THE EDITORS ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF MANY THINGS 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 Ph: (212) 581-4640; Fax: (212) 399-3596 followed the returns on election fight in which victory has displaced Subscriptions: (800) 627-9533 www.americamedia.org night from a hotel room in the common good as the ultimate end. facebook.com/americamag IBarcelona. As the evening evolved Yet the common good is something to twitter.com/americamag (or devolved, depending on one’s which we can all aspire, while victory President and Editor in Chief perspective), it was increasingly clear obviously is not. Matt Malone, S.J. that a huge swath of voters was sending a “Victory is a myth,” David Neuhaus, Executive Editors Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy powerful message to another huge swath S.J., recently told America: “The idea Managing Editor Kerry Weber in the only way it now could: through that you can be victorious gets in the Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. the blunt instrument of the ballot box. way of pulling down the walls. And Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent Kevin Clarke In those halcyon though still imperfect when we speak as church of pulling Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. pre-Google days of American politicking, down the walls, we are speaking first Creative Director Shawn Tripoli such messages were also exchanged of a process that we must undergo.” Executive Editor, America Films Jeremy Zipple, S.J. In other words, prescinding from before the balloting through reasoned Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. public debate, informed by objective the fact that neither political party Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent data, established by universally credible represents the totality of a Catholic Gerard O’Connell Associate Editor and Director of Digital sources. This was known as public social worldview, and that Catholics Strategy Sam Sawyer, S.J. discourse. And it is very nearly gone. who are committed to that totality are Associate Editor & Director of Audience Some Spaniards told me that politically homeless, the crisis in our Development Eric Sundrup, S.J. Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. looking at the United States from public discourse is so profound and Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga abroad, it seems that politics has poses such a clear and present danger Segura, Robert David Sullivan become our national pastime, our to the body politic that Catholics must Associate Editor, Film José Dueño, S.J. Assistant Editor Joseph McAuley principle social and cultural pursuit. fundamentally reassess our public Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder But it is a politics without argument, engagement. We must ask how we Editorial Assistant for Digital Media I replied, which is the most dangerous have been complicit in the demise of Zachary Davis Editorial Assistant Eloise Blondiau kind of politics. While it might seem as public discourse and what distinct and O’Hare Fellows Teresa Donnellan, Nicholas if we were engaged in a vigorous public essentially Catholic contribution we can Genovese, Wyatt Massey argument for the past 20 months about make to fixing it. Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. the direction of our country, what this Now is the time not to rebut but Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, election actually revealed was the extent to reframe the question. We must ask Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider National Correspondent Michael O’Loughlin to which public argument, in the truest not what our country can do for us Regional Correspondents John Carr (Wash- sense of the term, is nearly impossible in but what it is doing to us and what ington), Anthony Egan, S.J., and Russell Pollitt, S.J. (Johannesburg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los the current American political climate. we can do for it in turn. It starts by Angeles), Timothy Padgett (Miami), David Stewart, The theologian John Courtney remembering, as William T. Cavanaugh S.J. (London), Rhona Tarrant (Dublin), Judith Valente (Chicago) Murray, S.J., reminded us that has observed, that there is more to Moderator, Catholic Book Club “disagreement and argument are rare the church’s public witness than the Kevin Spinale, S.J. achievements, and most of what is tired quadrennial debate about whom Editor, The Jesuit Post Michael Rossmann, S.J. Editorial e-mail called disagreement and argument is we can vote for. Such questions, [email protected] simply confusion.” An argument, in while important, are mere politics. Publisher and Chief Financial Officer the classical sense, requires allegiance Yet if our democracy is to survive Edward G. Spallone Deputy Publisher to a shared set of principles, as well as and prosper, then our politics must Rosa M. Del Saz Vice President for Advancement Daniel Pawlus Advertising general agreement about the data of become less important. It must yield Sales Manager Chris Keller Advancement experience or, to put it more simply, the to public argument about the ends of Coordinator Timothy Bouffard Programs and Events Coordinator Nicholas Sawicki facts of the matter. Yet the partisans our common existence rather than the Business Operations Staff Glenda Castro, who now command our attention mere means. Make no mistake: The Ryan Richardson, Anastasia Buraminskaya Advertising Contact ads@americamedia. claim a right not only to their own end of true public argument presents a org; 212-515-0102 Subscription contact and opinions but to their own facts. This is profound crisis for democracy, a greater Additional copies 1-800-627-9533 Reprints: [email protected] a consequence of the overpowering and threat to the health of the body politic destructive influence of post-factual than that posed by the worst of the © 2016 America Press Inc. ideological partisanship, which has policy proposals of either major party. Cover: Denver, Colo., and environs. iStockphoto. reduced public discourse to a street MATT MALONE, S.J. com/ David Parsons Contents www.americamagazine.org VOL. 215 NO. 17, WHOLE NO. 5149 November 28, 2016

ARTICLES 16 NOT IN OUR NAME State power can lead to groundless morality. John Gallagher

20 HARD CLAIM American exceptionalism runs up against ‘Laudato Si’’ John D. Wilsey

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 16 5 Editorial Solidarity Now 6 Reply All 8 Signs of the Times

14 Column Find Your Tribe Nathan Schneider 23 (Un)Conventional Wisdom The Change Is Us Robert David Sullivan 24 Vatican Dispatch The Ecumenical Pope Gerard O’Connell 25 Faith in Focus Such Great Heights Brian Doyle 27 Generation Faith Through the Motions Nicole Bazis 20 39 The Word Let’s Try This Again Michael R. Simone

BOOKS & CULTURE 30 ART Kerry James Marshall BOOKS Mr. Blue; Systematic Theology; The Catholic Church; Catholic Women Speak POEM Resurrection

ON THE WEB America and the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture present a three-part video web series, “Deacons, Women and the Call to Serve the Church.” Plus, how Catholics are responding to the election of Donald J. Trump. Full digital highlights on page 38 and at americamagazine.org 39 CURRENT COMMENT

repeated until a majority is won.” Suffering Children Under such a system, candidates who do not fit the rigid The demolition of the Calais “Jungle,” a vast migrant camp two-party model could have a path to election—candidates, that had grown up around the entrance to the tunnel for example, who support Democratic Party economics connecting France and the United Kingdom, left scores but are pro-life, or who support the Republican Party of children adrift amid smoldering ruins in October. Like on spending and taxation but also back environmental the adult migrants around them, these unaccompanied protection measures. But ranked-choice voting could also minors, some as young as 8, had made it as far as Calais, lead to a proliferation of niche candidates hoping to slip hoping to find sanctuary in Great Britain. The plight of into office with little scrutiny, and the system may not be these children and teens highlights the growing problem of compatible with the compromise and coalition-building unaccompanied child migrants throughout Europe. that are essential in a working democracy. Maine, where Nearly 90,000 children unaccompanied by parents or independent candidates are unusually popular and several other guardians sought asylum in Europe in 2015—four state officeholders have recently won with far less than a times the number in 2014. Thirteen percent of them majority of the vote, is a good state for this experiment. But were under the age of 14. Most are boys between the ages it would be wise for other states to see what happens in of 16 and 17; many represent the one family member Maine before adopting this innovation themselves. sent off, after pooling meager family resources, to escape conflict zones to a better life. That hope can be misplaced. In January, the E.U. police intelligence agency Europol Death Watch estimated that at least 10,000 child refugees have gone Slowly, the death penalty is gaining ground again. Though missing since arriving in Europe. It is feared many have many states have abolished the practice, residents of become victims of exploitation by human traffickers and Oklahoma, California and Nebraska voted in favor of the criminal gangs, who force them into prostitution, child death penalty on Election Day. labor and the drug trade. Nov. 7 marked the start of the federal death penalty trial These children and teens have been making their way of Dylann S. Roof, the white 22-year-old who a year and a through Europe in flight from war and ISIS terror in half ago shot and killed nine African-American worshipers the Middle East or escaping other conflicts and extreme in a church in Charleston, S.C. Meanwhile, at the trials poverty in Africa. The United States experiences much both of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the Boston Marathon the same desperate phenomenon at its southern border as bombings and of Mr. Roof, relatives of the victims unaccompanied children flee north to escape poverty and have asked that the lives of the defendants be spared. gang- and narco-violence. Perhaps putting heads together The N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund, at the United Nations on this shared dilemma can lead to prominent civil rights leaders and a majority of black South an effective and humane global response to this especially Carolinians favor life without parole for Mr. Roof. His heartbreaking migration challenge. execution, some say, would only enforce the legitimacy of a punishment applied disproportionately to black people. Death penalty trials make it more difficult for victims Check Your Preference to heal and recover, and sentences are often poorly As the United States chose an unorthodox new president, administered. According to a study from the Columbia the citizens of Maine quietly approved an unorthodox University School of Law, courts found a “serious reversible way of electing people to office. Ranked-choice voting is error” in nearly 70 percent of cases reviewed from between used in a few municipalities, but Maine would be the first 1973 and 1995. But the strongest moral argument against state to use the system for gubernatorial, congressional capital punishment is that vengeance corrupts those who and legislative races (if the referendum proposal demand the death of a fellow human being. As Supreme withstands any court challenges). As The Bangor Daily Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in 2008, “When the News describes the rather complex process, “A winner law punishes by death, it risks its own sudden descent into is declared if a majority picks a candidate as their first brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to choice. But if not, the candidate with the lowest share decency and restraint.” Each person strapped to the table or of first-place votes is eliminated and second-place votes into the electric chair is redeemable and has a right to live for that candidate are reallocated, a process that will be until called by God.

4 America November 28, 2016 EDITORIAL Solidarity Now his was an election about class. This was an election urban voters and focused instead about trade, globalization and fears about immigra- on Rust Belt states in the Midwest. Ttion. This was an election about upheaval and rejec- Mrs. Clinton, following today’s tion of a distant elite. This was an election about race and conventional political wisdom, gender. All of these statements are true. worked on increasing turnout Above all, however, this was an election about division. among her base while ceding white, While President-elect Donald J. Trump won convincingly non-college-educated voters to Mr. Trump. in the Electoral College, and thus requires both our support The fact that Mr. Trump’s strategy was successful while and our prayers, the harder task still lies ahead. No one Mrs. Clinton’s failed does not give legitimacy to either. Neither should feel complacent about the divisions this election strategy transcended a politics of division, while Mr. Trump’s emphasized and exploited, which run far deeper than added resentment to the mix as well. Instead of seeking to political allegiances. Mr. Trump said in his victory speech reconcile the divisions from which the country suffers they that now was the “time for America to bind the wounds of perpuated them. division,” and he is right. Yet no policy proposal, whether it Recognizing these divisions should prompt a national promises to restore the lost jobs of American manufacturing examination of conscience. Republicans, while holding both or to ensure free college for all, will be enough to bridge houses of Congress and the presidency, must ask what they those rifts. No political figure can now command enough owe to the apparent slim plurality of the electorate that voted loyalty or respect. for Mrs. Clinton; they must also determine how to encourage Nor are careful analysis and understanding of these Mr. Trump to ameliorate, rather than exploit those divisions. issues sufficient to the task. There is no easy replacement for Democrats, recognizing that their party’s concentrated base actual solidarity with others. The geographic, socioeconomic has isolated them from the concerns of huge swaths of the and communication bubbles that too often pass for civic life in country, must consider how to prioritize those voters’ concerns modern America have not provided that solidarity and indeed alongside other issues. Leaders across society must broaden have often worked against it. the range of people to whom they listen and with whom they As Pope Francis has consistently reminded the church speak. and the world, it is the poor who disproportionately bear The church has an important role to play as the next the costs of division and inequity. It is the poor, both on our four years of Mr. Trump’s presidency unfold. It must offer doorstep and around the world, who are most invisible and clear and vigorous moral guidance, not limiting itself to the easiest to ignore when concerns over economic stagnation anti-abortion promises to which Mr. Trump must be held but tempt us to limit our compassion. And as those limits become also speaking on issues of immigration, racial discrimination, walls that “close in some and exclude others,” as the pope international peace and social welfare. The church must said recently, we will discover that those who are excluded, stand firm in rejecting any return to the insults, misogyny whether because of race, nationality or class, are almost always and devaluation of human dignity that characterized much far poorer than the ones raising the barriers. of Mr. Trump’s campaign rhetoric. The church must also The poor are on the other side when the barrier is a wall offer the wisdom of Catholic social teaching to help shape closing off the United States from Mexico. But poor people proposals for addressing legitimate concerns about economic are also on the other side of the various barriers that divide the stagnation among those globalization has left behind without financial, governmental, educational and media elites from the scapegoating the poor and retreating into isolationism and rest of the country. xenophobia. Neither economic stagnation nor the disconnect of the Even more than its public moral witness, the church elites tells the whole story. The voting was also starkly divided must encourage Catholics to find practical solidarity with along racial and geographic lines, with suburban and rural their political opponents, sharing worship and conversation areas and whites voting for Donald Trump while minorities and the works of mercy. That is both more difficult and more and large urban centers voted for Hillary Clinton. Another costly than simply adopting better political positions, but it way to read this election is to look at which constituencies the offers a hope of reconciliation, not merely the prospect of parties chose to write off. Mr. Trump ignored minority and electoral victory.

November 28, 2016 America 5 REPLY ALL Shining the Light hopefully, finally lead to a successful Re “Remedies Beyond Reach," by Fran and marketable drug. To take a drug Just Judgment Quigley (11/7): Shining the light is from conception to market is a long Re “Unjust Discrimination” (Editorial, the best thing we can do, just what is and expensive process, littered with 11/7): There are many sins that happening here. We should push eth- many failed attempts. All of this needs are public, especially these days. ics for all business. Pushing for com- to be accounted for in any cost assess- Unmarried couples living together; petition through legislation is anoth- ment. thieves caught red-handed; witnesses er great idea. These patent laws need If the drug companies cannot recov- lying under oath; healthy, registered tweaking. Also drugs derived from er their costs, then how are they to re- members of the church who never public research should have some kind main in business? A purported right to make it to Mass—the list could go on of common-good patent, where costs a drug does not obligate the drug com- and on. Why indeed are gay people are kept low. But I do not push for gov- pany to financially ruin itself. There such targets for public censure? Jesus ernment control of the pharmaceutical are definite costs that need to be in- was a just judge, but can we say that business. Innovation requires freedom. cluded in any calculus of research and about ourselves? JOHN BAUER manufacturing of a drug. If the costs ALFRED CHAVEZ Online Comment are not paid by the users, then who do Online Comment you expect to step up and pay on their For Love Alone Pursuit of Ideals behalf? The state? The international It’s incredibly simple. “By this everyone There is at least one point of Mr. community? Do you want to impose will know that you are my disciples, if Quigley's article that seems accurate, higher taxes to compel us all to pay our you love one another.” Jesus gave us a namely that there is a high cost when "fair" share? pretty stellar model to follow. What’s it comes to drugs. The rest of his ar- I recognize that there is a problem most important in all this is that we ticle trashes patent law, dismisses the with the cost of drugs, as there is with continue to do all things with love, for reasonable recovery of research costs, education, clothing, even drinking wa- love alone, as we have each been in- and casts the drug industry as heart- ter, and that Mr. Quigley does well dividually charged. As for me, I am a less capitalists. to dramatize the issue in his article. Christian; and imperfect as I am, my The patent shield clearly exists to However, despite his best efforts, I job is to welcome everyone with open recover costs of research into a partic- don't think he gave fair treatment to a heart and the love of Christ. ular drug, but it is also a mechanism very complex issue. Rather he seems to ANDREW D’AMICO to recover costs associated with all the place excessive onus on the drug com- Online Comment failed research attempts that would, panies, which are innovative employers of tens of thousands around the world and take seriously their mission to end disease and improve the quality of hu- man life. The pursuit of such ideals should be commended, not ignored or condemned. R. A. HAMILTON, West Orange, N.J.

State the Truth Re Of Many Things, by Matt Malone, S.J. (11/7): To me as a Catholic, a Jesuit-educated man and sinner, the search for truth and those willing to speak the truth are what guide me during these elections. That as humans we are all fallible is a given. What sepa- rates one from the other among those who offer themselves to serve the public good is whether one is willing to state “For your stress test, I’m going to turn on the news.” the truth and courageously stand by it CARTOON: HARLEY SCHWADRON CARTOON:

6 America November 28, 2016 or not. When I apply that standard to political backgrounds. At one extreme students grasped and liked. I have of- our presidential candidates, the choice we have Simon, a zealot, and at the ten been grateful for Bruce, and this is clear. All human frailties are forgiv- other we have Matthew, the publican. essay reminds me of this. Thanks. able if we acknowledge them rather For Ignatius, for Christ, as well as for FRANCESCA HEARTFIELD than concealing them from a public. Thomas Becket, the “honor of God” Online Comment MATTHIAS MENDEZONA and the “things of God” are at the heart Online Comment of the common good. “No Worse” EGBERTO BERMUDEZ Re “Hate.Net,” by James Martin, S.J. The Common Good Online Comment (10/31): I don’t use social media, but “It is remarkable, then, that these every now and then I read comments two men, Francis Xavier and Ignatius Grateful for Bruce on articles and journals and it doesn’t Loyola, separated by 10 years, born Re “A Great and Harsh Beauty,” by take long for hatefulness to rear its into warring factions and of mark- Angelo Alaimo O’Donnell (10/31): head—from the right and the left, edly different temperaments, would, This is a wonderfully written piece, as from secular and sacred spaces. with the aid of Faber and several oth- poetic as Bruce Springsteen's songs. I Of course Christians, Catholic and er companions, found the Society of was brought back to the years when other, should be better than others, Jesus.” Well written, Father Malone. I taught The Grapes of Wrath to 11th and not simply “no worse.” Why aren’t I would add that something similar graders and used especially Spring- we? Could it be our fault? could be written about Christ’s disci- steen's song, “The Ghost of Tom Joad.” NICHOLAS CLIFFORD ples, who came from diverse social and The entire album had songs that my Online Comment

Status Update Every human trait in every person is on men have. What we really need is to On America’s blog In All Things, a spectrum, there is no “either/or,” just dive more deeply into the significance Natalia Imperatori-Lee commented on “both/and.” “Both/and” is the Catholic of the feminine (or Marian) influence the theological arguments underlying way in many things. When you are sure that women have in the church. the debate on women’s ordination (“It’s you know what is true about God, you SAMANTHA POVLOCK Online Comment Not a Complement,” 11/6). She argues are almost assuredly wrong. We need that theologies of rigid complementarity to always ask questions and trust grace This certainly is an interesting article. cheat both men and women of their full to help us balance what we believe and One small point, however. The author humanity. Readers weigh in. the inevitable uncertainty of what we states “the Petrine dimension centers can't know in this lifetime. We must on leadership and initiative.” While It seems to me that the reasoning always pray, listen and discuss our dif- the focus on initiative is obvious in presented in this article, while com- ferences with great love. the Gospels, we are left in the dark as pelling on its own terms, would not JULIE FARLEY SUTTON Online Comment to what type of leadership it refers to. simply lead to the ordination of wom- JAMES MACGREGOR en priests but would rather eliminate I think this piece needs a much ex- Online Comment the symbolic or spiritual meaning panded view of the feminine within of sexual difference altogether. At Interesting article! Complementarity the church. If obedience and receptiv- some point the academic-disciplinary seems to be excessively narrow and ity (in the shallow way they are cast perspectives of biology, psychology rigid, plus it also has a practical trans- here) is all that make up the “femi- and so on miss the point. They are lation as “men lead, speak and make nine,” then it is not surprising that the too immanent, or too theoretical. all the decisions while women pick up “masculine” is seen as so much better Sometimes, working within objec- the messes and make coffee.” The is- in this context. tive constraints—especially those of sue of ordaining women to the priest- I agree that an understanding of revelation—is the way that truth and hood blocks useful discussion about women's roles in the church and the beauty first emerges. the role of women in the church. If faith needs to be much enhanced. But TOM SPENCER women are ordained as deacons, they Online Comment throwing out the duality of gender will have the most important part of fails to do this—it just leaves us in our what women need in the church— Amen! Complementarity and a mas- current state of recognizing the mas- namely, the right to preach at Mass. culine-feminine duality do not make culine as most desirable, encouraging LISA WEBER sense even on an intellectual level. attempts to “elevate” women to what Online Comment

November 28, 2016 America 7 8 America November 28, 2016 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

ELECTION 2016 Popular Movements last week, and emphasizing the factors that unite us Cupich Calls Church to Promote rather than divide us. My hope and as- piration would be that the leaders of Solidarity After Trump Victory the country now would be able to raise up those factors that make us a United States, and which draw us together. We don’t need more divisive language or programs and policies that are going to tear the fabric of the nation apart.” He urged U.S. bishops to “speak in a pastoral way to calm the fears of people and let them know that we are advocates for them, that we will be their voice, defend- ing them. So for starters, we have to come out [of the fall meeting in Baltimore] with that very clear message to our people.” The election also indicated divides within the U.S. bish- ops conference. “I think we have always had that kind of A COUNTRY DIVIDED. Students at Texas State University in San Marcos, Tex., protest division in the episcopal con- Donald Trump’s presidential election victory. ference when it comes to how some take up the various is- very election reveals the divisions in society,” Cardinal-designate Blase sues and give single focus to some over Cupich of Chicago said a few days after American voters elected Donald others,” he said. “There are always some ‘E J. Trump the next president of the United States. “This one in particular who would like us to make one issue, or showed the depth of the discontent in the American family,” he added. Cardi- a set of issues, the non-negotiables. nal-designate Cupich spoke with America in Rome on Nov. 11 on his way back “The bishops have rejected that to the United States after a meeting of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops. approach in each reframing of the Civil divisions based on race have long been a problem characteristic of U.S. ‘Faithful Citizenship’ document.” life. The cardinal-designate said that this election demonstrated, however, that But this election cycle a number of “there has also been a division based on the disparity in the economy, and that is bishops issued statements that were even more pronounced today as many feel trapped in a system that does not work close to outright endorsements of for them.” then-candidate Trump. That was a “The pope has spoken about this as it pertains to the entire world,” said phenomenon that the cardinal-des- Cardinal-designate Cupich. “There is inequity in the system, and many are of the ignate found worrisome. “We always opinion that there is no way forward for them or their families. spoke about principles and the is- “In Chicago, that is experienced by those living in neighborhoods that are seg- sues,” he said, “but we never used regated, where people are convinced that they have no way of moving out and up the opportunity of addressing issues onto another level on the economic ladder.” related to the campaign by actual- How can the church respond? “I think that we have to first of all re-establish ly naming and criticizing individual

PHOTO: JAY JANNER/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN VIA AP JANNER/AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN PHOTO: JAY a greater sense of solidarity, revitalizing our democracy, as the pope said to the politicians by name.

November 28, 2016 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

“I think that’s a very disturbing de- should be doing as bishops.” He said tion, especially when it comes to the parture from the way we have done that he hoped the matter would be ad- effects of climate change on poor farm- things in the past,” the cardinal-des- dressed at the fall meeting of the U.S. ing communities and the need to assist ignate added. “I am convinced that in bishops in Baltimore; “otherwise our refugees from the world’s war zones. the long run this tactic does not suit voice will be even further marginalized “The incoming administration does us well, and it really is not what we in the public square.” not have a clear record on many of these issues, and we do look forward to contributing our Catholic experience ELECTION 2016 and our approaches as they form their plans and policies,” Mr. O’Keefe said. Church Advocates on the Alert “We will be seeking meetings with the As Transition Begins in Washington [Trump] transition team with the ob- jective of sharing our experience and hile Catholic advocates get to the other side. That will not be helping them see the importance of the said the issues that they easy, but it’s essential to governance.” really wonderful bipartisan efforts to Wprioritize will not change, Healing and unity must be achieved help the poor around the world.” they will be looking for cues from Pres- among elected officials as well as voters, Two other advocates said the anger ident-elect Donald Trump’s transition he added. that many voters have felt will not be team so that they can shape their mes- Brian Corbin, executive vice pres- easy for the country to overcome. Eric sages on concerns as diverse as religious ident of membership services at LeCompte, a Catholic who is execu- liberty, human dignity and climate Catholic Charities USA, echoed Mr. tive director of Jubilee USA, and Sister change. That requires putting aside the Reyes. “As we’ve done for 100 years or Simone Campbell, executive director feistiness and anger that arose during more, Catholic Charities will continue of Network, would like to see the new the campaign, these officials suggested to work in a bipartisan and bicamer- Congress and the incoming administra- a day after an election on Nov. 8 that al fashion with the House and the tion go to the people who have felt ne- unexpectedly hurtled Mr. Trump into Senate and the administration,” Mr. glected by the country’s policies on jobs national leadership. Corbin said hours after Mr. Trump’s and trade especially. “Two priorities that we have are uni- win was confirmed. “Helping families “Part of what this election shows is ty and governance,” said Jonathan Reyes, and persons who are poor is a non- there is deep suffering in the country executive director of the U.S. Catholic partisan issue. Everyone should have a and there are so many people left out by bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace stake in it.” the political system and the economic and Human Development. “So this di- Officials who work on legislative system,” Mr. LeCompte said. visive election—we somehow have to issues for Catholic Relief Services are Sister Campbell said the anger that looking to learn more about fueled the Trump victory “is based on the future Trump adminis- the result of failed economic policies” tration’s positions on a vari- since the 1980s. “It has left a swath of ety of fronts. Bill O’Keefe, our nation struggling,” she said. vice president for govern- Mr. LeCompte hopes that the ment relations and advocacy practices of predatory hedge funds, at C.R.S., said the agency trade agreements that fail to consider has closely worked with con- the needs of workers and corporate gressional Republicans and tax avoidance that his agency has ad- Democrats on foreign assis- dressed with Congress and past White tance bills funding H.I.V./ House administrations will resonate AIDS treatment, human with Trump’s staff. “We expect all of POWER COUPLE. President-elect Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., trafficking and hunger. Mr. our issues we work on in terms of how meet on Capitol Hill on Nov. 10. Catholic O’Keefe said he hopes those the global economic system works advocates say they can adapt to new political good relations will carry over [will receive] a welcome from the terrain in Washington. to the Trump administra- White House,” LeCompte said. AP PHOTO/ALEX BRANDON

10 America November 28, 2016 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Catholic Ballot Issues NEWS BRIEFS Defeated in Most States The Sudan Catholic Bishops’ In this year’s election, voters went Conference, which includes the bishops against nearly all of the ballot initia- of Sudan and South Sudan, said in a tives backed by Catholic leaders and statement released on Nov. 8 that “there advocates, except referendums on min- is nothing more needed than forgiveness” imum wage increases and gun control to heal the divisions both countries have measures in four states. They voted in experienced over decades of conflict. • A Healing in Sudan favor of legalized recreational marijua- congressional committee in Mexico on na in four states and against it in one. Nov. 9 voted down a presidential proposal to legalize same-sex In Colorado, voters passed a measure marriages across the nation. • Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican to legalize assisted suicide, making secretary of state, extended “good wishes” to President-elect Donald the state the sixth in the nation with J. Trump on Nov. 9 and assured him of prayers so that his govern- a so-called right-to-die law, joining ment “may be fruitful” in the service of his country and “well-being Washington, Oregon, California, and peace” in the world. • The Diocese of Amarillo, Tex., said it was Vermont and Montana. Three death investigating the Rev. Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, after penalty referendums all ended in fa- he placed the body of an aborted fetus on an altar and broadcast vor of capital punishment. Oklahoma an endorsement for the Republican presidential candidate Donald voters re-approved the use of the death Trump on Facebook Live on Nov. 7. • Aging priests across Ireland penalty after the state’s attorney gen- are sufferingdepression and mental health problems, say the lead- eral had suspended executions last ers of Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests, who add that estab- year. Nebraska voters also reinstat- lishing a welfare plan for “Ireland's lost tribe of priests” will be the ed the death penalty, which had been primary objective of the A.C.P.’s annual meeting on Nov. 16. banned by state lawmakers last year. In California, voters defeated a ballot measure to repeal the death penalty est concern was for refugees and immi- executive director of the Euthanasia and narrowly passed an initiative aim- grants. Christians must do what they Prevention Coalition, said that even in ing to speed up executions of death can to solve the underlying problems Quebec, where the requirements for row convictions. forcing so many to flee their home- reporting and oversight are the most lands, the pope said. “There are poor rigorous, euthanasia deaths are likely Refugees Outweigh people in wealthy countries who are being underreported. A recent report afraid of welcoming people like them from the Quebec government showed Other Concerns from poor countries,” the pope said. “It 262 euthanasia deaths in the first seven The day before Donald Trump was is a perverse cycle that must be inter- months after the province legalized the elected president of the United States, rupted. We must tear down the walls practice last December. In Quebec, the Pope Francis said he would make no that divide, try to increase well-being government report included three cases judgments about the candidate and and make it more widespread.” of euthanasia that did not comply with was interested only in the impact the law, but there is no information on his policies would have on the poor. Assisted Suicide Count what, if anything, will happen in those Eugenio Scalfari, co-founder and for- cases, said Aubert Martin, executive mer editor of La Repubblica, said he In Canada Challenged director of the province's grassroots discussed the president-elect with Euthanasia is occurring in Quebec at anti-euthanasia organization, Living Pope Francis on Nov. 7. “I don't give three times the rate the government with Dignity. “We’re talking about kill- judgments about persons and politi- predicted, but obtaining accurate statis- ing a human being,” Martin said. “This cians; I only want to understand what tics on medically assisted deaths across is criminal. Is there going to be any fol- sufferings their way of proceeding will Canada is almost impossible and could low-up?” cause the poor and excluded,” the pope lead to abuse, according to opponents said. Mr. Scalfari said the pope’s great- of the practice. Alex Schadenberg, From America Media, CNS, RNS, AP and other sources.

November 28, 2016 America 11 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

DISPATCH | MIAMI Florida’s first Haitian state senator. Haitian-Americans are also using New Respect for Haiti’s Kamoken a stronger voice in Washington. In September, the Obama administra- aitian expatriates have long As a result, Haiti has refused to of- tion announced it would resume de- considered themselves a “dis- fer its diaspora benefits that most ex- portations of illegal Haitian migrants, Hsed” diaspora—in both their pat groups enjoy, like dual citizenship because, it claimed rather astonish- new country and the old. or the right to vote in Haitian elections ingly, Haiti’s living conditions had In the United States, the mostly from abroad. But this year, Haiti’s markedly improved. Miami’s Haitian black Haitian-American community leadership is changing its attitude— leaders decried the decision and got it has been pushed to the background largely because it has rarely been so reversed—at least temporarily—soon among other immigrant groups. That internationally isolated. after Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti in is especially true in Miami, where Haiti’s politics have become so dys- early October. Cuban clout eclipses that of Haitians. functional and volatile that the country It is in Matthew’s wake that Haitian Ironically, things are often worse is still trying to pull off a presidential expats may be starting their most im- for Haitian-Americans in Haiti portant work: disaster and an- itself. Haitian expats send $2 bil- Haiti’s political and ti-poverty relief. After the 2010 lion in remittances to the Western earthquake, Haiti all but ceded Hemisphere’s poorest country business elite tend to control of the recovery effort to each year. Yet despite that, or international donors and non- perhaps because of it, Haiti’s po- treat Haitian-Americans governmental organizations, and litical and business elite tend to with suspicion. the result was largely a debacle. treat Haitian-Americans with Haitian expats say this time they suspicion, if not contempt—to are determined not to be sidelined. the detriment of Haiti’s development, election that should have been com- “No international group knows which could sorely use their resources pleted almost a year ago. Exasperated Haiti better than we do,” says Sandy and know-how. During Haiti’s brutal foreign donor nations like the United Dorsainvil of the Haitian-American Duvalier dictatorship, from 1957 to States and Canada have refused to give charity Man Dodo Humanitarian 1986, Haitian expats were branded any more electoral aid, leaving Haiti Foundation, which sent a large mis- a liberal and traitorous threat to the looking elsewhere for help when it at- sion to southwest Haiti days after the regime, and even the new democratic tempts an election do-over on Nov. 20. hurricane. Haiti has continued to keep them at Haitian-Americans are stepping The expats have had unusual- arm’s length. up. In exchange for Haiti’s pledge to ly strong support from someone Finally, however, Haitian- deliver more diaspora rights, the ex- else who knows Haiti well: Miami’s Americans are coming into their own pats will send a large mission of poll Creole-speaking Catholic archbishop, as an expatriate force. It is perhaps observers to help safeguard the elec- Thomas Wenski. most apparent in the political theater. tion’s credibility. It is the first time the Archbishop Wenski, appointed to Jean-Robert Lafortune, head of diaspora has been allowed to take part Miami in 2010, championed the se- the Haitian-American Grassroots in Haitian politics in this way. lection of Chibly Langlois as Haiti’s Coalition in Miami, says, “In Haiti the The change reflects a new sense of first-ever cardinal in 2014. Though elite called us kamoken,” which in Creole empowerment back in Miami as well. the archbishop is of Polish descent, he means “troublemakers.” A big reason: In recent years, Haitian-Americans this year received a lifetime achieve- Expats might bring their Americanized have won unprecedented U.S. gov- ment award from Fanm Ayisyen nan notions of transparency into one of the ernment seats: North Miami’s first Miyami (Haitian Women of Miami), world’s clubbiest and most corrupt po- Haitian mayor, Florida’s first Haitian one of Miami’s leading Haitian organi- litical-economic systems. state representative and the Miami- zations. His efforts are a reminder that Dade County Commission’s first Haiti needs to consider Miami a well TIM PADGETT, Latin America editor for NPR affiliate WLRN, isAmerica’ s Miami correspon- Haitian chairman. This month of comrades—not a nest of kamoken. dent. Daphne Campbell was elected TIM PADGETT

12 America November 28, 2016

NATHAN SCHNEIDER Find Your Tribe

n the years following my baptism I took my first trip to Central evangelicalism around them. There as a teenager, I had a lot to learn America a few months after my bap- are the cradle Catholics who have Iin order to pass for a Roman tism. The first stop in Guatemala was decided they know the church well Catholic follower of Christ—prayers, a city with an old colonial chapel at enough to reject it—on the basis, motions, habits of mind. I had to cul- the top of a hill. One morning, alone, usually, of only what they gleaned in tivate friendships with saints, acquire I climbed the long, cracked stairs to adolescence from some poor priest rosaries and read Flannery O’Connor. reach it and, inside, sat in a pew to too overworked to take their good, I had to figure out what to say when rehearse some prayer I had recently hard questions seriously. There are people asked why I believed in God. memorized. Indigenous families came the innovators who demand that their But it wasn’t long before I noticed that and went, and I tried not to let them billion fellow Catholics immediately merely being Catholic would be insuf- distract me, but they did. adopt the well-meaning ficient. One has to be a particular kind That’s when I noticed Find a tribe, social experiments that of Catholic. that they were not just happen to be underway As much as my newfound co-re- lighting candles and cross- a band, a in their corners of the ligionists were Catholic, I discov- ing themselves. One or world. The church is ered, they were also Irish Catholic or two at a time, they would micro- so, so much bigger than Mexican Catholic or Italian Catholic go behind the ancient al- church, any of these. or some mix of those, along with var- tar and come out the other Yet we need our lit- ious allegiances to Vatican II or the side. Finally I stood up and however tle churches. I don’t Latin Mass. Partisans of each sub- walked over to that altar, small it think I could really category derived a substantial sense then slowly made my way call my faith my own of what it meant to be Catholic from behind it. There I saw: The needs to be. until I found the men- the strategies that their immigrant whole backside of the al- torship of a band of forebears had adopted to gain a foot- tar was covered in wax and marginal, war-resisting hold in the American middle class. chicken feathers. Manhattan Jesuits. With our shared, Sometimes these inheritances struck This church, I realized, was at least narrow commitments and living room me as treasures I could share, some- two different churches at once. I had Masses, we could go deep. But on times as closed doors I would never be been trying to pray in the colonial Sundays I went to my neighborhood able to open. one, with the prayers, motions and cathedral, whose pastor offered the I had no such Catholic inheritance habits of mind I had been learning opening prayer at Donald J. Trump’s to draw from. Half my family is Jewish, back home. But there was also an in- convention. There I would pray and and the other half has been proudly digenous church there, with another mingle and make friends with souls Protestant for centuries. Sometimes I set of prayers, motions and habits of from all over the world—never en- felt angry. Like Jesus before the money mind entirely—yet somehow the same tirely easily. That unease disclosed the changers’ carefully laid tables, I wanted building, the same God, the same uni- miracle in God’s unhesitating embrace to rattle all the self-satisfied, inaccessi- versal church. of us all. ble Catholic traditions out of the pure Perhaps the convert’s chronic dis- For those who feel lost in the and holy church I was trying to join. comfort makes it easier for me to see church, frustrated by it and tempted “Your church is not the church!” I want- the false comforts people wrap around to leave, the best advice my experience ed to say. Then I got rattled myself. their Catholicism. There are those can offer is this: Find a tribe, a band, a who denounce “cafeteria Catholicism” micro-church, however small it needs while coddling their own narrow to be to feel like home—then chal- NATHAN SCHNEIDER is the author of Thank You, Anarchy and God in Proof. Website: subset of Catholic tradition, much lenge it relentlessly and habitually in nathanschneider.info. Twitter: @ntnsndr. of it borrowed from the American the mystery of the universal whole.

14 America November 28, 2016 November 28, 2016 America 15 Not in Our Name

State power can lead to groundless morality. BY JOHN GALLAGHER

he state has increasingly assumed the role of ethical issues comes not from elected legislators but from arbiter of morals in Western democracies. judges, especially those on the highest courts in the United On issues like abortion, same-sex marriage States and Canada. If they are going to be our arbiters of and assisted suicide, governments have en- moral right and wrong, we need a different selection process acted laws contrary to moral norms that un- for members. Let them pass a comprehensive examination at Ttil recently were part of a near-consensus. More intrusively, least as rigorous as one a doctoral candidate in ethics might states may require citizens to act against their consciences. undergo. Test them on The state of California bans health insurance companies Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas from offering employers coverage that limits or excludes and more modern works, abortion. And in the Province of Alberta in Canada, health like Reinhold Niebuhr’s care providers are not required to participate directly in Nature and Destiny of Man. medically assisted suicide (essentially legalized last year by Require candidates not the Supreme Court of Canada), but they must help refer only to explain their ethi- patients to providers who will carry out the practice. A year cal beliefs but also to show ago, referring a patient for this purpose would constitute how these beliefs are based complicity in a crime. Today it is still complicity in an im- on fundamental principles, moral procedure. on what they take to be the We can sympathize with legislators in a diverse society meaning of life, on what who must deal with issues in which the law conflicts with they believe it means to be the ethical views of some citizens. (It is harder to have sym- human. Without such a pathy for officials who press citizens to act contrary to their basis, moral beliefs are lit- consciences.) But any involvement of the state in moral is- tle more than “gut feelings,” sues raises the question: Are the public officials qualified to and I have little reason to do this? Surveys show that politicians are not among the prefer someone else’s gut most trusted of people; they are rated on a par with used-car feelings to my own. salesmen. Do we really want those who wield the coercive If the above suggestion power of the state also to make moral judgments for us? seems outlandish, it is be- Of course, much of the involvement of government in cause we have wandered so far into an intellectual wil- JOHN GALLAGHER, a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Basilian derness that it seems weird Fathers, is a writer and retired professor of moral theology currently assist- to require those about to ing at St. Alphonsus Parish in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

16 America November 28, 2016 assume supreme authority to demonstrate their competence ethical authorities and those who exercised coercive power. to exercise that authority. This separation became even more distinct when Israel How have we come to this pass? was conquered and was no longer led by kings, who at least nominally were subject to the Mosaic law. During the The Religious Challenge to State Authority Babylonian exile the pagan leaders, though they could be The ancient Greeks and Romans accepted a dominant role sympathetic to the Israelites on one point or other, were for the state in ethical matters. They did not share our clear hardly reliable conduits for the voice of God. Ezekiel, the distinction between moral law and civil law. For them, civil great prophet during the Exile, insisted that while living law was a stable reality; legislatures did not meet annually under pagan rulers, Israelites would have to be individual- to issue new regulations for this or that profession or indus- ly responsible. To use our contemporary terms, they had to try. Kings applied and perhaps interpreted the law, but they follow their consciences. were not expected to be constantly changing it. The first Christians were in the same situation that had To be a good person was to a great extent to be a faithful prevailed in Judaism for several centuries. They constituted follower of the law, which was, after all, a code of right con- a small minority under pagan rulers, a minority that received duct. For Aristotle, the law fostered moral virtue. Compel moral teaching not from the state but from their religion. recalcitrant adults and the young to do what is right, and With Emperor Constantine, who became a Christian, the they should develop the virtues that will cause them to obey possibility arose for Christendom—a regime in which the the law without external compulsion. Compulsion is for state would embody Christianity. The Christian emperors those who lack virtue. were expected to exercise authority in matters of religion, as A significant curb on the moral authority of the state their pagan predecessors had done, but there was already a arose in ancient Israel. There the concern was less to foster structure in place that exercised religious and moral author- obedience to the king and more to get people to obey a high- ity for Christians. er and better authority. The leaders in this effort were not It would take volumes to unravel the often adversar- the kings, who were by and large a sorry lot when judged by ial relations between church and state in Europe after the standards of the Mosaic law. It was the prophets, those Constantine and through the Middle Ages. But there was who brought God’s message to bear on the present situation, now the possibility of a convergence between moral authori- who took the lead. So there was a separation between the ty and coercive power. Popes and bishops often tried to keep their hands clean by turning punitive measures over O CANADA. Opponents of the assisted suicide bill rally on to civil authorities; but so long as the state could June 1 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. be expected to do what the church wanted, the ef- fect was to combine moral teaching with coercive power, with some of the most unseemly results in the history of Christianity. This was not the church sent forth by the Savior with the warning that the disciples would be sheep among wolves, with no other weapons than the Holy Spirit and the word of God.

The Foundation of Democracy At the time of the Protestant Reformation, the al- liance between church and state was causing major problems. Calvinists and Lutherans objected to be- ing ruled by Catholics, who might enact laws vio- lating Protestant consciences. Catholics had similar objections to living under Protestant regimes. The result was a series of religious wars. One solution was suggested by the principle cuius regio eius reli- gio (“whatever your region, this is your religion”). That is, if you are a Lutheran living in Bavaria, ei- ther become a Catholic or move to Brandenburg. A parallel solution was available for Catholics in

Brandenburg. BABYC CNS PHOTO/ART

November 28, 2016 America 17 Another solution, with which we have been living in izens act contrary to their consciences, the only response Western democracies for generations, has been called the short of violence is disobedience. If the law goes against the separation of church and state. But if that phrase is taken consciences of a considerable portion of the population, it to mean that the state will deal only with issues that that should meet massive civil disobedience. When governments have no religious implications, and the church will deal only have lost all sense of the sacredness of conscience and believe with issues that have no secular legal implications, it pre- that the religious commitment of citizens is weak, only then sumes a distinction that does not exist in the actual world. will they presume to pass laws that violate consciences. On the important issues with which the state deals—war What of those cases, such as allowing abortion, when and peace, unjust discrimination, protection from crime, the state may not command particular individuals to act care of the weak and helpless and against their moral judgment but so on—Christianity and Judaism A troubling number of does enact laws that go contrary propose principles that have prac- to deeply held moral beliefs of tical moral implications. politicians and judges are many citizens? Such instances are A more nuanced understand- making moral decisions with unavoidable in a nation that lacks ing would admit that the state a strong moral consensus. Even must deal with many issues that no articulated basis at all. in such cases, reason requires have religious implications, but it that officials tread extremely must exclude religious considerations when enacting laws. carefully. They must recognize that many of their subjects The theory is that it is religious differences which cause un- follow authorities that they believe are more competent, manageable divisions, so the state must operate on the basis more time-tested and more truthful than the state. Officials of reason only. Since all people possess reason, it is a unify- should ask themselves: Am I qualified to make the moral ing agent. judgments that will underlie my decisions? That brings us to Again, the theory does not hold in the actual world. The back to that fundamental issue—competence. great tyrannies of the 20th century that caused the most mis- ery and death were Bolshevik Russia, Nazism and Maoism. The Contemporary Problem All three firmly rejected religion. Trying to exclude religion The English historian Christopher Dawson believed that so did not bring about peace and tranquility. long as Western society held to the Judeo-Christian ethi- The system, or perhaps it is only a practice, that has allowed cal tradition, there was enough consensus for citizens to Western democracies to operate in relative internal peace is live together in relative harmony and take part in the com- more complicated than the phrase “separation of church and plex process of making and enforcing laws. If religious faith state” suggests. Its basis is the agreement that while citizens fades, the ethical beliefs that it engendered will persist for may work to achieve (or prevent) a particular law, all will ac- some time, but they are gradually eroded and the imperfect cept the outcome of the political process—at least in the lim- but powerful ethical consensus that undergirds peaceful co- ited sense that they will not violently oppose it. existence disappears. Dawson thought that this point had This acquiescence in the results of the political process arrived with the appearance of state absolutism in the 20th makes no sense unless certain conditions are observed. The century, first with the Bolsheviks and then with Fascism. first is that the state not violate individual conscience. The It has occurred in our time and not only in someone else’s ancient Greeks and Romans apparently did not worry about country. Differences of opinion on ethical questions have be- individual conscience, but within the Judaeo-Christian tra- come so acute that many people have grave misgivings about dition it has a sacred quality. It is the voice of God, although the direction in which governments and courts are leading us. normally that voice is discerned indirectly. The command of The problem is not only that the ethical beliefs of our God trumps edicts issued by the state. citizens are increasingly diverse. A troubling number of pol- Our secular world has retained some respect for con- iticians and judges are making moral decisions with no ar- science, but the original source of that respect has become ticulated basis at all. A recent development in the Canadian obscured. You cannot honestly agree to accept the decrees Province of Alberta is typical. The minister of education has of the state if you are bound in conscience to disobey some proposed a law (not yet implemented) to which both sec- of them; my agreement to accept state laws must presume ular and Catholic schools are expected to conform, stating that they will not coerce me to act against my conscience. that the sole and sufficient condition for determining the This coercion may take various forms: imprisonment, heavy gender of a student is her or his perception of his or her fines, loss of employment or of privileges accorded to other gender identity. If individuals with bodies of one sex identify citizens among them. as members of the opposite sex, then they have the right to If the state persists in demanding that certain of its cit- be treated as members of that sex. Further, students who

18 America November 28, 2016 identify as transgender are tended to by school personnel ment has a factual basis, but it looks like a rear-guard action without notifying their parents. When a dispute broke out designed to cover an eventual withdrawal from the battle. If at a Catholic school about how to deal with the issue, the you cannot show that regardless of the consequences, it is minister threatened to place the school under the direct gov- wrong to put people to death on the basis that their lives are ernance of the provincial Department of Education. not living, then the slippery slope is not only unavoidable But the minister’s proposal does not provide argumen- but is also logical. Instead, we should insist that the advo- tation in support of its ethical positions. It does not even cates of assisted suicide give their criteria for deciding that go into the scientific basis for its stand. Specialists have ar- some lives are not worth living and that they must be ready gued that except for cases where there are chromosomal or to defend those criteria. serious hormonal abnormalities, there is evidence that going To change people’s thinking will be difficult. The Catholic along with a child’s self-identification as belonging to a gen- Church, however, is well positioned to help bring about such der contrary to her or his bodily structure is likely to cause a change. We have a tradition of principled argumentation more harm than good. (See a recent article by Dr. Blaine in ethics, a tradition that has been neglected to some extent Achen and Dr. Theodore Fenske of the faculty of medi- recently and needs to be recovered. The Catholic Church in cine of the University of Alberta: “A Medical Response to North America also has an impressive number of education- Alberta Education’s ‘Gender Diversity Guidelines and Best al institutions, from kindergarten to graduate schools. The Practices.’”) The unsupported assumption of competence challenge is to mobilize an array of potential resources. This by government authorities apparently is not confined to the will mean convincing a great many people that such mobili- area of ethics. zation is necessary, including the hierarchy, clergy, deans of It seems likely that the minister declined to give any satis- theology in seminaries, graduate faculties, publishing houses factory arguments for his position because he did not see the and whoever is responsible for teaching people how to think need for them. It is a common enough phenomenon. When logically and critically. a stance on some issue has gained support from a number Perhaps we could appoint Gilbert Keith Chesterton to be of people who are considered enlightened (usually because the heavenly patron of this effort, he whose Father Brown they are sympathetic to some group’s insistent demands), was able to unmask a man posing as a priest because the then for many the matter is settled. It is a sort of “gut feeling.” latter had no respect for reason. A Any further ratiocination on the issue is less an argument from principle than a justification of a position already ar- rived at on the basis of this feeling. Serious ethical discourse begins with the realization that my gut feeling about an issue may be very different from yours. This fact has led some to conclude that there is no objective basis for ethics. But the logic of this position is that might makes right because we are bound by no code that transcends our own desires. That way lies chaos and with it endless conflict, unless a despot rescues us by enforcing order. The alternative is to use our minds to begin from solid starting points and demonstrate, definitively or as very likely, that a particular ethical position is valid or invalid. Many contemporaries seem to avoid this stark choice by simply following their gut feelings and deciding that those who dis- agree with them are hopeless troglodytes.

Is There a Solution? If we are going to use reason as our ally, a first step is to re- quire those with whom we disagree to give the rational basis for their positions. We also have to make sure our own argu- ments have a cogent rational basis. Our arguments against physician-assisted suicide, for example, have often focused on the slippery slope argument (allow this practice now, and in time the grounds for the practice will widen). This argu-

November 28, 2016 America 19 Whose Land? American exceptionalism runs up against ‘Laudato Si’’ BY JOHN D. WILSEY

n 1846, Representative John Quincy Adams asked Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si’” presents a the clerk of the House of Representatives to read challenge to closed American exception- aloud Gn 1:28 (“Rule over the fish in the sea and alism. The encyclical offers a potent cri- the birds in the sky....”). Adams was arguing for the tique of the “drill, baby, drill” mindset of United States to take control of the entire Oregon Americans who believe that if a natural Iterritory, even at the risk of war with Great Britain, and he resource is available, we are obliged to ex- used the dominion mandate of Genesis as his justification: ploit it, whatever the cost. It also critiques “We claim that country [Oregon]...to make the wilderness the “throwaway culture” of which we are bloom as the rose, to establish laws, to increase, multiply, and all a part, and explains how that culture subdue the earth, which we are commanded to do by the is contributing to the general destruction first behest of God Almighty.” of the good gift of creation given to us by Since the Colonial period, Americans have seen them- a loving God. Pope Francis stresses that selves as an exceptional people, a view that has taken two the Christian understanding of the do- forms: manifest destiny and example. Manifest destiny is the minion mandate is that God gave humans belief that God has chosen Americans as his special peo- responsibility over creation not for purely ple and has ordained that they control the North American utilitarian purposes, but to be stewards of continent. Adams’s views on Oregon are consistent with it as a good in itself. After all, God called manifest destiny, as was President James K. Polk’s motiva- the world he made “good” six times in the tion to go to war against Mexico. (Ironically, that war forced creation story. the United States to compromise and divide the Oregon “Laudato Si’” offers a developed theol- Territory with the British.) But John Winthrop, the first ogy of creation, consistent with Scripture, church tradition governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, articulated the and a tradition of American conservationist thought that exemplarist form of exceptionalism when he referred to the includes the writings of Henry David Thoreau, W. E. B. Du colony as a “city upon a hill” in 1630. In this view, America Bois, George Washington Carver, Theodore Roosevelt and must serve as an example to the world, of faithfulness to John Muir. In particular, his articulation of the dominion high ideals. Abraham Lincoln fits within this exemplarist mandate captures the essence of what Francis calls “integral framework. He consistently pointed, in his many critiques ecology.” Francis teaches that justice and injustice among hu- of the institution of slavery, to the necessity of being true to man persons have direct ramifications for the environment. the equality clause of the Declaration of Independence. Where there is injustice inflicted on one group of persons by I have called these two articulations of American identity another, the land also suffers. Human flourishing does not “closed” and “open.” Closed exceptionalism hijacks Christian occur separate from the flourishing of the earth. doctrines and imagery to cast Americans as divinely cho- Despite Francis’ eloquent and thoroughly Christian ar- sen, morally innocent and entrusted by God with a land ticulation of the dominion mandate, it seems unlikely that to act upon and dispose of however suits them. But open “Laudato Si’” will advance a productive dialogue about exceptionalism is a political and social expression of true environmental stewardship in the United States without American identity. It does not rely on contrived religiosity to profound national self-examination and a fundamental re- advance a unifying vision for how Americans see themselves assessment of American identity. “Laudato Si’” has been de- in relation to the world, or how to interact with the bounti- scribed as a cri de coeur by R. R. Reno, but it is really more ful and beautiful land that they occupy. of a prophetic word along the lines of Ezekiel, as the Rev. James Kurzynski writes, indicting American religious na- tionalism or, more specifically, closed American exception- JOHN D. WILSEY is assistant professor of history and Christian apologet- alism. Because closed exceptionalism is so deeply ingrained ics at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Tex. This article is adapted from his book American Exceptionalism and Civil in the history of how Americans imagine themselves, this Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea. myth stands as a serious stumbling block to American en-

20 America November 28, 2016 gagement with “Laudato Si’.” But open exceptionalism is his- that a true ecological approach always becomes a social ap- torically and theologically in agreement with Pope Francis’ proach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on articulation of the dominion mandate and does provide a the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the basis for civil discourse. cry of the poor” (Nos. 48, 49). Francis’ understanding of the dominion mandate is Francis’ prophetic word confronts closed American ex- linked with the goodness of creation and the imago dei, both ceptionalist accounts of the environment. Closed exception- of which are declared in Genesis 1. He also finds its roots in alism regards America as God’s chosen people, innocent of Jeremiah 1, in which God affirms, “Before I formed you in the social problems and dwelling on a land set aside for them womb, I knew you.” But he goes on to tie God’s relationship and their children forever. It is an exclusivist rendering of to humans as their creator to a multidimensional relational American identity, informed by religious language, manipu- pattern. He writes, “Human life is grounded in three fun- lated to suit a nationalistic purpose. As closed exceptional- damental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, ism relates to the environment, the land is to be acted upon with our neighbor and with the earth itself.” Reality is thus in, as Francis describes, “the unbridled exploitation of na- grounded in this inextricable three-dimensional relational ture” (No. 67). link. Adam and Eve were given the responsibility in Genesis 2 to till and keep the garden. Francis writes, “‘Tilling’ refers A Plantation Mentality to cultivating, ploughing or working, while ‘keeping’ means In thinking historically about closed exceptionalist accounts caring, protecting, overseeing, and preserving. This implies a of the land, perhaps nothing is more obvious regarding this relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings attitude of “acting upon” than the plantation economies of and nature” (Nos. 66, 67). But human sin “disrupted” the the antebellum South. The invention of the cotton gin, the “harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a Louisiana Purchase and the end of the Napoleonic Wars in whole,” and “distorted our mandate to ‘have dominion’ over 1815 opened the way for Americans to expand the cultiva- the earth….” Thus, “the human environment and the natural tion of cotton into the territories of the old Southwest, par-

“WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY (MURAL STUDY, U.S. CAPITOL),” BY EMANUEL LEUTZE, (MURAL STUDY, ITS WAY THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES “WESTWARD MUSEUM, BEQUEST OF SARA CARR UPTON (1861). PHOTO:SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART environment deteriorate together” and “we have to realize ticularly in Alabama and Mississippi. In 1800, the United

November 28, 2016 America 21 States was producing 73,000 bales; by 1820, the yield was ple of how Americans saw the land. Manifest destiny, the 10 times that number, and the nation became the leading 19th-century notion that God had ordained the North producer of cotton, passing British India. Because land was American continent be dominated by the United States, was becoming available in such vastness to so many at so little a fueled by greed and by the desire to exhaust natural resourc- cost, many viewed it as limitless and disposable. As Daniel es and extend slavery farther and farther west. Walker Howe wrote, the settlers “gave little thought to pre- But other voices from history present an articulation of serving the natural environment for future use.... They em- exceptionalism that corresponds more closely with Francis’ ployed profligate methods of agriculture and land-clearing, theology of creation and the dominion mandate. George heedlessly burning timber and valuable ground cover, leav- Washington Carver (1864–1943), the famous African- ing precious topsoil to wash or blow away.” Because farmers American botanist at Tuskegee University, sought to make and plantation owners took the short view, when the land right some of the wrongs slavery perpetrated against both was exhausted, they simply packed up and moved elsewhere. the people and the land. Kimberly Smith wrote that Carver Virginia led the nation in out-migration in the decades lead- “saw humans as ‘copartners’ with God in the creation—and ing up to the Civil War, sending a million or so people west junior partners at that, whose scientific study of nature is in- in search of fertile lands. spired by God and justified by its charitable purpose of re- The application of chattel slavery did particular violence lieving human suffering.” Carver’s biographer, the historian to the land. Once planters claimed land and designated it Mark Hersey, wrote that “Carver’s deep religious sensibilities, for cotton cultivation, slaves cleared the ancient forests and which blended Christianity with a profound veneration of the plowed in long, straight rows. Cotton planters rarely rotat- natural world that bordered on mysticism, shaped his work” ed their crops or improved their fields. When the soil’s nu- along with “ideas about how impoverished African American trients had been exhausted by overcultivation, landowners farmers could overcome the obstacles facing them.” Carver’s purchased new lands and moved on. “Migration was driv- notion of conservation was thus informed by the dominion en by soil loss and soil sickening and drawn by cheap land,” mandate. For Carver, God’s command to humans to fill, rule writes the historian Roger Kennedy. “Cheap land was treat- and subdue the earth was not to be understood in the closed ed as disposable. Cheap things usually are.” exceptionalist sense of conquest. Rather, the dominion man- The Southern plantation economy is a historical exam- date should be carried out with patient care and nurturing that benefitted the many, rather than the few. Carver’s view of the dominion mandate—that the land is to be cared for, stewarded, husbanded and conserved for the benefit of those who live on it—is an open exceptionalist view of the land. Everyone knew that North America was unique and held immense potential in the years of settle- ment. But while some who held a closed exceptionalist view of the land meant to conquer and exploit it, all the while de- nying it to those they deemed outsiders, others had an open exceptionalist view that did not separate the land from its people when it came to justice and flourishing. Closed American exceptionalist figures like Rush Limbaugh cast “Laudato Si’” as an un-American diatribe, an attempt to undermine American sovereignty and intrude on the American way of life. But open American excep- tionalism, while regarding the land as special, deems it the heritage of a pluralistic society, a gift of God for all people. Closed exceptionalism is a stumbling block to engagement, but this understanding of American identity has been the historical default for Americans. Whenever Americans have seen themselves through an open exceptionalist paradigm, they have had to struggle to do so. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1835, “Nothing is more embarrassing in the ordi- nary intercourse of life than this irritable patriotism of the Americans.” Perhaps American patriotism rightly consid- ered can still win the day. A

22 America November 28, 2016 (UN)CONVENTIONAL WISDOM The Change Is Us

his campaign year has been pened is that when my generation grew gate over bubble tea, and young men in unusually heavy on nostalgia up, we did not want to live in my neigh- white robes walk together to services at Tand worries that our nation’s borhood anymore. The houses, many of the Islamic center. The neighborhood is best days are behind us. In a widely them double- or triple-deckers requir- not better or worse than when I grew cited Pew Research Center poll, 46 ing frequent paint jobs, were too old up, but it is reassuring that a sense of percent of voters said that life has got- and did not have enough bathrooms. community has been restored. ten worse for “people like them” over The driveways could not accommodate There have been a lot of changes in the past 50 years, and the Republican separate cars for everyone over 16. Our the United States over the past century president-elect, Donald J. Trump, neighbor’s coffee shop did not have the that seem to have been imposed upon based his campaign on a promise to low prices or wide selection of sugary us—most notably, the collapse of the make the United States “great again.” treats found at Dunkin’ manufacturing sector, I can appreciate the disorientation Donuts, and the two nearby which wiped out em- caused by social change. In the 1970s, Catholic churches had tiny ployment opportunities I grew up in a neighborhood just north parking lots, which creat- I can in entire cities and coun- of Boston that could serve as an exam- ed frustrating bottlenecks appreciate ties, and an increasingly ple of the good old days. It was more when people raced to leave distant and unrespon- urban than the television town of after Mass. the disorien- sive political system. But Mayberry or the settings of Norman My generation preferred tation caused we have gone for other Rockwell paintings, but it was a place to raise families (with few- big changes with gusto where neighbors looked after each oth- er children) in newer, much by social (to borrow a word from er, where kids could play in the street bigger houses near the high- change. the 1970s commercials and walk to school without fear and ways and shopping malls. urging us to stock up on where families had friendly rivalries Front porches were out, Schlitz beer). We largely over who put up the best Christmas traded for identical lawns chose to live farther and decorations. Our neighbors included and for sprawling backyards that af- farther apart from each other—both a police officer, the friendly owner of forded privacy from pesky neighbors. literally and figuratively—and to buy a coffee shop in the nearby business Sidewalks were unnecessary when ev- stuff from big-box stores or Amazon district and a woman who amazed us eryone drove everywhere, and there rather than from shop owners who live with her singing ability at the annual was no good reason for an adult to be down the street. Social research now Italian festival honoring St. Rocco. wandering around without a car any- tells us that having fewer opportuni- The houses in the neighborhood way. The neighborhood I grew up in got ties for face-to-face meetings with our look much the same now, but where it grayer and emptier, and the city’s down- neighbors is causing loneliness and de- was once mostly Irish and Italian, it is town died, one store closing at a time. pression. But we chose to close out the now largely an immigrant community, But my hometown must have good world with earbuds and to watch TV with new Asian and Middle Eastern bone structure. It stayed safe and intact, and listen to music alone rather than residents. About half the conversa- and in the new century it attracted new participate in our communities. No one tions on the street are in languages residents. It is, after all, still a good place came into our country to make us do other than English. to raise a family, with a grand old public these things. What accounts for the change? The library and a subway line into Boston. Maybe our nostalgia for “better government had nothing to do with it, Immigrants began to fix up downtown days,” and the unfortunate bitterness nor did political correctness. What hap- buildings and open shops and restau- toward immigrants and younger rants, many with Chinese or Arabic Americans that so often surfaced this ROBERT DAVID SULLIVAN is an associate signs. The old-fashioned coffee shop year, is simply a case of buyer’s remorse. editor of America. is long gone, but now people congre- ROBERT DAVID SULLIVAN

November 28, 2016 America 23 VATICAN DISPATCH

The Ecumenical Pope

hen Pope Francis flew dinner after the recent trip to Sweden. er centrality to sacred Scripture in the to Sweden on Oct. 31 to Many years later, after Mr. Figueroa church’s life. Through shared hearing of Wparticipate in the com- left his job with the U.B.S., Archbishop the word of God in the Scriptures, im- memoration of the 500th anniver- Bergoglio invited him to work for the portant steps forward have been taken sary of the Protestant Reformation, archdiocese as “a biblical consultor.” For in the dialogue between the Catholic Marcelo Figueroa, 59, a member of the the next three years, this Protestant Church and the Lutheran World Evangelical Church in Argentina and layman-cum-biblical scholar prepared Federation, whose 50th anniversary we an old friend, was on the plane too. He reflections on the Bible every day for are presently celebrating.” was there as the recently appointed di- Catholics in Buenos Aires, using the Commenting on the ecumeni- rector of a new and original Argentine lectio divina method, and posted them cal commemoration afterward, Mr. edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the on the archdiocesan web- Figueroa hailed Francis’ Vatican daily, that will bring the pope’s site. presence as “most signif- words to his homeland every week. In 2010 Cardinal icant” and “an import- For Mr. Figueroa, the pope’s partic- Bergoglio invited him to ‘Yes, I am ant part of ecumenical ipation in the ecumenical commem- work as assistant to the the pope, history.” He noted that oration of the Reformation at the director of the archdio- the pope participated Lutheran cathedral in Lund was not cese’s television Channel but, first in a truly humble way only a truly historic moment, it was 21. That September, Mr. of all, I throughout, wearing also for him a profoundly emotional Figueroa proposed that the same stoles as the one, given their personal relationship the archbishop participate am your Lutheran bishops. He and work together in the field of ecu- in an interreligious tele- brother!’ interpreted all this as menism in Buenos Aires for 17 years. vision program to discuss Francis’ way of saying to They have known each other since social problems in the the Lutherans, “Yes, I am 1998, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio, light of Scripture. Cardinal the pope, but, first of all, S.J., became archbishop of that me- Bergoglio at first hesitated but finally I am your brother!” tropolis. Mr. Figueroa, then director of agreed to do four programs when he Mr. Figueroa emphasized that this the United Bible Society in Argentina, understood that it would be a discus- ecumenical event was “a commemo- believed it was “very important” to sion with his friend Rabbi Abraham ration, not a celebration” because “we have an ecumenical relationship with Skorka and with Mr. Figueroa as the do not celebrate this division.” On the the Catholic Church and felt con- Protestant anchorman. The project contrary, he said, in Lund “we recog- vinced this could be developed around worked well. They made 31 hourlong nized the scandal of this division in the the Bible. He proposed to the new programs between October 2010 and world and in the heart of Christ, we ac- archbishop that they “work together” February 2013. In the November after knowledged our sins, and we accepted around the Bible, and he received an en- the papal election, Mr. Figueroa pub- to work together in ‘the ecumenism of thusiastic response. Subsequently they lished their conversations in Spanish mercy’ to help all who suffer or are ex- created events like The Day of the Bible (now in English as The Bible: Living cluded, and especially today migrants in Buenos Aires and produced papers Dialogue, Religious Faith in Modern and refugees.” on biblical texts. “In this way, we came Times). Marcelo Figueroa concluded with close together, we became very close It was hardly surprising, then, that this significant remark: “Bergoglio did friends,” Mr. Figueroa confided over Marcelo Figueroa was profoundly not discover ecumenism when he be- moved when Pope Francis declared in came pope; he had practiced it as bish- GERARD O’CONNELL is America’s Vatican his homily at the Lutheran Cathedral in op in Buenos Aires for many years, correspondent. America’s Vatican coverage is sponsored in part by the Jesuit communities of Lund: “With gratitude we acknowledge even in the face of opposition.” the United States. Twitter: @gerryorome. that the Reformation helped give great- GERARD O’CONNELL

24 America November 28, 2016 FAITH IN FOCUS Such Great Heights Growing up with my boys at Mass BY BRIAN DOYLE

am standing in the middle pew, far the sturdy dignified celebrant left side, at Mass. We choose this grin like a kid right in the mid- Ipew when possible for the light dle of Communion! pouring and puddling through the When they were 3 and 4 stained-glass windows. The late-morn- years old, they used to stand ing Mass is best because the sun finally on the pew next to me and lean makes it over the castlements of the on me as if I were a tree and vast hospital up the hill, and the sun they were birds. Sometimes has a direct, irresistible shot at the one would fall asleep and I windows, and as my twin sons used to would sense this through say, the sun loooves jumping through my arm and shoulder so that the windows and does so with the when I sat down I would be headlong pleasure of a child. sure to haul the sleeper down They used to be small enough to safely. Sometimes they would choose different sun-shot colors on lean hard against me to try to the floor and jump from one color to make me grin like Father John another, my sons. They would do this grinned during Communion. before Mass and after Mass and occa- Once I discovered that they had the other is burly. And the other day sionally during Mass on the way back conspired before Mass to lean on dad in Mass I leaned against one and then from being blessed by Father John so hard that they would squish Dad! the other and I was moved, touched, in the years before their own First And he would get six inches taller pierced down to the fundaments of my Communion. right there in the church! Wouldn’t soul. What were once pebbles are now Sometimes they would rustle and that be funny? Sometimes they would mountains. They are tall and strong fidget impatiently in the pews and fid- lean against me just from a sheer sim- and stalwart and charming and at the dle with missals and fold the parish ple mammalian affection, the wordless Sign of Peace people in all directions newsletter into ships and trumpets pleasure of leaning against someone reach for them smiling. and bang the kneeler up and down, you love and trust. But always I was When I lean against them, they do until they were arrested by the wither bigger and they were smaller, then. not budge and now I am the one lean- of the maternal glare, but then came Then came years during which ing against men whom I love and trust Communion, which meant Father there was no leaning because general- and admire. Sometimes I lean too hard John bending down from his great ly they were leaning away from their against them on purpose just to make height like a tree in a storm and bless- parents and from the church and from them grin. Sometimes by chance I am ing them with his hand as big as a hat authority in all its figments and forms the first one back from Communion on their heads. They loved that and and constitutions and generally they and I watch as they approach, wading loved whispering loudly Hi Johnny! sat silent and surly and solitary, even gracefully through the shivered colors to him, which would make him grin, during the Sign of Peace, which dis- of the sun streaming through the win- which they counted as a win, to make tressed their parents, which was the dows. Time stutters and reverses and point. it is always yesterday and today. Maybe But now they are 20 and one is the greatest miracle is memory. Think BRIAN DOYLE is the editor of Portland much taller than me and the other is about that this morning, quietly, as you Magazine at the University of Portland and the author, most recently, of So Very Much the much more muscular. One is lanky watch the world flitter and tremble

ART: MICHAEL KRAIGER ART: Best of Us (ACTA). and one is sinewy. One is willowy and and beam. A

November 28, 2016 America 25 26 America November 28, 2016 GENERATION FAITH Through the Motions My patient journey with depression BY NICOLE BAZIS was 13 years old when I took shone in my eyes when I woke each fort and gave up on homework assign- my first steps inside the lobby of morning ready to conquer the day ments, extracurricular activities and ICardinal O’Hara High School. slowly burned down. It was a period even personal hygiene. I did not care if It was just after the New Year, and of time that I can only recall as tortur- I missed school, and, when confront- returning students were already sta- tioned at their desks. Peeking into the classrooms, I saw orderly, uniformed rows facing the crucifix, ready to chant in unison the Our Father and Hail Mary. There was no cue from the P.A. system to begin the prayers; there were no pamphlets to guide the recitation of those well-ingrained verses. I was an invader in this place. But as I walked down the first-floor hallway of administrative offices alongside my hesitant parents, I could not help but feel the rhythmic pulse that beat deep within the foundation. To the students, staff and faculty, the pulse was famil- iar, perhaps no longer even detectable. They spoke, signed, sat and stood with the ease of being gently guided by an old friend. I was not so naïve as to believe that each person went along willingly. But, as an outsider looking in, I could see no sign of dissent or ous and confusing. I was not the happy ed by counselors and therapists, I was rebellion. Everyone went through the person I tried so hard to be when win- forced to conclude that I did not care if movements. Everyone passed as some- ning the approval of my teachers and I lived or died. My friends drew their one who belonged. peers. I had been a clarinetist in the own conclusions, whatever they were, They sat facing the whiteboard, concert, pit and marching bands for and collectively decided that I was not waiting to start their lessons. I sat be- many years and a dedicated perform- worth their concern. Everything and fore the principal, waiting to be accept- er for a local dance studio since age 3. everyone that I turned to for love and ed as a member of their community. But I could no longer talk endlessly acceptance was missing when I needed I was 13 years old when I became about the hobbies I was once proud to it. To this day, I believe it was that real- depressed. The light that had once pursue. I was slowly becoming more ization, more than being suicidal, that and more withdrawn from the person broke something deep within me. NICOLE BAZIS, a native of the greater I had always been, and frightfully, no Philadelphia area, graduated from Fordham one seemed to notice or care. Life as an Outsider University Lincoln Center in 2016. She is work- ing toward a master of arts in theological stud- By the time anyone noticed I was I transferred to this Catholic high ies with a concentration in early church history not acting normally, I was very sick. I school as a last resort. I had the grades,

ART: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/BORISZ ART: at Princeton Theological Seminary. had no desire for anything that took ef- the recommendations and the tuition

November 28, 2016 America 27 money necessary to start as a fresh- no different from the students I was life whether or not I could count on re- man that winter. I was handed a class now meeting. I attended a public ligion. My parents, one a non-practicing schedule with room numbers that school in the district I had belonged to Methodist and the other a non-practic- meant nothing. I was shuffled away to since kindergarten. My older siblings ing Presbyterian, did not baptize their the lunch period already in progress to set the pace and tested the waters. It children into a specific church. My sib- introduce myself to future class- lings and I were told that the deci- mates whose names meant noth- Religion played no positive sion was ultimately ours to make, ing. I was instructed on where to and whatever we chose would be shop for the appropriate attire. role in my life; it just further respected—as long as we identi- The brands and colors were as fied as “some sort of ” Christian. unfamiliar as every pair of eyes separated me from the My friends had parents who took that looked with curiosity upon the opposite approach when it the quiet new girl. inclusion I craved. came to their children’s spiritual But, like my new classmates, journeys. They were forced into I went through the motions. I did all was expected that my transition, as the Catholicism at birth, and eventually that was asked of me. Despite what my youngest, through all of the same mile- most were turned off by organized re- family believed, I did this not because stones would be the smoothest. There ligion. I had faith in my decisions and the were friend groups, fallouts, failures I was told I was lucky to be exempt. path that I was choosing for myself. and phases—all of which were unique But in my public high school, when Rather, I was numb enough to accept to my journey but nothing so out of different social cliques came together that nothing that I wandered into, no the ordinary as to unsettle unsuspect- on Thursday mornings to rant about matter how uncertain the situation, ing adults and relatives. I was happy to the nuns who ran last night’s C.C.D. could leave me as defeated as the envi- be included and loved by those who class, and when attendance dropped ronment I was choosing to walk away mattered to me. conspicuously on holy days, it was dif- from. In middle school, it did not make a ficult not to feel like I was missing out. Just a semester before, I had been difference to my social and academic Even in that secular setting, I sensed

28 America November 28, 2016 a pulse that reverberated through the playground blacktop, the hallway lock- ers and the cafeteria food lines. But it was not my own. Religion played no positive role in my life; it just fur- ther separated me from the inclusion I craved. I occasionally asked myself whether or not I believed in God, and thought back to various services I attended over the years. I could sing fun little songs from Presbyterian summer Bible camp and admired the stained-glass windows inside the Lutheran church I some- times frequented. But I found I was searching for something that refused to make itself known. It was frustrating to witness others being called to worship. If God existed, I concluded, God was not interested in my soul. God did not include me, but my too-cool-for-reli- gion friend group did. That is, until they didn’t.

A New Beginning My decision to transfer came as a sur- prise to many, as I kept many things secret during that dark period. When I started classes at Cardinal O’Hara, I was not interested in a new begin- ning. I simply wanted to finish my re- quired time. I was not interested in new friends, either. But it turned out God had a different plan. It took time and patience, but new friends found me. They did not give up on the moody and disconnected new student. Nothing was easy, but I was taught how to as- similate. It was a new form of love I had not yet known. I was 18 years old when I was bap- tized into the Catholic Church. The first person I was introduced to on my first day of class stood next to me at the baptismal font as my chosen godmoth- er. Since then, I have decided that my faith lies in my journey. I do not fear a lack of acceptance because I know that God has a plan in motion. With God, I am no longer an outsider looking in. With God, I have found my missing community. A

November 28, 2016 America 29 Books & Culture ART | KAREN SUE SMITH painting. It is a tremendous achieve- ment that edifies us all. NO ORDINARY LIFE “Kerry James Marshall: Mastry” is a ravishingly beautiful art show that Kerry James Marshall: the experience of black America can stir the emotions and challenge thinking. This retrospective by a living erry James Marshall (b. 1955) which art is (and is not) important and artist fills two floors of the Met Breuer has a vocation within a vo- worthy of being shown. The absence of Museum in New York City. The exhi- Kcation. For 30 years he has black artists and figures in most muse- bition, mostly paintings, is beautiful worked to fill a gaping hole in the ums is one more example of how, and simply because Marshall’s colors, tech- Western art tradition, a virtual absence to some extent why, black lives have niques and compositions are master- of black people featured in the works on been overlooked for centuries. That is ful. But the main reason to go is to see the walls of museums. As cultural arbi- precisely Marshall’s point. To correct how Marshall, who is black, depicts ters, museum curators determine not the problem, he has spent his life mak- the lives and experiences of ordinary only what is (and is not) beautiful but ing black life visible through excellent black Americans—to see how he paints PHOTO: THE MET BREUER/ COLLECTION OF RICK HUNTING AND JOLANDA

30 America November 28, 2016 childhood, family, neighbor- hoods, romantic love and court- ship, Black Power, the civil rights movement, death and mourning. You will also find a small pan- theon of black heroes or secular saints, some with halos. (The artist’s education at a Catholic grammar school is evident in these and other early works.) We see Marshall’s personal viewpoint on canvas, of course. But given the racial tensions voiced during this year’s presidential race, the violence that prompted the Black Lives Matter movement and the continuing confrontations be- tween black Americans and po- lice around the nation, Marshall’s perspective could not be timelier. PIER AND EXHIBITION PHOTO: THE MET BREUER/METROPOLITAN COLLECTION MCCORMICK PLACE ART AUTHORITY,

After graduating from Otis Opposite: “The Lost Boys” (1993); above: “Past Times”; below: “De Style” (1997) Art Institute in 1978, Marshall taught art in Los Angeles and Chicago. He has received a num- ber of awards and residencies, including a MacArthur fellow- ship in 1997. His work has been shown throughout the United States and in Italy and Germany. As an educator, he continues to work on a graphic novel and ani- mated film called “Rythm Mastr,” the idiosyncratic spelling from which the exhibition’s title is de- rived. These are part of his ongo- ing outreach to young people. Distinctively, Marshall paints black people using black paint, without tints. The artist also uses highly saturated complementary colors (red/green, blue/orange) and sometimes bold patterns on clothing and in backgrounds to further heighten the color con- trast. Conversely, in two or three works, Marshall paints a black person on a black background, PHOTO: THE MET BREUER/ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART as if daring viewers to look long Marshall also works on what he calls Jacques-Louis David’s painting “The enough to find the subject. This takes “the grand scale.” In art history, size of- Coronation of Napoleon” (1807) is 32 effort and time. As every great artist ten conveys importance. An epic battle feet wide. Marshall’s painting of people does, Marshall shows the viewer exact- scene, a royal coronation or a miracle at a local barbershop (“De Style” 1993) ly where to look. of Jesus may demand a large canvas. is over 10 feet wide. What many would

November 28, 2016 America 31 consider a quotidian event, Marshall simplified and distilled his work after “Mastry,” first shown in Chicago deems important. 2000. As contemporary museums ex- at the Museum of Contemporary He also treats events of historical pand their holdings by black artists, Art, is on view at The Met Breuer magnitude—slavery, lynchings and Marshall and his peers—Carrie Mae in New York City through Jan. 29. the civil rights movement that marked Weems, Kehinde Wiley, Kara Walker, After that it travels to the Museum of his generation. Marshall’s family was Mickalene Thomas and others whose Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. living in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 images reflect black experience—en- when four girls were killed there able others to see what they have been KAREN SUE SMITH, the former editorial direc- by a bomb detonated in a Baptist missing. tor of America, now writes freelance. church. They moved to the Watts area of Los Angeles when Marshall was 9 years old, just before race riots BOOKS | PAUL ALMONTE torched much of the neighborhood in 1965, leaving 34 dead and 1,000 in- HOW THE WORLD WILL END jured. His family lived in Nickerson Gardens, a low-income housing proj- MR. BLUE business and plans to succeed in it and ect the artist depicted in “The Garden By Myles Connolly who, upon meeting Blue, describes Project,” a series of paintings. In Cluny Media. 246p $17.95 him as a “sort of gay, young, and gallant “Watts 1963,” three children play on monk without an order.” Exploring the green grass under palms, a blue sky In her preface to the recent reissue of world of the “big city” (two big cities, and sunshine. An overhead banner Myles Connolly’s Mr. Blue by Cluny actually: New York and Boston), the promises “more of everything.” Yet Classics, Mary Connolly Breiner, his tale describes Blue’s pilgrimage among the artist visually communicates that daughter, poses two immediate chal- the cosmopolitan rich and working the utopian promise falls short. Note lenges to a reader of the novel (let class poor. Our narrator meets Blue the children’s serious expressions, the alone a reviewer). First is her asser- in the strangest of places: the roof of fetal position one boy takes and the tion that Pope Francis (Pope Francis!) a midtown Manhattan skyscraper, opaque drips and surface smears that would love the character of Blue deface the landscape. (imagining them as “true brothers in While many of Marshall’s works spirit”). Second is that the novel’s tale are deeply affecting, “The Lost Boys” of Christian/spiritual self-sacrifice (1993) moved me to tears. Here the competing against the forces of self- artist memorializes the deaths of two ish, “business world” materialism is a children. A larger-than-life-size boy competition that threatens the world’s sits in a toy car, the kind you put a coin very soul. Choosing the easier of the in to have a quick ride in place. The sec- two challenges, I will address the latter ond boy recalls a real-life child killed claim of relevance and answer with a by police in his home while holding a definite yes. Close to 90 years after its water pistol they mistook for a gun. In publication, Mr. Blue speaks directly to the artwork, the child holds a pink pis- matters of personal and collective im- tol, obviously a toy. Nearby, the trunk portance. The book is concerned with of a Tree of Life is beset by serpentine individual responsibility and the role yellow tape: “Police line, do not cross,” of religion and faith in a world that it reads. The dates bracket summer va- appears to be either godless or one in cation, Marshall told the literary editor which the voices of competing gods Charles Rowell in an interview, when (charity versus economic success, say) children “spend the most time simply incite conflict rather than build com- being children and playing and experi- munity. encing things without a lot of structure For those unfamiliar with the book, around them.” Mr. Blue chronicles the life of a young where Blue has convinced the building A great retrospective like “Mastry” idealist and iconoclast—the epony- manager to let him live. He is invited offers an entire body of work developed mous Blue—and is told through the to join Blue at a party for “friends” he over time. It shows well how Marshall eyes of a narrator, a man who values has met in the city, including work-

32 America November 28, 2016 ing-class African-Americans and im- makes between Fitzgerald’s and migrants with whom he feels a kinship. Connolly’s use of red, white and Our narrator finds a man jumping up blue symbolism, which Connolly Resurrection and down on the ledge of a 30-story turns into Christian allegory. building, extolling the spiritual virtues Connolly moves quickly of his “home” above the streets and through set pieces. Take Blue’s After the agony and humiliation sharing a vision in which people of all planned movie of a dystopi- of crucifixion, circumstance, race and creed can live an world where a man named would you be willing to give up together. White (identified in the story Immediately struck by Blue’s as No. 2,757,331, signifying the the cold comfort of death “strange” concern with the “religious “vault” in which he was impris- for the pain of rebirth aspects of life” in an “age and genera- oned) becomes Father White, a and the cell-splitting joy of glory? tion” apparently no longer interested new messiah who leads a spiri- in such considerations, the narrator tual awakening against a mod- MICHELLE BERBERET vows to keep close tabs on his new ern totalitarian regime. The nov- friend. This initial encounter is fol- el works best in context, in its Michelle Berberet is an artist in lowed by a series of meetings, in which relation to other classic works residence in the arts and humanities program of the Georgetown Lombardi the narrator and Blue—who has been and genres (Orwell’s 1984, for Comprehensive Cancer Center in alternating in circumstances rich and example). Connolly’s prescience Washington, D.C., where she writes and poor—discuss the meaning and pur- about the lessening attention to creates art with patients, family and staff. pose of life. Ultimately, as the narra- the printed word is also import- tor and reader learn, Blue decides to ant to note and another example forego material success and live among of the novel’s relevance. Blue’s the less fortunate. He plans to spread a argument about the power of images you, what difference would it make gospel of love and good works, not in speaks to the Snapchat/Twitter age as to you?” Motes says. “You wouldn’t do the “gloomy pile” of bricks in a church, much as it did to Connolly and others, nothing about it.... What you need is but among the people. This is where who saw movies as the next revolution: something to take the place of Jesus, our narrator finds Blue and where, in “No printed word shall wring the new something that would speak plain, an apocalyptic scene, the novel draws masses as did the printed words in the The Church Without Christ don’t to a close. past. They have not the time for the have a Jesus but it needs one! It needs From an academic perspective, printed word...the printed word is too a new Jesus! It needs one that is all Stephen Mirarchi’s introduction pro- common to be any longer compelling man, without blood to waste.” In spite vides a valuable history of the novel’s and too slow to be any longer dynam- of their differences, both Motes and popular and critical reception. Indeed, ic. If you want to reach the masses you Blue die alone and misunderstood, and his description of the ebb and flow of can reach them through pictures.” reading these novels together provokes the book’s print record is itself useful From literary and pedagogical many questions. as a reminder of Catholic educational standpoints, there is value, too, in Connolly’s description of Blue’s work tastes since the novel’s debut in 1928. reading Mr. Blue in relation not just among the immigrant and working Mirarchi’s explanation of the paral- to Gatsby but to two later mid-century class poor (characterized in stereotypi- lels and contrasts Connolly himself literary figures: Flannery O’Connor’s cal language that reads jarringly today: sought between Mr. Blue and F. Scott Hazel Motes and Ralph Ellison’s “the Jew,” “Negro Joe,” etc.) also feels best Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (pub- Invisible Man, whose chosen isola- served—despite its idealism—with a lished in 1925) is especially interesting tion and alienation—like Blue’s—are counter voice like that which Ellison in its comparison of Gatsby’s increasing meant to force readers to question expresses in Invisible Man. Blue’s loving isolation and despair as material things their own actions and values as much idealism, genuine as it is, with his eyes prove empty and ultimately deadly to as the characters’. Like O’Connor and “shining forth” as he “pledges himself him, body and soul, with Mr. Blue’s Ellison’s characters, Connolly’s Blue to poverty and to live among the poor,” rejection of material riches and em- does not seek a large audience for his may ring false to many, especially to the brace of “Lady Poverty” as an instruc- preaching. Blue, however, loves his very “invisible” minorities Blue means tive, necessary and demanding guide converts, while O’Connor’s Motes to serve (Ellison speaks for African- of suffering as love. Particularly en- mockingly demands distance from his Americans when he says “you refuse to lightening is the connection Mirarchi congregation. “If Jesus had redeemed see me,” for example).

November 28, 2016 America 33 Mr. Blue’s relevance endures because landscape, most obviously during this contemporary trajectory in this field. of its call to look deeply inward and election cycle. Blue’s life—his words, “Revelation and Faith” is deep- compassionately outward, to question actions and his death—invite us to ly influenced by the Second Vatican oneself while embracing the plight, consider our own place and role among Council and the work of the late Avery worries and needs of others. Extreme the “new masses.” To read the novel se- Dulles, S.J., who cogently argued figures, be they ascetics and loners riously is to embrace the question the that faith and revelation are correla- or media sensations and politicians, narrator asks at the end: “Why are all tive: One recognizes revelation only are voices in and of our political and of us here and not Blue?” in faith, and faith is the response we cultural climate, and religious leaders make to revelation recognized. Rausch PAUL ALMONTE is an associate professor and (Pope Francis especially) remain an in- chairperson of the English department at Saint makes good use of Dulles’s Models of tegral part of our American and global Peter’s University in Jersey City, N.J. Revelation. The chapter on anthropology—a Christian view of what it means to be TERRENCE W. TILLEY human—rehearses without polemics the classic Catholic-Protestant debate LANDING IN DULLES on sin and grace. Rausch is quite sympa- thetic to contemporary approaches that SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY the topic, he turns to Scripture to con- find original sin a debilitating, enduring A Roman Catholic Approach vey the transcendence of God. He then set of social structures that afflicts ev- By Thomas P. Rausch, S.J. turns to some traditional philosophical ery person in various ways, rather than Liturgical Press. 303p $24.95 approaches to God (“natural theolo- an inherited sexually transmitted dis- gy”— that is, what, if anything, we can ease. The influence of theologian Karl Every once in a while, a theological text know of God apart from faith). Moving Rahner, S.J., seems very strong in this that is useful, balanced, up to date, well to the second and chapter. written and respectful of tradition ap- third persons of the A short chap- pears. This is one of them. Trinity in Scripture ter on “Mary and the While evidently designed to be a and tradition, he Communion of Saints” backbone text for upper-level under- explores classical is- precedes a longer one graduates or beginning graduate stu- sues in Trinitarian on “Church.” Beginning dents, this book can profitably be read theology. He then with “Communion” by educated laypeople as well. Instead surveys a number wisely sets up an un- of constructing a theological system in of contemporary derstanding of Mary as which every chapter is a puzzle piece approaches to God rooted in the veneration in an integrated picture, Thomas P. and concludes with of saints. The church, Rausch, S.J., a theology professor a thoughtful sum- then, is the communion at Loyola Marymount University in mation that recog- of the faithful gathered California, moves from topic to topic nizes divine imma- and sent out in grace to show the lay of the land in contem- nence and transcen- and the power of the porary Catholic theology. Where ap- dence, the roots of Spirit. The text lays propriate, he also reflects on ecumen- Trinitarian doctrine out both historical and ical divergences and convergences. The in the prayer of the church and con- contemporary perspectives on what it book is informed by wide reading and temporary debates about how we can means to be church and on some con- honed by much classroom work, which possibly understand what it means to temporary controversies—for example, have made it comprehensive and clear. believe in three persons in one God. the ordination of women, the rela- After introductory chapters on The chapter on Jesus the Christ pro- tionship of the universal and the local what theology is and how contempo- vides a lucid history of the quests for church and the issue of open versus rary theologies intersect with some im- the historical Jesus, assays the variety closed Communion. portant strands of contemporary intel- of Christologies in the New Testament Two chapters are devoted to sac- lectual culture, Rausch explores nine and devotes sections to classical and ramentality and the sacraments. Each major topics in systematic theology. contemporary Christologies. Rausch sacrament receives a historical in- “The Divine Mystery” exemplifies sees “incarnational,” “pluralist” and troduction—and these are not to be Rausch’s approach. After introducing “praxis” Christologies as setting the slighted. The brief historical discussion

34 America November 28, 2016 November 28, 2016 America 35 of anointing, for example, goes by so doctrine in the practice of prayer, he is es have shaped and reshaped our doc- quickly that one might not notice that not much concerned with the practical trines. Sometimes a bit controversial, it, like marriage, became a sacrament implications for the life of Christians. but always balanced, Rausch regularly (and was allowed only to the clergy) Readers will find the “for further read- gets to the heart of the matter in each only in the medieval period. Rausch ing” lists valuable if they, too, want to go topic he considers. also judiciously introduces issues further. When they finish this book, readers around contraception and same-sex Rausch’s overall vision is funda- will be glad that they have spent time marriage while not proffering resolu- mentally Rahnerian, tempered with with a master communicator and teach- tions of them. large contributions from Dulles, er. I strongly recommend it. A final chapter, “Creation and Schillebeeckx, Ratzinger and numer- Eschatology,” not only includes scrip- ous contemporary theologians. He TERRENCE W. TILLEY is the Avery Cardinal tural roots, historical developments and writes using little, if any, jargon. He is Dulles, S.J., professor of Catholic theology at contemporary thought but also an ap- quite aware that historical circumstanc- Fordham University. preciative understanding of the issues involved in discussions about “religion and science.” Rausch rightly notes that the questions of “whence” and “whither” LUKE HANSEN with respect to the universe are linked in the Christian tradition. He clearly BRINGING DOCTRINE TO LIFE sees that questions about individual eschatological destinies are best under- THE CATHOLIC CHURCH writes. “Likewise, doctrine is no dead stood in that context. Nature, Reality and Mission formula carried about like a mon- I will use this book in my own By Walter Kasper strance. Rather, doctrine must be pas- torally translated into life and procla- Introduction to Systematic Theology Translated from German by Thomas course for beginning graduate students Hoebel mation.” this fall. As a teacher, I can supplement This is exactly what guided Kasper Edited by R. David Nelson through the contentious debates at the the text where it seems weak to me (for Bloomsbury. 488p $60 example, not treating the problems evil meetings of the Synod of Bishops on causes for faith or the challenges of re- CATHOLIC WOMEN SPEAK the family, where several vocal bish- ligious diversity). I can also introduce Bringing Our Gifts to the Table ops made it clear they believe doctrine is static and unchanging and can be readings that link theology and ethics Edited by The Catholic Women more closely. While Rausch is good Speak Network clearly and deductively applied to pas- at portraying the roots of Christian Paulist Press. 186p $16.95 toral situations. For these bishops, ex- pressions like “objectively disordered” Cardinal Walter Kasper, an accom- (referring to gay persons) and “living in CLASSIFIED plished German theologian who has sin” (referring to cohabitating unmar- Translator written at least 15 books in ecclesi- ried persons) easily roll off the tongue. LUIS BAUDRY-SIMÓN, TRANSLATOR ology and Christology, has become Kasper, meanwhile, without arguing (from English into Spanish): newsletters, arti- known in recent years as the “pope’s for a radical change in doctrine, draws cles, essays, websites, pastoral letters, ministry theologian.” His latest book, The from more central parts of the tradi- resources, motivational conferences, spiritual- ity material, etc. Contact: luisbaudrysimon@ Catholic Church, sheds light on why tion, like God’s mercy, to bring fresh gmail.com (815) 694-0713. Pope Francis has relied on his theolog- perspective to challenging pastoral sit- ical contributions and calls upon him uations. WANT YOUR AD HERE? with confidence. This magnum opus Kasper begins The Catholic Church Visit americamagazine.org. in the area of ecclesiology consistently in unique fashion, with a personal nar- Email: [email protected]. shows great respect for tradition and rative about his “journey in and with Call 212-515-0102. orthodox theology while also con- the Church,” and he later devotes sub- Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. stantly seeking renewal and freshness stantial portions of his text to theolog- 1-5 times: $2; 6-11 times: $1.75; 12-23 times: and a dynamic, living relationship be- ical methods, the history of salvation, $1.50; 24 or more times: $1.25. For an addition- al $30, your print ad will be posted on America’s tween doctrine and pastoral practice. images of the church, the nature of the Web site for one week. The flat rate for a Web-only “There can be no pastoral orienta- church and its four fundamental marks classified ad is $150 for 30 days. tion without a doctrinal basis,” Kasper (one, holy, catholic and apostolic), con-

36 America November 28, 2016 temporary developments in Catholic essay during a coffee break. The wom- in society and the church and main- theology and the central tasks of the en share stories of joy, pain, faith and ly highlights the positive role of the church to be both missionary and en- hope. Pope Francis has repeatedly church in providing health care and gaged in dialogue. said that he prefers a church that is education to so many women and In a section on women in the “bruised, hurting and dirty because it girls. These essays offer theologically church, Kasper begins with a mea cul- has been out on the streets, rather than rich and sophisticated treatments of pa, admitting the institution’s “misog- a church that is unhealthy from being topics like “gender theory” (rather than ynist tendencies and discrimination confined and from clinging to its own against women.” Yet in typical Kasper security.” These contributors have not fashion, he balances the criticism with been afraid to get dirty in the mud of an account of the tremendous strides everyday life. the Catholic Church has made, includ- Like the bishops who attended the ing Pope John XXIII’s affirmation of synod, this book represents the global the women’s liberation movement as a diversity of the Catholic Church today. “sign of a time” and the Second Vatican The 44 contributors represent 16 coun- Council’s blunt rejection of discrimina- tries and six continents. Each contrib- tion based on sex. Kasper concludes the utor is a practicing Catholic, writes on section with great hope for the future an issue relevant to of women in the church, suggesting “we the synod and ex- are just at the beginning of a develop- presses the struggle ment” that will be led by “charismatic of Catholic women and prophetic women.” to live with fideli- Among these charismatic and pro- ty and conscience. phetic women are the contributors to Some are well- the accessible and substantive essays known theologians, in Catholic Women Speak. While the like Elizabeth A. the general condem- prominence of Cardinal Kasper at the Johnson, S.S.J., nation that topic typ- recent synod is well documented, surely Lisa Sowle Cahill ically receives). Janet just as notable was the underrepresen- and Margaret A. Martin Soskice asks tation of women—even though they Farley, R.S.M. whether we can rec- are at the center of family life in every Others are active in ognize sexual differ- part of the world. parish ministries, ence while not taking Tina Beattie, a professor of social work and it to an extreme that Catholic studies at the University of other professional calls into question Roehampton, London, wanted to chal- fields. The women whether women can lenge this exclusion. In a recent article represent different say, as did the Second in Commonweal (3/29), she tells the generations: grand- Vatican Council’s story of the Catholic Women Speak mothers and young women, married “Pastoral Constitution on the Church Network and the origins of this book. and single, religious and lay. The book in the Modern World,” that Christ “be- She met with an official at the Pontifical will introduce you to extraordinary came truly one of us, like us in every- Council for Culture and asked how Catholic women whom you do not thing but sin.” women might have a greater presence know but should. Astrid Lobo Gajiwala The second section, “Marriage, at the synod. The person said: Write a of Mumbai, for example, not only estab- Families, and Relationships,” is the book! Within six months, 300 copies of lished India’s first tissue bank, but she longest, comprising about half the this book of essays were available on a has also served as a consultant for the book. It most directly addresses the table in the synod hall, and the bishops Indian Catholic bishops and was in- questions facing the synod, with spe- picked up nearly every copy. strumental in helping draft the gender cial attention to the experiences of The essays were collected with the policy of the Catholic Church in India. women and girls within families— bishops in mind, but this book is for The essays are grouped under often painful but not without hope. all Catholics. Selections are short four major themes. “Traditions and These contributors explore the gulf and accessible—none more than four Transformations” reviews some of the that can exist between ideals and real- pages—so that bishops could read an dramatic social changes for women ity, and how family is talked about in

November 28, 2016 America 37 the church versus how it is experienced is not about organization in itself, but gay, but too often the bishops did not and lived by most Catholics. They also how “the absence of women limits the talk with the people themselves and ask how the church can better account capacity of the institutional church in listen to them. These essays bring the for this reality, meeting people where its mission of evangelization and pas- bishops one step closer to the pastoral they are and providing the pastoral ac- toral care.” The writers in this section encounter that Pope Francis repeat- companiment for which Pope Francis call for the greater participation of edly emphasizes. Yet the relevance of has called. Painful and controversial women in future synods, for greater the book extends beyond bishops. It topics—divorce and remarriage, con- inclusion of biblical stories of women is an aid for any person who wants to traception, same-sex relationships— in the Lectionary, and for the voices of explore the experiences, joys and strug- are not avoided. People share person- women to be heard from the pulpit. gles of women in the church. ally and honestly and with fidelity and In the final essay, Catherine Cavanagh Cardinal Kasper’s tome, mean- nuance. takes up the issue of ordination in a while, is better suited for professors The third section, “Poverty, refreshing and respectful way: she ex- and graduate students of theology. It Exclusion, and Marginalization,” is amines the possible consequences for is dense, long and quite expensive. If, certainly close to Pope Francis’ heart, families that only men can be priests, however, you are looking for an in- for it raises voices from the margins preach and make final decisions. depth treatment of ecclesiology that in Argentina, India, Africa and the A broad range of personal testimo- puts the Catholic theological tradition Philippines. The writers emphasize nies on controversial topics was large- in conversation with today’s pastoral that a poor church for the poor must ly missing from the synod, and this is challenges, then it fits the bill. take serious account of the effect of where Catholic Women Speak makes poverty on women and girls. The fourth its most important contribution. The LUKE HANSEN, S.J., a former associate editor of America, is a student at the Jesuit School of section, “Institutions and Structures,” bishops at the synod talked about peo- Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, is the briefest but no less important. It ple who are divorced and remarried or Calif. Twitter: @lukehansensj.

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38 America November 28, 2016 THE WORD

God’s people had to try again and again to enter their inheritance. In this light, Let’s Try This Again John’s ministry was a fresh attempt at SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT (A), DEC. 4, 2016 an ancient goal: to be ready when God fulfills his promise. John’s baptism ad- Readings: Is 11:1-10, Ps 72, Rom 15:4-9, Mt 3:1-12 dressed Israel’s false starts, symboliz- Return to me with all your heart (Jl 2:12) ing their willingness to try again. The repentance of Advent is a call nyone who has studied music a shift of preference among choices, as for transformation. We are like musi- knows the need for repeti- the phrase means today, but is better cians at practice. Trying repeatedly to Ation. The days before a per- understood as the reception of an en- be ready, we can develop more than just formance include countless attempts tirely new mind. the technical perfection the Pharisees to give voice to the notes on the page. Even a small habits are difficult to and Sadducees sought. The struggle to First attempts are fraught with errors break. A repentant smoker can find “change our minds” can in technique and interpretation. Only the first weeks of nonsmoking ut- confer a brief glimpse after many tries can a musician bring terly excruciating. Even knowing into God’s mind, and to life something that had, until then, this difficulty, Christian tradi- that is when the trans- existed only in the mind of a composer. tion teaches that we change formation takes place. In different ways, our readings this our heart entirely to make How many times did week describe a similar predicament room for Christ. This call Isaiah have to repent for those who follow God. Isaiah’s to conversion is daunt- of hate before he could prophecy begins with a dead stump ing, so much so that we imagine his conquerors sprouting new life. The stump is might despair of our David’s kingdom, destroyed by Israel’s ability to fulfill it. infidelity. The life that rises from it The readings today teach anew brings hope and a new set of that total repentance is an achievable PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE rules. Animosity of predator and prey task, but it takes time. In his lifestyle • What parts of my life require more will cease, and God’s promises will be and dress, John the Baptist resem- “practice?” • If I could have a “new mind,” what would open even to gentiles. In his letter Paul bles the prophet Elijah. Like Elijah, it look like? applies this promise to his own day. John works to bring Israel back to • What has a life in the Spirit shown me of That new shoot is Jesus Christ. Just as the Lord. Elijah called on Israel to God’s dream? his fellow Jews find hope in him, just turn away from false worship. By • Who would benefit from hearing of this so must they bring that hope to the contrast, the Israel of John’s day had dream? gentiles. not abandoned God, but rather was DUNNE TAD ART: These themes come together in John abandoning hope in his promises. John joining him in the covenant? How the Baptist’s ministry. For him, repen- called on them to turn away from wea- many times did Paul have to repent of tance was total and irrevocable. This riness and return to the Lord. hardness of heart before he realized comes through in his preaching—“Re- This often takes more than one the scriptures foretold Christ and fel- pent! For the kingdom of heaven is try. Implicit in today’s readings is the lowship with the uncircumcised? at hand!”—and his exceptional life- church’s awareness that repentance can Following Paul’s counsel, we who style. The Greek word that Matthew take a long time. The Jordan river is a have glimpsed God’s dream must now uses for repentance is metanoia, which clue, as it plays a role several times in share that hope. Like John, we have means to “change the mind.” This is not Israel’s repentance. Elijah parted the to renew the hopes of an exhausted waters before his fiery ascension (2 world. Like Elijah we have to turn the MICHAEL R. SIMONE, S.J., is an assistant Kgs 2:8-14). Israel passed through world away from its fascination with professor of Scripture at Boston College School of the Jordan on dry land when entering idols. With practice, however, we can Theology and Ministry. Canaan after 40 years in the desert. be like Isaiah, who can see beyond the (Jos 3:13-17). John’s baptism presents mess and dream of a world in which both these narratives in a new light. all are ready for the arrival of God. Like musicians preparing for a recital, MICHAEL R. SIMONE

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