THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY NOV. 12, 2012 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES n the future,” Andy Warhol tempting to think that. When we hear, once said, “everyone will be for example, “Blessed are the poor in PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER ‘I world-famous for 15 minutes.” spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heav - John P. Schlegel, S.J. Mr. Warhol’s premonition seems to en,” we are tempted to think, “Ah, I just have come true in our popular cul - need to be poor in spirit and then I’ll be EDITOR IN CHIEF ture—the world of Snooki, JWoww a saint and heaven will be mine. ” We Matt Malone , S.J. and Honey Boo Boo. Or has it? And might even start out on some kind of EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT what exactly did Mr. Warhol mean? self-improvement project, an attempt to MANAGING EDITOR The historian Benjamin H. D. Buchloh make ourselves poor in spirit, the way Robert C. Collins, S.J. tells us that what Warhol was trying to one might sign up for a class at the local ONLINE EDITOR say was that the “hierarchy of subjects Y. The truth, however, is that we don’t Maurice Timothy Reidy worthy to be represented [by artists] make ourselves saints. In fact, not even LITERARY EDITOR will someday be abolished.” That seems the church “makes ” saints. Only God Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. like a stretch, even for our increasingly makes a person holy, the grace of God POETRY EDITOR relativistic sensibilities. A world with - within us, transforming us, changing us. James S. Torrens, S.J. out a hierarchy of values, in art or any - That’s not to say that we just sit back ASSOCIATE EDITORS where else, is inhuman and unlikely. and let it happen. We must say yes to Kevin Clarke This issue of America indicates as God’s invitation to holiness. And if we Kerry Weber much. In addition to the review by Leo are to have the strength to say yes, then Luke Hansen, S.J. J. O’Donovan, S.J., of a recent exhibition our eyes must be fixed on the things CONTRIBUTING EDITOR of Mr. Warhol’s work, whose fame is, above, on the One who is above. James Martin, S.J. for better or for worse, in its 48th or The glimpse of the eternal that gave ART DIRECTOR Stephanie Ratcliffe 49th year, this issue also explores the the saints and martyrs the strength to lives of the church’s 20th-century mar - live in their earthly moment was not a ASSISTANT EDITOR Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. tyrs, those whose “fame” is, dogmatically glimpse of some eternal law but an speaking, eternal. encounter with the God of love. In the BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Life this side of heaven is a spatio- midst of their great diversity, what all CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER temporal mix of St. Augustine’s two the saints and martyrs have in common Lisa Pope cities, an amalgam of the fleeting and is the simple fact that they were in the everlasting. A Christian, of course, love—with God and with God’s cre - 106 West 56th Street is supposed to have his or her global ation. It was this love that gave meaning New York, NY 10019-3803 positioning system set for the City of and direction to their lives. In other Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 God rather than the City of Man. All words, their lives were more about E-mail: [email protected]; those billions of tweets, however, can faithfulness in relationship than obedi - [email protected] interfere with the satellite signal, so the ence to the rules. Rules matter, of Web site: www.americamagazine.org. church gives us some other markers for course, but discipleship is about a good Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 the journey, some ways of re-calculating deal more than mere discipline. © 2012 America Press, Inc. the route. In the lives of the saints and God knows it isn’t easy. It never was. martyrs (some famous, some not) we The lives of the saints, however, find roadmaps to holiness; we find demonstrate that our yes is possible, Christians who set their hearts on the even in a broken world. Mr. Warhol good and the true, the everlasting. As a may or may not have been right about result, a funny thing happened: these fame. And as this week’s editorial Christians found the faith, hope and makes clear, the price of fame in con - charity they needed to make their temporary America is far too high. earthly pilgrimage. Ultimately, however, the lives of the To be honest, as a boy I found the saints and martyrs demonstrate that lives of the saints really quite boring. I holiness, not fame, is what matters was making a common mistake. I most. And that prize, God willing, lasts thought that holiness was just about a lot longer than 15 minutes; indeed, it Cover: Photo by Arturo Campos following the rules. In fact, it’s still is eternal. MATT MALONE, S.J. Cedillo. CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org VOl. 207 NO. 14, WhOle NO. 4990 NOVember 12, 2012

ARTICLES 13 MODERN MARTYRS Thousands die for their faith each year. How should the church respond? Daniel Philpott

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment

5 Editorial Peddling Deception 13 6 Signs of the Times 10 Column Motivational Seeking Thomas Massaro

19 Faith in Focus The Man in the Mirror Michael Anthony Novak

29 Letters

31 The Word Apocalyptic Vision Peter Feldmeier

19 BOOKS & CULTURE 22 ART The world of Warhol BOOKS The War on Heresy; The Catonsville Nine; Christian Spirituality For Seekers

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Luke Hansen, S.J., reports on his visit to Guantánamo Bay , right. Plus, Leo J. O'Donovan, S.J., narrates an audio slide show of Andy Warhol's work , and Kerry Weber reviews “The Sessions.” All at americamagazine.org. 22 CURRENT COMMENT

$700 billion. Meanwhile, aid programs both at home and House Call abroad are threatened by Congressional plans to cut dis - The “Election 2012 Housing Health Check,” issued by the cretionary spending. These programs could be saved by online real estate marketplace RealtyTrac in October, reductions in the defense budget, but the military fiercely reported that 65 percent of local housing markets nation - resists any cutbacks. Late in his public life Senator wide are worse off today than they were four years ago. McGovern spoke against both the wars in Iraq and Since January 2009, more than nine million homeowners Afghanistan. A fighter pilot in World War II, he was an have entered the foreclosure process or lost their homes unlikely leader of the antiwar movement. Yet he knew outright. Over 12 million more are seriously underwater, from experience how war undermines the fiscal and moral owing at least 25 percent more on mortgages than their health of a nation. properties are worth. Behind these statistics are struggling After losing his Senate seat in 1980, Senator McGovern households facing personal ruin, households that are unable continued to lobby on behalf of the world’s poor. He to contribute to the nation’s elusive economic recovery. helped set up the United Nations World Food Programme By all accounts, restoration efforts for homeowners in and, with Senator Bob Dole, established an international the United States have been underpowered. Other coun - school feeding program. With time, perhaps, the late sena - tries have shown greater audacity in responding to the tor will be recognized not for a historic election loss but housing meltdown, and their economies are already enjoy - for these momentous gains. ing the fruits of early and astute interventions. Iceland’s economy and its housing market have substantially recov - Now the Scouts ered since the government implemented widespread debt The following statement about perpetrators of the crimes forgiveness for homeowners, easing the debt burden for of sexual abuse may sound familiar to Catholics: “That was more than 25 percent of its population. a different time.... That was a time when people thought— The Obama administration’s latest initiative to assist the medical community thought—there was a potential for homeowners, a revision of the Home Affordable Refinance rehabilitation.” This is not a bishop apologizing for a priest. Program, known as HARP 2.0, is showing promise. But It is Wayne Perry, the president of the Boy Scouts of more creative initiatives would be welcome, and more pres - America, apologizing after the release of a cache of docu - sure needs to be applied on banks to expedite loan revisions. ments detailing accusations of abuse of “many thousands of At press time, the nation was still juggling presidential victims,” according to The New York Times, allegedly com - prospects. Whoever wins on Nov. 6 needs to stop pretend - mitted by 1,247 scout leaders between 1965 and 1985. The ing that the “worst” of the housing crisis is behind us. parallels between the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts Millions of U.S. homeowners know that is not the case; are striking. Both of these institutions were seen as moral they can see it each month in boldface type right at the top institutions charged with caring for children; both were of their mortgage statements. organized in clear-cut hierarchies; and both instinctively tried to prevent the documents from being released. The War Against Want B.S.A. called these records the “perversion files.” In 1963 the late Senator George S. McGovern put for - The terrible revelations about the scouts, however, do ward a novel idea. By cutting the military budget by 10 not let the Catholic Church off the hook. Nor do they let percent, the government could expand the program Penn State off the hook. Child abuse occurs in a variety of known as Food for Peace. Senator McGovern was the first settings: families, schools, social service agencies—indeed director of the program, which sought to distribute U.S. any setting that includes children. Even organizations that food surplus to impoverished nations abroad. He was also do not deal directly with children are prone to cover-ups: a strong critic of runaway defense spending. As early as the British Broadcasting Company is embroiled in a case 1963 he spoke against the buildup of U.S. military forces of ignoring the abuse of hundreds of young girls by a pop - in Vietnam. His antiwar stance did not prove popular ular television host. The scope of these crimes points to with the American public, who soundly rejected his candi - the need for greater vigilance, continued transparency and dacy in 1972 in favor of President Richard M. Nixon. Yet further education about sexual abuse. The Catholic his stands against defense spending and on behalf of the Church has made great strides in the prevention of abuse, world’s poor were prophetic. but much work remains. In the future, the “perversion Annual U.S. military spending now stands at nearly files” of every organization should be empty.

4 America November 12, 2012 EDITORIAL Peddling Deception

he resignation on Oct. 17 of the cycling superstar chemistry of the substances Lance Armstrong from the chairmanship of the involved made detection of Mr. T organization for cancer survivors that he founded Armstrong’s activity all the in 1997, following his own dramatic recovery from cancer, more difficult. Moreover, when closed the door on one of the most spectacular careers in faced with the prospect of inten - athletic history. In the immediate aftermath, corporate sive testing, Mr. Armstrong would simply lie or disappear sponsors who had enriched him to the tune of more than when the inspectors approached. $100 million dropped him. The world’s greatest cyclist’s The story of his teammates’ complicity is as old as seven triumphs in the Tour de France were the product of Faust—the promise of fame, wealth and the company of the not only heroic human effort but performance-enhancing elite, all of which, at first, are attractive. Mr. Armstrong’s drugs. The scandal, according to the United States Anti- accomplices rationalized their cheating by convincing them - Doping Agency report that followed a two-year investiga - selves that nothing would be lost except, they failed to realize, tion, involved a complex conspiracy of teammates, coaches, their honor. A pivotal figure, the Tour de France cyclist Kayle a masseuse and drug suppliers—one of the greatest scandals Leogrande, according to The New York Times, casually in sports history. admitted his dope use to one of his team’s assistants, who, to Mr. Armstrong denies doping, but he has stopped his surprise, was “not O.K. with that.” The teammate then fighting the U.S.A.D.A. accusations. Among his dwindling spoke to the anti-doping agency, which opened an investiga - number of supporters, the most common defense of Mr. tion that led to Mr. Armstrong’s downfall. On Oct. 22 the Armstrong’s actions is “everybody does it.” Indeed, Mr. International Cycling Union stripped Mr. Armstrong of his Armstrong and his fellow conspirators used that very argu - seven Tour de France titles and banned him from the sport. ment to rope into the plot younger racers, some of whom The most disturbing stories about Mr. Armstrong’s had thirsted for the excitement of international competitive activities came from teammates who finally realized that cycling all their lives. The familiar syllogism ran: All the top even though “everybody does it,” doping was still wrong. racers use drugs; you wish to race with the top racers; there - Some members of Mr. Armstrong’s team, who for years had fore, you should use drugs too. If “everyone” is breaking the gone along with the scam, opened their eyes and for various rules, the rules become meaningless. Buzz Bissinger, author reasons—not all self-serving—saw how the moral compro - of Friday Night Lights , argued in Newsweek (9/3) that mises they had made had cost too much. Doping was Lance Armstrong is one of the few “heroes” America has wrong, they now realized, because it violated the ideals they left. “Even if he did take enhancers, so what?” He was just had been taught by their parents, ideals that had motivated “leveling the playing field.” Those who are trying to bring them as young people to compete. One teammate’s father him down are either jealous or just making a name for nearly destroyed himself with drugs; the son was shocked to themselves, said Mr. Bissinger. Even less convincing argu - see himself cycling down the same road. ments from Mr. Armstrong’s apologists involve his status as How can Lance Armstrong, who still insists that he a celebrity-hero: He is a hero because he fought and over - never used drugs, close the door on this part of his life and came cancer; he is also a philanthropist, whose well-run regain his dignity? With great difficulty. Though charity has served countless cancer victims; his faults do not Christians believe in redemption, Mr. Armstrong is not define the man. contrite. Even if he chooses to tell the truth now, proving But consider that from 1998 to 2005 Mr. Armstrong to his family, friends and former supporters that he is a led a conspiracy involving teammates whom he bullied to changed man will be harder than racing up the Pyrenees. dope up or get out. The deception involved an amalgam of Mr. Armstrong’s public life is over. He should now devote transfused blood, testosterone and other natural and his energy and attention to confessing and making repara - unnatural substances. One such substance, an artificial tion. He must at last reject the gospel of winning at all blood booster known as EPO, stimulates the production costs and spend his remaining days helping his former col - of red blood cells. EPO is potentially lethal and is known leagues to excise the moral cancer that now enfeebles the to generate and multiply cancerous cells. The complex sport that made him famous.

November 12, 2012 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

EUROPE First Abortion Clinic Opens On Irish Soil he announcement that Marie Stopes International, a London-based family planning charity, would open Ireland's T first abortion clinic, in Belfast, caught Northern Ireland's politicians by surprise. Northern Ireland has some of Europe's strictest limitations on abortion, and the procedure is completely out - lawed in the Republic of Ireland to the south. Bishop Noel Treanor, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor, said, "The opening of this facility further undermines the sanctity and dignity of human life in our society, where the most vul - nerable and defenseless human beings are already under threat." The clinic will function within Northern Ireland's current legal framework: abortions can be carried out only to preserve the life of the mother or if continuing the pregnancy would have other serious, per - Belfast, Ireland, Oct. 18 manent physical or mental health effects. The clinic will provide services to Britain annually for abortions, Northern Ireland, which, unlike the within the first nine weeks of gesta - according to the United Kingdom’s Republic of Ireland in the south, tion. The clinic’s services will also be Department of Health. remains a constitutive part of the available to women from the Republic For decades, united resistance from United Kingdom of Great Britain and of Ireland. As many as 4,000 women Catholics and Protestants prevented Northern Ireland. Some are question - from the south of Ireland and 1,000 the United Kingdom's 1967 law legal - ing whether the Irish pro-life commu - women from the north already travel izing abortion from applying to nity will still be able to unite across

THE NEW EVANGELIZATION en the faith of Catholics and to encourage lapsed Catholics to come Synod Ends in Optimism back to the church. While the message described forces hostile to the Christian faith today, the synod mem - espite the growth of secular - Even if the world often resembles a bers also said, “With humility we must ism, increased hostility “desert” for Christians, “we must jour - recognize that the poverty and weak - Dtoward Christianity and ney, taking with us what is essential: ness of Jesus’ disciples, especially of his scandal within the church, members of the company of Jesus, the truth of his ministers, weigh on the credibility of the Synod of Bishops said they are word, the eucharistic bread which the mission.” optimistic about the future because of nourishes us,” the fellowship of com - Addressing Catholics’ involvement Christ’s promise of salvation. In a mes - munity and the work of charity, the in political life, the synod message sage to Catholics around the world on message said. insisted that “politics requires a com - Oct. 26, as the formal work of the Pope Benedict XVI and the synod mitment of selfless and sincere care for synod closed, synod members said members—more than 260 cardinals, the common good by fully respecting they were certain God “will not fail to bishops and priests—along with the dignity of the human person from look on our poverty in order to show priests, religious and laymen and conception to its natural end, honor - the strength of his arm in our days and women serving as synod observers and ing the family founded on the marriage to sustain us in the path of the new experts, began meeting at the Vatican of a man and a woman” and working to evangelization.” on Oct. 7 to discuss ways to strength - end “injustice, inequality, discrimina -

6 America November 12, 2012 recent revelations of sexual abuse by ernment to see a multi-national giant members of the clergy have contribut - of the abortion industry parachute in ed to a precipitous decline in religious from London and sweep aside the law affiliation throughout Ireland and and our devolved institutions." have diminished the credibility of There was a strong protest at the church officials. In addition, the grow - opening of the clinic on Oct. 18. The ing secularization of Irish society may Irish Times writer, author and pro- further compromise the church's effec - choice supporter Fintan O'Toole tiveness in responding to the liberal - called the "virulent opposition" to the ization of abortion laws. Ireland now opening of the clinic "strange," point - ranks among the world's least religious ing out that most people in Northern nations—43rd in the world, just ahead Ireland "don't seem particularly upset of Vietnam, according to a recent that women can travel a short distance Gallup poll. within [the United Kingdom] and Liam Gibson of the Society for the have an abortion much more freely. Protection of Unborn Children in "There seems to be some visceral feel - Belfast is confident, however, that pro- ing that abortion is especially terrible if life forces can come together and even it happens on sacred Irish soil," he said. force the closing of the clinic. "It is dif - He added that after cultural defeats on sectarian lines, as the pro-life commu - ficult to see how a compromise with contraception and divorce, abortion nity in the United States has done. A Marie Stopes International could be may prove to be a "line in the sand" Belfast Telegraph online survey con - arrived at," he said. "The pro-life peo - issue for Ireland’s cultural conserva - ducted the day the clinic opened found ple of Northern Ireland have fought tives. only a slight majority (53 percent) in too hard against the liberalization of favor of closing it. their abortion laws and waited too CLAIRE M CCORMACK is a freelance reporter It is widely acknowledged that long for the return of accountable gov - based in Dublin. tion, violence, racism, hunger and war.” generosity, to which we are convinced Looking at specific areas of church that the adequate response is Christ.” and social life, the bishops first high - Identifying what has worked in past lighted the role of the family, “where evangelization is essential, as is women play a very special role” in acknowledging what fell short, since teaching the faith. The bishops mistakes are actually a kind of “new promised greater efforts to strengthen wisdom,” said Adolfo Nicolás, superior and accompany Catholic families. general of the Society of Jesus. During While they condemned efforts to a Vatican briefing on Oct. 25, Father move away from a traditional defini - Nicolás said the synod should have tion of marriage, they expressed par - included more laypeople, who are not ticular concern for divorced, separated only the focus but also the critical or unmarried couples. agents of the new evangelization. Synod members said they were “It made me think of what Steve concerned but not pessimistic about Jobs used to say quite often: ‘I’m more the situation of young Catholics interested in the questions of the cus - around the world, because while they tomers than the questions of the pro - often are under “aggressive attacks” by ducers,’ and, well, at the synod we were secular culture, they have “deep aspira - all producers except for a few laypeo - tions for authenticity, truth, freedom, ple,” he said. Closing liturgy, Oct. 26

November 12, 2012 America 8 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Confronting Boko Haram NEWS BRIEFS Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, but the West African nation still As conditions on the ground deteriorated, a struggles with poverty, widespread papal delegation that was scheduled to visit corruption and recurring ethnic and Damascus, Syria, was pos t poned indefinitely sectarian violence. Asked about the on Oct. 23. • Flooding at the Shrine of Our threat posed by the radical Islamic Lady of Lourdes on Oct. 20 temporarily closed group Boko Haram, Bishop Matthew much of the popular French pilgrimage site. • Hassan Kukah of Sokoto in northern Three Assumptionist priests were taken at Nigeria, said that both the Western gunpoint from their home at Our Lady of the Lourdes, Oct. 21 and local Nigerian media put “too Poor Parish in the village of Mbau in the much emphasis” on the sectarian embattled North Kivu province of Congo on Oct. 19 and have not aspect of the violence. At the same been heard from since. • “In the north of Mali, all Christians were time, he said, the Nigerian government forced to flee,” reports Laurent Balas, a missionary priest of the is using the wrong approach in efforts White Fathers, after Islamic militias seized much of the territory. • to resolve the confrontation with Boko Claudio Sciarpelletti, the computer technician at the Vatican secre - Haram. “The Nigerian political class,” tariat of state accused of aiding and abetting the pope’s butler in he said, “has hidden its incompetence stealing confidential Vatican correspondence, was scheduled to be by simply presenting the problem as a tried at the Vatican on Nov. 5. • Bishop Richard Williamson of law and order issue. It’s not.” By calling Great Britain was expelled from the Society of St. Pius X on Oct. 24 out the military, “the government is because he refused “to show due respect and obedience to his lawful diminishing democracy” in Nigeria superiors,” following his sharp criticism of the society’s doctrinal dis - and ignoring the need for dialogue to cussions with the Vatican. end the conflict. According to Bishop Kukah, ordinary Nigerians “are actual - ly suffering more from the military tion, a failure to consider the human of Miami on Oct. 19. The archbishop than from Boko Haram.... It’s become rights situation in transit countries to also announced that the Archdiocese like an army of occupation.” where intercepted migrants may be of Miami had joined the 50 or so other returned and an absence of mecha - Catholic dioceses, universities and nisms to enable migrants to make a entities throughout the nation that Human Rights on formal complaint against Frontex.” have filed a lawsuit against the E.U. Border The agency has faced increasing pres - Department of Health and Human sure to improve transparency and Services because of the contraceptive The European Union’s border agency, internal controls for the protection of mandate. “We feel it is a violation” of Frontex, held the first meeting of the migrant rights. These calls were inten - the First Amendment, the federal newly established Consultative Forum sified during 2011, when nearly 2,000 Religious Freedom Restoration Act on Fundamental Rights in Warsaw on migrants died while crossing the and H.H.S.’s rule-making authority, Oct. 16. “We can’t stress enough the Mediterranean Sea. the archbishop said. He added that importance of this forum,” said Stefan Vice President Joseph Biden spoke Kessler, a representative from the “untruthfully” during the vice presi - Jesuit Refugee Service. “Frontex, as an Court Orders dential debate on Oct. 11 when he said E.U. agency, is bound to do all in its The Obama administration “has not that “no religious institution...has to power to ensure that the rights of shown any inclination to rescind” its pay for contraception; none has to be a migrants entering the E.U. are respect - requirement that many religious vehicle to get contraception in any ed,” he said. “This certainly has not employers pay for contraceptives for insurance policy they provide.” been happening. We have seen a dis - their workers, so “we need to get this tinct lack of monitoring mechanisms mandate overturned” by the courts, to identify persons in need of protec - said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski From CNS and other sources.

8 America November 12, 2012 November 12, 2012 America 9 THOMAS MASSARO

Motivational Seeking ou won’t find many points of interests among people, as if God plight of needy organizations and indi - similarity between Charles planted in us the seeds of a bewilder - viduals who struggle to eke out an YDarwin and me, but recent ing array of inclinations, abilities and existence even farther down the food events have me once again pondering tastes. chain of philanthropy. Sure, God cre - one common attribute: an acute sense Anybody who observes the hun - ated a remarkable number of people of wonder. dreds of hobbies, thousands of maga - with commendable interest in funding I have never investigated precisely zines, even the stunning array of niche the arts and prominent social causes, what led Darwin to conduct the cable channels available today, might throwing some money toward their research that produced his master - be struck by the same impression. alma mater or fighting a specific dis - piece, On the Origin of Species, but I There is someone drawn to every ease that may have claimed a loved imagine him taking particular delight imaginable activity. one, but what about the remaining in the amazing variety of plant and Lately I have been expe - urgent causes that fall animal life and resolving to gain new riencing this sense of won - through the cracks? insights into the mechanisms respon - der anew. This summer I There is In moments of dra - sible for so many species. Wonder at took up a position (as dean matic crisis, like nature’s diversity prompted the scien - of a graduate school of the - someone Hurricane Katrina in tific labors of the Darwin of my imag - ology and ministry) that drawn to 2005 or the Asian ination. prompted me to study up, tsunami of 2004 or the I have often been gripped by the for the first time in my life, every Haitian earthquake of same powerful appreciation of diversi - on the world of philan - imaginable 2010 (to cite some ty, although it is the diversity of human thropy. No institution in crises of the past activity that enthralls me. Nothing our country seems to be activity. decade), generous giv - against hummingbirds, tortoises and able to make ends meet ing for emergency relief finches, but I have always marveled at teaching theology at the efforts is deeply encour - the varied motivations that prompt graduate level, since our alumni are aging. But ordinary grinding poverty is human behavior in all its richness. highly unlikely to earn enough to rightly characterized as “a natural dis - As a child observing commuters contribute substantially. So leaders of aster in slow motion.” Unmet human rushing off to work, it struck me as seminaries and theology centers will needs for adequate food, shelter and amazing that all these people had forever be on the lookout for poten - health care are unlikely ever to present found meaning in a staggering number tial donors. a broad enough appeal to prevent the of different professions and work Thank goodness, then, for the human tragedies of homeless families experiences. Even if each Dashing Dan human proclivity for diverse interests! and lives ruined by preventable disease or Danielle did not consider his or her It seems that God has planted in some and malnourishment, here and abroad. current job a satisfying endpoint of a affluent and generous souls an ardent Just ask the heroes who run Catholic quest for the perfect career, they found desire to make substantial sacrifices to Charities and Catholic Relief Services, sufficient motivation and interest to support schools of theology and min - who struggle every day with the grim take up and sustain that type of work, istry. Of course, it is still a challenge to arithmetic of rising needs and dimin - at least in the short run. The prolifera - identify enough of these donors to ishing resources. tion of majors and fields of study on keep such schools afloat; but my point It would be great if God graced any university campus is a similar tes - here is that this is not altogether the world with another Einstein or timony to the dizzying diversity of impossible. Despite all the odds, some - Picasso or even another Darwin, but body out there feels drawn to care. I most ardently hope that God will When I am not thinking about the fashion a few more people of means THOMAS MASSARO, S.J. , is the dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara challenge of my own mission to keep with an innate proclivity to care for University, in Berkeley, Calif. my institution solvent, I ponder the the poor.

10 America November 12, 2012

An image of Blessed José Sánchez del Rio, murdered during the anti-Catholic uprising in Mexico in the 1920s.

12 America November 12, 2012 THOUSANDS DIE FOR THEIR FAITH EACH YEAR . HOW SHOULD THE CHURCH RESPOND ? Mode rn Ma rty rs

BY DANIEL PHILPOTT

n Rome, martyrs’ relics are nothing unusual. Bones of early Christians who were beheaded or thrown to lions seem to lie in or under every piazza. The relics at the Basilica of San Bartolomeo, however, often provoke a double take. In the shadows and candle - light of the side chapels in this 10th-century church, visitors will Ifind relics of a more modern sort: the Bible of Pakistan’s Shahbaz Bhatti, whom terrorists shot dead only last year; the missal of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed while celebrating Mass in San Salvador in March 1980; the Bible of Evariste Cagorora, who had sought shelter in a church during the Rwandan genocide of 1994; a letter by Christian de Chergé, a Trappist monk of Notre Dame de l’Atlas in Algeria, whom Islamist terrorists killed in May 1996. The basilica, which sits on Tiber Island astride Rome’s Trastevere dis - trict, is run by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay movement, as a unique testament to today’s Christian martyrs. Yet few of the stories told by its relics have reached Catholics in Portland, Paris or Pittsburgh. The global church must be more ardent in its solidarity with today’s martyrs. How should it show this solidarity? What is most distinctive about today’s martyrs is their witness to justice and reconciliation. Tertullian famously wrote that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.” History has proven him right. The witness of Christians willing to die for Christ propelled the astonishing growth of the early church; hence the abundance of their relics in Rome. Today’s martyrs build the O l

l church as well. i d e C

But today’s martyrs also further the apostolic work of the church in S O p broader ways articulated during the Second Vatican Council and the m A C

O years that followed: by promoting religious freedom, unity among r u t r A y b DANIEL PHILPOTT is associate professor of political science and O t

O peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. h p

S N C

November 12, 2012 America 13 Christian churches, friendship among world religions and dom not only of Christians but of people of all faiths. the transforming power of forgiveness in politics. In solidar - For its part, the global Catholic Church drew attention to ity with the martyrs, we, too, should recognize and promote the issue in preparation for the Jubilee Year in 2000. Pope these dimensions of their sacrifice, commemorated by the John Paul II created a commission to study Christian mar - relics in San Bartolomeo. tyrs of the 20th century, one that worked in the Basilica of San Bartolomeo to assemble 12,000 dossiers on incidents of Taking Notice Today martyrdom. Meanwhile, Catholic writers like Andrea Behind the witness of today’s martyrs lies the stark reality of Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, and their numbers. More Christians were martyred in the 20th Robert Royal of the Faith and Reason Institute wrote his - century than in all previous centuries combined, according tories of 20th-century martyrs. to David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, two of the Over the years that followed, the church’s attention world’s leading religious demographers. The trend has not tapered off, though martyrdom did not. Now voices in the abated in this century. Though the statistics are uncertain church are taking up the cause again. John L. Allen Jr. writes and highly dependent on counting methodologies, the num - regularly in his columns for The National Catholic ber of Christians killed for their faith every year almost cer - Reporter urging the global church to wake up to ongoing tainly lies in the thousands and possi - Christian bloodshed. On Sept. 12, the bly tens of thousands. According to U.S. Catholic bishops held a confer - the International Society for Human ence on international religious free - Rights, Christians are estimated to dom in Washington, D.C. Still, the make up 80 percent of those who are question of how to respond to martyr - persecuted for their religion. They dom today is one that the church has have been killed in India, Vietnam, only begun to confront. Iraq, Colombia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, North Martyrdom as Eucharist Korea, Sri Lanka, China and The church’s response should stress the Indonesia. fact that modern martyrs’ witness for As the ranks of Christian martyrs justice flows from the very meaning of have grown, more and more activists the Eucharist. Pope Benedict XVI, in and organizations have taken notice. his exhortation on the Eucharist, In the early 1990s, once the cold war “Sacramentum Caritatis,” describes the no longer dominated global human conversion of bread and wine to body rights debates, several advocacy orga - and blood through the remarkable nizations, along with activists like metaphor of nuclear fission, which, he Nina Shea, author of In the Lion’s Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J., says, “set[s] off a process which trans - Den , and Paul Marshall, who wrote faces his executioners, Mexico, 1927. forms reality, a process leading ultimate - Their Blood Cries Out , succeeded in ly to the transfiguration of the entire drawing attention to what had become one of the largest world.” This transformation includes the world’s social rela - classes of human rights violations in the world: the denial of tions, the pope explains. The Christian who lives out the religious freedom to Christians. Others joined their efforts, grace of the Eucharist will strive, for instance, to bring recon - including Jewish writers like A. M. Rosenthal of The New ciliation to armed conflict, transform unjust structures and York Times and the Hudson Institute’s Michael Horowitz, restore respect for human dignity. several Jewish organizations, numerous Protestant church - Anticipating being fed to wild beasts by the Emperor es, the Mormon Church and the U.S. Conference of Commodus, St. Ignatius of Antioch, a first-century bish - Catholic Bishops. op, wrote that “to make bread the wheat must be ground, Mainstream human rights organizations were skeptical and to make wine the grapes must be crushed, so I want at first. In an interview in 1997, Kenneth Roth, the execu - my members to be broken and ground by the beasts’ teeth tive director of Human Rights Watch, derided the cause as to become a sacrifice to God.” Martyrdom is a eucharistic “special pleading” and “an effort to privilege certain classes of act, Ignatius tells us. Like the Eucharist, it entails not only victims.” Religious freedom achieved a major victory, howev - the martyr’s death—which his executioners hope will er, in 1998, when the U.S. Congress passed the annihilate his efforts—but also transformation. This International Religious Freedom Act, which established an transformation always involves the building of the church office in the State Department to promote the religious free - but also involves justice and reconciliation in politics,

14 America November 12, 2012 society and relations among churches and religions. The church itself has come to see more and more that recognizing martyrdom can promote justice by expanding its view of who counts as a martyr. It used to be that a mar - tyr was one who was killed strictly in odium fidei , out of hatred for the faith. Increasingly, though, the church has come to recognize martyrs who were killed not precisely for their faith but rather for acts of justice motivated by their faith. Take, for instance, St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan priest who was killed after he took the place of a condemned prisoner at Auschwitz, not for his faith per se; or Don Pino Pugilisi, a Sicilian priest whom the Mafia killed for speaking out against its thuggery; or Archbishop Romero, who stood against oppression of the poor. That martyrdom furthers justice may be difficult to believe in view of the thousands of Christians who have died alone and anonymous in the dark jail cells of dictators during the past century. But if we look closer at acts of mar - tyrdom, perhaps with the eyes of faith, we can see at least four ways in which they have furthered the church’s mission of justice and reconciliation. First, martyrs give testimony to the justice that is violat - ed in their very murder: that of religious freedom. The most memorable of the Second Vatican Council’s teachings on social justice was the “Declaration on Religious Freedom” (1965), which taught that the human right of religious free - dom is grounded in the very dignity of the human person as one who searches for and flourishes through religious truth. Today, nearly 75 percent of the world’s population, includ - ing people of all faiths, live in countries with high restric - tions on religious freedom, the Pew Forum reported in 2010. Martyrs offer a witness against the denial of religious freedom and a demand for regimes to protect it. One recent martyrdom testifies strikingly to the cause of religious freedom, that of Shabaz Bhatti, assassinated in Islamabad, Pakistan, on March 2, 2011, in a shooting for which Tehrik-i-Taliban, a militant Islamist group, claimed responsibility. A Catholic in a country where Christians make up 2 percent of the population, Bhatti had dedicated his life to the cause of religious minorities and had become Pakistan’s federal minister for national harmony, a cabinet post that he accepted for the sake of “the oppressed, down - trodden and marginalized” of Pakistan, as he explained. Lobbying against Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy law, pro - moting interfaith cooperation and advocating for minori - ties of all faiths, including the browbeaten Ahmadiyya movement of Islam, Bhatti knew that his life was in dan - ger. He had renounced marriage because he did not want to leave a family fatherless. In a video that he made to be released in the event of his death, he stated, “I believe in Jesus Christ who has given his own life for us, and I am ready to die for a cause. I’m living for my community...and

November 12, 2012 America 15

I will die to defend their rights.” Paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both.” A second fruit of martyrdom is ecumenism. The The funeral for de Chergé and his fellow monks, held in Community of Sant’Egidio quite deliberately includes June 1996 in Algiers, drew a crowd of 100,000, displaying Protestant and Orthodox martyrs in its displays in San Algerian Muslims’ love for the monks. Similarly, after 25 Bartolomeo, as it does in its annual prayer service, held in Christians were slain on New Year’s Day 2011 in Rome’s Basilica of St. John Lateran during Holy Week, to Alexandria, Egypt, thousands of Muslims congregated in remember Christians who were slain during the past year. candlelight vigils and formed human chains around Coptic Building friendships with the “separated churches to protect them during worship. brethren” in pursuit of the unity of the ON THE WEB As with Christian churches, members of church, of course, is also a theme of the Luke Hansen, S.J., reports on his trip different faiths recognize holiness in mar - to Guantánamo Bay. Second Vatican Council. Each martyr - americamagazine.org/podcast tyrdom and thus are, or at least can be, dom affords church communities the brought together in friendship. chance to recognize in each other what In his last testament, Abbot de Chergé all Christians regard as the truest devotion to Christ— willed “to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike following him in his death on the cross. Historically, as me down.” Forgiveness is the fourth way that martyrdom John Allen points out, shared martyrdom under the transforms social and political life. In the Christian tradi - Nazis and the Soviets propelled rapprochement among tion, forgiveness is a gift that one who has been offended or Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches. Cardinal wounded gives to the offender. It is not only a waiving of Kurt Koch of Switzerland, president of the Pontifical charges or a cancellation of debt but also an invitation to Council for Promoting Christian Unity, calls it “ecu - conversion and reconciliation. The Eucharist is an act of for - menism of the martyrs.” giveness because it performs the sacrifice by which God died Third, martyrdom witnesses to friendship not only for humanity “while we were still sinners” and in so doing among Christian churches but also between religions. But is lifts up humanity. it not members of other faiths who are doing the martyring, Paul Bhatti, Shahbaz Bhatti’s brother, forgave his broth - especially adherents of Islam? According to a report by er’s killers on April 5, 2011, when he traveled to Rome for a David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, Muslims have been conference that the Community of Sant’Egidio held in his responsible for more martyrdoms than any other religion. brother’s memory. His family had forgiven the assassins Still, we do well to remember that Christians have been “because...our brother Shahbaz was a Christian and the killed by members of many different faiths, as well as by Christian faith tells us to forgive,” he explained. Paul Bhatti militant secularists, and that Christians themselves some - was living in Italy when his brother was slain, John Allen times also kill others because of their religion. How, then, reports, and was at first filled with rage and shunned does martyrdom build anything other than tension between appeals to move back to Pakistan and carry on his brother’s faiths? fight for minorities. When he traveled back to Pakistan to An answer comes from Christian de Chergé, abbot of the attend his brother’s funeral, though, his heart was moved by Trappist monastery in Atlas, Algeria. He and his fellow the love for his brother that he saw among Pakistanis, monks had inhabited Atlas for two generations, living including Muslims. Picking up his fallen brother’s standard, among the Muslim villagers, befriending them and provid - and practicing the martyr’s constructive forgiveness, Bhatti ing them with medical care. When civil war broke out in the accepted the position of minister for national harmony to 1990s between Algeria’s repressive secular government and the president of Pakistan for religious minorities. Islamic opposition forces, the monks were in danger of The global church’s response to today’s martyrs must being murdered by Muslim terrorists. As portrayed in the consider another link to the Eucharist: It is an act of recent film “Of Gods and Men,” the monks decided to stay remembrance. In remembering, we make the past present. and remain true to their mission. So, through the Spirit, as common members of the body of Abbot de Chergé then penned a note to his future killers. Christ, let us recall, honor, praise, commend and imitate the He did not desire martyrdom, he made clear, lest it reinforce martyrs’ act of love in our liturgy and in our prayer, in our caricatures of Algerian Muslims as fanatics. But should he parishes and in our homes. Let us also make present the be killed, he desired to “immerse my gaze in that of the martyrs’ eucharistic sacrifice by joining ourselves to this act’s Father, to contemplate with him his children of Islam just as transforming dimension. More than any speech, tract or he sees them, all shining with the glory of Christ.” Here is academic argument, the martyr’s act lends credibility and neither syncretism nor triumphalism but rather Christ-like motivation to the work of justice and reconciliation. In con - love for Muslims. Then, to “the friend of my final moment,” tinuing this work, we, like Paul Bhatti, take up our fallen he writes, “may we find each other, happy ‘good thieves’ in brothers’ standards. A

18 America November 12, 2012 FAITH IN FOCUS The Man in the Mirror Facing who I really am BY MICHAEL ANTHONY NOVAK

have noticed among undergradu - Except that they did not get it all. I coped by joking about it, mar - ates a difficulty accepting that Somewhere between doing the surg - veling at the oddity of it all and tap - I Christians actually hold to the old eries together and running samples to ping into the plastic surgeons’ enthusi - Jewish belief of resurrection of the a lab to verify that all the cancer had asm for their work. (I recognize aca - body and not to the Greeks’ “immor - been removed, tality of the soul.” Whether this issue they missed some - arises while discussing Jesus’ resurrec - thing. And for the tion or the afterlife, I find myself next four years, explaining that Christians believe it is these cells pro - intrinsic to human beings to be physi - ceeded to eat away cal in some way. Even if our current at my face: a skin bodies are not prepared for perma - cancer under the nence, Jesus’ resurrection still indicates surface of my skin. some sort of continuity, which Paul Only in August contemplates in the First Letter to the 2011, as I started Corinthians. In our imaginations, the my second year of immortality of the soul is a less messy professorship, idea, if comfortably vague. When talk - could some sign ing with my students, however, I argue be seen on my skin, when the surgery demics geeking-out over their subject.) that the idea of resurrection has more location began to dimple. Consulting a I made mock complaints about teach - satisfyingly complex claims to make, plastic surgeon, I discovered that the ing in bandages, or perhaps a Phantom wrapping together fundamental beliefs skin dimpled there because there was of the Opera-style mask, so as not to about being human, about the cosmos no longer anything below it. Further repel my students during my semester and the doctrine of Creation and our examinations revealed a cancer so large of reconstructive surgeries. And I relation to our environment. that I was going to lose the left side of recalled that many people had worse Newer experiences have made the my nose, my inner left cheek and some problems. question not just historical and theo - of my upper left lip. I reconsidered my students’ debates logical, but immediate and personal. In In December 2011 I found myself about the idea of the resurrection and April 2007, as a doctoral student, I at home after the excision, staring into asked questions of my own wounded had a small basal cell carcinoma—the the bathroom mirror and summoning body. Was my lost face not really me? happiest of skin cancers, with an the courage to change my antibiotic Was it, like any lost hangnail, or even a infinitesimal metastasis rate— dressings for the first time. This limb, able to be discarded? Are our removed from the side of my left nos - required me to reach into my head bodies only passing dust? That seems tril. It was excised and smoothed over and pull them out of my exposed in line with the Greek way of thinking, with minor plastic surgery in one nasal cavity. This also meant that I after all. Yet humans are wired for y l afternoon, a satisfying story of the would now see the new me, entirely facial recognition. We identify with l O / k wonders of medicine. revealed. I was no prize-winner our faces differently than with any C O t S

before, but at that moment I knew I other part of our bodies. (I could not r e t t u

was never going to look like me again. recognize any friend of mine by the h S

MICHAEL ANTHONY NOVAK has served as : O visiting assistant professor of religious studies As I stared, aghast, the old phrase elbow.) That sounds a little more like t O h at Loyola University New Orleans. came to mind: I’m losing face. the Jewish perspective on bodies. p

November 12, 2012 America 19 Further hints came from the two ultimate resources: acquired wisdom and grace. I knew that eventually today would be yesterday, that life had already taught me that things that are now overwhelming are later simply stories to tell. “Keep walking” became the reminder I repeated to myself. Grace came, as usual, in forms unexpected. One night it was Sarah dropping by, an artist I was helping to design a stained-glass window for a chapel. She did not know that I had returned that afternoon from my most disfiguring reconstructive surgery: a forehead-flap nasal reconstruction. I had a strip of my forehead hanging down, sewn to my nose, growing into it as new flesh. I was stitched, taped, draining and bandaged; and (forbid - den to shower for another day) my hair was still matted with dried blood. If there was ever a time I did not want to be visited by a stylish young artist, this was it. I warned her through the door about my current state, but she insisted on coming in. She had brought dinner. Despite the fact that I looked like a chew toy for Jaws, she spent the next several hours looking me in the face, laughing and convers - ing, amazed that I would think that she was bothered by my current appearance. “Losing face” was real, but so was the fact that I was still myself. My face was still my own, though changed by a drastic, unexpected experience. Perhaps a chief lesson our bodies teach us is that they are continuity in trans - formation. Our bodies never were stat - ic, unchanging realities. At Easter, the disciples experienced transformed con - tinuity in Jesus, and as such, even the extreme possibility of resurrection is still somewhat consistent with our gen - eral experience. After all, the face I have now is not the face I had previously, but even that face had been different from the face I wore at 20 or at 10. Scarred, with a lumpy, uneven nose, this is my face—new, but still me. A

20 America November 12, 2012

BOOKS &CULTURE

ART | LEO J. O’DONOVAN ue to think that Robert Rauschenberg had no rival as a chronicler of the cen - THE WORLD OF WARHOL tury and that Joan Mitchell, who con - tinued to paint until her death in When soda went pop 1992, was a worthy peer of Jackson pinion is divided among painting from near death in the years Pollock and Willem de Kooning. As artists, critics and fans alike after World War II. Pablo Picasso did for de Kooning himself, the plausible Oas to whether Andy Warhol not die until 1973, and his late work argument has been made that after was the greatest artist of the second has recently won high regard. In Picasso and Henri Matisse, he was the half of the 20th century. But there is Germany, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard greatest painter qua painter of the greater agreement that few, if any, Richter and, to a lesser extent, Anselm entire century. rivaled his influence—much like Kiefer, are formidable contenders. In Now there is a show at the Marcel Duchamp in the first half of the United States, Abstract Metropolitan Museum of Art in New k r the century. The discussion, perhaps Expressionism was supplanted by O York that is too professional to play y

W foolish to begin with, is nevertheless Warhol’s Pop, soon to be followed by e the “best” game but engaging enough N

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S complex. Minimalism, language-based concep - r to make it almost inevitable. In A ( y t It has long been thought that the tual art, Neo-Expressionism and Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, e i C

O artists Francis Bacon, Alberto now—whatever.

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S t h Giacometti and Jean Dubuffet raised Against received opinion, I contin - curators show about 50 pieces by G i r

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22 America November 12, 2012 worked with increasing “Twenty Marilyns” financial success as an (1962), “Turquoise advertising and fashion Marilyn” (1964) and “Red illustrator. In 1964 he Jackie” (1964), instigated moved into the first of Richard Avedon’s photo- his famous “factories,” portrait of a weary having made his break - Truman Capote (1974). through two years Here, too, are Warhol’s before when he discov - “Silver Liz” (1963), ered how effectively— “Triple Elvis” (1963) and and easily—he could “Marlon” (1966)—no one make large and multiple of course needs a last images by silkscreening name. Chuck Close, them. though, “wanted everyday In the exhibit, people, not superstars, Warhol’s output until because that’s what Andy his death in 1987, along was doing.” Beginning in with that of his fellow 1968, Close made more artists, is installed with than 150 portraits of great flair in five the - “Phil,” and a fine 1969 matic sections: art version is in the show. about everyday life (The subject is the com - “from banality to disas - poser Philip Glass, now ter,” portraiture, sexuali - scarcely an everyday per - ty, appropriated and son.) serialized imagery and, One tires of the finally, “Business, Colla- celebrity. One tires still boration and Spectacle.” more of the indiscrimi - The first of these nate fascination with speeds through iconic power. After reading that Warhol images of Brillo Mao Tse-tung was the boxes, Campbell’s soup most famous person in

cans and Coca-Cola “Green Coca-Cola Bottles,” by Andy Warhol (1962) the world, Warhol made bottles, followed by a nearly 200 portraits of

k small video of “Empire,” his 1964 film which “eat” in yellow is lifted forward him, ranging in scale from 12 inches to r O y of the Empire State Building at night, over “death” in blue. 14 feet. Yes, there are aesthetically W e N

, which lasts eight hours and five min - The exhibition is perhaps most interesting things here: the artist y r e l focused in its second section, l utes, and then several examples from returns, for example, to abstract A G

e the “Death and Disaster” series (mul - “Portraiture: Celebrity and Power,” expressionist brushwork. But N O

O where it is implied that Warhol, with b tiple electric chairs, race riots, car American society was at the time y r

A crashes). In a similar vein there is Jeff beginning to be riven with inequality m f O Koons’s “Ushering in Banality” (1988), between the rich and the poor. It y S e t a polychromed wood piece in which appears nowhere. r u O C

two angels and a little boy lead a pig New attitudes toward sexuality ” O G

O forward (for what? our amusement?). were certainly appearing, and a single l

A l Warhol could represent “everything but effective gallery presents Warhol’s O C - A

C and nothing at the same time,” said Ed catalyzing role in the development. We O C

h Ruscha, a California artist. Just so, are spared some of his more indulgent t i W

e according to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s films on the matter, but Warhol’s late S A V

C horrific memento mori “Untitled “Self-Portrait” (1986)—one of i h t i l (Head)” (1981) and Bruce Nauman’s “Neolithic Vase with Coca-Cola Logo,” many—is a shivery stunner of a dis - O e N “ neon piece “Eat/Death” (1972), in by Ai Weiwei (2010) guised, in fact camouflaged, outsider.

November 12, 2012 America 23 “Sex is more exciting on the screen and to chart development in any of the dant. Peter Plagens in The Wall Street between the pages than between the artists and results in material being Journal thought the show “a case for sheets,” he announced, with typical presented here that could well have the obvious” and “dishearteningly aphoristic nonchalance. His large appeared earlier. lightweight,” though he did praise the acrylic and silkscreen on canvas “Jean- As for the show’s close, on com - installation, individual works and the Michel Basquiat” (1984) is a fawning merce and spectacle, nothing gives the catalogue. failure, and some of his imitators’ work feel of it better than Warhol’s “Dollar The criticism that seems to me is just embarrassing: Robert Gober Signs” (1981). more important is printing a musical score on a sculpted “Being good in busi - ON THE WEB less about Warhol’s male bottom doesn’t even titillate. ness is the most fas - A narrated slide show influence and more Still, there is little doubt that Warhol’s cinating kind of art,” of Andy Warhol’s art. about his own erotic work, more extensive than is he declared in 1975. americamagazine.org/slideshow achievement. There generally known, empowered such Still, you’re likely to can be no doubt prolific artists as Robert have fun here, moving past Takashi about the fertility of his imagination Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin and Murakami’s cutesy childishness and or his technical inventiveness. His Christopher Makos. Koons’s puppy dogs to a final room merging of photography and painting, The exhibition loses focus in its covered with Warhol’s garish cow wall - as well as of the handmade and the final two sections. The galleries on paper, pillow-shaped silver balloons mechanical, undergirded an exuberant appropriated and serial imagery do floating at the ceiling and the Velvet celebration of the everyday, the gritty include some of the show’s best Underground supplying the sound - vulgarity and cacophony of so much of work—Warhol’s own “Triple Silver track. American culture. Disaster” (1963), a handsome wood - The critical reaction to the show Warhol had an uncanny sense of cut on “Ways of Worldly Wisdom” has been mixed. Roberta Smith in The colors that should clash but instead (1978) by Anselm Kiefer, and several New York Times found the Warhol dazzle. But less persuasive is the odd “Untitled Film Stills” (1977-80) by pieces a “cursory, but largely satisfy - combination of immersion in the cul - Cindy Sherman. But the choice of ing…retrospective” but thought the ture and detachment from it, the flu - themes over chronology makes it hard show as a whole crowded and discor - ency of his imagery despite its flatness.

24 America November 12, 2012 Warhol took everything in but dis - Arts has announced that it will dis - of that reception reverberated for cen - tanced himself from it at the same perse its entire remaining collection of turies, modern historians have strug - time, registering whatever he saw but Warhols, at prices ranging from gled to explain how the persecution of revealing little about it. How long do $15,000 to $1.5 million. None are heretics became such a concern for the you really look at a Warhol painting or major works, we are told, no soup cans authorities of the 11th to 13th cen - portrait? You get the point almost or Marilyns. But even the pho - turies. The best explanations offered immediately. There is little to repay a tographs, paintings, prints and draw - in the 20th century suggested that the longer look. Warhol, I would say, was ings that remain, according to Amy official persecutions unleashed in the Catholic in his sacramental openness Cappellazzo, the chair of postwar and High Middle Ages were either exten - to all experience—but agnostic in his contemporary development at sions of a popular, superstitious and refusal to evaluate it. Christies, “are still pure Andy and have longstanding impulse to eradicate any Do not expect selections from total Warholismo.” and all social aberrance or outgrowths Warhol’s huge oeuvre to stop selling of a conviction among the powerful any time soon, however. The Andy LEO J. O’DONOVAN, S.J., is president emeri - that only orderly inquisitorial proce - Warhol Foundation for the Visual tus of Georgetown University. dures could obviate the disorderly vig - ilantism of fanatical mobs. The book here under review, The War on Heresy , develops the highly BOOKS | DAVID J. COLLINS influential alternative view first put forward by the same author in The COLLATERAL DAMAGE Formation of a Persecuting Society in 1987. R. I. Moore argues that the THE WAR ON HERESY Such grotesque fantasies about persecution of deviancy was intro - By R. I. Moore heretics had circulated in the West for duced systematically into medieval Belknap Press of Harvard University centuries. What is noteworthy about society through acts of state. The Press. 416p $35 this particular account is its placement process began in the 1160s with the in a papal decretal: “Vox in Rama” is burning of five heretics in Cologne, In the papal admonition to the arch - important evidence that new members only the second such execution in the bishop of Mainz in 1233—whose roughly seven centuries since the title, “Vox in Rama,” alludes to Herod’s demise of the Roman Empire. It cul - slaughter of the Innocents—Gregory minated at the Fourth Lateran IX describes the initiation rite of a Council in 1215, producing a full- particular heretical sect in Germany, scale “persecuting society.” The council reflected this develop - When the novice is brought ment in remarkable ways: Its attention before the assembly of the to improving the governing effective - wicked for the first time, a sort of ness of the church was unprecedented, frog appears to him... Some and it commanded prelates and bestow a kiss on the animal’s princes alike to marshal their resources hind parts, others on his mouth, to liquidate heresy in their jurisdic - sucking his tongue, and slaver.... tions. Canon 21 is especially notewor - Then the novice comes forward thy for requiring the faithful to make and stands before a man of fear - annual confession to their parish ful pallor. His eyes are black and priest. Moore follows in a long line of his body is so thin and emaciat - historians who detect an unparalleled ed that he seems to have no flesh attempt to clericalize Western society and only skin and bone. The in the canons of Lateran IV. He fur - novice kisses him, and he is as ther argues that these developments cold as ice. After kissing him, received into this elite society were were inspired from the most impor - every remnant of faith in the convinced that the practices described tant reforming impulses of the high Catholic Church that lingers in were true. medieval church: Reform—whether the novice’s heart leaves him. Since the pernicious consequences ecclesiastical or political, medieval or

November 12, 2012 America 25 modern—necessarily encompasses ful in southern France and that pro - lar ways of understanding and acting. intolerance for those aspects of the sta - voked the Albigensian Crusade Moore opines that this struggle is a tus quo it aims to change and not (1209 –55) and the founding of the hallmark of Western history and that uncommonly directs violence against Order of Preachers (1216)—is largely our own age, as a whole, has dealt with them in word and action as well. the figment of powerful churchmen in local peculiarities no more gently than Much of The War on Heresy offers collusion with equally ambitious and the High Middle Ages. an updated retelling of this history in a yet more violent secular lords. After Moore explains on his personal more accessible way. But while the ear - all, testimony for ceremonies like those Web page that he began The War on lier volume examines a wide range of in “Vox in Rama” was either made Heresy with an eye to producing groups in the High Middle Ages that under coercion or repeated second- something suitable for airport book - are newly attracting critical attention hand in condemnations. shops. He has accomplished some - —heretics, Jews, lepers and male Direct evidence of organization, thing more by forging an accessible homosexuals among them— The War hierarchy or a coherent body of beliefs and up-to-date history of the rise of on Heresy limits itself to heresy, dual - and set of practices is so scarce as to heresy persecution in the medieval ism in particular. Moore’s approach to warrant, by Moore’s reckoning, reject - West. The book will inspire ample Catharism is intriguing and provoca - ing the received wisdom outright. He criticism and defenses among schol - tive, and it is here that the book will proposes instead that the Catharism ars. Amateur historians will find a receive its most testing scholarly we read about in medieval documents pleasing expository style burnished scrutiny. and most modern textbooks was the with colorful details and perhaps also To put it in a nutshell, Moore kind of idea that, since it did not exist, occasionally tarnished by the author’s argues that Catharism—conventional - ambitious authoritarians had to overeager attempts to make his his - ly understood as a medieval dualistic invent. And invent it they did in the torical insights relevant to the 21st heresy with origins in the Balkans that service of a grand process of social cen - century. In the final analysis, War on eventually produced an alternative tralization. The aim of the “war on Heresy is not a book about which one hierarchy and great numbers of faith - heresy,” of which Catharism was the will feel neutral. high medieval showpiece, was to destroy the ability and will of local DAVID J. COLLINS, S.J. , teaches history at communities to defend their particu - Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C.

TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW K New subscription K Renewal CLAIRE SCHAEFFER-DUFFY Yearly rates are $56 for each subscription. Add $30 for postage, handling and GST on Canadian orders. Add $54 for foreign subscriptions. Payment in U.S. funds only. NONVIOLENT REVOLUTION? K Payment enclosed K Bill me On occasion America gives permission to other organizations to use our list for promotional pur- THE CATONSVILLE NINE Nonetheless, the story of one of the poses. If you do not want to receive these promo- tions, contact our List Manager at our New York A Story of Faith and Resistance in most iconic antiwar protests of the offices. the Vietnam Era Vietnam era has been only partially 9 0 9

0 By Shawn Francis Peters told. A FOR E Oxford University Press. 416p $34.95 The icon comes to life in this assid - CHANGE OF uously researched history by Shawn ADDRESS










AND What more can be said about the nine Francis Peters, author of several books








RENEWAL: American Catholics who on a May on law and religion. Peters consults

Please attach the P afternoon 44 years ago stormed a myriad resources, including the files of I Z

mailing label from

Selective Service office in Catonsville, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to

the front cover when

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t writing about service a Md., seized draft files and burned tell the story of nine ordinary t S

or change of

them in a parking lot while praying the Americans, the influences that led

address. Allow 3 to

4 weeks for change Our Father? Their exploits have been them to burn draft files at Catonsville,

of address to take

s memorialized in songs, poetry, litera - their trial and imprisonment and their

s

effect. Thank you. l

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y m d m t a d i - ture, film, visual arts, even board life afterward. His equitable coverage N A C E Mail to: America games and, most famously, in the play of each one provides an important cor - P.O. Box 293159, Kettering, OH 45429-9159 “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine,” by rective to an antiwar action that is








or call 1-800-627-9533 or visit www.americamagazine.org Dan Berrigan, S.J. often exclusively associated with the

26 America November 12, 2012 two priests involved, Dan and his F.B.I. watching their homes, showing ventional and Darst, who in the court - brother Phil. up at funerals and, in the case of the room spoke eloquently of “sacred life,” This book, however, is much more Berrigans, lurking outside the hospital contemplates suicide. Peters’s depic - than a group biography. A Catholic room of their ailing mother. Nurses tion of the Nine in all their humanness native of Catonsville, reportedly provided underscores how much their auda - Peters contextualizes the poor care to Frida cious protest at Catonsville was born actions of the Nine with - Berrigan because she of faith. in the American antiwar had raised “unpatriotic” Contrary to popular perception, movement, Baltimore in children. “Oh Jerry, take Catonsville was not a singular act of particular and a church me out of this hospital,” civil disobedience but part of a contin - flush with Vatican II she begs her son. “They uum in the antiwar protests of the energy. don’t want me here.” 1960s, influenced by the draft card Peters records with a The holiness burnings and a growing interest in tar - historian’s rigor and the described here is not the geting Selective Service offices. For compassionate curiosity stuff of our fantasies, in Phil and Tom Lewis, architects of the of an investigative journal - which everyone loves action, the burning of draft files, “death ist. Yet even in this prosa - serenely and is certain of certificates” as Lewis called them, rep - ic telling, the Catonsville God’s blessing. As one resented a shift in their antiwar efforts draft-file burnings stand Catonsville participant, from legal protest and civil disobedi - out as a poetically holy and politically David Darst, puts it, the Nine wanted ence to concrete, nonviolent interven - relevant act. to hinder the war in “an actual physical tion. “What if draft boards didn’t He covers the drama in the court - way.” It is a Herculean task and they exist?” Phil asks. “How would the gov - room, the daily street demonstra - are fragile human beings, encumbered, ernment locate military age males?” tions—pro and con—and the night - like the rest of us, with ego, depres - Dorothy Day once described the time gatherings at St. Ignatius Church, sion, addiction and plain old frailty. burning of draft files at Catonsville as where heavy-hitters of the peace move - The clarity and community experi - an act of nonviolent revolution not ment like Dorothy Day and William enced during the action and trial give only “against the state but against the Sloan Coffin praise the Nine for their way to the confusion and loneliness of alliance of church and state, an alliance “desperate offer for peace and freedom.” everyday life. Phil’s demanding energy which has gone on much too long.” Many Baltimoreans are less generous. alienates supporters. Dan nearly dies The raid on Local Board 33 provoked “I think they ought to lock ’em in the in prison. Moylan later disassociates a reckoning with that unholy alliance, can and throw away the key,” says a pop - from a protest she considers too con - a reconsideration of allegiances. While ular disc jockey. Amid such a vivid reconstruction of events, the reader feels the chaos and hope of that period. WITHOUT GUILE When legal appeals fail to overturn their guilty verdict, five of the Nine go underground. Peters examines the political and personal consequences of this decision, inspired by the historian Howard Zinn. The civil disobedient, Zinn argues, is under no moral obliga - tion to surrender to authorities and should evade prison to continue the witness. Dan Berrigan’s five months on the lam and the F.B.I.’s high profile N I

search for him keep the Catonsville E T S draft-file burning in the public eye. K C E

But a decade of living as a fugitive B O B

takes its toll on Mary Moylan, whose Y B

N life plunges into a downward spiral. O O T R

Family members of the Nine tell of the A C

November 12, 2012 America 27 many wished the priests and their make them so. We think of such peo - grounds, including those “who belong cohorts would go back to tending to ple, writes Berrigan, “and the stone in to other religions or no religion at their flock and “stop their political agi - our breast is dissolved/we take heart all”—a view not shared by all Jesuits— tation,” some understood their “burn - once more.” against the backdrop of the “multiple ing of paper instead of children.” Thirty years later, I remain deeply missionary frontiers in which Jesuits I read Dan Berrigan’s The Trial of grateful for the Catonsville protest, its and others have been engaged over the the Catonsville Nine while at the opening of new possibilities for being a centuries.” He sees his work, in other University of Virginia. A student of Catholic in a country where war-mak - words, as part of the perennial task of social and political thought with an ing has become part of the fabric of Christian inculturation. Even more, evangelical orientation, I knew noth - our lives. To reacquaint myself with Haight grounds an inclusive approach ing about these Catholic radicals and people who confronted war personally, to the Exercises in St. Ignatius’ own their fiery protest. Berrigan’s slim to see them in all their contradictions principle of adaptation and care for the script shook me to my core. Here were and frailties, as I did reading this book, person at hand. people of faith unwilling to lament and gives me heart once more. What is courageous about this effort then accept war as inevitable. The is Haight’s fidelity to an audience of times are “inexpressibly evil,” they said, “seekers,” those looking for deeper CLAIRE SCHAEFFER-DUFFY , a freelance writ - and yet they are “inexhaustibly good” er, lives and works at the Saints Francis and meaning in their lives but “who may or because of those who have the hope to Therese Catholic Workers of Worcester, Mass. may not have a comprehensive frame - work” like religious belief for under - standing human existence. Haight allows himself little recourse to the CHRISTOPHER PRAMUK royal “we.” Confessional language will not do for a secular or unchurched A SUMMONS TO FREEDOM audience, nor for students who identify as “spiritual but not religious.” At the CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY spirituality: “Can Catholic spirituality same time he clearly intends the book FOR SEEKERS find a place in a global human conversa - to offer new ways of thinking and pray - Reflections on the Spiritual tion that spans many religious tradi - ing through the Exercises for commit - Exercises of Ignatius Loyola tions? Can it accommo - ted “insiders,” whether By Roger Haight date a [scientific] picture spiritual directors or Orbis Books. 282p $25 of the universe that con - teachers of Christian spir - temporary children take ituality, or Christians gen - One of the gifts Roger Haight, S.J., has for granted? Or does reli - erally “whose faith has given to Catholic theology across nine gious piety require a more been eroded by postmod - books and decades of scholarship is his narrowly defined and ern culture.” persistent interjection of a universal enclosed self-understand - Notwithstanding its scope of concern. From The Experience ing?” His new book, densely analytic style, the and Language of Grace (1979) and Christian Spirituality for book shines in its second Dynamics of Theology (1990) to the Seekers: Reflections on the half, comprised of 42 much-debated Jesus Symbol of God Spiritual Exercises of reflections on the contem - (1999), for which he came under cen - Ignatius Loyola , represents plations of the Spiritual sure by the Congregation for the a sophisticated and coura - Exercises. Here the figure Doctrine of Faith, the global horizon of geous attempt to frame a response to of Jesus takes center stage, Jesus who is poverty and war, religious pluralism, these questions from the perspective of near enough, beautiful enough and ecumenism and postmodern intellectu - Ignatian spirituality. human enough to follow. Haight posi - al culture represents for him the field of The book rises from Haight’s experi - tions Ignatius’ contemplation on “The vision and a host of “new apologetic ence offering the Spiritual Exercises to Call of the King” as the heart of a demands” to which Catholic theology highly diverse groups of students at renewed spirituality in an Ignatian key. must respond. Union Theological Seminary in New Upending societal conventions of lord - Several years ago in America York City. Haight frames his conviction ship, Jesus embodies what God desires (3/17/2008) Haight framed these that the Exercises can be engaged fruit - in loving service to God’s reign on broad concerns explicitly in terms of fully by people of varied spiritual back - earth: precisely not lordly rule over oth -

28 America November 12, 2012 ers but power with and for others “in ment, I do think Haight is too quick to LETTERS teaching, healing, social critique, and undervalue sapiential and cataphatic building up.” What emerges in Haight’s (symbolically effusive and content-rich) Bloody Hands reading of the Exercises is a robust ways of knowing and experiencing God Re “Electoral Responsibility” adult spirituality not of passive depen - in and through Jesus Christ in favor of (Editorial, 10/29): Thanks for contin - dence but of discipleship-in-communi - a strongly rational and apophatic bias uing to muddy the waters. It has ty and empowerment by the Spirit, who (symbolically reserved and content- become a tradition for me to cast my summons and sets freedom free, as it spare). ballot for president every four years by were, to commit oneself as Jesus did to To frame it another way, can going into the voting booth and hold - the values of God’s reign. Moreover, by Christian spirituality remain ing my nose. It is a tortured exercise. I framing the dynamism of incarnation “Christian” or “Ignatian” when it takes agree that defense spending is a within the wider drama of an evolving its first principles from the surrounding national disgrace. I also agree that universe, Haight aims to open up for intellectual culture more or less on its health care should be a basic right and readers a felt sense of “God’s imma - own terms? Is “prophecy” possible that Roe v. Wade should be over - nence within and presence to all of cre - where there is no longer a common reli - turned so that voters once again get a ation in a personal way.” gious language or institutional memory say in how abortion is legislated. I Whether Christian Spirituality for from which to ground communication don’t remember the last time I cast my Seekers will succeed in readers’ estima - about “the real”? These remain live vote for president and walked out of tions as an experiment in Christian questions of inculturation for which the booth without feeling that I had inculturation or as a faithful revisioning Haight’s work, I expect, will continue to blood on my hands. of the Exercises will depend largely on be something of a lightning rod. STEVE MITCHELL the degree to which readers sympathize What must not, finally, be over - Lancaster, Pa. with the principles of interpretation looked is Haight’s deeply biblical and Haight establishes in the first half of profoundly humane commitment to a Prayers Answered the book. First among these is a com - common anthropology rising from the Re “Waiting for Gabriel,” by Timothy mitment to historical consciousness as experience of radical wonder before P. O’Malley (10/22): If possible, emo - the currency of intelligibility and truth creation and the open-ended tionally or financially, consider adop - in our times. Fidelity to the Exercises dynamism of freedom-in-grace. It is tion. Six years ago we were where the cannot mean a fundamentalist appro - not only valid but urgent, after all, for author and his wife are now, and it felt priation of the text, but requires a Christians and people of faith to like hell. I prayed a lot, but felt as if I “fusion of narratives” between Ignatius’ affirm a common “we.” “To exist as a were praying into a hollow well, and medieval Catholic worldview and the human being is to exist in solidarity each month got worse. We dreaded historical, evolutionary consciousness with other human beings, across time family gatherings and the people at that 21st century pilgrims take for and into the future.” Pace some of his work had long stopped asking me, granted. The absence of substantive critics, Haight’s vision of Christianity “Any plans for children?” reflection on God as Trinity, founda - does not surrender to postmodern One day my wife, who was really tional to Ignatius’ spiritual biography fragmentation and relativism. Jesus sick of fertility drugs, etc., suggested and the Exercises, and Haight’s decision emerges in this study as our consum - adoption, and it was like the first break to limit his Gospel reflections to Luke- mate bridge to other human beings of sunlight after weeks of rain. A kind Acts, which supports his preference for always and everywhere. Rediscovering cousin, out of the blue, offered finan - Spirit-language, may raise eyebrows. the person of Christ may also be the cial assistance (I guess I wasn’t really Moves like this make this study vulner - key to the revitalization of an adult praying down a well), and a year later able, as some have complained of Catholic spirituality. we had a wonderful little boy, Luis, Haight’s theology, to the charge of from Guatemala. Three months after reductionism. CHRISTOPHER PRAMUK teaches theology at Luis came home, my wife started Xavier University in Cincinnati. Haight’s work has been controversial throwing up her breakfast, and we partly due to a perception that his por - America (ISSN 0002-7049) is published weekly (except for 14 realized Luis was going to have a sib - combined issues: Jan. 2–9, 16–23, Jan. 30–Feb. 6, April 16-23, trait of Jesus leaves far too much of the June 4–11, 18–25, July 2–9, 16–23, July 30–Aug. 6, Aug. 13–20, ling (again, I guess I wasn’t praying Aug. 27–Sept. 3, Sept. 10–17, Nov. 26–Dec. 3, Dec. 24–31) by New Testament and the Catholic doc - America Press, Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019. down a well). A year to the day after Periodical postage is paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing trinal tradition on the cutting room offices. Business Manager: Lisa Pope. Circulation: (800) 627–9533. Luis came home, little brother Danny Subscriptions: United States, $56 per year; add U.S. $30 postage floor, leaving us with a “merely” human and GST (#131870719) for Canada; or add U.S. $56 per year for was born. international priority airmail. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Jesus. While I do not share that judg - America, P.O. Box 293159, Kettering, OH 45429. Now those dark days seem a life -

November 12, 2012 America 29 time away. (Our boys are three and not always possible to send one’s kids tions; most important, find a church six.) But this fine article brought it all to Catholic schools, fund overseas mis - with a congregation, clergy and faith for - back. Keep praying, but consider, if sion trips and come up with a host of mation program that will nourish every - possible, that there are lots of little inspiring Catholic relatives. one in the family. ones out there praying for a nice home My husband and I have three sons, I cannot over-emphasize the impor - and kind, loving parents. Best of luck. 16, 18 and 22. One of their grandfathers tance of this last point. Worshipping MIKE CASEY was an atheist, and they attend public together in a vibrant faith community North Yarmouth, Me. schools. But they share a vibrant and that revitalizes our minds, hearts and active Catholic faith. My advice: Talk as spirits has helped my boys to become Family Advice a family about what is really important not only faithful Catholics, but also “On Their Way,” by Elizabeth A. in life; find regular opportunities to pray retreat leaders, cantors, lectors and Donnelly and Phillip E. Pulaski together; develop small rituals around parish council members. (10/22), is a lovely and inspiring arti - the liturgical year; discuss Scripture AMANDA GREEN Belmont, Mass. cle. I commend the authors for facili - together and learn about the saints; find tating the development of their daugh - opportunities to serve others with your ters’ lived faith. I worry, however, that children; teach your children the funda - Two-Tiered Education System young parents may read this article mentals of the Catholic religion and also Re “School Daze” (Editorial 10/15): and feel immensely intimidated. It’s learn together about other faith tradi - On the whole, America did a much bet -

To send a letter to the editor we recommend using the link that appears below articles on ter job than the rest of the national press America ’s Web site, www.americamagazine.org. This allows us to consider your letter for publi - in offering a balanced, thoughtful assess - cation 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]. ment of the Chicago teachers’ strike that acknowledged the deeper issues and avoided union-bashing. But it also missed the opportunity to take a more critical look at Catholic education’s cur - rent and future role in our two-tiered education system. Why, for example, is America so quick to endorse merit pay and other “accountability” standards, measures based on standardized testing, when those same ideas are rarely imple - mented in Catholic education ? More fundamentally, I know of no Catholic school that does what tradi - tional public schools are asked to do every day: educate every child who CLASSIFIED Wills walks in the door, regardless of their Please remember America in your will. Our legal title socioeconomic status, language, special is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New needs or level of parental involvement. York, NY 10019. Books Even the most laudable inner-city ADULT FAITH STUDY. Faith and reason togeth - America classified. Classified advertisements are accept - Catholic educational models, like er: www.WordUnlimited.com. ed for publication in either the print version of America or on our Web site, www.americamagazine.org. Ten- Cristo Rey schools, depend to some Retreats word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. 1-5 times: degree on the ability to screen their $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 12-23 times: $1.23; 24-41 NEED SILENCE AND PRAYER? Come to One students. The Catholic Church should times: $1.17; 42 times or more: $1.12. For an addition - Heart, One Soul Spirituality Center, Kankakee, ask harder, big-picture questions al $30, your print ad will be posted on America ’s Web Ill. Peaceful wooded river-front setting with her - site for one week. Ads may be submitted by e-mail to: about its educational enterprise: mitages, private rooms and meeting facilities. Ph.: [email protected]; by fax to (928) 222-2107; (815) 937-2244; www.sscm-usa.org/ohos.html. Vouchers or no vouchers, are Catholic by postal mail to: Classified Department, America , 106 schools resolving or only deepening West 56th St., New York, NY 10019. To post a clas - Travel sified ad online, go to our home page and click on the division of U.S. schoolchildren JOURNEYING: U.K. AND IRELAND. Relaxed “Advertising” at the top of the page. We do not accept ad into haves and have-nots? hiking in beautiful and often remote places. Small copy over the phone. MasterCard and Visa accepted. CHARLES BERGMAN groups. For details visit www.journey.co.uk. For more information call: (212) 515-0102. Chicago, Ill.

30 America November 12, 2012 THE WORD

ously, I am challenged and freed by thinking of a universe that is passing Apocalyptic Vision away. I think my heart is big enough to realize that I am both a resident alien THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), NOV. 18, 2012 in this world (1 Pt 2:11) and commis - Readings: Dn 12:1–3; Ps 16:5–11; Heb 10:11–18; Mk 13:24–32 sioned to “promote the welfare of the “The sun will be darkened…heaven will be shaken” (Mk 13:24–25) city to which I have exiled you” (Jer 29:7). In another vein, I can recognize, as Paul did, that I am nothing (2 Cor he Bible is highly complex and “such as has not been from the begin - 12:11)—what freedom!—and that I includes a plurality of theolo - ning of God’s creation” (13:19). In am loved deeply as a child of God and Tgies, not all of which align. today’s Gospel reading this heir with Christ himself (Rom Some of these differences even reflect same vision becomes 8:16–17)—what dignity! dramatic shifts. Many Old Testament more cosmic: “The sun The images help us authors assumed, for example, that will be darkened...the engage the mystery but there were gods other than Yahweh stars will be falling from should not be identified (Ps 82:1; 95:3). This had to be cor - the sky, and the pow - with it. It would be a mis - rected (Isa 45:20–21; Jer 16:20; Ps ers in the heavens will take to imagine apocalyp - 135:15–18). Another dramatic shift be shaken.” While tic texts as if they were concerned the very possibility of salva - Jesus announces that newspaper headlines from tion. Ancient Israel believed that only the Father knows the future. Instead of thinking everyone, good or bad, goes to Sheol the time, he also assures that Jesus erred in his apoca - after death, a sort of dark, watery place his listeners that “this gener - of rest (Gn 37:35; Nm 16:30). Not so, ation will not pass away until all PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE we find in late Old Testament texts these things have taken place.” • Meditate through the week using the that proclaim resurrection and union Did these predictions come from mantra “Come Lord Jesus.” with God (Wis 3:1–9). Jesus’ own mouth, or are they a

• Ask the Lord to fill your heart with spiritu - e Other texts offer a variety of images product of Mark’s church under N N

al urgency. u d

that do not reject previous notions but persecution? What do we make of d A t

: still cannot cohere to each other. Some Jesus’ unfulfilled prediction that all t r texts, for example, imagine a spiritual - these apocalyptic events would hap - A ization of the whole creation (Rom pen during his current generation? lyptic prediction, we might realize that 8:19–23), while others anticipate the Why would Mark include this almost not only Mark’s generation needed to destruction of the universe, to be two generations later? And what does hear it, but ours as well. An apocalyp - replaced by another (2 Pt 10–13). all this mean for us? tic vision helps us recognize that God’s Today’s readings offer a competing We might begin by recognizing that forces are fighting for us. It inspires us vision, a decidedly apocalyptic one. the various incompatible visions within not to give up when we are over - Our first reading from Daniel the Bible need not be problematic. The whelmed and tempted to quit. It helps describes tribulation, escape for the variety of images invites us into an array us yearn for Christ with that ancient elect and resurrection from the dead. of access points to the divine mystery. plea, Maranatha , “Come Lord Jesus.” Daniel’s message is, hold on and stay They can inspire different spiritualities As Pope John Paul II once said: faithful. We will be the victors, but it that collectively enrich the church, and “Let us pray that the heartfelt prayer will get ugly before it gets beautiful. In they can help us individually engage our of the church, ‘Come Lord Jesus,’ will Mark’s Gospel, Jesus foretells persecu - spiritual lives most fully. become the spontaneous plea of every tion, sacrilege, wars and great suffering The biblical reflections on the human heart. We can never be satis - sacredness of creation heighten my fied by the things of the world. Our experiences of awe and wonder, and hearts yearn for the promised bless - PETER FELDMEIER is the Murray/Bacik Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of they inspire me to look for God’s pres - ings still to come.” Toledo. ence there. When I take life too seri - PETER FELDMEIER

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