THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY FEB. 24, 2014 $3.50 Of Many Things Published by Jesuits of the United States state in the Abbey: it is an opportunity lived in London for nearly 106 West 56th Street three years before I set foot in for the truth of revelation to scandalize New York, NY 10019-3803 Westminster Abbey. Since the humankind’s nationalist fictions. Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 I Yet does that happen? Throughout Subscriptions: 1-800-627-9533 16th-century English reformations, the my visit, I couldn’t help but wonder www.americamagazine.org Abbey has been the most prominent facebook.com/americamag and cherished place of worship in whether the Abbey was enacting the twitter.com/americamag the Church of England. Americans “comedy” of the city of God or the will know the Abbey from television “tragedy” of the city of man. The President and Editor in Chief coverage of the funeral of Princess monuments to the tragic figures of Matt Malone, S.J. Diana and the wedding of her son empire share cherished space with those Executive Editors Prince William. The place is a curious to the equally tragic figures of a gloomy Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy admixture of church and state, Catholic modernity. In some ways, the Abbey has Managing Editor Kerry Weber and Protestant, self-adulation and simply swapped one metanarrative for Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. transcendent beauty. As a Roman another. Yet is either story truly inspired Senior Editor & Chief Correspondent Catholic, I experienced an unexpected, by, indeed authored by, the Gospel? I Kevin Clarke almost visceral parochial anxiety as wondered whether an ecclesial body so Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. I entered the church, as if my body “dominated by and structured on the Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. contained the relics of centuries of fear principles of liberal tolerance,” as Joseph Associate Editors and resentment between Protestants Ratzinger once wrote, “in which the Luke Hansen, S.J. and Catholics. This should not have authority of revelation is subordinate Assistant Editors Francis W. Turnbull, S.J., Olga come as a surprise, I suppose. Self- to democracy and private opinion” Segura, Joseph McAuley, Ashley McKinless inflicted wounds to the body of Christ is fully capable of publicly bearing Art Director Stephanie Ratcliffe continue to gape and mar even today. witness to the obviously countercultural Columnists John J. Conley, S.J., Daniel P. Horan, imperatives of the Gospel. O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. Martens, Bill As an American, I was uneasy McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Margot with the entanglement of church and The eucharistic service in the Abbey Patterson, Michael Rossmann, S.J. state in the Abbey’s furnishings and was beautiful. It was not simply the Correspondents ceremonial. Americans have a cultivated lovely music or the fine liturgica that John Carr – Washington, D.C. aversion to this sort of thing. We’ve made it so; it was the fact that an in- Moderator, Catholic Book Club Kevin Spinale, S.J. made a paradoxical religion out of breaking of the Holy Spirit, a divine comedy, was being enacted right there Editorial e-mail the separation of church and state, a [email protected] situation that is itself the historical amid the more prominent relics of progeny of what is represented in humankind’s tragic scheming. In front Vice President/Chief Financial Officer Westminster Abbey. While I harbor of the monument to George Canning, Edward Spallone the imperial prime minister (who, the some reservations about R. R. Reno’s Vice President/Advancement essay in this issue, I concede his basic monument tells us without concern for Daniel Pawlus point that the next phase in that story Christian humility, rose “by his own Operations Staff will involve “a shift from individual merit”), and just 100 feet or so from Ted Rosa Del Saz, Chris Keller, Kerry Goleski, Steven Keller, Glenda Castro, Judith Felix freedom from religion to a vision of Hughes in Poets’ Corner (also a place not overly concerned with Christian Advertising contact society as a whole free from religious [email protected]; 212-515-0102 influence.” That would be tragic. humility) there was this in-breaking of Subscription contact/Additional copies The separation of church and state Christ, a moment when the temporal [email protected]; is both prudent and necessary, but was touched by the eternal, a moment 1-800-627-9533 the separation of the church and the of incarnation. Yet for all its beauty, I © 2014 America Press, Inc. political is inconceivable. For my part, couldn’t help but wonder whether this I am more comfortable these days moment was the “scandal” it should have with the church and the state sharing been, whether it was really lifting our a common space, precisely because “the gaze from the Abbey’s monuments to city of God is not so much a space as a faded and ill-sought glory, to the living performance,” as William T. Cavanaugh and eternal memorial of the glorified has written. In a way, then, I rather Christ who was now among us. appreciate the proximity of church and Matt Malone, S.J. Cover: Shutterstock.com/trekandshoot Contents www.americamagazine.org Vol. 210 No. 6, Whole No. 5040 February 24, 2014

articles 13 Our Secular Future The redefinition of religious liberty in American society R. R. Reno 20 a View From Abroad The shrinking common ground in the American church Massimo Faggioli 24 Suspicious Minds The spirituality of the postmodern nones Michael P. Murphy 13 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment

5 editorial Rain Delay 6 Reply All 8 Signs of the Times

11 Column A Mercy-Filled Lent Kerry Weber 28 Faith in Focus Lost and Found Carol LaChapelle 39 the Word My Anxious Heart John W. Martens 24 BOOKS & CULTURE

30 film “Son of God” of other things Queer as Folk BOOKingS Epistolary Treasures BOOKS This Town; Veiled Desires

ON THE WEB At “The Living Word,” Brian B. Pinter writes on taunting in Scripture and how Jesus ministered to those who were bullied. Plus, a selection of articles on religious liberty and a podcast discussion of the Oscar nominees. All at americamagazine.org. 30 CURRENT COMMENT

called Housing First that identified the chronically homeless Europe’s Nomads and designed strategies to supply permanent or transitional The French government has continued its harsh treatment housing to meet their needs. The state calculated that the of the Roma people in recent months. Despite protests from costs of emergency services and incarceration amount to the international community, President François Hollande $16,670 each year for a chronically homeless person but has followed up on the policies of his predecessor, Nicolas found that it could supply each person with an apartment Sarkozy, by clearing Roma camps. Over 21,000 Roma were and case management services for $11,000. deported in 2013, double the number of the previous year. As a result of the program, the number of chronically Many of them came to France after being evicted from homeless people in Utah has dropped from 1,900 in 2005 to Bulgaria and Romania. fewer than 500 today. How did this happen? The apartment The Roma, also known as gypsies, are unpopular itself, plus the attention of an assigned case worker, gives throughout Europe, where their makeshift camps have long people basic stability and enables them to get their lives in been a source of resentment. Prejudice against them goes order, search for jobs and confront physical and psychological back centuries but took a virulent turn during World War II, problems. And they are allowed to keep the apartment even when an estimated 500,000 Roma were killed at the order of when they fail. Housing is a basic human right. Other states Adolf Hitler. should consider the Utah solution. The United Nations has asked the French government to end the vicious cycle of forced evictions and to work alongside grass-roots groups that minister to Roma Tear Down This Wall migrants. Catholic leaders in France are heeding Pope Just as the peace talks between Israel and Palestine seem to Francis’ call to focus on the plight of the poor by advocating be sputtering, Israel has thrown still another obstacle in the for this persecuted minority. “People of Bulgarian and road: their attempt to extend the separation wall through the Romanian origin have come to live in our country, and Cremisan Valley. In the West Bank, just south of Jerusalem for several years now, we’ve seen no policy offered other and next to Bethlehem, the valley is a beloved oasis, if not than that of refusing acceptance to the greatest number,” stronghold, of Christianity. If the wall is built, a convent Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille said in November. of Salesian sisters who run a school with 400 students, a Even those “behaving reasonably and peacefully” were denied monastery of brothers and 58 Christian farmers would be cut basic necessities, the archbishop said, and were subject to acts off from their work, recreational lands and water sources. It of violence and “hateful, unrestrained remarks.” is far from the international border drawn after the Six Day A long-term solution is impossible without the War in 1967. cooperation of the whole European community. The well- Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, along with being of the Roma cannot depend on the vicissitudes of local bishops from Europe, Canada and South Africa, visited the government policies. Continued pressure from the United agricultural valley in January. The bishops have acknowledged Nations, combined with strong support from religious Israel’s need for security, but strongly condemned the seizure leaders in Europe, may be the only way to ensure slow but of land. On Jan. 28, Bishop Pates asked Secretary of State steady progress. John Kerry to press Israel to “cease and desist in its efforts to unnecessarily confiscate Palestinian lands in the Occupied West Bank.” He wrote about his visit to the valley: “I was Homes for the Homeless simply astounded by the injustice of it all.” Our editorial “A Home for Christmas” (12/23) and many The community in the Cremisan Valley received some a homily have called public attention to the plight of the temporary relief on Feb. 3. In response to a citizens’ appeal, homeless, but they are still here by the thousands, stretched the Israeli Supreme Court issued a preliminary order to stop out in church pews or huddled in doorways across the construction of the wall in that area. Israel has until April nation. A problem too great for private charity, it demands 10 to explain why there are no alternative routes. In October the attention of the state and federal government. 2012, the Catholic ordinaries of the Holy Land said the Some major cities have responded by arresting the victims planned construction of the wall “will put more pressure” on or requiring religious groups to pay for a permit in order to the Christians living in Bethlehem, and “more people will feed the homeless in public parks. Utah, in contrast, under make the decision to leave.” It is hard to escape the conclusion Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman, started a program in 2005 that this is what the government of Israel intends.

4 America February 24, 2014 EDITORIAL Rain Delay

uch of the East Coast groaned under the weight unforgiving one, to reconsider the of yet another winter storm in early February limits of human interference with Mthat disrupted transportation and commerce and natural forces. State and federal wore down even the hardiest snowbound souls. But in the officials will be tempted to subvert meteorological West, the opposite dilemma continued to nature’s ambitions with emergency grind down California residents. A third winter of drought has interventions and water-sourcing produced the driest conditions in California since before the or water-moving projects. One plan appearance of the first Spanish missions. In fact, California is includes a 35-mile-long, $25 billion well on its way to breaking 500-year precipitation trend lines. underground tunnel system. These complex and costly efforts The severity of California’s statewide drought is compounded are front-loaded with unpredictable ecological hazards of by drought conditions throughout much of the West and their own. Worst of all, instead of achieving their intended Southwest. A winter snowpack reduced by 80 percent suggests purpose, water sustainability, they may ultimately bring about that in the spring, snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains will the opposite, as industry and agricultural interests rush in to fail to provide adequate recharge for the diminished Colorado exploit any improvement in capacity. River, the region’s essential water source. As the November elections approach, Congress has Conditions are so bad that California’s Catholic bishops become eager to demonstrate its attentiveness to the California have called for divine intervention, praying for rain and for crisis in a legislative bidding war aimed at offering relief to the well-being of those most at risk from a water shortage. farmers. House proposals, at least, hew to the state’s tradition Voluntary water rationing is leading to brown lawns across the of water-grabbing. One idea would mean abandoning years of state, cracked riverbeds and spirals of dust in the wind. Once restoration efforts to pump unlimited amounts of water from lush farm fields in California’s Central Valley are beginning to the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta to the south, neatly pitting resemble desiccated moonscapes. fish (and residents reliant on the fishing industry) against California’s good earth produces much of the vegetables farmers and creating another in a series of stopgap measures and fruits sold in supermarkets all over the United States. As for dealing with the regional water scarcity. But lack of rain is growers abandon crops to the drying conditions, food prices are the underlying problem, and the days of robbing a dried-out sure to rise. The impact will not be limited to U.S. consumers, Peter to pay off an arid Paul are coming to an end. but will be felt around the world as scarcity pushes up prices on Instead of accelerating cycles of human intervention, food staples. If the drought persists into the summer, tinderbox the more challenging call to stewardship and sustainability conditions may lead to wildfires, and dust and heat themselves demands a more patient and measured consideration of how will become hazards to public health. to best build up local, sustainable water capacity. A more Climate researchers report that the current drought is ecologically attuned approach would require changing habits no anomaly; in fact, the cooler and wetter conditions of the of conservation and rain reclamation and cleaning up polluted last few decades may have been the climatic oddity. Scientists ground basins that could “store” water in the communities have documented multiple droughts in California over the last where it is needed. It would require a reallocation of resources 1,000 years. Some lasted as long as 10 or even 20 years in a row. that are now diverted to water-reliant industries, reconsidering Two mega-droughts lasted 240 and 180 years. The possibility the mix of agricultural production in the region and setting of long-term drought conditions in the region should be limits on population and economic growth. It will mean a presumption of civic and agricultual policy planning. finding a way to end a futile battle against nature that succeeds Unfortunately, as Scott Stine, a professor of geography and in draining fiscal reserves while briefly putting off the day of environmental studies at California State University, East Bay, water-use reckoning. recently told The San Jose Mercury News, “We continue to The Catholic bishops of California asked God in prayer run California as if the longest drought we are ever going to to “open the heavens and let His mercy rain down upon our encounter is about seven years.” Californians are “living in a fields and mountains.” But they also prayerfully implored that dream world.”” political leaders seek the common good “as we learn to care The current drought offers an opportunity, albeit an and share God’s gift of water for the good of all.”

February 24, 2014 America 5 REPLY ALL Yale, I occasionally visited him and his kingdom of God. This work has been wife, Lorna. With the turbocharge of a done with bravery but also with ten- The Colbert Family martini or two, we resolved a number der love and compassion (and a great “Truth and Truthiness,” by Patrick of intellectual problems, including that dose of beautiful laughter). So now R. Manning (2/3), is a fine piece on of alternative universes. Unfortunately, we can happily say that those who Stephen Colbert. I was a fellow altar we forgot the details before we found bless the poor shall themselves find boy, schoolmate and lifelong friend of a publisher. blessing. his father, James W. Colbert, M.D. A It is no surprise that Stephen, the Kristen Hoffmaster graduate of the College of the Holy youngest of 11, is a bright light like his Online comment Cross in Worcester, Mass., and Yale father. Lorna, who died this past June, Not a ‘Report’ Medical School, Dr. Colbert was an was also a jewel in the family crown. I read with interest “Life Lessons,” intellectual and a person of faith, with They are incredible people of faith, in- by James F. Keenan, S.J. (2/3), a remarkable personality. He died with telligence and wit. on “Humanae Vitae.” I was sorry to see two of his sons, Peter and Paul, in an (Msgr.) Harry J. Byrne him perpetuating the false story that Eastern Airlines crash on Sept. 11, Bronx, N.Y. there were two reports of the papal 1974. commission, a “majority” and a “mi- In our years together at Iona Prep, Finding a Place nority” report. This is not the case. we listened to long-playing records Stephen Colbert and James Martin, The commission produced one of- and discussed the new world of books: S.J., have participated in creating ficial report, which was presented to Francois Mauriac, Jacques Maritain, a community and a voice for many Pope Paul VI by the secretary of the G. K. Chesterton, Léon Bloy and oth- who felt that there was no place for commission. Four members found ers. Later, Romano Guardini became them. This is really nothing less than themselves unable to sign the report, a favorite. When Dr. Colbert was at the work of the proclamation of the so they prepared a working paper about their view. This paper was not, BLOG TALK and was never treated as, an official The following is an excerpt from “Colbert ous; that something positive can also “report” of the commission, nor was and Catechesis,” by Martin E. Marty, at appear on them is the subject of new it presented to the pope, so far as I divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings (2/3). inquiry and publicity.... know. The post is in response to “Truth and What a reach: to talk of “catechesis” Nicholas Lash Cambridge, England Truthiness,” by Patrick R. Manning or “catechists” or “catechism” in popu- (2/3). lar culture! Such terms relate to mis- Unpersuasive Teaching “The devil should not have all the best sionaries, nuns of yore, volunteer lay Re “Life Lessons”: Essentially Pope tunes.” We baroque-loving church teachers, and overworked ministers, Paul VI concluded that he and the mi- folk like to quote that, when justify- don’t they? Today cultural historians nority grasped the truth that eluded ing our devotion to jazz or, though are revisiting the catechetical scene the majority. Now we have a majority not in my case, rock music.... and coming up with more positive of Catholics that have not found the Now, ask: Why should the devil readings than the old stereotypes per- teaching in “Humanae Vitae” to be have all the televised comedy pro- mitted. What about such fields today? persuasive, and thus ignore it. grams? That much on these pro- Martin E. Marty I have always held Pope Paul in grams is cynical or nihilistic is obvi- University of Chicago high esteem, primarily because of what he said regarding the issues of justice and peace. Many found his teaching in Letters to the editor may be sent this regard to be very persuasive, and to America’s editorial office those teachings received a positive re- (address on page 2) or letters@ ception from many Catholics and oth- americamagazine.org. America er people of faith. The poor reception will also consider the following of “Humanae Vitae” had nothing to do for print publication: comments with the messenger but only with the posted below articles on America’s Web site (americamagazine.org) and posts on Twitter and public Facebook pages. All correspondence may be message. Robert Stewart edited for length and clarity. Chantilly, Va.

6 America February 24, 2014 Balanced and Charitable much assistance to people who live As a parent raising a daughter with Kudos to Matt Malone, S.J., the edi- with disabilities, very often persons autism and mental illness and a grandson tor in chief of America, for publishing with aphasia are ignored, and no provi- with autism and several other conditions this thoughtful and balanced reflection sions are made to assist them. The edi- on the autism spectrum, I know that on “Humanae Vitae.” Thanks also to tors write, “Too many Catholic schools these devastating conditions are invisible James F. Keenan, S.J., for sharing his and churches do not have adequate re- and, therefore, nonexistent to many indi- charitable approach to the encyclical. sources for people with disabilities.” viduals and agencies. I was just surprised Frank Gibbons It is simple and inexpensive for faith to count America among that group. Online comment communities to contact the National Kay Powell Aphasia Association and request apha- Tampa, Fla. Realities and Ideas sia awareness training. Teaching con- Counting the Dead Perhaps Pope Francis is speaking to gregations and students how to com- “A Courageous Bishop” (Current James F. Keenan, S.J., in the apostolic municate with persons with aphasia is Comment, 1/6) is commendable, but exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel.” an easily achievable way to demonstrate the editors grossly understate the real- The heading of a subsection reads, a “commitment to the flourishing of ev- ity when they write, “Over 60,000 lives “Realities are more important than ery individual.” ideas.” Francis writes, “Realities simply Stephen N. Symbolik III have been lost across Mexico since for- are, whereas ideas are worked out.” New York, N.Y. mer President Felipe Calderón escalat- I first encountered “Humanae Vitae” The writer is a program coordinator for ed the quite literal war on drugs.” on the day of its promulgation, in the the National Aphasia Association. At the close of Mr. Calderón’s term company of a 29-year-old married in 2012, the Mexican government said that 60,000 had died. Independent mother of three daughters under six, Invisible Disabilities sources have offered different num- one of whom had been diagnosed with The editorial “Dignity of the Disabled” bers, saying that 100,000 had died; neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer. For quite surprised me. Most of the focus and, to date, the number of dead is over me, that reality trumped the ideas of of the editorial was physical disabilities, 125,000, with another 25,000 disap- Pope Paul VI. with only a mention of mental disabili- peared. The latter figure is what the I hope students at Boston College ty and Down syndrome. I read not one government admits to. and the country’s other 27 Jesuit uni- word devoted to neurological disabili- The people of Mexico call for a func- versities will be encouraged to spend as ties like autism and other conditions on tioning judicial system and a stop to much time with “The Joy of the Gospel” the autism spectrum. Yet today one out this senseless war. as Father Keenan’s students spend with of every 88 children will be diagnosed “Humanae Vitae.” Peter C. Hinde, O.Carm. with autism. Ciudad Juárez, Mexico Frank Bergen Online comment

Communication Ministry The powerful editorial “Dignity of the Disabled” (1/20) asked us to consider how we minister to persons with dis- abilities and how we can provide them with the tools and services they need to live a healthy and productive life. Imagine for a moment that you des- perately want to communicate but you cannot use words. For thousands of peo- ple with aphasia, it is almost impossible to interact and communicate successful- ly with their families or the public on a daily basis. Startlingly, one in every 250 people in the United States has aphasia, yet few people know what it is. While federal laws have provided

February 24, 2014 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Child Welfare and Protection Scathing UN Report Overreaches But Puts Holy See on the Defensive ureaucratic overreach, a fundamental misunderstanding of the interplay of canon law with secular authority, a headline-grabbing “food fight”: these are Bjust some of the criticisms of a recent broadside from a United Nations committee reviewing the Vatican’s global record on the protection of children. A crucial error in a scathing report from the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child was its presumption that the Holy See maintains something akin to a secu- lar government’s control over its “territory,” which according to this interpretation is not confined to the borders of Vatican City but encompasses the worldwide Catholic Church itself. Revisiting several well-publicized instances of clerical or religious wrongdo- ing—some dating back decades—the committee, which tracks compliance with the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, charged that the Vatican, a sig- natory state, was not doing enough to prevent clerical sexual abuse of children. It even suggested that, for the good of children, the Catholic Church should change its teaching on abortion and contraception. Among a laundry list of sometimes oddly explicit recommendations, the committee requested that the Vatican pro- hibit interpretations of Scripture that might be used to justify corporal punish- ment and urged a review of textbooks in Catholic schools to rid them of gender stereotyping. An international law specialist and eters of the convention itself, it will be would be difficult for bishops’ confer- a keen observer of the proceedings in easy for Vatican authorities to dismiss ences around the world to ignore. Europe called the outcome of the some- its findings if they wish to do so. “They The Vatican will follow the pro- times contentious process a missed op- thought that they were going to shame cedures foreseen by the treaty “with portunity for the United Nations to the Holy See before the entire world,” openness to criticisms that are justi- put real pressure on the Holy See re- the attorney told America. And in so fied, but it will do so with courage and garding its policies on the protection of doing, “they overstepped their man- determination, without timidity,” said children. “They got their hits in for the date.” Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Vatican news cycle,” the attorney said, “but they Had the committee instead focused spokesperson, on Feb. 7, two days after didn’t make progress along the lines of on pushing for compliance with inter- the U.N. report made global headlines. the [convention itself ], and the Holy national norms on child protection Committee members went “beyond See wasn’t put in a position where it within the Holy See’s actual territorial their competence and interfered in the could respond in a constructive way” to confines—through which thousands doctrinal and moral positions of the criticism. That crucial opening would of children pass each day—the attor- Catholic Church,” Father Lombardi have set the foundation for future di- ney argued it could have had a mean- said, adding that its suggestions reveal alogue and progress. Now the tension ingful impact on the global church. an “ideological vision of sexuality.” engendered by the report could im- Imagine, for example, if officials at the The Vatican, Father Lombardi said, pede the diplomatic engagement nec- Holy See adopted the same kinds of has repeatedly explained in detail to essary to maintain momentum toward training and protection policies now the committee and to other U.N. agen- the child protection and rights goals of commonly enforced in dioceses, sem- cies that it has direct legal jurisdiction the convention. inaries and schools across the United only over those who live and work in The attorney, who wished to remain States? That powerful example of at- the small territory of Vatican City anonymous, said because the U.N. re- tentiveness to child safety and preven- State. While it has canonical and spiri- port drifted so far afield of the param- tative interventions against child abuse tual jurisdiction over Catholics around

8 America February 24, 2014 government health center compared been excluded, particularly original with the new structures going up for peoples,” Barrantes said. the sporting event. Recent years of economic upheav- That sentiment is symptomatic of a al in the United States and Europe deeper discontent taking shape around brought boom times to Latin America, Latin America as a decade-long eco- as financial investment in the region nomic boom slows down and voters rose and countries profited from high in about half the region’s countries international prices for commodities prepare to elect national presidents like minerals and oil. this year. In countries newly emerged The bonanza galvanized domes- from the ranks of the poor—where tic economies and lifted many people a burgeoning middle class is buying above the poverty line for the first time new cars and running up credit-card in decades. By 2012, the proportion debt as shopping malls and high-rise living in poverty had dropped to 28 apartment buildings alter the urban percent. But 164 million people—a skylines—the seven heads of state figure roughly equal to half the U.S. elected in 2014 will wrestle with many population—still live on the bare min- of the challenges that Pope Francis has imum needed to survive. warned about over the past year. The benefits of the economic boom Documents delayed. A news Looming largest on the list are “in- have varied from country to country— conference following the release of Chicago archdiocesan files on past equalities and inclusion of all members nearly half of all Salvadorans still live cases of clergy sexual abuse, Jan. 21. of society,” said Roxana Barrantes, an in poverty, compared with 7 percent of economics professor at the Pontifical Uruguayans—and within countries, Catholic University of Peru, who where poverty rates and the lack of the world, priests and bishops are sub- also heads the Institute of Peruvian job and educational opportunities are ject to the laws of their own nations. Studies, a social sciences research highest in rural areas and among in- “Is this impossible to understand, center in Lima. “In many countries in digenous people. Perhaps most telling or do they not want to understand Latin America, people are openly ques- are the figures for income inequality. it,” he asked. “In both cases, one has a tioning the high degree of inequality in Nearly half the region’s income goes to right to be surprised.” income distribution and in opportuni- the wealthiest 20 percent of the pop- Kevin Clarke ties for people who [traditionally] have ulation, while the poorest 20 percent

Latin America Pope Francis Challenges New Leaders onstruction of facilities in Brazil for the 2014 FIFA CWorld Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games were in full swing last year when a wave of street protests swept through the country. “We want a soccer association-style hospital,” read one demonstrator’s sign, Soccer Wars. Riot Police tangle with Brazilians protesting excessive a reference to the quality of the local spending on the 2014 FIFA World Cup in July 2013.

February 24, 2014 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES receive only 5 percent. Pope Francis had that in mind when NEWS BRIEFS he told political and business leaders at January’s World Economic Forum An emotional Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila, in Davos, Switzerland, “The successes Philippines, welcomed U.S. Catholic leaders on which have been achieved, even if they Feb. 3 to review recovery efforts afterT yphoon have reduced poverty for a great num- Haiyan, saying that the work to rebuild devastated ber of people, often have led to a wide- communities can show the world a church united spread social exclusion.” in the service of people in need. • A statement re- He had already warned about the leased by the Legion of Christ on Feb. 6 expressed Homs, Syria serious consequences of those dispar- “deep sorrow” for the late Rev. Marcial Maciel ities. “Until exclusion and inequality Degollado’s “reprehensible and objectively immoral behavior” and in society and between peoples are expressed regret over the congregation’s “long institutional silence” in reversed, it will be impossible to elim- response to accusations against him. • A Catholic adoption agency in inate violence,” the pope wrote in his Scotland on Jan. 31 won an appeal that allows it to remain open with- first apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii out assessing gay couples as possible adopters and foster parents. • As Gaudium.” horror stories continued to be told by Syrian refugees reaching Jordan, “Just as the commandment ‘Thou Russian officials reported on Feb. 7 that a three-day ceasefire had been shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order accepted by government and opposition forces to allow civilians to to safeguard the value of human life, evacuate the Syrian city of Homs and supplies of humanitarian aid to today we also have to say ‘thou shalt reach those who choose to remain. • An Israeli Supreme court ruling not’ to an economy of exclusion and on Feb. 3 at least temporarily halted the construction of a controversial inequality,” he wrote. security barrier that threatens to cut off Christians in the Cremisan Valley, near the West Bank city of Beit Jalla. U.S. Abortion Rate Down discussing the decline in abortion ital cohabitation, [the status of the] numbers,” Tobias said in an N.R.L.C. divorced and remarried, birth control Almost two weeks after the national news article. According to Guttmacher, and homosexuality,” said the German March for Life rally in Washington, “more effective contraceptive methods” bishops’ report, posted on Feb. 3 on D.C., the Guttmacher Institute re- may have contributed to the decline in their conference website in German, ported a 13 percent drop in nation- unintended pregnancies, thus causing a Italian and English. The text is a sum- al abortion rates between 2008 and decline in abortions. The study report- mary of the official responses from all 2011, making for the lowest rate since ed 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women age of Germany’s 27 dioceses and about 20 1973, when abortion on demand was 15 to 44 in 2011, totaling almost 1.1 German Catholic organizations and legalized in the United States. “No million abortions that year. The rate of institutions to a Vatican questionnaire evidence was found,” however, ac- abortion in the United States peaked published in preparation for October’s cording to Guttmacher, of a correla- in 1981, with nearly 30 abortions per Synod of Bishops on the family. The tion between the declining rate and 1,000 women. Swiss bishops’ conference published an new abortion restrictions established initial report on Feb. 4 based on 25,000 between 2008 and 2011. The study responses, similar in most cases to was released on Feb. 3. Carol Tobias, The Survey Says… those received by the German bishops. president of the National Right to Life Reports from bishops’ conferences in “Most of the baptized have an image Committee, stated that the declining Germany and Switzerland show a clear of the church that, on the one hand, is numbers “shows the long-term efforts divergence between what the church family friendly in its attitude while at of the right-to-life movement,” even teaches on marriage, sexuality and the same time considering its sexual though Guttmacher researchers gave family life and what Catholics—even morality to be unrealistic,” the German no credit to groups against abortion. those active in parish life—person- survey found. Legislative efforts and pro-life cam- ally believe. The differences are seen paigns “should not be minimized when “above all when it comes to pre-mar- From CNS and other sources.

10 America February 24, 2014 Kerry Weber A Mercy-Filled Lent

he feeling can best be de- did for one of these least brothers poverty—material, moral and spiritu- scribed as last-minute, of mine, you did for me,” he advised al destitution. The church urges us to TLenten panic. It typically hits (25:40). consider all of these. This means that in those final hours of Mardi Gras, The corporal works of mercy are we are called not only to perform acts when it dawns on me that I must soon feeding the hungry, giving drink to the of charity and to work toward systemic settle on a Lenten sacrifice. And then, thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering change, but also to build relationships. moments later, my worry quickly sub- the homeless, visiting the sick, visiting Together we help our neighborhoods, sides as I fall back on that old favor- the imprisoned and burying the dead. cities and world to move toward great- ite—forgoing sweets—and tuck in These actions are powerful for a num- er solidarity with the poor and to cre- to a pre-Lenten bowl of ice cream as ber of reasons. One is that these works ate a more just world. And that is not though it were my final meal in prison. force us to recognize Christ in our always easy, as Pope Francis reminds Pope Francis’ Lenten message, re- neighbors—even in neigh- us. “I distrust a charity leased in early February, suggests that bors we may not like or may Being that costs nothing and I may need to take a more deliber- be wary of. They remind us does not hurt,” he says. ate approach to sacrifice during this that Christ is found in un- merciful Being merciful some- season. That his brief but powerful expected places and unlike- sometimes times means being un- statement arrived a month prior to ly or vulnerable people. The comfortable. Ash Wednesday is not insignificant. works of mercy remind us means In his message, This timing gives us a chance to digest that we must be open to the Francis points out that the message before Lent begins, and God of surprises. being the life of Jesus is an to discern how we might prepare for Second, these works re- uncomfort- example of the kind of the season. We are meant to approach mind us that Christ works poverty to which we are Lent deliberately, to enter into it will- through us. We are called able. all called. The poverty ingly and to reconsider how our own to reach out to others and, Christ chooses is not sacrifices might offer greater under- through God’s grace, to build the “for its own sake” but the means by standing of Christ’s sacrifice. And this kingdom of God on earth. It is easy which he joins us in our suffering even process, in turn, is meant to extend to think that we will do these things as he lifts us out of it. In fact, Jesus is into our daily lives long after Easter eventually, that we can start to serve rich in knowing his father’s love. The has passed. Giving up sweets can be a others when work settles down or our only true poverty, Francis says, is found part of this process, but it shouldn’t be lives become less busy. But the Lenten in those who are “not living as children all of it. season calls us to make time now and of God.” Therefore, justice for the poor Lent offers us a chance to consider to start, even in small ways, paying at- cannot be accomplished through a sin- prayerfully our relationship with God. tention to where Christ leads us. gle act, but must stem from a mentality And Scripture offers a few suggestions Third, the corporal works of mer- of mercy. Our work with and on behalf for how we might do this. Some of the cy remind us that we can grow in our of those who are poor or vulnerable is most powerful are the corporal works relationship with Christ by building part of a continual process. of mercy. In the Gospel of Matthew, up and being part of an active com- Pope Francis reminds us that “the Jesus says that those who will inherit munity of loving, giving people here ministers of the church must be min- the kingdom are those who gave him on earth. These works remind us that isters of mercy above all.” He makes food when he was hungry and drink we are part of the body of Christ and it a priority, and he calls on us to do when he was thirsty and those who that being a part of that community the same. The works of mercy help us visited him in prison. “Whatever you comes with both great gifts and great move away from that last-minute men- challenges. tality and toward a purposeful, prayer- Kerry Weber, managing editor of America, is the author of Mercy in the City (Loyola In his message, Pope Francis dis- ful approach, not only to Lent, but to Press). tinguishes between different kinds of the rest of our lives.

February 24, 2014 America 11 12 America February 24, 2014 The redefinition of religious liberty in American society Photo: CNS FILE P HOTO Our Secular Future By R. R. Reno mericans are rightly proud of our tradition of religious liberty. The founders recognized that religious convictions cut very deeply into the soul, making people capable of great sacrifices—and often stimulating bitter conflicts and terrible persecutions. Thus we have the First Amendment and its definition of the first freedom: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- Ament of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” We need to recognize, however, that our approach to religious freedom has in fact changed a great deal in the more than 200 years of national history. These changes reflect shifts in the overarching religious consensus in the United States. By my reading of the signs of the times, GOD-LESS. this consensus is changing yet again. The shift foretells a renegotiation and redefinition of the Workers remove a Ten Commandments nature and scope of religious liberty—one that I fear will not favor religious believers. monument from the Alabama Historical Context Judicial Building in Montgomery There have been three main phases or agreements about religious liberty in our country. The in 2003. first was a federalism that recognized local forms of establishment but wished to keep the

R. R. Reno is editor of First Things and a former professor of theological ethics at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

February 24, 2014 America 13 national government out of the religion business. The second tion. The courts interpreted religious freedom accordingly. corresponded to the long century of ecumenical Protestant The Protestant consensus became more capacious as the hegemony that naturally intertwined itself with state power. 20th century wore on. After World War II it expanded to And the third, which followed the Second World War, has include Judaism and Catholicism, and we came to think of been characterized by a move toward religious neutrality. ourselves as a religious nation committed to Judeo-Christian Phase One. At the time the Constitution was written, the values. But as the religious consensus expanded, it also erod- Congregational Church was established in Massachusetts ed. Influential writers like H. L. Mencken mocked religious and Connecticut, and it received public support from tax believers, reflecting an increasingly confident and outspoken revenue. In Georgia and South Carolina, the Anglican or view that religion—especially traditional Christianity—is a Episcopal Church was established. It was not until Everson social liability that hinders progress. Many factors contribut- v. Board of Education in 1947 that the Supreme Court stip- ed to this emerging opinion. The abject failure of Prohibition ulated that non-establishment and free exercise applied to soured many on Protestantism’s crusading spirit. Newly the states as well as the federal government. Nevertheless, emerging Protestant fundamentalism was self-consciously soon after the nation was founded, elite opinion consol- antagonistic and reflected an anti-establishment populism. idated around a view that government should remain at a For many the threat to society changed. Whatever their per- distance from religion. This consensus had two sources: one sonal beliefs, the founders thought religion good for soci- focused on the rights of individual conscience and the other ety and atheism a threat. By contrast, for someone like Mr. on the integrity of the church as Mencken or Clarence Darrow an independent institution. or Margaret Sanger, religion This position led to disestab- Traditional Christianity and was the problem. lishment in the states, culminat- churchgoing no longer define Phase Three. Our constitu- ing with Massachusetts in 1830. tional interpretation came to It is important to recognize, the social consensus in the reflect this new development. It however, that this consensus shifted toward an ideal of reli- was very pro-religion. Political United States. gious neutrality. The Supreme and cultural leaders did not Court decision in 1947 that want any particular denomina- applied the prohibition of reli- tion to have privileged access to state power, but they were gious establishment to the states led to the development of in favor of a religious society and thus a religiously inspired a complex set of legal rules limiting the role of religion in public culture. Or, to be more accurate, they were in favor of public life. a Protestant society and a Protestant-inspired government. Law professors rightly seek to clarify this jurisprudence, Phase Two. By the time of crusading Abolitionism and but for our purposes I think a broad but largely accurate the formation of the Republican Party in 1854, the ascen- simplification will suffice: our constitutional law concern- dancy of a pan-Protestant consensus was in full swing. It ing religious liberty sought to secure an orderly separation reached its high point with Prohibition. A person can still of religion from the social influence the Protestant era had find public monuments in many American cities dedicated encouraged. This separation has helped protect small reli- to the crusade against demon rum. They often feature an gious minorities from undue public control, but the major expanded list of theological virtues: faith, hope, love—and emphasis has been on restraining the influence of religious temperance. The insertion of “under God” into the Pledge majorities. of Allegiance in 1954 was a late, defensive expression of the Preoccupations with prayer at high school graduation power of this consensus, which was already being challenged ceremonies provide the most obvious example. The court by a new secularism. has been eager to protect the tender conscience of the lonely, The Protestant consensus encouraged anti-Catholi- unbelieving student from the supposedly great social pres- cism in culture as well as law. In 1875 President Ulysses S. sures of an anodyne interdenominational prayer by a local Grant urged the creation of public schools “unmixed with pastor. The danger is not that a hardline Calvinist will im- sectarian, pagan or atheistical dogmas.” Non-sectarian and pose his doctrines on wishy-washy Methodists, which the non-atheistical meant schools that could be trusted to incul- founders worried about. Instead, the court after World War cate American values, meaning generic and non-dogmatic II reflected a broader concern that believers of all stripes Protestant values, which were considered the finest expres- are too predominant and therefore make unbelievers feel sion of true freedom. Here religious freedom means the free- uncomfortable and excluded. Freedom of religion therefore dom to be a generic Protestant, with Catholicism grudgingly means the option of being free from religion. I believe this tolerated at best, and Mormons subject to intense persecu- emphasis will characterize the next phase of our history: the

14 America February 24, 2014 February 24, 2014 America 15 shift from individual freedom from religion to a vision of so- nities, but it most certainly should not influence the future of ciety as a whole free from religious influence. American culture and politics. This shift toward antagonism cannot help but affect our The Anti-Religious Cohort attitudes toward religious liberty. Our Constitution accords Over the last few decades the Mencken cohort has grown. rights to the people, and the courts cannot void them wil- In the 1950s around 3 percent of Americans checked the ly-nilly. Therefore, unless the Constitution is amended, there “none” box in surveys asking about religious affiliation. Now will always be a prohibition of establishment and a right of 20 percent of the population does so. Moreover, these so- free exercise. But history shows that the Constitution is a called “nones” are heavily represented in elite culture. A re- plastic document. When elite culture thinks something is cent report on family life from the University of Virginia’s bad for society as a whole, judges find ways to suppress it. Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture identifies parents In the late 19th century, for example, the First Amendment they call the “engaged progressives.” Representing 21 percent offered no protection for Mormons. In 1890 the Supreme of parents, this group is the most highly educated and most Court upheld the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, legislation influential. It overlaps with the nones. Fewer than 20 percent that prohibited polygamy and dissolved the Church of Jesus in this group go to church regularly. More than half never Christ of Latter-day Saints and confiscated its property. attend. In itself this demographic change need not foretell dra- Trends in Jurisprudence matic changes in law. A significant segment of Americans Not surprisingly, law professors today who view tradition- who do not go to church might support the now established al Christianity as a social threat are beginning to theorize postwar trend toward religious neutrality: the belief that the changes to the law. I see three trends. The first and most country needs to make space for unbelievers and not presume obvious involves what I have called the Selma analogy: the their adherence to a religious consensus, however vague. But equation of gay liberation with the historic struggle for civil the nones and engaged progressives are not just irreligious. rights for black Americans. The second shifts from freedom They are often anti-religious and eager to limit the influence of religion to freedom of worship. The third hopes to rede- of traditional Christianity. fine religious liberty as a general liberty of conscience. As the study observes, engaged progressive parents val- The civil rights laws adopted in the 1960s were de- ue tolerance and diversity, but their overall moral outlook signed to bulldoze racism out of American public life, and puts them at odds with many religious people. Nones and the Selma analogy prepares the way for a narrowing of re- engaged progressives overwhelming support abortion and ligious freedom by equating dissent from progressive values gay marriage, for example. They are also highly partisan; an with discrimination. Proponents of gay rights, for example, overwhelming majority vote for liberal candidates and have believe the freedom of religious individuals and institutions thus become a key pillar of the Democratic Party. This mor- should be limited if they do not conform to the new consen- al and political profile makes them hostile to traditional re- sus about sexual morality. ligion. The study explains: “The only type of diversity that Some judges already agree. In 2008 the New Mexico engaged progressives might tacitly oppose within their chil- Human Rights Commission determined that wedding pho- dren’s friendship network would be a born-again Christian.” tographers violated the state’s anti-discrimination law by re- The anti-religious instinct of this cohort came into fusing to photograph a lesbian commitment ceremony. The the open during the last election cycle. Delegates to the photographers, Elaine and Jonathan Huguenin, appealed to Democratic National Convention notoriously struck the the New Mexico Supreme Court, arguing that their religious word God from the party platform, only to have it halfheart- views about marriage prevented them from photographing edly restored by anxious party leaders. During the election the ceremony. The court was not sympathetic. It applied the talking points included attacking the Republican “war on what is called the “public accommodation doctrine” of civil women.” This well-crafted slogan was designed to rally the rights law: those offering services to the general public may nones, the secular base that is now the largest identifiable not discriminate. This doctrine overrides a great deal of what constituency in the Democratic Party. we think of as religious liberty. Institutions of cultural authority tell us what is good and In a concurring opinion Justice Richard C. Bosson put it respectable—and what is bad and shameful. It is now crush- clearly: “The Huguenins are free to think, to say, to believe, ingly obvious that this machinery, which can include muse- as they wish; they may pray to the God of their choice and ums, universities, foundations or mainstream media, reflects follow those commandments in their personal lives wherev- many of the values of the nones and engaged progressives. er they lead,” but “in the smaller, more focused world of the From their point of view, traditional Christianity is quaint marketplace, of commerce, of public accommodation,” they when confined to exotic liturgies or remote Amish commu- have to abide by anti-discrimination laws. This is “the price

16 America February 24, 2014 of citizenship,” he wrote. Apparently this price includes the socialist? Evoking the principle of fairness, some now argue violation of religious conscience when it comes to gay rights, that the conscience of every person needs legal protection, which makes it seem that religious freedom is only allowed not just consciences formed by religious traditions. Thus the in the privacy of home or the precincts of church. First Amendment needs to be reinterpreted to provide free- The shift toward a private, personal freedom that lacks dom of conscience, not freedom of religion. space for public expression has become prominent in the This mentality is libertarian and is gaining traction, not ways the Obama administration talks about religious free- the least because it seems to expand rather than limit free- dom. The International Religious Freedom Act of 1988 dom. (Even representatives of the church can sometimes sought to make religious freedom a diplomatic priority. The seem to imply this when they focus on conscience.) But the current administration consistently reframes this priority as promise of expansion is an illusion. Libertarianism theoriz- freedom of worship. The shift in language is understandable. es an unworkable system: If the conscience of every person The United States has many allies in the Muslim world for must be equally respected, then we will have freedom of con- whom anything like our approach to religious liberty is at science only when nothing important is at stake. best a remote possibility. For different reasons the same is There is no guarantee that our legal culture will follow the the case in China and elsewhere. The danger, however, is that trajectories I have outlined. Judges are influenced by good this narrow understanding of religious freedom will gain legal arguments, and the defenders of religious freedom to- traction in our domestic debates and become another way day may succeed in breaking down the Selma analogy and for legal theorists to argue for a minimal interpretation of the reverse the trend to attenuate religious freedom by redefin- First Amendment. ing it as freedom of worship. The current membership of The Selma analogy and the diminution of religious liberty the U.S. Supreme Court has shown itself very firmly aligned to a bare freedom of worship represent two ways to rede- with a robust approach to religious freedom. There are rea- fine the First Amendment. Added to these, I see a third and sons to be hopeful in the near term. But history shows that more dramatic threat: today some law professors ask why re- the rule of law generally reflects what the social consensus ligious people should get special rights in the first place. Why believes is conducive to the common good. The law ministers should a Catholic or a Baptist or a Hindu get special consti- to culture, not the other way around. The nones and oth- tutional protection, but not a committed utilitarian or ardent er progressives are frustrated by the influence of traditional

February 24, 2014 America 17 Christianity over American society. This makes me pessimis- consensus in the United States. The Protestant era is over, tic about the medium and long term. and in its demise we have not seen the Catholic moment that the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, founder of First Things, The Heart of the Conflict hoped for. Instead, we seem to be heading into the secular To be blunt: Religious people who hold traditional values are moment, which is almost certain to find ways to redefine re- in the way of what many powerful people want. We are in ligious liberty, or at least try. the way of widespread acceptance of abortion, unrestricted In Islamic states, a dhimmi is a non-Muslim who is tol- embryonic stem cell research and experimentation with fetal erated, but whose social existence is carefully circumscribed tissue. We are in the way of doctor-assisted suicide, eutha- to ensure no threat to Muslim dominance. Have we reached nasia and the mercy-killing of genetical- the point at which our secular elites envi- ly defective infants. We are in the way of On the Web sion something similar for religious peo- new reproductive technologies, which will A selection of America articles ple with traditional values? We will be free become more important as our society on religious liberty. to worship, but not to run universities or americmagazine.org/vantagepoint makes sex more sterile. We are in the way hospitals or social service agencies in ac- of gay rights and the redefinition of mar- cord with our principles. We will be free riage. We are in the way of the nones and the engaged pro- to believe as we wish, but not to run our businesses in accord gressives and their larger goal of deconstructing traditional with our beliefs. We will be permitted to exist as long as we moral limits so that they can be reconstructed in accord with do not openly challenge the progressive consensus. their vision of the future. Religious people need to support the good legal minds Traditional religious people are in the way, and many of fighting for our freedom, but it is even more important that our fellow Americans are doing their best to push us out of we fight against the temptation to acceptdhimmitude. Ye s , the way. The outspoken among us have been largely expelled antagonism toward traditional Christianity is now common from higher education and other institutions of cultural au- in our ruling class. One prejudice warmly approved by many thority. This exclusion should not surprise us. Traditional secularists is that against so-called fundamentalists. But we Christianity and churchgoing no longer define the social need to remember that the secular moment does not corre- spond to religious decline. The committed core of believers, defined as those who attend church every Sunday, has re- mained remarkably constant for the last 50 years at between 25 to 35 percent of the population in the United States. Furthermore, the secular moment has no grassroots legacy to compare with the scope and commitment of the pro-life and home-schooling movements. It is appropriate to conclude, therefore, with words of encouragement. Last summer a young Dominican broth- er studying for the priesthood served as an intern for First Things. He is an impressive man, one of a remarkable cohort of 20 who entered the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph a few years ago to begin formation. As I walked with him on the streets of New York City, I noticed that peo- ple often stare at his white, ankle-length outfit. Unlike the often-wild fashion statements that people parade as great expressions of protest or individuality but blend into the city as just another pose or posture, his simple habit represents something dangerously real. People intuit, however dimly, that he embodies a vision of the future that collides with the spirit of our age, and does so with frightening force. Seeing these reactions I was reminded that our faith goes deep, very deep. And as the guardian and servant of this faith the church has tremendous power. As I contemplate the coming battles over religious freedom, I am consoled by this thought: Our secular challengers are right, very right, to see our faith as a dangerous and disruptive dissent. A

18 America February 24, 2014 February 24, 2014 America 19 Photo: CNS p hoto/M i k e Sto ne , Re ut r s A View From Abroad The shrinking common ground in the American church By Massimo Faggioli

t is very difficult for European Catholics to make sense Today this party exists with the same political relevance of of the polarization within the Catholic Church in the 60 years ago only in Germany. United States. I grew up in Northern Italy and stud- Despite this political polarization in these European ied and worked for almost 20 years at the University countries, the tension did not result in theological polariza- Iof Bologna, my alma mater and the oldest university in tion among Catholics. In the political and cultural environ- Europe, founded in 1088. In the second half of the 20th ment of the 1960s, when European Catholicism still set the century, the Catholic Church in Western Europe existed standard for world Catholicism, the Second Vatican Council within a political environment split between strong Socialist represented (especially in Italy) an opening, a kind of thaw, and Communist Parties and an equally strong Christian- that made it possible to build bridges among different polit- Democratic Party, which was strongly supported by the ical cultures. So to me, as a Catholic, a scholar and a recent church. Not all Catholics voted for this party, however; in immigrant to the United States, the issue of polarization fact, the percentage of Catholics who were members of the within Catholicism in this country—a country with histori- Christian-Democratic Party had been steadily declining. cal and political experience so unlike Europe—is important. It is worthwhile, first of all, to remember that it is a very recent development for the Catholic magisterium to accept the idea that Catholics can have a political culture, much less different polit- ical cultures. The Catholic march toward democ- racy was a long one. After the shock of the revo- lutions of the late 18th and mid-19th centuries, politics was seen as the result of the separation of the modern world from the moral guidance of the one true church. Catholic politicians were allowed to do business with the modern world

Massimo Faggioli is an assistant professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. This es- say is adapted from the annual Cardinal Bernardin Lecture, given at the University of South Carolina in Columbia on

Photo: CNS p hoto/M ic ha el Ale xa n d e r, G or gi a Bu lle t in Oct. 7, 2013.

20 America February 24, 2014 Photo: Fo c o l ar e /F d r ic O rta only de facto, as a practical necessity, because for the church have both contributed to a vibrant and important church hierarchy it seemed too embarrassing to be directly involved and have also produced a few challenges that will contin- with a political realm they did not acknowledge as legitimate. ue to affect the intra-Catholic debate in the United States. In many cases, however, embarrassment was overcome, and Here I will list a few issues relevant to the polarization I see the international politics of the Vatican trumped the politi- in this country. cal orientations of Catholics. The rise of Italian Fascism, for The Constitution. The free exercise and non-establishment example, resulted in part from the fact that Catholics were clauses of the First Amendment allow for an interesting in- not allowed to have political cultures or a political party of terplay between religion and politics in the United States. their own. The political views of an individual often relate closely to his Only during Vatican II did the church recognize that mo- or her religious views and vice versa. Many denominations dernity exists and that Catholics live not only in the church, in the United States have experienced a history of adjust- but also in society and in political communities that in many ment and change according to the always evolving relation- places had recently become democratic. This was one of the ship between political and religious views, and Catholics in “signs of the times.” A fundamental call to unity, both ecu- the United States are not above this phenomenon. menical and interreligious, helped inspire the Second Vatican The internal debate. The second largest religious group in Council. The fathers and theologians of the Council recog- United States is former Catholics. Notwithstanding the ever nized in modernity a moment of advancement toward unity, growing size of what Martin E. Marty called “the American and they saw the church as one of the agents for the pro- Catholic Alumni Society,” Catholics in this country have not motion of this unity. The council also renewed Catholic en- left the church at the same rate as European Catholics. In gagement in politics by elaborating a set of principles that other words, the rise of a critical mass against—or at least Catholics should follow in a democratic public arena. The questioning—the institutional church has become part of goal of democracy, according to Vatican II, is not procedural but must be measured by its ability to meet the demands of a human dignity the church proclaims as closely connected to the “social na- ture” of the human person.

Domestic Challenges In light of the extraordinary past year for the Catholic Church, we must ask whether the elec- tion of Pope Francis might signal an end to the polarization within the church in the United States. The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI marks the end of popes who were involved in the debates at Vatican II. As the broader ecclesial context shifts, however, Catholics in the United States continue to live and work within the polit- ical and cultural structures of this country, which lic Cour ie r CNS p hoto/M i k e Cru pi , Catho

February 24, 2014 America 21 the internal debate within Catholicism. In Europe, the de- This kind of polarization among Catholics is not pres- bate is characterized as pitting a clergy-led Catholicism ent in Europe. In most European countries with a large against a more secular landscape. Catholic population, political compromise—in the noblest Competitive democracy. From its beginning the church in sense of the word—has always been part of the political the United States has lived in close contact with democra- reception of the magisterial documents of the teaching of- cy, and a democratic ethos has become part of its culture. fice of the church—for example, in the excommunication of But the United States offers a particular type of democratic Communists in 1949 and its impact on Italy, and the recep- environment. Democracy here is not consensual, as it is in tion of “Humanae Vitae” (1968) and other teachings on the European democracies with multiparty alliances; it is com- so-called life issues. petitive—that is, there are two alternative political parties. This environment has affected the ethos of participation in Temptation and Opportunity the church, which is often driven by competitive, opposi- In the face of an extremely polarized and paralyzed polit- tional views more than by consensual instincts. Ecclesial ac- ical life in the United States, I understand the temptation tors (hierarchy, laity, theologians, Catholic think tanks, uni- for a Catholic retrenchment into an alternative structure—a versities and so forth) take part in this interaction as com- move from political engagement with the state or govern- petitors. This analysis also clarifies why the “non-negotiable ment into a world of small communities—more tradition- values” became more im- al and radical than what portant among Catholics conventional politics offers in the United States than Today the function of Catholics today. There is anywhere else. Some bish- an acutely perceived polit- ops explicitly criticized consensus-building has been ical homelessness among the Catholic Common visibly lacking at all levels of the Catholics in the United Ground Initiative, found- States, and I greatly admire ed by Cardinal Joseph church in the United States. the conviction of Catholics Bernardin of Chicago in who want to rebuild eccle- 1996 to help facilitate dia- sial communities and local logue among Catholics who hold different political and theo- networks of social services, a vision expressed in the pages of logical perspectives. Today the function of consensus-build- America by theologians like William T. Cavanaugh (“The ing has been visibly lacking at all levels of the church in the Root of Evil,” 7/29/2013) and Michael Baxter (“Murray’s United States. Mistake,” 9/23/2013). Political cultures. There are many scholarly studies on The political challenges in the United States, however, the impact of electoral systems on the political behavior cannot justify withdrawal by Catholics from the polis as we of a country, and the political behavior of Catholics in the know it. Following this path entails many problems. First, a United States, but there are very few on the impact of the withdrawal from the affairs of the nation-state might lead electoral system on the political cultures of Catholics in a Catholics in the United States to something like the early given country. In simple terms, the existence of a two-party communities of Christians; but in a European context, where political and electoral system has given birth in these last there have been established churches, a withdrawal from the few decades (among other factors) to something resembling nation-state risks a return to the wars of religion that rav- a two-party Catholic Church. In countries where Catholics aged Europe for at least a century. Second, a retrenchment live in multiparty systems, different theological identities are of Catholicism in the form of resistance against the modern much more difficult to absorb into the political discourse state implies a radical rethinking of the Catholic view of the and partisan narratives, so the church is not as divided. “political,” which paradoxically augments the “Americanist” Political labels. The increasing political polarization in the taste of Catholicism and makes the polarization even more United States has only exacerbated the political divide within serious. And third, a retrenchment would move Catholicism the church. In U.S. politics, Republican means conservative, intellectually and spiritually toward a sectarian mind-set and Democrat means liberal. This dichotomy is clearly felt that is impossible to reconcile with the “universal” claim at in how Catholics engage with each other about issues in the the heart of Catholicism. church. Those who invoke Vatican II are labeled “liberal,” and As a historian, I do not need to be convinced of the de- it is “conservative” to refer to the magisterium. Of course, this structiveness of public power and its temptation to absorb dichotomy is only possible if we accept an extremely simpli- every aspect of life in a manner that is not even comparable fied (and more political than theological) understanding of to the times of the empires. Nevertheless, I also believe that an ecumenical council and the teaching of the church. the modern state is the last anchor against much more de-

22 America February 24, 2014 structive forces, and I fear that Catholic theology might soon famously said, “Liberal Catholicism is an exhausted proj- become the victim of an anti-political sentiment that contra- ect.” No one expects Pope Francis to refer to any part of the dicts recent papal teaching about service in political life. In church as an “exhausted project,” but his social radicalism is “Evangelii Gaudium,” Pope Francis writes, “Politics, though surely exhausting the spin doctors active in various Catholic often denigrated, remains a lofty vocation and one of the think tanks who expect him to endorse a full slate of their highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common positions. In this time of change in the church, the redis- good.” This endeavor is worth the investment of the whole covery of a common ground is necessary, especially as some church. Catholics attached to the social-political language of the last The quest for a new common ground in the church serves two pontificates find it difficult to articulate, under Pope as the best possible response to Catholics Francis, a language for their “faithful dis- tempted to retreat from the polis. Perhaps sent” from the magisterium of the church. in this new papacy the Catholic Common On the Web The crisis of the engagement of many Brian B. Pinter writes Ground Initiative can play a renewed role on taunting in Scripture. Catholics in politics is one of the symp- in our ecclesial discourse. In other words, americamagazine.org/abs toms of the crisis of the idea of politics this papacy might signal an end to the cul- as one of the highest forms of charity, ture wars. At least it will be more difficult because it serves the common good. But to wage culture wars and claim that such actions embody a the Catholic Church is one of the last defenders of the po- faithful reception of papal teaching. Pope Francis has clear- tentially humanizing effect of politics, and of the potentially ly rejected any attempt to turn the Gospel into an ideolo- dehumanizing effect of a community of Christians closing in gy, and he is equally distant from an “Americanist” view of on itself. The question for Catholics is not whether to engage Catholicism. As a “social Catholic,” Pope Francis has stepped with the state and one another, but what defines this engage- back from issues that have frequently divided Catholics into ment. The particular challenge for Catholics in the United two camps, like the use of the triad abortion/contraception/ States is to overcome the temptation to see everything as homosexuality as a test for entering, staying in or leaving the a competition between two camps, whether in politics or church; the weaponization of sacraments; and the ideologi- among Catholics. The election of Pope Francis is perhaps the zation of the Catholic tradition as “conservative” or “liberal.” signal that the future of Catholicism consists less of apoca- Fifteen years ago, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago lypse and division and more of prophecy and unity. A

February 24, 2014 America 23 Suspicious Minds The spirituality of the postmodern nones By Michael P. Murphy Photo: s hutt e r to c k. o m / TD way

uch has been made about the “nones” and the consideration of the slippery but increasingly intelligible and current demographics of belief in the United even prophetic characteristics of postmodernism will not only States, especially those of young people. The help us describe the rise of the nones but may also reveal how term nones rose to prominence when a Pew postmodern postures of belief exhibit patterns that resonate MResearch Center poll in 2012 called “Nones on the Rise” dis- with many of the practices that constitute and characterize covered that nearly 20 percent of Americans claim no reli- Christian spirituality. Moreover, because this phenomenon gious affiliation—a number that has been steadily climbing has occurred in various forms before in history, the specific since 2007. Last January, National Public Radio aired a week- habits of Catholic thought and spirituality are not only in po- long series titled “Losing Our Religion: The Growth of the sition to integrate such developments, but they can also pro- nones.” In the spring of 2013, a poll conducted by Michael vide fruitful pastoral responses as well. Hout of the University of California, Berkeley, and Mark A. As good postmodernists, nones are suspicious of claims Chaves of Duke University similarly found that religious affil- made regarding absolute truth—and even more reticent iation in the United States is at its lowest point since it began about making such claims themselves. This often frustrates to be tracked. those who prize conviction and certitude above all else. Still, Other researchers do not accept that number. But what in matters of faith, such a posture is ostensibly one of open- was not denied in these studies was the hyperactive rate at ness and receptivity, and nones are nothing if not open and which “none” was being declared by members of the millennial receptive. In this sense, the spirituality of the nones resonates generation—the cohort born between the early 1980s and late more with St. Augustine’s pointed question, “What does any- 1990s. The initial Pew survey found that nearly 32 percent one say when he speaks about You?” than it does with Richard of this group claims no religious affiliation. No doubt many Dawkins’s pointed declaration, “The idea of a divine creator readers of America are familiar with this signature phenome- belittles the elegant reality of the universe.” non of Generation Y (there have been several articles about it Claiming that there are phenomena about which words in these pages); but, while much has been said about the topic will always fail is itself a conviction and certitude and has of nones and religion, very little has been written about what many of the earmarks of a major theological tradition in the might have begotten such thinking and about the intellectual church, the apophaticism of mystical theology, where the fo- context in which the religious opinions of nones were formed. cus is “negative”—on what cannot be said about God, as op- On what philosophical and theological food have nones posed to what can be said. This is not to say that the nones made their meal? What rituals inform their spirituality? And are resurrecting the figures of Blessed Juliana of Norwich or what is it about organized religion that has left them cold? St. John of the Cross and channeling them for contemporary One argument is that the nones are postmodern, and that culture, but they are onto something when they cast suspicion on those who make vital truth claims reflexively, unreflectively and even proudly. The nones who are spiritually open seem to Michael P. Murphy, author of A Theology of Criticism: Balthasar, Postmodernism, and the Catholic Imagination (Oxford), directs the be declaring, as Flannery O’Connor declared in 1962, “How Catholic studies program at Loyola University Chicago. incomprehensible God must necessarily be to be the God of

24 America February 24, 2014 heaven and earth. You can’t fit the Almighty into your intel- vers for the postmodern hermeneutics of suspicion. This am- lectual categories.” bivalence can come as no surprise. The Enlightenment provid- That said, many Catholics are worried that the church is ed a utopian panacea of sorts—the chance for perfectibility, dying and that these fickle nones—fed the assertion of unlimited human im- on the cuisine of postmodernism— provement grounded in the discoveries are the harbingers of the disintegra- gleaned by rational thought unfettered tion. But the nones are saying no to by neither the hard freight of history much more than institutional religion; nor a remnant (and, as is oft-asserted, they are saying no to other institu- juvenile) belief in the airborne vaga- tional pillars of late modern American ries of theism. But it also revealed the culture as well—perhaps because limits of such cheap optimism, not to so many institutions are saying “no” mention the boundaries and quanda- to them. Kevin Sullivan, a Gen-Y ries of human power. Catholic, wrote in a recent article in The penchant among Westerners to The Washington Post, “The American view history in purely linear terms, as a political system is marred by incivility cause and effect cascade of intellectual and dishonesty. The idols of our pop and technical progress, survived for a culture are arrested, embarrass them- significant time; but this complacency selves publicly and live lavishly.” Mr. was seriously called into question by Sullivan’s complaint could well include the events of the first half of the 20th the moral failures involved in the sav- century, when it became clear that the ings and loan crisis of recent history, fullest expression of rational thought the corpse-cold versions of corporate was as often as not the manifestation of culture and the disequilibrium of dark projects in injustice, violence and health care; and so we admit these to genocide. By 1945 traditional modes his critique by implication. of reading history, already changing at But Mr. Sullivan’s main message a break-neck pace, shifted decisively to to his fellow Catholic millennials is what Charles Taylor, in A Secular Age, the lament that their shared quest to calls “exclusive humanism.” By 1968 all find a vibrant faith life in their own was awash in a full-blown sea change, church is becoming a fool’s errand. A and humanistic disciplines were called nes -o n -th e -r ise church that lacks “the courage and joy to reorient their critical methodologies to live, in essence, ‘counter-culturally’” within fluctuating horizons and the and whose “timid response to the child rubrics of subjectivity and relativity. abuse scandal and political division The implacable forces of human cul- among our own bishops and religious orders has left many tures—much more than the metaphysics of mere ideas—be- Catholic millennials timid themselves” is a church that itself came embraced as critical shapers of history. requires correction, renewal and spiritual reinvigoration. In This is one thesis offered to describe, at least partially, the this context, millennial nones—indeed all of us—can wel- origins of postmodernism and the context in which the nones come Pope Francis’ reminder that the “church is a love story, were raised. In a postmodern world, no longer did one large not an institution.” Moreover, Pope Francis, who is clearly the narrative of culture credibly describe, no longer did a single first pope of the millennial age, claims an important solidar- account of “salvation history” spiritually sustain, no longer ity with the theological ethos of nones, a development that did rational systems of thought—and the institutions they promises to bear much fruit. Pope Francis recognizes that the spawned—safeguard the values of liberty, justice and equality. nones and their no’s, in ways consonant with a long tradition No longer was it reasonable to propose or even desire such of sound spirituality, by and large affirm the Christian yes. But things, for to do so was naive, undiscerning and unimagi- how can this be? We must turn to history for a brief account. native. To do so was to violate and treat disrespectfully any notion of what was real, empirical and on the ground. How An Intellectual Genealogy retrograde it is today to seek after the “big TOE” (Theory of Speaking in terms of intellectual context, the nones are on a Everything) for, if we are honest, what we see in the world peculiar cusp. On the one hand, they are ardent practitioners are so many little, disconnected TOE’s that claim multiplici-

g ra p h s : pe w r ese ar c cen t e r. “ n o nes th ise , 10/09/2012. htt :// f oru m .or /2012/10/09/ of Enlightenment certainty; on the other, they are banner-wa- ty, indeterminacy, radical uniqueness and other exaltations of

February 24, 2014 America 25 subjectivity. In the end, it is particularity, not the construct- Speaking”) and Emmanuel Levinas (his notion of “relation ed universals of high fantasy, that describes the world more without relation,” his solidarity with the inscrutable other) credibly. Raised in a context like this, is it any surprise that to the primacy of passion-over-knowledge of John Caputo, when asked to claim an absolute identity, they check the box, to Richard Kearney’s notion of anatheism (God after God), “None of the Above”? postmodern approaches are suddenly not as novel or impen- etrable as they first appeared. When Kearney observes how An Affirmation of Negative Theology postmodern thought embraces “the appreciation of the mys- The juggernaut of the nones reveals the completion of the tical moment of nothingness that precedes the breakthrough Enlightenment, which displaces religion as a dominant force; to a mystical epiphany of renewal,” one hears the strong echo but it also reveals the ways that one orthodoxy can be so eas- of the psalmist’s report from the frontier: “Be still and know ily replaced with another. Clearly, this can be disconcerting to that I am God.” In this way, postmodern thought can be read as a 21st-century version of an apophaticism that has long been part of the church. The humble reticence, in the face of divine majesty, to whisper Adonai (or nothing at all) instead of a proud Yahwe h , the felt clarity of beholding the “cloud of unknowing,” the resolve to cultivate both the will and intellec- tual nimbleness required to abide in mystery—these are the proper rejoinders to the incomprehensible mystery of God. Arguably, this is an optimistic reading of the nones; but it also discloses the ways that nones of a certain disposi- tion, while they may be questioning toward organized re- ligion, are neither swayed by other “religions” of contem- porary culture—materialism, scientism or the utopian Shangri-La promised by the high priests of consumerism. More important, postmodern nones reject the idea that Enlightenment rationalism can account, in the final anal- ysis, for transcendent or at least transcending values like personal dignity, heroism and human rights. In this sense, the penchant of postmodern nones to retreat into sanctu- aries of indeterminacy and ambiguity can be viewed more as an act of intellectual receptiveness than indecision. In the face of the many linguistic difficulties that attend “God talk,” we would be well advised to mind our tongues and pray for humility when we sit at the foot of such resplen- dent phenomena. both a culture that claims to value the coherence of the com- mon good and a church that draws life from a fixed yet mys- An Ecclesial Existence 2.0 teriously dynamic mark. There is a bright side to all of this, But there is work left to be done by the nones. Just as apophat- however, especially when viewed against the very postmodern ic spirituality is ultimately a one-winged spirituality, so too, theology that provides the backdrop to these remarks. As in- perhaps, is the reticent fence-sitting of the nones. Among troduced above, it is difficult to offer a uniform description others, C. S. Lewis observed that the apophatic is necessary of postmodernism (there are various camps—some sympa- because it cleanses us of our erroneous ideas about God so thetic to theism, others hostile); but one area on which there as to make a space for the revelation of “positive” (kataphatic) is consensus is the weakness of words—that some things are theology, the explosion of God’s incarnational presence upon “unsayable”—especially when they purport to describe ab- the scene. There is a point in every life where one must re- solute phenomena like God, orthodoxy and the geographies spond to God’s perceived absence and reckon with the “trac- of spiritual encounters. Still, any serious thinker knows that es” left behind, where one must make the Kierkegaardian a thing that cannot be spoken of is ultimately a thing worth leap or not. Put another way, as Daniel Lanois, an artist who speaking about. dwells well in postmodern spaces observes, “He ain’t coming An entire vein of postmodern thinking speaks creative- in ’til you lay the table.” ly about this in ways not lost on the ironic imagination. As Pelagian as this sounds, it suits the nones well, for From the classic texts by Jacques Derrida (“How to Avoid they must confront their subjectivity—and the criticism that

26 America February 24, 2014 they are narcissists of the highest order living in the meta- exhortation that appeals to the ethos of Generation Y. As im- static version of the “Me” generation. Fed on the porridge of portant as apologetics are, the style of a 21st-century Catholic “Sheilaism” of the 1980s, described by the sociologist Robert revival will be more about walking than talking, more about Bellah and others (the term has been used ever since to char- the performance of ethics and aesthetics than philosophi- acterize the sui generis American approach to religion and cal apologetics. A church that is clearly under a reformative spirituality), millennial nones would do well to heed the ad- spirit (as it is just now) is a church that can embrace nones monishion of their peer, Kevin Sullivan, when he says: “Do and a church that nones can embrace. The sacramentality of not throw your hands up in the air and wait for the com- Catholic practices provides a venue for such spiritualities, munity we seek to form. Instead, try returning to the pews, where nones, who truly love good liturgy, might include in this time with a friend. If we are truly to find our identity their liturgical milieu both Burning Man and the God-man as a generation, we cannot keep living in a paradox of being who burns with love. accepting of others’ convictions and beliefs but denying our- So worry not. The nones are on the quest. If they quest selves our own.” far enough, they will bump into a faith tradition that plac- The church, then, becomes a real option for the nones, es a heavy emphasis on the pilgrim and that understands as it has for others in the past. The Catholic revival of the the unique event of being an embodied human. The church 20th century was largely an intellectual revival. It came on the nourishes itself on the very idea of event, on the very reality heels of the 19th-century age of ideology and was populated of dwelling in a mystical body and encountering the body and propelled by first class intellectuals: Jacques Maritain, in which absence becomes true presence. Such pilgrims may Edith Stein, Christopher Dawson, among so many others. be transformed, then, by a reconstructed appreciation for The renewal of the nones will be something else—something particularity in the universal, for the uniqueness of Jesus. more culturally particular, something, perhaps, less universal. Such pilgrims become then a lumen fidei; and in the light Faithful to postmodernist premises, this revival may be “un- of such faith, as Pope Francis wrote in his first encyclical, sayable”: more about actions and less about words. “You have “our hearts are touched and we open ourselves to the inte- been told, O mortal, what is good,/and what the LORD re- rior presence of the beloved, who enables us to recognize quires of you:/Only to do justice and to love goodness,/and his mystery,” the mystery of our lives in Jesus who is both to walk humbly with your God” says the prophet Micah, an source and summit of the journey. A

February 24, 2014 America 27 FAITH IN FOCUS Lost and Found Encountering forgiveness in surprising places By Carol LaChapelle ome years before my father died, bony hand to touch it. Parton’s vow of eternal love, and careful- he and my stepmother moved “It’s a wallet,” I answered, opening it. ly opened the wallet. Sinto a retirement community, one “It looks like it was Mom’s.” Of the 30 plastic sleeves, only six of the nicer chains bordering Chicago. “Oh,” my father said flatly, perhaps, were filled, all at one end. In the first To help them downsize from their con- like me, unable to comprehend what it was a two-year pocket calendar, 1962 do of 24 years, I spent an afternoon with was doing there, my mother long dead on one side, 1961 on the other. During my father in his “office,” going through and buried these past 40 years. those years I would graduate from high the contents of a desk as teetering as the “Can I have it?” I asked, barely hiding school, and my mother would be closer old man himself. Now 91 and legally my excitement. to dying from breast cancer. blind for the past five years, he had been “Sure. What else is in the drawer?” Following were sleeves of old photos, using it as a table—its chipped and rect- including two of me from high school, angular surface now covered with bills In Her Image and one of my mother’s father, Bill—or and insurance claims, a stash of small My mother loved hanging out in bars. Poppity, as we called him. He is stand- rusty penknives and bundled ballpoint When I was young, she belonged to ing in front of a vine-covered cottage, pens he had copped from local banks. two bowling leagues, both sponsored by somewhere near Philadelphia, looking From five of the six drawers, we re- bars, working-class suburban straight into the cam- trieved old receipts, blank envelopes joints near where we lived. era, a handsome and bank statements. From the sixth, And while she was more up- white-haired the double-deep drawer on the right, I per-middle class, my mother man in his 60s, pulled out a disordered pile of my fa- nestled easily among those dressed in a ther’s personal papers: family letters, with whom she bowled and white shirt and including one from a long-dead cousin; drank: truck drivers, plumb- broad tie, a neu- correspondence about his 60th high ers, nurse’s aides—more my tral expression school reunion; office memos he’d writ- father’s people, the kind he on his face. ten decades earlier while a salesman at was trying to escape. My moth- a printing ink firm. That was the job Later on the day I found er was crazy that had brought him and my mother my mother’s wallet, I sat about her father, to Chicago from Philadelphia in 1939, in Punky’s, a corner bar though I recall a move that would forever darken their near the train little about him, marriage and our family’s life. that would take or the rest of my Tucked back in the corner of the me back to the relatives “back drawer was a small photo wallet, bright city. It was near East.” My parents pink and bound with a thin gold-plated 5 p.m. on a had left home to make their life clasp. weekday, and in the Midwest, a young couple “What’s this?” I asked my father, the place was in their mid-20s, with a tod- holding it close to his clouded eyes. just beginning dler son and earnest hopes in “What is it?” he said, reaching out a to fill up with tow. How they must have loved the regulars, who each other then, I think, trying to Carol LaChapelle, a Chicago-based writer came to play pool and listen who conducts writing workshops and blogs about erase from my mind the rancor and the Boomer-and-beyond life at On the Geezer to country music from the jukebox. I sat drink-fueled mayhem of their later Beat, is the author of Finding Your Voice, on a stool near the window, the buzz of years, and how that must have given

Telling Your Stories. the indoor neon sign louder than Dolly my mother the courage to leave behind es y o f th e author Photo s c ourt

28 America February 24, 2014 everyone else she loved. in the “moral upbringing” of her own more than the generosity of their love. Facing Poppity was a photo of him children. As if a mother could even do And it was in that same spirit of with my grandmother, the formida- that. As if it could be done by barring generosity—relit by the cauldron of ble and bosomy Mae, standing tall the children from the place where their cancer—that my mother freely gave my and straight next to him in dark sun- mother sought spiritual comfort. father the gift he had been praying for glasses and flowered silk dress, her I sometimes blame my own bitterness all their married life, one that she had white purse pressed close to her side. on having watched our small family un- just as earnestly resisted: She became a They are on the boardwalk in Atlantic ravel—and at such an early age—from convert to his faith. And when together City, the iconic place of my childhood, the wedge that religion drove between they knelt at the altar in the small hos- where each summer my parents, my my parents, and from the drink that fol- pital chapel where she took her First brother and I made the long drive lowed or preceded or accompanied that Communion, there wasn’t, truly, a dry from Chicago, stopping off in Philly to wedge. eye in the house. collect the relatives who would join us But in the end, none of it mattered. The clack of pool balls returns me to in our rented apartment at the shore. When my mother was diagnosed with the smoky present of the now-jammed Maybe my mother’s much beloved breast cancer at the age of 45, my par- bar. I close my mother’s wallet and niece and her new husband would ents drew together. And for years after make my way out to the train platform, come along. Or my father’s brother her death, my father the sharp smell of and his family, so similar to my own would say—even On the Web booze and smoke in the toll that drinking would take on when remarried, Faith reflections from mixing in my mem- their lives. my Italian Catholic young Catholics. ory with those of americamagazine.org/generationfaith It was on those annual summer trips stepmother just out incense and death. that we would be part of an extend- of earshot—“I fell in My mother re- ed family, if only for two short weeks. love with a dying woman!” sented dying young for many reasons, How exotic they all seemed to me— And each time he’d say that, I’d see among them that I’d be left without her these blood relatives I hardly resembled, him again at my mother’s hospital bed- to negotiate the uncertain passage into their very speech sounding foreign, my side, leaning forward in his chair, her womanhood. She had learned a great own flat Midwestern vowels a cause for small hand tight in his. It was as if the deal in the last five years of her life— laughter among them. long contentious years of their mar- hard lessons about love, and especially Then, crammed into the final sleeve riage had melted away and they were about forgiveness, that I know she want- of my mother’s wallet, were two cloth back there again in Philadelphia, where, ed to pass on. medallions: a black and white Virgin young and beautiful, they believed they Those holy medallions mashed into Mary and the blood red Sacred Heart of could cross the country together, cross the cracked sleeve of her wallet made me Jesus. They sit among the familiar rest, even the great divides of religion and think that perhaps—close to 40 years jarring and incongruous. class, newly wed and buoyed by nothing later—she had. A

A Generous Spirit I was the product of a “mixed” marriage in the 1950s, forbidden by my father’s Catholic teachings to know anything of my mother’s Lutheran faith, though of course I would try. One bright Sunday morning—I was not yet 10—as my mother dressed for church, I asked to go with her, to see this secret place where my brother and I were not allowed, as if the air itself would corrode our very souls. With little emotion, she told me no, a slight bitterness in her voice, as if I were to blame for the devil’s pact she’d made when marrying my father, agree- ing among other things not to interfere

February 24, 2014 America 29 Books & Culture

turned agnostic truck driver—was un- film | David J. Michael enthusiastic. But he was a guest and she a recent widow, so he shrugged and A Commercial Christ went. The movie, a two-hour blood bath, was tough sledding. Afterward, ‘Son of God’ presents a beautiful, blockbuster Jesus. between sniffles, my mom and sister pronounced the film great. I asked my hen I was maybe 7 or 8 had died rather suddenly that fall, and uncle what he thought. He cringed. years old, I saw the movie my mom’s brother had been unable to “Heavy. Violent.” This from a man W“Jesus,” also known as the make the funeral. Now he had flown in whom I have seen disembowel a deer Jesus film, at Moody Bible Church in from Sweden to pay his respects, and in the middle of a forest. Chicago. I remember Jesus’ face, his one evening, my mom, a fundamental- Though the two films could not be kind voice and not much else (also that ist Protestant, said we were going go more different, both have enjoyed wide it was Martin Luther’s birthday and see “The Passion of the Christ.” The success. Despite its dubious cinematic that we sang a hymn of his before the head of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics quality, “Jesus,” which is really an evan- movie). and Religious Liberty Commission gelization tool from Campus Crusade Ten years ago I attended anoth- had screened the film, by Mel Gibson, for Christ, has been viewed by approx- er Jesus film that would leave a much for “creeping, excessive Catholicism,” imately—get this—six billion people greater impression. I found myself and found none, which cleared the way since 1979 and has led approximately with my mom, sister and uncle in a for evangelicals to see it. 200 million people to make some sort shabby strip-mall theater. My dad My uncle—a one-time missionary of faith commitment. “The Passion of

WHERE’S MEL? Diogo Morgado as Jesus in “Son of God” Photo: Ca se y c ra ff ord © L ig htwork e r s me d i a inc . n h ar t p rodu o ns ,

30 America February 24, 2014 the Christ” earned over $600 million, tertaining, which is the goal of most the only pre-Passion moments in “Son 20 times the amount it cost to make Hollywood epics, so in that sense it is of God” where Jesus drops his mil- the film. This latter figure likely was effective. But if entertainment is the lion-dollar smile is when he drives out lurking when the producers behind goal, one could do far better. the money-changers from the Temple. the History Channel’s hugely popular, Perhaps I am just being a snob. The “Son of God” will probably en- 10-hour mini-series “The Bible,” Mark There were many wet eyes in the the- joy box-office success. But does that Burnett and Roma Downey, decided to ater as Jesus was hanging from the justify portraying the Son of God as a recut part of the series footage and re- cross. And when the credits rolled, just blockbuster movie hero? If commercial lease it as Son of God. after Jesus appears to John on Patmos, film is largely an entertainment medi- The movie opens with an ac- the light streaming through the whole um, what does it mean to encounter tion-packed montage of Old Testament in his hand as he declares “There will be Jesus in that medium while shoveling scenes narrated by a weirdly spry-look- no death, ever!” the audience applaud- popcorn into your mouth? To watch ing John, sitting alone at Patmos. Then ed. the crucifixion with a Hans Zimmer Jesus is born, and the movie fast for- After the film, a man in a suit en- sound track, as though you were wards to him recruiting Peter with couraged us to pray about the opening watching “Man of Steel”? What is lost the unlikely phrase, “We’re going to and called our attention to opportuni- and what, if anything, is gained? As the change the world!” From there, the film ties to host screenings or purchase bulk poet W. H. Auden noted, “Christianity is a greatest-hits reel of Jesus’ miracles, tickets for church- draws a distinction followed by the Passion. The pacing is es or schools. “This between what is friv- rushed, and much is sacrificed, nota- isn’t about Mark On the Web olous and what is Bill McGarvey and Tim Reidy bly the wedding at Cana, and John the and Roma making discuss the Oscar nominees. serious, but allows Baptist gets all of a four second flash- money. Believe me. americamagazine.org/podcast the former its place. back. But it feels long. They have plenty. What it condemns The cable-broadcast roots of “Son This is about shar- is not frivolity but of God” were often apparent: low- ing the story of Jesus,” he said. idolatry, that is to say, taking the friv- grade computer-generated imagery The costs of “Son of God” have olous seriously.” and grainy film in dark scenes were probably been recouped several times The day after I saw “Son of God,” distracting. The film is also rife with over, thanks to the success of “The I wrote my mom to ask if the “The clichés, whose purpose is to identify Bible,” which garnered 100 million Passion” had had any long-term spir- the setting. Romans eating grapes on viewers worldwide and, when released itual effects or if it was just a tempo- daybeds suggest sin and power. British on DVD, quickly became the top-sell- rary, emotional experience for her. “To accents tell us this movie is serious, for- ing mini-series of all time. Given this be honest, I think it was more of a eign, ancient. I longed for the Latin and fact, perhaps the film—the stated aim momentary thing. But you can’t judge! Aramaic of “The Passion,” not to men- of which is to share the Gospel sto- Some people might come to the Lord tion its rougher realism. ry with as many people as possible— through these films.” Perhaps they Most of the main characters in could have been made available free on will. When I saw “The Passion of the “Son of God” are too easy on the the Internet. Christ,” I was on my way out of the eyes. Jesus, played by the Portuguese “Jesus,” by contrast, has been trans- evangelical church and, I thought, out actor Diogo Morgado, looks vague- lated into over 1,000 languages by a of the Christian faith. What I wanted, ly like Brad Pitt, with beautiful hair nonprofit ministry and shown in every and what the film could not deliver, and teeth that my toothpaste tube country of the world. It was recently was a portrayal of the greater suffering: describes as “optic white.” Similarly, I announced that the film will be remas- Christ’s momentary separation from found Roma Downey (of “Touched tered and re-released in select theaters. the Father, a separation that I felt from by an Angel”) an uncomfortably at- For those who would champion movies both my father and God. Nor could tractive Mary. as an evangelistic tool—and as “Jesus” the gruesome depiction of physical suf- Insofar as the film has merit, it is shows, they can be quite effective—I fering of the crucifixion communicate to be found in its strong focus on the would ask what it means for us to put Christ’s physicality, his humanity, his Roman occupation of Israel, drama- our evangelistic efforts in the hands of presence with us. For that, I needed the tizing the tension between Pilate and commercial companies, whose goals Eucharist. Caiaphas and highlighting Barabas’s are not our goals. The message of the role as an agitator—context which Gospel, after all, is not always in tune David J. Michael is a writer and producer in is often lost. The film is at times en- with the desires of the market. One of Brooklyn, N.Y.

February 24, 2014 America 31 of other things | Maurice Timothy Reidy Queer as Folk

hen Pete Seeger died on Llewyn Davis,” but another, unnamed messy human behavior is and yet how Jan. 27 at the age of 94, folk musician does. At the end of a set at sublime our art can be. The Coen Wthere were some minor the Gaslight Café, Llewyn is summoned brothers clearly enjoy playing against skirmishes about his political affil- outside to meet a mysterious stranger the audience’s expectations. The early iations, but there was little dispute while a gravelly voiced singer takes the folk scene was known for its generous about his character. Here was a faith- stage. The film does not say who the and cooperative spirit. People like Pete ful husband, a good father and grand- singer is, but you don’t have to be from Seeger did not care so much who got father, a loyal neighbor who could care Hibbing, Minn., to figure it out. The credit for writing a song, as long as less about the trappings of fame. He shadow of Bob Dylan looms over “Inside people were singing it. and his wife, Toshi, were married for Llewyn Davis” from the very beginning. A Showtime documentary cele- almost 70 years, and he lived in a mod- And not only because brating the music of est home in Beacon, N.Y., for nearly as he is the most famous “Llewyn Davis” cap- long. singer to emerge from Llewyn tures this good feeling. A different kind of folk singer the Greenwich Village Davis is an In the documentary, emerged this fall with the release of folk scene. Anyone who Marcus Mumford, in “Inside Llewyn Davis,” a film by Joel has read about Dylan’s imperfect remarks between the and Ethan Coen. Supposedly based early career knows that messenger, performances by con- on the Greenwich Village picker Dave he shares a common temporary musicians, Van Ronk, Llewyn Davis is a strug- trait with the film’s but then declares with some gling musician trying to make a living eponymous hero. Both again, relief that there were playing in coffee shops in New York of them could be, well, no egos in the room City in the early 1960s. He has recent- jerks. who isn’t? as they were filming. ly released his first solo album, though In Positively Fourth How nice. it is not selling well. His fans seem to Street, David Hajdu And how unusual. prefer his earlier work, made with a writes about Dylan’s “Inside Llewyn Davis” onetime partner, but that relationship place in the emerg- is a blunt reminder that is over for reasons that eventually be- ing folk milieu and beautiful music does come clear. his relationship with not necessarily come Davis is a talented singer. He is the singer Joan Baez. from beautiful people. not, however, a good human being. He Baez was better known Even the angelic-voiced sleeps with his friend’s wife and pays than Dylan in those Jean Berkey, played by for her abortion when she becomes early days, and she graciously helped Carey Mulligan, has a wicked tongue. pregnant. Another former girlfriend is launch his career. He returned the fa- I did not care for Llewyn Davis the raising his child alone. He treats most vor by dumping her and refusing to person, but I can’t get enough of the of the people he meets with hostility, play in public with her when he lost “Inside Llewyn Davis” soundtrack. including his most devoted fans. He his interest in folk music. This was a Davis is an imperfect messenger, but seems to care only about a marmalade long time ago, of course, and no artist then again, who isn’t? It’s the music, cat. Llewyn Davis is no Pete Seeger. should necessarily be condemned for the words, that matter. The only thing that redeems him in sins committed at such an early age. It should not matter that our favorite the eyes of the audience is his music. (Dylan has since apologized.) Yet even singer or writer is a loathsome individ- When he sings, his clear tenor voice the most sympathetic fan would con- ual. An artist’s work should be enough momentarily wipes away memories of cede Dylan is still a prickly character. if it can nourish us, make us more sen- his boorish behavior. I suspect that the Coen brothers sitive and wise. Artists who manage to Seeger does not appear in “Inside had Dylan’s history in mind when flourish in both their life and their art writing “Llewyn Davis.” One of the are rare indeed. When they come along, Maurice Timothy Reidy is an executive ed- film’s themes, as A. O. Scott of The it’s important we take notice. itor of America. New York Times pointed out, is how Rest in peace, Pete.

32 America February 24, 2014 have a flurry of them offering epistolary bookings | Jon M. Sweeney treasures. There will come a time in the future when we will have no more of Epistolary Treasures these. Rest uneasy; your favorite con- The vanishing art of letter-writing temporary novelist or theologian is not writing or receiving collectible corre- The Selected Letters of when Henry looked good to her. Or spondence right now. Willa Cather John Keats writing Fanny Brawne By Willa Cather from his deathbed. Or the famous let- . . . Edited by Andrew Jewell and Janis ter written by the Italian hermit Peter Stout Morrone to the dean of the College of Letter-writing became more afford- Knopf. 752p $37.50 Cardinals in 1294, which able on March 3, 1845, led to Peter’s election as with the U.S. Postal The Letters of T. S. Eliot Pope Celestine V. Act. Congress essentially Volume 4: 1928-1929 People once main- broke up the monopoly By T. S. Eliot tained relationships that of the Postal Service by Edited by Valerie Eliot and John were primarily episto- regulating prices, making Haffenden lary. Loves were lost and the mail accessible for the Yale University Press. 864p $50 found with the arrival of average Joe. It is no acci- letters. A man might run dent that we do not often The Letters of Ernest to the daily post, anxious think of writers or public Hemingway 1923-1925 to discover if his mar- figures of modest means By Ernest Hemingway riage proposal was ac- in previous centuries as Edited by Sandra Spanier, Albert J. cepted, a woman, to see letter-writers. Letter- DeFazio III and Robert W. Trogdon if one had been offered. writing had not come Cambridge University Press. 604p $40 Letters were harbingers of joy but also into its own in the days of Jonathan dread and surprise. Millions of moth- Edwards and Phyllis Wheatley. The Correspondence of ers and fathers learned of the death Counting from the Postal Act until the Henry D. Thoreau of their sons at war from an arriving late 20th century, one might calculate Volume 1: 1834-1848 (The letter. Just two generations ago, letters the golden era of epistolary communi- Writings of Henry D. Thoreau) were the primary means of confession, cation at just under 150 years. By Henry D. Thoreau from one friend to anoth- We’ve just seen the Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth er, and the prefered way publication of the first Princeton University Press. 544p $99.50 of sending and receiving volume in what will serious news, better than eventually be three to Suitable the telephone. include every extant Accommodations This all began to piece of correspondence An Autobiographical Story of change in 1995, as e-mail associated with Henry Family Life: The Letters of J. F. replaced letters at a rapid David Thoreau, whose Powers, 1942-1963 clip. As a result, our pri- editors explain in their By J. F. Powers mary means of communi- historical introduction Edited by Katherine A. Powers cation with one another how much the author of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 480p $35 has been easily disposed Walden benefitted from There have been many famous letters of and replaced by one the Postal Act. There was and letter-writers in history. One thinks that is mostly absent of a direct correspondence immediately of Cicero, who made it format, tone and geographical rele- between it and Thoreau’s blossoming an art form. Then, of course, we have vance. into one of the most interesting let- St. Paul, who filled his letters to early This is why we might want to pause ter-writers of his century. Those same Christian communities with advice and and consider a batch of excellent books editors have chosen to publish not doctrine, news from the front and oc- published in the last year. These vol- only Thoreau’s extant letters but those casional scoldings. One also thinks of umes often require decades to collect, written to him. The result is a thor- Henry VIII writing to Anne Boleyn, collate, research and produce—and we ough reconstruction of his biography,

February 24, 2014 America 33 which should appeal to anyone with an leaving nothing to chance. Bess whether I were on the road to be- abiding interest in the most important Truman famously burned about 1,300 coming a Catholic. By no means! I 19th-century American writer of non- letters that she had written to her hus- do, however, admire the work of the fiction. band, Harry, just after Catholic missionary priests on this The important role the former president’s continent,” she wrote to the president of an editor in selecting, death. Alternatively, it is of Czechoslovakia. compiling and anno- common for access to be The fifth of six planned volumes of tating a writer’s letters restricted for a quarter Robert Penn Warren’s letters was pub- comes through clearly century or so after the lished in late 2011. The final volume in all of these volumes, death of the writer, so appeared last December. A three-time most of all, perhaps, that most of the people Pulitzer Prize-winner, Warren is large- in this new book on mentioned in the corre- ly forgotten today. He deserves better, Thoreau. The letters spondence will also have although only one of his novels, and that he wrote to his sis- died. just a handful of poems, are included in ter show a warmth and We, of course, love to the current canon. My only complaint humanity that would be look in on the intimacies with the volume under review is about unfamiliar to the thou- in letters, hence writ- the repetition. Warren wrote a lot of sands of late 19th-centu- ers’ desire to restrict us letters, often repeating verbatim judg- ry readers who only read a collection sometimes. Toward the ments and observations of his letters collected and published end of her productive from one correspondent by Ralph Waldo Emerson soon after life, Cather remarked to to another, and when Thoreau’s death. Emerson’s volume in- her brother on Nov. 6, these repetitions are not cluded only the more stoical Thoreau, 1938: “As for me, I have edited out, they have a because that’s the man Emerson want- cared too much, about cluttering effect. ed people to remember. people and places—cared Fortunately, none of Also interesting is how reading too hard. It made me, as the books under review a writer’s letters can lead to a rapid a writer. But it will break suffer from the self-con- re-evaluation of the writer. I now ap- me in the end.” In fact, sciousness of writers preciate Willa Cather much more than we witness a new Cather who pen letters to one I did before. A brilliant woman, she in these letters, a picture another with a view to was clearly one of the most interest- that enlightens the novels, future publication. This ing figures of her age, whether she was making me want to read is not always so. A re- writing about Nebraska, New York them again. There have viewer, for instance, in City or Quebec. long been debates about her sexuality, The Times Literary Supplement re- The most intimate and she still says nothing cently took a volume of letters be- remarks are written in about it in her correspon- tween Kingsley Amis and Philip letters from one friend dence, but I found a fas- Larkin to task for this (10/18/13). to another. This is why cinating remark to one of The reviewer observed, “The personae many writers have re- her friends from college: these supposedly private letters create stricted access to, or de- “Life is too short for love are as shrewdly crafted as anything in stroyed, their correspon- anyway, one is a fool to be their authors’ poems or novels.” This dence. Willa Cather is an exile.” tendency has been around since Pliny one example. The public Catholic themes are the Younger was writing his letters, as hadn’t seen more than illuminated in Cather’s if for future publication, in Rome in a handful of her letters letters, too. Her middle the first century. since she died in 1947, American readers were No one was further away from let- which explains why the often concerned about ter-writing for publication than Ernest chunky volume of what what they perceived as Hemingway, whose second volume of has just been published the novelist’s Catholic correspondence, covering the Paris ex- has received so much attention. Other leanings in the later novels, and this patriate years, 1923 to 1925, forms the writers, including Somerset Maugham, collection shows Cather responding most purely enjoyable book of those destroyed all their correspondence, to those queries. “You asked me… considered here. Hemingway wrote

34 America February 24, 2014 on every imaginable form of paper, al- There is one volume that gives me hilariously prone to focusing on the most always quickly, communicating as a bit of hope for the genre. Perhaps trivial. brashly as he lived his life. “EXCUSE there is a future for looking in on what Leibovich, chief national corre- THE UPPER CASE TYPE BUT writers have to say to each other and to spondent for The New York Times THE DAMN MILL STICKS their friends with the approach taken Magazine and a former Washington OTHERWISE AND I WANT TO by the editors of The Selected Letters Post reporter, admits to being en- WRITE THIS FAST,” he sent to a of Robert Creeley, the modernist poet, sconced in the old-media wing of The friend in April 1925. But he also very soon to come from The University of Club. He is acutely aware that This often comes across as the bigoted jack- California Press. I have not seen it yet, To w n exemplifies several of the phe- ass that we know him to have been. but I’m told that they are including nomena it describes. The book is a Reading the letters of our favorite faxes and e-mails in addition to tra- piece of meta-journalism, by which writers can be a quick way to dash our ditional letters on paper. But my sus- he hopes to raise his own profile and appreciation of them as people. In that picion is that this is approach will not profit financially. He meticulously re- vein, the Catholic novelist J. F. Powers be widely repeated. We simply do not veals his connections to the individuals comes across here as a worrying, often communicate in short form e-mail the and institutions under scrutiny. Along bitter, self-involved annoyance to many way we once did, pen to paper. with demonstrating how incestuous of his friends and colleagues, while T. S. Washington is, these disclaimers are Eliot almost shines through his letters to Jon M. Sweeney is the author of many disarming—but only up to a point. books, including The Pope Who Quit: A correspondents around the globe with True Medieval Tale of Mystery, Death, and They don’t guarantee he’s telling the wisdom gained early and intelligence. Salvation (Image Books). whole story. In conversational prose, Leibovich strings together profiles, anecdotes and books | John P. Mc Carthy accounts of various capital rituals, be- ginning with the funeral in June 2008 The Best Spin Wins of Tim Russert, moderator of “Meet the Press,” and ending with a reception This Town whopping book advances and month- at the Georgetown home of the power Two Parties and a Funeral—Plus ly retainers. Political beliefs are merely couple Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee in Plenty of Valet Parking!—in tools for attaining and December 2012. He has America’s Gilded Capital maintaining power an air of gently mocking By Mark Leibovich and lucre. The underly- bemusement and never Blue Rider Press. 386p $27.95 ing problem is not the tries to hide his affec- refusal to cross party tion and/or scorn for The dysfunction that plagues lines, it is the striving his subjects. Washington, D.C., is usually attribut- to forage in the right His descriptive tal- ed to ideological division and the at- buffet lines. ents and dry sense of tendant unwillingness to compromise. Against the idea humor impress. He’s a A contrary explanation is discernible it was ever thus, master of the wither- in Mark Leibovich’s chatty book This Leibovich argues that ingly sarcastic summa- To w n . According to Leibovich, “the this clique has changed ry quip—frequently city, far from being hopelessly divid- dramatically in recent deployed in tandem ed, is in fact hopelessly interconnect- years. Its numbers have with his nose for hy- ed.” There’s an unofficial cabal—“The ballooned thanks to pocrisy. Three promi- Club”—whose members are motivat- the explosion of lob- nent ex-congressmen ed by self-enrichment and self-perpet- bying firms, special interests, cable are chided for how they have “mone- uation. Opportunism, not partisan- TV, social media and upstart news tized their government service.” And ship, drives these pols, journalists, lob- outlets like Politico. Instead of foster- one married couple, top Democratic byists, staffers, fixers, pundits and so- ing greater transparency and diluting lobbyists, are skewered for fetishiz- cialites. They’re a cozy lot. Regardless power inside the Beltway, this growth ing the gourmet comestibles served at of party or professional affiliation, has altered the habits and preoccu- their functions, including one hosted they attend the same galas, read the pations of the elite. In short, they in support of food stamps. Leibovich same e-mail blasts and covet the same are grotesquely status-conscious and repeatedly goes after the Obama cam-

February 24, 2014 America 35 paign’s rigid anti-lobbyist plank, which chapters, Leibovich is more explicit litical. Not surprisingly, money is the creaked when it came time to staff about depicting D.C. as a virtual reality root villain in this cynical smorgas- the executive branch, then buckled inside which issues are irrelevant. For bord. It doesn’t pay to have genuine completely when numerous first-term example, “Much of Washington ceased political convictions in Washington; aides left for lucrative jobs on K Street. to be about true narratives long ago.” In you and your ideals won’t last long. A chapter entitled “How It Works” other words, the best spin wins. As for the apparent dysfunction and chronicles the scandal that erupted But this familiar tack undercuts paralysis, gridlock feathers more nests on Capitol Hill after Kurt Bardella, a itself. If so many Washington narra- than change. And no matter what, brash young press aide to Rep. Darrell tives are suspect, why should we trust platters of cash await those adept at Issa, was caught sharing work e-mails Leibovich’s? If the effects on real-world packaging marketable messages. One with Leibovich while he was research- outcomes are so oblique, why should way or another, therefore, Leibovich ing This Town. The dizzying episode anyone outside the Beltway take no- will profit from telling us the waters reveals just how parasitical things are tice? If there is no concrete proof that of the Potomac run green. At least at the nexus of media and politics. the country is worse off because of the he does so with pithy flair and ample Elsewhere Leibovich suggests that the dissembling insularity of D.C. elites, self-awareness. Still, I wish he’d taken snarky, polarized discourse dominating then maybe it isn’t. Indeed, some ar- Deep Throat’s advice to Woodward media coverage of Washington is often gue that our system, with its built-in and Bernstein and followed the mon- fake—faux conflict staged to boost rat- tensions and checks and balances, was ey farther downstream—past the ings and sell books. Meanwhile, inside designed to encourage stalemate. It’s Kennedy Center and nearer to the lives the well-appointed green rooms, man- supposed to be hard to get things done. of ordinary Americans. sions, ballrooms and eateries where the Even so, the degree to which rhetorical combatants routinely cross Leibovich brackets principles and in- John P. McCarthy is a freelance writer in paths, sucking-up is the default mode tegrity renders This Town oddly apo- Westchester County, N.Y. of communication. The biggest dig against Leibovich’s entertaining portrait is that he doesn’t Michael V. Tueth actually reveal how Washington func- tions because he doesn’t show the caus- Sisters on Screen al connections between the behavior he recounts and specific laws, regula- Veiled Desires Russell in “The Trouble with Angels,” tions, policies and programs. Without Intimate Portrayals of Nuns in and Shirley MacLaine in “A Mule for detailed examples of the impact on the Postwar Anglo-American Film Sister Sara”—have starred in light workings of the federal government, By Maureen A. Sabine comedies, and an odd couple of other This Town runs the risk of being dis- Fordham University Press. 338p $30 Oscar-winners—Whoopi Goldberg missed as so much gossip, innuendo and and Maggie Smith—shared convent ad hominem besmirching. Leibovich Dozens of well-known American and life in “Sister Act.” might contend the links are obvious British actresses have portrayed reli- With a book whose title might be an but difficult to prove. Members of The gious women in film. Some allusion to the biblical Club tend not to leave smoking cana- of them—Jennifer Jones in Salome, Veiled Desires, pés behind. Nevertheless, he ought to “The Song of Bernadette” Maureen Sabine fo- provide more hard evidence. To which and Susan Sarandon in cuses on “the cinemat- he could reply, “I never claimed to be “Dead Man Walking”—won ic nun as a woman Bob Woodward, Dean of Investigative Academy Awards for their and a religious in the Journalists.” performances. There have twentieth century, one It’s more likely Leibovich would been nuns who broke into striving for a life that embrace the criticism. Washington’s song—Debbie Reynolds in integrates personal substance deficit is the point. It’s a “The Singing Nun,” and Julie and professed, worldly shallow, frivolous place where percep- Andrews in “The Sound of and sacred, traditional tion and appearance rule. Fixating on Music.” Many other Oscar- and modern, gender trappings at the expense of nuts-and- winning actresses—Loretta and spiritual aspira- bolts is appropriate, since that’s what Young and Celeste Holm tions.” In doing so, she the movers-and-shakers do. In later in “Come to the Stable,” Rosalind challenges Anders Nygren’s authorita-

36 America February 24, 2014 tive study of “Agape and Eros” which, influence for evil” and effectively black- formerly a ministry reserved mainly drawing a strong contrast between listed from Hollywood. For the next to priests and monks. In the course of the two types of love, “repeatedly un- several years, it was assumed that her the film, the bond between her and the derlines the superiority of self-giving career was over. (It was not.) Sabine death-row inmate whom she counsels agape and self-seeking eros.” Sabine also describes the life of the for- “becomes emblematic of the love sto- aims at deconstructing this dichotomy mer film actress, Dolores Hart, who, ry between God and undeserving hu- as she discusses in considerable detail known as the actress who gave Elvis manity, in which agape and eros meet.” the contents and contexts of a dozen Presley his first on-screen kiss, entered The study is perhaps too detailed films, beginning with “The Bells of a Benedictine Abbey in 1963 and hap- and sometimes repetitious, but it beau- St. Mary’s” (1945) and ending with pily remains there today. tifully exemplifies the benefits of inter- “Doubt” (2008). Each film focuses Sabine comments that, of course, disciplinary research in gender studies, on a particular brand of “desire” in the most of these films about women re- church history, cinematic analysis, and lives of women religious: sexual desire ligious were written and directed by American culture. Her 25-page bibli- and sublimation in “Heaven Knows, men. She suggests that one of the ography testifies to her thoroughness Mr. Allison,” the selfless desire to serve reasons for the high quality of “Dead and range, and her vast compilation of others in “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” the Man Walking” was the involvement of evidence convincingly illustrates that passionate and even pathological de- the actual subject of the film, Helen “in their dramatic contention with the sires that arise in “Agnes of God,” and Prejean, C.S.J., who was regularly con- lifeforce of eros and the divine force of the desire for salvation in the face of sulted and present on the set. Similarly, agape, cinematic nuns occupy a space sin and death in “Dead Man Walking,” the director and screenwriter John where the veil momentarily parts be- among others. She lists about 20 other Patrick Shanley’s first-grade teacher, tween this world and something be- films that she refers to throughout the Sister Peggy McEntee, on whom he yond it.” study as well. modeled the character of the young It is not coincidental that these Sister James, was also a technical advi- MICHAEL V. TUETH, S.J., is an associate pro- fessor of communication and media studies at films starred some of the most pop- sor on his film version of “Doubt.” ular and attractive Hollywood “la- She also notices the intertextuality dies”: Ingrid Bergman, Deborah Kerr, of these films. “The Bells of St. Mary’s” Foley Poetry Contest Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, shows up in two very different films. Rules Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep and Frank Capra includes a scene from the • One unpublished poem per con- others whom Sabine often describes as film in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” mak- testant only of 30 lines or less “ethereal” or “luminous.” She suggests ing the clear comparison between the that the casting of this type of actress sacrificial agape of Ingrid Bergman’s • Include contact information on “may point to something more power- Sister Benedict and Jimmy Stewart’s the same page as the poem ful: which is the redoubled energy of George Bailey. Many years later, in the ∙ Please do not submit by email or desire she radiates as a film star and a true story of the abusive nuns running fax religious icon in a modern visual era the Magdalene homes for Irish “bad • Submissions must be postmarked where the cinema has replaced the ca- girls” in “The Magdelenes,” the sadistic on or before March 31, 2014 thedral.” warden Sister Bridget identifies with Along with the analysis of the films, Sister Benedict as offering up her own • Poems received after March 31 Sabine sometimes describes the place life as a sacrifice (ironically not only of will be treated as regular submis- of these roles in the careers of cer- herself but of thousands of hopeless sions. tain actresses. Having portrayed nu- young women). The winning poem will be printed merous noble and heroic women in Readers will have their favorite in the June 9-16 issue of America “Casablanca,” “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” chapters, but in my opinion Sabine il- “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” and even lustrates her theme most thoroughly in Cash prize: $1,000 a saint in “Joan of Arc,” Bergman fell her study of “Dead Man Walking.” She precipitously off the pedestal when documents the many ways in which Send poems to: she became pregnant with the child of the 1995 film depicts a contemporary Foley Poetry Contest married director Roberto Rossellini nun who lives and works in a housing America in 1949. In response to this “betrayal” project, wears distinctively inexpensive 106 West 56th St. to her millions of fans, she was de- clothes rather than a religious habit, New York, NY 10019 nounced in the Senate as a “powerful and offers spiritual direction that was

February 24, 2014 America 37 sion and ministry of Catholic health care. Julia Prinz,V.D.M.F.; “Radical Gratitude in the Face CLASSIFIED The successful candidate will benefit from of Cultural and Economic Challenges,” with Mary Jo Books working with the incumbent, John (Jack) Shea, for Leddy; “Living Contemplatively in a Busy World,” a period of time as he transitions into the M.L.C. with Michael Fish, O.S.B.Cam.; and “Spirituality Religion & Civility (faith & reason) Together; www. senior fellows program. This is an outstanding for the Second Half of Life,” with Pamela Prime. For wordunlimited.com. opportunity to join a high-performing leadership details, go to www.satgtu.org/summer2014 or call Positions team. (510) 652-1651. To request information or express interest, Faith Formation Coordinator. St. please send a cover letter and C.V. to loconnell@ Therese Parish, a community of 500 households Wills ministryleadership.net by Feb. 28, 2014. on the North Carolina coast (near Wilmington), Please remember America in your will. Our legal title is: Laurence J. O’Connell, Ph.D., S.T.D., seeks a Coordinator to oversee faith formation of America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New York, President & C.E.O., The Ministry Leadership youth and adults, including youth and young adult NY 10019. Center, [email protected]. ministry and R.C.I.A. Candidate must be a prac- ticing Catholic with M.Div. or equivalent and skill- America classified. Classified advertisements are ac- The University of San Diego is searching ful working with people and utilizing technology cepted for publication in either the print version of for an ordained Catholic priest in good standing including social media. For job description and to America or on our Web site, www.americamagazine. with his local ordinary and/or religious superior apply: [email protected]. org. Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per is- to join the University Ministry team beginning in sue. 1-5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 12-23 times: July 2014. Primary duties will include liturgical The Ministry Leadership Center, www. $1.23; 24-41 times: $1.17; 42 times or more: $1.12. and sacramental ministries, pastoral counseling and ministryleadership.net, grounded in the Catholic For an additional $30, your print ad will be posted on spiritual direction, and collaboration with the min- identity and traditions of its sponsors, forms lead- America’s Web site for one week. The flat rate for a istry team to support the spiritual development of ers to sustain and deepen the ministry of heal- Web-only classified ad is $150 for 30 days. Ads may U.S.D. community members. For more information ing. We are seeking a full-time Executive be submitted by e-mail to: [email protected]; or to apply, please visit www.sandiego.edu/jobs. Director: Program Development by fax to (928) 222-2107; by postal mail to: Classified and Implementation to work with the Department, America, 106 West 56th St., New York, President and C.E.O. in the design, implementa- Sabbaticals NY 10019. To post a classified ad online, go to our tion, and administration of the M.L.C. formation The SAT Summer Sabbatical Program will be home page and click on “Advertising” at the top of programming. M.L.C. programs serve the senior held from May 26 to June 20, 2014. Topics in- the page. We do not accept ad copy over the phone. executives of six health care systems and provide clude: “Mercy in the World as the Foundation of MasterCard and Visa accepted. For more information the working knowledge and skills to lead the mis- Christian Spirituality,” with Kevin Burke, S.J., and call: (212) 515-0102.

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38 America February 24, 2014 THE WORD My Anxious Heart Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), March 2, 2014 Readings: Is 49:14–15; Ps 62:2–9; 1 Cor 4:1–5; Mt 6:24–34 “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” (Mt 6:27)

y parents spoke German at pletely futile. Is it really better to live a encouraged to cut our entanglements home when they did not hand-to-mouth, day-to-day existence with and dependence upon material Mwant the children to know than store away money in a 401(k) possessions, for reliance on material what was being discussed, which was retirement plan? Exactly and in what goods leads us to seek security in them often the children themselves. It is a sense do wild birds and lilies show us and not in God, as Pope Francis has method parents use, with varying suc- how to live? been pointing out since the begin- cess, depending upon how well they Obviously, birds and ning of his pontificate as a chal- have passed on the mother tongue. I lilies do not teach us lenge to the church. Possessions was not very old when I heard my par- literally how to live hu- can be lost, destroyed and stolen. ents describe me as nervös and ängstlich. man lives. The birds and They do not last forever. I understood enough German to know flowers are not models As Jesus says, “You cannot that I was being described as “high- to imitate, but they are serve God and wealth.” strung” and “anxious.” I can report that an example to us. If God We need to decide who or their description of me was accurate pours care on wild birds what is our master. and has not necessarily become less ac- and flowers, how much That does not mean, curate with the passing of time. more does God care for When Jesus instructs us, therefore, us! It is what we call an PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE “Do not worry about your life, what a fortiori argument: If God cares you will eat or what you will drink, or so much for birds and flowers, how Listen to Jesus’ words on worry and anxiety. What worry or anxiety do you about your body, what you will wear,” much more does God care for you, need to let go of and trust in God’s care it is something that I struggle to hear. a human being, created in the image for you? And when Jesus tells us to “look at the of God? birds of the air; they neither sow nor It is this faith in God’s care that a. du nne tad art: reap nor gather into barns, and yet allows us to live free, or at least strug- however, that we should not act pru- your heavenly Father feeds them. Are gle to live free of anxiety, for we know dently and not plan for the future or you not of more value than they?” and that God’s love for us transcends any that we do not need the things that to “consider the lilies of the field, how of the expected or unexpected difficul- sustain our earthly life. Jesus’ teachings they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ties that life might throw at us. Isaiah are not about being indifferent to the yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his speaks of God as a mother who cannot practicalities of life, but about trust- glory was not clothed like one of these,” “forget her nursing child, or show no ing God above all things. Jesus says I worry about how I am supposed to compassion for the child of her womb” we should “strive first for the kingdom put these spiritual insights into action (49:15). Maternal love is often the of God and his righteousness, and and live my life according to them. most powerful love—unconditional, all these things will be given to you These passages challenge me to let lavish and limitless—that one has ever as well.” For those of us who struggle worry go and depend upon God’s care experienced. But, the prophet says, most with anxiety, we can start with for me, yet there remains a nagging even if you can imagine mothers for- the promise that we need “not worry concern that Jesus seems to be speak- getting their children, God says, “yet I about tomorrow, for tomorrow will ing against prudence, foresight and will not forget you.” God is presented bring worries of its own. Today’s trou- planning on the grounds that it is com- here as the mother who always and ble is enough for today.” We can start without fail cares for our welfare. trusting in God today and dealing with John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Because of this love, with which each problem one day at a time. Paul, Minn. God sustains and comforts us, we are John W. Martens

February 24, 2014 America 39