OF MANY THINGS S a Jesuit Scholastic, I Spent Once Wrote to Ask Me If We’D Consider 106 West 56Th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 One Year at America

OF MANY THINGS s a Jesuit scholastic, I spent once wrote to ask me if we’d consider 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 one year at America. In the a possible article. I gave him some Ph: (212) 581-4640; Fax: (212) 399-3596 summer of 1994, I returned to guidelines, but cautioned him (as we do) Subscriptions: (800) 627-9533 A www.americamedia.org the United States from a two-year stint that this was no guarantee of acceptance. facebook.com/americamag with the Jesuit Refugee Service in East A few weeks later, Father Hunt called twitter.com/americamag Africa, and my provincial superior told me into his office and said, “What’s this?” President and Editor in Chief me I needed another year of regency holding out a piece of paper like smelly Matt Malone, S.J. before applying for admission to study cheese. Executive Editors theology. At the time I saw it as a The article had been rejected, and Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy punishment. the author had written George an Managing Editor Kerry Weber Now I see it as a grace. For I was intemperate letter saying, in essence: Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent missioned to the place that I returned How dare you reject my piece? I Kevin Clarke to after ordination and that has been explained that I had given him advice Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. my home for the past 16 years. That but cautioned him not to presume Executive Editor, America Films “punishment” led to the ministry that I acceptance of his article. George raised Jeremy Zipple, S.J. so enjoy: working at America Media. his eyebrows, crumpled the paper and Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent None of this would have been tossed it into the trash can. “Nor any Gerard O’Connell possible without the extraordinarily future articles.” Associate Editor and Director of Digital kind welcome of George W. Hunt, S.J., George was also exceedingly kind Strategy Sam Sawyer, S.J. who served as editor in chief here from to me. One Friday he asked if I’d like Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. 1984 to 1998. Since my first incarnation, to visit the old Jesuit novitiate and the Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga Segura, Robert David Sullivan I’ve worked under four editors, all fine philosophy school, both north of New Assistant Editors Francis W. Turnbull, S.J., Jesuits, all very different. When I refer York. Very much, I said. The next day Joseph McAuley to our current editor, Matt Malone, we piled into the community car and Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder S.J., sometimes I like to paraphrase the drove to Poughkeepsie. At the novitiate Editorial Assistant Zachary Davis Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., speaker of the Robert Browning poem of St. Andrew-on-Hudson, which Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. and say, “That’s my fourth editor.” had become the Culinary Institute of Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, George was my first editor, and America, George delighted in telling me Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider what an editor! First, he was a brilliant how he used candlewax to polish the old Correspondents John Carr (Washington), An- thony Egan, S.J., and Russell Pollitt, S.J. (Johannes- writer, a former literary editor of linoleum floor in the entranceway, where burg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy America, whose sparkling prose never the seal “AMDG” still shines. At Shrub Padgett (Miami), Steven Schwankert (Beijing), David Stewart, S.J. (London), Judith Valente disappointed. He could dash off one Oak, the former philosophate, then a (Chicago) of these Of Many Things columns in halfway house for recovering addicts, Moderator, Catholic Book Club record time, in longhand, and have it George approached the front desk, said Kevin Spinale, S.J. fit perfectly to the space constraints. he used to live there and was asked, Editor, The Jesuit Post Michael Rossmann, S.J. Editorial e-mail Second, he was immensely well read, “Were you a patient?” He threw his head [email protected] with a doctorate in English, and had back and laughed (not unlike F.D.R.). Publisher and Chief Financial Officer written widely on John Cheever and The day was all the more impressive Edward G. Spallone Deputy Publisher Rosa M. John Updike. It was a rare treat to be because George was essentially an Del Saz Vice President for Advancement Daniel at America House in 1997, when we introvert. It made this Jesuit feel very Pawlus Advertising Sales Manager Chris Keller Development Coordinator Kerry Goleski presented the latter with the Campion welcome at America and in New York. Business Operations Staff Khairah Walker, Award, and see George so at home with It’s entirely appropriate that we now Glenda Castro, Katy Zhou, Frankarlos Cruz the master. have a literary award named after Father Advertising Contact [email protected]; 212-515-0102 Subscription contact/Additional Charming, erudite, articulate, polite Hunt. It has been given to Philip Metres, copies 1-800-627-9533 Reprints: reprints@ and always a gentleman, George was a professor at John Carroll University, americamedia.org also unflappable. He presided serenely whose lecture at the awards ceremony © 2015 America Press Inc. over even the most contentious editorial we welcome into our pages (p. 16). I meetings, with his half glasses perched can easily imagine George reading Mr. on a patrician nose (he reminded me of Metres’s poetry, peering down through Franklin D. Roosevelt), saying calmly, his half glasses and saying, “Oh yes, very Cover: Composite photo from the video, “Philip “Oh yes, very good. Let’s go with that.” good, very good.” Metres, Poet” at americamedia.org. Jeremy But he was no pushover. A Jesuit JAMES MARTIN, S.J. Zipple/Shutterstock.com/America Contents www.americamagazine.org VOL. 213 NO.15, WHOLE NO. 5108 November 16, 2015

ARTICLES 16 HOMING IN The place of poetry in the global digital age Philip Metres

22 GRAHAM GREENE’S POPE Finding God in battered places Heather Moreland McHale

25 ON BEING AND BECOMING The God of second chances William J. O’Malley

16 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment

5 Editorial Seize the Moment!

6 Reply All

9 Signs of the Times

14 Column Defenders of the Faith James T. Keane

29 Faith in Focus A Book for José Rick Dixon

31 Philosopher’s Notebook Last Things John J. Conley 29 39 The Word King of All John W. Martens BOOKS & CULTURE

32 FILM “Spotlight” POETRY Lamech Inventing The Oud; Prayer BOOKS Jonas Salk; Doctors Without Borders; Abounding in Kindness

ON THE WEB Francis X. Clooney, S.J., examines the legacy of “Nostra Aetate,” and America Films profiles the poetPhilip Metres, right. Full digital highlights on page 15 and at americamagazine.org/webfeatures. 32 CURRENT COMMENT

have benefited from the passage of goods and persons in the Contributing to Extremism Asian Pacific. With six countries, including the Philippines Thanks to the Internet, it is easier than ever to give a few and Vietnam, jockeying for maritime rights, the historic role bucks to a favorite candidate, and presidential contenders of the United States as a protector of free and safe navigation from Senator Bernie Sanders to Dr. Ben Carson are raising in the region remains important. most of their funds in donations of less than $200 each. It is also essential, however, that the United States More widespread participation in politics is welcome, but demonstrate its commitment to de-escalation and a an unintended consequence may be a rise in polarization. preference for peaceful mediation. A good way to start is The political scientist Michael Barber, of Brigham by ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Law Young University, recently analyzed contributions to state of the Sea—166 countries have already signed on—that legislative candidates across the country and discovered Republican senators have repeatedly blocked. Now, more that grassroots donors were more inclined to support than ever, it is vital that the United States throw its weight candidates who toed the party line on almost every issue. behind this comprehensive mechanism for multilateral In contrast, Mr. Barber wrote in The Washington Post dispute resolution. on Oct. 23, “interest groups tend to worry less about a candidate’s ideology…. They donate so they can talk with lawmakers as they’re writing bills and passing laws.” Rollback for Working People Political action committees, often seen as a corrupting Wisconsin introduced the nation’s first workers’ influence, are also more supportive of moderate candidates compensation program in 1911. Now its Republican who keep government running. legislators propose a “reform” of the state’s system that Individual voters may simply be responding to threatens to significantly trim benefits for working people candidates who shout the loudest on cable news programs injured on the job and reduce the statute of limitations for and social media. These days, we may be less likely to “traumatic injuries” from 12 years to two. Workers seeking pick candidates based on conversations with co-workers, compensation would still be barred from suing employers. neighbors or fellow churchgoers—or to seek information Worse, the plan, among other measures, allows from sources like labor unions and business organizations, employers to pick the doctors who evaluate injuries for which are more interested in responsive government than workers without insurance. Workers would have to argue in brinkmanship politics. Whatever the reason, voters about their own culpability for the injury to determine themselves may be contributing to the gridlock and how much compensation they will receive. This “reform” dysfunction they routinely complain about. The election moves the system from a straightforward no-fault process process might be improved by more careful deliberation that quickly delivered compensation for injuries and lost before clicking “contribute” on a campaign website. wages into an appeal that is front-loaded against injured workers. The move expands a nationwide assault on workers’ Maritime Mediation compensation that has deeply diminished or eliminated The United States sent a clear message on Oct. 26 when it compensation in 33 states, according to an NPR and sailed a Navy warship within 12 nautical miles of the Subi ProPublica investigation in March. Employers are now Reef, an artificial island in the South China Sea: The laws of paying the lowest rates for workers’ compensation insurance the sea will not be rewritten in sand. In recent years China than at any time in the past 25 years. has gone on a maritime dredging spree, turning previously Various state-level changes to compensation programs submerged reefs into man-made landmasses in order to stake have transferred the responsibility for supporting injured its territorial claims in the resource-rich and highly contested workers from employers to taxpayers by way of the Social waters. Security Disability, food stamp and Medicaid programs. While the United States has refrained from formally Too many state governments, accepting legislation promoted taking sides in the South China Sea disputes, this “freedom or even written by corporate lobbyists, have been complicit of navigation operation” signaled to China and its Southeast in denying their own citizens just compensation. Since the Asian neighbors that the Obama administration will not federal government is often left holding the bag, it should abide by claims that violate international law regarding revisit its oversight responsibilities for state compensation open sea lanes. There are legitimate reasons for this pointed programs and consider appropriate legislation to restore show of force. Nations the world over, including China, workers’ rights when they are injured on the job.

4 America November 16, 2015 EDITORIAL Seize the Moment!

ur church has attracted many headlines in recent Park. TV news celebrities confessed months. In May we had the publication of Pope their onetime religion. The Catholic OFrancis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’,” which studied the Church was in. environment and oftentimes adverse impact of human activ- What can we do with this ity on it. In September we welcomed Francis to the United energy and interest? Discussions States, with his addresses to Congress and to the United and disagreements will continue, Nations, many prayer services and parades and visits to pris- though perhaps not with the intensity of the reactions to the oners, the homeless, religious women and hundreds of thou- synod. But what about the good will and optimism that the sands at Philadelphia’s World Meeting of Families. Millions pope’s U.S. visit generated? Where can it take us? watched and cheered these events. In October Francis presid- One area we all have to work on is civility in discourse ed over the meeting of the Synod of Bishops on marriage and and disagreement. Around the time of the synod, Pope the family. Francis spoke much about listening, speaking and allowing All of this is in addition to constant stories about Pope others to speak. That meeting generated some heated talk, Francis going about his daily mission with simplicity and hu- angry words, suspicion and discord. Bishops disagreed with manity. The man has broken down old barriers, opened new each other in public. That is not bad if it is done with respect doors, given the papacy a refreshing new image. Some cringe. and desire for truth. Any one of us can reach out to someone Others complain. Most applaud. we disagree with, sit down over a cup of coffee and find what “Laudato Si’” raised hackles in some quarters and in core values we share. Not a bad start. others became a rallying point. Who is the pope to be writing We can reach out to Catholics who have not found life about science? What does he know? This contrasts, of course, in the church and have drifted away. How can we accompany with feelings of relief and support—thank heavens someone them? Do they have something to say that we need to hear? of the pope’s stature is speaking up. God made us stewards of Let them speak! Let us listen! his creation, not owners and exploiters. Twenty-eight protest- We cannot wait for church officials to move before we ers arrested last August as they tried to stop construction of do. Bishops, pastors and parish staffs already have their hands a natural gas storage faciliity in Seneca Lake, N.Y., carried a full. Individuals and small groups within parishes need to take huge mockup of the encyclical and proclaimed, “Pope Francis, the initiative to find new projects or structures that will help we hear you.” build on what we have in order to proclaim the Gospel in new “The meeting of the Synod of Bishops in October also ways to our very new world. They must support their parishes stirred up strong reactions. The pope’s openness, desire for dis- as they also rightly challenge them. cussion and drive to hear opposing viewpoints have revealed One powerful image from the pope’s visit is a video on some rifts usually hidden from public view. The commentary America’s website that shows some of the Jesuit high school was varied, sometimes contentious. Earlier this year, the com- students who traveled to Philadelphia to see the pope—about mentators were asking, Who is the pope to talk about the 400 of them from 40 schools. What more can our schools do? environment? What does he know about the economy? Now We must not fail to recognize and lift up what we do ac- the questions were, Is he trying to change marriage law? Is he complish—in everyday parish life, of course, but also in a rich trying to change doctrine? Others thought the pope was not variety of ministries. At the annual Ignatian Family Teach-In, going far enough; they asked whether the pope’s “revolution” is students from Jesuit schools raise awareness of important is- more than a series of inventive gestures. Most commentators, sues. Catholic Extension gives essential support to the church however, were ready for a thorough examination of what is in rural America. essential and what might be longstanding but negotiable. And in the end, let us be thankful. For the challenges It was Pope Francis’ six days in Washington, New we face. For the faces and the words on our websites. For the York and Philadelphia that drew particularly heavy attention students in our schools. For our leaders. For communities throughout the United States, almost all positive. His smile gathered in our local churches. For families that come home was contagious. People on the streets acted more friendly. each day to love and support one another. For Pope Francis. Televisions in bars followed the papal parade through Central And for all the good things we do.

November 16, 2015 America 5 REPLY ALL Conley in his concern over the state’s etly working out the birth control is- increasing subordination of religion in sues on the side. As it has turned out, Place of Privilege the United States, I would find such the church’s support for health care has Re “Breathing Space,” by Alex concern more ingenuous if it did not been drowned out by our loud objec- Mikulich (10/26): Thank you for this so often coincide with increasing fi- tions to infringements on our liberty. very powerful article. As an African- nancial burden on the poor and mid- Let us instead use our religious liberty American woman who has taught in dle class. Sadly, this iteration of sub- to speak out and address issues of vi- Jesuit schools for 14 years, I appreci- ordinationism has raised its head in olence and injustice, the sacredness of ate Mr. Mikulich’s acknowledgment of reaction to the Affordable Care Act, life and family, knowing full well that white privilege in Jesuit institutions. which provides medical coverage for so like Jesus, we may not always find sym- Many Jesuit schools offer wonderful many of our citizens. Religious liberty pathetic ears. opportunities to students of color, is not a Gospel value; care for the sick FRANCES ROSSI but often the students’ ability to cope most certainly is. Jesus healed the sick Denver, Colo. with the level of racism they face in but did not enjoy religious liberty un- Emmaus Moment these institutions can be daunting. In der the government of Rome, nor did “Bringing New Life,” by Ronald the words of St. Ignatius, “Love is seen his disciples. Rolheiser, O.M.I. (10/5), shares ex- more readily in deeds than in words.” Understandable as is conscientious BORETA SINGLETON ceptional insights about the passion objection to the birth control provi- Online Comment and death of Jesus. The author’s com- sions of the A.C.A., I believe we would ments about “the veil of the sanctuary Healing the Sick have provided a more powerful witness was torn in two” were especially ar- Re “A New Subordinationism,” by to our faith had we been equally vocal resting and, for me, gave rise to some- John J. Conley (10/19): While I find in our support for this first valiant plan thing akin to what our brothers on the many reasons to agree with Father to provide affordable health care, qui- road to Emmaus felt. Despite church language that might be understood STATUS UPDATE otherwise, I do not think we are called that the church’s teaching on sexuali- to believe that God our loving Father In “What the Synod Did” (In All ty divides the body and the spirit and demanded Jesus’ crucifixion as a need- Things, 10/25), James Martin, S.J., therefore is a theology that simply is ed counterweight for a sinful human points to five important accomplish- ignored. balance sheet. I am grateful for Father ments that came out of the bishops’ de- KEVIN SULLIVAN Rolheiser’s careful reflection encourag- liberations on issues related to the fam- ing us to persevere in believing what ily. Readers offer their own takeaways. Five more things the synod did: 6) Created unrealistic expectations tai- is beyond our human understanding: I give Francis great credit and hope lor-made for “thought leaders” to blow that despite our sin, even the un- he will continue his efforts to open out of all proportion; 7) Aired the hi- speakable way in which we killed the the church to mercy. That said, here erarchy’s dirty laundry; 8) Deepened son God sent us, the person behind are five things the synod did not do: the cultural divisions among the laity; “the veil” has unchangeably offered 1) Allow women attending to vote; 2) 9) Distracted the church from the each of us unconditional love. Father Have theologians present to provide tried and true methods of spreading Rolheiser has identified a field worth context; 3) Have a real discussion on the Gospel through preaching and the digging continuously as we endeavor sexuality (the church in America has sacraments and handing on the faith to discover the treasure against which no moral standing when it comes to through priestly formation and rear- all else pales. ROBERT B. MURRAY sexuality after “Humane Vitae” and ing children; 10) Set back the cause Braintree, Mass. the sexual abuse scandal); 4) Discuss of ecumenism and further weakened in a deep and serious way the role the moral voice of the church in the Bursting the College Bubble of women in the church (only one world (not an easy task these days, to Re “Why Educate?” (Editorial, 9/28): bishop had the courage to talk about say the least). Bravo! The cost of college is soaring, growing women as deacons); 5) Recognize ROGER L. ESTES at double the cost of health care and four times the cost of housing. At the Letters to the editor may be sent to America’s editorial office (address on page 2) or letters@ same time, the rigor of the education is americamagazine.org. America will also consider the following for print publication: comments posted below articles on America’s website (americamagazine.org) and posts on going in the opposite direction. This is Twitter and public Facebook pages. All correspondence may be edited for length. clearly an economic bubble situation,

6 America November 16, 2015 and bubbles are unsustainable. Most James Madison argued that liberty live in an era of food stamps, Medicaid colleges are so ideologically constrained would be better protected if the con- and welfare. The bishops need to smell that they may be mainly miseducating stituent units of government were not like the sheep, and they should extol their students, ethically and factual- too small: “Extend the sphere, and you the working class and unions, celebrat- ly, so that students must re-educate take in a greater variety of parties and ing neither Democrat or Republican themselves when they get a job in the interests; you make it less probable policies and politics but leading us as real world. Senator Bernie Sanders has that a majority of the whole will have a a society even beyond the message of a plan that will only increase that cost common motive to invade the rights of charity to a message of human justice. further and delay the market correction other citizens.” ERNEST C. RASKAUSKAS SR. that is sorely needed. GEORGE E. WARD Potomac, Md. Canton, Mich. The increasing sophistication of A Ways to Go online courses and other electronic Re “Not a Maverick Pope,” by Gerard Labor’s Catholic Roots resources will likely burst the college O’Connell (9/14): I love Pope Francis, “Worked Over” (Editorial, 9/14) di- bubble. A combination of online edu- but it is factually incorrect to assert agnoses some of the problems in the cation and a part-time college presence that he “never puts himself above any- American culture and economy today could provide an excellent liberal edu- body.” He does. He puts himself and but does not address the central issue, cation for most in half the time and at all Catholic males above women. I love which is that 93 percent of private sec- a fifth or tenth the present cost. This him in spite of his shortcomings. I am tor workers are not organized for col- will be fiercely resisted by academics grateful for what he has begun to do lective bargaining with employers on (less money and less time to indoctri- in the church, and I pray for him to be income, working conditions and ben- nate the students in their pet ideolo- able to ordain women as priests and to efits. The editors refer to Archbishop gies) and their political allies, but it is do much more to address the horren- Wenski’s Labor Day statement in likely to succeed all the same. Other dous conditions imposed upon wom- 2015, which damns workers’ organiza- colleges and universities can then focus en worldwide. He could be a powerful tions with faint praise by noting their on technical education and the profes- voice but must start with the misogyny imperfection and indicates there is sions. in his own house. TIM O’LEARY very little institutional memory about SUSAN McGREAVY Online Comment the robust and constructive contribu- Online Comment tions of the Catholic ‘Extend the Sphere’ Church in America to Both the Of Many Things column by the gains made by la- Matt Malone, S.J., and Robert David bor in first half of the Sullivan’s “TV Comes of Age” (9/28), 20th century. are poignant reminders that “those who The U.S. bishops forget history are doomed to repeat have expended incred- it.” The business model of cable news ible energy in their channels and online news sites, which fight against abortion, build mass markets for advertisers by contraception and gay “severing from one another” different marriage. When have demographic groups, Father Malone they taken a militant says, “enfeebles public discourse” and is stand for increasing the “deeply complicit in the political polar- minimum wage? The ization of the electorate.” “The result,” statement speaks of re- writes Mr. Sullivan, “is sensationalism flection, which is a lot and appeals to partisan prejudice.” easier than proposing This is not the first time in our his- a course of action, like tory that the negative effect of splinter extolling the rights of groups on the well-being of the nation people to organize into has been an issue. In formulating the unions and negotiate U.S. government, the founders were for their just due. With “To be honest, Noah, you’re a little most sensitive to the threat of fac- so little union activity overqualified for the job.” tionalism. In Federalist Paper No. 10, in the private sector, we BILL THOMAS CARTOON:

November 16, 2015 America 7 8 America November 16, 2015 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

INDONESIA Bishops in Rome on the family, they joined Catholic bishops around in the Wildfires Cause Local Misery world in a demand for practical action from the U.N. sponsored conference And Global Environmental Offense on climate change in Paris in December. At that conference Indonesian leaders will have to submit their plan for containing greenhouse gas emissions. The daily emissions from the peat fires in Borneo and Sumatra alone are currently exceeding the emissions generated by the entire U.S. economy, putting Indonesia on track to be one of the world’s largest carbon polluters this year, according to data published by a researcher at the University of FIRE HAZARD. Amsterdam. Authorities evacuate a 19-year-old female The weeks of smoldering orangutan from wildfires have claimed the a burning forest near Sampit, Central lives of Indonesian children Kalimantan, on Oct. 28. and adults vulnerable to re- PHOTO: REUTERS/NORJANI/ANTARA FOTO PHOTO: REUTERS/NORJANI/ANTARA spiratory distress, but they have perhaps been hardest on ainfall in late October helped disperse the choking haze overhanging sever- the vast archipelago-nation’s wildlife. al regions of Indonesia severely affected by forest and peat fires. But much According to the Jakarta Globe, en- R more rain is needed to help put out the massive fires, Luhut Panjaitan, coor- dangered orangutans are falling victim dinating minister of Politics, Law and Security, told reporters. “If we have intensive to the fires and smoke. If they are not rain for four days consecutively and our water bombings continue, I hope next week trapped by the flames and burned to we’d back to normal,” he said. death, the constant smoke inhalation For weeks, the fire haze has upset the lives of ordinary people in various parts has left them sick and malnourished. of the country. Transportation has been disrupted and schools have been closed. According to NASA, which has In some provinces, the pollution level is 10 times the acceptable limit. According to been tracking the extent of the crisis as Indonesia’s Health Ministry, at least 425,700 people have suffered respiratory prob- the smoke drifts across the region, peat lems because of the smoke. Over 22,000 police and military personnel have been fires in Indonesia are not like most oth- deployed to combat more than 1,600 fires spread across six provinces. er wildfires. They are extremely diffi- Indonesian authorities launched the country’s biggest operation to combat the cult to extinguish and may smolder un- fires in late October with few tangible results. They are deploying civilian and mili- der the surface for long periods, often tary vessels to evacuate people endangered directly or those most vulnerable to the for months. Usually, firefighters can put smoke. Passenger terminals, warehouses and harbor facilities will be used to shelter them out only with the help of down- smoke-haze refugees. pours during the rainy season. NASA Indonesian Catholic leaders joined indigenous people and social groups to pro- reports Indonesia’s peat fires release test a lack of government action. The church had distributed more than 25,000 do- far more smoke and air pollution than nated face masks to help local residents breathe. most other types of fire. The nation’s Catholic bishops have for weeks been urging stronger action from The fires start to burn in Indonesia authorities to deal with the crisis. In October, after the meeting of the Synod of every year because farmers engage in

November 16, 2015 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

“slash and burn agriculture,” a tech- groups to crack down on the annual ment, there were indications of a possi- nique that involves burning rainforest practice. Though the annual fires are ble Syrian breakthrough as negotiators to clear the ground for crops or grazing illegal, the government has done little from 19 states, including the United animals. The fire starters are attempt- in the past to prevent them, and many States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, ing to make room for new plantings in Indonesian civil society complain of gathered in Vienna. “Four and a half of oil palm and acacia pulp. Indonesia government complicity with planta- years of war in Syria we all believe has has come under heavy pressure from tion owners, small landholders or pulp been far too long,” U.S. Secretary of its neighbors and environmental companies. State John Kerry told reporters. “The consequences of that war for so many people, innocent people, is beyond de- MIDDLE EAST scription…And so we came here…with the conviction that the fighting and the Bishops Hope for Peace in Syria killing absolutely has to end.” yriac Catholic bishops, meeting facing Syriac Catholics. In Iraq, citizens The secretary said it will take pres- in Lebanon during their annu- of Mosul and the Nineveh Plain were sure “from many different directions to Sal synod, called for a diplomatic uprooted in summer 2014 by Islamic reverse the escalation of conflict and to solution to achieve peace in Syria and State militants, resulting in the exo- lay a credible groundwork for peace.” Iraq. In a statement released at the con- dus of more than 100,000 Christians He said, using another name for clusion of the assembly, the bishops to the Kurdistan region in the north. the Islamic State, “Daesh and other pleaded for an end to the civ- terrorist organizations, we all il war in Syria, now in its fifth believe, can never be allowed year, and urged countries—par- to unite or govern Syria. The ticularly those directly involved United States position regard- in the conflict—to follow a path ing Syria, I emphasize, has not of “negotiation to find a peaceful changed.... There is no way that political solution.” President Assad can unite and With Syriac Catholic govern Syria. And we believe Patriarch Ignace Joseph III that Syrians deserve a different Younan presiding during the choice, and our goal is to work

Oct. 26-29 gathering at the con- AFTERMATH. Survivors sift through the rubble of a with Syrians from many fac- vent of Our Lady of Deliverance destroyed field hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma tions to develop that choice.” in Harissa, Lebanon, the bish- on the outskirts of Damascus, on Oct. 29. Secretary Kerry acknowl- ops denounced the “barbaric edged that the U.S. position acts” carried out by the Islamic State, Thousands have since emigrated to was diametrically opposed to that of pointing to the destruction of archaeo- other countries. the Russian Federation. “But,” he said, logical and cultural cites integral to the The bishops appealed to key coun- “we can’t allow that difference to get in history of Syria and Iraq in places like tries concerned with Iraq to support the way of the possibility of diplomacy Palmyra, Syria, and the ancient monas- its army “to speed up the liberation of to end the killing and to find the solu- teries of Mar Behnam in Iraq and Mar Mosul and Nineveh Plain so that peo- tion.” Elias in Syria. ple can come back to their homes and As if to remind all parties of the The bishops demanded the libera- live in peace and security.” They also difficult task ahead, as the ministers tion of all hostages and renewed their demanded “international guarantees began what could become dialogue to call for the release of two Syrian bish- from the United Nations, the central an eventual ceasefire, a missile barrage ops—Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan government and the Kurdistan region, slammed into a suburb of Damascus, Gregorios Yohanna of Aleppo and to ensure the common security of living killing at least 40 people and wounding Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Paul between Christians and other compo- many others in the latest government of Aleppo—kidnapped in April 2013. nents after the return, and compensa- attack on the rebel-held area. They lamented the tragedy of displace- tion for the property they lost.” The Syrian National Council, the ment and the resulting immigration As the bishops issued their state- main Western-backed opposition

10 America November 16, 2015 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

group in exile, blamed Russian air- strikes for the “massacre’’ in Douma. NEWS BRIEFS It said it was the second deadly attack Sarah Torre, an analyst for the Heritage in the past 24 hours after Russian air Foundation, reported at a discussion in strikes bombed the main hospital in Washington on Oct. 30 that the number Douma a day earlier. of cancer screenings conducted at Planned Parenthood affiliates had declined by Bishops in Climate Call half over the last 10 years, while the number of abortions climbed from 250,000 Catholic bishops from five continents to 327,000. • On Oct. 26 officials from issued a challenge to U.N. delegates Catholic Relief Services were planning Earthquake victims who will meet in Paris in December the agency’s response to a 7.5 magnitude to discuss the international framework earthquake that shook Pakistan and Afghanistan on Oct. 26, leav- on climate change, calling for “a just ing 380 people dead. • As dusk fell over Jerusalem’s Old City on Oct. and legally binding climate agreement” 29, a group of 60 Christians and Jews and one Muslim gathered to emerge from the negotiations. The at the Jaffa Gate for what they hope will become a monthly inter- bishops and cardinals issued a 10-point religious prayer service for peace. • U.S. bishops will consider a re- policy proposal “linking climate change vision of their statement on political responsibility and vote on a to social injustice and the social exclu- statement on pornography, among other issues, during their Nov. sion of the poorest and most vulnera- 16-19 fall general assembly in Baltimore. • As refugee misery piles ble of our citizens.” They urged lead- higher on Greek islands near Turkey, Antonio Guterres, the U.N. ers to be courageous and creative but high Commissioner for Refugees, told a panel in Washington on insisted on “enforceable agreements.” Oct. 30 that he would like a more reasoned discussion about the Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, crisis, especially in Europe, where the debate has been “hijacked” by India, president of the Federation of anxieties and xenophobia. Asian Bishops’ Conferences, signed the appeal on Oct. 26 at the beginning of a joint news conference at the Vatican. his death—I was a young priest and growing out of control, announced on The appeal, Cardinal Gracias said, was a witness to this—he was defamed, Oct. 29 that it will now allow families a response to Pope Francis’ letter on slandered, his memory despoiled and to have a total of two children. The the environment and an expression of his martyrdom continued also by his policy has caused significant demo- “the anxiety of all the people, all the brethren in the priesthood and in the graphic issues—there are 116 to 118 churches all over the world” regarding episcopate.” The pope added: “Perhaps men for every 100 women—and social how, “unless we are careful and pru- it is best to see it like this: a man who problems and created a generation of dent, we are heading for disaster.” continues to be a martyr. After having only children with two aging parents given his life, he continues to give it by to care for. The policy has been under Romero ‘Defamed’ allowing himself to be assailed by all quiet review for years. But headlines this misunderstanding and slander.” that state “China abandons one-child Pope Francis had strong words on Oct. Pope Francis added: “This gives me policy” are inaccurate. Families are still 30 for Catholic priests and bishops strength. Only God knows the stories limited to two children and must still who “defamed” the assassinated arch- of those people who have given their apply for permission to have them, as bishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero. lives, who have died, and continue to they did for their single child. There Going off script during a meeting be stoned with the hardest stone that has been no indication yet whether with 500 pilgrims from El Salvador, exists in the world: language.” family planning authorities in China Pope Francis said, “The martyrdom of will continue to use forced abortions Archbishop Romero was not fulfilled and other coercive methods against at the moment of his death—it was One-Child No More couples who choose to have three or a martyrdom of witness, of prior suf- China’s government, after enforcing a more children. fering and prior persecution, up to his one-child policy since 1980 to com- death. But even afterward, following bat a population that appeared to be From CNS, RNS and other sources.

November 16, 2015 America 11 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

DISPATCH | MIAMI warming and ocean acidification are threatening vital coral reef habitats in Overdue Alliance in Florida Straits the waters that connect Florida and Cuba, and a better understanding of t was one of the more absurd mo- spill safeguards and, just as important, those connections could rescue marine ments of America’s Cuba policy. details of the most vital but vulnera- life on both sides of the Florida Straits. I In 2011, as the Communist is- ble U.S. and Cuban maritime territo- Take, for example, parrotfish. Their land began drilling for what may be ries—including the U.S.’s 350-mile- insatiable nibbling keeps corrosive al- billions of barrels of oil off its north- long Florida Reef Tract and Cuba’s gae off coral, but they are increasingly ern coast, a legitimate fear gripped the Guanahacabibes National Park. endangered in those waters. Improved United States. That was the specter of “We were building bridges,” says knowledge of the migratory patterns of an oil spill, a BP-style disaster chok- Dan Whittle, senior Cuba program parrotfish between Florida and Cuba, ing the Florida Straits and destroying director for the New York-based which had been hampered before the some of the world’s most precious coral Environmental Defense Fund. “The recent diplomatic rapprochement, reefs and marine wildlife. oil-drilling issue helped us share could do a lot to help revive their pop- It was in the interest of the ulation. So could more coordinated United States—not least Florida’s Environmentalists were bilateral efforts to prevent overfish- $60 billion tourism industry—to ing them. loosen its diplomatic isolation alarmed to see politics But perhaps the most import- of Cuba and let the two enemy trump prudence, so ant potential benefit lies off Cuba’s governments cooperate in or- shores. der to avoid a petro-apocalypse. they took the initiative. Cuba’s own $2.5 billion tour- Washington could relax the trade ism sector relies on the pristine embargo and give Cuba and its image of its beaches and diving foreign drilling partners access to U.S. knowledge about our respective marine sites. The Catch-22, however, is that anti-spill technology. It could let U.S. resources for the first time.” tourism growth brings heavy environ- and Cuban agencies share environmen- That effort received a huge boost mental pressures—especially as more tal information. last December when President Obama American visitors pour in. As a result, But hardline anti-Communists in announced the United States and the Castro government’s declared goal Congress would not hear of it. Even Cuba were re-establishing diplomatic is to set aside a quarter of its coast- bilateral spill-prevention collaboration relations. Suddenly, U.S. federal agen- al waters as natural preserves. But to was deemed a form of aid to Cuba’s cies like the National Oceanic and undertake such a daunting project, drilling efforts—and therefore a lifeline Atmospheric Administration could Cuba needs the assistance of U.S. gov- to the repressive Castro regime, whose talk directly with their counterparts ernment agencies like the NOAA and threadbare, fuel-starved economy des- in Havana. And that conversation nongovernmental organizations like perately needed the crude. has been all the easier because of the the E.D.F. Enviro-activists like Whittle Since U.S. politicians still trembled groundwork Whittle and company laid hope the sister sanctuaries plan is just a at Florida’s Cuban-American vote in years before. first step in that process. those days, the hardliners held sway. So there was little surprise in early But this mission has to please the Environmentalists were alarmed to October when the two countries, at the Vatican, too. Pope Francis, after all, was see politics trump prudence, so they international Our Oceans conference a key broker in the deal to normalize took the initiative U.S. officials could in Chile, announced a historic environ- U.S.-Cuba ties, and the announcement not. They and private-sector drilling mental cooperation pact that focuses in Chile comes on the heels of his en- experts began making visits to Cuba. on marine protection. Its most prom- viro-economic encyclical, “Laudato Si.’” There they met with officials to discuss inent feature is a sister-sanctuaries It urges countries to take more seri- arrangement that pairs U.S. reserves ously the same climate-change hazards like the Florida Keys National Marine Washington and Havana are now join- TIM PADGETT, Latin America editor for NPR affiliate WLRN, isAmerica ’s Miami correspon- Sanctuary and Cuba’s Guanahacabibes. ing to confront. dent. The accord’s timing is critical. Global TIM PADGETT

12 America November 16, 2015 November 16, 2015 America 13 JAMES T. KEANE Defenders of the Faith he English journalist Auberon Rather than focus on those staunch Cogley had declared in Commonweal Waugh is usually credited defensores fidei at The New York that Romanità, the ancient ecclesiasti- Twith coining the term “the Times, we would do better to remem- cal art of intramural politics, “has had chattering classes,” his sneering mon- ber that the Second Vatican Council its day” and that “many good men will iker for the mostly educated, mostly featured much the same hubbub and weep for it during the hours of its final informed portion of the population division. For all that Catholic tradi- agony.” He added, “I will not be among that often confuses gossip for fact tionalists like to think that reformers them.” Contrarian respondents to and prides itself on insider status as it in the church made off with everything his eulogy included the novelist (and makes decisions for the unheard ma- but the sacristy sink at Vatican II, it is Auberon’s father) Evelyn Waugh and a jority. The Catholic Church has been worth noting that many reform-mind- young priest named Andrew Greeley. blessed and cursed by such a class since ed Catholics at the time found the A month later, America published an at least the days of the Medici, though second half of the council a crushing editorial entitled “Angry Young Men,” for tech-savvy American Catholics the disappointment. Writing in among whom they in- past two months have brought it new- Commonweal during the Anyone with cluded “some of the found prominence through an unlike- council’s final days in 1965, more talented products ly conduit: social media. the Rev. Hans Küng, a a Twitter of Catholic education. Our usual fare of videos of dys- council peritus, complained account Others, if not the most peptic cats and lurid updates on the that “the accomplishments intelligent, are at least clan Kardashian took a back seat for of the council to date obvi- could put the most vocal…. These many chattering Catholics (I am one) ously fall short of what was out a virtual young men would have to the pope’s visit to the United States generally expected.” The ti- a better chance of being in September and the gathering of the tle of a Commonweal essay shingle as taken seriously if they Synod of Bishops in Rome in October. by the Rev. Gregory Baum a church would avoid making Anyone with a Twitter account and a few months later is even themselves more ob- passing familiarity with Catholicism more telling: “The Council expert. noxious than they have (sometimes not even that) could put Ends: Was It a Failure?” to be.” out a virtual shingle as a church ex- After the council’s close, many of its Also in those waning days of pert. Few of these arrivistes logged newly famous periti gave lecture tours Vatican II, Bishop Mark McGrath, on without a rather large ideological in the United States, including Father C.S.C., noted in America that he was axe to grind, so much of the time ev- Küng and Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P. “amused by some of the Pollyanna eryone was incensed at everyone else. When he got home, the latter report- optimists of the First Session, many We officially jumped the shark at the ed that he found the American church of whom are visibly lagging as we go close of the synod with a previously deeply divided. “The discontent among into the fourth lap.” Writing decades inconceivable moment in the history American priests and even hatred for later, Peter Steinfels similarly recalled of American journalism, when a col- bishops,” Father Schillebeeckx told a the displeasure present on all sides: umnist for The New York Times took Dutch newspaper in 1968, “is inde- “Not only was there a Catholic right to Twitter to call a noted Catholic scribable.” The editors of America, that had yet to come to terms with ecclesiologist a heretic. (Yes, you read never shy when offered a chance to the Council’s reforms; there was a that sentence correctly.) How did a be outraged on the hierarchy’s behalf, Catholic left that seemed determined three-week meeting that almost every responded: “We suggest that Father to push them over a precipice.” participant described as a positive ex- Schillebeeckx was hotly pursued here In other words, the council of 50 perience of collegiality and group dis- in America by that terribly vocal mi- years ago, now lauded as a defining cernment result in such vitriol? nority of unhappy priests and laymen moment in the history of the church, who pour their troubles into every new was viewed even before it closed as a JAMES T. KEANE is an editor at Orbis Books in Ossining, N.Y., and a former associate editor of and available ear.” disappointment to almost everyone. America. Twitter: @jamestkeane. A year before the council ended, John How’s that for a precedent?

14 America November 16, 2015 FROM OUR BLOGS When Giving Thanks Is Not Enough, Valerie Schultz Chinese Burns As Xi Jinping Visits UK, David Stewart, S.J. NOSTRA AETATE Voting for the Canadian Dream, A look back at the genesis of the historic Vatican Michael Swan II document, and the roles played by Cardinal Augustin Bea, S.J., right, and Abraham Joshua WHAT YOU’RE READING Heschel. Cardinal Wuerl Calls Out Pope’s Opponents, Gerard O’Connell RADIO Where Were the Voting Women at the The Rev. Jack Wall of Catholic Extension talks Synod? James Martin, S.J. about Fr. Fredy Angel, left, the winner of this year’s The Synod Approves Final Document, Lumen Christi Award, on “America This Week.” Leaves the Door Open for the Pope to Move Forward on Key Issues The Pope’s Strong Words for Those VIDEO Who Seek to Block Change in the James Martin, S.J., talks about St. John Paul II with Church Sir Gilbert Levine, a conductor who collaborated What the Synod Did, frequently with the late pope. James Martin, S.J.

“I continue to be deeply saddened by the absence of women’s voices in Church leadership particularly in conversation about the family.” —Janet Millen, “Where Were the Voting Women at the Synod?”

November 16, 2015 America 15 Homing In The place of poetry in the global digital age BY PHILIP METRES y wife and I went shopping for smart- the realities of our bodies and spirits and their connections phones recently, beholding these mod- to the ecosystems in which we find ourselves. The form of a ern votives with equal parts wonder poem is one that forms us, holding us in its thrall. To dwell and worry. We, digital immigrants and with singular lines or phrases, lines that puzzle or clarify, introverts who tote a decade-old “flip” carries us back to the ancient practices of ritual chant and Mphone only for emergencies, see the benefits of these mag- shamanic trance, fundamental to the ecstatic possibilities ical devices. They have the fairy-tale power of a digital of communion and healing. In the words of C. D. Wright, genie, released with the mere swipe of a screen. But what pace Horace: “Some of us do not read or write particular- genie will we unleash when we bring this technology into ly for pleasure or instruction, but to be changed, healed, our lives? Doesn’t the servant, in the end, always change the charged.” master? Poetry, at its root, is a “making” (poesis). This making is Despite the fact that digital technologies offer global often akin to prayer, or parallel to prayer—a reaching for connectedness, they also appear to isolate us further into or an appeal to the great mystery of the Beloved, the Great our own self-created reality and dislocate us from the non- Maker. One of things I love about Ignatian spirituality is digital world. And the greater our privilege, the more we its fundamental emphasis on an active imagination, what can cordon off the real, the stronger our myopia. Amiri St. Ignatius calls composición—often translated as “seeing Baraka once wrote: “Luxury, then, is a way of/ being ig- in imagination” or “mental representation.” Composición norant, comfortably.” Yet privilege does more than damage comes from the Latin compositio, meaning “putting togeth- our vision; it starves the heart. In the biblical parable of er, connecting,” but the word’s roots suggest that imagina- Lazarus and the rich man, the rich man’s flaw is not merely tive visualization involves placing oneself with (“com” plus being unable to see Lazarus in pain right outside his gate; “position”). after his death, when the rich man looks up from Hades, he The imagination can locate us in our own lives (what clearly recognizes Lazarus next to Abraham in heaven and Ignatius calls the daily examen), as well as bring us to far- begs Abraham to ask Lazarus for a bit of water to cool his flung places, to stand with others. Ignatius asks the exer- torment. The rich man knows Lazarus by name but even in citant, for example, in contemplating the Nativity, to “see hell does not see fit to address him directly. in imagination the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. In our global digital age—with its information flood, its Consider its length, its breadth; whether level, or through attenuation of attention, its transmogrification of subjec- valleys and over hills. Observe the place where Christ is tivity, its obscuring of our connectedness—what can po- born; whether big or little; whether high or low; and how it etry and the arts do? The artist’s challenge is not merely to is arranged.” Such grounded visionary practice is both exer- chronicle the hectic present but to develop an understand- cise and meditation. The work of the imagination invites us ing of how we find ourselves at this time and place, to ex- to slow down, pay close attention, to visualize, to wonder. plore what binds us to each other and to ask Leo Tolstoy’s Poetry tunes us to ultimate things. question: “How, then, shall we live?” Poetry is not a mere throwback, some atavistic practice Poetry’s oldest and least-marketable power, paradoxical- for the vestigial few. On the contrary, poetry’s discipline of ly, offers us a secret vitality. Poetry’s slowness, its ruminativ- entering us into our minds and bodies—our restless bod- ity, enables us to step back from the distracted and distract- ies, our roiled souls—is an ancient practice that invites ing present, to ground ourselves again through language in grace to enter our brokenness, to hold us together, to waken us again. The Sufi poet Rumi wrote, “the wound is the place PHILIP METRES, a professor of English at John Carroll University, is where Light enters you,” 700 years before Leonard Cohen the inaugural winner of the George W. Hunt, S.J., Prize for Excellence in sang:, “There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light Journalism, Arts and Letters. This is the text of the lecture he gave at the award ceremony held at Yale University on Sept. 17, 2015. For information gets in”—thus proving Thomas Merton’s thesis that “that about the prize, visit americamagazine.org/huntprize. which is oldest is most new.”

16 America November 16, 2015 An Essential Human Endeavor my language flailed to reach for some sort of handhold. Poetry is also a technology of embodied inquiry, a way of The questions of travel, as Elizabeth Bishop called them, locating ourselves and others within contexts heretofore have often been at the center of my writing. Travel expos- outside of our understanding, yet which include us with- es us to otherness (other cultures, other histories, other in their operations. Michael Davidson has proposed that people) and exposes us as other to ourselves. Yet, as Mary “perhaps poetry, in its proximity to affective states, is the Louise Pratt argues in Imperial Eyes, the trope of “anti-con- dreamwork of globalization.” Poetry and the arts indeed can quest” in Western travel writing—in which an innocent help us perform what Fredric Jameson calls cognitive map- Westerner encounters other places and culture—becomes ping, “enabl[ing] a situational a strategy of representation representation on the part that enables one to “seek to of the individual subject to secure their innocence at the that vaster and properly un- same moment as they assert representable totality which European hegemony.” So is the ensemble of society’s many writers have exploited structures as a whole.” I love their travel experience as yet this strange quote; Jameson, another subject to plunder, a postmodern Marxist the- the imagination as a ma- orist, has in mind a materi- rauding imperial Columbus. alist totality, and that we are That is why in one poem in subjects (and objects) in the To See the Earth, I cite my system of late capitalism. Yet Russian mentor, Dimitri Jameon’s phrasing is mystical, Psurtsev, who once remarked inviting us to consider not after reading some of my po- only human structures, but ems, “This is your version of also planetary, cosmic struc- Russia, not Russia.” tures. Perhaps, even, the un- When I speak of “cognitive representable Divine. mapping,” of cosmopoetics, I Cosmopoetics is a good am talking about an essential way to describe art that per- human endeavor—to con- forms cognitive mapping. nect our apperceptive phys- It suggests both cosmopoli- icality to our surroundings. tanism—the philosophy of It is a dirty little secret, but global human solidarity— I love getting lost, because and also something cosmic, getting lost also entails a new where the universe offers kind of knowing. Just when us traces of a great Totality. you think you know where When I look at my own you are going, you are lost. writing—which began only When you see you are lost, as a blind reaching-out into you are going to find some- the epistemological dark—a thing larger than the self. cosmopoetics, a geographical Yet cartography and its imagination, seems to have abstractions are deeply polit- taken shape. Like many po- ical and often have extended ets, I began writing to make exploitative power arrange- sense of what was happening ments, carved people and to me and around me; as my interests have orbited further peoples apart for the aims of empires. That is why I am wary outward, I was challenged—and the language challenged of broad claims about the representativity of my represen- me—to reach beyond comfortable frames of understanding. tations. To See the Earth is “my” creation story, Pictures at an Each place became a portal to new worlds. Traveling to my Exhibition is “my” Russia, A Concordance of Leaves is “my” grandparents’ houses in Brooklyn or Rhode Island, or climb- Palestine, Sand Opera is “my” Iraq. Or rather, this is where “I” ing inside the ancient step pyramid at Chichén Itzá, or after come from, this is the Russia in which I lost and found my-

COMPOSITE PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/STUART JENNER/AMERICA COMPOSITE PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/STUART college, living in Russia for a year, were quantum leaps where self, the Palestine that absorbed me, the Iraq that carries me.

November 16, 2015 America 17 A Meditation in the Desert soldier who has the chance to enter the military tank where Sand Opera began as a daily Lenten meditation, working with her husband died, in “Home Sweet Home,” nested inside an- the testimonies of the tortured at Abu Ghraib, to witness to other poem, based on a letter of a marine lamenting his own their suffering; it became an attempt to find a language that entrapment in a war where he cannot fight the evil he faces. would sight (to render visible) and site (to locate in the geo- War always comes home, not just in the bodies and minds of graphical imagination) the war itself, constantly off-screen. military veterans but also in the militarization of prisons and War is so distanced that the closest most Americans get to police; the distance between Ferguson and Baghdad is closer it is when they encounter a veteran or refugee. That it was than some would like to think. illegal for 18 years—from Operation Desert Storm in 1991 Cosmopoetics is ultimately not just about mapping, or until 2009—to take photos of flag-draped coffins of U.S. even seeing. It is also about listening, about a radical vulnera- military personnel suggests the level of censorship during bility to the other. As Isaiah writes, “Morning after morning/ war. This policy is designed not only to make the enemy ab- He opens my ear that I may hear.” Sand Opera is the sound stract but also to render the cost of war invisible and suppress of my listening. These poems carry forth voices that have domestic questioning. More recently, our contemporary pro- opened me—the Iraqi curator Donny George Youkhanna, gram of “targeted assassination” by drones has yet to be made sharing slides of lost art from his cherished museum, abused fully apparent to the American people. Iraqi prisoners and U.S. military personnel at Abu Ghraib My desire in Sand Opera is to make the Iraq War and the prison, a recipe in Nawal Nasrallah’s Iraqi cookbook, the wider war on terror visible, to make a visible and audible map detained Mohamad Bashmilah, a drone operator who isn’t of it, a map that we would carry in our eyes and ears, in our sure who he’s killing, an Arab-American living through the bodies and hearts, to replace the maps of pundits and de- paranoid days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, mogogues. As a poet, I wanted to do this mostly through lan- and my daughter’s coming to consciousness in a world where guage—often through language which renders the ruptures war leaks through the radio and television. The words of my of violence, through the black bars of redaction and fractured daughter at the end of the poem “Hung Lyres” embody what syntax—but I also found myself drawn to the strange images I hope I can continue to open myself into: that point toward the operations of war. Throughout the book, for example, unexplained drawings What does it mean, I say. She says, it means of rooms appear, with language floating on a vellum page to be quiet, just by yourself. She says, there’s above them. These are renderings by Mohamad Bashmilah, a former prisoner from Yemen, of what have come to be known a treasure chest inside. You get to dig it out. as black sites—secret prisons where the United States and Somehow, it’s spring. Says, will it always its allies would illegally hold and interrogate detainees. These drawings are the renderings of one who has been “rendered,” rain? In some countries, I say, they are sundered from everything he knew. To witness them is to praying for rain. She asks, why do birds sing? enter the mind of a person utterly dislocated, yet rigorously, obsessively, trying to locate himself. In the dream, my notebook dipped in water, Sand Opera also contains a diagram of a proper “Muslim all the writing lost. Says, read the story again. burial” from the Standard Operation Procedures manual for the Guantanamo Bay prison. The S.O.P. notes the impor- But which one? That which diverts the mind tance of the treatment of the body—the enshrouding pro- is poetry. Says, you know those planes cess, the prayers that should be uttered—and how the body should point toward Mecca. Alongside the testimonies of that hit those buildings? Asks, why do birds sing? prisoners who saw the Quran thrown into the toilet, we are When the storm ends, she stops, holds her hands struck again by the gap between our measure of cultural sen- sitivity and our manipulation of that knowledge for cruel and together, closes her eyes. What are you doing? degrading acts. I’m praying for the dead worms. Says, listen: A poem is a momentary home, a way to home in. Their architectures, their forms, inform how we perceive and feel Mapping Connections insides and outsides. In Sand Opera, we stumble among the How can we map these connections and distances without broken syntax of the tortured in Abu Ghraib prison; stare at losing our focus on what is directly in front of us—this ten- the thick walls of the vellum-paged “Black Site (Exhibit I),” dency toward hyperopia, that longsightedness that is another trying to read the words on the next page seeping around the kind of myopia? I have thought a lot about all the ways that prison cell; we confront the words of a bereaved widow of a my obsessions with distant wars and places and people have

18 America November 16, 2015 frayed me to loose ends, distracting me from intimate joys I would like to circle back to the smartphone for a mo- and domestic peace. At times, I have wondered if I have en- ment. It is strange to think that the very smartphone that engaged in the poetic equivalent of the father scrolling through ables you to Google Map your way in any strange city in the his phone while his child finally balances on her bike and world does not advertise the often deplorable conditions for glides down the sidewalk, in perfect rhythm with herself and workers assembling these phones. Nor does it divulge that her conveyance. How to hold the sight of my daughters’ faces, the rare earths that go into its construction (exotic elements dearer to me than any other faces on this dear earth, along- like tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold) may have come from— side the sight of someone else’s daughter’s face—first seen on and fueled conflict in—places like the Congo. And once a Facebook—pulling schoolbooks out of a bombed house in new model emerges and we have worn out the phone, where Gaza, to continue studying another day? How to hold and does this material go when we have thrown it out? Whose be held by my beloved wife, and also teach my classes, catch child will be paid pennies to pull out its innards? Who will up on emails and messages, mow the lawn, take out the gar- inherit its poisons? bage, and also find time to click a microloan to a Gazan farm- I trace my awakening to this question from my early days er named Ahmad, who needs to buy some hens for his egg at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill., where, in a freshman re- business? How do we carry our others and ourselves on this ligious studies class taught by the improbably ancient George fragile planet? Steenken, S.J., we watched “The Wrath of Grapes”—a doc- Antonio Gramsci once asked himself so poignantly: umentary exposé on pesticide exposure among migrant workers—and the filmic adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s [Is] it really possible to forge links with a mass of peo- “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Ignatian spirituality— ple when one has never had strong feelings for anyone, from social justice conscientization to existential exploration not even one’s own parents, if it is possible to have a of a condemned man’s longing for freedom—lit my imagi- collectivity when one has not been deeply loved oneself nation and dilated my empathy. What I long to write and by individual human creatures. Hasn’t [this]...tended to encounter is art that can help us make a quantum leap in to make me sterile and reduce my quality as a revolu- our moral imagination. As a poet, I long for Isaiah’s fire, for tionary by making everything a matter of pure intellect, a “well-trained tongue,/ That I might know how to speak to of pure mathematical calculation?” the weary/ A word that will rouse them.” To make poems that will open not only our eyes, but awaken us, pry open Gramsci’s question is an old theme, as old as Diogenes’s our hearts and souls, induce metanoia—transforming how idea of cosmopolitanism. The cosmopolitan idea that we are we spend our breath on this earth. all connected and that a person on a distant part of the globe I’d like to end with a poem, called “Compline,” that is also is as dear as our neighbor has always engendered the pro- a prayer: foundest critique of the cosmopolite—that he is one who loves everyone in the abstract but hates That we await a blessed hope, & that we will be struck (or ignores) all particular people. It is a real dan- With great fear, like a baby taken into the night, that every boot, ger I have occasionally blundered into, blinkered by vanity or distracted by novelty. Every improvised explosive, Talon & Hornet, Molotov Poetry is one of the ways we might try to & rubber-coated bullet, every unexploded cluster bomblet, home in—to claim our own ground—not on our digital platforms but on the raw earthiness Every Kevlar & suicide vest & unpiloted drone raining fire of our own bodies, our beloveds, our kin, our On wedding parties will be burned as fuel in the dark season. distant next-door (human and sentient) neighbors of the communities in which we live and That we will learn the awful hunger of God, the nerve-fraying ones to which we are tied. Like any other tech- Cry of God, the curdy vomit of God, the soiled swaddle of God, nology, poetry contains powers that both distract and focus us; it is a danger like any pow- The constant wakefulness of God, alongside the sweet scalp er. Yet it is one of the ways I answer the ques- Of God, the contented murmur of God, the limb-twitched dream- tion—how to ground myself in my own body, my breath, exercising something I have no other Reaching of God. We’re dizzy in every departure, limb-lost. word for but love, that radical opening of self to We cannot sleep in the wake of God, & God will not sleep the other. “For we are put on this earth a little space,” William Blake writes, “that we may learn The infant dream for long. We lift the blinds, look out into ink to bear the beams of love.” For light. My God, my God, open the spine binding our sight. A

November 16, 2015 America 19

Graham Greene’s Pope Finding God in battered places BY HEATHER MORELAND McHALE

raham Greene, one of the most outspoken self-sacrifice as he values the needs of the church’s people Catholic writers of the past century, had one above his own safety. Despite its grimness, the novel affirms consistent belief about the church, no matter both the value and the resilience of the church, as some of how much his depictions of it might vary in oth- the representatives of the Vatican acknowledged. Although Ger respects: When the church does its job, it serves the poor, the Holy Office censured the novel,Pope Paul VI himself the sick, the underprivileged, the disenfranchised, the de- told Greene, “Some aspects of your books are certain to spairing. Greene was intensely populist and self-consciously offend some Catholics, but you should pay no attention to radical. His political views were very simple: support the un- that.” derdog. Through his Catholic characters and his depictions The connection between religion and politics anchors of the church, Greene advocated for a more socially and Greene’s works. In novels like The Comedians and Monsignor economically engaged Catholic practice. Though he did not Quixote, he explores the connection between Catholicism live to see it, the election of Pope Francis gives the church a and Communism—less as a serious consideration of public face that more closely resembles Greene’s vision. Communism than as a way of examining inequity and so- Greene—a convert—is often described as a “Catholic cial injustice. Humanity, he concludes, whether expressed writer,” possibly because his most enduring and popular as a religious obligation or a political one, requires that the books center on specifically Catholic characters and ideas wealthy and powerful share with the less fortunate. Moral (Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the people devote their attention to the poor and the oppressed Matter, The End of the Affair). Most of his other novels tack- instead of ignoring the needy or the downtrodden. As the le similar themes, if not from an explicitly Catholic perspec- character Dr. Magiot writes in a letter in The Comedians, tive. Almost all his major characters grapple with spiritual “Catholics and communists have committed great crimes, uncertainty, ethical dilemmas or existential crises. His faith but at least they have not stood aside, like an established so- evolved over time, leading him to describe himself in a vari- ciety, and been indifferent.” Greene’s books explicitly connect ety of ways, including as a “Catholic atheist,” but he remains religious thought with political and social reality. one of the best-known and most respected Catholic writers Similarly, Pope Francis acknowledges the bond between of the 20th century. these two spheres, using political language in his homilies This is not to say, however, that Greene and the church and writings. In a homily on June 17, 2013, he exhorted his always—or even often—agreed. Indeed, the Holy Office listeners, “In this day and age, unless Christians are revolu- urged Greene to revise The Power and the Glory, which they tionaries they are not Christians.” He urged the faithful to argued was “a danger to the virtue of the majority” because of bear witness not only in words but in acts, instructing them to its “odd and paradoxical” views. Greene, in his apologetic, to go toward “the outskirts of existence. All the outskirts, heartfelt reply, affirmed his personal sense of attachment to from physical and real poverty to intellectual poverty, which the pope and wrote, “The aim of the book was to oppose is also real.” In a homily delivered on Sept. 16, 2013, the the power of the sacraments and the indestructibility of pope encouraged his listeners to pray for their leaders and the church on the one hand with, on the other, the mere- to engage with politics, arguing that “politics, according to ly temporal power of an essentially Communist state.” The the social doctrine of the church, is one of the highest forms Power and the Glory, which describes the travels of a name- of charity, because it serves the common good.... A good less alcoholic priest in the Mexican state of Tabasco under Catholic meddles in politics.” This language suggests a sharp an oppressive government that was attempting to stamp out lack of connection between Pope Francis and his predeces- Catholicism, drew heavily on Greene’s observations during sor, Pope Benedict XVI, who wrote, “Wherever politics tries a five-month trip to Tabasco in 1938. The debauched atmo- to be redemptive, it is promising too much.” sphere of the novel conflicts with the whisky priest’s heroic A Church to Change the World

HEATHER MORELAND McHALE holds a doctorate in literature from the Pope Francis is the pope that Greene was waiting for—a University of Maryland. She lives and teaches near Washington, D.C. pope who has already brought the church closer to Greene’s

22 America November 16, 2015 GREENELAND. Blue plaque outside Graham Greene’s birthplace, St. John’s boarding house (part of Berkhamsted School) in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. Inset: Graham Greene PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/WIKIDWITCH

ideal. Greene and Pope Francis share a one of the most culturally influential institutions in human conviction that the face of God is visi- history.” Francis, in rejecting his own right to judge, makes ble in the lowest places, the most bat- a powerful statement about the role he envisions for the tered corners of the world (or, to use Vatican. Like Greene, he rejects any suggestion that a per- the pontiff ’s word, “the outskirts”). The son’s appearance, actions or words adequately reveal the pope shows no fear of shaking up the contents of that person’s heart. Greene’s 1938 novel Brighton public image of the Catholic Church. Rock traces the conflict and possible salvation of a ruthless His statements on topics as disparate young gangster, Pinkie. Near the end of the novel, a priest as homosexuality, the environment and tells Pinkie’s wife, Rose, “The church does not demand that capitalism, and the weapons industry we believe any soul is cut off from mercy.” have echoed all over the globe, reaching non-Catholics as This, of course, is standard doctrine: No one is beyond well as Catholics. He is a decidedly public figure, attracting salvation. Pope Francis, though, emphasizes—like Greene— analysis and commentary—complimentary and not—from that not only does every human being have the possibility of mainstream publications. The Atlantic asks, “Will Pope salvation but also that God exists in every life in ways that Francis Break the Church?” In the subtitle of an essay for we may not easily see. In an interview published in America The New Yorker by James Carroll, the pope is called “a rad- (“A Big Heart Open to God,” 9/30/13) the pope explains: ical pope.” In other words, this new pope has made serious changes, even if some of those changes are more about tone Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it and image than about policy. is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else—God is Pope Francis uses the church as a medium for mak- in this person’s life. You can, you must try to seek God ing change in the world; he has natural political savvy and in every human life. Although the life of a person is a awareness of the immense influence held by the Catholic land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in Church. He frequently uses that influence to foster toler- which the good seed can grow. ance and nonjudgment. Although he has certainly made some hard-and-fast moral assertions, his most famous state- As Greene’s novels suggest, grace is not always visible. ments are those that show acceptance of different points of view. Asked about his position on homosexuality, he replied, In a Small Boat Tossed About “Who am I to judge them if they are seeking the Lord in In a related vein, Greene and Pope Francis agree that doubt good faith?” can be salutary. In his novel Monsignor Quixote (1982), The answer, historically, has been, “You are the pope— Greene describes the friendship between the protagonist, the human voice of God among men, the representative of Monsignor Quixote, and his traveling companion, the mayor

November 16, 2015 America 23 (nicknamed Sancho). They spend a great deal of their time partly because the first half expresses a common religious discussing religion and politics, for Quixote is a Catholic belief. But the second half—that doubt is useful even in a and Sancho is a Communist. The details of their agree- leader—is a much more revolutionary idea. By contrast, ment and disagreement, however, are swept aside in favor of Pope Benedict XVI spoke energetically against what he the shared experience of questioning their most important called “relativism,” arguing that “we are building a dictator- beliefs. They agree that “it’s human to doubt.” As Quixote ship of relativism that does not recognize anything as defini- thinks to himself, “It’s odd...how sharing a sense of doubt tive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego can bring men together perhaps even more than sharing a and desires.” He described the thoughts of many Christians faith.” The shared experience of questioning and examining as a small boat, “tossed about” by the “waves” of ideas “from their different faiths allows Quixote and Sancho to under- Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectiv- stand, respect and love one another. ism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague reli- In On Heaven and Earth, a dialogue with the Argentine gious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Pope Francis (then still Cardinal forth.” While Pope Francis can hardly be called a relativist, Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires) says: his public speeches and writings incorporate ideas and language from many different places. Instead of considering The great leaders of the people of God were men that different doctrines or worldviews to be threats to Catholic left room for doubt.... He that wants to be a leader of belief, he takes the useful parts of those theories and uses the people of God has to give God His space; therefore them to support his faith, drawing connections instead of to shrink, to recede into oneself with doubt, the interi- establishing boundaries. or experiences of darkness, of not knowing what to do, Politics aside, Pope Francis embodies the sort of faith all of that ultimately is very purifying. The bad leader Greene describes in his novels by focusing on the poor and is the one who is self-assured, and stubborn. One of afflicted. In November 2013, the pope was photographed the characteristics of a bad leader is to be excessively embracing and kissing a man with neurofibromatosis, a dis- normative because of his self-assurance. order that caused disfiguring (though benign) tumors on his face. The photographs show the pope’s hands on each side The radicalism of this statement is easily overlooked, of the man’s face, his eyes closed in prayer as he confers a blessing. Irresistibly, I am reminded of Greene’s character Sarah Miles, kissing Richard Smythe’s cheek in The End of the Affair. She records it later in her diary, remembering, “I shut my eyes and put my mouth against the cheek. I felt sick for a moment because I fear deformity, and I thought I am kissing pain and pain belongs to You as happiness never does.” While Greene tends to romanticize pain, seeing it as a source of meaning, the pontiff seeks out pain and pow- erlessness to attempt to remedy them. In practice, however, Greene and Francis agree that the job of the church—and of the clergy—is to serve the people who need it most: those who suffer. On March 19, 2013, the pope tweeted, “True power is service. The Pope must serve all people, especially the poor, the weak, the vulnerable.” The message resonated with his followers: as of this writing, his assertion has been retweeted 24,222 times. Although Greene took more extreme positions on some issues, Pope Francis embodies the kind of religious and spiritual conduct that Greene imagined in his novels. The presence in the Vatican of a pope who supports liberation theology’s focus on the poor suggests that the church is ap- proaching Greene’s vision of what it ought rightfully to be: not a police force or a moralizing agent, nor an isolated city where the pontiff lives in lonely grandeur, but an instrument of outreach for those who would help the poor, stand up for the oppressed and provide for the needy. A

24 America November 16, 2015 On Being and Becoming The God of second chances BY WILLIAM J. O’MALLEY

very theology course I have endured seemed like notes endurance, which in turn requires a yielding no perfect logicians parsing a love letter. I cannot remember being “could” muster. Less heady Hebrews, however, accept- even one professor introducing God as a personal ed a God so fed up he said (I am paraphrasing here), “T’hell friend, a pal he had had a few beers with, attended with the whole mess,” flooded it out and started over. Ewakes with, wrestled with using anything but his formidable Tenacity is patience, whose root is passio: sufferance. mind. None cited times he had to forgive God or beg God How could a God beyond superlatives be a submissive vic- to leave him alone. Like Job’s comforters, they knew so much tim? A crucifix answers that question, and Paul clarifies it: about God but never persuaded me they knew God as Jacob “He emptied himself ” (Phil 2:7). But evidence suggests did, who went at it with God mano a mano. submission has been a characteristic of God, since “the be- On the way to becoming who I am now, I think I discov- ginning.” God programs the rules into the natures of things, ered some insights into God that Aquinas and the Catechism then pretty much yields to his own chosen commitments of the Catholic Church likely found too down-to-earth. One (excepting the rare miracle). constant is tenacity, God’s almost Sisyphean refusal to quit. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Tenacity might be too humanized for experts, since it con- And the earth was waste and void” (Gn 1:1-2). The author of Genesis was not proofed by Stephen Hawking, yet he also seemed unable to wrap his mind around “nothing.” Before WILLIAM J. O’MALLEY, S.J., is a professor of theology and the author of many books, including The Fifth Week and God: the Oldest God’s first workday, there had to be some there there. He Question. postulated a primeval swamp—not bad for 3,400 years

COSMIC TIME. The South Pole Telescope and the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization experiment at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. CNS PHOTO/KEITH VANDERLINDE/NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION VIA REUTERS SCIENCE FOUNDATION CNS PHOTO/KEITH VANDERLINDE/NATIONAL

November 16, 2015 America 25 ago. Similarly, later evidence for an expanding universe led bled themselves up, exhausting their internal fuel, then Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest-physicist, in 1927 to bursting in imitation of the Big One. But their ashes are propose what became known as the Big Bang theory. For no more inert than the remains of a phoenix. Within them, a swamp, he substituted an equally fecund “primeval atom.” infinitesimal hydrogen atoms restlessly jostle, bump, batter Today this is called a “singularity,” a point smaller than a pe- one another, heating themselves to the point where they riod but of infinite density containing within it all the mat- fuse together into a gravitational field pulling in incautious ter in the present fathomless universe. But, as important, neighbors, absorbing. After a few million years, the star embedded in that mass were also four invisibly real, regula- burns through its dusty womb. Then, like a maturing child, tory and immutable cosmic laws: gravity, electromagnetism, it slowly achieves adult equilibrium. strong and weak relativity. God’s will, embodied. After about 10 billion years, the star begins running out After that, God could pretty much sit back and enjoy it of combustibles, fuses into a supercondensed white dwarf, or working out its own kinks. a neutron star or a black hole. But the interactions just keep dancing, wrestling, recycling, ever changing, ever new, always The Opposite of Nothing the same. Is it blasphemous to say God seems addicted to Another attribute never mentioned is that God is—in him- rebirth? self—the utter, total, complete opposite of nothing: utter contagious aliveness. God is I AM, the well of existence Neither Created Nor Destroyed out of which anything with “is” draws its “is.” Therefore, be- Another divine attribute not usually suggested is thrift. The ware thinking of the Genesis “void” as barren like a vacuum. law of conservation of energy states that total energy of a sys- Nothing gets very close to God without coming alive, as the tem remains constant—energy neither created nor destroyed dryness in wood welcomes the fire. The void—like science’s but transferred from one form to another or one source to singularity—was alive, fertile, teeming with potential, like another. For instance, hydrogen, gravity and time in a galac- a womb awaiting impregnation. “The Spirit of God moved tic cloud convert into a fiery star, which in turn provides its upon the face of the waters.” The intentions of God—life, funerary remains for a grandchild galaxy. Water—rushing or growth, animation, feeling, intelligence—were implanted boiling—can produce electricity, which in turn generates all in creation, like the oak in an acorn, attraction/repulsion in kinds of magic. Horsehair bows drawn across sheep intestine mass, Beethoven’s power in a fertilized ovum. strings make music. Hidden energy in chemicals changes to Creationism and evolution agree that gestation and frui- kinetic energy in an engine and moves a vehicle. Vegetation tion was gradual. Seven days or five billion years, why not all devours energy from our local star and converts it to food, at once, if God is irresistible? Another unlisted divine qual- which animals in turn convert to flesh and we in turn alchem- ity: delight, an inevitable spinoff of his creativity. We for- ize into bodies—unique because they in turn ignite a totally get that, unlike ourselves, time left God untouched. Except unparalleled form of life in minds that convert sense impuls- in Jesus, God has never “matured” and is younger than we, es into abstract ideas. Einstein’s E=mc2 states that energy and much smarter but less sophisticated, content with an inge- mass are different sides of the same coin. nious pattern of snow crystals yet tirelessly inventive enough So we are pulsing with recycled stardust. to make each flake at both poles unique. How dull if God James Weldon Johnson captures this truth better than were fussy as a logician, with every tree a perfect cylinder, any formula: every apple a perfect sphere, every forester Brad Pitt. That ignites another insight: God’s penchant for imper- This Great God, fection, a reality nonexistent until God created. Nothing Like a mammy bending over her baby, created has perfect shape. Even the earth is an approximate Kneeled down in the dust sphere. One could conclude God’s reason was that every- Toiling over a lump of clay thing he created should have room to grow. Perhaps that is Till He shaped it in His own image; why God eventually invented people, because he loves sto- Then into it He blew the breath of life, ries, impossible without defects, fallibility, mistakes. And man became a living soul. Most agree all began with the least tidy method conceiv- Amen. Amen! able: an explosion. Yet buried within that awesome combus- tion was seeded the most elegant honeycomb ever devised: The rest of that relationship begun in that muddy mo- the periodic table. Order and surprise. Cosmos infused into ment introduced a totally new element into the closed sys- the chaos. Nor after 14 billion years, does God seem tired of tem: the breath of God. For the first time this side of heaven, doing it again, each time better. Fanciful routine. a new potential reality emerged: friendship, then love—per- Far, far away, galactic clouds remain from stars that gob- son-to-Person connection. Thunder thinkers render those

26 America November 16, 2015 qualities down to chilly divine essentials—like agape, charity, providence, beneficence. All clear and cold as geometry. The story of that person-to-person connection—in all cultures but most notably for us in Judaeo-Christian history—emboldens me to believe another unsung aspect of God’s personality is affection. Nothing purified about it, like agape, unless we realize mature affection bubbles up from a cruci- ble fired by conflict, anger, frustration, mutual betrayal and forgiveness. This is a fondness fashioned like a star’s atoms— jostling, bumping, battering—in the classroom, the pub, the intensive care unit, the funeral home, locker room, sanctuary. Edging further into the forbidden quicksand of anthro- pomorphism, dare we suppose that like any parent or lover God is smitten, paradoxically a “victim” of his own generos- ity? As a needed concession to sharing his own inner love, God (foolishly?) made freedom a constituent of the human difference. No other creature can truly share love with God except creatures free to withhold it. Thus, God freely made himself helpless before his own devotion. The Hebrew and Christian experience with God makes that insight unavoidable. God’s love is stubborn, relentless, staunch, resolute, despite his insubordinate human progeny. In contrast, the Catechism of the Catholic Church grimly asserts: “Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience. Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness. They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image—that of a God jealous of his prerogatives” (No. 399). An army of theologians brighter than I defend the idea that God got so mad at humans over a single act of disobedience that he apparently could not restore them to blessedness after that infinite insult. Not until Jesus came and died in ransom to assuage that debt. Even then, they claim, even after a sincere admission of foolishness and priestly absolution, the guilt (reatus culpae) is dismissed, but the need to make recom- pense (reatus poenae) cannot be removed except by suffering in purgatory (No. 1473). That strikes some as double jeop- ardy inconsistent with other unarguable divine attributes. After the Eden experiment, what could have impelled an infinitely ingenious God to begin over again with the same pair of dolts who messed it up? Then the entire Hebrew Scripture is a millennial cavalcade of ingrates missing the same point. But Yahweh keeps coming back! He makes “seventy times seven times” look mean-spirited! That just does not square with a vindictive father but more with Cecil B. DeMille’s reworking of the biblical Moses into Charleton Heston scowling as he fractures all Ten Commandments at once.

A Dramatic Liberation The innermost core of Judaism, perpetually remembered, is the Passover, a dramatic liberation from slavery into new life—albeit only after the weathering of the journey toward

November 16, 2015 America 27 it. Before and after the Exodus, Yahweh sent prophets after Supper, denied Christ not to torturers but to a waitress. And prophets to threaten, cajole, woo, intrigue them back. Later his restoration consisted only in responding three times to came the lesson of exile, and again liberation and return. “Simon, do you really love me?” No penance. Instead, he be- Yahweh intervenes in the life of Israel to effect not an- came pope. “And this is the Father’s will for me: that I should nihilation but rescue, deliverance, emancipation. Death lose nothing of all he has given me, but should raise it up and rebirth. Isaiah prophesied a suffering messiah to “bear again at the last day” (Jn 6:39). our sins.” Jeremiah wore himself into depression pleading; There are other consistent personality habits God reveals: Ezekiel promised restoration: “On the day I cleanse you little regard for efficiency and less for punctuality, preference from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabit- for paradox and ambiguity that confounds schematics. And ed, and the waste places will be rebuilt” (36:33). surely more. He invites endless exploration but defies con- The core experiences of Israel were Yahweh’s tireless pur- quest. suit of their return from Egypt and their marriage covenant One consistent divine quality this reverie jeopardizes is at Sinai. More typical than the angry God, Hosea describes God’s immutability. He seems not only the God of being a love-sick Yahweh pleading outside Israel’s chosen brothel but of becoming. When we dare speak of “the greater glo- among the pagan gods: “And I will take you for my wife for- ry” of God, we imply God can be “improved”: infinity plus ever...and you shall know the Lord.” Page through the “Song one. However, those with flexible minds that accept the of Solomon” and discover a sexually fervid relationship be- Confucian Tao and the quantum principle of complemen- tween Yahweh and Israel, which rational theology tends to tarity yield to a God clearly prone to paradox and into im- avoid, because its rarefied kind of knowing lacks wherewith- proving. If such a God sets his mind to it, he ought to be able al to deal with it, no better than empirical science can dissect to accommodate both being and becoming. altruism or integrity or the human need for purpose. Do these unofficial insights into God’s personality belie Christian experience betrays the same, consistent divine the classical insights, bolstered with forests of footnotes? I habits. Dealing one-on-one with sinners like the public sin- hope not. There was some “nonrational reason” Jesus told us ner, the adulterous woman, the prodigal son, the Samaritan to surrender sophistication for the resilience, creativity and woman, Jesus never required listed sins or exacted com- exuberance of children, a “proof-proof ” motive for believing pensatory penance. Some judgmental Catholics overlook hearty, bumptious, fallible Simon Peter “got it” better than the fact the first pope apostatized within hours of the Last Judas did. A

28 America November 16, 2015 FAITH IN FOCUS A Book for José Hiding from the gangs of El Salvador BY RICK DIXON n the fall of 2013, two ninth graders from the local junior high Ischool here were killed, one in October and one in November. I didn’t know the two boys, but one of my students from the community center in La Esperanza, José, who went to the same school as the murdered ninth graders, was also threatened by a gang—possibly the same one that killed the ninth graders. José knew if he refused to collaborate with the gang, as they demanded, he would meet the same fate as his classmates. And like the snip of scissor blades on a string, José’s life was cut in two. He dropped out of school and disappeared. He fled so abruptly I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. I would have liked to give him a gift, or at least to have had the chance to say something, perhaps even a prayer, anything that might have made him feel less lonely in this violent world of troubled youth. to pass the English exam to enter high about their names. Later José told me I have been working as a literacy school, but I told him we’d also need to his mother abandoned him at birth, teacher in a squatter settlement known work on his literacy skills in Spanish. and his father had gone to the United as La Esperanza, near the town of He accepted, and I can’t remember him States and had another family now. Cojutepeque, El Salvador, since 2012. missing a day of class until he vanished. “How do you use last names when no- I remember the day José arrived at Once we were doing a writing ac- body’s behind them?” he asked. I didn’t the community center. He was wear- tivity of which the first step consisted know how to answer that. ing a white tank top undershirt and in drawing our names. José drew his I learned his paternal grandmother, basketball shorts and a worn out pair first name graffiti style with big splash who is in her late 80s, was raising José. of sneakers. I was impressed with his letters; but he didn’t include his fa- She brought him up in the only way manner; it was mature for a 13-year- ther’s last name or his mother’s. “Hey, she knew: with the fear of God. José old. “I’d like to learn English,” he said. where’s your other names?” the kids respected her for trying, but he filled His voice was sincere, and there was a asked (in Salvadoran culture a name the hole in his heart doing what most sense of hope in it. I offered to work without last names is unheard of ). teenagers do: he fell in love. with him on what he’d need to know José flushed, his face a wash of red. A He would walk Blanca home after moment passed and he still didn’t say classes. He told me she liked this be- anything. cause she needed his protection. “José, RICK DIXON, a Maryknoll lay missioner, has served since 2012 in El Salvador, where he “Well, that’s his business,” I said she has a boyfriend,” I reminded him. works in a family literacy program. and asked the group to write a story But he was convinced she really didn’t MICHAEL KRAIGER ART:

November 16, 2015 America 29 love that boyfriend. “She likes me,” he his sister or he’d be hurt. wasn’t necessary because Blanca be- would say. Blanca would play it down, José started hanging out with a came pregnant and went to live with saying, “We’re only friends.” Her old- rough crowd, mostly playing soccer her boyfriend and his family. José con- er brother, a friend of the boy who with them; he’s an excellent athlete. tinued playing soccer, and then one claimed Blanca, got wind of José’s in- Perhaps he felt they’d give him pro- day certain men on the team told him terest and told him to stay away from tection. In the end, their protection he had to join their gang. His grandmother told me this, but she also said she believed José would do the right thing, which meant fleeing north to his father or going into hiding.

José’s Return I didn’t see him again until August of this year. Walking to work, I approached José’s grandmother’s house and looked through the crack of the slightly opened door. In the shadows, there was a boy standing. A hopeful force ripped through me. José? My blood flowed with an intolerable mix of excitement and caution. I walked up and knocked on the door, careful to identify myself. “Come in,” the grandmother called. After my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I saw it was José. Not knowing what to say I asked if he remembered any English from our classes. “No one to study with,” he said and explained he’d been hiding in a hardware store. His voice was so weak I could barely hear it; only fear punched through the nervous words. He was much too thin, and around his neck he wore a white rosary that hung outside his black tank-top shirt, a style gang members often use. He remained distant. It was obvious he didn’t want to talk, so I simply asked if I could leave him a book. He cracked a smile and said, “Thanks, leave it with my grandmother. I’ll pick it up the next time I visit.” He then apologized for not knowing when that would be. “I understand,” I told him. As I left the house, two phrases from The Diary of Anne Frank went through my mind: “Never can a free person conceive of what a book means to a person in hiding,” and “in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.” And I knew what book I would leave for José. A

30 America November 16, 2015 PHILOSOPHER’S NOTEBOOK Last Things

ovember is the month of the church must also face its own inter- hope in the light of the Resurrection Holy Souls. With dramatic nal difficulties in helping its members and prayer for the deceased as the de- Nflair, the church urges us to to face death in a properly Christian ceased faces God’s judgment. But in pray for the dead as nature undergoes manner. many funeral Masses, the sermon— its annual decline. The darkening skies, The first step is simply to acknowl- echoed by endless post-Communion the crumpled leaves and the denuded edge that someone has actually died. “reflections”—has become nothing but boughs become the stage to face our As an adolescent, I was taught to say, a eulogy of the deceased’s virtues and own mortality in the light of faith. “I am so sorry for your grief,” to the be- achievements. Through the centuries the church reaved during a wake service. Several In some liturgies, a virtual canon- has developed its own rich ars morien- years ago, however, a new euphemism ization occurs. Occasionally accom- di: the requiem Mass, the sacrament for death slipped into the American panied by the strains of “Danny Boy” of the sick, the deathbed viaticum, the language: “X is in a better and Frank Sinatra’s prayers for the dead, the wake service place.” It’s as if you arrived “My Way,” the memo- with its rosary, the prayers at the grave- at the downtown Marriott Our capacity rial service, a creation side, the annual memorial Masses and and instead of being given to mourn of Victorian agnostics, pious visits to the tomb. the budget-economy room has overwhelmed the Church doctrine undergirded you paid for, you were giv- and to pray Christian prayer for the the practices. The paschal mystery en the honeymoon suite for the departed. At times it is of Christ, especially the glory of the gratis. The old Christian unclear just why we have Resurrection, fortified the Christian Scientist euphemism “X dead has gathered to pray for and facing the prospect of the particular passed away” has morphed not only to remember and final judgments, of heaven, pur- into “X passed,” as if death palpably the deceased. gatory and hell. Intercessory prayer were the LSATS and God declined. Spiritual writers reached a crescendo as the churches an easy grader. have long argued that militant, suffering and triumphant With the disappearance the Christian should joined in solidarity to aid the pilgrim of the wake and the rise of “life celebra- face death by shunning the extremes soul in arriving at the beatific vision. tions” (often featuring the deceased’s of presumption (“God is all-merciful; Even philosophical arguments for the favorite hobbies), the church has an there’s no need to repent”) and despair immortality of the rational soul, once even greater imperative to proclaim (“God is all-just; a sinner, I cannot be a staple of Catholic education, deep- the truth about death and the afterlife saved”). The merciful God we face in ened the sober hope of the dying and and to provide a space for the heartfelt the mystery of death is none other the bereaved as they confronted the mourning needed in the aftermath of a than the God who respects our free- enigma of death. loved one’s death. dom and the choices we have made. In recent decades our capacity to The second step is to look carefully And we stand before God as members mourn and to pray for the dead has at our celebration of funerals. Any pas- of the church interceding at our side in palpably declined. It has something tor will admit that this is an emotional the long drama of our salvation. to do with the longstanding American battlefield; one wants to console, not This season of prayer for the holy denial of death, skewered decades ago fight with a bereaved family. But the souls is an invitation to seek again the by Evelyn Waugh, and our new “selfie” current distorted shape of our funeral grace of a good death, rooted in the culture, where every ritual descends Masses indicates our unease facing the truth of the Gospel, which simultane- into bloated autobiography. But the mystery of death in the light of faith. ously proclaims both divine judgment The rubrics for the Mass of Christian and divine mercy. It is the glory of the Burial clearly indicate that the sermon cross, not an embellished curriculum JOHN J. CONLEY, S.J., holds the Knott Chair in Philosophy and Theology at Loyola is not to be a eulogy of the deceased. vitae, that guides us toward the mys- University Maryland in Baltimore, Md. The priest is to focus on Christian tery. JOHN J. CONLEY

November 16, 2015 America 31 DIGGING UP BONES. Left to right: Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Brian d’Arcy James, Michael Keaton and John Slattery in “Spotlight.”

Books & Culture FILM | MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY the church’s many charitable works. The Globe lives in the shadow of this THE BIG DIG world, with many editors and writers who still call themselves Catholic in ‘Spotlight’ revisits the investigation of sexual abuse. one way or another. Walter “Robby” Robinson (Michael n a revealing moment in Spotlight, every nuance of this tragic and compli- Keaton) is a graduate of Boston the expertly crafted new film about cated story. But these questions should College High School who has made Ithe Boston Globe’s investigation not distract from his great achieve- good at the Globe, rising to lead the into the clerical sexual abuse scan- ment: “Spotlight” is, at once, a detective paper’s famed Spotlight investigative dal, the lawyer Mitchell Garabedian story, a love letter to journalism and a team. His reporters are poking around (Stanley Tucci) offers a damning sensitive exploration of the ravages of a story about police misconduct when analysis of the unfolding crisis. “Mark sexual abuse upon an entire communi- a new editor-in-chief rides into town my words, Mr. Rezendes,” he tells ty. Catholics who have lived with this looking for a way to make the paper Globe reporter Mike Rezendes (Mark scandal for decades will again be scald- relevant at the dawn of the digital age. Ruffalo). “If it takes a village to raise a ed by its horrors. And this Catholic, at Robinson and editor Ben Bradlee Jr. child, it takes a village to abuse one.” least, emerged from the film wonder- (John Slattery, a long way from the Much will be written about ing why it took so long to do some- sartorial splendor of “Mad Men”) are “Spotlight” in the months to come. It is thing about it. suspicious of Marty Baron, an outsider already being talked about as a formi- The village at the heart of “Spotlight” with big ideas who has little to say. The dable contender for Best Picture of the is, of course, Boston, the big city that fact he is Jewish and not from Boston year. It is also sure to start new debates still feels like a small town, ruled for is pointed out by more than one of about what policies led to the wide- decades by Irish Catholics. McCarthy the paper’s critics. When Baron (Liev spread abuse of children by priests in immerses the viewer in the heart of Schreiber) suggests taking legal action Boston and around the world. Some Catholic Boston, from the palatial res- against the church, in an effort to un- people may feel Tom McCarthy, the idence of Cardinal Bernard Law to the seal classified documents related to the writer and director, does not capture Catholic Charities dinners that sustain case of John Geoghan, the publisher

32 America November 16, 2015 wonders whether it is a good idea to tims. In one of the film’s most poi- upset the paper’s Catholic readership. gnant moments, Rezendes admits The Globe’s leadership may be re- that he loved going to church while Lamech Inventing luctant to alienate a powerful constitu- he was young and hoped some day The Oud ency, but they follow Baron’s lead, and to go back. But then he read letters thanks to some dogged reporting, they from family members to church slowly begin to find their story. One of leaders detailing the abuse of their O unnamed & only the pleasures of “Spotlight” is watching children, all of which fell on deaf son too soon the Globe’s editorial team employ their ears. skills to coax reluctant sources and nav- Making the stories of victims slipped from tender clutch igate the byzantine rituals of searching new again is perhaps the film’s of unripe body public records. No computer assisted greatest accomplishment. In years reporting for these journos. They have after the Globe’s report, represen- to rely on the Globe’s “morgue” of ar- tatives from Survivors Network of from cursed branch chived clips and the state’s hard-to-ac- Those Abused by Priests and other I will hang cess legal records. Their great find is victim groups became go-to media what’s left of you an archive of Catholic directories they sources, and sometimes the unique use to compile a list of priests who tragedy of their experiences was lost until you bloom into bone were reassigned under questionable in the media din. McCarthy wisely circumstances. Never has a Catholic chooses to highlight just a few vic- directory been lavished with such cin- tims, and allows them to tell their unnamed & only ematic attentions. stories plainly, but in painful detail. aviary of ribcage One of the arguments of “Spotlight” A young boy is abused by the first I will play what is is that investigative journalism matters, person, a priest, who tells him it is and that it takes time and resources to OK to be gay. A boy who recently reft from me be done well. McCarthy, who played lost his father is preyed upon by a a reporter on the final season of “The priest precisely because he is emo- Wire,” may indulge in some newsroom tionally vulnerable. The sadness of & cradle the hole nostalgia at times, but it is hard to dis- these scenes is fathomless. what is singing agree with this larger point. Solid in- For a film that profiles an investi- vestigative journalism can still be found gation into the church, it is surpris- PHILIP METRES in national newspapers, but many cities ing how few clerics make an appear- across the country do not have a strong ance in “Spotlight.” There is a por- PHILIP METRES, professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, is the first independent press to serve as a check trayal of Cardinal Law, of course, winner of the George W. Hunt, S.J., Prize. on local corruption. The year 2001 may and a quick shot of Geoghan, but not be that long ago, but in “Spotlight” that’s about it. McCarthy is more it seems very far away. interested in examining the lives of who lead it and that the weight of the Ruffalo, playing Rezendes, captures the other Catholics in Boston and how sexual abuse scandal rested heavily on a classic journalistic type: a disorga- the scandal affected them. One im- all of the Catholics of Boston. “We all nized yet feisty reporter who kicks portant relationship centers on Robby knew something was going on. Where into high gear when facing a deadline Robinson and Jim Sullivan, a lawyer were you?” Sullivan asks Robinson or catching the scent of a good story. and old friend from Boston College when he is finally confronted with Ruffalo’s performance may be the best High School, who, Robinson gradual- the full list of accused priests. “I don’t of a superb cast, which also includes ly learns, helped the archdiocese settle know, Jim,” he replies ruefully. In a later Rachel McAdams, Brian d’Arcy James several sexual abuse cases. McCarthy, scene, Robinson and his team struggle and Billy Crudup. McCarthy is unusu- a Boston College grad, takes a keen with guilt for failing to report the story ally sensitive to the challenges faced interest in how these Catholic school- years earlier, when victims first started by Catholic reporters reporting on a boys come to terms with the abuse that coming forward. great Catholic scandal. Sacha Pfeiffer went on in their city. “Spotlight” does not offer any easy (McAdams) attends church with her In choosing to focus on this rela- answers to what caused the sexual grandmother, but stops going after she tionship, McCarthy suggests both that abuse scandal, though it does suggest starts interviewing sexual abuse vic- the church is larger than the clerics some theories. Rezendes keeps up a

November 16, 2015 America 33 running correspondence with A.W. enced major problems with abuse. But involves 27,000 people in 60 countries. Richard Sipe, the former priest and the question of why these scandals Fox had made a name for herself psychologist who recognizes priestly happened and how they should be studying health care in the Democratic abuse as a “recognizable psychiatric avoided is left largely open. This viewer Republic of Congo and its roots in phenomenon.” He proposes that a se- was left with the nagging thought that Belgian colonialism. After bumping cretive culture within the priesthood, the abuse scandal is something that all into M.S.F. over a period of years, she where some men were sexually imma- Catholics have to reckon with in some makes no secret of her deep admiration ture, allowed the abuse to occur. But ul- fashion. In its own way, “Spotlight” for the organization. She ultimately timately the film resists placing blame calls on all Catholics to take responsi- immersed herself in M.S.F. to under- on any one person or policy. Marty bility for the church, because when it stand their motivations and methods. Baron is eager to indict “the system” at falters, we all pay a price. Chronicling travels to at least 11 coun- the heart of the scandal, and McCarthy tries, she plods through 120 pages of leaves viewers with multiple screens MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY is an executive blog postings detailing the daily strug- full of names of dioceses that experi- editor of America. gles of M.S.F. workers and a collection of internal spats and larger conflicts, like the expulsion of M.S.F. Greece for BOOKS | PATRICK WHELAN its rogue approach to Kosovo. But when she turns to the catastro- HUMANITARIAN QUESTS phe of AIDS in South Africa, the story finally comes alive. After winning the JONAS SALK for the power of infectious diseases. Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, M.S.F. em- A Life Two new biographies address al- braced the idea of bringing antiretro- By Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs most saintly efforts to overcome deadly virals to devastated populations. They Oxford University Press. 559p $34.95 diseases, one of Jonas Salk, M.D., the collaborated with the Nelson Mandela other a biography of the international Foundation to initiate a treatment DOCTORS WITHOUT medical relief organization often iden- project near his birthplace. By 2005, BORDERS tified by its French name, Médecins M.S.F. was treating more than 40,000 Humanitarian Quests, Impossible Sans Frontières. Each is a tale of suc- infected people in 27 countries. The Dreams of Médecins Sans cess against seemingly insurmount- story takes on a sense of urgency as Frontières able odds, the widespread admiration M.S.F. leaders overcame their own fear By Renée C. Fox that followed and the subsequent envy of the problem’s immensity and con- Johns Hopkins University Press. 328p and even ridicule by their competitors. fronted local politics and prejudice to $29.95 This history is still being written, and not necessarily by the victors. A century ago, horror descended Professor Renée Fox is a richly on cities across the United States. decorated social scientist and author Paralytic polio and pandemic influ- of many books dealing with the in- enza, ancient scourges with poor- tersection of sociology and medicine. ly understood transmission, began She overcame polio as a teenager in claiming the lives of young, otherwise New York, graduated summa cum healthy people. In New York 72,000 laude from Smith College and com- cats were killed in the summer of pleted a Ph.D. at Harvard/Radcliffe 1916 for fear they were spreading in the 1950s. Her book, Doctors the first major polio epidemic in the Without Borders, resulted from a 20- United States. Within three years, year involvement with this quixotic 850,000 Americans died of influenza. organization. She attended assemblies, Nearly 40 years passed before an ef- got to know leaders and interviewed fective vaccine was found for influen- physicians and patients to better un- za or polio. Now, nearly 30 years after derstand the growing pains that took the first (unsuccessful) H.I.V. vaccine M.S.F. from a fledging reaction against trial and following the world’s worst the cataclysmic Nigerian Civil War in Ebola epidemic, there is new respect 1967 to a mammoth effort today that

34 America November 16, 2015 bring therapies to people who previ- sense of fear at the beginning of the ously had no access to health care. last century as parents watched their The capstone of the book is an ex- lives unwind with the seemingly ran- Prayer ploration of efforts to address home- dom victimization of young people by lessness and tuberculosis in Russia, the polio and influenza viruses. Salk Then the Lord stretched from which Fox’s own grandparents was a child when the two first great out His hand and touched had emigrated in the early 20th century. epidemics of these diseases went tear- my mouth… If she is to be faulted in her narrative, it ing through New York during the First Jer 1:9 would be for giving short shrift to oth- World War. “Early childhood images of amputees, crippled children, and coffins…settled in Salk’s soul,” she render me writes. Raised in Russian immigrant null & voice Jewish society (his mother was from Belarus and his father’s parents were may I not be from Lithuania), Salk grew up with fallen noise a deeply internalized commitment to ma’asim tovim (good deeds) and tikkun olam (repairing the world)—so much listener up there so that his two brothers teasingly tune your air called him “Little Jesus.” & liquid tongue Jacobs takes the reader through a history of both Salk’s personal exer- let your unsung tions and the fight against poliomy- elitis in the 20th century. She tells the story of Franklin Roosevelt contract- devouring mouth ing polio, falling in the lobby of his give birth New York office building and being to these words helped to his feet by Basil O’Connor— who became his law partner and later lavish & ludicrous founder of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (the March er organizations that do overlapping of Dimes). Meanwhile a young Salk an unwalled museum work. There are only brief mentions of stumbled into a partnership with Dr. a windowed mausoleum Dr. Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health, Thomas Francis that led to the cre- Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of ation of the first vaccine against influ- PHILIP METRES Charity and the Global Fund to Fight enza, a disease long thought to be due AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. She to the “influence” of the heavens on PHILIP METRES, professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, is shares a mountain of detail about an humanity. the first winner of the George W. Hunt, organization that has been built on the Enlisted by N.F.I.P. to apply his in- S.J., Prize. “anti-heroic heroism” of dedicated pro- fluenza expertise to the puzzle of po- viders, fieldworkers and philanthro- lio, Salk demonstrated a single-mind- pists. Ultimately M.S.F. distinguished edness and endurance that endeared (another summa cum laude graduate itself from organizations like the Red him to O’Connor, whose own daugh- of Smith College) that recognized how Cross through témoignage—“bearing ter had by then contracted polio. With little time he had spent with his fam- witness”—against the injustices un- operatic flare, Jacobs describes the an- ily: “All the world is thinking of your derlying so much suffering around the nouncement in April 1955 of the na- husband as a saint,” wrote a physician’s world. tional Salk vaccine trial results—“the wife, “but I know that you are the one Dr. Charlotte Jacobs’s new biogra- largest medical experiment in human who had to be a saint.” phy of Jonas Salk tells a similar tale of history.” Suddenly Salk was a nation- To escape the craven jealousy of his heroism that unfolds with a dramat- al hero. He was besieged with honors rivals, he moved to the shores of La ic intensity that makes it seem like a and offers and tens of thousands of let- Jolla, Calif., where O’Connor helped much shorter book. She recreates the ters, including one to his wife Donna him build an “institute of man,” ded-

November 16, 2015 America 35 icated to wedding two emerging cul- Renée Fox’s portrayal of Médecins San in 1999, Nelson Mandela said, “I’ve tures of science and humanism. With Frontières paints a picture of similar made many mistakes in my life and I an architectural vision that “recalled persistence by its thousands of staff am not a saint, unless you think of a the peaceful cloisters he had seen at the members worldwide. These two books saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” Convent of St. Francis in Assisi,” Salk build the case that the very human “an- hired the idiosyncratic Louis Kahn to ti-heroic heroism” that conquered po- PATRICK WHELAN M.D. PH.D., is a lecturer design the structure and began assem- lio and influenza may eventually over- at Harvard Medical School and the University of Southern California and a hospital medicine bling a stable of Nobel Prize-winning come the fearsome plagues of H.I.V. specialist for the Heritage Provider Network in scholars like the world had never seen and Ebola. Visiting the United States Los Angeles. in one place. When I met him at the end of his life, he had weathered mixed success DANIEL R. Di LEO in treating cancer and multiple sclero- sis but was full of energy and enthu- ENTERING THE DIALOGUE siasm for an unconventional approach to AIDS. Testing a therapeutic H.I.V. ABOUNDING IN KINDNESS vaccine over the previous eight years, Writings for the People of God Salk had shown the personal touch of By Elizabeth A. Johnson a physician. “The patients in our study Orbis. 240p $24 adored him,” said his collaborator Dr. Alexandra Levine at the University of In Abounding in Kindness: Writings Southern California, “and he, in turn, for the People of God, Elizabeth A. knew each of them, knew their stories Johnson, C.S.J., weaves together a rich and genuinely cared for them and for tapestry of theological and ministeri- their families....They were numbers al reflections that probe some of the in our study, but they were people to church’s most pressing contemporary Jonas.” The number of AIDS cases in questions. Throughout this collection the United States had topped 400,000, of lectures and other short essays, and he felt a sense of urgency about Johnson addresses a myriad of topics launching a national campaign among that display the breadth of both her H.I.V.-infected people, telling another interests and evangelization, atheism, colleague, “We’ve got to do this before feminism, scripture, liberation theolo- I die.” gy, ecology, hospice, Christology, tor- His wife, Françoise Gilot, the great ture, pneumatology, ecclesiology, the French artist, was in New York when communion of saints and Mariology. he checked into the hospital in June Although Johnson addresses these midst of the church’s current focus on 1995. Suddenly the doctor became the many topics with a level of under- ecology, inspired by Pope Francis’ en- patient. A heart blockage was cleared standing that is immediately clear cyclical on the topic, it thus seems ap- as he watched a monitor with amaze- to the reader, she always does so in a propriate to focus on Johnson’s chap- ment. Afterward, he held my hand in humble, often poetic style that makes ters about creation. These essays offer the I.C.U. and said, “You just won’t complex theological concepts accessi- valuable reflections that enrich current believe the sensation that I had when ble to a general audience. In so doing, faith-based environmental conversa- they opened up that blood vessel. It she invites Christians to individual tions, but they also provide a founda- was as if a tide of well-being washed and institutional self-examination, and tion upon which to touch on some of over me. It was supernatural!” But the makes the reader feel that she/he is the other topics that Johnson treats in man who had sacrificed so much for entering into a genuine dialogue with this work. others was dead two days later. someone who clearly has her own ideas In the first chapter, “Passing on Charlotte Jacobs’s narrative creates but is charitably open to the experience the Faith: The Banquet of the Creed,” a rich appreciation of the highs and of others. Johnson invites readers to pause and lows suffered by an individual crusader Given the breadth of topics covered contemplate. In particular, she pro- and his family, striving to findtikkun in this book, it would not be possible poses that these reflections can help olam—healing for a broken world. to sufficiently cover each here. In the the faithful appreciate God’s creation

36 America November 16, 2015 November 16, 2015 America 37 and in turn become inspired to pursue population growth by itself. Levels of ethic based on the Christian awareness justice in all its forms. Although she per capita resource consumption and that humanity is inexorably related to does not say it explicitly, her reflection greenhouse gas emissions are often the rest of creation in which God was, about creation could inspire persons of higher in wealthy nations with rela- is and will be present. faith to turn a theological eye to prac- tively lower population growth rates. In “Creation: Is God’s Charity tical problems. Additionally, many countries with Broad Enough for Bears?” Johnson “Heaven and Earth Are Filled With higher population growth rates can suggests why humanity currently has Your Glory: Atheism and Ecological still choose more sustainable paths a disordered, i.e., “sinful,” relationship Spirituality” makes the case that con- of economic development. Persons with the world. Specifically, she cites templation of creation can help believ- of faith and goodwill should largely, the Hellenistic separation of matter ers know God and so justify faith in if not exclusively, focus on the reform and spirit, the “medieval distinction response to atheism. Scripture and St. of ecologically destructive elements of between natural and supernatural,” Thomas Aquinas can both facilitate economic structures rather than the post-Reformation anthropocentrism a mystical experience of creation that reduction of population growth rates. and an understanding of Genesis that can help persons of faith recognize the Additionally, to the extent that incorrectly justifies ecological exploita- world as a sacramental mediator of the population growth contributes to eco- tion. Aware of how humanity has Creator. This admiration of creation logical degradation it is important to slipped into an ecologically abusive re- can in turn inspire persons to live in clarify that not all proposed means of lationship with creation, Johnson says right relationship with the world and population growth reduction are mor- that humanity might thus begin the advocate on its behalf. In other words, ally acceptable in the eyes of the mag- process of “ecological conversion” to- Johnson points out that “contempla- isterium. ward a more sustainable relationship. tion of nature” can draw people clos- In “Creative Giver of Life,” Johnson At this point, Johnson could have er to God in a way that both inspires develops the insight that ecological more strongly emphasized the need for faith and moves the faithful to repent reflection can help persons recognize public policies to address environmen- of disordered relationships with cre- the moral imperative to live in right tal degradation. This is not to say that ation. relationship with creation. For exam- a critique of unjust sociopolitical and In two places, Johnson cites “unbri- ple, she points out that the poor are economic structures is absent from dled reproduction” and “exploding hu- disproportionately affected by envi- this book—see especially Chapter man populations” among the causes of ronmental degradation. Additionally, Nine, “The God of Life in Feminist ecological harm. With respect to pres- she describes how appreciation for Liberation Theology: To Honor ent global ecological issues like climate the splendor of creation can help Gustavo Gutiérrez.” Rather, it is sim- change, environmental degradation Christians recognize the Trinitarian ply to point out that, especially in light is often historically and more imme- presence of the sustaining Holy Spirit of Johnson’s recognition of human sin- diately due to the consumerism that and redeeming Christ. With these in- fulness, she could have taken a more Johnson also cites rather than human sights, Johnson develops an ecological Augustinian approach to environmental degradation and emphasized the need for public policies that address conferences, spirituality material, etc. Contact: luis- CLASSIFIED [email protected] (815) 694-0713. socially destabilizing ecological threats like climate change. Sabbatical While there is much to recommend THE SCHOOL OF APPLIED THEOLOGY—a from the perspective of ecology, read- WANT YOUR AD HERE? holistic sabbath experience in the San Francisco ers who are not especially interested Bay Area for those seeking attentive rest, theolog- Visit americamagazine.org. ical renewal and spiritual transformation. Come Email: [email protected]. in this topic will nevertheless find this for a full-length sabbatical (a semester or two) or a Call 212-515-0102. book a rich source of accessible, stimu- month, a week or a day! Ten-word minimum. 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38 America November 16, 2015 THE WORD

this world” and does not involve peace treaties, concordats, armies and diplo- King of All matic corps, it includes all of this world CHRIST THE KING (B), NOV. 22, 2015 and all that is in it. Readings: Dn 7:13–14; Ps 93:1–5; Rv 1:5–8; Jn 18:33–37 It is a point Pope Pius XI makes in “Quas Primas” (No. 13), citing Cyril “My kingdom is not from this world”(Jn 18:36) of Alexandria, who wrote that “Christ he political context in which was Jesus, whose “dominion is an ev- has dominion over all creatures, a Pope Pius XI, by the encyc- erlasting dominion that shall not pass dominion not seized by violence nor lical “Quas Primas,” estab- away” and whose “kingship is one that usurped, but his by essence and by na- T ture.” Pius XI also writes that though lished the feast of Christ the King in shall never be destroyed.” This was the 1925 was the still unresolved Roman king of all. Jesus’ “kingship is founded upon the Question, which concerned the papacy When would this king of ineffable hypostatic union,” Christ is and the Kingdom of Italy regarding the all peoples, nations and lan- also our King “by acquired, as well temporal authority of the popes and guages arrive? When would as by natural right, for he is our the Papal States. For those of us who God’s kingdom, the ev- Redeemer.” Jesus’ kingship is un- have grown up with the separation of erlasting dominion, be like any other by nature and by church and state, the Papal States are a established? The Book behavior. distant historical oddity. of Revelation, writ- But there is another con- Yet, even if these political issues ten in opposition to sideration as to why Jesus no longer resonate for us today, “Quas the Caesars of Rome declared that his kingdom Primas” commemorated these same is- and their Empire, de- was “not from this world.” sues and problems by taking the view clared that Jesus was that marks the church off as a unique already “the ruler of the society, one that is eternal, whose kings of the earth,” who “made us PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE king’s authority transcends all political to be a kingdom, priests serving Reflect on Christ as king. How does Jesus’ divisions and historical epochs. The his God and Father, to him be glo- kingship comfort you when you think of church exists in the messiness of history and dominion forever and ever.” political and other disputes in our own day? Does the feast of Christ the King help ry and responds to events that emerge And Revelation promised, evoking you make sense of the church’s role in the world? from that same messiness but claims a the language of Daniel, that Jesus’ DUNNE TAD ART: king who transcends it all. first coming will be followed by a Already in the Book of Daniel and second coming with the clouds when in earlier prophetic books, the hope “every eye will see him, even those who Pius XI states that all people can en- for the true king, the one who would pierced him; and on his account all the ter this kingdom, whoever they are establish God’s kingdom, emerged in tribes of the earth will wail.” and from wherever they are since “this the language and imagery of ancient Even Jesus’ disciples, though, who kingdom is opposed to none other Near Eastern myth, when the prophet followed him faithfully if unsurely than to that of Satan and to the power sees “one like a Son of man coming, on to Jerusalem, must have wondered of darkness” (No. 15). This kingdom the clouds of heaven.” While scholars about the answer when they heard welcomes all kingdoms and all people. dispute the identification of the Son the Roman procurator Pilate ask their If we see only the messiness of his- of Man as the messiah in Daniel, the teacher, “Are you the King of the Jews?” tory and politics, we are missing the earliest Christians understood that the Jesus answered: “My kingdom is not true story of eternity and the true one to whom “was given dominion and from this world. If my kingdom were king of all, who is already “the ruler of glory and kingship, that all peoples, na- from this world, my followers would the kings of the earth.” If we believe it tions, and languages should serve him” be fighting to keep me from being to be true, we must never despair of handed over to the Jews. But as it is, the politics of our age, for he came as my kingdom is not from here.” It is a king, is now king and is coming again JOHN W. MARTENS is a professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. true answer, of course, but also elusive, in glory. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. for though Jesus’ kingdom is “not from JOHN W. MARTENS

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