THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY AUG. 15-22, 2011 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES otting regional and national Gross as I read her book. bestseller lists in recent sea - And we are not alone. A total of 65.7 EDITOR IN CHIEF Dsons have been various mem - million Americans, the author notes, Drew Christiansen, S.J. oirs. Among this year’s notable entries serve as unpaid caregivers. Gross came EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT are: Reading My Father, by Alexandra to see that as her mother’s needs were MANAGING EDITOR Styron (Scribner), daughter of the changing during the latter phases of her Robert C. Collins, S.J. acclaimed novelist William Styron life, it was necessary to have reliable and EDITORIAL DIRECTOR (Sophie’s Choice et al.), who himself knowledgeable back-up—social work - Karen Sue Smith wrote a memoir about overcoming a ers, nurses and other professionals and, ONLINE EDITOR serious bout of depression at age 60; ultimately, round-the-clock care. She Maurice Timothy Reidy Joan Didion’s Blue Nights (due this fall applauds these helpmates for “caring CULTURE EDITOR from Knopf), on the the tragic death of about us as a family unit—[with] neu - James Martin, S.J. the author’s only daughter at the age of roses, nastiness, unresolved issues….” LITERARY EDITOR 39 (Didion’s memoir of the year follow - Gross emphasizes the importance of Patricia A. Kossmann ing her husband’s sudden death, The doing one’s homework as to what POETRY EDITOR Year of Magical Thinking, was published expenses are covered by Medicare, James S. Torrens, S.J. in 2005); Joyce Carol Oates’s A investigating nursing home conditions ASSOCIATE EDITORS Widow’s Story (Ecco); and The Long and in general assuming the role of Kevin Clarke Goodbye, by the poet and culture critic “advocates for their frail, elderly par - Kerry Weber Meghan O’Rourke, on losing her moth - ents,” especially once they are in an Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Edward W. Schmidt , S.J. er to cancer at age 55 (Riverhead). institutional setting. She mentions I have just finished reading A reports by advocacy groups that indi - ART DIRECTOR Stephanie Ratcliffe Bittersweet Season: Caring for Our Aging cate, despite regulation and oversight, ASSISTANT EDITOR Parents—and Ourselves (Knopf), by the worsening conditions in homes, due in Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. award-winning New York Times jour - part to worker shortages and increased ASSISTANT LITERARY EDITOR nalist Jane Gross. It is not only an turnover, as Medicare and Medicaid Regina Nigro affecting memoir of her mother’s life reimbursements have gone down. and slow decline but an informed and “Nursing homes commonly, to my naïve GUEST EDITOR Francis X. Hezel , S.J. helpful resource. It is always engaging, astonishment,” she discovered, “physi - yet often brutally candid about the cally or chemically restrain patients, SUMMER INTERNS author’s relationship with her mother. generally those with Alzheimer’s dis - Michael Avery Timothy W. O’Brien, S.J. (Her brother shared in care-giving ease, because behavioral methods are so Kevin C. Spinale, S.J. responsibilities.) much more labor-intensive.” Gross’s mother originally lived on Ultimately, the author’s mother—a BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Long Island, then moved to Florida strong-willed, stubborn, frugal former CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER after her husband’s death. She managed nurse—voluntarily stopped eating and Lisa Pope well for seven years until back pain drinking. Death came a month later. revealed cancer of the spine. Her Feeling orphaned, as she put it, Gross 106 West 56th Street daughter and son brought her to the revisited a photo album and found com - New York, NY 10019-3803 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer fort—just as I did and continue to do— Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 Center in New York, followed by rehab, in celebrating special moments with her E-mail: [email protected]; relocation to assisted living and, finally, mother, “with me beside her, cheek to [email protected] a nursing home. The author freely cheek…smiling so hard [I thought] my Web site: www.americamagazine.org. shares the questions, frustrations, chal - face was going to break.” This is a sharp Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 lenges and lessons learned as she chron - contrast, the author notes, to the “slack- © 2011 America Press, Inc. icles a waning life (not to mention jug - jawed, tilted-off-to-one-side broken gling her service tasks and responsibili - puppet in a wheelchair.” ties with work as a reporter for The Bittersweet, indeed, is this memoir. Times). Having been a part-time care - I’m glad I didn’t have to write it, but Cover: Men join hands during giver for my own mother during her grateful that someone did. prayers in Tahrir Square in Cairo on decline, I felt a strong kinship with PATRICIA A. KOSSMANN Feb. 8, 2011. Reuters/Suhaib Salem CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org Vol. 205 No. 4, Whole No. 4941 August 15-22, 2011

ARTICLES 13 THE PEACE FRONT Religious groups stake out a wider role in violent conflicts. William Bole

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Editorials Out of Afghanistan Ahead of the Story

6 Signs of the Times 13 10 Column Attention: Deficit Disorder Kyle T. Kramer

26 Letters

30 The Word Who Do You Say You Are? Findin g Your Self Barbara E. Reid

BOOKS & CULTURE 20 20 MUSIC Lady Gaga’s fascination with Christian imagery BOOKS Convicting the Innocent; Peculiar Institution

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Margot Patterson reports on the worsening crisis in Syria . Plus, America ’s Book Club discusses the novel Faith, and Bryan McCarthy reviews the film “ Terri. ” All at americamagazine.org. 21 EDITORIALS Out of Afghanistan

ongressman Walter Jones Jr., of North Carolina, Qaeda again, the United States has not “won” in has undergone a thorough conversion. A Democrat, Afghanistan because the goals of “nation-building” were C he became a conservative Republican; a Baptist, he too broad and U.S. troops are laboring in inhospitable ter - became a Catholic. He supported the Iraq and Afghanistan rain and a closed culture. wars; now he sends hand-written letters of condolence to Meanwhile, the damage at home has been significant. the American families who have lost a son or daughter. He According to a Brown University study, the war will cost $4 told George C. Wilson in The Nation (6/13) that he deals trillion. Much of that money could have been used to create with the guilt over having voted for both wars because he jobs, rebuild this country’s roads, bridges, schools, health was “not strong enough to vote my conscience as a man of care system and parks. The greater cost has been in human faith.” Mr. Jones and his 13-member Out-of-Afghanistan life, both American and Afghan. There have been 1,574 caucus plan to push the war to the forefront in the presi - U.S. casualties in Afghanistan. Add to that number the dential primaries. Public support for the war has fallen. 6,670 severely wounded by improvised explosive devices, Only 43 percent of Americans feel it is worth fighting, including amputees. These numbers do not account for the according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll (6/7). A emotionally wounded, suicides, fractured families, victims Pew survey on June 21 found that 56 percent wanted troops of alcohol and drug abuse, accidents and sleepless nights. out as soon as possible and only 39 percent supported stay - The question of civilian deaths—estimated at 11,700 to ing until the situation stabilized. 13,900—is not resolved by saying that the insurgents have In June, 40 religious leaders from all faiths wrote to killed more people than NATO troops have killed. The President Obama that it is time to bring the war in Afghan people blame NATO more because it represents Afghanistan to an end. What began as a response to the ter - the intrusion of a foreign power. rorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, they contended, has become Negotiations with the Taliban have not borne fruit. In an open-ended war against a Taliban insurgency. the long run, only the Afghan people can determine their Since then President Hamid Karzai has replaced his own fate. The 40 U.S. religious leaders urge that the mili - assassinated half-brother, the Kandahar tribal leader, with tary be replaced by civilian organizations with relief and another brother. U.S. investigators have uncovered a truck - development aid experience. Al Qaeda no longer lurks in a ing scandal in which at least $3.3 million paid to eight compound in Pakistan but is spread throughout the Middle Afghan contractors has gone through middlemen to East in cells. Whatever the future, the “global war on terror” Taliban insurgents as bribes in the form of weapons, explo - is no longer the appropriate term for dealing with the com - sives and cash. Night raids, now 300 a month, have killed plex challenges introduced by the Arab Spring. If the both Taliban men and their wives in the same bed. Central Intelligence Agency, now led by Gen. David H. President Obama’s address in June tried to placate Petraeus, imagines it can base a foreign policy in this volatile both political critics weary of the 10-year war and military part of the world on the failed strategies of the last 10 years, leaders who wanted more time to form a well-trained it is misguided. Afghan army, despite its overwhelming illiteracy and high As the United States withdraws, it must accept turnover, and a stable government, in spite of its corruption. responsibility for the moral dimensions of the decision, The president promised 30,000 “surge” troops would which extend beyond the hardships endured by Americans. leave Afghanistan by 2012, then 70,000 for a “complete” They include the specter of civil war among Afghan tribes pullout in 2014. An unspecified force would remain, how - and the possibility that the Taliban will return to power. ever, for “support.” Translated, this looks like an indefinite The respect for human rights we advocated and the addi - occupation. The administration should reconsider its pri - tional roads and schools we wanted to build will not come orities. The first engagement in Afghanistan was to arm about—a cautionary tale for future nation-building. After the mujaheddin to drive out the Soviets in the 1980s. 10 years, the costs of this war are too high. The United After 9/11, although we replaced a pro-Al Qaeda Taliban States has done what it could. It is time for a rapid with - government with Mr. Karzai and have driven out Al drawal that will have all troops home by Christmas 2012.

4 America August 15-22, 2011 Ahead of the Story

obody likes reading about clerical sexual abuse. Yet mously to grant independent inves - for well over a decade now, in diocese after diocese, tigators access to their files on sex - N the actions of abusive priests and negligent dioce - ual abuse by clergy—some cases as san officials have been brought to light—and appropriately far back as 1945. No doubt their so. Unfortunately, these revelations have come not from findings will raise serious questions church leaders but from grand jury filings, government about how allegations were handled and will reveal systemic reports and press exposés. Almost without exception, the failures in protecting children. Though prior damage cannot official response has lagged well behind reportage. Chanceries be undone, the country’s bishops are acknowledging that have reacted as though stunned by accusations that they have they need outside help to combat this problem. In so doing, in some cases known about for decades, appearing combative they are also being proactive, not reactive. and defensive while struggling to answer lurid allegations. Bishops around the world should follow their example. Recent weeks have proved no different, as the Irish If the church’s own claims about abuse are true—that it is church has been rocked yet again by a government report on damnable yet distressingly widespread, infecting families and clerical abuse. An investigation of the Diocese of Cloyne schools as often as churches—then there are certainly allega - found that between 1996 and 2009—after national stan - tions against priests and religious that have yet to come to dards were set for dealing with abuse allegations—such light. To date, the crisis has hit hardest in North America reports were ignored, handled improperly or never reported and Western Europe. Far fewer allegations have surfaced in to civil authorities. Fallout in Ireland, traditionally one of other regions, including Central and South America, India, the world’s most Catholic countries, has been severe. In a Africa and Asia. But all of these have enormous Catholic rare public rebuke, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid populations, and it would be foolish to presume that these Martin, chided his fellow bishops for withholding reports locales have been free of abuse and mishandled allegations. on sexual abuse of minors, telling them, “Hiding isn’t help - Indeed, this is one instance in which the catholicity of the ing.” Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny, a Catholic, church will likely prove a liability, not an asset. accused the Vatican of covering up the “rape and torture of Recent years have shown that as a topic in the news, children.” The Vatican recalled its ambassador, Archbishop sexual abuse by clerics is resilient. Once in the headlines, it Giuseppe Leanza, to Rome for consultation and to assist in remains there indefinitely. Unless the church begins to formulating the Vatican’s official response before moving to respond differently, as the German bishops are trying to do, his next post in the Czech Republic. sexual abuse will continue to be the main story about the The sexual abuse crisis has devastated many, begin - Catholic Church for years, even decades, as accusations sur - ning with individual victims and their families. The morale face around the world. of laity and clergy alike has been severely undermined, as Countless bishops, including Pope Benedict XVI, have has the moral authority of many bishops. Impressions of spoken of the crisis as an opening for repentance, conversion coverups and malfeasance have tainted the highest levels of and purification in the church. We continue to hope that it church governance, triggering frequent and justified calls for will be so and pray that the many victims of abuse will be mass resignations of bishops and, more recently, indict - healed in the same measure that they have been harmed. For ments of chancery officials. Lagging behind the story has this hope to be well founded, however, church leaders must made matters worse, fueling the impression that the church stop playing defense around the issue of abuse. Rebuilding is hiding something, shielding abusers to protect “the insti - relationships of trust between the hierarchy and the faithful tution” instead of vulnerable children. will take more than promises from church leaders that they As Ireland smolders in the report’s wake, a hopeful yet are trustworthy. They must prove it. This will require resig - far less noted development has emerged in Germany—a nations in cases of mendacity and negligence. In more cases, nation also weighed down by abuse allegations. Germany’s it will demand that bishops be the bearers of their own bad Catholic bishops have begun taking steps to rebuild the trust news about abuse. This will be an act of humility, even a that has been lost in recent years. In July they voted unani - painful one. But there is no alternative.

August 15-22, 2011 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

MEXICO Father Antonio Mora, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Cheran, Indigenous Community Mexico Rises Up Against Crime he Rev. Antonio Mora ministers to a town under siege, where masked men guard checkpoints, the charred remains of logging trucks block T roads and a banner in the town square demands a military presence. Set in the misty hills of Michoacán State in Mexico and surrounded by pine forests, Cherán is a place where loggers armed with chainsaws and assault weapons once clear-cut trees with impunity. The local mayor and police department were alleged to be in league with the criminals, and community leaders who resisted were assassinated. The local population finally lost patience when the loggers encroached on the town’s water source. Armed with two-by-fours, hatchets and bottle rockets, they chased off the loggers in mid-April and, later, the police department and the mayor. The uprising of April 15 failed to surprise Father Mora, although he and others in the community say the actions were spontaneous and unplanned. “They’d tell me, ‘Father, we’re scared. We’re arming ourselves. We’re tired of this,’” he said. “It was a response to the anger, rancor, helplessness and sense of abandonment by the authorities.” The uprising in Cherán is one of turf wars have claimed 40,000 lives ous levels of government to protect the few grass-roots revolts against the since a government crackdown began communities against organized crime, growing reach of organized crime, in December 2006. It also highlights which increasingly has moved in on whose illegal enterprises and bloody the frustration with the failure of vari - small-time nuisances—such as logging

HEALTH CARE care, especially in the care of the most vulnerable. It is critical that we be Bishops Seek Broader Exemption allowed to serve our nation without compromising our conscience.” From Controversial Requirements Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, he U.S. Conference of panied by an amendment that “allows Archbishop of Galveston-Houston Catholic Bishops has sharply religious institutions that offer insur - and chairman of the U.S.C.C.B. T criticized new guidelines for ance to their employees the choice of Committee on Pro-Life Activities, “preventive services” for women issued whether or not to cover contraception complained the exemption “is so nar - by the U.S. Department of Health and services.” The agency invited public row as to exclude most Catholic social Human Services. Among other provi - comment on the “interim” policy, sug - service agencies and healthcare sions, the new guidelines, released on gesting revisions may be forthcoming. providers.” He called on Congress to Aug. 1, require private health plans to Both the U.S.C.C.B. and the pass the Respect for Rights of cover female surgical sterilization and Catholic Health Association have Conscience Act to close such gaps in all drugs and devices approved by the rejected the wording of the religious conscience protection. F.D.A. as contraceptives. The bishops exemption. “As it stands, the language Cardinal DiNardo said, “Under the note this includes “drugs which can is not broad enough to protect our new rule our institutions would be free attack a developing unborn child Catholic health providers,” the C.H.A. to act in accord with Catholic teaching before and after implantation in the complained in a statement posted on on life and procreation only if they mother’s womb.” its Web site. “Catholic hospitals are a were to stop hiring and serving non- The new regulations were accom - significant part of this nation’s health Catholics.” Cardinal DiNardo asked:

6 America August 15-22, 2011 pass along the problem to the federal with armed escorts in tow. government,” said Father Mora. The community’s uprising high - Cherán unfolds across a hilly region lights the tricky situations parish 250 miles west of Mexico City, and priests and diocesan officials must face many in the mostly indigenous in carrying out their routine duties and Purepecha population of 14,000 social ministries in conflict zones in depend on the forests for their liveli - Mexico. Before the uprising, Father hood. A local combat committee now Mora worked on reconciliation pro - has teams manning checkpoints and jects that began after a political feud patrolling the forests and has called for tore the town apart during the 2007 the military to intervene, but the main local elections. As the logging problem federal government response has been worsened, he celebrated a funeral to send sacks of food and household Mass for those killed by the criminal basics. groups protecting the loggers. “We don’t want them to militarize After the uprising, “People asked the town, rather patrol the areas with me to get weapons for them,” the priest illegal logging,” said one leader, who, recalled. Instead he provided spiritual like many in Cherán, declined to pro - support for residents during an enor - vide his full name for fear of reprisals. mously tense time as thugs—most The situation in Cherán had deterio - likely from the quasi-religious crime rated over the past three years to the group La Familia Michoacána or a without permits—and turned them point that locals recall animals left splinter organization, the Knights into thriving illegal enterprises. “The without natural habitat roaming the Templar—would threaten to return only thing the state government has streets in search of food and truck - with guns blazing. The military and done is wash their hands of this and loads of logs rolling through town federal police never showed up.

“Could the federal government possi - ning services are an essential preven - lems before they start.’ But pregnancy bly intend to pressure Catholic institu - tive service for women and critical to is not a disease, and children are not a tions to cease providing health care, appropriately spacing and ensuring ‘health problem’—they are the next education and charitable services to intended pregnancies, which results in generation of Americans.” the general public?” improved maternal health and better Under the new H.H.S. require - birth outcomes.” ments, as of August 2012 new health Covered under the new standards insurance plans must include women’s are “all Food and Drug Administration preventive services like well-woman approved contraceptive methods, ster - visits, breastfeeding support, domestic ilization procedures and patient edu - violence screening and, most contro - cation and counseling for all women versially, “contraception without charg - with reproductive capacity.” The so- ing a co-payment, co-insurance or a called abortion pill, RU-486, is not deductible.” covered, but “emergency contracep - H.H.S. Secretary Kathleen tives,” including pills known as Plan B Sebelius called the new guidelines and ella, are. “historic” and said they were “based on Cardinal DiNardo said that ella “can science and existing literature and will abort an established pregnancy weeks help ensure women get the preventive after conception.” He added: “H.H.S. health benefits they need.” According says the intent of its ‘preventive services’ to an H.H.S. statement, “Family plan - mandate is to help ‘stop health prob -

August 15-22, 2011 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Famine in Somalia With five regions in Somalia already NEWS BRIEFS declared famine zones, the the U.N. Sri Lankan religious leaders and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization have called for an investigation into the killing of reported on Aug. 3 that famine is like - Pattani Razeek , a leading human rights activist ly to spread across all regions of whose body was found on July 29, 17 months after he Somalia’s south and that famine con - was reported missing. • Archbishop Pietro Sambi , ditions may persist until December. the apostolic nuncio to the United States since 2006, Potentially more than 11 million peo - “enjoyed the highest respect and deepest affection” of ple in the region could be affected by the U.S. bishops and the nation’s Catholics, said New the famine, brought on by escalating Pietro Sambi York’s Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, president of food costs and the worst drought in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop half a century. More than 3.2 million Sambi, 73, died on July 27, apparently of complications from lung are in need of immediate, life-saving surgery. • The ailing Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly , 64, one of assistance. According to the Jesuit Vietnam’s best-known democracy activists, has been returned to Refugee Service, the current crisis is prison more than a year after he was sent home to seek treatment for the consequence of the extreme a brain tumor. • Currently 29,437 pilgrims from the United States drought and other overlapping prob - plan to attend World Youth Day , Aug. 16 to 21, in Madrid, a record lems, including the lack of a function - number for U.S. participation in a W.Y.D. outside of North ing central government in Somalia and America. • The collapsing détente between Beijing and Rome con - the inability of aid agencies to gain tinues as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association prepares to access to south central Somalia, which ordain seven more bishops without papal sanction. is controlled by the al-Shabab militant group. In Ethiopia, a humanitarian effort led by Catholic Relief Services is ramping up; now feeding 400,000 peo - difficulty gaining access to water, graz - least 20 people injured. Police later ple, it should reach one million later ing or agricultural land and even defused two car bombs—one in front this month. reaching basic services because of of a Christian school and another in movement restrictions and lack of front of a Presbyterian church. Louis Israeli Policies infrastructure. Violence and harass - Sako, the Chaldean archbishop of ment by Israeli settlers is constant. Kirkuk, said that the blast set nearby Displace Palestinians The report states: “Irrespective of the cars on fire and damaged not only the According to a new U.N. report, motivation behind the various policies church, but also about 30 surrounding Palestinian families within the Israeli- applied by Israel to Area C, their effect homes. The archbishop visited the administered Area C on the West on the visited communities has been to injured in the hospital. He said both Bank are being driven from their make development virtually impossi - Christians and Muslims were wound - homes because of movement and ble, to impose living conditions that ed in the attack. “We hope this is the access restrictions, settlement activity, are untenable for many and to prevent last act of violence,” Archbishop Sako restrictions on Palestinian construc - residents from earning a sustainable said. “Christians are sad and in shock” tion and insufficient law enforcement livelihood.” because such a sacred place and inno - on violent settlers. Area C, a “tempo - cent people were targeted, he said, and rary” jurisdictional zone created by the Christians Targeted “because Christians play no role in the 1995 Oslo Peace Accords, includes 60 political games” in Kirkuk—an oil- percent of the West Bank. Israel In Northern Iraq rich city rife with tensions between retains control over security, planning A car bomb exploded in the early ethnic Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds. and building in the zone, where an morning on Aug. 2 outside the Holy estimated 150,000 Palestinians reside. Family Syrian Catholic church in the Palestinian families in Area C have northern Iraq city of Kirkuk, leaving at From CNS and other sources.

8 America August 15-22, 2011 NATIONALGUARD.com

You’re armed with something more powerful than any weapon: Faith. As a chaplain in the National Guard, you can give strength to the Citizen-Soldiers who serve our communities and country. You can help them succeed in their mission, whether they are protecting their hometowns during disasters or defending our freedom overseas. Your words, your wisdom and compassion are needed here. Learn how your faith can serve you well at NATIONALGUARD.com/chaplain. KYLE T. KRAMER

Attention: Deficit Disorder s this column goes to press, achs. Yet a Cornell University study in blessing rather than credit-bingeing on there is a glimmer of hope 2006 estimates that U.S. agricultural energy and natural resources. A that American lawmakers, in practices erode soil 10 times faster It need not be this way. In fact, their debate about the national debt than nature rebuilds it; in China and when commenting about the church’s ceiling, have reached a compromise India soil loss is 30 to 40 times the nat - role in environmental concerns, Pope that charts a course between the dan - ural replenishment rate. Over the past Benedict stated recently that the gerous Scylla of even greater budget four decades, almost a third of the church is “often the only hope” when it deficits and the potentially catastroph - world’s arable land has become unpro - comes to summoning the moral moti - ic Charybdis of a national default. ductive because of erosion. Modern vation to address such large-scale and Aside from the self-serving political food production is also an energy hog: seemingly intractable problems. As theater, I have been especially frustrat - it consumes between three to 10 calo - individual Catholic households, as ed by the utter lack of attention paid to ries (depending upon how parish communities, as a large elephant in the room. Even if by you count) of nonrenew - dioceses and religious some legislative miracle we could cut able energy for every one Mother orders and as a univer - government spending and raise calorie of edible food it pro - nature sal church, we have enough tax revenue to balance the fed - duces. tremendous potential to eral budget, the U.S. economy (like the Deficit spending of nat - always help fashion a different global economy) would still rely on ural capital is like heating a sort of economy. How? another sort of insidious deficit spend - library with a furnace that collects We would begin by ing: the natural capital on which all burns books. Unlike the on her advocating for and try - economic activity depends. Federal Reserve, which can ing to engage in honest Examples abound, but two suffice create billions of dollars at debts. accounting of natural to make the point. Energy is the fun - will, we cannot simply print capital alongside mone - damental engine of almost all modern more soil, oil or other natu - tary capital, so that we economic activity. Try to think of any ral resources. When they are gone, know whether our books balance on good or service money can buy—Ikea they are gone; mother nature always nature’s ledger. Including the true costs furniture, a Starbucks latte, a car collects on her debts. And although all of limited resources would likely wash—that is not subsidized at every of us will eventually feel the pain as increase the price of energy and goods. step by massive amounts of energy these resources diminish, the global We in developed countries would have used to produce it, get it to you (or you poor feel it first and feel it worst. to pare down our lifestyle, and we to it) and keep it functioning. The The Catholic tradition speaks elo - would need to put special safeguards U.S. Energy Information Administra- quently about the need for faithful in place for the poor. Overall, however, tion projects global energy consump - stewardship of God’s creation. It also higher prices could usher in a more tion will rise almost 50 percent by reminds us that our economy is simply modest, less growth-addicted econo - 2035, but most energy will still come a reflection of our values; our econom - my, based on humility, prudence, effi - from finite and quickly diminishing ic decisions are always moral decisions, ciency and the preservation of natural sources like coal, oil and natural gas. creating weal or woe for our fellow capital. We could shift the core value Economic activity also depends on human beings, other creatures and the of our economy from consumption to food production, since we cannot go earth as a whole. Unfortunately, how - community, which is a truer form of about our business on empty stom - ever, most Catholics are just as com - wealth. plicit as others in deficit spending of All of this is necessary, all of it is natural capital. We often tend to complex and none of it is easy. But we KYLE T. KRAMER is the director of lay degree bracket our religion off from our eco - must address our deficit disorder, programs at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Saint Meinrad, Ind., and an organic nomic lives. Sometimes we even claim starting now. God’s creation hangs in farmer. that our prosperity results from God’s the balance of our budget.

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A Muslim girl chants slogans and holds up a Koran and a cross during a rally to demonstrate the unity between Muslims and Christians at Tahrir Square in Cairo on March 11, 2011. y N A h g - l e d b A d e M A h o M / s R e t u e R

: o t o h P

12 America August 15-22, 2011 RELIGIOUS GROUPS STAKE OUT A WIDER ROLE IN VIOLENT CONFLICTS . The Peace Front

BY WILLIAM BOLE

n Sept. 11, 2001, a cadre of young Muslim men hijacked planes and, perhaps with visions of black-eyed virgins in Paradise, crashed them into the Pentagon and the twin towers of the World Trade Center, acting supposedly in the name of their religion. Within hours of these atroci - Oties, Top 40 radio stations across the United States began playing John Lennon’s anthem “Imagine,” which supplied what many saw as a sound - track of hope and harmony in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. The lyrics longingly envisioned “all the people, living life in peace.” But with a disquieting relevance to the suicide attacks, Lennon had also pondered, “Imagine there’s no heaven...and no religion, too.” Since then commentators have fleshed out this contemplation of a religion-free world. “Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11...no Crusades...no Israel/Palestine wars...no Taliban,” wrote the prominent atheist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins five years after the towers crumbled. This past December, 30 years after the ex-Beatle was gunned down by a deranged fan, the comedian and television personali - ty Bill Maher, alluding to religious strife in general, sent a message to his fans on Twitter: “Remember Lennon said ‘Imagine NO religion.’ Honor what he wrote—it holds up.” These and other secularist screeds have tapped into a larger feeling that religion usually is a cause of violence rather than an agent of peace helping to resolve and heal conflicts. This perception is not hard to substantiate. On any given day, religious rivalry is likely to combust into deadly street violence somewhere. In March, for instance, Muslims and Christians clashed mercilessly in Egypt, leaving a dozen dead and 140 injured after the torching of a

WILLIAM BOLE, a journalist in the Boston area, is a co-author, with Drew Christiansen, S.J., and Robert T. Hennemeter, of Forgiveness in International Politics: An Alternative Road to Peace (U.S.C.C.B.).

August 15-22, 2011 America 13 Coptic church near Cairo. Apparently a love affair between flicts, helping with peacekeeping, mediation, reconstruction a Muslim man and a Christian woman sparked a feud and long-term development programs. Beginning in the between the couple’s families, which escalated into a street administration of George W. Bush, even the U.S. military fight between Copts and Muslims. Just a month after the spoke the language of peacebuilding in its “post-conflict” nonviolent campaign that toppled the dictator Hosni efforts to rebuild Iraq’s political institutions and physical Mubarak, religion was infrastructure, notwith - again dividing rather than standing that president’s uniting. And yet some of Faith-based peacebuilding makes famous aversion to the more profound images “nation-building.” Non- of the anti-Mubarak room for a prodigious array governmental organiza - uprising were those of tions and projects with Muslims and Coptic of participants or actors— peacebuilding in their Christians rallying togeth - names have proliferated er in Cairo’s Tahrir not excluding the people almost as visibly as AK- Square—young people holding the guns. 47 assault rifles in African holding crosses and conflict zones. Korans with raised hands According to its practi - joined, Christians forming tioners, peacebuilding is a circle around prostrating Muslims to protect them from different from traditional peacemaking , in part because the police during their Friday prayers and other scenes of inter - work is continual and not simply a reaction to the onset of religious amity. war. “Peacebuilders strive to address all phases of...protract - ed conflicts, in which pre-violence, violence and post-vio - Religious Peacebuilding lence periods are difficult to differentiate,” writes R. Scott In struggles around the globe, religious believers are show - Appleby, director of the Kroc Institute for International ing that they can bow in either direction: toward entrench - Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, referring to ment and extremism or toward solidarity and compassion. the cyclical nature of long-running conflicts in countries like Untold numbers of faith communities are exploring the lat - Colombia, the Philippines and parts of Africa. Another ter option, using both spiritual and worldly tools to lessen mark of peacebuilding is that it “engages all sectors of soci - conflicts and prepare a way for lasting peace and stability. In ety and all the relevant partners,” ranging from business and doing so they are pressing their inherent advantages, which political leaders to religious communities and even perpe - include having a foothold in many fractious societies and trators of violence, Appleby reports in Peacebuilding: adherents at many or all levels of those societies, as the Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Praxis (Orbis Books), a fresh Catholic Church often has. In her 2006 book The Mighty collection of studies produced by the Catholic and the Almighty, Madeleine Albright, secretary of state Peacebuilding Network at Notre Dame. Peace-treaty nego - during the Clinton presidency, went further to say that tiators and “Troops Home Now” banner carriers are no faith-based organizations “have more resources, more longer the only players in the peace arena. skilled personnel, a longer attention span, more experience, “Peacebuilding is a growth industry” is a favorite expres - more dedication, and more success in fostering reconcilia - sion of Maryann Cusimano Love, a professor of interna - tion than any government.” tional politics at The Catholic University of America and a Increasingly these religious works are being assigned to member of the steering committee of the seven-year-old the broader category of “peacebuilding,” a movement with Catholic network that has been identifying, studying and no clear definition of itself but a growing movement bolstering this work within the Catholic Church worldwide. nonetheless. The compound word came into play during the She refers principally to the secular peacebuilding commu - 1990s, as the international community grappled with post nity, which features such heavy hitters as the United cold-war conflicts in places like the former Yugoslavia and Nations and the U.S. Institute of Peace, a quasi-govern - Rwanda, which, unlike the superpower rivalry, derived from mental body that promotes international conflict resolution. centuries-old religious and ethnic grievances. The faith-based component of this movement is less recog - The intractability of these conflicts called for strategies nizable—more like a startup company or a multitude of beyond simply hammering out cease-fire resolutions. In such ventures, often operating below the political radar. By 2005 the United Nations inaugurated its Peacebuilding most accounts, religious peacebuilding has barely begun to Commission, an advisory body that seeks to improve inter - gel into an international movement of its own, whether ecu - national support for countries emerging from violent con - menically or within such a large and socially engaged insti -

14 America August 15-22, 2011 tution as the Catholic Church. Still, much is happening in These local initiatives are often assisted by international many places. groups, including the New York-based World Conference As Madeleine Albright intimated, religious peace - of Religions for Peace and the Washington-based builders can do things their secular counterparts cannot do, International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. One like respond directly to the spiritual need for personal heal - important tool has been interreligious dialogue, a term that ing and reconciliation. But the resources that religious com - to Westerners may suggest a prosaic activity, an obligation munities bring to violence-wracked societies are more basic: undertaken by theologians and local clergy associations. In they are there, on the ground, operating parishes, schools other parts of the world, however, there is drastically more and social services. This is a significant asset because, as at stake in these dialogues, particularly where talking to one Professor Love points out, one-third of the world’s nations another is an alternative to mutual slaughter. are failed states, meaning they have no central government to speak of and lack such institutions as educational and Interreligious Dialogue health care systems. On the large island of Mindanao in the Philippines, where Islamic insurgencies are scattered around the southern Peaceful Transition in South Sudan region, distrust between Muslims and Christians is palpa - The Republic of South Sudan is now an incipient state, fol - ble. In 1995 a Catholic peace group commissioned an opin - lowing a referendum earlier this year in which voters chose ion survey of Catholic priests and religious in southwestern overwhelmingly to secede from the government in Mindanao. Most of these leaders would not trust a Muslim Khartoum, splitting up Africa’s largest country. Most ana - with their valuables, would not want a relative to have an lysts had predicted that the referendum in January would be “intimate” relationship with a Muslim and would prefer to thwarted or tainted by violence and chaos, in a land where avoid physical proximity with Muslims altogether, accord - millions of people had been killed in decades of civil war ing to the findings by the sociologist Grace J. Rebellos of between the mostly Arab and Muslim north and the most - Western Mindanao State University, who helped conduct ly black Christian and animist south. But Sudan’s churches, the study for Peace Advocates Zamboanga. The Catholic which have institutional assets in the south (including radio group had been formed in 1994 by activist laypeople, reli - stations), spearheaded prayer campaigns for a durable peace, gious and clergy—as was a similar Muslim association, the aimed especially at encouraging voters to turn out despite fears of northern-backed militia violence during the seven days of balloting. The (%-0= resource for the Parish volunteers confronted other obstacles by showing illiterate people how to cast the ballots. Faith-based human - homilist who preaches with itarian agencies like Caritas Internationalis helped foster a sense of stability, providing a stream of vital services includ - one eye on the Gospel — ing potable water and sanitation. Against long odds, the elections turned out to be free, fair and relatively tranquil. and one eye on the clock. The churches (Catholic and Anglican, mainly) not only carved out a nonviolent path, with guidance from the inter - national community but, in view of the institutional vacu - 'SRRIGXMSRW(%-0= um, are considered the only indigenous institutions that is the NEW ONLINE newsletter could have done so. Reversing course, Sudan’s government of ideas and images designed to in Khartoum accepted the outcome of the referendum. help homilists develop their own In other countries, physical infrastructure and govern - brief reflection on the daily Gospel mental institutions may be largely in place, but there may also be gaps in what Kenneth R. Himes, O.F.M., a theolo - reading. Because time is a factor at gian at Boston College, calls the “human infrastructure for weekday liturgies, each 'SRRIGXMSRW(%-0=of- peaceful communal life.” As he has described in several arti - fering focuses on a single point or idea, drawn from cles, such an infrastructure would include the requisite the everyday world of the parish community. “social space” for people to come together and contribute to 7TIGMEPMRXVSHYGXSV]ERRYEPWYFWGVMTXMSRVEXI stability and reconciliation. In dozens of countries ranging *SVEWEQTPIVERHSVHIVJSVQ from Colombia to Sri Lanka to Uganda, religious leaders have attempted to fill this particular vacuum by forming 'SRRIGXMSRW1IHME;SVOWGSQ civil-society organizations to address common concerns.

August 15-22, 2011 America 15 Salam Peace Foundation. Soon after, the two faith contin - gents merged into Paz-Salam, which has since facilitated a plethora of low-profile, small-group conversations involving Symposium Christian and Muslim young people, schoolteachers and even soldiers. Paz-Salam has made its biggest splash with on the Priesthood the Mindanao Week of Peace, which began in 1997 as a local interreligious peace festival in the town of Zamboanga. October 5, 2011 It was taken islandwide a few years later by a larger inter - The Catholic University of America faith partnership, the Bishops-Ulama Conference, spon - On the occasion of the publication of sored by Catholic prelates and Muslim ulama, or clergy and scholars. The sheer numbers are impressive. The peace Why Priests Are Happy: A Study of the week, held annually in late autumn, opened grandly this Psychological and Spiritual Health of Priests past year with a parade through Zamboanga that banded by Monsignor Stephen J. Rossetti together 20,000 Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Lumads or indigenous people. Monsignor Stephen Rossetti Less peaceable forces, however, are contending. There Associate Clinical Professor, CUA have been bombings in shopping malls by Islamic sepa - Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory ratists and harsh crackdowns by the Filipino military, con - Archbishop of Atlanta stantly countered by acts of interreligious solidarity. The Joseph White, Ph.D. U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services and its Mindanao part - Associate Professor, American Catholic Church History, CUA ners have added materially to the goodwill by setting up Monsignor Robert Panke interfaith economic ventures in Mindanao, including a President, National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors cooperative Christian-Muslim bakery. (In Indonesia, the For more information or to register, please visit world’s largest Muslim nation, C.R.S. took particular care cuatoday.com/symposiumpriesthood2011 to distribute prayer rugs and veils to Muslim women fol - or call 202-319-5683. lowing the devastating tsunami that struck off northern This event is co-sponsored by Associated Sulpicians of Sumatra in December 2004; it was an interfaith gesture and the United States; Saint Luke Institute, Silver Spring, Md.; a deliberate first step toward building trust between School of Theology and Religious Studies, CUA; and Theological College. Christians and Muslims there.) In almost every region with a major conflict, faith-based agencies, including the evangelical-sponsored group World Vision, have mounted peacebuilding initiatives that range from grass-roots mediation and trauma healing to econom - ic development and the resettling of child soldiers in places like Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Such programs date to the 1990s, when relief agencies saw their best-laid plans for development in Rwanda unravel in the genocide there and realized that peace work had to be incor - porated into humanitarian work. C.R.S. is running peace - building programs in 50 countries.

Armed Actors Faith-based peacebuilding makes room for a prodigious array of participants or actors, as they are called in this field—bishops, priests, lay staff, catechists, scholars, relief workers, regular parishioners and others. Not excluded are the people holding the guns, who are, in the nomenclature, armed actors. One participant is General Raymundo Ferrer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which has waged coun - terinsurgency campaigns in the southern islands since the 1970s. During the past decade he concluded that a final mil -

16 America August 15-22, 2011 itary victory was unlikely and began repairing ties with long-aggrieved Muslims in little ways. He ordered his troops to point their guns down and smile at Muslims when passing them on the streets, as Professor Love spotlighted in a detailed case study of military-religious peace collabora - Invites applications and nominations tion in the Philippines she conducted for Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. General for the post of Ferrer himself began striking up conversations on the streets near his post in Basilian, Mindanao, meeting the DEAN OF THE locals, among them a Catholic social worker who wasted no DIVINITY SCHOOL time linking him up with interfaith peace activists. They, in turn, persuaded him to sign up for peacebuilding training Candidates must be able to work effectively conducted jointly by C.R.S. and the Mindanao Peace Institute, a Mennonite-Catholic collaboration. He did so in in a university context and an ecumenical 2005, in the face of resistance from both the army’s top setting, and be committed to theological brass and church human-rights activists who distrusted the scholarship and to preparation for diverse military. ministries in church and society around Since then the general has enrolled his colonels in classes the world. Applicants and nominees must dealing with nonviolent communications, mediation, reli - gion and culture, community relations and more. Professor have demonstrated capacity to provide Love reports that the training has helped enlighten mem - intellectual, spiritual, and administrative bers of the army command while also teaching officers prac - leadership. The search committee is tical skills that can be useful, for example, in mediating dis - actively seeking nomination of women putes between feuding Muslim clans. Disunity among Muslims is a complicating factor. The Filipino government and minority candidates. has frequently made conciliatory strides together with Islamic insurgencies, only to see members of those groups The position becomes available splinter off to renew fighting. July 1, 2012. Sometimes peacebuilders refer to “bad actors,” like the so-called narco-guerillas in Colombia or the Maoists fight - Applications and nominations with ing in the Philippines (usually separately from the curriculum vitae and other supporting Muslims). These are extremely violent characters who, nev - ertheless, have been engaged in dialogue by church repre - materials should be sent by sentatives through peace-and-justice offices. Peacebuilders are not purists. September 30, 2011 to: The roles of armed actors throw light on a sobering dimension of peacebuilding—that the work is fraught with Professor John J. Collins risk, pitfalls and ambiguity, as John Paul Lederach of the Chair, Dean Search Committee Kroc Institute emphasizes. (Many of the “bad actors” c/o Ilana Danilowitz appear on the U.S. terrorism watch lists that have prolifer - Yale University ated since Sept. 11, 2001, which could make dialogue with them illegal.) Prominently situated within the messiness is c/o Office of the Provost the Catholic Church, which, as Lederach points out, tends PO Box 208365 to be the only institution with adherents on both sides of 1HillhouseAvenue polarizing divides. As a result, church representatives often New Haven, CT 06520-8365 find themselves building relationships with different groups of armed actors, including bad ones, many of whom are ([email protected]) accessible in part because they cling to the symbols and imagery of the Catholic faith in which they were raised. Mr. YALE UNIVERSITY Lederach, who has facilitated peace training in 25 countries, Yale University is an Affirmative Action, is one of the most influential figures in both the secular and Equal Opportunity Employer. faith-based peacebuilding communities. “The church has an

August 15-22, 2011 America 17 FORDHAM CENTER ON RELIGION AND CULTURE ubiquitous presence” in many societies, he says, meaning that its representatives can reach out to co-religionists at Faithful Citizenship I society’s higher echelons as well as into local communities. A Mennonite, Mr. Lederach jokes that he has a case of “hierarchy envy.” He marvels at the ability of bishops to Voters, Bishops and mobilize the church for peacebuilding purposes across vari - Presidential Elections ous sectors of society (when they are so inclined). Secularist Blindspot Tuesday, 6 September 2011 | 6-8 p.m. The global scale of faith-based peacebuilding is difficult to Pope Auditorium | 113 West 60th Street measure, partly because of definitional questions about what Fordham University | Lincoln Center Campus qualifies under the heading. A fair indication of the scope would be C.R.S. and its peacebuilding operations in 28 of Since 1976, the conference of America’s Catholic the 35 conflict-weary nations, programs conducted almost bishops has issued statements—titled “Faithful always in collaboration with other groups, Catholic and non- Citizenship”—before each presidential election year Catholic. The impact is real, but reality has not changed per - to help Catholics apply their faith to their political ceptions within the “imagine no religion” choir or among sec - choices. Over the decades, “Faithful Citizenship” has ular experts in international relations who tend not to dis - become increasingly controversial, criticized both for cuss religion except as a source of intergroup violence. “It’s being too vague or too partisan. the skunk at the garden party,” as Ms. Love puts it, referring to religious intrusions into those discussions. Attitudes are How have the statements evolved? What have they beginning to shift (one sign being former Secretary of State achieved? How have they been used—and abused? Madeleine Albright’s contention that religion is part of the Can the bishops do better for the 2012 presidential solution), “but it’s a slow movement,” Love adds. election? The forum will look at voters, bishops This is not to say that faith-based peacebuilding is a coher - and presidential elections from the perspective of ent, well-conceived enterprise. Many of its practitioners recent Catholic history, the bishops’ conference, and would admit they are making up much as they go along and conservative and liberal Catholics. that there is a shortage of moral and religious reflection to MODERATOR guide them. Catholics in the movement seem especially con - Peter Steinfels, Co-director of the Fordham Center on Religion cerned about the missing theological frameworks. The and Culture Catholic Peacebuilding Network has been bringing ethicists PANELISTS John Carr, Executive Director of the Department of Justice, and theologians together with grass-roots peacebuilders in a Peace and Human Development, United States Conference number of countries to of Catholic Bishops generate a clearer ON THE WEB Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, and account of this work in A video report from Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals light of Catholic faith. Religions for Peace. and Institutions, Princeton University americamagazine.org/video Stephen Schneck, Director of the Institute for Policy Research Gerard Powers, the and Catholic Studies, the Catholic University of America network’s coordinator and a noted international affairs analyst at the University of Notre Dame, explains that Catholic just-war doctrine may SAVE THE DATE | 18 OCTOBER speak robustly to questions about when it is right to go to war Faithful Citizenship II: and how to conduct the intervention morally, but the teach - Keeping the Faith in a Season of Spin ing is far less incisive when it comes to wars that are seeming - ly without end and to post-conflict situations. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC How does the church engage the bad actors while also RSVP: [email protected] | (212) 636-7347 demanding accountability for their crimes? Mr. Powers For more information, visit www.fordham.edu/ReligCulture. asks, articulating one moral quandary. “That’s a peace - building question, not an ethics-of-war question,” he says. These are the issues faced by a religious community that has entered the fray and that is searching for a way through the ambiguity, intractability and belligerence to make peace possible. A

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August 15-22, 2011 America 19 BOOKS &CULTURE

MUSIC | JON M. SWEENEY CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS DIVA Lady Gaga’s fascination with Christian imagery ere is what happens becomes clear in one line: when you declare “Jesus is my virtue/ But Judas Hyourself a legend is the demon I cling to—I before becoming one: any - cling to!” The singer wants to thing you do as an artist is be good and wants forgive - destined to be anticlimactic. ness, but struggles to give up Lady Gaga’s new the pleasure of sin. We’ve album, Born This Way, heard this before, as early as released in May, was highly St. Paul and St. Augustine. touted even before its release. Hers is a struggle that any A tweet from Gaga herself honest Christian will recog - proclaimed it as “the anthem nize: to uphold one’s virtue for our generation.” But per - and be “good” amid a reality haps she is too wrapped up in brimming with temptations her own personal cocktail of to be “bad.” Gaga personifies influences and passions to the dilemma in the characters create anything truly of Jesus and Judas—the sav - anthemic. Maybe her calling ior and the tempted, or here is to be a phenomenon for the tempter—addressed as this generation. The music is possible lovers. consistently surprising even In the music video, Gaga after the first few listens, and swaggers around an overheat - to Gaga’s credit, there is not a ed party in the Jerusalem conventional moment on dusk with Jesus on her arm (a “Born This Way.” handsome male model wear - The songs are an eclectic ing a gold crown of thorns), mix of manifesto-like intona - exchanging charged glances tions behind loud industrial with Judas, who moves beats, risqué techno dance aggressively through the music, 1980s-style anthems, crowd, cozying up to every with a lavish use of foreign woman on the floor. The dis - accents and Catholic motifs. ciples are part of a biker gang, Overtly Christian imagery with Judas the meanest and

crops up often, and two songs scraggliest looking among o t o h

take Christian tropes as a them. The beautifully shot P o t A

central theme: “Judas” and video has plenty of poetic l l e N i

“Bloody Mary.” These both moments that take their h c / k

twist familiar Bible stories inspiration from fashion pho - c o t s

into metaphors that fit what tography. R e t t

is presented as Gaga’s own Public controversy, howev - u h s

:

experience. er, has centered around the o Lady Gaga performs in Assago, Milan, t o h

Italy, in December 2010. The message of “Judas” fact that Gaga dares to use P

20 America August 15-22, 2011 this subject matter at all, much less There is no easy way to account for the Blessed Mother. make it sexy and stylish. This shows, this; sometimes Lady Gaga is too Gaga’s shape-shifting ability, like of course, the influence of Madonna, bizarre to be exactly irreverent. But Madonna’s, is a perfect one for market - the first pop artist to use Catholic again, Mary pines for Jesus in sensual ing. When she poses in a blessing pos - imagery to such effect in the 1980s. ways that go far beyond the biblical ture, with her hands outstretched (is (She also was able to provoke bishops events the song describes. Another she praying the Rosary or reaching for and pastors to denounce her from the line goes, “And when you’re gone, I’ll a man?), it is simply another bit of pulpit.) Many critics have dubbed tell them my religion’s you.” There is a fashion. It is understandable that these Lady Gaga a mere Madonna wannabe, faithful passion in that voice, looking gestures can be viewed as irreverent. and the recent amplification of her for meaning in all the wrong places. But in the end, the best way to religious imagery serves to strengthen What makes Lady Gaga consistent - approach such flirtations with that connection. ly interesting among Catholicism may be The message of “Bloody Mary” is pop stars is her will - ON THE WEB not to consider similar to that of “Judas.” It is a soft, ingness to embrace Bryan McCarthy whether they are reviews the film “Terri.” throbbing song with intriguingly brief unusual imagery and americamagazine.org/culture offensive, but to ask string parts, a few screams and a concepts and to use whether the artist is Gregorian choir (perfect —can’t you them successfully in using them purely just imagine it, in stark gloom, a wor - a mass-marketable way. She has raised for effect or as part of a personal dia - ship service: “GA-GA... GA-GA...”). the bar for her diva rivals in ways that logue. Gaga is no longer a practicing The song is sung as if by Mary echo the controversies sparked nearly Catholic, but she does profess a Magdalene herself, which makes sense 30 years ago by Madonna. Both Christian faith. For this reason, and if you have ever read Nikos Madonna and Lady Gaga (her real also because her album is so fiercely Kazantzakis’s novel, The Last Tempta- name is Stefani Joanne Angelina passionate, preaching honest self- tion of Christ. For both Kazantzakis and Germanotta) were raised in Italian- expression ardently if somewhat Gaga, Jesus and the Magdalene were American Roman Catholic families. heretically, it seems clear that Gaga lovers. Gaga’s chorus goes: (Germanotta attended the Convent of still cares about her God. the Sacred Heart school in New York I’ll dance dance dance City as a young woman). Their trajec - JON M. SWEENEY, author of Verily, Verily: With my hands hands hands tories are also similar. Madonna’s The King James Bible—400 Years of Above my head head head like “Like a Virgin” album (1984) also Influence and Beauty, wrote this review with the help of his daughter, Clelia Sweeney, Jesus said dripped with the artist’s self-recrimi - a sophomore at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, I’m gonna dance dance dance nations as well as self-comparisons to in Great Barrington, Mass. With my hands hands hands Above my head, dance together | Forgive him before he’s dead BOOKS KEVIN DOYLE because I won’t cry for you WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE I won’t crucify the things you do CONVICTING THE arched courthouse entrance in March I won’t cry for you INNOCENT 1991, it was not his naval uniform that When you’re gone I’ll still be Where Criminal Prosecutions drew attention. It was the eight-foot- bloody Mary. Go Wrong long wooden cross he shouldered. By Brandon L. Garrett Curiosity turned to alarm when Lyons This sounds like a cryptic personal Harvard Univ. Press. 376p $39.95 attempted self-crucifixion, raising a confession. Another lyric runs: “When hammer and pounding a nail into his Punk-tius comes to kill the king upon PECULIAR INSTITUTION foot. his throne/ I’m ready for their stones.” America’s Death Penalty Police saved Lyons. But that did There is plenty of wordplay on this In an Age of Abolition not even begin to set things right. album, as well as foreign-language By David Garland Lyons had left an Illinois prison two play. “Punk-tius” is a strange conglom - Belknap/Harvard Univ. Press. 432p $35 weeks before to serve out parole for a eration of the name Pontius Pilate rape he did not commit. His life in with punk spliced onto the front. As Marcus Lyons approached the ruins—a fiancée lost, a good job gone,

August 15-22, 2011 America 21 a reputation shattered—Lyons had will, without benefit of the DNA deus when a victim points at the defendant mutilated himself in desperate ex machina , be at risk for wrongful and tells the jury: “That is the man.” protest. convictions. The risk arises from the And little tilts the playing field so The protest did not bring immedi - same things that allowed DNA much as pretrial police steering of an ate justice. Eventually, though, Lyons exonerees to be convicted in the first eyewitness; Garrett found that show- read about another man’s exoneration place—sincere but mistaken eyewit - ups (one-to-one showing of a suspect through DNA evidence. Lyons con - ness identifications, coerced confes - to a witness), flawed line-ups and sug - tacted the man’s lawyer, who agreed to sions, shoddy forensic science and gestive remarks paved the way to take on Lyons’s case. In 2007, thanks scheming informants. unjust verdicts in most instances of to DNA testing, Lyons won official Looking at the 250 people exoner - eyewitness misidentification. Forensic science evidence played a role, usually a pernicious one, in 74 percent of the cases. Sometimes this evidence centered on microscopic hair comparisons, at other times on bite marks, shoe prints, fingerprints or serology. Some errors arose from unreliable methodologies that were high in subjective judgment and low in accepted quantitative standards (like microscopic hair comparison). Other errors derived from testimony and argument overstating the significance of findings reliable in themselves. Faulty informant testimony infect - ed the proceedings in 21 percent of the cases. In 23 of 52 cases, the informant was a codefendant. In 28, the infor - mant resided in the jail that housed the wrongly accused. This latter situa - exoneration from the state. ated through DNA as of February tion is spring-loaded for the most In Convicting the Innocent: Where 2010, Garrett aimed to determine egregious miscarriages of justice. As Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong , how often each of these malignant fac - Garrett points out, the unscrupulous Professor Brandon L. Garrett, of the tors had warped the criminal justice jailhouse snitch looking to exchange University of Virginia School of Law, process at the expense of an innocent testimony for a break on his own case insists that the story of Lyons and person (and to the benefit of an actual will likely do so at the expense of the other DNA exonerees should incite criminal who went unpursued). fellow inmate facing the gravest and not reassure, should spur reform Garrett tracked down court tran - charges. He understands that the rather than engender complacency. scripts and dug into case files. He then prosecutor will most richly reward the The United States should not focus sliced, diced, sifted and collated the inmate who helps him win the big on the DNA evidence that liberated data. conviction for capital murder. the innocent. It should instead turn its Some law professors would take a In 16 percent of the cases Garrett attention to the non-DNA evidence pass on this kind of grunt work. analyzed, 40 of 250, the wrongly that put the wrong people in jail to Garrett did not, and our justice system accused himself confessed to a crime begin with. can be the better for it. he did not commit. Fourteen of these Most crimes do not yield DNA evi - Garrett found that eyewitness false confessors were mentally retard - dence that will identify the real perpe - misidentification helped jail the inno - ed, three were mentally ill and 13 were trator and exclude the falsely accused. cent in 76 percent of the false convic - juveniles. Virtually all these people Rape will ordinarily do this, but rob - tions he analyzed. No surprise. Little implicated themselves after unusually bery, assault, arson, extortion and tests the presumption of innocence as long interrogations. murder usually will not. Innocent much as a jury’s inability to distin - Of course, serious diagnosis with - Americans accused of the latter crimes guish between certainty and accuracy out recommended treatment leads to

22 America August 15-22, 2011 despair. So Garrett closes out his book Though Garrett’s prescriptions Toqueville, Dickens, Chesterton and with some very concrete prescriptions. mostly track specific procedural or Gunnar Myrdal, Garland, who hails Many of them were presaged a decade systemic infirmities, one category of from the Scottish Lowlands, casts the ago in the superb book Actual crime merits its own reform. Garrett discerning eye of the outsider on us. Innocence, by Jim Dwyer (disclosure: a would endow the accused capital mur - And to compelling result. friend), Peter Neufeld and Barry derer with extra protections, such as a With minimal “Oh you Yanks” con - Scheck. Yet each merits renewed con - standard of proof effectively higher descension, Garland identifies the sideration by legislators, judges, prose - than beyond-a-reasonable-doubt. legal, political and cultural factors cutors and police authorities. Here is a Garrett does not pretend that any behind our retaining a punishment partial list: reform will absolutely ensure against left behind by neighbors and friends • Police identification procedures the society’s killing the wrong person. such as Canada, Mexico, Britain, Italy, should conform to written protocols, That guarantee will come only when France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, and each procedure should be docu - we abandon the death penalty. Germany, Holland, Belgium, mented contemporaneously. Ideally, Which brings us to David Denmark, Poland, Australia and New officers unfamiliar with the specific Garland’s Peculiar Institution: Zealand. investigation should conduct the pro - America’s Death Penalty in an Age of The death penalty can survive in cedures to prevent influencing wit - Abolition . Garland, currently a profes - the United States because America nesses with even unintended clues and sor of sociology at New York does not lend itself to centralized, top- cues. Judges should emphatically University, scants the problem of capi - down reform, much less to central - instruct jurors not to evaluate an iden - tal innocence. This, along with his ized, top-down reform that is contrary tifying witness solely by the person’s light treatment of religion, might seem to popular sentiment. certainty and not to imagine that the odd initially. Faith and fatal error loom In Europe, national parliamentary memory works like a camera. large for death penalty opponents. “elites” imposed abolition from on • Forensic labs should stand inde - Garland, though, has not written a high. With the possible exception of pendent of law enforcement and sub - game plan for getting rid of the death the Irish, no European citizenry mit to external oversight in the form of penalty. One need not infer too wildly favored abolition before the fact. periodic blind audits. “All examiners to recognize that Garland would like In 1972, with the U.S. Supreme should be blind-tested for proficiency. us to get rid of it. But for now he aims Court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia, The defense should have access to to deepen our understanding of why judicial abolition (a species of top- underlying bench notes and laboratory we still have a death penalty when down reform) seemed imminent, or reports, and to their own defense nations toward whom we feel most even accomplished, here. But, as experts.” Courts should stand guard kindred do not. In the tradition of de Garland brilliantly recounts, by 1976 a against junk science. • Before allowing a jailhouse infor - mant to testify, a trial court should render a threshold judgment of mini - Rekindle Your Spirit . . . mal reliability. All police or prosecutor The Journey Begins Here conversations with informants should be recorded; this will ensure full dis -  QSTRESS QBURNOUT QDEPRESSION closure of deals struck and deter infor - Q TRANSITION QRELATIONSHIP ISSUES QADDICTION ISSUES mants’ ascribing to defendants details We offer: learned from the police. t
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majority of Justices (deciding Gregg v. Thanatos-phobic society. The death amount. Garland understates when he Georgia, which revived capital punish - penalty “tames death and puts it to pegs at $170 million the cost (prose - ment) could not—or would not—say work.” cutorial, judicial, defense and correc - no to the 35 state legislatures that had There is another reason the death tions) of New York’s 12-year effort readied new death statutes over the penalty survives: American con - toward a responsible death penalty. previous 48 months. Thinly disguised sciences rest easy in the notion that Were the Supreme Court even to racial backlash and calls for “law and capital defendants begin seriously order” won out. Roughly a decade receive elevated due enforcing the right later, the victory was solidified in a 5- process. That, how - ON THE WEB to counsel through - America ’s Book Club discusses to-4 decision in McCleskey v. Kemp to ever, is a lie, even if Jennifer Haigh's novel Faith . out the country, ignore powerful statistical evidence of Garland, for reasons americamagazine.org/podcast budgetary hell capital discrimination based on the unknown, abstains would break loose. “race of the victim.” from calling it that. Given the cur - Today, barring fundamental change Granted, I have a dog in the fight. rent fiscal climate, it might break loose on the Supreme Court, American abo - Or maybe I have been a dog in the anyway. Garland points out that in lition will have to occur in our “’hyper - fight, having practiced law on behalf of many death states the death penalty is democratic’” political arenas. This capital defendants in Alabama and far more a symbol and political cudgel means one state at a time against the New York. Still, I have no doubt that than a practice, “a resource for political backdrop of a criminal justice system average citizens would be appalled exchange and cultural consumption” driven by local elected officials rather were they to watch what passes for more than “a penal instrument that than, as elsewhere, appointed career adequate capital defense in most death puts persons to death.” professionals. jurisdictions. (Only recently have I To be sure, we have executed over The death penalty survives because given up my Prince-and-the-Pauper 1,200 men and women since 1976. in the United States we suffer high fantasy of a disguised Chief Justice The overall national rate of execution, homicide rates; because the Deep Roberts slipping into a Death Belt however, remains low. As of 2007, the South underfunds law enforcement; courtroom and comparing the advoca - lag between conviction and execution because the death penalty serves as a cy there to that which he provided ran 12 years on average. Most death proxy for states’ rights, itself a proxy moneyed clients when in private prac - rows serve more as warehouses than for white hegemony; and because the tice.) as hospices or on-deck circles for exe - illusion of our collectively controlling Even to attempt a halfway reliable cutions. death holds some allure for our capital justice system costs an obscene As towns and cities lay off police and teachers, it may not be long before non-abolitionists take a more prag - Contemplation in a Technological Era: matic look at the death penalty. California maintains the nation’s 7KRPDV00HUWRQ·V,,QVLJKWIIRUWWKH77ZHQW\-First Century largest death row. A poll has already A Conference on found that a 63-percent majority there Merton and Technology favor mass commutation as a cost-sav - September 23rd - 24th, 2011 ing measure. Ideally, abolition should be a tri - Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine University umph of conscience, not of calcula - Louisville, Kentucky. tors. It ought to spring from concerns Speakers: over the human fallibility Brandon Albert Borgmann Daniel Horan, OFM Garrett explores or the sanctity of life Claire Badaracco Gray Matthews John Paul II proclaimed. Still, perhaps Paul Dekar Phillip Thompson we are destined to emulate our Kathleen Deignan, CND European cousins and condemn the For Further Information or to Register: death penal ty only after we are free of Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine University, it. 2001 Newburg Road, Louisville. KY. 40205. KEVIN DOYLE is a lawyer who has defended Tel: 502 272 8177 / 8187 www.merton.org/technology/ capital cases in Alabama and New York.

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25 A ugust 15-22, 2011 America CLASSIFIED Applications deadline Sept. 15, 2011. All finalists LETTERS will be interviewed in Seattle. To obtain a job Parish Missions description and application, please send your Taking Part in the Body résumé to: [email protected]. Blessed Sacrament INSPIRING, DYNAMIC PREACHING : parish Parish is located at 5050 8th Ave. NE, Seattle, Cynthia Reville Peabody’s article, missions, retreats, days of recollection; www WA 98105. “Staying Power” (7/18), found me .sabbathretreats.org. asking myself once again, why do I stay POSITION IN SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. Yale in the Catholic Church? Positions Divinity School seeks to make a tenure-track ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR ASIAN AND appointment in the field of systematic theology, to My answer to this question is, quite PACIFIC ISLAND AFFAIRS. The Assistant begin July 1, 2012. In an ecumenical environment simply, the Eucharist. Coming togeth - Director is a practicing Catholic in good standing Yale Divinity School prepares students for min - er as the body of Christ, we women in with the church, who under the supervision of the istry in diverse Christian churches and for a wide Executive Director of Cultural Diversity in the range of professional involvements, including high - the pews give thanks and receive the Church assists the Executive Director in: coordi - er education, law, medicine, management and pub - bread of life, which nourishes our nating and implementing the U.S. Bishops’ strate - lic service. A Ph.D. (or its equivalent) and strong souls and sends us forth to love and gic plan for the Conference and the associated pas - potential as a teacher are required. The successful toral efforts and priorities among ethnic and cul - candidate will have expertise in systematic theolo - serve. In spite of the investigations of turally diverse communities in the United States, gy informed by the history of Christian thought women religious, in spite of top-down especially Asian and Pacific Catholics; and devel - (including but not limited to the modern period). oping and strengthening the implementation of changes in the very language that An interdisciplinary perspective, utilizing contem - attempts to express our faith, in spite approved committee and subcommittee goals, porary academic approaches such as cultural stud - objectives and activities. ies, critical, feminist, social or political theory for of being denied a place at the table of The Assistant Director also assists in the theological study, is also a plus. A letter of applica - power, we women come to take part in preparation of committee reports; represents the tion with curriculum vitae and a list of three refer - the Eucharist. We prepare the table; U.S.C.C.B., the C.D.C. Committee and the ences should be submitted by Oct. 15, 2011 to: Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs Dean Harold W. Attridge, Yale Divinity School, we run the schools and hospitals; we in public forums; and serves as the voice of the 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511- raise children in the faith. We stay, and U.S.C.C.B. when out in the field and as a strong 2167. Yale University is an Affirmative by doing so, we quietly attempt to cor - in-house advocate for the communities served by Action/Equal Opportunity employer. Yale values the department. Master’s degree or combination of diversity in its faculty, staff and students and espe - rect the evils we perceive. bachelor’s degree, major field/specialty: social sci - cially encourages applications from women and Why do I stay? My answer was ences, pastoral ministry and formation, education, underrepresented minorities. Applications begin given long ago: “Lord, to whom would humanities or a related field. A minimum of 5 to-6 to be considered Oct. 1, 2011. years’ experience with pastoral ministry in an we go? You have the words of everlast - (arch)diocese, national Catholic organization or Retreats ing life.” This much I know for sure: If religious community. Proficiency in any Asian or BETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, we women did not stay, the church Pacific language. Ind., offers private and individually directed silent United States Conference of Catholic Bishops would die of neglect. retreats, including dreamwork and Ignatian 30 (C.D.C.), 3211 4th Street N.E., Washington, DC JANE W. URSO days, year-round in a prayerful home setting. 20017-1194; Fax: (202) 541-3412; e-mail: Bridgeport, W.Va. Contact Joyce Diltz, P.H.J.C.; Ph: (219) 398- [email protected]. EOE/M/F/D/V. No phone 5047; [email protected]; bethanyre - calls, please. treathouse.org. Pearl of Great Price Thanks so much for a wonderfully DIRECTOR OF FAITH FORMATION AND Sabbatical EVANGELIZATION. Blessed Sacrament Parish, clear and thought-provoking commen - SABBATICAL PROGRAMS at the Boston College Seattle, Wash. This Dominican parish of over School of Theology and Ministry, a dynamic glob - tary, “Staying Power” (7/18). I think 1,000 families is seeking a Director of Faith al academic community, during our Summer the question is not why women are Formation and Evangelization, who will enable Institute or fall semester. Theological updating parishioners to gain a greater knowledge and leaving the church, but why, in the and spiritual growth with small group process. understanding of the Catholic faith and to deepen Information: www.bc.edu/stmsabbatical; e-mail: name of everything that is good and their spirituality. The Director will take a leader - [email protected]. holy, are we staying? I love the church. ship role in designing and implementing programs that will enhance our parish vision as a center of I grew up in it, thrived in it and deep - evangelization. In collaboration with the parish Wills ened my spirituality and sense of ser - community, the Director will develop and imple - Please remember America in your will. Our legal title vice through it. ment curricula and opportunities for the spiritual is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New formation of parishioners, from those who are York, NY 10019. But the church I experience now is taking their first steps to those ready to manifest remote, controlled, power-hungry and the Gospel to the world. This position requires America classified. To submit a classified ad to so unlike Jesus that my prayer now energy, commitment, courage and creativity. America, e-mail [email protected], fax includes a lament for the poor Christ. Successful candidates will be proficient in organiz - (928) 222-2107 or mail to: Classified Department, ing and teaching, with excellent leadership and America , 106 West 56th St., New York, NY 10019. When will we find our way back communication skills. Preferred candidates will Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. 1- through the centuries to the simple, hold a master’s degree in religious education, the - 5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 12-23 times: $1.23; straightforward way to love God and ology or pastoral studies and have five years of 24-41 times: $1.17.We do not accept ad copy over the parish experience. The candidate must be a prac - phone. MasterCard and Visa accepted. For more all people that Jesus modeled for us? ticing Catholic. The position is currently available. information call: (212) 515-0102. When will we be able to sell every -

26 America August 15-22, 2011 thing we have accumulated over the the resources of the fortunate with each party were more inclusive of these centuries to buy back the pearl of great those who are less fortunate—with views, maybe the common good of all price that Jesus left us? I am not leav - one glaring exception, the unborn. Americans could be secured. ing the church. I am resolved to live They are more concerned with the HANK LABORE Bismarck, N.D. simply the model that Jesus left us. rights and fair treatment of the com - PATRICIA NICHOLSON mon good of us all, except for the Newburg, N.Y. unborn. Helping the Poor at the Parish Both parties hold to a form of Your editorial writer (8/1) is quite Promoting the Common Good exclusivism. The Republicans tend to wrong to identify a “peculiar Your editorial “The New ‘American- exclude social programs for the poor, American premise that the poor are ism’” (8/1) provides interesting elderly and disadvantaged, while the generally better off left to their own insights about the American dream. Democrats tend to exclude the busi - devices, lest their dignity be degraded There is no one party that espouses ness sector and the unborn. Hence, the by paternalism—a high-sounding the concerns of the vulnerable and the idea of the common good cannot be slogan that can be used to abdicate common good. Republicans tend to be fully embraced by either party. collective responsibility” in the rejec - pro-life and pro-growth and rational - Maybe a third party could include a tion of entitlement programs. ize the common good to include, basi - subtle socialist agenda for the poor, My grandfather refused to accept cally, the protection of the freedom of vulnerable and unborn, while, at the government assistance to feed his opportunity for anyone to succeed eco - same time, promoting growth in the large family for over two years—not nomically. business sector. There are very few due to the sin of pride, but due to his Democrats, on the other hand, tend pro-socialist Republicans and proba - concern for the simple human dignity to be more socialist and want to share bly even fewer pro-life Democrats. If of his family. Ultimately, he found

To send a letter to the editor we recommend using the link that appears below articles on America ’s Web site, www.americamagazine.org. This allows us to consider your letter for publication in both print and online versions of the magazine. Letters may also be sent to America ’s editorial office (address on page 2) or by e-mail to: [email protected]. They should be brief and include the writer’s name, postal address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

LOOKING FOR Peacebuilding Catholic Theology, Ethics, and Praxis ROBERT R. SCHREITER, R. SCOTT APPLEBY, GERARD F. POWERS, Editors

A JOB “The audiences for this book IN THE CATHOLIC SECTOR? are multiple; the issues it confronts are HIRING AT YOUR compellingly important; the message it offers will be a sign of hope and a CHURCH OR SCHOOL? source of wisdom.” —J. BRYAN HEHIR GET THE WORD OUT WITH Harvard Kennedy School of Government “Provides a well-developed theology, AMERICA! ethics and spirituality that will serve as a firm foundation for effective Job Listings are accepted for peacebuilding programs.” publication in America's print and —LESLEY-ANNE KNIGHT web editions. 978-1-57075-893-5 pbk $30.00 Former Secretary General, Caritas International For more information contact Julia Contributors Sosa at [email protected] John Paul Lederach Reina Neufeldt Kenneth Himes Telephone: 212-515-0102 or visit: Maryann Cusimano Love Todd Whitemore Lisa Sowle Cahill Daniel Philpott Peter-John Pearson Peter Phan WWW.AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG William Headley Thomas Michel David O’Brien

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August 15-22, 2011 America 27 work and his family prospered. Yes, he did accept gifts from his Protestant brethren at his church. This is where charity begins—with a human, neighborly, Christian connec - tion and not a faceless government bureaucracy. I am not a wealthy man, but I am moved to compassion for the long- term unemployed in my parish. I try to do for them what others did for my grandfather many decades ago. Such is one’s Christian duty. When govern - ment spends other people’s money to care for the forgotten in society, this seems to be a good thing, but it is far better for government to enact policies that create conditions for fuller employment in the private sector. Collective responsibility for the poor must be assumed by communities and parishes, not by tax-payers. ROY CAMPBELL Nyack, N.Y.

Dust Off the Catechism “Keep Holy Election Day,” by Nicholas P. Cafardi (7/18), seems to be a deceitful article. I am surprised that the magazine is still able to identi - fy with Catholic readers. My fear is that the author soothed some souls on the left with his article, which was clearly his intention. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nos. 2270-73, abortion is defined as directly contrary to moral law and manifests an abominable crime along with infanticide. No president before Mr. Obama has done more to advance abortion and infanti - cide. While in the Illinois senate, he led the opposition to the “Born Alive Infants Protection Act” and as chair of the Health and Human Services Committee in the same legislative body, he kept Born Alive (IL SB1082) from coming up for a vote in 2003. I hope neither Mr. Cafardi nor the editors of America were aware of this. RICHARD WILLITS Conyers, Ga.

28 America August 15-22, 2011 No Deliberation Needed Contrary to Professor Cafardi’s opin - UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME ions about holiness, there are some readily apparent answers to some CampusMinistry complex issues. Abortion is not a question that allows for any discus - CampusMinisterandProgramDirector sion or deliberation. Mr. Cafardi cites FullͲTime,12months a church teaching that error has no ResponsibiliƟes Include: rights. Death to an innocent child is x Direct RCIA Program. not the privilege of any person to call x Assist with Retreat Programming . a right. Our holiness as voters should not x CatecheƟcal and Faith FormaƟon Programming. depend on whom we are encouraged x Pastoral Care and Guidance for Students, Faculty and Staī. to support by the church. We may and Candidate Requirements: should be advised, however, to avoid some candidates who do not recognize x Master’s degree or Bachelor’s degree (5years) – M.Div. or M.A. in Theology or that there is a hierarchy in law, when Pastoral Ministry preferred. or if there is a conflict as clear as abor - x 1Ͳ2 years experience in college campus ministry or ministry to young adults. tion. RAYMOND TIMM Toviewthisopportunityfurtherorapplyformallyonline St. Louis, Mo. pleasevisithƩp://ND.jobs(job#11311)or hƩp://jobs.nd.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=57157. Violence and Legality of Drugs  Drugs did not create Mexico’s orga - The University of Notre Dame is commiƩed to diversity in its staī, faculty, and student body. As such, we strongly encourage applicaƟons from members of minority groups, women, veterans, individuals with disabiliƟes, and others nized crime networks. Just as alcohol who will enhance our community. The University of Notre Dame, an internaƟonal Catholic research university, is an prohibition gave rise to Al Capone, equal opportunity/aĸrmaƟve acƟon employer. drug prohibition created the violent drug trafficking organizations behind all the killings in Mexico. With alcohol prohibition repealed, bootleggers no Graduate longer gun each other down in drive- by shootings. It is worth noting that Religious Education Mexico’s upsurge in violence began only after an anti-drug crackdown that created a power vacuum among com - ONLINE peting cartels. Drug prohibition funds organized Master of Arts in Religious Education (33 credits) Master’s Certi cate in Religious Education (18 credits) crime at home and terrorism abroad. It Post-Master’s Certi cate in Religious Education (18 credits) is time to end this madness. Whether we like it or not, drugs are here to stay. Changing human nature is not an t
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August 15-22, 2011 America 29 THE WORD Who Do You Say You Are? TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A), AUG. 21, 2011 Readings: Is 22:19-23; Ps 138:1-8; Rom 11:33-36; Mt 16:13-20 “Who do you say that I am?” (Mt 16:15)

he question Jesus poses in the law, a Pharisee (Phil 3:5). Earlier the ensuing verses (16:21-27), the today’s Gospel reading is not in the Gospel, the people of Jesus’ Gospel for next Sunday. Ta pop quiz for the disciples. hometown identify him as the As Jesus’ identity emerges Since it comes halfway through carpenter's son, whose moth - and solidifies, so too does that of Matthew’s Gospel, at a critical turning er is Mary and whose Peter. Verses 17 to 19 are point, we might be tempted to think brothers are James, unique to Matthew, with a Jesus is giving a kind of midterm exam Joseph, Simon and wordplay on the name to see how well the disciples are under - Judas, and who also has Petros and the Greek word standing him and to test whether they sisters (Mt 13:55-56). for rock. Jesus exalts the have what it takes to go the rest of the In addition, in such a emerging, rock-like faith of journey with him. But the scene may culture the perceptions of Peter and of the whole com - also reflect Jesus’ own development in others help shape a per - munity of disciples whose understanding of his identity and mis - son’s identity. identity is tied up in that of sion. Taking Jesus’ humanity seriously In today’s Gospel, Jesus Jesus. Yet in the very next verses, and recalling Luke’s assertion that seeks out others’ perceptions as he Jesus increased in wisdom and in solidifies his understanding of him - PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE years, and in divine and human favor self. The disciples first report that (Lk 2:52), we might say that in today’s people align Jesus with revered • What is Jesus saying to you about your identity as his follower? Gospel and next Sunday’s, we see a prophetic figures: John the Baptist, glimpse of Jesus’ deepening under - Elijah or Jeremiah. While there are • How are your gifts for mission identified by your faith community? e

standing of what it meant to be the many parallels between Jesus and N N u d

Christ, the Son of the living God (v. these prophets, Matthew clearly dis -

• Who do you say you are? d A t

16). tinguishes Jesus from them. He is : t R In contrast to modern Western cul - the more powerful one coming after A tures, in which individuals expend John (Mt 3:11). And it is John who the rock will falter when confronted energy trying to find their own unique embodies the returned Elijah (Mt with the stumbling block ( scandalon , identity as persons distinct from other 11:14; 17:12). 18:6, 7) of Jesus’ passion. Nonetheless, persons, in Jesus’ culture, characterized As Jesus presses the disciples for as the Gospel progresses, Jesus contin - by dyadic personality, a person under - their own response, Peter, the ues to call him Peter, enabling him to stood himself or herself only in rela - spokesperson for the group, rightly become what he is named. tionship to the groups in which she or declares, “You are the Messiah” ( chris - Just as the disciples’ naming of Jesus he was embedded: family, clan, nation tos ). This is a term used in the Old as Messiah and partnering with him in and religion. Paul, for example, identi - Testament for one who is set apart by his mission enabled him to embrace all fies himself as a member of the people God for particular service, like kings that being the anointed one entailed, of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a (Ps 2:2; 89:20), priests (Lv 4:3, 5) and so too Jesus’ identification of the Hebrew born of Hebrews, and as to prophets (1 Kgs 19:16). That Jesus is believing community as rock solid christos , anointed, is not a new revela - brought forth that quality in them. BARBARA E. REID, O.P. , a member of the tion in Matthew’s Gospel (see 1:1, 17, Likewise, we are invited to let Jesus Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Mich., is 18; 11:2). But the nature of Jesus’ mes - and our faith community call forth our a professor of New Testament studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Ill., siahship as entailing suffering and deepest identity as followers of the where she is vice president and academic dean. death is articulated for the first time in anointed, whose solidity is sure.

30 America August 15-22, 2011 THE WORD Finding Your Self TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A), AUG. 28, 2011 Readings: Jer 20:7-9; Ps 63:2-9; Rom 12:1-2; ; Mt 16:21-27 “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24)

aving had the privilege some How could Jesus, who was so intent ner of living and loving that under - years ago of listening to on lifting up those who were bowed mines systems of domination and sub - Hindigenous women in La down and on healing all who suffered, mission. The repercussions one is will - Paz, Bolivia, reflect on today’s Gospel, have meant it otherwise for them, ing to risk for the sake of living and pro - I can never hear it without remember - they reasoned. claiming the Gospel—that is the cross. ing their interpretation: One does not have to go to Bolivia For the women in La Paz, a new - to find abuse justified by such inter - found understanding of the Gospel We women identify strongly pretations of the cross. Whether was born in meetings in which they with the crucified Christ and his immediately visible or not, such situ - were able to join in solidarity to share sufferings. There is a strong ations can be found in almost every their experiences and reflect together sense of submission in our community. A closer look at the con - with new eyes on the Scriptures. From Aymara and Quechua cultures. text of Jesus’ saying reveals that he is this grew their sense of being empow - Women submit to sexual abuse speaking about a particular kind of ered, beloved by God and able togeth - from their fathers, uncles and suffering that his disciples must be er to confront and end the suffering husbands, with a strong sense of willing to embrace: that which resignation, thinking that what - comes as a direct result of follow - PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE ever suffering they endure, they ing his manner of life and mission. • What does “taking up the cross” mean in do silently and heroically, as their Suffering that comes from abuse your life? way of carrying the cross with and injustice is to be resisted and • Do you stumble at the thought of losing Jesus. eradicated as fully as possible, as yourself in order to find yourself in Christ? Jesus did throughout his ministry. This particular group had come Moreover, the saying about denial • Ask Jesus to show you how to overcome the fear of repercussions for living and through a process of learning to inter - of self is not referring to giving up spreading his liberating love. pret the Gospel differently, so that certain pleasures, like forgoing their consciousness of themselves as chocolate during Lent. Rather, it lovable and precious in God’s eyes had refers to a disciple’s choice to lose him - they and others they loved were expe - been heightened; and thereafter they self or herself entirely in Christ—to riencing. questioned the wisdom they had take on Christ’s way of life and mission True to today’s Gospel, these received for generations about how and his very identity as one’s own. This women indeed found their lives. Jesus submitting to abuse and injustice was identity does not center on suffering, increasingly came to understand what the way to identify with the crucified but on the love of God, expressed lay ahead for him from his own denial Christ. Gradually, they tested new through loving service to one another, of self in finding his true life. How do ways of relating, as they claimed their intent on bringing forth life to the full you find yourself? power, uniting with one another to for all. But not all will welcome a man - BARBARA E. REID bring about change for themselves and their daughters. What these women came to dis - NEED TOMORROW’S WORD TODAY? cover was the way in which a mis - Visit americamagazine.org and click on reading of today’s Gospel had obliter - “The Word” in the right-hand column under ated their sense of self and kept them the “Print” heading. cowering in abusive relationships.

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