distinctively Catholic Kevin Clarke criteria in hiring, curriculum, research How Much Studying Is ‘Too Much’? and promotion. Hiring faculty and ad- Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. ministrators on the basis of a generic

WHAT YOU’RE READING ethic or disciplinary excellence alone in- evitably brings two results. First, leaders Life on Another Level, Mark Plaiss neglect to engage faculty in meaningful Homecoming, Zoe Silsby WEB ONLY conversations about how to understand In “Why Are Black Kids Targets?” Making Mercy a Verb, Pope Francis and implement the two pillars articulat- Nathan Stone, S.J., writes about the An Outbreak of Affluenza, an Antidote ed by “Ex Corde Ecclesiae.” They focus, “demon of otherness” of Mercy, Valerie Schultz instead, on urgent details of day-to-day The Rights of Refugees procedural management. Relationships RADIO David Hollenbach, S.J. On “America This Week,” Boston to the Catholic intellectual tradition College’s Megan McCabe discusses Violence in the Quran may be reduced to platitudes or viewed Francis X. Clooney, S.J. pornography and sexual ethics as marginal to the primary concerns of the university. Faculty members can become more loyal to their disciplines “If you want quality educators and an educational system that provides than to their university. Ultimately, the the quality desired, you must admit to paying for it. The onus is not upon teachers to accept lower pay for very hard work.” very idea of the university is reduced to — Mike Evans, “Put Students First” that of a “holding company” for disciplinary advancement and career devel-

16 America February 1, 2016 opment. Students and faculty members are deprived of the sion and identity and how best to reform or eliminate them. promise and full value of a Catholic education. Their questions could include the following. What are Second, the university disconnects from the church. the gaps between the aspirational language in our mission When doctrinal and faith commitments are marginalized, statement and the “values-in-action” driven by the incentives, the presence of religious and priests, as well as committed lay rewards, hiring and promotion systems of the organization? Catholic faculty members, is seen to be optional. Liturgies Is there a lack of connection between the institutional “talk” like the traditional opening Mass of the Holy Spirit are often and “walk”? How should we understand and implement the removed from university rituals and convocations. Theology pillars of the Catholic university? In recruitment and hir- and philosophy lose their integrative role within the larg- ing? In the appointment of search committees? In the choice er university and become simply discrete disciplines among of search firms? In strategic planning, board appointments, others. The role of the local bishop in supporting the univer- measurement systems? In curricular design, including the sity’s mission is weakened. Except for occasional community central role of theology and philosophy? In faculty and lead- outreach or service learning opportunities, the church comes ership formation? In new governance structures and aca- to have little or no relationship to the university. Of course, demic programs? leaders of Catholic universities can distort their attachment Reversing teleopathic leadership also requires other to the church by stressing the requirement of obedience to stakeholders, like donors and prospective college students ecclesial tradition in a way that precludes a genuine intellec- and their families, to bring more questions to bear. Is the tual vitality. What substitutes for such vitality is a pervasive Catholic university in which I am interested really provid- emphasis on Catholic piety and devotional practice. This is ing a fully integrated Catholic education? These evaluations, not the gaudium de veritate (joy in truth) that St. Augustine conducted in the context of prayer, can refocus and re-ener- and St. John Paul II praised. gize Catholic university leadership, faculty, students and the While each institution will have its own unique expres- communities that support them. Collective efforts to under- sion of the teleopathic pattern we have described, each stand and restore the two pillars of “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” can displays a form of disengagement that goes from religious lead Catholic campus communities to embrace confidently truths within a distinctive ecclesial tradition (the two pil- and celebrate the distinctive contributions of Catholic high- lars of “Ex Corde Ecclesiae”) to a humanism with broadly er education. A acceptable behavioral norms, to the methodological preoc- cupations of the disciplines and sometimes to whatever pays the bills. Once a Catholic university cuts itself off from its deepest theological and ecclesial roots, it yields to the various pressures and incentives of a larger utilitarian, careerist and technological culture, and its criteria of success are increasingly guided by the accreditation standards, assessments and rankings pursued by any secular university.

Recovering From Teleopathy There are many exceptions and variations to the pattern of teleopathic leadership we have described. But senior administrators and trustees would do well to heed Francis’ warning that each person who is not nourished with spiritual food “will become a bureaucrat (a formalist, a functionalist, an employee): a shoot that dries up and little by little dies and is thrown away.” This possibility—of becoming bureaucrats—is a danger for all leaders who lose sight of the deeper purposes of their institutions and manage them through prevalent norms and mechanical procedures. Maintaining or restoring the two pillars of a Catholic university education requires a healthy self-examination on the part of the university stewards—that is, boards, administration and faculty. University leaders should begin conversations to determine whether there are policies or practices at their institutions that tend to erode their distinctive mis-

February 1, 2016 America 17 A Rooted Vision The Latin American origins of Pope Francis’ theology BY RAFAEL LUCIANI AND FÉLIX PALAZZI

urveys conducted shortly after Pope Francis’ to attain a determined end, like remaining in power; c) ap- historic visit to the United States showed that plying a critical hermeneutic to the “abstract ideologies” that while Americans overall were left with a more reduce the Gospel and Christian praxis to empty princi- positive impression of the pope, his popularity ples; and d) dismantling “ecclesial clericalism and careerism,” Samong Catholics, while still quite high, slightly decreased. which are signs of an immature faith that fails to measure According the Pew Research Center, 81 percent of Catholics up to the Gospel. viewed the pope favorably in October, down from 86 per- In this vision for the church, we are beginning to see more cent in June, a dip driven largely by those who attend Mass clearly the connection between the theological and pasto- regularly. ral content of the pope’s discourses and what is known as In July of this year, Gallup polls also recorded a hit to “theology of the people” (or sometimes called “theology of Pope Francis’ favorability, attributable to declining support culture”). The pope’s use of this branch of theology, which among Catholics and political conservatives. The drop co- arose within the context of the assimilation and applica- incided with two events: the publication of the encyclical on tion of the Second Vatican Council by the Latin American the environment, “Laudato Si’,” and the strong critiques of church, makes it clear that he is proposing something more unfettered capitalism the pope delivered during his July trip than a mere change of focus in the church’s pastoral work. to South America. He is interested in doing more than refreshing the church’s As a Latin American theologian, I would like to try to language or updating existing religious forms and practices. explain what I call “the theological-pastoral option” of Pope Pope Francis’ aim is to establish a whole new way of being Francis, which is still little known outside the Spanish- church, one that recognizes the serious effects of the present speaking theological world. It requires a certain familiarity structural crisis and returns to the path traced out by the not only with the evolution of the magisterium of the Latin Second Vatican Council. American church but also with religious and sociopolitical This new way of being church takes on a prophetic qual- movements in Latin American countries. The inadequacy ity inspired by the theology of the people, which under- of many of the attempts to understand the orientation of stands pastoral action in relation to the church’s insertion Francis’ papacy is due to neglect of these factors and may in the reality of the poor and her appreciation of the values explain why some Catholics have been put off by the pope’s that emerge from the popular sectors. This new way of being criticism of social and economic structures. church arises from a preferential option for those living on the margins and from a desire to make use of their ability to Pastoral Turn generate processes of conversion in all of us who belong to The pope’s trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay in July the church and the larger society. 2015 marked an important development in our understand- This theological approach avoids the tendency to separate ing of his pontificate. There Francis outlined his program for and isolate aspects of church life, with faith and scholarship rescuing humankind from its present distress: a) avoiding on one side and social and pastoral involvement on the oth- “abstract spiritualism”—that is, thinking that we can have er. Such separation provokes a dysfunctional relationship faith apart from our social context; b) rejecting “methodi- between the academic world and the reality of the poor, as cal functionalism”—that is, justifying the use of any means Pope Francis wrote in “Laudato Si’”:

RAFAEL LUCIANI is a Venezuelan lay theologian who has studied in Latin Many professionals, opinion makers, communications America, Italy and Germany. He has been director of the School of Theology at the Jesuit-run Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas, where he media, and centers of power, being located in affluent is a full professor, and is currently a visiting professor at Boston College. urban areas, are far removed from the poor, with lit- FÉLIX PALAZZI is a Venezuelan lay theologian who has studied in Latin tle direct contact with their problems. They live and America, Italy and Germany. He has been director of the graduate program in theology at the Andrés Bello Catholic University, where he is an associate reason from the comfortable position of a high level professor, and currently is a visiting professor at Boston College. of development and a quality of life well beyond the

18 America February 1, 2016 HOUSE CALL. Pope Francis visits the Bañado Norte neighborhood, a slum in Asuncion, Paraguay, July 12, 2015.

reach of the majority of the world’s population. This comes Francis, who wants “a poor church for the poor,” draw- lack of physical contact...can lead to a numbing of con- ing his inspiration from the so-called Pact of the Catacombs science (No. 49). that was signed by 40 bishops, including Dom Hélder Câmara, at the conclusion of Vatican II in 1965. In the pact Conceiving the identity and the action of the church in the bishops declared the need to return again to the ways this way is a consequence of Latin America’s embrace of of the historical Jesus by being “a poor servant church” that Vatican II, especially as interpreted by the bishops’ con- would be distinguished for its practice of “fraternity, justice, ference at Medellín in 1968. While in Europe the council and compassion.” This is the context in which the theologi- gave birth to the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz cal-pastoral option of Pope Francis developed. and Hans Küng, in Latin America it inspired the liberation theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, Ignacio Ellacuría and Jon Of the People Sobrino. In Argentina, however, still another understand- The theology of the people as a form of Latin American ing of the council emerged, and it was spelled out in the liberation theology was first elaborated as such by two concluding document of the extraordinary assembly of the priest-theologians, Lucio Gera and Rafael Tello, and then Argentine bishops at San Miguel in 1969. adopted by the Argentine bishops’ conference in 1969. Its The documents of Medellín and San Miguel were in- origins, however, can be traced back to 1966, when the bish- spired, in part, by the proposals of St. John XXIII’s “Mater ops’ pastoral commission defined “the people” in terms of et Magistra” (1961) and Blessed Paul VI’s “Populorum “the existence of a common culture rooted in a common his- Progressio” (1967). Both pontiffs were already calling for tory and committed to the common good.” what St. John described as “a church of the poor” (his words The theology of the people was given formal shape by in a September 1962 radio broadcast) and for recognition Father Gera in his paper “The Meaning of the Christian of “the face of Christ in every poor person, as his sacrament” Message in the Context of Poverty and Oppression.” For (as Pope Paul VI said during his 1968 visit to Bogotá). Now him this theology does not advocate changing social and

February 1, 2016 America 19 political structures just for the sake of change; rather, it clear vision of what the political stance of Christians and seeks to discern the mission and identity of the church on the pastoral action of the church should be. In a discourse the basis of its option of the poor. Such an option fosters addressed to a Jesuit assembly in 1974, he explained that sociopolitical dialogue and promotes pastoral ministry in- Christian practice—both religious and political—should be spired by the ideal of social justice to be found concretely in centered on fraternity, solidarity, social justice and the com- the “faithful people.” mon good rather than on notions like homeland, revolution This theological-pastoral option does not rely on the and the opposition between conservatives and liberals. He Marxist analysis of social and economic conditions that was criticized “the fruitless confrontations with the hierarchy found in other kinds of liberation theology. Father Gera and the draining conflicts between ‘progressive’ and ‘reac- held that its starting point should be direct connection with tionary’ wings within the church, which end up giving more the people and serious study of the people’s common cul- importance to the parts than to the whole.” ture and ethos. Such an effort makes it possible to discov- er what is actually obstructing the people’s socioeconomic, Justice in Action political and religious development and it helps to preserve To counter institutional polarization and ideological di- the people’s positive identity against external influences that vision in today’s church, Pope Francis has proposed some attempt to impose an alien ideology. principles of discernment that are partly inspired by Juan For, as Pope Francis said in Bolivia, “a people that for- Manuel de Rosas, who was governor of Buenos Aires at the gets its past and its historical roots has no future”; that is end of the 19th century. The principles are “unity over con- why “the church makes an option to watch over those who flict” in the face of polarized institutional realities and “real- are today discarded and to preserve their precious culture.” ities over ideas” in the face of attempts to make the Gospel Accordingly, the theology of the people is a type of libera- message into ideology (see “The Joy of the Gospel,” Nos. tion theology that pays special attention to evangelizing the 217–37). culture by means of social, political and religious transfor- Speaking in Paraguay in July, the pope declared that the mation. The people’s transformation comes about through principal priorities of the Christian community should be integral development of the human person, promotion of “becoming inserted and incarnated in the experience of the sociopolitical dialogue and the practice of social justice. common people and discerning the shape of the church’s lib- Already in the 1970s Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., had a erating, salvific action from the perspective of the people and

20 America February 1, 2016 February 1, 2016 America 21 their concerns.” Otherwise, he stated, the ideologies will gain obligation to contribute to these processes of change in ground, as has been the case recently in South America, “and “Evangelii Gaudium”: they will be no help at all because the ideologies, since they do not start with the people, have an incomplete, unhealthy, Together with the various sectors of society, she sup- or harmful relationship with the people.” ports those programs which best respond to the dig- One year into his pontificate, Francis was asked about nity of each person and the common good. In doing the slum priests who had been members of the Priests this, she proposes in a clear way the fundamental val- Movement for the Third World; one of them was the Rev. ues of human life and convictions which can then find Carlos Mugica, who was killed in 1974. His response was: expression in political activity” (No. 241). “They were not Communists. They were priests fighting for social justice.” Indeed, social justice is one of the most In a homily in Quito, Ecuador, on July 7, Pope Francis important themes in the pope’s theological-pastoral option. challenged us to think in terms of a church that is called The world can be rehumanized and the common good se- “to opt for the poor people” and “to resist the temptations of cured only by uniting social justice, theology and pastoral one-sided proposals that tend toward ideology, despotism, action. As the pope declared in his discourse to the popular and sectarianism.” He called for a church that distances itself movements in Santa Cruz, “the dominant system continues from elitism and engages directly with reality.” As he stated to deny billions of our sisters and brothers the most elemen- in 2001, when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires: tal economic, social, and cultural rights. This system is an assault on the project of Jesus.” The principle anti-value of today, in my judgment, is Francis summons Catholics to live a prophetic the marketing of persons, that is, making people into Christianity that is able to discern the ethical validity and merchandise. Men and women are converted into just moral truth of the social and religious forces at work in another commodity for projects that come to us from society. Such discernment will determine the change of somewhere else, that install themselves in our society orientation needed both in a country’s political life and and that diminish our human dignity. That is anti-val- in ecclesial forms so that the church will recover credibil- ue: the human person as merchandise in the dominant ity in the world of today. The pope describes the church’s political, economic and social systems. A

22 America February 1, 2016 The Merciful Father Always ready to greet a prodigal son BY PETER J. VAGHI

striking element of the parable of the prodigal son, in the Gospel of Luke, is Athe father’s festive and loving welcome of a returning son who had squandered his inheritance in a faraway country “on a life of dissipation.” This story is also aptly called the parable of the “Merciful Father.” It portrays and gives rich meaning to the word mercy—relevant in this Jubilee Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis. The “Merciful Father” parable expresses the essence of mercy (although the word itself does not appear in the text) in a particularly clear and revealing way. It begins simply: “a man had two sons.” After asking his father for his share of the estate, the younger son travels to a distant land, squandering all his prop- erty in a loose and empty life. A famine strikes that country, and he experiences dark days of exile and hunger. He feels humili- ation and shame, then nostalgia for his own home, and gains the courage to return and speak to his father. While still far from home, he imagines the words he will say: “Father, I have sinned against God and against you. I no longer deserve to be called PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/GOOGLE CULTURAL INSTITUTE/HERMITAGE MUSEUM, SAINT PETERSBURG INSTITUTE/HERMITAGE PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/GOOGLE CULTURAL your son. Treat me like one of “Return of the Prodigal Son,” by Rembrandt, circa 1668 your hired hands.” The father’s welcome is at the heart of the parable, but we cannot simply pass over the son’s conversion experience, an experience that happens so often to each of us before we seek reconciliation. It is, after all, hard to seek forgiveness, to return home when we have MSGR. PETER J. VAGHI is pastor of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Md., and chaplain of the John Carroll Society in Washington, been away, to seek the mercy of another—especially the D.C. mercy of God, who is rich in mercy.

February 1, 2016 America 23 A Difficult Journey Note that the father takes the initiative. He does not The journey home is often full of difficulties. One of the wait for the son to come to him, much less have him crawl greatest challenges of the spiritual life is to be open to for- to him. No, it is the father who makes the first move and giveness. Sometimes it seems that we want to prove that runs a long way. Interestingly, the son calls him father—a even God cannot forgive us, as we perceive such a long dis- sign of his conversion. In Rembrandt’s painting, he is wear- tance between us and God. ing simple underclothes and but one shoe, signals that re- In his acclaimed book The Return of the Prodigal Son, mind us that most journeys seeking forgiveness and mercy Henri Nouwen, after contemplat- are long and challenging. ing Rembrandt’s famous 17th-cen- But the father has not forgotten tury painting of the prodigal son ‘God’s compassion his son. He has kept unchanged his (exhibited in St. Petersburg at the affection and esteem for him and has Hermitage), reflects on the parable. is described by Jesus always wanted him to return. He re- Why did the son leave in the first veals no anger or disappointment. place? In leaving with his inheritance not simply to show Quite the opposite, he orders the in hand, Nouwen writes, the son had me how willing God finest robe for him, with a ring for rejected all the values of his heritage, his finger and sandals for his feet. He everything the father represented. is to feel for me, or orders a fattened calf to be slaugh- You could say that he even wished tered and calls for a celebration. him dead. Trying to understand the to forgive me my sins son’s motivation in going to a distant Our Journey Back country, Nouwen identifies with him and offer me new How often do wait for someone who and writes, “I am a prodigal son ev- life and happiness, has hurt us or grown distant from us, ery time I search for unconditional perhaps a family member or friend, love where it cannot be found.” And: but to invite me to to take that first initiative? The par- “I leave home every time I lose faith able of the prodigal son challenges in the voice that calls me the Beloved become like God us to behave like the merciful father and follow the voices that offer a and reach out first to those estranged great variety of ways to win the love I and to show the from us—to go, in effect, the extra so much desire.” mile. At a certain point, the son comes same compassion In addition to his actions, the to his senses. Considering again to others.’ depth of the father’s feelings are the Rembrandt painting, Nouwen found in his words: “This son of writes, “I now see how much more is mine was dead and has come to taking place than a mere compassion- life again; he was lost and has been ate gesture toward a wayward child. The great event I see is found.” Even though the son has squandered his inheritance, the end of the great rebellion.” his humanity has been saved by his father’s love. The father His father gave him the freedom to leave, but when the is the human face of what we call mercy. son comes to his senses, undergoing a conversion experi- In reference to this parable, St. John Paul II wrote in his ence, he is welcomed with outstretched arms. Nouwen con- second encyclical letter, “Dives in Misericordia” (“On the cludes, speaking of his own identification with the son, “the Mercy of God”): Father is always looking for me with outstretched arms to receive me back and whisper again in my ear: ‘You are my This love is able to reach down to every prodigal son, Beloved, on you my favor rests.’” And that is true for each to every human misery, and above all to every form of of us each and every day we grow distant from our Father, a moral misery, to sin. When this happens, the person Father rich in mercy. who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, Imagine yourself at the return, as described in the par- but rather found again and “restored to value” (No. 6). able: “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his Mercy is a restorative power. The prodigal son is restored son, embraced him, and kissed him.” The son says to him, in to new life by the loving embrace and celebratory joy of his his well rehearsed lines, “Father, I have sinned against heav- father. en and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your When we hear the word mercy, we often wrongly think son.” He could be referring as well to his heavenly Father. of an action that belittles someone. Mercy is often confused

24 America February 1, 2016 with pity. This could not be further from the truth. The par- a son and the joy it brings. Significantly it involves a partic- able demonstrates so clearly that mercy is the restorative ular type of return home, one triggered by a conversion of power of God, revealed here in the father’s initiative of love heart on the part of the son who knew his desolate life had and welcome to his son. The prodigal son begins to see and to change. He gradually began to see the emptiness of his experience himself as loved by his father, and his own con- miserable life and longs to return home. Seen together with version experience is ratified by the loving embrace of his the powerful healing embrace of the father, it is rich and very father’s love. This is another name for mercy. moving. In all its complexity and details, the parable gives As St. John Paul II wrote in his encyclical, “mercy is man- mercy a human and divine face. ifested in its true and proper aspect when it restores to value, The underlying challenge of this parable, and indeed this promotes and draws good from all the forms of evil existing Year of Mercy, is to follow the exhortation of Jesus in his in the world and in man” (No. 6). He concludes by insisting Sermon on the Plain, found in Lk 6:36, where he challenges that the face of mercy, the face demonstrated by the father each of us, to “be merciful, just as [also] your Father is mer- in this parable, must be “ever revealed anew.” For “understood ciful.” Henri Nouwen, with reference to this passage, writes, in this way,” the saint writes, “mercy constitutes the funda- “God’s compassion is described by Jesus not simply to show mental content of the messianic message of Christ and the me how willing God is to feel for me, or to forgive me my constitutive power of his mission.” (No. 6). sins and offer me new life and happiness, but to invite me Each one of us can no doubt relate to this touching scene, to become like God and to show the same compassion to one of the most beloved in the entire New Testament. We others as he is showing to me.” think of the excitement, the recognition of a loved one away The return to the Father is ultimately the challenge to be- for a long time, the tears of joy at the airport arrival section come like the Father in everything we say, to be rich in com- during a holiday season—or at any time of the year. Maybe passion and mercy to each and every person we meet, espe- it is a husband or wife, brother or sister, or child or grand- cially to those distant from us. Each one of us is challenged child returning from years overseas in the armed services or anew in this Jubilee Year of Mercy to be men and women Peace Corps or seminary, as if he or she had been lost and who encourage homecoming—no matter how distant we, or now found. others, are from home! The merciful Father is always there But this parable is not simply about the return home of to embrace and kiss us. So should we be. A

February 1, 2016 America 25 VATICAN DISPATCH Interreligious Leaders ast November three Argentine of Bishops in the Vatican, had to re- still very much alive after 15 years and friends of Pope Francis—a turn to his archdiocese, and Cardinal had become known internationally. Lrabbi, a Muslim leader and Bergoglio replaced him in this role at Then, some months ago, the a Catholic priest—traveled from the synod. He did the task so well that Organization of American States Buenos Aires to the Vatican to dis- many cardinals then identified him as contacted I.D.I. and invited it to be cuss with him a project to promote a possible successor to John Paul II. the promoter of a continental project interreligious dialogue throughout the When he was elected pope nearly 12 called America in Dialogue. It pro- Americas, north and south. years later, Francis continued his com- posed that the project be based on The three—Rabbi Danielmitment to interreligious dialogue. the spirit of the encyclical “Laudato Goldman, the Islamic Center di- This led him to invite another rabbi, Si’,” which offers a vision for the care rector Omar Abboud and the Rev. Abraham Skorka, and the Muslim of and responsibility for planet Earth, Guillermo Marco (the pope’s former leader Omar Abboud to ac- a concern shared by all press officer)—had worked closely company him on his visit to Jews, religious traditions. with the pope in the field of inter- the Holy Land in 2014. In The three I.D.I. religious dialogue since 2001, when Jerusalem, at the Western Christians founders explained the the three established the Institute Wall of the last Temple, the project to Pope Francis for Interreligious Dialogue in the three embraced each other and Muslims over lunch in Santa Argentine metropolis. They did so at in a powerful testimony to can live Marta and obtained his one of the most difficult periods in the the entire Middle East, and wholehearted support. country’s history, as political leader- also to the rest of the world, together in Some days later, the ship failed, the economy collapsed and that Jews, Christians and peace and secretary general of the the state, once one of the world’s rich- Muslims can live togeth- O.A.S., Luis Almagro, est, fell into default. er in peace and friendship. friendship. visited the pope and Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, then an On that visit too, Francis likewise received back- archbishop, gave his full support. He invited the presidents of ing for this initiative. agreed with them that it is vitally im- Israel and Palestine, together with At I.D.I.’s request, the Pontifical portant, indeed necessary, for religious Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Council for Interreligious Dialogue leaders from the different faith com- to join him in the Vatican in a prayer will host a day of reflection in the munities to work together for peace service for peace. That historic event Vatican later this year to deepen the and social harmony. took place on June 8. proposals and insights of the encyclical. That need for interreligious dia- Since becoming pope, Francis has It aims to bring together the secretar- logue became clear to everyone with kept up his friendship with the three ies for religious affairs in governments the attack on the Twin Towers in New founders of the I.D.I., and in February and representatives of the different reli- York on Sept. 11, 2001, which changed 2014 he received them in the Vatican gious communities from every country the history of the world. That attack together with 42 other Argentinians on the American continent. also brought Cardinal Bergoglio onto from the three religious communities. Ever an advocate of the culture of the radar screen as papabile. Because They visited him at the end of their dialogue, Francis is convinced that of the attack, Cardinal Egan of New interreligious pilgrimage to the Holy America, north and south, can make York, who had been serving as chief Land, where they had gone to promote an important contribution to the reso- rapporteur at a meeting of the Synod a message of peace and harmony and to lution of many of the world’s problems remind Israelis and Palestinians alike through an interreligious dialogue that that Jews, Christians and Muslims can involves not just words, but also ac- GERARD O’CONNELL is America’s Rome live together in peace and harmony, as tions. For this reason he is supporting correspondent. America’s Vatican coverage is sponsored in part by the Jesuit communities of happens today in Argentina. It was the the O.A.S. proposal. the United States. Twitter: @gerryrome. clearest evidence that the institute was GERARD O’CONNELL

26 America February 1, 2016 FAITH IN FOCUS Interfaith Encounters Living as a Muslim at a Catholic college BY SAADIA AHMAD

e are able to borrow tradi- room of the on-campus chapel where diversity I embraced and represented tions from other religions I performed the traditional five daily made some people nervous, even hos- Wwithout compromising tile. At this same college where positive our own. This insight defined my in- interfaith interactions abound- terfaith journey as a Muslim at a ed, I also encountered a few Catholic college. My pilgrim- individuals who consis- age was set into motion by tently would not return an invitation from the col- my sign of peace, in lege’s chaplain to attend a the literal sense during Sunday worship service Mass, and symbolical- at the beginning of my ly—to whom I rep- freshman year. That resented “the other.” single act of outreach In this, I realized that and goodwill sparked each of us can find a period of intensive scriptural or theolog- spiritual growth and ical reinforcements to development during promote unity or divi- my undergraduate ca- sion. An examination of reer. This interreligious our world today provides nu- journey continues to- merous examples of both. day and has allowed me I experienced this tension on to grow as a Muslim to a the day of my departure from college. degree that would have been I had decided to attend the morning difficult if I were limited to my own prayer services at the priory chapel, religious practice. Muslim prayers. The gentle presence feeling that it would be a fitting con- My immersion in Catholic life in of music or choir rehearsal in the back- clusion to my undergraduate life. After college took many forms. I regularly ground served as a tangible reminder the service concluded and most people attended Catholic worship services, of God’s everlasting and intimate pres- had filed out, one of the priests whom learned about Catholic traditions in ence near us and within us, closer to I am blessed to have come to know the classroom and participated in each of us than we are to ourselves, as well approached me and told me that many events sponsored by the office both religions remind us. The Muslim he offered Mass for me that morning, of campus ministry, even serving on prayer beads that hang from my waist, knowing it was the day of my depar- its pastoral council. Some of the most which I hold onto and pray with at ture and that I might be anxious. I powerful, humbling moments I expe- various parts of the day, is an idea I ad- was very grateful for his solicitude. rienced at prayer took place in a side opted from those worn by the priests I then went to a corner of the chap- as they walk about the campus of the el, out of the way, and performed my college in their prominent white hab- own Islamic prayers. As I finished, I SAADIA AHMAD is a graduate student in its. I am a more prayerful, conscious noticed another priest had lingered the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of and reflective Muslim by following and, watching very intently, told me Massachusetts, Boston, where she is pursuing a their example. that what I was doing is “very strange” master’s degree in conflict resolution. At times, however, the religious and “extreme” before storming off and DUNNE TAD ART:

February 1, 2016 America 27 slamming the door to the sacristy be- slide further down the path of discord A similar theme was introduced to hind him. and division. me by the priest who offered Mass for In my final moments on campus, I My interfaith experience is not ex- me on the day of my departure. He directly experienced two very different tensive, nor are my years on this earth pointed me to Jn 10:16, which reads, but representative manifestations of re- many. But all that I have come to know “And other sheep I have, which are ligious practice in relation to religious through my interfaith way of life com- not of this flock; them, too, I must diversity. One individual offered me the pels me to a truth that I believe tran- bring, and they shall hear my voice; gifts and beauty of his tradition while scends my age and experience. I believe and there shall be one flock, and one respecting my own religious standing; that it is God’s intention to will the shepherd.” the other reacted to my presence with diversity of his children in religious I see this message reflected in a discomfort and fear. I imagine that both belief, tradition and practice. Chapter recent photo of Pope Francis with priests felt they were acting in accor- 5, verse 48 of the holy Quran—one of Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Imam dance with the teachings of their faith. my favorite Quranic verses, taught to Omar Abboud at the Western Wall The intentions behind such actions are me by a professor of Catholic theolo- in Jerusalem. Here is a representation well beyond my right to judge, but what gy—speaks to this providential plan: of unity amid religious diversity. I feel I can speak to are the effects of these an urgent need for this diversity when actions on their recipient. One left me To each among you, We have pre- I hear about Christians and other re- hopeful, the other distressed. scribed a Law and an Open Way. ligious minorities traumatized by op- This is the choice we face as a society If God had so willed, He would pression and violence committed in today, with interfaith harmony as one have made you a single people, the name of religion. Their healing re- possibility and religious intolerance as but His plan is to test you in what quires not merely tolerance and resolu- another. We can engage and appreciate He has given you: so strive as one tion, a negative peace, but appreciation our brothers and sisters of other faiths, race in all virtues. The goal of all and reconciliation, a positive peace. or we can pull away in fear. We can of you is to God; it is He that will In the verses of holy Scripture, I find either work to transform our world show you the truth of the matters my personal call to pursue interfaith through religious understanding or in which you dispute. dialogue, to always and everywhere respect every person, because they are unique and belong to our one human family, regardless of how different they seem from myself. For diversity is indeed included in God’s test for us. I trust Islam’s message to be universal, speaking to those who “think, reflect and do good.” These terms are used in the Quran to speak to all of humanity rather than just those who profess and practice the Islamic faith. It is my hope to introduce to people of all religions and belief systems the promise of personal and collective growth that awaits us through ap- preciative interfaith relations beyond mere tolerance. Such a shift in our perspective would replace the distress and trauma we all too often hear of—and, for some of us, experience—as a result of negative encounters among people of different faiths. Whether or not we choose to act upon this particular message of embracing religious diversity is our own free choice, but the fate is shared by us all. A

28 America February 1, 2016

PHILOSOPHER’S NOTEBOOK Ethics of Curiosity

he annual convention of the narrow vector of human experience. with a similar list. But Aristotle also American Philosophical An ardent curiosity about languages insisted that philosophical reflection TAssociation could rarely be one does not speak, countries one has was impossible without an antecedent described as a festive affair. Thousands never visited and the new neighbors wonder concerning existence itself. It of anxious philosophy professors down the block is now a trait of the is this primordial awe at the existence descend on a hotel to give papers on excellence in thinking that virtue-epis- and nature of the world that permits obscure topics as graduate students temologists have labored to sketch. A the thinking process to progress with grimly run the gantlet of hiring com- new ecstasy has entered the noetic mix. metaphysical depth. The new empha- mittees in a windowless ballroom try- A blogger going by the pseudonym sis on curiosity also carries echoes of ing to capture the rare tenure-track of Green Whale perfectly illustrates the Romantics and their cult of artistic job. Despite the encircling gloom, the this noetic curiosity: “I want to know and scientific creativity. The intellec- A.P.A. convention is a good venue about imaginary numbers, tual restlessness of an to detect current trends in the pro- Saturn-shaped black holes Einstein or a Picasso is fession. At this year’s conference in in interstellar space, the ‘I want to the paradigm of curi- January in Washington, D.C., several Pueblo Indians, differen- know why osity working at white sessions featured a promising trend: tial equations, Norse my- heat. the ethics of curiosity. One session thology, chaos theory, cy- I want As critics of the eth- cheerfully provided bumper stickers: tology, the Second Law of to know ics of curiosity have “Curiosity may have killed the cat but Thermodynamics, women argued, there is a dark surely it was a noble death.” in the medieval ages, how all these noetic side to curiosity. One of the architects of the new to read music, the hab- things.’ Many curious people interest in curiosity is Ernest Sosa of its of orangutans in the master trivia and ex- Rutgers. A leading proponent of vir- rain forests of Sumatra, hibit little depth. The tue epistemology, Sosa argues that Sanskrit, syllogisms, illumi- National Enquirer cer- to understand human knowledge we nated manuscripts, and how the first tainly piques the curiosity of “inquir- have to delineate the intellectual hab- Encyclopedia came to be published. ing minds,” but this curiosity has little its (virtues) that permit a human being Not least, I want to know why I want to do with theoretical physics. The to qualify as a responsible thinker (or, to know all these things, what the fire gossip manipulates curiosity to de- in wooden epistemological jargon, as a is that burns in my belly.” stroy privacy. Many of the worst abus- good cognizer). Sosa and his disciples In many ways this new emphasis es in medicine were committed by sci- have long emphasized the importance on the virtue of curiosity only con- entists who sincerely wanted to push of consistency, logic, respect for evi- tinues the revival of Aristotle that back the borders of knowledge but dence and critical scrutiny as appro- has marked important sectors of eth- who misused other human beings as a priate virtues for the mature thinker. ics and epistemology in Anglophone means to an end in the process. In the But the new emphasis on curiosity philosophy over the past decades. For figures of Eve and Pandora, both the as a noetic virtue adds a note of tran- Aristotle, virtue was not confined to Bible and Greek mythology begin with scendence to the portrait of the ideal the moral habits of justice, prudence, cautionary tales on the dangers of cu- thinker. Responsible thinking cannot fortitude and temperance. The intel- riosity allied to idolatry. But the abuses remain limited to the mastery of one lect required its own habits to rec- of curiosity do not destroy its dynam- discipline or to engagement with one ognize truth successfully. Hence the ic luster when allied to the search for Aristotelian intellectual virtues of sci- truth in depth. The new ethics of curi- ence, understanding and wisdom. In osity is part of the re-enchantment of JOHN J. CONLEY, S.J., holds the Knott Chair in Philosophy and Theology at Loyola their catalogue of noetic virtues many contemporary philosophy. University Maryland in Baltimore, Md. virtue-epistemologists have come up JOHN J. CONLEY

30 America February 1, 2016 February 1, 2016 America 31 Books & Culture

counters her sister, Trudy, on a dark TELEVISION | JONATHAN MALESIC street. Trudy passes Juliana a film, which she later learns is important to ALTERNATE REALITY the American resistance and must get to the mysterious man in the high cas- The dystopian world of ‘The Man in the High Castle’ tle. Trudy runs, but the Japanese secret police catch up and kill her. t is safe to say that if your last, best want more. The Japanese, who occu- Juliana watches the film over and hope for avoiding nuclear war is py the Pacific states but lack nuclear over, seeing images of the D-Day in- Ithe continued survival of Adolf weapons, fear war with Germany. vasion and the meeting of Roosevelt, Hitler, then you live in a dystopia. Such At the outset of the series, view- Churchill and Stalin at the Yalta is the setting for the original series The ers are meant to identify with young Conference. Does she see a parallel, Man in the High Castle, released on Americans who never knew freedom, potential universe, or real events that Amazon in November. Based on a but whose patriotism awakens as they were somehow forgotten? Juliana be- Philip K. Dick novel, the series takes are subjected to the occupation’s par- gins to believe in these possibilities place in 1962 in a United States that anoid brutality and as they encounter and becomes determined to get the lost World War II and is now occupied contraband films that depict the world film into the right hands. by Germany and Japan. we know, in which the United States The series offers much imaginative A political crisis is brewing, howev- won the war. pleasure and horror. The production er, as a white-haired Hitler is rumored Pursuit of these films drives the design team, led by Drew Boughton, to be gravely ill. The Führer is satisfied plot early on in the series. The San creates a world in which Ma Bell is with controlling the Eastern United Francisco native and aikido student a Nazi corporation and New York States, but his apparent successors Juliana Crain (Alexa Davolos) en- City’s U-Bahn, a monorail, presum-

TIME-CROSSED. Alexa Davolos and Luke Kleintank in “The Man in the High Castle” PHOTOS: AMAZON STUDIOS

32 America February 1, 2016 stranger Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank) to wring complicity from an occupied who, it turns out, also has a film. populace: distract them. In obsessing Convention demands that Joe also over the films, the resistance occupies have secrets; his concern the true na- itself. All the SS and Kempeitai need ture of his mission. do is maintain a murderous charade of The crucial but thin relationship pursuing the films, too. They can pac- between Juliana and Joe exemplifies ify everyone else through a grim nor- the weak points of the writing in “High malcy. Flakes of ash fall from the cre- Castle.” Chase scenes involving a car- matorium every Tuesday; the children toonish bounty hunter seem to take need help reading Beowulf for their away time better spent on developing Aryan literature homework. Juliana’s personal attachments to her Fascism has been in the news lately, family and to her crypto-Jewish boy- and some commentators have specu- friend Frank (Rupert Evans), and clar- lated about whether “The Man in the ifying her political motives. Joe’s own High Castle” presents a version of ties go only as far as a brief mention America that may yet come to be. That of a father nostalgic for freedom and seems like a stretch. Even so, the series, a short appearance by Joe’s girlfriend despite itself, asks us what tiny battles NAZI HUNTER. Rufus Sewell in and her son. None of this illuminates American social movements wage, and “The Man in the High Castle” his loyalties. what Pyrrhic victories they celebrate, Without fully developed heroes to while the power elite consolidates con- ably runs on time. SS officers in black, root for, viewers’ interest easily shifts trol over everything that matters. silver-buttoned jackets and jodhpurs to the bureaucrats who run the oc- manage the Greater Nazi Reich from cupation. Obergruppenführer Smith JONATHAN MALESIC teaches theology at a monstrous skyscraper adorned with is an American traitor and a torturer, King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Twitter: eagles. At home, one of them, the ober- but his conflicts with the Reich make @jonmalesic. gruppenführer and family man John him a figure of sympathy. The best Smith (Rufus Sewell), receives a mid- character, in every sense of “best,” is dle-of-the-night call from an agent; the Japanese trade minister Tagomi one half-expects his bathrobe to be (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), who broods accented with clanking medals. (Too behind thick-rimmed glasses, consults bad; it’s not.) the I Ching to read the dire signs of the In telling the counterfactual back- times and appreciates the rare and ac- story, the series creator and “X-Files” cidental beauty of nature and artifice. veteran Frank Spotnitz explores the He radiates dignity, elevating every wide gap between the ease of con- functionary who passes through the quest (a “Heisenberg device” lev- sliding shōji doors of his office. He also eled Washington, D.C., prompting knows the cost of war—it is written in a surrender commemorated annu- the deep lines of his face—and collab- ally on V-A Day) and the difficulty orates with a disaffected German offi- of state-building. Our foreign affairs cer to forestall it. today are marked by the inability to Assassination attempts, police in- imagine productive ways to bridge that vestigations and betrayals ensue, but gap, and so ISIS and the Taliban have the series keeps returning to the mys- space to grow. tery surrounding the films. The power In the series, there is a large geo- of their images, though, is lost on the graphic gap between the German and hapless resistance—and on Spotnitz, Japanese occupations, as a lawless neu- too. While Juliana, Frank and Joe tral zone populated by racial refugees scurry around, momentous events are spans the Rocky Mountains. This is steered by the men in tall buildings. where Juliana takes the film, and it The series ends with a chilling, if unin- is where she encounters the dashing tended, answer to the question of how

February 1, 2016 America 33 BOOKS | DENNIS O’BRIEN admissions through classwork, comprehensive exams, advising, degrees THE END OF MORAL EDUCATION and professional placement. Admissions. The growth of graduate education has transformed admission THE GRADUATE SCHOOL needs to follow the pattern of the sci- to graduate school from a careful nego- MESS ences, pointing humanities Ph.D.’s to- tiation between professors about wor- What It Is and How We Can Fix It ward appointments outside the acade- thy students to full bureaucratization By Leonard Cassuto my. He labels this the “alt-ac” (alternate with graduate deans, admission com- Harvard University Press. 320p $29.95 academic) pathway. mittees and G.R.E. tests designed to The problem with alt-ac is the in- restrict admissions. Why? To improve The “mess” in question in the title of stitutional drive for academic prestige. “quality.” Cassuto illustrates the down- this book is not actually the gradu- side of this graduate race to the top by ate school; the real mess is the mar- the decision in 2013 of the Graduate ket. By and large, graduate schools do Center of the City University of New what graduate schools are supposed York to reduce graduate admissions to do: train new professors to replace and increase fellowships to “bring its old professors. Unfortunately, pro- policies in line with more elite insti- ducing professors is woefully out of tutions.” Cassuto wonders whether sync with the demand for Ph.D.’s in upping the academic ante is consistent the academic market place. Positions with CUNY’s mission “to serve New for newly minted Ph.D.’s in four year York’s citizens more broadly.” colleges and universities have been Classwork. The research model declining since the mid-1970s and shapes graduate education to the inter- in some fields are now virtually non- nal demands of the discipline. Cassuto existent. Professor Leonard Cassuto argues that the first concern should in The Graduate School Mess sharply be students. What do they hope to criticizes the self-replicating model of achieve through graduate study, and graduate education. He offers a host of how should they be taught to realize valuable suggestions for changing both that end? graduate education and the market. The Comprehensive Exam. Passage The book should be read by every uni- of the “comp” is generally understood as versity president, graduate dean and qualification for a dissertation. Comps professor. A glance at self-promotion ads in The date back only to the 1930s; they pro- So much for the book’s basic thesis— Chronicle of Higher Education sug- liferated after World War II as a means now for the essential qualification. As I gests that every university is now mov- for separating the Ph.D. sheep from worked on this review, I sipped coffee ing to a “higher level.” “Higher level” is the M.A. goats. (In many programs the from a mug manufactured by—so the defined by measures like selectivity of M.A. has become a consolation prize logo on the bottom indicates—“The students, size of the endowment, out- for those sent along and out.) Cassuto Unemployed Philosophers Guild.” The side research funding and faculty rep- criticizes the comp-as-qualifier and mismatch of graduate training and utation. Graduate education conforms suggests it should emulate the practice market is, as Cassuto clearly indicates, to the prestige gradient. Ideally, your of science programs, in which the comp largely confined to the humanities. Ph.D.’s will be placed high in the pres- is often a defense of a student’s research Not all graduate education is “out of tige ranking of universities and colleges. proposal or vocational direction. market”: Ph.D.’s in science, engineer- It is this “drive to the top” that Cassuto Advising. Faculty need to advise the ing and the hard-nosed social sciences questions. Not every institution should student, not the dissertation. The aims find employment, but not necessarily be Harvard; not every graduate stu- and interests of individuals within a in colleges and universities. Scientists dent should pine for an appointment graduate program are often varied and, get jobs at high-tech companies and to Stanford. Cassuto offers detailed given the job market, should be expand- economics Ph.D.’s can migrate to Wall suggestions for changing graduate edu- ed. Cassuto is proud to recount advis- Street. Cassuto thinks that graduate cation to diversify worthy careers. He ing a student whose aim was to teach at education in philosophy and the like covers the graduate school world from a community college. Her experience in

34 America February 1, 2016 that setting had been so transformative that she wanted to make her career in such a setting. Her decision to teach “down-market” needs to be honored fully. Women and minorities often have personal needs or vocational aims that run counter to the time table or placement goals of the normal doctoral program. Degrees. The average time to a Ph.D. degree is now nine years. The press toward prestige can distort the time line. The Ford Foundation decided that if students were not burdened by financial concerns they would finish earlier. Generous stipends were offered to students at 18 leading universities. The result was that students tooklon - ger to finish in order to burnish their dissertations. As Cassuto notes, they chose “completion with distinction over completion with alacrity.” Prestige focus on the research Ph.D. fails to reflect the variation in skills attained and career prospects sought by graduate students. An example of a successful alt-ac track occurred in the mid-1990s. Science-based industries were seeking “T” shaped graduates who understood business and enough science to fit the corporate culture. With the help of the Sloan Foundation, various universities created the P.S.M. (Professional Science Master) degree. Some 120 programs were set up and the P.S.M. degree has prospered. Not so the P.M.A. (Professional Master of Arts) degree. Funded for a time by the Ford Foundation, it did not gain trac- tion before the funding ran out. I suspect that there was more than lack of funding that defeated the P.M.A. degree. Why is it that alt-ac works in science and not the humanities? Alt-ac works for the natural sciences and the “hard” social sciences because out-placements often return the discipline to its historic home. The modern research university developed by the incorporation and professional- ization of skills that previously existed largely outside the academic study. A

February 1, 2016 America 35 successful chemical industry existed texts and Christian piety, but its advo- tional arrangements that would before chemistry Ph.D.’s. Sociology as cates thought it had great prestige and prepare a responsible citizenry. an academic study is an off-shoot from practical utility. Lawrence Cremin, in social reform movements at the end of his monumental study of higher edu- Where in the current college cur- the 19th century. When philosophy cation in the early days of the repub- riculum do we educate students in “the moves into its historic home base, it is lic, American Education: The National moral substance of American citizen- back with Socrates in the public agora. Experience 1783-1876, spells out what ship”? In what alt-ac jobs in society Socrates offers a bad career choice; he educators hoped humanistic education is that goal pursued? The humanities charged no fees and came to a bad end. in the classics would achieve: are the curriculum for citizenship. It If the name of the academic game is doesn’t seem too radical to suggest that “prestige,” the fundamental problem for In a torrent of sermons, tracts, the plight of the humanities has be- the humanities today is its low prestige learned disquisitions and utopi- come the plight of our politics. rating. In his last chapter, “In Search an proposals [preachers and ed- of an Ethic,” Cassuto applauds former ucators] attempted to determine DENNIS O’BRIEN is a philosopher, author Fordham dean Nancy Busch’s sugges- the moral substance of American of several books and former president of the tion that the history of higher educa- citizenship and to devise educa- University of Rochester. tion be required in the core curriculum for graduate study. A great idea! If MARK J. DAVIS one looks at the history of American higher education, the prestige of the humanities may become clear. College WHEN PEACE SEEMED PLAUSIBLE education before the research univer- KILLING A KING rule in these occupied territories. But sity revolution was all humanities. The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin was killed by an assassin’s bullet Today that curriculum may seem to be Rabin and the Remaking of Israel two years later, the right-wing Likud only a quaint combination of classical By Dan Ephron party won a close election to choose his W. W. Norton & Co. 290p $27.95 successor and the peace process never recovered. Two decades ago Israel stood on the Dan Ephron, who reported on these verge of completing a peace process events 20 years ago, returned to the re- that promised to end years of fighting gion in 2010 as Newsweek’s Jerusalem with its neighbors bureau chief. In and the Palestinians. Killing a King, But the prospect of Ephron presents a exchanging land for compelling portrait peace deeply divid- of the Rabin era, the ed Israel into two last time that peace roughly equal camps in Israel seemed pulling in opposite plausible. Since then, directions—one Rabin’s legacy has secular, the other largely evaporated, religious. As Prime and right-wing and Minister Yitzhak religious parties op- Rabin, who com- posed to ceding ter- manded the army ritory have attained, that brought Gaza according to Ephron, and the West Bank “something akin to a under Israel’s control permanent majority.” in the 1967 Six Day Killing a King War, had the prestige tells the story on two and the commitment in 1993 to imple- levels. It is a police procedural that ex- ment the Oslo Accords, which prom- plores the motive and tactics of Yigal ised the Palestinians a measure of self- Amir, the 25-year-old law student and

36 America February 1, 2016 religious extremist who plotted the assassination for two years and finally shot Rabin on Nov. 4, 1995, after a peace rally in Tel Aviv. The book is also an analysis of the political firestorm created when Rabin and Yasir Arafat, chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization, shook hands on the White House lawn two years before. In affirming the Oslo process, the two leaders committed to Palestinian rule over Gaza and Jericho, one of seven cities in the West Bank. The agreement also set a goal of Palestinian autonomy in the occupied territories, without addressing how the relentless growth of Jewish settlements would affect the peace process. By deferring a final agreement until later, the process gave opponents on both sides ample time to mobilize against it. Although a large majority of Israelis supported the agreement when Rabin returned from Washington, Rabin recognized that lone extrem- ists—Palestinian or Israeli—could easily undermine the new relationship and the sense of security for Israelis on which the agreement depended. In fact, violence from Hamas and Israel settlers in the first year of the agreement did just that. Rabin, described by a U.S. official as the most secular Israeli he had ever met, wrote in 1979 that the settlements were “a cancer on the body of Israeli democracy.” He regarded as ob- noxious and reckless the settlers’ view that every inch of the conquered territories was sacred and could never be exchanged for peace. Like most of the settlers, Amir believed that the agreement was a calamity for Israel and an act of trea- son by Rabin. Educated at Orthodox schools, Amir absorbed the views that every word of the Torah is divine truth and that Jews “must learn to fathom God’s will” and act accordingly. In this hothouse, messianic atmosphere, he found support for killing Rabin in the Talmudic principle of rodef, which

February 1, 2016 America 37 permits a bystander to kill an aggressor takes in its effort to protect Rabin. for a Catholic newspaper in Baltimore who pursues someone with the intent In the immediate aftermath of and worked for the U.S. Conference of to murder. Under this logic, Amir was Rabin’s assassination, there was a tre- Catholic Bishops. A “social justice ad- the bystander who was compelled to mendous wave of sympathy for Rabin vocate,” he currently heads the Catholic kill Rabin, the rodef, or pursuer, who and the peace process. Had Shimon program at the Faith in Public Life ad- intended to murder the Jewish peo- Peres, Rabin’s temporary successor, vocacy group in Washington, D.C. ple. Emboldened by biblical sanction, held immediate elections, he would Gehring delves extensively into the Amir and his brother Hagai, an Army- have won and the peace process would Catholic Church the pope has inher- trained munitions and explosive expert, have continued. However, in a wither- ited in the United States. In Gehring’s organized a militia, led demonstrations ing portrait, Ephron shows how Peres view, that church has been hijacked against the peace agreement and even- bungled badly. Though both Labor by a well-organized movement of tually decided to kill Rabin. Party members, Peres and Rabin had right-wing institutions, think tanks In sober and dispassionate lan- over the years cultivated a deep per- and bishops who have abandoned the guage, Ephron raises the issue of sonal enmity. Rabin regarded Peres as church’s teachings on social justice. responsibility for Rabin’s death. manipulative and a schemer. In delay- Instead, this movement focuses al- Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of ing elections, Peres wanted to create most obsessively on the “culture wars” the right-wing Likud party (and cur- his own legacy that had nothing to do issues of abortion, same-sex marriage rent prime minister), spoke at rallies with Rabin. But as violence continued and contraception. Lost in the shuffle where crowds branded Rabin a traitor, and Peres’s attempt to forge a new re- are the church’s teachings on poverty, a murderer and a Nazi and consorted lationship with Syria failed, Israeli vot- social justice and solidarity with the with rabbis who urged soldiers to dis- ers forgot about Rabin and narrowly oppressed. obey evacuation orders. According to elected Netanyahu. The church’s right-wing movement Ephron, the ugly invective came not Twenty years later, Netanyahu is is somewhat similar to the conserva- just from the margins, but from the again prime minister, the settler move- tive wave that overtook Washington upper echelons of the Likud party. ment has doubled in size and influ- during the past few decades, starting in Shabak, Israel’s security agency, feared ence and the peace process is a distant the 1980s under Ronald Reagan, at a that physical violence against Rabin memory. time when well-financed and effective was just a matter of time and oppor- groups like the Heritage Foundation tunity. However, as Ephron explains, MARK J. DAVIS is a retired attorney living in emerged and helped shift the country Shabak made numerous colossal mis- Santa Fe, N.M. to the right. Francis, of course, is turning all this on its head—or at least trying to—and BART JONES Gehring meticulously documents what he is up against. He spends more than A CHANGE IN DIRECTION half the book examining the right-wing “hijacking” of the church, arguing that THE FRANCIS EFFECT told a radio station that she had spent many bishops and Catholic groups are A Radical Pope’s Challenge to the hours “praying to Allah” that she would out of touch with Francis. American Catholic Church catch just a glimpse of Francis as he He tells the story of how eight By John Gehring drove through the city. months after Francis’ shocking elec- Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 286p This is some of the effect Francis tion as pope, the U.S. bishops gath- $32 has on people—and not just devout ered in Baltimore for the first time as a Catholics. Part of the Francis phenom- group since his elevation. Little seemed A friend in Philadelphia who is a enon is how he is appealing to people to have changed for them. The topics lapsed Catholic tells me that when outside the Catholic realm too. He were the same: same-sex marriage, Pope Francis paid a visit to her area is what John Gehring, in The Francis contraception, religious liberty. No for- in September, she spent most of the Effect, calls an “unlikely global rock mal discussion about unemployment, weekend crying because she was so star.” income inequality, poverty, attacks to moved. And she wasn’t even at any of Gehring is a self-described cra- workers’ rights or the environment. the events. She watched it all on televi- dle Catholic who attended Catholic “It was business as usual taking sion in her living room in the suburbs. schools from kindergarten through place against the backdrop of a papa- In New York, a Muslim woman college, served as an altar boy, wrote cy redefining the Catholic narrative,”

38 America February 1, 2016 February 1, 2016 America 39 Gehring writes. “The memo never think tanks like the Acton Institute, made it to Baltimore.” a free-market group based in Grand Gehring argues that some bishops Rapids, Mich. also never got the memo about simple Now, arriving just in time, Gehring living and a “church that is poor and hopes, are the Francis-era troops. The for the poor” that Francis announced “Francis era” here officially began with during his first news conference as pon- his surprise appointment of Blase tiff. Gehring holds up as one example Cupich as archbishop of Chicago, the Archbishop John Myers of Newark. third largest archdiocese in the nation. He embarked on $500,000 in “luxury Cupich declined to live in luxurious renovations” to a five-bedroom, three- quarters. He said no to a $14 million car-garage mansion that he was prepar- mansion with 19 chimneys, Gehring ing as his retirement residence on eight notes. acres of land. Another Francis man, Cardinal Seán In a clear sign of the tensions, some of O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., is the pontiff ’s the bishops have tak- top American advisor. en verbal shots at the O’Malley, who was pope. Gehring notes brought in to clean how Bishop Thomas up the sex abuse mess Tobin of Providence, in Boston, is the kind R.I., took to his di- of humble, transpar- ocesan newspaper to ent leader the pope is wonder why Francis looking for. He wears hasn’t spoken more a simple brown cas- about abortion. He sock and has been also expressed dis- seen mowing his comfort over the own lawn. On “60 pope’s “free-wheeling Minutes” he called the style” and “off-the- Pope Benedict XVI- cuff comments.” initiated investigation Perhaps the big- into U.S. nuns a “di- gest critic of Francis saster.” Other Francis among America’s men are slowly being Catholic hierarchy has been Cardinal put in place. Raymond Burke, whom Francis re- But as Gehring points out, it won’t moved from his post as head of the be easy. Of 270 active bishops, 232 were highest Vatican court. In now famous appointed by John Paul II or Benedict comments, Burke described the Francis- XVI over nearly 35 years. Francis, al- led church as a “ship without a rudder.” ready 78, will not serve anywhere near Supplementing these efforts are that long. “Change is not likely to come think tanks, advocacy groups and in- quickly,” Gehring writes. tellectuals, Gehring asserts. He points Gehring’s book was published be- to figures like William Donohue of the fore Francis’ historic trip to the United Catholic League for Religious and Civil States, so the impact of the visit is not Rights, who “plays the role of gloves-off assessed. Without a doubt, the pontiff ’s street fighter” defending church ortho- unforgettable moments on the East doxy. Coast—from Congress to Madison There are intellectuals, like Robert Square Garden to Independence George of Princeton University, publi- Hall—will help advance his imprint cations like First Things, wealthy chief on the American church. His arresting executive officers like Tom Monaghan, mention of Dorothy Day during his ad- the founder of Domino’s Pizza, and dress to Congress could not have laid

40 America February 1, 2016 out more clearly what kind of church known and otherwise—who weigh in mains to be seen. But clearly, the battle he envisions. Whether that will fully on Francis. Because there are so many, is on. happen during his pontificate is diffi- the names and stories can get lost in the cult to say. shuffle, but they give a helpful panora- BART JONES is Newsday’s religion writer. He Gehring’s book provides a valuable ma of the Catholic landscape according traveled with the Vatican press corps aboard roadmap to the different forces at play. to Gehring. Pope Francis’ plane for his Cuba-United States trip. Mr. Jones is also the author of HUGO! The book is populated by mini-vi- Whether the American church will The Hugo Chavez Story: From Mud Hut to gnettes of dozens of Catholics—well- turn to the one Gehring pines for re- Perpetual Revolution.

School of Theology in Berkeley. Enjoy a semes- Spanish): newsletters, articles, essays, websites, CLASSIFIED ter or two at the only Jesuit sabbatical program pastoral letters, ministry resources, motivational in North America. The scenic San Francisco Bay conferences, spirituality material, etc. Contact: Pilgrimage Area is the setting for this unique program, situ- [email protected] (815) 694-0713. ating experienced ecclesial ministers within the PILGRIMAGES with Russell Roide, S.J.; www. broader context of a major international Jesuit pilgrimages.com/frroide for info and flyer. Please formation center. Meet future church leaders send email to Father Roide at [email protected]. WANT YOUR AD HERE? from over 35 countries: Jesuit scholastics, women religious and laypeople. The holistic program is Visit americamagazine.org. Retreats enriched by training and renewal in the Ignatian Email: [email protected]. CELEBRATE Pope Francis’ vision. Inspiring, dy- vision. For more information, visit www.scu.edu/ Call 212-515-0102. namic parish missions, retreats: “Discipleship and jst, or contact Rob McChesney, S.J., at (510) Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. the Francis Effect” and “Celebrating the Jubilee of 549-5046 or [email protected]. “Your time, 1-5 times: $2; 6-11 times: $1.75; 12-23 times: $1.50; Mercy.” Website: www.sabbathretreats.org. God’s goodness!” 24 or more times: $1.25. For an additional $30, your print ad will be posted on America’s Web site for one Sabbatical Translator week. The flat rate for a Web-only classified ad is $150 NEW DIRECTIONS sabbatical at the Jesuit Luis Baudry-Simón, translator (from English into for 30 days.

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February 1, 2016 America 41 THE WORD

and John, and their boats began to sink. It is in response to the overwhelm- God Meets Us ing catch of fish that Simon Peter FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C), FEB. 7, 2016 recognizes the presence of God in his Readings: Is 6:1-8; Ps 138:1-8; 1 Cor 15:1-11; Lk 5:1-11 fishing boat in the seemingly ordinary person of Jesus. Like Isaiah in God’s “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Lk 5:8) Temple, Simon’s sense of unworthiness he prophet Isaiah’s call nar- reality of doing our work, talking with in the presence of God overwhelms rative is also a theophany, in friends, in the ups and downs of fami- him: “He fell down at Jesus’ knees, say- which Isaiah perceives God ly life, walking the dog, seeing a movie, ing, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am T a sinful man!’” A profound recognition on the heavenly throne. God’s majes- riding the subway or kayaking on a lake. ty and transcendence overwhelm the The ordinary work and leisure of of God incarnate took place not while prophet, and Isaiah’s descriptions of everyday life are where God tends to Jesus was transfigured or enthroned in God by means of physical images— a reach out to meet us. God comes majesty, but in the casting and drawing vision of a high throne and the hem of to us where we are, as we are. up of their fishing nets. a garment that fills the Temple—evoke Jesus met his first disci- In response to the mi- God’s universal kingship and splendor. ples and apostles at their raculous catch of fish, In this divine vision, the seraphim work. When Simon, Peter recognizes God minister to God, praising God’s holi- Andrew (unnamed in with him. For Peter and ness and the glory that fills the earth. this account), James and the other fishermen, the The seraphim also prepare the prophet John first meet Jesus encounter was a call to for his mission. In response to Isaiah’s in Luke’s Gospel, they a new life—“Do not be claims that he is unworthy, “a man of were not overwhelmed afraid; from now on you unclean lips,” a seraph places a burn- by a vision but were fixed ing coal on Isaiah’s lips, purifying him. on their work. They were PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE Isaiah is now prepared to carry God’s not expecting seraphim, let alone a message to the people, since his “guilt theophany; they were washing their Meditate on both Isaiah’s and Peter’s encounters with the divine. Which one has departed” and his “sin is blotted nets after a fruitless night of fishing. speaks to you most deeply? Or do both of out.” The call narrative contrasts the Jesus, however, began to preach them express the reality of God’s presence majesty of God, holy, glorious and from Simon Peter’s boat, a powerful to you? Where and when have you mighty, and the human ordinariness of image for God’s presence in the or- encountered God most fully? Isaiah, who must be prepared to bear dinariness of human life. Not in the DUNNE TAD ART: God’s message. Angels purify Isaiah so Temple or a synagogue, where Jesus that he can prophecy for God. could also be found, but in the boat of will be catching people”—and they The narrative also draws our atten- a few working men is where the en- left their work to follow Jesus. tion to another reality. Most of us do counter with the incarnate God took God met Peter, and God meets not experience throne visions and the- place. After Jesus finished speaking to us, where we are. Like Isaiah, Peter ophanies that overwhelm us with God’s the crowds, he turned to the work at initially felt unworthy, unready and might and reflect God’s transcendence hand, the work of fishing. unprepared for the encounter and for when we encounter God. Most of us Jesus told Simon to “put out into the his new work, but God sees us and experience God in the mundane ex- deep water and let down your nets for a wants us for who we are and where we periences of daily life, in the ordinary catch.” Simon was reluctant to start the are. God will purify us, prepare us for process again, especially when they had our tasks and make us ready to do our JOHN W. MARTENS is a professor of theology caught nothing all night, but when he work, however ordinary or exalted at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. did put the nets back into the water the this work might be. But our ordinari- Twitter: @BibleJunkies. catch of fish was almost immediate, the ness will always be a part of who we nets straining with the bounty. There are, not a place absent from God but were so many fish that the nets began where God meets us every day. to break, they called for help to James JOHN W. MARTENS

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