THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY APRIL 29, 2013 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS
PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES eated directly below the canopied moment. EDITOR IN CHIEF altar, facing the facade of the Every kind of human face could be Matt Malone , S.J. basilica and just to the left of the seen at the rails, every language could S MANAGING EDITOR statue of St. Paul, I was about 20 feet be heard between the loggias, every cat - Robert C. Collins, S.J. from the pope when he entered St. egory and condition of person was pre - DIGITAL EDITOR Peter’s Square. Standing in a modified sent: young, old, clerical, lay, fit and ill. Maurice Timothy Reidy open jeep, under a long-awaited, bright Yet at the moment of Communion, we LITERARY EDITOR blue Roman sky, the former Jorge were truly one church, one visible body Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Mario Bergoglio, S.J., appeared over - of Christ. God’s dream “that they may POETRY EDITOR whelmed. He quickly found his stride, all be one” was realized that day in the James S. Torrens, S.J. however, bending over to kiss a baby piazza. “As you, Father, are in me and I ASSOCIATE EDITORS and even leaving his vehicle to greet a am in you, may they also be in us, so Kevin Clarke disabled man and his family. Frankly, if that the world may believe that you Kerry Weber he hadn’t looked a little uncomfortable, have sent me.” Luke Hansen, S.J. I would have been worried. An experi - I suspect that this is the last issue of EDITOR AT LARGE ence like this, an experience like no America that will have Pope Francis on James Martin, S.J. other, should unsettle a humble man. the cover—at least for a while. Still, you ART DIRECTOR As hard as it is to believe, given the never know. What we do know is that Stephanie Ratcliffe grandeur and beauty of the surround - these past two months have changed ASSISTANT EDITOR S ings, the installation of Pope Francis on the church—in exactly what way and to Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. March 19 was a pretty modest affair, what degree remains to be seen. Yet we Olga Segura many light years away from the papal who have lived through these days can - COLUMNISTS coronations of old. In fact, the symbols not help but feel changed. Angela Alaimo-O’Donnell of the papal office, the pallium (the As I headed for the airport after the Colleen Carroll Campbell white wool garment worn at the neck) installation Mass, the blue sky gave way John J. Conley, S.J. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M. and the fisherman’s ring, were given to to gray, and my time in Rome ended as James T. Keane the new pope during a brief rite before it had begun—in the rain. This time, John W. Martens the Mass properly started; thus was however, I felt no fear as I settled into Bill McGarvey avoided any appearance that the instal - my seat on Alitalia. Be not afraid, I Margot Patterson lation is a sacrament. thought. The Lord has kept his Michael Rossmann, S.J. Other innovations included the promise. His spirit is still among us, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT prominent placement and participation guiding our earthly pilgrimage through John Carr of representatives of the separated the gaudium and the spes , as well as the CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Orthodox churches and the proclama - painful struggles of modern life. The Lisa Pope tion of the Gospel in Greek, the lan - church’s challenges are great, her scan - guage in which the texts were originally dals not few; but where “sin increased, 106 West 56th Street composed. In all, there were perhaps a grace abounded all the more.” New York, NY 10019-3803 dozen significant changes to the day’s When I left America ’s offices for Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 proceedings, every one of them for the Rome, we were just about to ship the E-mail: [email protected]; sake of simplicity or inclusion. issue with a picture of St. Peter’s [email protected] The crowd got it. Most were moved Basilica on the cover. Our art director, Web site: www.americamagazine.org. by the new pope’s gestures. Not a few Stephanie Ratcliffe, and I chose to let Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 were in tears as they came forward for you decide whether the sun was rising © 2013 America Press, Inc. Communion. My life as a priest has not or setting over the basilica. been long, but distributing Communion Well, I don’t know about you, but at that liturgy is a high point and will I’ve made up my mind: a new day is likely remain so—not because of the breaking. Hope, the One who is hope, Cover: After his first Easter Mass, surroundings or the occasion, though still lives. On behalf of the editors and Pope Francis embraces 8-year-old both of those helped. No, it was the staff of America , thank you for accom - Dominic Gondreau, who has cere - bral palsy, in St. Peter’s Square on unity-in-diversity of the moment that panying us on this incredible journey. March 31. Gregorio Borgia, AP via was so moving, a truly eucharistic MATT MALONE, S.J. CNS. See p. 8, News Briefs. CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org VOL. 208 NO. 14, WHOLE NO. 5009 APRIL 29, 2013
ARTICLES 13 CHILE THE BEAUTIFUL Jesuit naturalists and the creation of Chile’s historic narrative Francis J. Sicius 16 HIS WAY OF PROCEEDING How might Jesuit spirituality influence Pope Francis’ papacy? James Martin 19 WHAT’S IN A NAME? The significance and challenge of St. Francis for Pope Francis Daniel P. Horan 13 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment
5 Editorial The Ties That Bind 6 Signs of the Times
10 Column Precious Allies James T. Keane 23 Philosopher’s Notebook A New Consistent Ethic? John J. Conley
26 Poem Prayer Kathleen Pesta 36 Letters
19 38 The Word God’s Gift for All John W. Martens
BOOKS & CULTURE 25 FILM HBO’s “Game of Thrones” BOOKS Catholic Vietnam; The New Testament on Sexuality; Far From the Tree
ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Reporting from Jesuit journals in Latin America, and resources on the Jesuits and Pope Francis. Plus, the Catholic Book Club discusses The Pope's Last Crusade. All at americamagazine.org. 25 CURRENT COMMENT
Shultz, who has been a vigorous proponent of energy policy Voice of Conscience reform. “We need to create energy where we use it and we Anthony Lewis, who died last month, began his career at have to avoid buying energy from governments and sources The New York Times as a reporter known for his lucid that could use the money we pay them to imperil our analyses of Supreme Court decisions—later developed in national security,” he said. two best sellers: Gideon’s Trumpet , on the right to a defense Mr. Shultz has proposed a revenue-neutral carbon tax, attorney, and Make No Law , on the case New York Times v. which would tax companies for carbon production but dis - Sullivan, which led to a ruling that the press could not be tribute the proceeds to taxpayers instead of the government. sued for libel unless the plaintiff could demonstrate malice This would limit the growth of government, which might in the writer’s intent. Beginning his op-ed column in 1969, entice some Republicans to sign on. The endorsement of Lewis moved from Washington to Boston to escape the Mr. Shultz should also help. It may take a touch of Reagan- company of those whom he might have to attack. He fought era bravado to move the conversation forward. “I’m driving for civil rights, opposed the Vietnam War—particularly the on sunshine, and it’s free,” Mr. Shultz says of the solar panels wanton brutality of the 1972 Christmas bombing of on his roof and the electric car in his garage. “Take that, Hanoi—and deplored U.S. support of undemocratic Ahmadinejad.” regimes in Latin America. Repeatedly he condemned the murder of four American churchwomen in El Salvador in Keystone State 1980 and of six Jesuits and their housekeepers in 1989 and The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, intended to connect demanded the prosecution of their killers. oil from tar sand deposits in Canada with U.S. Gulf Coast Mr. Lewis’s life was a quasi-religious commitment to the refineries, faced a public relations disaster when an existing First Amendment. In a lecture at Loyola University New long-distance pipeline burst under Mayflower, Ark., on Orleans in April 1993, he concluded, “The truth is that March 29. freedom begins not with judges but with the rest of us. The Officials from Exxon Mobil, which maintains the Supreme Court is the last resort, not the first, in keeping Pegasus pipeline, were quick to respond to the public rela - this a society that tolerates diversity of expression and ideas. tions catastrophe, low-balling estimates of the severity of the And when we look at public attitudes toward free speech leak and containing media access. Dozens of homes were today, I think we have reason for concern. For a good many evacuated after thousands of gallons of toxic Wabasca Americans are not ready to join [Justice] Holmes in assur - Heavy crude washed over Mayflower’s suburban lawns. ing freedom for the thought that we hate.” That was only 20 Wabasca is classified as a “heavy sour dilbit”that’s “dil” for years ago. We might ask ourselves whether that judgment is diluted and “bit” for bitumen, a thick, low-grade oil derived still true today. from tar and oil sands. Despite efforts to prevent damaging media leakage from the spill, Exxon haz-press agents were George Shultz, Mr. Sunshine not able to intercept some unsightly Internet video of the Four months into President Obama’s second term, his gurgling oil flow, which quickly went viral. domestic priorities are coming into focus. At the top are gun The proximate cause of the rupture remains to be deter - control, immigration reform and addressing the deficit. But mined. The capacity of the aged pipeline, designed to carry another pressing issue has once again fallen off the domestic thinner oil at lower pressure, was increased 50 percent in agenda. Aside from the heated controversy over the 2009 to 90,000 barrels a day, and the system’s flow was Keystone XL pipeline, there is still little national discussion reversed in 2006—two major sources of stress on Pegasus, a of energy policy. For the moment, Mr. Obama seems con - pipeline that crosses under the Mississippi River and first tent to pursue reform by executive order: by continuing to went into service in 1948. tighten emissions standards, for example. Given the political Keystone XL supporters worry that the bad judgment deadlock in Washington, one can understand, if not excuse, suggested by the Mayflower spill could rupture much grander his reluctance to deploy political capital in the service of plans for Keystone, a 2,000-mile pipeline intended to move what could very likely be a doomed attempt to convince nearly 10 times the amount of diluted bitumen that passed Congress to pass environmental legislation. through Pegasus each day. Keystone proponents say that One way forward, perhaps, is to cast environmental poli - compared with the total volume of oil moved by the nation’s cy as foreign rather than domestic policy. Consider the very pipeline network, that is an insignificant amount—unless, of reasonable position of former Secretary of State George P. course, one of those spills is pooling in your front yard.
America April 29, 2013 4 EDITORIAL The Ties That Bind
ccording to a new study, sponsored in part by the rary couples. Here are some suggestions: National Marriage Project at the University of Encourage commitment. The AVirginia, the average age at which American men church provides extensive programming and women first marry is rising. The authors of “Knot Yet: for engaged and married couples. But The Benefits and Costs of Delayed Marriage in America” couples in nontraditional living arrange - also note that for the first time, the average age at which ments—sometimes out of sheer economic necessity—often women marry is now one year older than the average age of avoid approaching their pastors and fellow Catholics because women at the birth of their first child. Women in every they fear they will be judged harshly. The question here is not social class are choosing to delay marriage. According to the the church’s teaching but how we should respond to those researchers, while previous generations viewed marriage as a who are not living in accord with it. We must respond with source of stability that facilitated financial or career pur - charity. We should also provide some practical help: The suits, many young adults now view marriage as a “capstone” church could offer day-long retreats, for example, for couples experience—that is, they believe that they must meet cer - who are not engaged or married. This time and space for tain financial, emotional, educational and career goals reflection and prayer might help the couples to grow in their before they tie the knot. While it is still the case that mar - relationship and to discern their futures better. In a context of riage is almost always in a couple’s economic self-interest, for prayerful support, a couple is also more likely to be open to some women there is one clear economic advantage to wait - the beauty and truth of the church’s teaching. ing: College-educated women who wait until their early 30s End the remaining financial disincentives to marriage. to marry can earn approximately $18,000 more each year Some individuals still pay more income tax when they than their similarly educated peers who marry in their 20s. marry than they would if they remained single. President Yet for an increasing number of couples, delaying mar - Obama acknowledged this problem in his recent State of riage does not mean delaying having children. While most the Union address. W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the college-educated women give birth to their first child two National Marriage Project, has suggested that the govern - years after they are wed, nearly 60 percent of middle ment should simply issue checks to make up the difference. Americans—a group the study describes as “women who Create flexible work policies. Policies like paid sick leave, have a high school degree or some college”—have their first paternity leave, flexible work hours and child care stipends child outside of marriage. That is a deeply troubling trend. could help couples at every income level to achieve a better Practically speaking, children born outside of marriage, even work-family balance. In addition, small stipends for child those born to cohabitating couples, “are much more likely to care and health care have been shown to help relieve stresses experience family instability, school failure, and emotional felt by parents in low-paying jobs; such policies also encour - problems.” In fact, the children of such couples are three age greater engagement in their children’s school lives. times more likely to see their parents’ relationships end. Make college more affordable. Not being weighed down The institution of marriage, of course, is a stabilizing by mountains of debt would offer 20-somethings the finan - force for children only when the marriage is stable. Studies cial freedom they believe is necessary to settle down. In have also shown that the children of married couples whose addition, attending college helps young adults realize their relationships are marked by chronic conflict fare worse than potential, introduces them to numerous career options and those in more stable, single-parent or divorced homes. Still, better prepares them for those careers. children have a right to safe and stable homes, and their par - Marriage is not a capstone social project; it is a funda - ents have a duty to provide such homes by making a lifelong mental social building block, “a partnership of the whole of commitment. The tragic fact that this ideal family arrange - life” that by its very nature, as the catechism says, is “ordered ment is sometimes clearly impossible does not mean that it toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and is therefore optional. education of offspring.” With the right incentives and While promoting marriage as the social and moral encouragement, more couples might come to see marriage norm, however, both the church and the state should respond not as one more milestone in early adulthood but as a life - in charity to the lived and diverse experiences of contempo - long and life-giving journey.
April 29, 2013 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES
MEDIA ANALYSIS Are Kermit Gosnell’s Crimes Too Horrible to Write About? ew homicide trials have been as gut-wrenching as that of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist charged with killing one adult patient F and seven newborns who survived his late-term abortion procedures only to be allegedly killed by Gosnell or at his direction. According to the grisly testimony of members of his staff, several of whom have entered guilty pleas and agreed to tes - tify against Gosnell, his Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia was a shop of horrors. Gosnell may be responsible for far more deaths than the homicides he has been charged with; he and staff members may have murdered hundreds of infants born alive after the induced premature deliveries for which he became known. This would rank him among America’s most prolific serial killers. It is easy to understand why any human being would want to avoid hearing about beheadings of babies, fetal dismemberment, newborns left to sob themselves to death on “clinic” shelves and the rest of the many tales of the macabre emanat - ing from trial testimony. But reporters are paid to swallow hard and represent the public interest during such awful spec - tacles. The idea is that when the public Press and coverage in local media there national coverage. A picture of the is informed, violations like this are far had been scant evidence of national courtroom’s empty reserved section for less likely to be repeated. engagement with the story even as media circulated quickly on the social So where was the national media as other “local” stories, the firing of media network Twitter, and the media’s the Gosnell trial began on March 18? Rutgers University basketball coach indifference to the trial quickly became Beyond reports from the Associated Mike Rice, for example, dominated a cause célèbre among pundits and
IMMIGRATION cent) and Republicans (53 percent) support an earned path to citizenship, Nationwide Rallies Cry Out to as do majorities of all religious groups, Congress for Comprehensive Reform including Hispanic Catholics (74 per - cent) and white Catholics (62 percent). rom across the country, by bus, sive immigration reform law that The widespread support for a path to plane and train, tens of thou - addresses a range of problems with the citizenship “is that rarest of rarities in Fsands of people calling for com - current system. our polarized political environment—a prehensive immigration reform cov - And it is not just undocumented policy that enjoys majority support ered the West Lawn of the U.S. immigrants themselves who support across partisan and religious lines,” said Capitol on April 10 in one of more reform. More than six of out of 10 Robert P. Jones, chief executive officer of than a dozen similar events taking Americans agree that immigrants cur - the Public Religion Research Institute. place around the United States. rently living in the country illegally A Senate bill being crafted by the Cries of: “Si, se puede” (Spanish for should be allowed to become citizens bipartisan, so-called “gang of eight” “Yes, we can”) and “What do we want? provided they meet certain require - was said by some members of the Citizenship! When do we want it? ments, according to a survey by the panel to be nearly ready to unveil. It Now!” rose from the crowd in Public Religion Research Institute in was expected to incorporate goals like Washington. The rally was organized partnership with the Brookings a path to legalization and citizenship as part of a nationwide campaign to Institution. Majorities of Democrats for the majority of the estimated 11 push Congress to pass a comprehen - (71 percent), independents (64 per - million people in the United States
America April 29, 2013 6 national coverage took off. Powers NEWS THAT WON’T FIT? The March Beyond shining a light on the for Life in Washington Jan. 25. wrote: “A Lexis-Nexis search shows grotesquerie of late-term abortion, none of the news shows on the three Gosnell’s case has a number of other major national television networks has public policy implications. It forced mentioned the Gosnell trial in the last Pennsylvania authorities, properly, to three months…despite headline-wor - revisit minimum health, safety and thy testimony.” Powers’s scolding pro - oversight standards for abortion voked a national examination of con - providers. Other states have followed science at mainstream media sites, and suit, though pro-choice critics describe some editors and commentators such efforts as thinly veiled attempts to acknowledged that the case should diminish “reproductive rights.” And the have been better attended to. On April case cries out, at least, for a re-exami - 12 the Gosnell trial became the lead nation of the 24-week standard set by story on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper Roe v. Wade in determining the state’s 360.” interest in protecting life. But if social media propelled by pro- More poignantly, Gosnell finally life outrage was enough to shame secu - suggests that it is past time to better lar media into a more thorough review codify and enforce what the law of the case, it also provoked a backlash requires when babies survive abortion. from the pro-choice community, which Advocates for safe and legal abortions bloggers at pro-life and conservative quickly suggested that the Gosnell suggest such cases are rare, but the evi - media sites. story did not so much illustrate the dence emerging from the Women’s But it wasn’t until USA Today ran brutality of abortion as much as the Medical Society suggests otherwise; an opinion column by the Fox News horrors that can ensue when access to and however rare, standards of public contributor Kirsten Powers on April abortion is limited by income, regula - decency, still must be enforced. 11 that the story about the lack of tory code and geography. KEVIN CLARKE who lack legal status; increases in the should accomplish. Stepped-up depor - number of visas available for workers; tation under the Obama administra - changes in the way family reunification tion was cited by many people on stage visas are granted; and a set of require - and in the crowd as something that is ments for ensuring that the Mexican making their lives more difficult. border is “secure.” Martin, a butcher originally from President Obama has been pushing from Mexico who traveled to the legislation but has been giving the Washington with members of his Senate panel time to pull together a Catholic parish in Grand Rapids, bill that might draw votes from both Mich., said that because of his lack of parties. Results of the 2012 election legal status he has not been able to that gave Mr. Obama more than 70 return to see his now-elderly parents percent of the votes of Latinos prod - in the 15 years since he left ded Republican leaders to rethink Guadalajara. their previous opposition to immigra - His three children are U.S. citizens, tion reform that includes legalization and every day “we worry about depor - or a path to citizenship. tation.” Sentiments expressed at the rally “Our life is here,” Martin said. “We JUST SAY YES: A rally for compre - gave a sense of just how complex the only want an opportunity to lead our hensive immigration reform on April demands are for what legislation lives. We are all children of God.” 10 in Washington.
April 29, 2013 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Curia Reform The Vatican Secretariat of State NEWS BRIEFS announced on April 13 that Pope In an letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on April Francis has named a committee of 11, Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, eight cardinals “to advise him in the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on government of the universal church International Justice and Peace, urged the Obama and to study a plan for revising the administration to expedite a review of U.N. Arms apostolic constitution on the Roman Trade Treaty , so the president can sign it in early June. Curia, ‘Pastor Bonus.’” The advisory • Vietnamese authorities say the Christian leader committee represents a step toward the Emil Joseph Hoang Van Ngai committed “suicide through electric Kapaun reform of Vatican government that was shock” while in police custody on March 17,” an assess - recommended during the cardinals’ ment rejected by family members who charge that he was beaten to meetings that preceded the papal elec - death. • On March 8 Colorado lawmakers approved legislation to allow tion last month. The list of cardinals undocumented immigrant students to pay in-state tuition at Colorado’s selected for the committee is notable public colleges and universities. • President Obama on April 11 posthu - for the high representation of the mously awarded the Medal of Honor to the Rev. Emil Kapaun , an army Americas (three members, including chaplain during the Korean War who died in a prisoner of war camp in Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, 1951. • Eight-year-old Dominic Gondreau of Rhode Island, son of the O.F.M.Cap. of Boston) and English- Providence College theology professor Paul Gondreau, shared an emo - speaking countries (also three, count - tional moment with Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, when Dominic, ing India’s Cardinal Oswald Gracias of who has cerebral palsy, was lifted up for a heart-stopping embrace with Bombay). The role of coordinator has the pope that was quickly broadcast around the world. been given to Cardinal Oscar A. Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras. Five continents are represented. Only 17 relief camps on the border, where April 8 on cooperation, establishing a two members come from Europe, the Turkey’s government is providing security assistance committee to sup - church’s traditional heartland, and only humanitarian assistance to an estimat - port the Central American nation’s one shares the Italian nationality of the ed 200,000 refugees, most of them internal peace process. That effort has majority of Vatican officials. The cardi - Syrian Sunni Muslims. “A month ago, so far achieved a truce between the nals will begin meeting in October. some churches met with the [Turkish] nation’s two main gangs, MS-13 and foreign minister, and they requested Barrio 18. The gang truce, begun in A Camp Apart for that for Christians it would be better to March 2012 and negotiated with the open another camp,” the U.N. High assistance of El Salvador’s military Christian Refugees Commissioner for Refugees spokesper - bishop, Fabio Colindres, and the social Christians escaping the two-year civil son in Turkey, Metin Corabatir, said on leader Ra úl Mijango, has led to a signif - war in Syria will soon have their own April 12. The U.N.H.C.R. estimates icant drop in El Salvador’s homicide humanitarian aid camp, the Disaster that the conflict between pro-govern - rate—to 5.9 murders per day from 14. and Emergency Management ment forces and rebels in Syria has The secretary general of the O.A.S., Presidency of Turkey reported. The killed as many as 70,000 people and José Miguel Insulza, commented, “The separate camp for Christians is being produced more than a million refugees, truce between the gangs is just the built near Mor Abraham Syriac most of them children. beginning; changing the way of life of a Monastery near the Turkish town of significant number of young people, Midyat, about 30 miles from the Diminishing Violence giving them hope, promoting peace and Turkish-Syrian border. Catholic Relief rehabilitating them is a much more Services reported in March that In El Salvador complex task.” approximately 200 Syrian Christian Th e Organization of American States refugees in that area were sheltering in and the government of El Salvador local churches, afraid to go to the other signed a cooperation agreement on From CNS and other sources.
America April 29, 2013 8
JAMES T. KEANE
Precious Allies hen the Brazilian archi - of the one worn by St. Thomas More need not just comment on the human tect Oscar Niemeyer died in a famous portrait by Hans Holbein. condition but can lift up the human Win December at the age of Because More chose martyrdom in spirit toward something beyond itself, 104, obituaries listed among his most 1535 rather than betray his conscience something that believers might call significant edifices two structures built at the demands of Henry VIII, some God. Their belief (or lack of it) might for remarkably different clients: the commentators suggested Scalia was make them seem unlikely fellow travel - French Communist Party headquar - making a none-too-subtle point about ers for those who are deeply invested in ters in Paris (1965) and the Roman the Obama administration’s ongoing the Christian tradition, but they are Catholic cathedral in Brasília (1958). political struggle with Catholic bish - fellow travelers nonetheless. Pope Another church design of Niemeyer’s ops over religious exemptions to ele - Francis, who has linked large-scale acts is considered by many architects to be ments of the Affordable Care Act. of violence to the “attempt to eliminate even more significant than his church More’s final words are God and the divine in Brasília because it predated the reputed to have been, “I die from the horizon of liturgical and architectural ferment the King’s good servant, but The sacred humanity,” nevertheless around the Second Vatican Council by God’s first.” also suggested recently several decades: the Church of St. Robert Bolt, the British need not that atheists could be Francis of Assisi in Pampulha, Brazil writer whose play “A Man always “precious allies” of the (1940). Described by fans as a whim - for All Seasons” (later made church in efforts “to sical conjuring of a bouncing ball and into an Academy Award- be set defend the dignity of by foes as a garish and profane take on winning movie) did much to against people, in the building an airplane hangar, the building launch Thomas More into of a peaceful coexistence (whose design features a prominent the public imagination four the profane. between peoples and in row of parabolas) has had a profound centuries after his death and the careful protection of influence on church architecture several decades after his creation.” throughout the world. It would not canonization, described More as “a And why not? As Flannery inevitably look out of place in a pre - man with an adamantine sense of his O’Connor once acidly noted about sent-day North American parish, a own self,” a person whose unswerving Catholic fiction, a fairly consistent testament to the reach of Niemeyer’s commitment to his faith and his own motif of self-consciously Christian art, ideas about sacred buildings. conscience made it possible to make architecture and literature is its One other thing: like Le Corbusier, the ultimate sacrifice. But Bolt (who deplorable tendency toward either the his mentor (and fellow church design - also later wrote the screenplay for “The saccharine or the obscene, as if saints er—he built the famous “Pilgrim’s Mission”) admired More because of his are innocent or terrible and never any - Chapel” in Ronchamp, France), defense of conscience, not his religion. thing in between. If we truly accept the Niemeyer was an atheist. Robert Bolt was an atheist. significance of the Incarnation, we also A month after Niemeyer’s death, Strange bedfellows, no? They are accept that nothing in creation is for - the secular and the religious met again not alone. Xavier Beauvois, the director eign to God and to belief, even if craft - at the second inauguration of of the 2010 cinematic masterpiece “Of ed for a dramatically different purpose. President Obama in Washington, Gods and Men,” also identifies himself The sacred need not always be set D.C. On that day, Supreme Court as an atheist, despite the explicitly reli - against the profane; the church need Justice Antonin Scalia drew attention gious nature of that film. The list goes not always be against the world. And for the jaunty cap he sported, a replica on and on. What artists like Beauvois in valorizing a transcendent aesthetic, and Bolt (and Niemeyer and Le in holding up what is praiseworthy Corbusier, in their own way) share and godly, the atheists can indeed be JAMES T. KEANE is an editor at Orbis Books in Ossining, N.Y., and a former associate edi - with believers is an admiration for a our allies. Sometimes they point to tor of America. transcendent aesthetic, a sense that art God in places the rest of us fail to look.
America April 29, 2013 10
America April 29, 2013 12 Jesuit naturalists and the creation of a nation’s historic narrative
A N I Z O G A R
A I N E S K / K C O T S R E T T U H S
: O T O H P Chile the Beautiful BY FRANCIS J. SICIUS
rossing the Andes in the mid-17th century, Alonso de Ovalle, S.J., described the magnificence of the Cordillera as “those mountains sitting on clouds.” He marveled at the “rainbow stretching across the sky” like a crown. In addi - tion to bringing Christianity to Chile, the early Jesuit missionaries created Chile’s historic narrative, which celebrated the natural beauty and fecundity Cof that country and provided the historic roots of the country’s national identity. The early Jesuit writers were Chile’s first historians. This legacy begins with Ovalle, born in Santiago de Chile on July 27, 1603, into a distinguished Creole family that controlled a grand encomienda just north of Santiago. They sent their son Alonso to the secondary
GOD SHEDS HIS GRACE: Volcanoes of Cordillera de FRANCIS J. SICIUS, a professor of history at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Fla., recently returned la Sal, west of San Pedro from Chile, where he was a Fulbright scholar at the Center for Social and Cultural Research (known in de Atacama, Chile Spanish as CISOC) at the Jesuit University Alberto Hurtado in Santiago.
April 29, 2013 America 13 school conducted by the Jesuits, and on Dec. 8, 1618, he enjoying a great abundance.” In addition to praising the entered the order. Eventually he became treasurer of the “abundant fertility of the land,” he exulted in the “sky which Jesuit vice province in Chile, and in this role he traveled to [was] clear and cloudless” during the day and at night, Madrid and Rome. Upon his arrival he was surprised to “resplendent with stars more beautiful, joyful, brilliant, and learn that even among the educated of Europe, little was clear than in any other hemisphere of the world.” known of his beloved Chile. This revelation inspired him to A hundred years after Rosales recorded his observations, write Histórica Relación del Reyno de Chile, published in Juan Ignacio Molina, S.J., contributed another work that Rome in 1646. celebrated the natural wonders of Chile. Born in With poetic flare Ovalle described Chile’s inhabitants, its Guaraculén on June 24, 1740, into an old Criollo family, valleys, the Cordillera, the sea, the springs of water, its trees, Molina at age 15 entered the Society of Jesus, where he fruits and animals. Ovalle created a literary portrait of Chile studied humanities and developed a great interest in Latin replete with abundant resources enveloped in a dramatic poetry. He spent his free hours studying the flora and fauna and beautiful natural setting. He believed that the moun - around the Jesuit country house at nearby Caren, northwest tains, forests and shore - of Santiago, and while in lines of Chile provided the novitiate he wrote a more than material com - For over two centuries, poem that celebrated the fort; they also nurtured, magnificence of Chile’s protected and defined the Jesuit writers created a rivers. In 1767 the Jesuits Chilean essence. In his lit - were expelled from South erary masterpiece, Alone, Chilean national identity America and Molina left which is the name of a rooted in its natural his homeland never to Chilean tree, Ovalle return. But the love of the defined the Chilean wonders. natural beauty of his national consciousness. native country had been He imagined the Chilean imprinted on his mind. as “a man of peace living in When he arrived in an era of violence, a man whose spirit remains unstained by Europe, he learned to his dismay that many reputable schol - the dissolute times in which he lives.” He wrote, “The ars had dismissed the entire new world as a place where a Chilean, although surrounded by vanity, maintains his sub - poor natural environment had produced inferior plants, ani - lime feelings rooted in his belief in the miracles and the nat - mal life and human beings. From his new home in Bologna, ural wonders of his land.” Italy, Molina addressed these misconceptions in Historia In 1625, while Ovalle was writing in Rome, Diego de Natural y Civil de Chile, which became the principal source Rosales, S.J., who was born in Madrid, traveled to Chile to from which Europeans drew zoological and botanical infor - work with the Arauca tribes. He lived the rest of his life as mation about that country. Writing in the style of his an untiring missionary converting the Araucan, living Enlightenment Age contemporaries, and following the sys - among them, learning their language and culture and work - tem established by Carl Linnaeus, the Swiss naturalist, he ing indefatigably for peace in the Araucan war with Spain eschewed the poetic for the simply factual, so his prose does that continued throughout his lifetime. not match the lyrical style of Ovalle. Nevertheless, his pride In 1670, near the end of his career, Rosales began to in the beauty of the natural resources of his homeland per - write the history of Chile, titled, Historia General del Reino meates the work. He told Europeans that his country was de Chile: Flandes Indiano. Although not in print until almost the garden of South America, “where…perfection and two centuries after his death, the work contains ideas that abundance can be enjoyed in climates similar to their own.” Rosales certainly shared with his contemporaries and the He proclaimed Chile to be “one of the best countries in all seeds of national identity he helped sow into Chile’s collec - of America. The beauty of the sky and the gentle climate,” tive consciousness. In this book he joins his predecessor he wrote, “have made it one of the richest and most fertile Ovalle in celebrating the beauty, majesty and singularity of places on earth.” Chile’s natural resources. Describing the success of the For over two centuries, from earliest colonial days to the Indians in their struggle against the Spanish soldiers, he revolutionary era of the early 19th century, Jesuit writers explains that they did not need castles, fortifications or created a Chilean national identity rooted in its natural walls. “The richness of the land,” Rosales explained, “made wonders. During the wars of independence, Creole leaders them strong [and] instilled in them strength and valor; for understood that success was contingent on the creation of a the fertility of the land left them wanting for nothing and feasible sense of nation. And while throughout Latin
America April 29, 2013 14 America revolutionary leaders struggled with the concept of unregulated extraction of natural resources. The impact of nationalism, Chile, thanks to the Jesuit narrative, had rapid, unregulated development has contributed to the already become one of the few places that could be consid - depletion of fisheries, destruction of natural forests, soil ered an “emotionally plausible” entity. erosion and desertification, as well as pollution of water National anthems often express the spirit that binds a sources. Mining of nonrenewable natural resources pollut - people together and gives them common identity and pur - ed both the air and water of nearby towns and coastal pose. The French celebrate in their national hymn the revo - areas. By the same token, poor air quality and inadequate lutionary roots of their nation by honoring the volunteers treatment of sewage remain among the principal environ - from Marseilles; the English celebrate their monarchy; mental problems of Chile’s capital city, Santiago, and other Germans proclaim freedom for the fatherland; and citizens major urban areas. of the United States celebrate a flag that waves over a free Chile’s contemporary political leaders have been seduced people. In their national anthem Chileans celebrate nature. by the materialist myth of progress that measures achieve - Rejecting an earlier anthem born in the time of the inde - ment in simple monetary terms. They have been convinced pendence movement, which was a militant call to arms, that increased gross national income is the panacea for Chileans rewrote their anthem in 1842 to celebrate their national growth. But as the Russian personalist philosopher country’s natural beauty. “Pure, Chile, is your blue sky,” it Nicholas Berdyaev noted: When economic data becomes proclaims: the only measure of progress, there is no progress, and the present is not an improvement on the past. Pure breezes flow across you as well. Episcopal leaders of the Catholic Church in Chile, evok - And your flower-embroidered field ing the Scriptures, Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical “Caritas Is a happy copy of Eden. in Veritate” and the historic narrative of their Jesuit prede - Majestic is the (white) snow-capped mountain cessors, have questioned recent Chilean leaders’ definition of That was given as a bastion by the Lord progress. The focus of Chile’s contemporary naturalists is That was given as a bastion by the Lord, on Patagonia, where a massive hydroelectric project threat - And the sea that quietly washes your shores ens the destruction of natural wonders seen nowhere else in Promises you future splendor. the world. The plan known as the HydroAysen Project will harness the energy of two major rivers by means of a series Contemporary Issues of dams that will flood over 14,000 acres of one of the most In recent years Chile’s natural endowment, the thread in the biodiverse regions of the world. In addition to destroying fabric of its national identity, has been threatened. In 1973, the unique flora and fauna of the area, the resultant flood - when the Pinochet regime turned to the economists at the ing will also dislocate six indigenous communities. Universidad Católica for advice on how to Luis Infanti de la Mora, the bishop and undo Chile’s financial catastrophe, their apostolic vicar of Aysén, in a 90-page pas - counsel was a monetary policy that ON THE WEB toral letter, not only quoted Pope Reporting from Jesuit journals stressed the need to adopt free market in Latin America. Benedict XVI but also echoed the words policies in which private initiative should miradaglobal.com of Jesuit naturalists from an earlier era lead the process of development accord - when he began his letter by proclaiming ing to principles of economic profit. that, “In every corner of the immense Chile emerged from military rule as a leading example Patagonia one discovers signs of God our creator, the vast of successful, market-oriented, economic restructuring beauty, the mystery that surrounds us, the colors, the among the developing nations of South America. Its eco - silence, the waters, the forests, the winds, and the animals, nomic model emphasized exports based on extractive the snow drifts, and the rainbows, and all of which provides activities in agriculture, fishing and lumber, as well as in a solemn and profound praise [to God].” He describes minerals (principally copper). Since the implementation of Patagonia as “all at once an expression of prayer, contempla - monetarist policy, the Chilean economy has made indis - tion, and exuberant life.” putable strides in poverty reduction. But a rising concen - In his pastoral letter, Bishop Mora reminded Chileans of tration of wealth and the erosion of economic security for the special natural gifts that are integral to the story of their many have continued to provide fuel for criticism of the country’s past. Without this perspective, Chilean leaders will model. In addition to the critics of Chile's economic continue to be seduced by the myth of materialist progress, model, the natural environment itself—which the early which ignores values ingrained in the nation’s history. These Jesuits celebrated—stands as a witness to the conse - values, first celebrated by the Jesuit naturalists of Chile, quences of following an economic model rooted in the remain essential to charting a course to genuine progress. A
April 29, 2013 America 15 His Way of Proceeding How might Jesuit spirituality influence Pope Francis’ papacy? BY JAMES MARTIN
he weeks following the election of Pope Francis, disponible, a Spanish word meaning “available,” ready to go the first Jesuit elected to that office, saw more wherever God, who works through our superiors, wishes. people asking questions about Jesuits than at This may help explain the surprising accession of perhaps any other time in the last 25 years. Cardinal Bergoglio to the papacy. Many people have won - TMost readers of America already know what a Jesuit is, but dered: Don’t most Jesuits at the end of their training make another question bears some reflection: How might Jesuit promises not to “strive or ambition” for high office in the spirituality influence, and how has it already influenced, our church and Society of Jesus? In short: Yes. Ignatius was new pope? opposed to the clerical careerism that he saw in his day and Jesuit spirituality is based on the life and teachings of St. built into the final vows a safeguard against that kind of Ignatius Loyola, the soldier-turned-mystic who founded the climbing. But freedom is also built into Ignatian spirituality. Society of Jesus in 1540. Much of that spirituality flows If a Jesuit is asked to do something by the church, he is avail - from his classic text, The Spiritual Exercises, a manual for a able. (And to answer a complex question: Yes, technically, four-week retreat inviting a person into imaginative medita - Pope Francis is still a Jesuit, according to Canon 705, which tions on the life of Christ. The Exercises mean more than states that a religious who is ordained a bishop remains a simply reading the New Testament. Retreatants are urged “member of his institute.”) to imagine themselves, with as much vividness as possible, Other sources of Ignatian spirituality are found in the saint’s in the Gospel scenes. As the spiritual writer Joseph Tetlow, laconic autobiography; the Jesuit Constitutions , written by S.J., once wrote, the retreatant is not even observing from a Ignatius; the lives of the Jesuit saints; and as John W. O’Malley, distance but is “standing warm in the Temple or ankle-deep S.J., points out in his superlative book The First Jesuits, the in the water of the Jordan.” Through such intense encoun - activities of St. Ignatius and the early Jesuits. As Father ters with the Gospel narratives, the person praying enters O’Malley notes, it is one thing to know that the Jesuits in the into a deep, personal relationship with Jesus. 16th century were available enough to take on any kind of min - Each Jesuit “makes” the Exercises at least twice in his life: istry that would “help souls,” as Ignatius put it; it is quite anoth - first as a novice and again, years later, at the end of the for - er to know that they opened a house for reformed prostitutes mation program during a period of time known as tertian - in Rome and sent theologians to the Council of Trent. ship. Therefore, we know that Pope Francis has done this. Moreover, in the late 1960’s, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., Some Ignatian Hallmarks served as the Jesuit novice director for the Argentine But what are the hallmarks of Ignatian spirituality (the Province, which means that he also guided novices through broader term used these days, as a complement to “Jesuit the Spiritual Exercises. He is therefore deeply familiar with spirituality”), and how might they influence Pope Francis? Ignatian spirituality. Let me suggest just a few and point out how we may have Embedded in the Exercises are certain key spiritual already seen them in the first few weeks of his papacy. themes. Jesuits and all who make the Exercises are invited to First, one of the most popular shorthand phrases to sum be “detached” from whatever would prevent them from fol - up Ignatian spirituality is “finding God in all things.” For lowing God. We are supposed to be “indifferent,” open Ignatius, God is not confined within the walls of a church. toward anything, preferring, in Ignatius’ famous formula - Besides the Mass, the other sacraments and Scripture, God tion, neither wealth nor poverty, neither health nor sickness, can be found in every moment of the day: in other people, neither a long life nor a short one. It is a tall spiritual order, in work, in family life, in nature and in music. This provides but a clear goal for Jesuits. Finally, Jesuits are to be Pope Francis with a world-embracing spirituality in which God is met everywhere and in everyone. The pope’s now- famous washing of feet at a juvenile detention center in JAMES MARTIN, S.J., is editor at large of America and the author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. Portions of this article Rome during the Holy Thursday liturgy underlines this. first appeared in The Tablet of London. God is found not only in a church and not only among
America April 29, 2013 16 JESUIT EMBRACE: Superior General Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., greets the new pope on March 17. S U S E J
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O T O H P Catholics, but also in a prison, among non-Catholics and Palace but in a small, two-room suite in the Casa Santa Muslim youth, and among both men and women. Marta, where the cardinals had stayed for the conclave. He Second, the Jesuit aims to be a “contemplative in action,” is, so far, choosing the poorer option. This is not unique to a person in a busy world with a listening heart. That quali - Jesuits (and many of Ignatius’ ideas on poverty were ty was evidenced within the first few minutes of this papa - inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, the pope’s namesake), but cy. When Francis stepped onto the balcony overlooking St. it i s a constitutive part of our spirituality. Peter’s Square, he began not with the customary papal Another hallmark is occasionally downplayed in com - blessing but with a request for the prayers of the people. In mentaries on Jesuit spirituality: flexibility. But over and the midst of a boisterous crowd, he asked for a moment of over in the Jesuit Constitutions , flexibility is recommended silent prayer and bowed his head. Offering quiet in the for Jesuit superiors. Remember that Father Bergoglio, midst of the tumult, he was the contemplative in action. before he became archbishop of Buenos Aires, was not only Third, like members of nearly all religious orders, Jesuits the novice director and director of studies, but also the make a vow of poverty. We do this twice in our lives—at Jesuit provincial, or regional superior, for the country— first vows and at final vows. We are, said three different assignments as a superior. St. Ignatius, to love poverty “as a mother.” Those roles in governance would all There are three reasons adduced for that: ON THE WEB require knowledge of Ignatius’ under - Resources on the Jesuits standing of flexibility. first, as an imitation of Jesus, who lived as and Pope Francis. a poor man; second, to free ourselves from americamagazine.org/popefrancis While the Constitutions set down the need for possessions; and third, to be exacting rules for Jesuit life, Ignatius rec - with the poor, whom Christ loved. ognized the need to meet situations as But Ignatius noted that Jesuits should not only accept they arise with creativity. After a lengthy description of poverty, we should actively choose to be like “the poor precisely what was required in a particular aspect of com - Christ.” So far Pope Francis has eschewed many of the tra - munity life, he would often add a proviso, knowing that ditional trappings of the papacy. Before stepping onto the unforeseen circumstances call for flexibility. “If something balcony, he set aside the elaborate mozzetta, the short cape else is expedient for an individual,” he writes about Jesuits that popes normally wear; since then his vestments have studying a particular course, “the superior will consider the been simple. He elected to live not in the grand Apostolic matter with prudence and may grant an exemption.”
April 29, 2013 America 17 Flexibility is a hallmark of the docu - ment, and it seems to be with Francis also, who seems happy to speak off-the- cuff in his homilies and adapt himself to the needs of the situation—like stop - ping a papal motorcade to embrace a dis - abled child in the crowd.
Jesus as Friend Two more observations about Pope Francis’ Ignatian heritage. His homily for the Easter Vigil Mass seemed, at least to me, suffused with Ignatian themes. (But of course this may be my Jesuit bias!) He began by inviting his listeners to place themselves within the story, one of the key techniques of the Exercises. Imagine yourself, he suggested, as one of the women going to the tomb on Easter Sunday. “We can imagine their feelings as they make their way to the tomb, a certain sadness, sorrow that Jesus had left them, he had died, his life had come to an end,” the pope said. “Life would now go on as before. Yet the women con - tinued to feel love, the love for Jesus which now led them to his tomb.” Later in the homily the pope asked his listeners to consider Jesus as a friend. “Welcome him as a friend, with trust: He is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms.” It was easy to hear echoes of the Spiritual Exercises, in which Ignatius asks us several times to speak to Jesus “as one friend speaks to another.” It is an especially warm way of looking at the Son of God. It would be wrong to say that knowl - edge of the pope’s spiritual traditions makes it possible to predict what he will do. But it would be equally wrong to say that we know nothing about his spiritu - ality or that his spirituality will have no influence on his ministry. Like any Jesuit, especially a former novice director and superior, Pope Francis is deeply ground - ed in the spirituality of St. Ignatius and the Society of Jesus, whose seal he has placed on his papal coat of arms. I look forward to seeing how Ignatian spiritual - ity may help him in his new office. A
America April 29, 2013 18 What’s in a Name? The significance and challenge of St. Francis for Pope Francis BY DANIEL P. HORAN t first glance, there are several intuitive and striking similarities between Pope Francis and the saint who inspired his new name. The news coverage of the newly elected pope has focused aA lot of attention on these points, including his simple lifestyle and pastoral care of H.I.V./AIDS patients— images that evoke St. Francis’ embrace of the infirm and marginalized of his own day. Few commentators, however, have delved into some of the more significant and challenging implications of the pope’s choice of the name Francis, motivated by the example of the poverello, the “little poor man,” of Assisi. There are at least three important aspects of the life of St. Francis that are often lost amid romantic depictions of the saint stand - ing in birdbaths or taming wolves. And these underappreci - ated dimensions of the saint’s legacy could make all the differ - ence in the church of the 21st century.
A Renouncer of Power Paying attention to St. Francis’ love of poverty is not unwarrant - ed. Indeed, the medieval man from Assisi sought to “follow in the footprints of Christ” in the most authentic way possible. For him this meant that one should, like the poor Christ who pro - claimed he had “nowhere to lay G N his head” in this world (Lk I R A H 9:58), dispossess oneself of L U A P those material things that inhib - / S N C it living the Gospel to the fullest. , T F E L
This did not mean, however, ; O V S that St. Francis advocated abject I R O J /
poverty. Like Gustavo M O C .
Gutiérrez, O.P., who in his clas - K C O T sic book A Theology of S R E T T U H S
DANIEL P. HORAN, O.F.M., a colum - , E V nist for America, is the author of sever - O B A al books, including Francis of Assisi : S O and the Future of Faith. He blogs at T O H
DatingGod.org. P
April 29, 2013 America 19 Liberation makes a distinction between abject and evangeli - cal poverty, St. Francis embraced the Gospel virtue as a means to an end, not an end in itself. The means was what St. Francis called sine proprio, or “living without anything of one’s own,” the vow Franciscans still profess today. The end was unencumbered relationship with God, with others and with the rest of creation. At the core of St. Francis’ obsessive focus on evangelical poverty was his renunciation of power. This radical dimen - sion of St. Francis’ way of life is frequently overlooked. Instead there are caricatures of a nature-loving proto-hippie or a gentle, popular preacher. Yet St. Francis’ conviction was grounded in the belief that like Jesus Christ, all human beings are called to be in relationship with their sisters and brothers. This helps explain the distinctive, twofold quality of the newly emergent Franciscan way of life. On the one hand, St. Francis eschewed the traditional religious cloisters of the monastic religious and the separat - ed lifestyle of the secular clergy of his day. His desire was to remove all barriers between himself and others. On the other hand, St. Francis’ refusal to participate in the emerg - ing market economy and activity of the rising merchant class of medieval Italy reflected his prescient fear of the monetary valuation of goods, labor and even people them - selves. He recognized early on what we continue to witness in our own age: women and men treated according to their wealth or social class and status. For this reason he forbade his fellow friars from “receiving coins or money in any form,” insisting they renounce that way of relating to others. The French medieval historian Jacques Dalarun makes the point, in his book Francis of Assisi and Power, that, “with Francis, there is less of a merely visible break with the world; at the heart of his life there is instead more intransigence toward any compromise with the world and its powers.” Poverty was the most overt sign of St. Francis’ renunciation of power and of all those dehumanizing facets of his time that stood in the way of an unmitigated embrace of others.
A Reformer Who Loved the Church Some have attempted to paint a picture of St. Francis as a radical reformer and something of a rebel. Others, like Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, have sought to present the poverello as an unwaveringly loyal son of the church. Both views are correct, but neither is complete. St. Francis was a man whose primary loyalty was to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But he also recognized the importance of remain - ing a loyal member of the church, a point he reiterated fre - quently in his writings and actions. In his Rule, or way of life, St. Francis explains that “the Rule and Life of the Lesser Brother is this: to observe the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ by living in obedience, without anything of one’s own, and in chastity.” He then “promises obedience
America April 29, 2013 20 and reverence to our Lord Pope Honorius and his succes - life calling him to be with his sisters and brothers in Christ. sors canonically elected and to the Roman Church.” St. Francis’ refusal to conform to the expectations of his From the very foundation of St. Francis’ community, day, both ecclesial and social, came not from the outside, but ecclesiastical approval was sought at the local level (first from a place deeply situated within the church. He was not from the Bishop of Assisi) and at the universal level (from afraid to follow the Gospel when it seemed that such an Pope Innocent III in 1209). In the 13th century there were action might contradict the conventions of his time, but he many penitential reform movements, a number of which was also not interested in breaking communion with the were eventually denounced as heretical. St. Francis always church. and explicitly expressed his commitment to the church and never wished to step outside of communion with it. A Peacemaker and Lover of Creation This did not prevent the saint, however, from perform - St. Francis’ most famous text is probably “The Canticle of ing what might anachronistically be called acts of “ecclesi - the Creatures.” Sung in churches around the world in adapt - astical disobedience,” akin to civil protests against unjust ed forms like “All Creatures of Our God and King” or laws. The best-known example is St. Francis’ peace mis - Marty Haugen’s lively “The Canticle of the Sun,” the spirit sion to Sultan Malik al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade. of the Franciscan poem is well known. What is less known Against Pope Innocent III’s instruction for the universal is the theological significance of the text for authentic church’s support of the effort and, as some legends suggest, Christian living. against the explicit instructions of the ecclesiastical repre - The first 9 of the 14 verses of the canticle highlight the sentatives on the crusaders’ front line, St. Francis made way St. Francis recognized God’s loving presence through history by engaging with the Muslim leader in what is the elements of creation, and they also express his under - remembered as a peaceful and fruitful dialogue. standing of how each aspect of the created order praises Against the social proscriptions to avoid lepers and other God by doing what God has intended each to do. The sun marginal figures, St. Francis and his friars made a commit - gives praise to God, for example, by being “beautiful and ment to live among all people, to minister to and to sincere - radiant with great splendor”; the earth gives praise to God ly enter into relationship with them. And at a time when by being that which “sustains and governs us, and who pro - clergy and religious were separated and lived apart from the duces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.” rest of the community, St. Francis saw the Gospel pattern of After naming several aspects of the created order, St.
April 29, 2013 America 21 Francis finally gets to human beings in verse 10. Here he From Assisi to Rome explains how human beings are to give praise to God: Pope Francis recognized and expressed many of these things in his address to media representatives at the Praised by You, my Lord, through those who give pardon Vatican on March 16. “That is how the name came into for Your Love, my heart: Francis of Assisi,” Pope Francis explained. “For and bear infirmity and tribulation. me, he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man Blessed are those who endure in peace who loves and protects creation; these days we do not have for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned. a very good relationship with creation, do we? He is the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man.” To be authentically human and to praise God means to be The challenge of St. Francis of Assisi’s way of life and a reconciler and a peacemaker, to forgive and to love. St. worldview for Pope Francis of Argentina’s papacy is Francis is not so concerned about rationality or the brilliance broader and more complex than the real but superficial of technological invention. He under - similarities that can be recognized at first stood that to be truly human was to be glance. The humility of an archbishop ON THE WEB like Christ, whose whole life and min - Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., blogs who forgoes private transportation to istry in the Gospel was about enacting at “In All Things.” travel with his working-class sisters and the forgiveness, pea ce and love of God. americamagazine.org/things brothers or the sensitivity of a pastor who Throughout this Canticle, and else - rebukes his priests for their refusal to where in his writings, St. Francis refers to minister to single mothers does indeed the other-than-human elements of creation as his “brothers” reflect the spirit of the poverello . But there is much more and “sisters.” Though this may appear “cute” to modern ears, he that offers promise and hope to the church in the 21st cen - was revealing a deep theological truth about our intrinsic kin - tury. ship with the rest of God’s creation. Humanity is not above The promise and hope of the name Francis might be and over against the rest of the created order, but part of it and found in the continued divestment and renunciation of alongside animals, plant life and the rest. We have a special role power, especially in an age skeptical about the trappings of to play in creation, but we should never forget our interdepen - antiquated bureaucracy and rightfully suspicious of cultic dence with the whole cosmos. clericalism. The promise and hope of the name Francis might be found in the potential reforms of a church that, as the Second Vatican Council proclaimed, is “in the modern world.” These reforms, or aggior - namento (“updating”), as Pope John XXIII called it, are not external imposi - tions on the church from a “secular” soci - ety, but potential exercises for a return to the basics of the Gospel, motivated by a deep love for the church. The promise and hope of the name Francis might be found in a pastoral lead - er of the universal church that models rec - onciliation, peacemaking and care for all of creation. All of these aspects of St. Francis’ lega - cy point to the centrality of relationship. Pope Francis already has begun to demon - strate his desire to be connected with all sorts of people (much to the chagrin of his security detail). It is my hope that Pope Francis will continue to rise to the chal - lenge of his name. The church really could use the spirit of Assisi today. A
America April 29, 2013 22 PHILOSOPHER’S NOTEBOOK
A New Consistent Ethic? uring the 1980s the U.S. passes communitarian as well as indi - exercise of personal desire are justified. Catholic community debated vidual rights. It underscores the right The virtue of prudence cannot retire Dthe nature of a consistent of a hospital to refuse to perform abor - from these debates in the name of free - ethic of life. Prodded by Cardinal tions, of a medical school to refuse to dom alone. Joseph Bernardin, activists and intel - provide abortion training and of a The search for consistency can also lectuals attempted to link the church’s nursing home to refuse to open the blunt the urgency of some political staunch opposition to abortion with door to Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s disciples. questions over others. There are excel - its prudential opposition to capital Similarly, in the debate over the lent reasons to oppose the abandon - punishment and its increasingly strict expansion of the civic definition of the ment of monogamous heterosexual interpretation of just war criteria. The family to include same-sex spouses, marriage as the norm for civic family consistent ethic quickly expanded to the bishops have highlighted the peril policy. But it is difficult to see how include economics, immigration, envi - to religious freedom implic - alterations in family ronmentalism and even the politics of it in such an alteration. policy can match the the soft-loan window. Despite its Government workers who Questions of moral gravity of our goodwill, the consistent ethic sagged refuse to preside over or conscience decision to kill the under the weight of its own inclusive - register such unions may innocent human beings ness. lose their posts. Adoption animate the we target as burdens in Recently, Catholic dioceses have agencies who insist that a church’s our practice of abortion tended to focus on three issues burn - child deserves both a moth - and euthanasia. Just as ing on the church-state frontier: the er and a father have faced defense of an earlier consistent right to life, family law and religious the revocation of their life and ethic tended to level freedom. Clearly, each of these issues license. Caterers, photogra - moral differences in an has its own complications. But are phers and owners of recep - family. allegiance to a hundred they united by some common frame - tion halls who refuse to par - disparate causes, our work? Do they constitute a new con - ticipate in objectionable marital cele - current trifecta of public policy issues sistent ethic for the American church? brations have become the objects of can divert our gaze from the scandal of The emphasis on a robust free exer - litigation. Questions of conscience our national complicity in the calculat - cise of religion clearly has shaped the increasingly animate the church’s ed destruction of the innocent. church’s advocacy on behalf of the defense of both life and the family. Perhaps the greatest consistency innocent’s right to life and of the right And yet. The libertarian contours underlying these three causes is a neg - of the monogamous heterosexual cou - of the current defense of the right to ative one. All are built on a moral cri - ple to remain the civic marital norm. life and the traditional family go only tique of contemporary American cul - The church’s longstanding resistance so far. The free exercise of religion may ture. In its abandonment of the right to abortion and euthanasia is increas - be our first and most sacred right, but to life in its borderline stages, its ingly a critique of state coercion. The it is not absolute. There is no question expansion of the notion of family and defense of the conscience of health of the sincerity of those who insist that its narrowing of the concept of reli - care workers who refuse to participate civic tolerance of physician-assisted gious freedom, the nation has aban - in objectionable medical procedures suicide or recognition of same-sex doned a moral vision recently consid - remains the centerpiece of the church’s romantic commitments is a matter of ered self-evident to nearly all citizens. advocacy for freedom against the conscience, often rooted in religious If an “American moment” ever existed ambient culture of death. It encom - conviction. Our very campaign against in Catholicism, it has long since van - euthanasia or alteration of traditional ished. The church’s anguished protest family civil codes rests on the convic - in defense of human life, human love JOHN J. CONLEY, S.J., holds the Knott Chair in Philosophy and Theology at Loyola tion that certain social goods are so and human freedom is part of the University Maryland in Baltimore. compelling that civic restraints on the requiem.
April 29, 2013 America 23 America April 29, 2013 24 BOOKS &CULTURE
FILM | JIM M C DERMOTT n the Bible, salvation regularly occurs by the most unexpected of BASTARDS AND BROKEN THINGS Ipaths. In a world that gave every - thing to the eldest boy, the Bible finds Salvation and surprise in HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ its heroes regularly in the younger son. In a society that rooted a woman’s sta - tus in marriage and children, Scripture turns to the barren and the widowed. And before a landscape of mighty powers, each more dangerous than the next, the Old Testament declares God has chosen for his own the tiniest of nations, while the New Testament proclaims liberation is to be found in a crucified man. In many ways, the Bible is about the shattered, the shunned and the disre - garded. So too is HBO’s hit television series Game of Thrones, whose third season began on Easter Sunday. In its fictional, medieval-ish land of Westeros, noble families struggle against one another both for survival and for the ultimate prize, the throne of the seven kingdoms. It is a world in which the rich, the handsome and the well-born have great advantage, while the poor, the misbegotten and the crippled teem in the muck for their own chance at life. And yet for George R. R. Martin, cre - ator of the award-winning book series N A O L S
N E L E H / O B H
: O T O H P
SNOWMAN: Kit Harington as Jon Snow and Peter Dinklage, right, as Tyrion Lannister in “Game of Thrones”
April 29, 2013 America 25 on which “Game of Thrones” is based, of some of the characters, it would ries appealing and accessible but also the journeys of those on the margins probably seem even less so). Nerd cul - more or less predictable, with a limited are central. Bastards and dwarfs, ture may be ascendant, but swords and range of possible change or conse - orphans and prisoners, a crippled boy, sorcery still generally drive far more quence. a lost little girl, a gigantic, mannish people away than they attract. “Game of Thrones” does not play warrior woman, star-crossed lovers— But in this respect too, “Game of by those rules. Important characters ”Game of Thrones” is populated with Thrones” is the brilliant exception to get killed. Many of them. And they get heroes like these. Admittedly, this does the rule. Season 2 averaged 11.6 mil - killed without warning; the show not sound like a story for everyone (if lion viewers per week across all of fiercely resists anything resembling the I were to rattle off the unusual names HBO’s platforms. To put that in per - last poetic moment of resolution, the spective: that is more than all concluding statement or heroic deed. but eight shows anywhere on (If Martin had written a Gospel, it PRAYER network or cable, including would have been Mark, with its reality juggernauts like spooky ending about Jesus dead and “Repeat this prayer 10 times, “American Idol.” It is also the women running away frightened send it to 15 friends. more than double the 5.4 from the empty tomb.) Within 3 days you will receive a blessing million it scored when the Likewise, in “Game of Thrones” you have been waiting for.” series first appeared in April background characters suddenly seize Who is this God, I wonder, who people think 2011. The second season the stage by storm and then refuse to DVDs and Blu-Rays are the leave. Other characters who have only has to be begged, cajoled, fastest selling videos HBO been mentioned show up in force, and manipulated has ever produced, and the opening up even more worlds, charac - into caring for his children? ratings for the first episode of ters and conflicts to explore. The first He is not my God. Season 3 again broke all season had five radically different set - records for the show. tings (shot simultaneously at times in Still, it makes no sense, what we call prayer. It is hard to explain why five countries). The second season Me, six times on bended knee pleading the show is so popular. This expanded the settings to seven, four of for my daughter’s unborn babies is not because the reasons which were all new. There are thus far and each time only blood and death. aren’t obvious; they are— 27 ongoing characters. strong, complex characters in Unable to get ahead of the story, the “What father whose child asks for bread the most challenging of cir - audience gets to be like children again, would hand him a stone?” cumstances, with everything brought to wonder and delight at each Indeed. at stake; and storytelling so new and unexpected turn. It sounds All the while I hear my mother’s mantra, rich and dense it makes “The like a gross overstatement, but truly, “I prayed to St. Anthony and found my Wire” look like the latest the surprises of the show are at times chapter book by Beverly so enormous and simultaneously well keys,” Cleary. No, “Game of hidden that all but the most brilliant of The steadfast creed of those Thrones” is difficult to talk viewers will find themselves dumb - secure in their on-the-job God. about in any detail because struck. (Everyone who has seen the Who is this God, then, this finder of keys, every week it offers so many show is at this moment nodding their delicious, eye-popping (and head and thinking of one such instance Who attends to household needs sometimes eye-gouging) sur - in particular.) but ignores a mother’s strangled cries? prises, that to say much is to “Game of Thrones” insists that in I cannot imagine, but this I know: risk spoiling them. For all its life everyone, whether king or pauper, That is not my God. purported variety, television is the main character on his or her own today continues to rely upon epic journey, and the terrain we travel familiar tropes and struc - is far more dangerous than we choose KATHLEEN PESTA tures: set-up, punch line; dra - to believe. The show well grasps our matic problem, twists, resolu - human capacity to push down or away KATHLEEN PESTA directs a confirmation program at tion; the cops will solve the that which unsettles us, to sing to our - St. Catherine’s Parish, Warwick, R.I., and is a freelance writer and editor. case; the girl will get her guy. selves sweet lullabies of security. But in Those structures make sto - Westeros, the threat of death is ever-
America April 29, 2013 26
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April 29, 2013 America 27 present, and drums of doom beat ever reside in a crown. Like horror, hope read them. on. After nine years of summer, winter also springs from the most unexpected Charles Keith’s exhaustively is coming, and war too and dragons of quarters. researched book, Catholic Vietnam, is a and everything else. Something is splendid contribution to such a history. always coming. His narrative extends through the 19th JIM M CDERMOTT, S.J., is a graduate student And salvation is not the purview of in screenwriting at the University of century to 1965, when Ngo Dinh some elect, nor does grace inherently California, Los Angeles. Diem, a Catholic, became the first pres - ident of the Republic of Vietnam in southern Vietnam, an event that occa - sioned a vast exodus of Catholics BOOKS | RICHARD MADSEN toward the south from the Communist led Democratic Republic of Vietnam in THE CHURCH IN INDOCHINA the north. The main actors over this span of time were indigenous Catholic CATHOLIC VIETNAM communities, foreign missionaries, A Church From Empire to Nation ecclesiastical hierarchies and French By Charles Keith colonial officials. University of California Press. 333p The church as presented here was $49.95 not a unified entity. There were many kinds of Catholic communities, shaped When I was a Maryknoll seminarian by different social contexts. In the 19th in the 1950s, we all had to read a biog - century, Catholics living in the northern raphy of Blessed (now Saint) territory of Tonkin and in the northern Theophane Venard, a priest of the part of the middle region of Annam Société des Missions Étrangères de lived mostly in all-Catholic villages, and Paris (MEP) who was martyred in the local church was deeply entwined Tonkin, now a part of present-day with community affairs, both political Vietnam, in 1861. Published as Modern and economic as well as religious. Martyr, the story had been written by Disputes over property and political James A. Walsh, the founder of influence could incite communal strug - Maryknoll, and was presented as an gles between Catholic and non- inspiration for the mission of Catholic communities. In southern Maryknoll in particular and the Annam and Cochinchina, Catholics American Catholic mission to Asia in Republic of Vietnam, itself blessed with were more dispersed, and priests car - general. Maryknoll’s minor seminary in the blood of martyrs who braved ried less political power and had to Pennsylvania was even named the French artillery and bombs from cooperate to a greater degree with non- Venard. Father Venard was a saintly American B-52’s to establish an inde - Catholics. This led to different histori - member of the French national foreign pendent nation. cal patterns of religious violence and missionary society who along with Both stories—the Maryknoll and indeed to different forms of Catholic many others had given his life to evan - the Communist—were sacred simplifi - spirituality. There were also differences gelize the people of Indochina and cations, myths, that have too often between areas evangelized by French whose blood was the seed of apostolic energized ideologi - missionaries and by success that had made 10 percent of the cal polarization ON THE WEB Spanish Dominicans. modern Vietnamese population faith - rather than ecu - The Catholic Book Club discusses The conflicts were The Pope’s Last Crusade. ful Catholics. menical engage - americamagazine.org/cbc intensified after the But the Communist rulers of ment. Especially 1820s by the efforts Vietnam today propagate a different with the end of the of Nguyen dynasty story: missionaries like Venard were cold war, it is becoming more possible emperors to consolidate their rule in agents of French imperialism that to write histories that capture the mul - ways that infringed on the autonomy of sparked a spirit of nationalism among tidimensional ambiguities of Asian Catholic communities. The increasing the Vietnamese and eventually led to Catholicism, and it is high time for the - French incursion into Indochina led to the revolution and the Democratic ologians of Catholic mission activity to attacks on Catholics as potentially sub -
America April 29, 2013 28 Attention Teachers and Catechists Free Resources America is making available a collection of articles for class - room use. Topics include Scripture, medical ethics, social justice and Catholic identity. New items added regularly. All articles are FREE and available at americamagazine.org/education
April 29, 2013 America 29 versive. In fact, however, many Vietnamese Catholics did not support French imperialism. Although some Catholics directly supported the French colonial regimes, others advised the Nguyen rulers on how to modernize in such a way as to resist French power. Along with other residents of Vietnam, many Catholics deeply resented French control. The resentment continued even after the 1890s, when the French had consolidated their power and put an end to most antireligious violence. Catholic Vietnam opens with the dra - matic story of the arrest and trial of three Vietnamese priests in 1909 who had led a movement to overthrow French colonial rule. The French mis - sionaries, for their part, were at odds with French political emissaries, who represented the secularist Third Republic. But many local Catholics, including members of the clergy, resent - ed not only French colonial agents but French missionary priests as well, because the missionaries were intent on keeping the church in Vietnam under French ecclesiastical control. That control began to be wrested away by the Vatican after World War I. Pope Benedict XV’s encyclical “Maximum Illud” reasserted Vatican control over mission territories that had been governed under a French protec - torate and paved the way for the ordi - nation of local bishops. The first Vietnamese bishop, Jean-Baptiste Nguyen Ba Tong, was ordained in 1933 despite vigorous resistance from French colonial officials and French missionar - ies. A Vietnamese national church was born. A national church both reflected and helped further political nationalistic sentiments in Vietnam. The Catholic Church supported a lively Catholic press, which reached people through - out Vietnam. Intentionally or not, this fostered a sense of national identity that transcended the local identities of Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina. To
America April 29, 2013 30 the consternation of both French colo - nialists and French missionaries, prominent Vietnamese Catholic intel - lectuals contributed to nationalist movements. In line with Catholic social teachings of the 1930s, they also advo - cated structural transformations to pro - mote social justice. This leftist agenda, however, did not extend to Communism, which Pope Pius XI con - demned in his 1937 encyclical “Divine Redemptoris.” When a Democratic Republic of Vietnam was established after World War II, many Catholics at all levels actively participated, although they had strained relationships with Communist leaders like Ho Chi Minh. Nonetheless, when the French returned to Vietnam and tried to reassert colo - nial control, Catholics joined the resis - tance and fought for independence. They sought a non-Communist alter - native to national independence, but some key leaders gave sufficient support to the revolution that when the Communists did triumph they did not attempt to create an official state church independent from Rome as the Communists did in China. Although the relationship of Catholics to Communists was relative - ly fluid in the late 1940s, it hardened into a deep polarization by 1950 with the advent of the cold war and Pius XII’s resolutely anti-Communist stance. The mistrust of Catholics and the D.R.V. was strong enough to lead to the 1965 exodus of Catholics to South Vietnam. The northern Catholics did not mingle well with southern Catholics because of differ - ences in regional religious cultures, but under American tutelage they were increasingly united in the global strug - gle of the “free world” against “godless Communism.” This story is told in so much detail that it can be hard to follow for some - one unfamiliar with Vietnam’s history. The detail is important, however, to help scholars of modern Catholic mis -
April 29, 2013 America 31 sionary history disentangle the inter - domestic powers and suffering more hood” and adds members to the twined strands of faith and power in than its share of tragedies, it bravely household and state. Protecting the the transmission of Catholicism to contributed in the end to the tortuous integrity of the oikos , especially in sex - Asia. The Vietnamese Catholic church building of a Vietnamese nation. ual matters forbidding adultery and comes across fairly well in this account. preventing illegitimate children, is Though pulled in different directions, RICHARD MADSEN is a professor of sociology crucial in such a cultural context. Such manipulated by both foreign and at the University of California at San Diego. “cross-cultural engagement” sets the context for the New Testament authors. One finds continuity and dis - continuity with Jewish, Greek and TODD SALZMAN Roman cultures and traditions in PUTTING SEX INTO CONTEXT writings on sexuality in the Gospel and Pauline traditions and the specif - ic sexual issues they address: divorce, THE NEW TESTAMENT ON torically and culturally, investigating same-sex intercourse, men and SEXUALITY the “broader assumptions” of the New women in community and leadership By William Loader Testament authors in the Jewish and and celibacy. Wm. B. Eerdmans. 575p $65 Greco-Roman worlds. In the Jewish Continuity in Jewish, Greek and world, one broad assumption in both Roman cultures is evident in the When investigating the New the biblical and extra-biblical literature Gospels’ condemnation of adultery, Testament on sexuality, three impor - is that procreation does not function which affirms Jewish traditional law tant and related questions come to as the dominant motif in either mono - that the act of adultery with a married mind. First, what do New Testament gymous or polygymous marriage. woman violates another man’s proper - texts say about sexuality? Second, Rather, the literature emphasizes “the ty rights (Mt. 5:27). Discontinuity is what is the meaning of what they say union and the ongoing partnership” in also evident in the Gospels—for “in the setting of the authors and their marriage as the dominant motif. In example Matthew’s Sermon on the hearers”? Third, can the New addition, sexual intercourse and plea - Mount (adultery of the heart, 5:28)— Testament speak to and enlighten con - sure are clearly affirmed as good. On where there is a shift in focus from acts temporary Christian dialogue about the other hand, women are viewed as to attitudes that provide “a fuller and sexuality? Loader’s magisterial The the “property of men,” and adultery is deeper understanding” of human rela - New Testament on Sexuality , the fifth condemned because it violates a mar - tionships that take us “beyond the and final volume in his study on sexu - ried man’s property rights. defensive structures of traditional law.” ality in ancient Judaism and In the Greco-Roman The underlying prin - Christianity, focuses on the first two world, broader assump - ciple of loving and questions. tions include stances on respecting the other Loader begins by stating the patriarchy and gender. fulfills the law but parameters and method of his study, Maleness emphasizes also moves us beyond which treats his topic “in the broad “being active and con - the law. In this sense, sense of matters pertaining to sexuali - trolling”; femaleness the Jesus portrayed in ty” rather than the narrow sense emphasizes “being pas - the Gospels provides reflected in discussions of sexual theo - sive and needing to be a more strict interpre - ry and sexual orientation, though he controlled.” Gender tation of the law, does touch on the narrower sense in stereotypes inform New shifting from a focus the text. He uses the historical-critical Testament writings on on the act to a focus method with an emphasis on culture issues like same-sex on the heart and “to hear ancient authors [of the New intercourse and mar - mind. Whatever Testament] in their own setting and riage. Jewish assump - demeans or objectifies on their own terms.” His method is tions “mingle with” the other is “antitheti - meticulous and the conclusions he Greek and Roman assumptions on cal to God’s will,” whether or not it is reaches are comprehensive, compre - issues like the purpose of marriage to expressed in a forbidden (physical) act. hensible and eminently credible. create an oikos (household or family), Loader extends his treatment of Loader contextualizes his study his - which provides identity, defines “man - sexuality in the New Testament
America April 29, 2013 32 beyond sexual acts (or intentions) to As Loader notes when addressing this is appropriate.” A central principle consider gender and leadership roles of Rom 1:26-27 on same-sex behavior, taken from the New Testament texts men and women in the early Christian his hermeneutical perspective is not to on sexuality to guide this reflection is communities. Paul accepts the “order use Paul to affirm or deny contempo - “the goodness and generosity of God of creation” as understood in his day, rary perspectives on homosexuality whose love reaches out to value and which places women “in subordination but “to bring to his writing the respect offer relationship to all people.” We to men.” This order notwithstanding, that it warrants as one of the earliest look forward with great anticipation to women still exercise roles in leading documents of the Christian move - Loader’s forthcoming book. prayer and prophesying in continuity ment.” Nonetheless, Paul’s “views are with Jewish tradition. Discontinuity to be assessed in the light of all rele - TODD SALZMAN is a professor of theology at with the Jewish tradition is that “there vant available information,” which may Creighton University and co-author, with Michael B. Lawler, of Sexual Ethics, A is an overriding value which derives lead us “to reach different conclusions Theological Introduction (Georgetown from their belonging to Christ.” from Paul if the evidence suggests that University Press). Though this overriding value does not call for social or structural change from Paul’s perspective, the Jesus tra - dition in the Gospels and the challenge BILL WILLIAMS of the Kingdom “promoted an alterna - tive social order to come and initiated EXTREME PARENTING its beginnings during his ministry.” This alternative social order envi - FAR FROM THE TREE grateful for experiences they would sioned new values that were “radically Parents, Children, and the Search have done anything to avoid.” One par - inclusive,” especially of marginalized for Identity ent said that raising a Down syndrome women (and men), but this should not By Andrew Solomon child was “the most difficult but also be read as a move “to bring about Scribner. 976p $37.50 the most enriching structural or social change in women’s experience of my life.” status or roles....” This latter statement Andrew Solomon’s Solomon is well quali - seems to create a tension with Loader’s new book is a master - fied to write about earlier statement about “an alternative piece of dogged handicaps. As a child social order.” research and persuasive he suffered from severe The volume provides an invaluable writing. Solomon dyslexia. His parents foundation for addressing the third interviewed more than were told that he question, whether or not Scripture can 300 families to learn would never learn to speak to and enlighten contemporary how parents cope with read or write. As an Christian dialogue about sexuality. severely handicapped adult, he wrote an Loader intends to address this ques - or difficult children. acclaimed book, The tion in a future, “slimmer account,” The chapter titles indi - Noonday Demon , which will be more accessible to the cate the book’s breath - about his long battle nonspecialist and will include reflec - taking scope: “Deaf, with depression. He tions on the usefulness of the texts Dwarfs, Down also struggled to come when considering sexuality in our own Syndrome, Autism, to terms with his era. The forthcoming book will no Schizophrenia, Disability, Prodigies, homosexuality. doubt include reflections on sexuality Rape, Crime, Transgender.” The book’s title refers to the adage that include a “more defined sense” of Parents of these children suffer emo - that the apple does not fall far from the sexuality, including discussions on sex - tionally and physically—wracked by tree, meaning that children generally ual orientation and sexual theory. We feelings of guilt and failure. Divorce, resemble their parents. The children get a glimpse of this when we consider regret and depression are common. profiled here have fallen “elsewhere— Loader’s reflections on homosexuality And yet the author found that for some a couple of orchards away.” and Scripture and consider them in the majority of parents the dominant Solomon distinguishes between light of contemporary, often acrimo - feeling was love. “This book’s conun - vertical and horizontal identity. nious, debates between Christians on drum,” he writes, “is that most of the Vertical defines characteristics inherit - the issue of same-sex marriage. families described here have ended up ed from parents, like skin color, while
April 29, 2013 America 33 horizontal embraces “values and pref - how to tell a child that he or she was torical perspective in each of the 10 erences,” like homosexuality, that chil - conceived in a violent assault. categories. dren do not share with their parents. Solomon believes that schizophre - He notes that dwarfs, now called lit - A recurring theme involves the nia “may be in a class by itself for tle people, still appear in freak shows growing use of amniocentesis to detect unrewarding trauma.” It runs in fami - and dwarf-tossing competitions, “testi - flaws and the decisions by some lies and usually manifests itself in mony to a callousness beyond that women to abort fetuses with severe adolescence or early adulthood, when shown to almost any other disabled abnormalities. Others view this prac - sufferers hear strange voices and group.” Some parents resort to the con - tice as a form of genocide against the sometimes become violent. One troversial practice of limb-lengthening, handicapped. father of a schizophrenic said after by which doctors repeatedly break a Autism is a severe disability of his son was hit by a truck but sur - child’s leg bones and stretch the muscles. unknown cause that sometimes vived, “Frankly, it would have been Society has become more enlight - involves bizarre behavior. Solomon better if he’d died. Better for him, bet - ened about the disabled, but debates lists a whole page of parents who in ter for everybody.” about acceptance, care and cures still desperation resorted to filicide, includ - The parents of young criminals rage. As recently as 2006, the Royal ing among the victims young children, understandably are wracked by anger College of Obstetricians and Gynecol- teenagers and even older offspring, “to and guilt. Although criminality is not ogists in London was reported to have spare those children suffering.” inherited, some children “seem to be proposed that doctors consider killing Although some people with autism born without a moral center.” Solomon infants with extreme disabilities. cannot function in society, some are suggests that locking up young offend - Most of the people interviewed brilliant. The author lists famous peo - ers for decades only hardens their found it odd that they were being ple, including Thomas Jefferson, criminal behavior. grouped together in this book. Deaf Mozart and Einstein, who probably One comes away from this book people, for example, did not want to be had Asperger syndrome. with appreciation for Solomon’s com - compared with those suffering from A rape victim faces the extraordi - passion and his meticulous search for schizophrenia. But the power of this narily difficult decision of when and causes and treatment, along with his - book is that it shows the common emotions and challenges—as well as the differences—facing parents in the 10 categories. I agree generally with the rave reviews that have greeted this book, with minor reservations. The text was reduced in length by half before publi - cation, but it could have been cut more. The many case histories in each chapter begin to sound redundant. Nevertheless, Solomon has made a major contribution to our understand - ing of family and identity. He ends with these words, “Sometimes, I had thought the heroic parents in this book were fools, enslav - ing themselves to a life’s journey with their alien children, trying to breed identity out of misery. I was startled to learn that my research had built me a plank, and that I was ready to join them on their ship.”
BILL WILLIAMS is a freelance writer in West Hartford, Conn., and a former editorial writer for The Hartford Courant. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
America April 29, 2013 34 CLASSIFIED and diplomacy. The applicant must have a doc - F.S.C., La Salle University, University Ministry toral degree (Ph.D., D.Min., etc.) or licentiate in and Service, 1900 West Olney Avenue, Books sacred theology (S.T.L.) if an ordained priest. Philadelphia, PA 19141. The successful applicant will also be a practicing Applications will be accepted and reviewed ADULT FAITH STUDY. Faith and reason togeth - Roman Catholic with a minimum of 5 years of until the position is filled. Successful applicants er: www.WordUnlimited.com. full-time university teaching. Salary is competi - must have the permission of either their bishop or tive and commensurate with qualifications and religious superior before an offer will be made. PLAINSONG ORDINARIES I, X, XVI, simplified experience, and rank is dependent on qualifica - La Salle University is a Roman Catholic uni - from the Liber for assembly/choir; revised accord - tions. Review of applications will begin immedi - versity in the tradition of the De La Salle ing to New Roman Missal. Contact Luella Dames ately, and the position begins June 1, 2013. Christian Brothers and welcomes applicants from CPPS, O’Fallon, Mo. 636-542-9510, ldames@ Faculty member of Religious Studies/Philosophy all backgrounds who can contribute to our unique cpps-ofallon.org Department (full-time faculty position—9 educational mission. For a complete mission months). The University seeks an individual who statement, please visit our Web site at Surrender: Father Walter Ciszek: Jesuit Priest/ will teach undergraduate courses, advise under - www.lasalle.edu. Soviet Prisoner, by Seamus Dockery, 56 pgs., graduate students and participate in departmen - $15.99. Contact Xlibris.com or (888) 795-4274. tal, college and University meetings. Essential Retreat characteristics include excellent communication Positions Bethany Retreat House, East Chicago, Ind., offers and interpersonal skills and a demonstrated abili - private and individually directed silent retreats, ASSISTANT CHAPLAIN (new position), Saint ty to engage students in learning and utilizing including dreamwork and Ignatian 30-day retreats, Thomas More Chapel at Yale University. active pedagogies. The applicant must have a year-round in a prayerful home setting. Contact Catholic presence at Yale University has had a master’s degree in theology/religious studies or Joyce Diltz, P.H.J.C.: (219) 398-5047; rich tradition since 1922. The newly built licentiate in sacred theology (S.T.L.) if an [email protected]; bethanyretreathouse.org. Thomas E. Golden, Jr. Center (2006) and reno - ordained priest; preferred: doctoral degree vated Chapel (2008) are award-winning, magnifi - (Ph.D., D.Min., etc.). The successful applicant cent spaces that exemplify our ministry’s commit - will also be a practicing Roman Catholic with uni - Translator ment to excellence. versity teaching experience. Salary is competitive I WILL TRANSLATE INTO SPANISH any book, The primary focus for this position is student and commensurate with qualifications and expe - article, essay, blog, Web site, newsletter. Luis outreach and communications: specifically, to rience, and rank is dependent on qualifications. Baudry-Simon, [email protected]; Ph. motivate and assist undergraduate and graduate Review of applications will begin immediately, (815) 694-0713. students to deepen their faith as well as expand and the position begins Aug. 26, 2013. the involvement of students in ministry now and For both positions, submit letter of applica - Wills develop their capacity for leadership within the tion, curriculum vitae and three letters of refer - Please remember America in your will. Our legal title church after graduation. ence to: Rob Micallef (Chair of the Search is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New Requirements: master’s degree in theology or Committee), College of Arts and Humanities, York, NY 10019. related field with 3 to 4 years’ experience; ability to Madonna University, 36600 Schoolcraft Road, work with young adults as a positive mentor and Livonia, MI 48150. role model; solid understanding of faith develop - Detailed job descriptions for both positions ment and spiritual needs of emerging adults; are available at http://www.madonna.edu/facul - LOOKING FOR demonstrated leadership skills, including program ty/staff/human-resources/faculty-positions. development, networking, communication; profi - Madonna University is an affirmative ciency in social media and other effective ways to action/equal opportunity employer committed to communicate with young adults. Please send cover excellence through diversity. letter, résumé and salary requirements to A JOB [email protected]. These documents will be ORDAINED CAMPUS MINISTER. La Salle IN THE CATHOLIC SECTOR? received until 5 p.m. on Friday, May 3, 2013. Final University is searching for an ordained Roman interviews in the week of May 13. Catholic priest to join the staff of University HIRING AT YOUR Ministry and Service (UMAS), a unit within the MADONNA UNIVERSITY is a Franciscan Division of Student Affairs. CHURCH OR SCHOOL? Catholic co-educational liberal arts university In addition to presiding at sacramental cele - GET THE WORD OUT WITH located in Livonia, Mich., between Detroit and brations, responsibilities include supervising the Ann Arbor. The University’s 4,500 students are training of liturgical ministers, planning liturgies an exciting and diverse mix of traditional and in cooperation with the members of the liturgical AMERICA! non-traditional commuter students representing planning group and providing opportunities for all ages and ethnicities of southeastern Michigan. members of the community to participate in Job Listings are accepted for Applications are invited for: reflective and social events. In association with publication in America's print and Chair of the Religious Studies/Philosophy other members of the UMAS team and the web editions. Department (full-time faculty position—9 Division of Student Affairs, the Campus Minister months). The Chair of the RST/PHL depart - also contributes to the strong living-learning envi - For more information contact ment is responsible for promoting and supporting ronment which characterizes the university. our advertising department at academic excellence in one of the University’s The appointment, starting August 2013, is [email protected] mission-related departments, including both gen - for 10 months per year and includes a competitive Telephone: 212-515-0102 or visit: eral education and discipline-specific academic salary and benefits package. programming. The University is seeking an ener - More information is available by sending an e- WWW.AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG getic individual with demonstrated leadership mail to [email protected]. A résumé and any and administrative experience. Essential charac - pertinent supporting materials (including two let - teristics include excellent communication and ters of recommendation from persons familiar America interpersonal skills and a demonstrated ability to with the candidate’s experience in ministry) exercise initiative, independent judgment, tact should be sent to: Brother Robert Kinzler,
April 29, 2013 America 35 LETTERS Liturgical law prescribes that only men of truth and courage; for speaking for can be chosen for that rite. The Holy those of us who couldn’t come up with Prayers for the Pope Thursday Mass recalls the Last the words to quickly formulate and With grace, courage and humility, Pope Supper, where Christ introduced the express the serious fault, both obvious Benedict retired from the most difficult Eucharist and the ministerial priest - and subtle, with Garry Wills’s argu - job in the world. In our Pope Francis, hood, which is reserved to men only. ments on “The Colbert Report.” we already see similar grace and There are no doubt many ways in I wanted to defend my church and courage—and the humility to descend which the new pope can reach out to those teachings related to the Eucharist from his vehicle, on the way to his inau - women. Flouting tradition and aban - in particular. My hope is that someone gural Mass at Saint Peter’s, to embrace doning liturgical laws are not among with this authority takes note and sub - a crippled man cradled by another man them. sequent action as gently suggested by at the edge of the crowd. This was a Federico Lombardi, S.J., the you. On the other hand, the best most moving image. It reminded me of Vatican spokesman, claims that the medicine might be to note a fool, dust hopeful men who once lowered their pope’s gesture was valid because “when him off our shoes and move on. LORRAINE GAWLIK crippled friend through a roof so that Jesus washed the feet of those who Dixon, Ill. Jesus could lay healing hands upon him; were with him on the first Holy and of St. Francis, our Holy Father’s Thursday, he desired to teach all a les - Mystical Communion namesake, who once descended from son about the meaning of service.” Thank you for your continued excel - his horse to embrace a leper. This twist on Jesus’ meaning of “ser - lence in publishing an informative and My suggestion: Every time we turn a vice” here, broadly injected into the thought-provoking journal. I regret key to unlock a door or start a car, let’s narrow context of the Last Supper, that I didn’t subscribe sooner. pray a prayer of thanksgiving and bless - when Christ created the ministerial I agree with Matt Malone, S.J., that ing for the man who has been entrusted priesthood, can be used to justify Garry Wills was offensively dismissive with the keys of St. Peter. Great chal - women’s ordination. Is that what the in his comments to Stephen Colbert. lenges lie ahead for Pope Francis, and Vatican is ultimately aiming at? However, I find deep resonance within the power of prayer can only bolster Taking Pope Francis to be a truly me when I think of Jesus’ words of him with the grace of the Holy Spirit. humble person, I hope his spontaneity communion from a mystical point of CHRISTINE LUKESH will be somewhat more measured in West Milford, N.J. view rather than from a literal point of the future. SAM WRIGHT view. Jesus was a mystic who was Meaning of ‘Service’ North York, Ontario, Canada grounded in the tradition of the good - I am disappointed that newly elected ness of creation and saw deeply into Pope Francis chose to forgo tradition Shake the Dust his connection, and by extension, our and wash the feet of two women dur - I wish to thank Matt Malone, S.J., (Of connection to all that is. ing the liturgy of Holy Thursday. Many Things, 3/4) for his clear words The poem by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., “Hymn to Matter,” for example, is quite thrilling to read and WITHOUT GUILE contemplate. The poem, for me, rein - forces a mystical rather than a literal understanding of Communion; a very real presence, but not, in my under - standing of God immanent in the cos - mos, in a literal, bodily presence of Jesus. Sharing in Communion means more to me now and should never be dismissed as “fake,” as Mr. Wills sug - N I gested. He seems to miss the entire E T S K point and idea of Communion at Mass. C E
B Now approaching 70, I continue to O B
Y
B marvel at the depths of fundamental
N
O insight and grace Jesus continues to O T R
A mean for me and for the world. C
America April 29, 2013 36 America helps me in my prayer and in but Maura Clarke’s interview just before STATUS UPDATE my search. she was slaughtered moved me even VINCE M CANDREW Re “A Vision of Peace,” by Drew more. She knew death was coming, yet Union, Neb. Christiansen, S.J. (4/8): her worry was: “Will I be faithful?” I take that quote with me everywhere as a Heart of the Matter Here in the Americas, the “universal common good” means paying atten - reminder of what is truly important. Re “Particles of Faith,” by Adam D. tion to what’s going on in South Marla H. Thurman Hincks, S.J. (2/25): How refreshing to America. Immigration reform is going read of the willingness to let the “mag - to be in the national spotlight these I am so very grateful for this remem - isteria” of science and religion overlap! next several weeks. While we’re work - brance. Having stood at the spot in El They will in our minds, anyway, if only ing on compassionate immigration Salvador where the bodies of Maura, because we are creatures of narrative reform that preserves family unity, we Jean, Ita and Dorothy were found, I who want to make a single story of it ought to also be looking at the causes know that their martyrdom and their all. Explanations as lucid as this are of migration: poverty, violence, envi - stories, then and now, continue to inspire catalysts. ronmental destruction and U.S. trade us. They chose to stay with the people in What’s curious about the Higgs policies. Sara Deborah Damewood El Salvador and to love with abandon— boson and other subatomic particles is and it was a choice that cost them their that they have a future. They are parti - Re “Maura’s Love,” by Eileen Markey lives. May we ever remember and imitate cles “of faith” indeed. We know that (In All Things blog, 3/28): the selfless generosity and steadfast love over the eons some turn into “matter,” Maura Clarke, M.M., is my hero, and that defined their lives. Thank you, into stars and planets and things we has been forever. The four churchwom - Eileen Markey, for this beautiful Easter bump into. We know that some turn en propelled me into a life of activism, story. Peggy Heinzmann Ekerdt into “life” and, more remarkably, into “soul.” That, at least, is the narrative line of the new cosmology. It’s some - thing the Large Hadron Collider will never explain. Augustine of Hippo had another name for particles of faith. He called them “seeds” and said that God plant - ed them in the original instant of cre - ation. Augustine’s seeds had a future, too, waiting for conditions to be just right before they erupted into life. It’s the same narrative line as the new cos - mology’s, with one exception: for Augustine, the emergence of soul required a new intervention on God’s part. How such potentials are packed into an infinitesimal singularity, a beginning moment, is a mystery to me. Metaphors like “particles of faith” and “seeds” open that mystery up and take me to its heart. I’m grateful for the spirit of the reflection from Mr. Hincks. JOHN KOTRE Ann Arbor, Mich.
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April 29, 2013 America 37 THE WORD
was that if Christ was to be for all, Christ would need to be made avail - God’s Gift for All able to all on the same terms. It was SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (C), MAY 5, 2013 not simply a practical decision, but the reality of God working in and speak - Readings: Acts 15:1 –29; Ps 67:2 –8; Rv 21:10 –23; Jn 14:23 –29 ing to the church. “May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you!” (Ps 67:5) In today’s reading from the Book of Revelation, John’s vision of the new Jerusalem includes the Jewish imagery he Psalmist prays to God, of whom were Jews, and their of the Temple with the provocative “May your way be known response was wonder mixed with puz - newness of the Christian understand - upon earth; among all nations, zlement: “Then God has given even to T ing. John reports, “I saw no temple in your salvation.” But how will this come the Gentiles the repentance the city, for its temple is the Lord to pass? Throughout the Old that leads to life.” God the Almighty and the Testament, there are clues that some - Something new had Lamb.” The Temple, day, in some way, God’s covenant will broken in on the life of grounded in the be expanded to welcome not just the the Christian com - locality of Jerusalem, descendants of Abraham but all the munity, and not was now spiritual - people of the world. Indeed, beginning everyone was on ized to indicate the with Gn 22:18 and 26:4, Abraham board. The church divine home of all and Isaac heard the promise that all met to make a deci - people. nations would be blessed through sion on how Gentiles The Gospel of John their offspring. The early Christians should be welcomed came to believe through their experi - into the church, with the ence of the teaching and life of Jesus, basic issue being whether they PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE including his crucifixion and resurrec - would have to follow the law of • How is God doing something new in our tion, that these promises would be Moses just as every Jew did. Some midst today? enacted through the church. It was not Christians stated it this way: clear to them, however, how such a “Unless you are circumcised accord - • Whom do we overlook in the sharing of the Gospel? E world mission should be enacted, ing to the custom of Moses, you can - N N U D proof that Jesus did not leave for them not be saved.” What we tend to for - • In what way do I experience God D A T
dwelling with me even now? : a detailed 12-point plan. It was even get is that this position made sense T R less clear that bringing the message of according to all the clearest claims of A Jesus Christ to the world would entail Scripture and tradition. reflects elements of this vision when it a break with their fellow Jews. Yet Peter, Paul and others had seen says (in the NRSV translation) that We tend no longer to wonder that the work of the Holy Spirit among the “those who love me will keep my word, even the Gentiles could be saved; but Gentiles and found Scripture spoke in and my Father will love them, and we then, when Peter recounted that the a new way to a new situation. The will come to them and make our home Holy Spirit had come to Cornelius church as a whole decided, in what with them.” The NAB translation bet - and his family, “the circumcised believ - today is called the Jerusalem Council, ter reflects the Greek: “We will come ers who had come with Peter were not to require Gentiles to follow all of to him and make our dwelling with astounded that the gift of the Holy the law of Moses, but to adhere only to him.” The new Temple, the new Spirit had been poured out even on certain restrictions regarding sexual Jerusalem, will be with each person, the Gentiles” (Acts 10:45). Still, practice, idolatry and food. This deci - regardless of where they were from or Peter’s shocking action had to be sion seems logical to us today, even where they once dwelled, because God explained to his fellow Christians, all “the way it has always been,” though in will be all in all. The church, experi - reality it reflected a decision that encing the salvation of God in its required startling change in practice midst, began to live out a promise, now JOHN W. MARTENS is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. and understanding. What the early made new. Paul, Minn. church came to understand, though, JOHN W. MARTENS
America April 29, 2013 38 April 29, 2013 America 39