THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY NOV. 8, 2010 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES he Clarke progeny have to patience within me has gone bone-dry, endure a weekday media and I have been struggling for ways to EDITOR IN CHIEF Drew Christiansen, S.J. desert before reaching the flat- replenish it. I have not been successful. Tscreen promised land of the weekend. I have been snappish when I should EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

That means new cinematic selections have been kind; angry and shouty when MANAGING EDITOR often go into heavy rotation right after I should have been restrained and com - Robert C. Collins, S.J. they’re downloaded, and inquiries about forting. They are not easy for him, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR repeat viewings are frequent, with much many of the things that are easy for Karen Sue Smith agony, imploring and occasional, actual other kids. But it can be exasperating as ONLINE EDITOR 4-year-old foot-stomping. In recent a parent to walk him through the same Maurice Timothy Reidy weekends, “How to Train Your routines each day with little indication CULTURE EDITOR Dragon” has been scheduled for well- of progress. It shames me to admit that James Martin, S.J. attended, multiple showings. lately, around my demanding offspring, LITERARY EDITOR The antics of the sensitive Viking I would not be mistaken for Robert Patricia A. Kossmann wannabe Hiccup, who is ultimately too Young. POETRY EDITOR kindly and wise to treat dragons in the And I know how profound and James S. Torrens, S.J. Viking way—that is, as irredeemable enduring the small wounds of childhood ASSOCIATE EDITORS enemies—has quickly become part of can be. Discussing bullying around the George M. Anderson, S.J. the backdrop to my day. The backyard is editorial table at America , I listen to a Kevin Clarke the frequent scene of live action reinter - Jesuit describing an incident from his Kerry Weber pretations, and any old time of day is childhood that, if my chronological Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. the right time for unprovoked outbursts guess is correct, took place sometime ART DIRECTOR of Hiccupian dialogue. Just this before World War II. I know I cannot Stephanie Ratcliffe Saturday, cocking a head in my direction protect my children from all such things, ASSISTANT EDITOR and focusing his disconcerting baby but surely I can prevent myself from Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. blues on me (not something that comes inflicting one or two of them, can’t I? ASSISTANT LITERARY EDITOR easily to him), my second-born began I hope so. In our church the kind Regina Nigro apropos of nothing, “You know, Papa, and merciful God I am hoping to raise Hiccup’s papa?” Yes, I was acquainted my children to rely on and find comfort BUSINESS DEPARTMENT with the imposing Stoick, the Viking in is, let’s face it, depicted almost exclu - PUBLISHER father whose body and expectations sively in terms most fatherly. When the Jan Attridge loom over the slightish Hiccup. “He kids scrape around for a suitable image CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER said to Hiccup that Hiccup wasn’t his for this loving father, I guess I must be Lisa Pope son.” Stop. Stare. Wait. the first one that comes to mind, God ADVERTISING About a half hour later, he starts help us. That is assuredly a lot to live Julia Sosa again. “You know, Papa, Hiccup’s papa?” up to. So when el Segundo asks me did Still do, I tell him. “He swam all the way I know that Hiccup’s papa says he 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 down into the water to save Hiccup.” wasn’t his son and did I know that Now, I am no parental greenhorn; I Hiccup’s papa swam all the way down Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 know that everything a 6-year-old says, into the ocean to save him, I take no E-mail: [email protected]; however much it may appear heavy chances. “I would never say that you are [email protected] Web site: www.americamagazine.org. with meaning, is not always actually not my son,” I tell him, and “I would Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 heavy with meaning. Sometimes they give my life for you and more, that is © 2010 America Press, Inc. just say things; sometimes, I think, they how much I love you,” I say to him and just say things to enjoy the spectacle of rattle through a small prayer to help you trying to figure out in what way restore that reservoir that has—tem - their completely random comment is porarily I hope—drained from me: heavy with meaning. “Merciful father, forgive me when I I also know that el Segundo has have failed so often to do it; help me to Cover: Photos of Shad Meshad in been having a hard time of late, and so be a model of your patience and love for Vietnam. Courtesy of Elizabeth A. have I, with him. The reservoir of my children. Amen.” KEVIN CLARKE McDaniel and Shad Meshad. CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org Vol. 203 No. 13, Whole No. 4911 NoVember 8, 2010

ARTICLES 11 A SOLDIER’S HOMECOMING An Army psychiatrist continues his healing mission with today’s veterans. Elizabeth A. McDaniel

14 OUR ECUMENICAL FUTURE How the bishops can advance Christian unity Christopher Ruddy

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 11 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial Bullying, a Deadly Sin 6 Signs of the Times

9 Column Raising Small-c Catholics Kyle T. Kramer

19 Faith in Focus Kill Zone Raymond A. Schroth 29 Letters

31 The Word Fearless Testimony Barbara E. Reid 14 BOOKS & CULTURE 22 TELEVISION NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” BOOKS Henry Clay; All the Way to Heaven; Catherine of Siena

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Raymond A. Schroth, S.J., right, talks about his new biogra - phy of Robert F. Drinan, S.J. , on our podcast. Plus, video testimony from soldiers on the role of conscience in war. All at americamagazine.org. 22 CURRENT COMMENT

argument whether Britain’s take-no-prisoners approach to Poison in Nigeria its budget deficit is the right way out of the global reces - Lead poisoning has killed hundreds of children under age sion. (Results from Ireland’s austerity budget so far have 5 in northern Nigeria. The underlying cause is illegal gold not been promising). But one aspect of Britain’s colder eye mining. Seven villages in Zamfara state have been affected. on national spending is worth emulating: The British There are high concentrations of lead in the gold ore. Ministry of Defense did not escape the Conservative bud - When villagers bring the soil home and sift through it get axe; it was cut by 6 percent. In what The Economist looking for gold, they inhale the lead-laden dust and fall ill. dubbed a retreat “but not a rout,” Britain reduced the The contamination came to light earlier this year during a defense budget to 2 percent of its gross domestic product. yearly immunization program. Local health workers and That defense commitment is more in line with Britain’s physicians from Doctors Without Borders performed European peers and less than half of the 5 percent of blood tests and found concentrations of lead 250 times the G.D.P. the United States still funnels into defense during a levels typically found in U.S. residential areas. time of acute national need. Following Britain’s lead, the The people in the villages had been reluctant to speak United States should devise a more proportionate defense about the illness for fear that government authorities policy. A budget that comprehensively protects American would ban the mining, which they have now done. Some interests will prove the kindest—and wisest—cut of all. even denied that any children had died and instead blamed their illnesses on malaria. Doctors Without Borders said Moynihan Was Right that denial of the problem had hampered timely interven - Half of all black men in the United States who are in their tion. When help did come, it arrived too late for many. The 20s and 30s and have not gone to college are noncustodial true number of illnesses and deaths may be even higher fathers. Half of these men drop out of high school and are than reported. jobless; six out of 10 have spent time in prison. Stephen The deaths reflect the poverty of inhabitants in an area Weisman’s recent book, Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A where most villagers live by subsistence farming, which Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary (Public pays much less than illegal gold mining. Two of the United Affairs), has brought back the ideas of a scholar who tried Nation’s eight Millennium Development Goals are eradica - to warn us about this problem and failed. tion of extreme poverty and reduction of child mortality. Moynihan (1927-2003) was a Catholic public intellectu - The deaths in Nigeria are a reminder that efforts toward al who, in his 1965 report “The Negro Family: The Case both goals must be intensified and that responsibility rests for National Action,” argued that in the rise of single-moth - on the developing countries as well as the wealthy nations. er families in ghettos there is a “tangle of pathology” (in part a legacy of slavery) that includes delinquency, unem - Britain Grows Less Defensive ployment, school failure and crime. The fatherless ghetto Total U.S. defense spending now approaches—and by child learns that adult males are not expected to finish some analyses exceeds—$1 trillion a year. The United school, get a job, take care of their children or obey the law. States remains engaged in wars it cannot afford, following In the 1970s some liberal critics, feminists and African- an increasingly questionable strategy that could pave the American leaders pilloried Moynihan as a racist and sexist. way for future violence. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates In the 1980s, when the out-of-wedlock birthrate among has agreed to “limit” future defense spending to just 1 per - blacks more than doubled to 56 percent, opinion began to cent above inflation. Yet with calls for restraint in federal shift toward Moynihan’s ideas. The National Council of spending echoing through the halls of Congress, why does Churches and leaders as diverse as Bill Cosby, William the nation’s bloated defense budget remain politically Julius Wilson and President Obama have acknowledged sacrosanct? the problem. Great Britain now offers a fiscal precedent, breaking Reversing this calamity requires an effort to rebuild the through the iron triangle on defense. Their new anti- nuclear family, keep young men in school and get them Keynesian budget trims government spending by about into college. Today the fact that 70 percent of black chil - $130 billion, sharply reducing welfare benefits, raising the dren are born to unmarried mothers undermines the sta - retirement age to 66 by 2020 and eliminating hundreds of bility not just of African-American culture but of Ameri- thousands of public sector jobs. It will be a matter of some can society at large.

4 America November 8, 2010 EDITORIAL Bullying, a Deadly Sin

wo days after live footage of Tyler Clementi’s inti - Obama said, “We’ve got to dispel mate encounter with another man in a Rutgers this myth that bullying is just a nor - TUniversity dorm room was streamed online, he mal rite of passage.” updated his Facebook status. It read: “Jumping off the gw The shoals of high school life bridge. Sorry.” A week later the body of the 18-year-old was are rocky and young people need to found floating in the Hudson River, not far from the George know where to turn for support. Washington Bridge. The footage of the encounter was Web sites like those run by Pacer’s broadcast on Sept. 22, without Mr. Clementi’s knowledge, National Center for Bullying Prevention (pacerkidsagainst - by his roommate, Dharun Ravi, 18, who now faces charges bullying.org) and the U.S. Department of Health and of invasion of privacy along with Molly Mei, 18, who Human Services (www.stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/kids) are allegedly allowed Mr. Ravi to use her computer. Charges of working to raise awareness of the problem and give support hate crimes may be added. for victims of bullying. For gay and lesbian teens, there is Near the end of his life, Mr. Clementi felt isolated; but also the “It Gets Better Campaign,” a series of videos on in his victimization and suicidal feelings, he was not alone. YouTube in which adults, many of them gay or lesbian, tell In fact, more than 3.2 million young people are victims of stories of having endured and survived tough times, from bullying each year, and one study shows that victims of responding to teasing to surviving suicide attempts. cyber-bullying have higher rates of depression than those Today, 45 states have anti-bullying laws on the books, bullied in other ways. The problem seems particularly acute and some states are considering additional regulations. But among gay and lesbian teens. A Harris poll in 2005 found support for teens facing bullying and cyber-bullying must that 90 percent of teens who self-identified as gay said they move beyond legislation and into classrooms, churches and had been bullied in the past year. homes, if it is to truly make a difference. Catholics know While gay marriage, the adoption of children by well that they are called to protect human life from concep - same-sex couples and the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” pol - tion until natural death. But they cannot ignore the issues icy are hot-button issues, particularly around election time, that threaten the lives of the young people struggling to exist the right of gay teens to attend school without being har - between those two points. Suicide is a life issue, too. rassed and to live lives without fear ought not to be up for At a city council meeting in Fort Worth, Tex., on Oct. debate. How can Catholics best respond to this timeless 12, Councilman Joel Burns, who is gay, used part of the issue in an era when one poll states that two-thirds of meeting to make sure struggling teens knew they were not Americans believe that the attitudes of churches and other alone. In a heartfelt speech he lamented that “teen bullying places of worship contribute to suicides among people who and suicide reached an epidemic in our country.... “Our are gay? schools must be a safe place to learn and to grow. It is never Most Catholics are familiar with one aspect of church acceptable for us to be the cause of any child to feel unloved teaching on homosexuality, but in the lines following the or worthless….” Catechism of the Catholic Church ’s condemnation of same- Parents need to be aware of the new dangers and sex activity, a less-known message can be found: pressures encountered by teens. Bullying is no longer con - Homosexual persons “must be accepted with respect, com - fined to the playground. Teenagers can be harassed passion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination through Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and e-mail (to in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called name only a few venues). Digital bullying contributes to to fulfill God’s will in their lives…” (No. 2358). the feeling among many teens that harassment is To live out God’s will is difficult for anyone, at any age, inescapable. All religious communities must ensure that but it can be particularly difficult for teenagers who feel iso - no child or adolescent experiences the isolation and hope - lation, rejection and the threat of violence, some of whom lessness that flows from bigotry. All young people, espe - are struggling with their sexuality. Bullying is the last thing cially those who feel rejected in any way, should know they they need. In a recent online video, President Barack will be accepted and cared for.

November 8, 2010 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

LETTER FROM EUROPE French Expulsions of Roma Evoke Old Ghosts reatment of the Roma, said the Czech playwright and former pres - ident Vaclav Havel in the early 1990s, is the moral litmus test of TEuropean democracy. He should be worried. The recent wave of camp demolitions, expulsions and deportations in France and Italy, aimed at removing Europe’s largest ethnic minority and appeasing rising anti- immigrant sentiment, is remarkable both for the nakedness of its racism and the ugly shadows from history it has let loose. Some 1,800 Roma were expelled from France over the summer. At the beginning of October, the country’s Immigration Ministry introduced a fingerprinting system to prevent the deportees from returning. When the European Parliament strongly criticized the Italian prime minister for doing the same in 2008, Berlusconi backed down—but without rescinding the emergency laws behind the measures. A number of European Union member states have signed readmission agreements with eastern European nations allowing them to expel thousands of Roma, together with their children born in western Europe. The measures are part of wide-ranging, border-tightening policies across Europe, including caps and quotas, fines, biometric identification cards and, in Italy, a freeze on work permits. “Short famously mobile, moving around the emergency laws that justified expulsion of building walls,” says Oliviero Forti, edges of European towns in ramshack - of foreigners as a security measure. The immigration director for Caritas le caravans, most are in reality seden - Veltroni measures provided the tem - Internationalis in Rome, “immigration tary but kept separate by proud adher - plate for Berlusconi’s sicurezza (securi - policy in Italy could hardly be more ence to their language and culture. In ty) anti-immigration policies, which restrictive.” the past 20 years, their numbers have contributed to his landslide victory in But it is the actions against the swollen by the arrival of a stream of the 2008 election. Church critics of Roma that suggest the return of old refugees from Croatia, Bosnia and those policies are dismissed as catto - European ghosts. Among the most Kosovo. The stream became a river communisti (Catholic Communists). enthusiastic initiatives are those in after January 2007, when Romania When President Nicolas Sarkozy Milan, where the city’s largest Roma became part of the European Union, of France followed Italy’s lead in July camp, Troboniano, is being bulldozed, and Roma joined hundreds of thou - by deporting Roma to Bulgaria and along with dozens of small, impromp - sands of migrants moving from east - Romania, he was sharply criticized by tu settlements. The sgomberi , or demo - ern to western Europe. the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral litions, are proving popular. Many Italy was unprepared for the influx. Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. Milanese are convinced that the 1,300 In Rome the newcomers were segregat - “One cannot generalize and take an Roma (in a city of four million) are the ed in informal camps and began to entire group of people and kick them source of the city’s problems. “Our appear on the streets, begging or sell - out,” Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, final goal is to have zero gypsy camps ing. The mood against them turned the council’s secretary, said. The in Milan,” enthuses Riccardo Di ugly. When a Roma was accused of European Commission charged that Corato, the city’s vice mayor. murdering a naval captain in France was illegally singling out a The Roma, or Gypsies, are Europe’s November 2007, Walter Veltroni, the group of immigrants on the basis of largest and oldest minority, numbering mayor of Rome and a former ethnicity. After an internal govern - perhaps 10 million, many of them Communist, ordered the demolition of ment memo ordering the dismantling migrants from the Balkans. Although the city’s camps, pushing through of settlements was leaked to the press,

6 America November 8, 2010 U.S. BISHOPS riage. In recent years at least eight An illegal Roma camp near Nantes was bishops have decided not to partici - cleared out in August C.C.H.D. Revises pate in the annual collection, citing by French authorities. questions about the activities of Grant Policies groups being funded. C.C.H.D.’s Under persistent criticism from a emphasis on funding programs that small but vocal group of activists as empower poor and low-income people well as questions from some bishops, largely through community organizing leaders of the Catholic Campaign for activities has been the target of critics Human Development have estab - almost since the program started in lished “stronger policies and clearer 1969. Bishop Morin said five of the mechanisms” to guide how grants are 270 organizations funded in the 2008- awarded to poverty-fighting groups 9 grant cycle lost their awards for vio - and to strengthen oversight of how lating grant guidelines. grants are spent. The plan places Bishop Morin said the review greater emphasis on the Catholic iden - allowed C.C.H.D. officials to recom - tity of the 41-year-old program and mit to the program’s founding princi - renews the U.S. bishops’ commitment ples, including its Gospel-based mis - to fight poverty in all its forms, said sion of seeking justice rooted in Bishop Roger P. Morin of Biloxi, Catholic social teaching. “I don’t think Miss., chairman of the bishops’ sub - there is anything wrong [in seeking] committee for the campaign. to get the government to assume its “There were those who were con - legislative responsibility of the well- the European Union’s justice commis - cerned that renewal in some way being of the people,” Bishop Morin sioner, Viviane Reding, infuriated might mean moving away from a pri - said. “In order to do that, you have to Sarkozy by likening the expulsions to ority of helping the poor achieve be organized.” Nazi deportations. The commission greater self-sufficiency. There is a reaf - has since dropped its claim after firmation that the C.C.H.D. will con - France promised to amend its laws. tinue to have a priority for the poor Both France and Italy have used and in helping the poor to help them - levels of unemployment and crime in selves. That has not changed,” Bishop Roma settlements to justify the demo - Morin said on Oct. 26. litions and expulsions. Yet the exis - “For C.C.H.D., its focus always tence of the camps owes much to poli - was on poverty and trying to always cies in those countries that ghettoize find the best method of dynamics or the Roma rather than integrate them, organization to address poverty at the unlike Spain, which has pursued poli - local level,” he said. cies of education, health and lodging A 15-page document outlining the for the estimated 500,000 Roma there. changes, The Review and Renewal of Bishop Roger P. Morin As long as western European anxieties the Catholic Campaign for Human increase over jobs, crime and immigra - Development, provides a road map for The new commitments include the tion, the Roma—visible, dark- the renewal of the program. C.C.H.D. creation of a review board to hear skinned, living on the edges of cities— has been under fire since 2008 from complaints about the activities of will continue to offer an easy target for critics who claim the program has lost funded organizations and a redesign of populist politicians. its way by funding organizations that grant applications so that they include joined coalitions taking positions con - an explanation that C.C.H.D.’s mis - AUSTEN IVEREIGH is the European corre - trary to Catholic teaching on such sion is based on Catholic social and spondent f or America. issues as abortion and same-sex mar - moral teaching.

November 8, 2010 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Doctor-Shopping For Assisted Suicide? NEWS BRIEFS A British think tank reports that Oregon’s 1997 assisted-suicide law Potential economic gains are no reason for California might have led to “doctor-shopping” for voters to approve a ballot measure that would legalize physicians willing to ignore safeguards limited amounts of marijuana for recreational use , meant to prevent healthy people from said Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland. killing themselves. A report from • The Diocese of Rome formally opened the saint - Living and Dying Well, a group of hood process for Cardinal Francois Nguyen Van prominent British medical and legal Thuan , a Vietnamese who spent 13 years in prison in Communist Vietnam—nine of them in solitary con - experts, claims that Oregon’s Death Tariq Aziz on With Dignity Act is being abused— finement. • Poland’s Catholic bishops have warned trial with the help of some physicians—by government leaders and legislators not to back a law people who do not fulfill the criteria of allowing in vitro fertilization , adding that the practice resembled being terminally ill, mentally compe - Nazi-era eugenics. • Calling poverty “an insult to our common tent and able to make a free choice. The humanity,” the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations, report counters claims by assisted-sui - Archbishop Francis Chullikatt , speaking at U.N. headquarters in cide campaigners that the Oregon law New York, said, “We have the means to bring an end to poverty. Do is a model that should be adopted in we have the will?” • The Vatican has urged Iraq not to carry out the the United Kingdom. The report said death sentence meted out on Oct. 26 to Iraq’s former foreign minis - that when the Oregon law was enacted, ter Tariq Aziz , a Chaldean Catholic. • More than 30 Bolivian jour - about a third of all people who request - nalists, protesting a new anti-discrimination law that they believe ed help in committing suicide were could limit press freedom, gave up a hunger strike after 14 days at referred to psychiatrists, but by 2009 the urging of church officials. no one was being sent for counseling. The report concludes the drop-off could reflect “doctor-shopping,” as charges that he incited riots in the the Vatican newspaper as it patients seek physicians more inclined spring of 2009 in Barranquita, a town announced Pope Benedict XVI’s to process an application for physician- in Peru’s Amazon region. Small farm - choice of 24 new cardinals from 13 assisted suicide without insisting on ers in the area have been protesting different countries. Yet those expect - psychological screening for depression plans to displace them, clear the land ing the cardinal selections to further or a mental health problem. and plant hundreds of acres of palm globalize the College of Cardinals trees for a palm oil biodiesel project. In were no doubt disappointed. Fifteen Passionists Support a letter to Father Bartolini released by of the 24 new cardinals are European; Their Man in Peru the Passionist headquarters in Rome 10 are from Italy; and 14 are current A Passionist missionary on trial in on Oct. 24, the superior general of the or former officials of the Roman Peru for allegedly inciting a riot has order and provincial superiors from Curia. Instead of expanding the geo - ministered constantly among the poor around the world encouraged the graphical reach of the college, the and has worked tirelessly to defend priest “to continue with your mission pope appeared to be pulling it back to their rights, including the right to care and maintain your peace of mind and its historical base in Rome and for the land they have been farming to serenity.” Europe. Europeans will now make up support their families, said the superi - a majority of voters in a potential con - clave, with 62 of the 121 cardinals or general and top officers of the New Cardinals Passionist order. Mario Bartolini, an under the age of 80. Roman Curia Italian Passionist priest who has Reflect ‘Old Europe’ officials will make up 30 percent of worked in Peru for more than 35 “The Universality of the Church,” pro - the cardinal-voters. years, was awaiting sentencing on claimed the headline across the top of From CNS and other sources.

8 America November 8, 2010 KYLE T. KRAMER

Raising Small-c Catholics ven on a good day I am daunt - to justice and service that will help divine dance of paradoxical difference- ed by child-rearing. I have them become contributors to society. in-unity enables us to recognize cre - E always felt more comfortable If the 21st century promised to be ation as a reflection of its loving tending annual vegetables since each an ordinary century, then the sort of Creator: infinitely diverse and yet inti - year offers the chance to start over. But education and formation I have mately connected, each part belonging children are more like apple or peach described would, I hope, give our chil - to all and responsible to all. or cherry trees, bearing long-term wit - dren a good chance to become faith- Cultivating this sort of vision in ness to the cumulative effects of nur - filled, thriving and responsible children, however, is a risky business. ture or neglect. adults—no mean feat. I believe, how - To the extent that they truly see the Like most parents, Cyndi and I ever, that children of this generation world with catholic eyes, they will have want our children to be competent in have been born at a special hinge point to confront its myriad forms of suffer - the various academic disciplines and to in human history, which ing. They will rightly have the freedom and guidance they will ask more of them than Children ask us uncomfortable need to develop as creative, empowered mere mature adulthood. questions about our rel - persons. So as our twin girls As a global human com - of this ative privilege in the approached kindergarten age, we ago - munity we now face a stark face of injustice, poverty nized over what to do about their edu - choice. One possibility is generation and environmental de- cation. After weighing our few options, what the economist David have been gradation. In their we finally enrolled them in the public Korten termed the “Great catholic solidarity they school a short distance from our farm. Turning”: when we begin born at a may even, heaven help It had an excellent reputation, and it learning how to live togeth - special hinge us, demand catholic offered us the chance to connect to our er peaceably, within our action: that our family local community in a way that home planetary means. The other point. more fully embrace the schooling in our rural area or sending possibility is the “Great seismic economic, tech - the children to a distant Catholic or Unraveling”: continuing with business nological, ecological and social changes alternative school could not. as usual until a rising population com - required in our time and prophetically In addition to providing secular bined with unjust, profligate use of witnessed, for example, in “Caritas et education, of course, we are also rais - resources finally outstrip the planet’s Veritate.” ing our children Catholic. This means ability to supply our needs and absorb I have no ready-made formula for a helping them cultivate a prayerful, per - our wastes. catholic Catholic education, and I sonal relationship with God through For our children to meet such a doubt there is one; it will always Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit challenge, they need formation that is require child- and situation-specific and inviting them into the fellowship not only conventionally Catholic, but improvisation. My parenting experi - of believers that is the local and uni - also deeply catholic—in that word’s ence also confirms that when it comes versal church. It requires giving them a original Greek sense of “universal.” to being catholic Catholics, our chil - solid grounding in the catechetical ele - To become catholic means that our dren are more likely to be our teachers ments of the faith and a strong sense of children learn to see the world “accord - than our students. Not a novel idea, identity rooted in a rich sacramental ing to the whole,” transcending the really—it stretches back at least to the tradition. It entails, as Archbishop black-and-white thinking and loveless, prophet Isaiah, who foresaw of dis - Timothy Dolan has argued in these angry, insider/outsider tribalism that parate groups that “a little child shall pages, fostering in them a commitment so characterize American public “dis - lead them” until the lion lies down course,” whether secular or religious. with the lamb and no one “shall…hurt KYLE T. KRAMER is the director of lay degree At its core, a catholic vision is also a or destroy in all my holy mountain; for programs at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Saint Meinrad, Ind., and an organic truly Catholic vision: viewing the the earth shall be full of the knowledge farmer. world through a Trinitarian lens. The of the Lord.”

November 8, 2010 America 9 Shad Meshad d a h s e m d a h s f o y s e t r u o c o t o h p

10 America November 8, 2010 A Soldier’s Homecoming

BY ELIZABETH A. M CDANIEL

orty years ago, after treating soldiers wounded in body and spirit as they returned from combat in Vietnam—and wound - ed himself after his helicopter was shot down by enemy fire— Floyd “Shad” Meshad felt abandoned by God. Now, after years of bringing comfort to his fellow veterans, Mr. Meshad knows Fthat God never once left his side. Today his Catholic faith is the corner - stone of his work to heal a new generation of men and women trauma - tized by war. Floyd Meshad grew up in Birmingham, Ala. He recalls that living in Catholic “missionary country” as they did, young men were encouraged N RMY to consider the priesthood, and he dutifully entered a seminary after A A graduating from high school. But after a year there, Meshad felt com - pelled to change course and entered the Reserve Officer Training Corps PSYCHIATRIST while finishing his college education. But even as things heated up in Vietnam, life stayed normal for Meshad. He remembers being more or CONTINUES HIS less a “one-day-a-week soldier.” It was not until senior year that he was called to active duty, and Vietnam’s distant brutality became all too real. “If I’d gone to Vietnam then, I’d have been a second lieutenant—a grunt. HEALING The average lifespan of a guy like that in the field was 60 seconds. A third of my class was already gone.” Fortunately, Meshad was granted a 36- MISSION month deferment for a fellowship at Florida State University to work for a master’s degree in psychiatric social work. WITH TODAY S Despite feeling thankful for this chance to continue his studies, ’ Meshad was increasingly burdened by the fact that his peers were fight - ing and dying while he felt like a “closet soldier.” Protests were raging, VETERANS . news footage was streaming in, and there he was in civilian clothes going to class and dancing with girls at parties. After finishing his degree, Meshad faced the choice of continuing in the infantry or transferring to medical services. In 1967 his friend Tom Cooney, an artist and a consci - entious objector, sat him down in Montreal and asked him tough ques - tions about Vietnam, questions he could not easily answer about the war. Meshad decided to transfer to medical services. “That really saved me,” he

ELIZABETH A. M CDANIEL writes from Cincinnati, Ohio, where she is completing a master’s degree in English at Xavier University.

November 8, 2010 America 11 said. “I knew in my heart that I couldn’t kill anyone. What Christmas—he was already dealing with anger, alienation I’d been given was a sort of ministry to do. I just didn’t see it and a sense of emptiness. “Here we are, all these guys just like that then.” trying to get away from Vietnam, get home for Christmas, He was sent to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort and what we’re met with at Travis Air Force Base is about Leavenworth, Kan. There he counseled inmates locked up 300 Berkeley students with a bad attitude. And I felt like I’d for assault, murder, drug busts and fragging (killing their just come home to hell. God was gone even here.” own officers). It turned out to be valuable preparation for Readjustment ended up a fraught, difficult process. “Even the work he would go on to do in Vietnam. once I got home to Alabama, was back with my family, my mind wasn’t there. I’d wake up confused, thinking I was in The Vietnam Volunteer Vietnam. And then I’d find myself wishing I actually was By the time Mr. Meshad volunteered to go to Vietnam—in back there. And I was disturbed by the insanity of that, of the place of a captain whose wife had attempted suicide— wanting to go back to Vietnam.” he was the youngest U.S. army captain there. He was sent to Meshad decided that he needed a change of scenery. He the 95th Evacuation Hospital to serve as a psychiatric offi - drove from Alabama to Los Angeles. “I thought I went to cer. The place was known as Hell’s Half Acre Revisited. It L.A. for the sun, to have some kicks, to escape a little. But did not take long for Vietnam to shake his faith. He remem - now I know that God was putting me where he wanted me bers his first night treating casualties as the most horrific to be. The more I look back on things, the more I realize night of his young life. Using the nickname for mobile army that I didn’t really make any choices. God guided me.” surgical hospitals, he described the experience: “An hour Within two days of arriving in Los Angeles, Meshad was and a half into the shift, we had M.A.S.H. casualties come introduced to the head of psychiatry at the Brentwood in—35 soldiers from the 101st Airborne—and I was in Veterans Administration Hospital. “He wanted me to come charge of sorting, deciding. I was swimming through blood, down, to evaluate the facility, to talk to him about the vets doing tracheotomies, holding soldiers as they were scream - he was seeing. ing, dying in my arms. “Before I knew it, I’d been there for two years. It became “And it all seemed so senseless. These young guys— my life. I was on the streets trying to break through to good-looking, built like tanks—blown to shreds, dying. homeless veterans. I had learned that there were vets living And us having to just pile them up to get them out of the in the Topanga Canyon. And I went out there. I was run - way. It was madness. And I thought to myself, maybe there ning this kind of street ministry.” Meshad had found a new isn’t a God. God wouldn’t allow this.” As his time in purpose, working on the frontlines of treatment for post- Vietnam wore on, Meshad felt his faith being strained more traumatic stress disorder. But there was still an emptiness, and more, until it was on the verge of collapse. “At first I still something missing. “I still hadn’t reconnected, still tried to intellectualize the situation. But the image of God wasn’t looking up.” that I had built up during all those years in Catholic school just didn’t fit. This just and loving God was just nowhere to Getting Back to God be found,” Meshad remembered. “While I was at Brentwood, I was also running my own “I was caught in this huge contradiction—trying to live operation. Using free space to hold rap groups—sessions the principles of Christianity in the midst of the horrors of where vets could share whatever was on their mind. It was Vietnam. And it all seemed like too much of a contrast. God during one of these sessions that I had a really powerful either seemed mean and ruthless or totally absent, a fiction. experience, the one that finally brought me back to God. It’s not like I completely walked away from God at that “I was there with all these tough, warrior-like vets, guys point. I was just confused. So I just turned it off, that part who’d seen a lot of combat, killed a lot of people. And there of myself. I stopped looking up, stopped looking to God.” was this one guy, he started talking, and he asked God to Despite his wounded faith, Meshad spent his year in forgive him…and I realized, we’re all thinking that. And Vietnam devoted to the soldiers he was sent to help. “A lot before I knew it, we were all on our knees, holding hands. of times all I could do was listen. Just be there. But when I It was so strange and powerful. And all I could think is how could, I tried to give these guys a break, some way to get out badly I wanted to get back in communication with God.” of the situation that was causing them such distress. I tried Meshad did get back in touch with God. He realized to stand between the grunts and the brass. There was just that God was not responsible for Vietnam. God did not no healing, no curing to be done in such a stressful situation. condone or make those things happen. And God was not All a psych officer could offer was a Band-Aid. Some peace absent, either. People made those choices. People have the of mind, moments of peace.” opportunity to choose God—or to choose darkness. “I By the time Meshad came home—just in time for finally realized that Vietnam was man’s inhumanity to

12 America November 8, 2010 man, the price of free will.” gy—and money—to bail out these vets, to pay back our After reflecting on his work in Los Angeles, Meshad real - debt to them.” When asked to comment on the politics of ized how God had saved him again. “I came looking for the current war, Meshad says humbly: “It’s clear to me that escape, wanting to escape the horror. But instead of run - there are no winners in war. But as a healer, as a medic, those ning, I got the opportunity to engage, to be involved in decisions are bigger than me. I want to be more like Mother something bigger than myself. Without that, I would have Theresa. My quest is to live the Beatitudes, to nourish any - been in trouble.” Eventually, Meshad founded the National thing that’s Christ-based.” Veterans Foundation. For 24 years now the foundation has Every day Meshad is thankful to have been given such connected vets and their families with nourishing work to do. “God has always vital services—everything from crisis ON THE WEB put me in the right place. I’m so thankful counseling and benefits assistance to Testimony from soldiers for that,” he said. Reflecting on the price of transportation and job training. One of on the role of conscience in war. this providence, he admits that he has had americamagazine.org/video the cornerstones of the foundation’s out - to give up some things. But he maintains reach is called Lifeline for Vets. It has a that the rewards have far exceeded the toll-free number, (888) 777-4443, that immediately con - cost: “Wealth, family—instead of having a wife, I married nects vets and family members with a trained counselor and my work. But I still feel like I’m the most blessed man in the fellow veteran, 12 hours a day, seven days a week. world.” Meshad finds peace and rejuvenation in the church: “It’s a simple phone call, but it can be the start of a new “Being in church is a way for me to experience a living life for a veteran. The important thing is talking to someone Christianity. It gives me a place to be quiet, to be present, to who understands what they’re going through, someone who feel God, to feel energized in ways I can’t explain.” can get them the help they need—whether that need is Today Meshad remains one of the nation’s top experts on emotional, spiritual, financial, medical or all of the above.” combat stress, trauma therapy and the readjustment issues Although the National Veterans Foundation is not a reli - that veterans and their families face. But he realizes that he gious organization, Meshad insists that spirituality is at the is one of the fortunate ones—to have experienced the hor - core of its work: “The foundation is an instrument of my rors of Vietnam and to have survived—to have found God consciousness, a product of this intense desire I have to give again. “I feel so lucky. I came through to the other side. Not back. It’s not a church, but we minister. The spirit gets everyone does.” A lighter. And that helps people make good choices—the choice to go another day and another. The magic is that it’s real, that it’s present.”

A New Generation O Holy Although Meshad still spends a great deal of time counsel - ing and advocating for Vietnam vets, he and his foundation Night? are trying particularly hard to reach out to the new genera - tion of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. “The issues for What family rituals or traditions help these troops are more accelerated. They’re often asked to do you remember the true meaning of multiple tours. Many of them are coming from the National Christmas and Advent? Guard and Reserves. They’ve left jobs, and it’s costing them money. Many are coming from broken families. Over 50 AmeRiCA wants to know! percent of them are dealing with a divorce themselves. So they just don’t have as much family to come back to. They Deadline: Nov. 28, 2010. need someone to be there for them.” We will publish selected responses. The National Veterans Foundation has also worked to expand its online capacity to meet the needs of returning • Briefly describe your suggestions vets who are more comfortable communicating by e-mail and practices. than talking on the phone. Meshad says that because the • include your full name, city and state. government has been slow to respond to the needs of veter - • Send by e-mail to: ans, it puts more pressure on organizations like the founda - [email protected]; tion to help vets pick up the pieces. “For veterans who are struggling, the need is pressing; they just can’t wait. And as subject line: Advent 2010. the line grows longer, it’s going to take more and more ener -

November 8, 2010 America 13 Our Ecumenical Future How the bishops can advance Christian unity BY CHRISTOPHER RUDDY

hat can the bishops of the United mind: “In the middle of the journey of our life I came to States do to serve the ecumenical myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.” journey? The question is a deceptive - One might speak of ecumenism having reached a midlife ly simple one. crisis that can lead either to weariness and resignation or to Finding an answer requires looking recommitment and renewal. Neither path is easy, but only aWt the goal of ecumenism, as understood by both the one leads to life. Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches. It has The ecumenical paradox for Catholics is that we are wit - been understood traditionally as full, visible unity in faith, nessing at once increasing distance and increasing friend - sacramental life and ministry, manifested above all in ship. On the one hand, the prospect of full visible unity with eucharistic fellowship and with the intent of glorifying God other Christian communities—apart from the Orthodox and bringing the world to belief in Jesus Christ. The Second and other Eastern churches—is in painful, visible ways Vatican Council’s “Decree on Ecumenism” (1964) puts it more distant than it was at the conclusion of Vatican II in thus: “Little by little, as the obstacles to perfect ecclesiastical 1965; the Church of England’s decision in 2008 to ordain communion are overcome, all Christians will be gathered, in women to the episcopate, for instance, was almost certainly a common celebration of the Eucharist, into the unity of the a final blow to the realization in history of full, visible unity one and only Church, which Christ bestowed on his between Catholicism and the Anglican Communion. Church from the beginning” (No. 4). On the other hand, bonds of friendship between Now, when this goal has been challenged by recent devel - Catholics and other Christians—and their churches—are opments in the Anglican Communion and in the deeper than anyone could have reasonably expected in Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and when the 1965. Tentative bonds have set down deep roots. Who ecumenical landscape is shifting before our eyes, it is neces - would have imagined decades ago that the Bishops’ sary to shape the ecumenical future now, rather than wait Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs would and react passively. Put bluntly, the Catholic Church can pay hold its plenary meetings at the headquarters of the now or pay later. Paying later always costs more. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America? And budding In planning the path our church must follow, we friendships have grown where only hostility existed before - Catholics must consider both the ecumenical present and a hand. These bonds are, in Cardinal Walter Kasper’s words: proposal for the ecumenical future. The ecumenical present “the true fruits…even more important than the fruits we and future call for fuller, deeper analysis than I can offer have gathered in our documents. We have rediscovered our - here, but my hope is that these open-ended, personal reflec - selves as brothers and sisters in Christ.” tions can spark a discussion among the bishops and help Likewise, the achievements of recent decades are evident: them discern how best to advance the unity of the church in the Lutheran-Catholic-Methodist Joint Declaration on the the years to come. Doctrine of Justification ; the World Council of Churches’ paper Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry ; the resumption and The Present Ecumenical Context remarkable progress of international dialogue with the The ecumenical movement has entered a new phase, passing Orthodox churches; closer bonds between Catholics and from the enthusiasm of the decade or so immediately after evangelicals; and Catholic documents like “Unitatis the Second Vatican Council to the maturity and sobriety of Redintegratio” and “Ut Unum Sint,” to name only a few. recent years. The opening words of Dante’s Inferno come to The problems of recent decades are also evident: the unshakable perception of ecumenical malaise; the demo - graphic decline and theological confusion of mainline CHRISTOPHER RUDDY is an associate professor of systematic theology in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic Protestantism; the continuing fragmentation of the University of America in Washington, D.C. Anglican Communion over matters of sexuality, authority

14 America November 8, 2010 and ordained ministry; the tandem increase of fundamen - tered his energies on causes that are transconfessional: a call talism and indifference; and, perhaps most subtly and for Christian communities to witness together to long - deeply, what the late Dominican ecumenist Jean-Marie standing moral and cultural values in a time of upheaval, Tillard described in one of his final publications as an “ero - particularly in the West; insistence on the liberating and sion of the basis of koinonia by a fragmentation of faith in unitive power of truth over that liberalism of religion as Christ.” subjective taste decried by John Henry Newman upon his Seen in conjunction with these lights and shadows, creation as a cardinal; and, above all, a renewed ecumenism Benedict XVI’s pontificate represents a kind of ecumenical and evangelism centered on a personal encounter with the risen Christ. One sees this Christocentric commitment in the time he has devoted as pope to completing the two vol - Archbishop Rowan Williams arrives with Jesus of Nazareth Cardinal Walter Kasper for a vespers umes of , in his celebration of the Year of service in Rome on Nov. 20, 2009. St. Paul and even in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s shift of activity from the ecclesiological and ethi - cal disputes of the 1970s and 1980s to the Christological debates of the 1990s and the 2000s. One need only recall Pope Benedict’s insistence, in the introduction to “Deus Caritas Est,” that “being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” So, too, are ethics and doc - trine ecumenically central but not primary. The encounter with the person of Christ is the primary ecumenical reality. It gives direction to still-necessary ethical and doctrinal dia - logues. One might speak of the “audacity of Pope” in foster - ing this recentering on the person of Christ, both within Catholicism and in Christianity as a whole. Given this ecumenical context, how can the bishops best serve the ecumenical journey in the future? My suggestions correspond to two questions: What shall we do, and who will be our partners?

What Shall We Do? The primary ecumenical task should be a renewed empha - sis on the primacy of prayer. Spiritual ecumenism is, in the words of Vatican II, the “soul” of ecumenism, for it alone enables deep and lasting conversion and communion. And at the heart of prayer is an encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. It is telling that Pope Benedict devoted his homily for the closing of the 2010 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to St. Paul’s encounter with the risen Lord, an encounter that gave rise to Paul’s evangelizing mission. Rorschach test. Many see the pope as a hindrance to ecu - Perhaps a “Petrine” ecumenism, centered on matters of menism, pointing to “Dominus Iesus” (2000), recent state - authority and office, needs to be complemented by an ecu - ments by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on menism attentive to the Pauline (evangelical), Johannine the nature of the church, and “Anglicanorum Coetibus,” as (mystical-sacramental) and Marian (contemplative-recep - signs of a shrinking back from the vision of Vatican II in tive) dimensions of ecclesial life. Dialogue with other favor of a defensive triumphalism. Others, of whom I am Christians must always be preceded and sustained by a dia - one, argue that the pope sees the primary contemporary logue with Christ. ecumenical questions to be not ecclesial but cultural, philo - Second, such ecumenical prayer might flourish in a sophical, spiritual and, most radically, Christological. monastic setting of hospitality. The Bridgefolk project of Holding that there is an ongoing realignment not only Catholics and Mennonites meets regularly at St. John’s among, but also within Christian communities, he has cen - Abbey in Minnesota for prayer and theological dialogue.

November 8, 2010 America 15 The Catholic and Lutheran bishops of Minnesota have for logues with Christians across confessional boundaries who over 30 years met annually for a two-day retreat. These adhere to what might be called a Nicene Christianity. experiences of prayer open up relationships and insights that would be difficult, even impossible, to realize in other Who Will Be Our Partners? ecumenical contexts. One emerging area of ecumenical engagement is the forma - Third, a recommitment to spiritual ecumenism will help tion of new partnerships on common ethical and social wit - deepen theological dialogue. This would not be a retreat ness. These involve evangelicals, Pentecostals and, most from theological reflection, which remains essential. Many recently, Mormons (acknowledging that their identity as of our bilateral and multilateral dialogues have accom - Christians is disputed). Such common witness is increas - plished great good; the Joint Declaration on Justification , for ingly necessary, even if great care must be taken to avoid instance, was made possible in large part by decades of work reducing the Gospel to moralism and the churches to polit - by the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic dialogue. A call to prayer is ical agents . not a flight into escapism or mindless sentimentality, but Second, broader outreach and resources should be rather the wellspring of the deepest, most fruitful theologi - directed to evangelicals and Pentecostals. If modern cal inquiry. Catholic ecumenism has focused largely on the “East” and Fourth, Cardinal Kasper’s suggestion in February 2010 the “West,” it must now take greater account of the “South,” at a symposium, titled “Harvesting the Fruits,” for an ecu - both internationally and domestically. Evangelical and menical catechism points to an erosion of classical commit - Pentecostal communities are the demographic future (and ments among some in the Christian churches. His com - present) of institutional Protestantism. The Catholic ments echo those of Father Tillard on the “fragmentation of Church must refocus its ecumenical efforts accordingly, even faith in Christ” as well as those he himself made during the if such communities are more dispersed and decentralized Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2005. Cardinal than those of their mainline brothers and sisters. Kasper notes that an “ecumenism of basics” is needed to Finally, we Catholics need to commit ourselves to and ensure that ecumenical dialogue builds on the solid ground join with other Christian communities in a common evan - of Scripture and tradition. One consequence for the bish - gelical witness. In the United States, the spiritual lives of ops’ conference might be building relationships and dia - children and young adults—Christian or not—are marked Bernardin Scholarship at Catholic Theological Union

Preparing ministers and leaders committed to building upon the work of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin

Full tuition scholarship….toward an M.A. in Theology or an Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry degree at CTU.

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16 America November 8, 2010 by what the sociologist Christian Smith of the University of Notre Dame has called “moralistic therapeutic deism.” This is a post-confessional, post-Christian framework that eschews most traditional religious beliefs, practices and lan - guages in favor of a generic religiosity centered on doing good (moralism), feeling good about oneself (therapy) and relating to a God who solves problems but is otherwise dis - tant and uninvolved in one’s life (deism). Smith believes that such a belief system is parasitic (it cannot stand alone but draws life from already existing religious communities) and colonizing (it tends to take over such communities and reorient their beliefs and practices). His latest book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, confirms that these youths and young adults are holding onto moralistic therapeutic deism as they move into their mid-20s. 100 % Ecumenically, this means that longstanding confessional OF PROCEEDS differences—and even traditional Christianity itself—are FROM CARD SALES increasingly irrelevant to younger Christians. Christian communities must make evangelization—in the fullest BENEFITS POOR AND sense of the word—their priority, individually and ecu - ISOLATED menically. Jean-Marie Tillard, O.P., believed that the con - CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES temporary ecumenical situation is no longer that of previous THROUGHOUT centuries: AMERICA

...where the Churches’ quarrels could look like family wrangles which did not endanger allegiance to Christ or to Christianity as such. Nations, societies, some - times individuals, could pass from one Christian group to another Christian group which was judged more faithful. But today people are going elsewhere. They are searching elsewhere. They are making attachments elsewhere. It is no longer just a matter of re-uniting or gathering together Christ’s family. It is a matter of saving this family, hauling it out of the sand where it is stuck, for its own good and the good of the humanity which needs to be gathered together…. It cannot be doubted that the urgent need to proclaim Christ together should become the chief purpose of the baptized, hic et nunc. It is a question of double or nothing, life or death.

This sense of urgency is paramount. Facing substantial challenges within and without, the Catholic Church in the United States may be tempted to regard ecumenism as a highly desirable but optional dimension of its nature and mission. Succumbing to that temptation would be danger - ous, as would be the choice of an ecumenism that failed, in the words of the “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” (No. 4), in its task of “scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of | | the Gospel.” A

November 8, 2010 America 17

FAITH IN FOCUS Kill Zone BY RAYMOND A. SCHROTH

ogue Soldiers. Mem- rationalized mass murder of bers of U.S. Platoon the innocent. The aerial ‘R Are Accused of bomb returned warfare to Killing Afghan Civilians for the frightfulness of antiqui - Sport.” When I read this head - ty—whole cities put to the line in The Washington Post, flame and sword. And my mind raced back to Fort coarsened the conscience of Bliss, Tex., in June 1955. man.” In World War II we “Let’s get one thing straight destroyed whole villages from the beginning,” our instruc - from a sanitizing distance. tor said. “You are all profession - “Calley was the end product al killers. Make no mistake of the process. He did it about that.” point blank, looking his vic - It was the basic course for tims in their pleading eyes,” officers, and hundreds of Mr. Sevareid said. R.O.T.C. graduates—including During nine years in some from Fordham University Afghanistan, the Army has and Boston College—were court-martialed 34 service packed into an auditorium. We members for civilian mur - saw ourselves as future doctors, der and convicted 22 of lawyers and businessmen, fulfill - them. Convictions are diffi - ing our obligation of two years cult because of the “fog of on active duty, destined to be war” defense: they killed in ordered to West Germany or Thule, means that we must kill more of them confusion. Greenland. I doubt any of us saw him - than they kill of us. So we should not In the months ahead the media will self as a killer. be surprised when the beast inside the focus on the trial of Staff Sgt. Calvin R. My father won the Distinguished young soldier takes over. Training and Gibbs and four other enlisted men of Service Cross in World War I. He experience in battle have given soldiers the Fifth Stryker Combat Brigade, now wiped out a German machine gun nest a license to kill, and both propaganda home from Afghanistan, for the mur - all by himself, so he must have killed and bombing strate - der of at least three Germans in the process. As an anti- gies have made clear ON THE WEB Afghan civilians— aircraft artillery officer assigned to that these deaths are Raymond A. Schroth, S.J., allegedly for fun. Germany, I was ready to shoot down not just necessary discusses his biography Bob Drinan. Reportedly, mem - Russian planes. But I decided that if but good. americamagazine.org/podcast bers of a troubled ordered to shell a house full of civil - Speaking on CBS platoon with a year ians, I would refuse and face the court on March 29, 1971, Eric Sevareid, the of fighting and casualties behind them martial. network’s most highly respected com - and a reputation for using alcohol and Yet there was a terrible truth in our mentator, talked about Lt. William hashish, led by Gibbs, formed a “kill

instructor’s “killer” pep talk. War Calley, who had slaughtered hundreds team.” Gibbs said it had been easy to do k r i u q of men, women and children at My “stuff” in Iraq, so let’s do it here. N a e s

Lai, Vietnam, in 1968: “It was World Between January and March the RAYMOND A. SCHROTH, S.J., is an associ - : t r ate editor of America . War II which institutionalized and five soldiers killed at least three inno - a

November 8, 2010 America 19 cent men. The method: pick a target, Adam C. Winfield, sent e-mail to his down.” The father called the Army toss a grenade. When it explodes, open father pleading with him to do some - inspector general; the office of Senator fire on the Afghan man; later say he thing before they killed again. “It was Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida; had the grenade. an innocent guy about my age, just and the Army’s criminal investigations Shocked, one team member, Spec. farming,” he wrote. “They mowed him division. No response. The soldiers killed two more. The army took no action until another soldier complained to the mil - itary police about drug use. According E SA EM to court documents, platoon members JHolyHoly LandLand retaliated by beating him savagely. Rather than quit, that soldier went back to the police and told them about the shootings. º As these troops beat the infor - mant, Sergeant Gibbs menacingly XII waved the finger bones he had collect - ed from the dead. Another team

member had kept an enemy skull. Today prosecutors have over 60 grue - some photographs of corpses, includ - ing troops displaying the severed heads of their victims. Gibbs, described by his fellow soldiers as “savage,” keeps count of his kills with skull tattoos on his lower leg. In Tim O’Brien’s short story about TWO-WEEK COURSE IN CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY Vietnam, “The Things They Carried,” RON ROLHEISER, O.M.I. one soldier cuts off the thumb of a FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES FOR CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY: dead Viet Cong youth as a souvenir. Drawing some Clarity from an Intellectual, Biblical, Ecclesial, That severed digit symbolizes what and Mystical Tradition the license to kill can do to the moral

January 3-14, 2011 Weeknights 6:30-9:30 PM sensibilities of young men we know

Course may be taken for three MA-level credit hours and love in the classroom, playing (with pre- and post-course assignments) or may be audited (only reading required). fields and in our homes. Michael Registration deadline is December 10, 2010. Corson, a Vietnam veteran who now For more information, contact the Office of the Registrar at [email protected] teaches international relations at OBLATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Boston University, told the Associated 285 Oblate Drive · San Antonio, Texas 78216 · (210) 341-1366 · www.ost.edu Press that it is no surprise soldiers keep hideous photos as souvenirs. It TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW EB0909 proves they are tough. “War is the one 9

K New subscription K Renewal 9 5 lyric experience of their lives.” 1 9 g Yearly rates are $56 for each subscription. Add $30 for postage, handling and GST on Canadian orders. - r

9 My reaction to that lecture in Fort o . Add $54 for foreign subscriptions. Payment in U.S. funds only. 2 e 4 n 5 3 i Bliss was, two years later, to join the z 4 K K 3

Payment enclosed Bill me a 5 H a g 9 c - a O i

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On occasion America gives permission to other organizations to use our list for promotional purposes. If m e 2 g a 6 n c m - you do not want to receive these promotions, contact our List Manager at our New York offices. i i r r A kill was never tested. Today my main 0

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v become true for more of the young:

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“There’s no one in this platoon that

City: State: ZIP: . O . E-mail: P agrees this was wrong. They all don’t care.” A

20 America November 8, 2010 November 8, 2010 America 21 BOOKS &CULTURE

TELEVISION | ANNA NUSSBAUM KEATING Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) cheats on his wife, everybody knows. The UNDER A TEXAS SKY reverberations affect his children, his business and his social life as one of NBC’s ‘Friday Night Lights’ the team’s boosters. n its commitment to place, NBC’s season, is set in the hardscrabble, high- Religion is part of life in Dillon in “Friday Night Lights” is something school-football-obsessed west Texas more than a superficial or pietistic way. Ilike a William Faulkner novel. town of Dillon, a fictional community Neighbors see each other at church on Faulkner understood from his own modeled on Odessa, Tex. Sundays, pray together before football life, lived, as he said, on “a little postage Dillon is not a transient place. games and occasionally worry aloud stamp of land” in Mississippi, that People are rooted there because they that their actions, like not offering a one’s character is profoundly shaped either lack the means to move or can - ride to someone stranded on the high - by the geographical, familial, religious not imagine living anywhere else. This way, might be un-Christian. So as and social contexts in which one lives. is one reason Tim Riggins (Taylor Buddy Garrity starts losing his chil - Many of Faulkner’s novels are set in Kitsch), the town’s football star, has dren’s trust, it matters to the whole Yoknapatawpha County, modeled made “Texas forever” his catchphrase. town. Whatever you think about the after a real place—Mississippi’s People are marooned there. And when town’s values, the residents’ fierce com - Lafayette County. Similarly, Friday everyone knows everyone else, there’s mitments make for fascinating view - Night Lights , now in its fifth and final no private sin. When the car salesman ing. (Note: the show’s final season s d r o c e r

l l i b

/ l a s r e V i N u / c b N

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Left to right: Louanne Stephens as Grandma Saracen, Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins, Derek Phillips as Billy Riggins, Stacey Oristano as Mindy Riggins in the “Thanksgiving” episode of “Friday Night Lights.”

22 America November 8, 2010 began on Oct. 27. The previous four lines, barely able to plan a night out, ultimately were addressing infidelity.... seasons can be watched free on the Eric is different. When he takes a We really wanted to deal with the show’s Web site. This season airs coaching job in Austin, his family back authenticity of what it is to try to make Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Direct TV in Dillon begins to unravel without a marriage work.” Their characters are and will be aired again later this year him, and he returns. compelling because of their commit - on Fridays at 9 p.m. on NBC.) Eric and Tami are each other’s ments, not in spite of them. With a lot No show since HBO’s crime drama biggest fans, always in the stands at at stake—a marriage, two kids, two “The Wire,” set in Baltimore, has tilled each other’s games. And while sports is jobs, an entire town counting on a win what T. S. Eliot called “significant soil.” a religion in Dillon, the couple’s rela - Friday night—there’s a lot to lose. “Friday Night Lights” is superb televi - tionship transcends football and vol - Eric and Tami are raising their sion because it gets one place just right leyball. When Eric is facing a difficult daughters with care, visiting team and, by extension, much more. Most decision, he visits members in the hos - television shows, by comparison, are Tami’s office for ON THE WEB pital and forever set in sound-stage no places, nominal - advice. After they Reviews of answering the door ly called New York or L.A., if they are fight, they apologize. notable fall films. in the middle of the named at all (think “Friends”). Such When they have a americamagazine.org/culture night to respond to places may be mildly amusing distrac - late-in-life acciden - an anxious parent or tions from the actual locales we call tal pregnancy and Tami thinks about teenager. They show little vainglory, home, but little is ultimately at stake, quitting a job she loves, Eric counsels though as a result of their selfless lives, and what is at stake feels contrived. against it. they are constantly fatigued. When the When television writers and produc - In a recent interview with National hard-partying running back Tim ers tackle middle-American places, Public Radio, Connie Britton said that Riggins is caught sleeping in his truck they often turn the people (who worry she and her co-star Kyle Chandler outside their house with nowhere else about money, drink beer, watch sports were committed to portraying a solid to stay, Eric wordlessly throws him a and raise families) into maudlin carica - marriage on television. “We didn’t sleeping bag. This understated hospi - tures (think “Seventh Heaven” or “My want this to be a marriage where we tality captures something essential Name is Earl”). In “Friday Night Lights” the stakes Sangre de Cristo Center are family, God and football. (The Offering 100 Days of Personal, show was adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Spiritual and Human Renewal Grazer and David Nevins from a film for the past forty-nine years. based ona book of the same name by Buzz Bissinger.) Its creators have We must be doing something right. refused to turn their characters into Priests: Can’t get away for 100 clichés. Just when you think a charac - days? ter like the head cheerleader Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) is merely a How about seven days in the foothills of the Sangre de superficial young woman, she grows OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON YOU! Cristo Mountains, just outside up and surprises you. of Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA? The overarching plot focuses on the family of Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), How about a week x just for yourself? the football coach, and his wife, Tami PLEASE (Connie Britton), the part-time volley - x for reflection and prayer? ball coach and school counselor turned REMEMBER x guided by the spiritual input principal, and their two daughters. for Priests by Fr. George The Taylors are the center of an inter - AMERICA Aschenbrenner, S.J. locking web of characters, many of IN YOUR WILL whom frequently ask Eric and Tami When: May 22 – 28, 2011 for help on and off the field. As many Cost: $450 critics have noted, theirs is the best Register by January 31, 2011 atwww.sangredecristo.org marriage on television. While most OUR LEGAL TITLE IS: AMERICA PRESS INC., [email protected] television husbands are mere punch - 106 WEST 56th STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10019

November 8, 2010 America 23 about small-town Texas. ately fall back into bed with one anoth - understanding of himself as a politi - “Friday Night Lights” also under - er. Still, viewers can sense real power in cian of the second generation under stands the town’s faith life. When Lyla the church scenes, not unlike what the the Constitution, anxious to both pre - Garrity’s life implodes, her parents characters feel in each other’s arms or, serve the system and make his own divorce and she cheats on her injured in Riggin’s case, on the football field. contribution to it. boyfriend with Tim. She then gives up The church was there when needed; Clay had an outstanding constitu - partying, “gets saved” and joins a Bible the people there were mostly good. tional education under George Wythe, church. Riggins teases her, “What’d Shot in Austin, Tex., “Friday Night a neglected founding father who was you do, join a cult or something?” But Lights” boasts a lush documentary the first law professor in the United when he attends a service at her non - feel: a big sky, tiny churches, trailer States. Four years as Wythe’s assistant denominational church and the homes, practice fields and Applebee’s gave Clay insights into both national preacher says, “God loves you,” Riggins restaurants speed by, as if from the seat origins and possibilities. Clay admired is surprised that he feels moved. “I felt of a passing car (or truck). And Congress because he felt it epitomized something so strong that it made me because this is both Texas and televi - the constitutional and social diversity wonder if everything you’ve been sayin’ sion, there are lots of good-looking that Wythe felt would put the new isn’t as crazy as what everyone people. Shot with three cameras, no nation at the service of all humanity. thought,” he tells Lyla. “It’s hard for me rehearsals and no blocking, it allows a Clay would pass on this respect for the to understand that feeling. It’s kind of gifted cast to hone its craft before your unity of differences to his own admir - embarrassing. It allowed me to feel a eyes and, in the process, tell you some - er, the young Abraham Lincoln. part of something, part of the people, thing about someone’s hometown. Clay achieved legislative mastery in part of you, part of God. Even sayin’ both House and Senate. He revolu - that’s scary. Did you feel it?” tionized the office of speaker of the ANNA NUSSBAUM KEATING teaches at the True to life, both characters stop Trinity School at Greenlawn in South Bend, house by making it a position of advo - going to church and almost immedi - Ind. She was born in Texas. cacy rather than an impartial presiding post on the Westminster model. Initially this change helped to lead the BOOKS | THOMAS MURPHY nation into an unprepared-for war with Great Britain. But the new role PATRIOT, STATESMAN, GENTLEMAN for the speaker endured, and Clay became one of the negotiators of HENRY CLAY erated the collaboration of the presi - peace. He more and more learned to The Essential American dent and the Senate in any such recog - combine advocacy with fairness, win - By David S. Heidler nition and sought to discover the his - ning personal friends even among And Jeanne T. Heidler torical source inspiring the erroneous political opponents as intense as his Random House. 624p $30 resolutions. It was Henry Clay (1777- archenemy Martin Van Buren. The 1852), who “always maintained that authors suggest that the nation today In 1897 an impatient House of the clause that Congress had the needs more such friendships among its Representatives proposed some joint power to regulate commerce with for - politicians. resolutions of Congress to assert more eign nations gave Congress the power As senator, Clay’s greatest moment legislative initiative in foreign affairs. to recognize the independence of a was probably the crisis of 1833, when Many representatives felt that neither foreign country.” South Carolina threatened to nullify the Democratic president, Grover This citation, preserved in a diplo - federal tariff law. Weeks after a land - Cleveland, nor the Republican presi - mat’s report stored in the British slide defeat for the presidency, Clay dent-elect, William McKinley, were national archives, summarizes Clay’s struck the crucial compromise aggressive enough with Spain con - career and international fame. He between those who wished to employ cerning its suppression of rebellion in wanted to be president but lost three military threats against South its colony of Cuba. The more cautious elections. His hope was to be the pres - Carolina and those who wanted to Senate, protective of its monopoly ident who upheld the supremacy of repeal the tariff completely. A native over treaty ratification, produced a constitutional government against Virginian who lived in Kentucky, Clay “Memorandum Upon the Power to presidential supremacists like Andrew had both Southern and Western con - Recognize the Independence of a Jackson. David and Jeanne Heidler nections. He understood the limits of New Foreign State,” which both reit - show how this position reflected Clay’s sectionalism, as he also showed in the

24 America November 8, 2010 Missouri crisis of 1820 and the was not a corrupt act. Clay genuinely the combination of Clay’s support for California crisis of 1850. The desire to feared the alternative, Jackson, as a Adams and Adams’s subsequent transcend sectionalism also contribut - appointment of Clay as secretary of ed to his outspoken advocacy for link - state had upon public opinion. Like ing the nation by a federally sponsored other great legislators, Clay took for system of roads, canals and a national granted that an honest parliamentary bank. majority would automatically look By contrast, Clay felt that his Whig wise before the nation. Here is the rea - Party was too prone to deal with sec - son for his failure to become president. tionalism through vagueness of That the authors of this biography rhetoric. The result was the election of are a married couple (scholars of pre- two ambivalent presidents, William Civil War America and co-authors of Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, The War of 1812) brings it special with Clay cast aside. He remained strengths, especially in depicting Clay’s forthright, however. It was a blunt crit - emotional life. A fundamental differ - icism of both slaveholding and aboli - ence with Jackson, for example, was tionist extremists in 1839 that led to that the general took all political dif - his famous observation that he would ferences personally while Clay did not. rather be right than be president. Clay’s wife, Lucretia, remained seclud - The epic mistake of Clay’s career ed but provided indispensable support was the decision to accept an appoint - in private. She helped Clay through a ment as secretary of state after sup - religious conversion after they lost a porting John Quincy Adams’s election potential American Napoleon. He was son in the Mexican War. as president by the House of more compatible with Adams on Some historians believe that Clay’s Representatives (since no one had a issues. Neither Adams nor Clay ever compromises helped the Union to win majority in the Electoral College). It understood the catastrophic effect that the Civil War by delaying that conflict

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November 8, 2010 America 25 until the North was strong enough to nation worth preserving. In this man - as...a basic precept, an essential law of prevail. The Heidlers have shown us a ner, Clay vindicated his mentor Wythe Christianity and for ourselves we must deeper contribution. Clay got a young and made things easier for his disciple refuse to bear arms against our ene - nation talking about what it wanted to Lincoln. mies.” This theology sustained her become. It did not always accept the throughout her life. Ironically, after its THOMAS MURPHY, S.J. , is associate profes - specifics of his vision, but the very dis - sor of history at Seattle University, Seattle, supernaturalist approach found affir - cussion increased its sense that it was a Wash. mation in the Second Vatican Council’s universal call to holiness, it ceased to attract many in the move - MICHAEL BAXTER ment. In 1966 she reported that only 14 of 50 people at the farm attended a THE LONG CORRESPONDENCE Hugo retreat, “and most were in oppo - sition, wanting to argue points on the ALL THE WAY TO HEAVEN poral affairs. last day...we can only say, ‘abandon - The Selected Letters of Dorothy As an editor, she wrote to support - ment to divine providence.’” Day ers and critics, Catholic newspapers Many of Day’s letters bear the tone Edited by Robert Ellsberg and journals, college and seminary of a matriarch of a vivacious, unruly Marquette Univ. Press 480p $35 professors and prominent authors. As family. Letters to Ammon Hennacy, a founder, she wrote co-workers with whose antiwar witness she found In the early 1960s, Dorothy Day start - requests, directives, encouraging heartening, show disapproval of his ed sending her papers to the archives advice and updates on travels. inveterate anticlericalism. She was dis - of Marquette University, where they Curiously, there is only one letter to tressed when Karl Meyer “lost his remained sealed until a quarter centu - Peter Maurin, but several about him, faith,” as she wrote to Nina Polcyn, ry after her death in 1980. Two years including one on the although she assured ago, Marquette University Press pub - intellectual sources on Meyer, “Of course you are lished The Duty of Delight: The Diaries his social vision. always part of the CW of Dorothy Day , edited by Robert With the ’40s came family. We’re proud to have Ellsberg. The Selected Letters form a the war, and you and love you.” A pat - companion volume. We are indebted Dorothy’s circular let - tern of admonition and to Ellsberg for completing this monu - ter insisting that support marks the letters mental, two-part project. Catholic Worker to younger co-workers, Most of Day’s correspondence was houses take the paci - encouraging their witness, carried on amid the burdens and chaos fist stand. They were bemoaning lax sexual prac - typical of the Catholic Worker. In the difficult but invigorat - tices, stressing the impor - first letter after its founding, she asked ing years, as Day’s tance of prayer and the Catherine de Hueck, founder of vocation was deep - sacraments. She was heart - Friendship House, for prayers: “we ened by “the retreat” ened by a steady flow of need them especially for the House of given by the Rev. John Hugo. “I am new people into the movement. Hospitality.” Six months later she completely sold on this retreat busi - Dorothy was also a matriarch in the apologized to a supporter: “Thank ness. I think it will cure all ills, settle all natural sense. The letters to her you for your kind note, and do excuse problems, bind up all wounds, daughter reflect their ups and downs me for not writing before. Many trou - strengthen us, enlighten us...make us through the years. At a low point, she bles piled up and I could not.” The happy.” chided Tamar for selfishness. Later, troubles never ceased: unpaid bills, Hugo’s emphasis on pruning the after Tamar’s marriage ended, she conflicts at the farm, hassles from the natural in order to grow in the super - encouraged her. She also wrote her Health Department, inquiries from natural life provided a reliable way to grandchildren, sometimes signing off the chancery. Early on, Day readily present the Catholic Worker mission, as “Granny.” And in July 1968 she sought a spiritual advisor, Joseph especially its pacifism. In 1941 she wrote to Tamar’s father, Forster McSorley, a Paulist priest, yet clarified acknowledged to a “priest critic” that Batterham, giving news on the family. that his guidance pertained to faith the use of force may be justifiable from Only a few letters to him come after and dogma, not social issues, in accord “the natural standpoint,” but “we look that, as they stayed in touch by phone with the freedom of the laity in tem - upon the striving toward perfection and visits.

26 America November 8, 2010 But there are many letters to the unfolding of one’s life. The fruits of and jam and coffee; 131,400 lunches Forster written before the Catholic detachment were grasped by Dorothy and suppers.” Each of those meals and Worker began. These are found in the only gradually, well after the move - overnight stays entailed an act of love opening section, under the title “A ment began. But they certainly came. to someone hungry, thirsty, with no Love Story.” The first comes in April Six years after the letter to Forster place to go—to Christ. The seed had 1925, as their relationship began. “I quoted above, she reported to the fallen to the ground and died, and had miss you so much,” Dorothy wrote Health Commissioner that burden - borne much fruit. “All is grace.” from Staten Island, “I was very cold some regulations could shut down the last night. Not because there wasn’t Catholic Worker, which had “provided MICHAEL BAXTER teaches theology at the enough covers but because I didn’t 49,275 nights lodging these past three University of Notre Dame and is director of the have you.” years; 1,095,000 breakfasts of bread Catholic Peace Fellowship. The next letter comes five months later, with calculations of the birth of their child. Three others follow. Then MARIE ANNE MAYESKI there is a gap until March of 1928, after Tamar’s baptism and their break- CONSUMED BY INNER FIRE up. From Day’s book The Long Loneliness , one gets the impression it CATHERINE OF SIENA in interaction with which she lived out was a clean break, with Forster refus - A Passionate Life her life. He says himself, in the ing to marry on anarchist principles By Don Brophy author’s note at the end of the book, and Dorothy finally putting an end to Blueridge. 304p $24.95 that his main focus is on Catherine’s it. From the 31 letters to Forster after public life rather than her interior March 1928, we get a fuller picture. Writers of saints’ lives must steer a life—though he never ignores or min - Repeatedly, she asked him to marry careful course. Today’s readers general - imizes the importance of the latter— her. ly bring a skeptical per - and he therefore shows It was a tortuous relationship, with spective to accounts of us a Catherine who may periods of silence, resolutions to end it, miracles, and they surprise us. momentary intimacies, followed by expect careful historical Brophy begins by regrets and, at length, by Dorothy’s research to ground the painting 14th-century lonely realization it was not going any - narrative. At the same Siena in broad brush where. In her last letter to Forster from time, they expect, even strokes, reconstructing this period, she wrote: “I want to be in hope for, some clear the social location that your arms every night, as I used to be, indication of exactly would shape Catherine’s and be with you always.... We always what makes this person perspective. Her early differed on principle, and now that I a saint; they look for the years were relatively am getting older, I cannot any longer numinous, tucked into uneventful; and her always give way to you just because the the corners of historical child’s piety seems, flesh has such power over me.... reality. In Catherine of according to Brophy, Imaginatively, I can understand your Siena: A Passionate Life, appropriate in her own hatred and rebellion against my beliefs Don Brophy steers the course well. He world. But at the age of about 6, she and I can’t blame you. I have really benefits greatly from new access to all experienced a vision of Christ that given up hope now, so I won’t try to the saint’s writings —the letters, The shifted her focus and increased her persuade you any more.” This letter is Dialogue and her dictated prayers— intensity. Her first biographer, dated Dec. 10, 1932, a day or two after which have recently become available Raymond of Capua, gives the first she first encountered Peter Maurin. in new translations and annotated edi - account of this vision, and Brophy This previously unreleased corre - tions. demonstrates its long-lasting effects spondence records a poignant story of From the opening pages, the reader on Catherine’s interior life. From the unfulfilled longing, unrequited love. It is aware that Brophy is going to por - moment of her vision until she was 20, reminds us that detachment—the tray Catherine against the rich back - Catherine lived a life that followed the kind that Hugo urged—is acquired ground of her social and historical pattern of most medieval women less by inspired resolutions, more by context, the real world in which saints: a single-minded pursuit of soli - practicing wisdom as it is revealed in Catherine’s character took shape and tude and prayer, fasting to the point of

November 8, 2010 America 27 destroying her health, a confrontation ciously cited by Brophy, shows her pas - advance in the Adriatic. with her family and isolation from it. sion and her realism. Soon, too, her On the side of her saintliness, In 1367 another vision turned teaching took the form of public Brophy describes her ecstatic response Catherine’s life around once more. It preaching; she became a skillful street to the Eucharist; the intimacy with was a vision in which Jesus espoused preacher, and after her visit to the pope which she spoke to and about the her to himself and called her, as she at Avignon, she gave herself more and Lord; and the obvious spiritual influ - believed, to re-enter the life of the city more to this ministry. Finally, she ence she had upon all those she met, of Siena. Her extraordinary public life began the book that would, she hoped, especially upon her community of dis - was about to begin. make her wisdom and experience avail - ciples. Brophy carefully lays out the com - able to a still wider audience. By the Yet I found myself wondering if the petition among the various political time of her death in Rome at age 33, many popes who had promoted her factions that were at work in 14th-cen - Catherine was one of the most widely cause, from Pius II in 1461 to John tury Italy and Europe, much of it cen - recognized public figures in Italy. Paul II in 1999, had considered suffi - tered on the pope as a political as well In spite of the visions, miracles and ciently what kind of woman they were as religious leader. He shows us a early ascetic practice, Brophy reveals a recommending as a model. Catherine Catherine engaged in various missions thoroughly human Catherine, fully a engaged in a public ministry, including for peace, for the restoration of the woman of her own day. He acknowl - public preaching, at a time when papacy to Rome and for the reform of edges, for instance, that in her mis - women were strictly relegated to the ecclesiastical government itself, begin - sionary journeys for peace, she was as domestic sphere; she had the temerity ning with the appointment of bishops much driven by her own restlessness to advise and even oppose the pope as and cardinals. True to her time, as by the will of God. She was relent - well as the secular leaders of the Italian Catherine believed in reform as pri - less in seeking to found a monastery city states. Brophy gives us a portrait marily a matter of internal conversion for her women followers, one that she of a woman who was attentive to and so, in addition to admonishing and can control, but could never remain God’s presence at virtually every persuading the pope and other power - there herself. He also deals honestly moment and affirms that Catherine ful leaders, she began to preach. with much that remains problematic consistently sought true self-knowl - From the earliest days of her public for the modern reader: the centrality edge. Because of this Catherine life, Catherine had gathered around her of blood in her imagery and language, believed in herself and acted freely, in a large community of disciples, whose the violent cast of her thought. spite of convention, law and critical spiritual formation she undertook with Granted that both these elements are suspicion. She held to her convictions fervor and enthusiasm. Her spiritual part of the traditional metaphoric lan - and pursued her own desires with a discourses with her disciples soon gave guage of mysticism, they remain trou - tenacity and assurance that, without rise to letter-writing, and her volumi - bling, as does her desire to promote a her divine warrant, could easily be seen nous correspondence, amply and judi - new crusade to stop the Turkish as arrogance. This is dangerous behav - ior indeed, but sanctity is not synonymous with safety. WITHOUT GUILE And Catherine, with her lifelong but unfulfilled desire to become a martyr, understood that better than most. Told in vivid, felicitous language, Brophy’s biogra - phy reacquaints the reader with an extraordinary Christian. N I E T

S MARIE ANNE MAYESKI is a pro - K C

E fessor of historical theology at

B

O Loyola Marymount University B

Y Los Angeles, and author of B

N Women at the Table O O T “He wants to break up the act.” (Liturgical Press). R A C

28 America November 8, 2010 CLASSIFIED organization dedicated to providing material and LETTERS financial support to the Vatican Observatory, is accepting applications for President. The role of Baptism Garments the President is to actively lead and manage the How Dare You? BAPTISM GARMENTS FROM BETHLEHEM in Foundation and its board of directors, particularly Your editorial “Israel’s Choice” (10/18) timeless design that recalls the baptism of Jesus. Six its fund-raising initiatives and activities. As infant sizes, embroidery inspired by mosaics in the President of the V.O.F. he would also be on the is a classic example of your bias. Church of the Nativity. Purchase supports Holy staff of the Vatican Observatory and would work Negotiating means give-and-take on Land Christians. Visit www.BaptismGarment.com out of V.O.F. offices in Tucson, Ariz. Applicants both sides. Placing exclusive blame for or call (805) 544-9088, Pacific Time. should have proven leadership skills and adminis - trative/development experience as well as an the possible breakdown of peace nego - appreciation of the importance of and active inter - tiations between Palestinians and Parish Missions est in promoting the church’s scientific and educa - Israel on the building of settlements in FAITH BEGINS IN FAMILY LIFE. This mission tional apostolates. Those interested in applying promises to keep parents of all ages (grandparents can check the V.O.F. Web site at http://vati - the West Bank ignores the fact that the too) interested and entertained, ultimately deepen - canobservatory.org/VOF for further information talks are for negotiations, not a forum ing the faith of each domestic church and creating about the V.O.F. and its fund-raising efforts. for blame. 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Can be customized Lee Street, Tucson, AZ 85719. The deadline for for your group of 12 to 20 persons. Visit applications is Dec. 15, 2010. tion), and you had the further audacity Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Galilee, Dead Sea, Petra to, in effect, warn Israel that it should and more. Stay in Christian guesthouses. Meet Retreats make a deal now or risk its very exis - local people in their homes. See Christianity in BETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, Ind., tence as a Jewish state. orphanage and school for special-needs children. offers private and individually directed silent PETER A. MARTOSELLA JR. Visit fair trade shops. Next scheduled pilgrimage: retreats, including Ignatian 30-days, year-round in a Amber, Pa. May 7-20, 2011. Visit www.HolyLandInstitute prayerful home setting. Contact Joyce Diltz, .org, or call Claudia Devaux at (805) 544-9088, P.H.J.C; Ph: (219) 398-5047; bethanyrh@sbcglob Pacific time. al.net; bethanyretreathouse.org. 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Charles Wilber’s assertion, in erences to: Timothy Kulbicki, O.F.M.Conv., Dean Ads may be submitted by e-mail to: ads@americam - “Awakening the Giant” (10/18), that of the School of Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary agazine.org; by fax to (928) 222-2107; by postal mail and University, 5400 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, to: Classified Department, America , 106 West 56th “the times…demand real political MD 21210; or send e-mail to tkulbicki@ St., New York, NY 10019. To post a classified ad leadership” in dealing with our current stmarys.edu. online, go to our home page and click on “Advertising” economic plight. He ignores, however, at the top of the page. We do not accept ad copy over SEARCH FOR PRESIDENT. The Vatican the phone. MasterCard and Visa accepted. For more the larger reality that our two-party Observatory Foundation, which is a non-profit information call: (212) 515-0102. system is in gridlock over the issues of

November 8, 2010 America 29 economic stimulus, the federal deficit Thank Heaven rhetoric in the Islamic world. and tax rates just as the American A sorry world it is when drive-thru There was also the dear nurse at political system was paralyzed by the meals and artificial foods build a group Guantánamo who daily treated a controversy over slavery in the 1850s. of children for whom obesity is going to detainee for his injuries from the bat - Lest we forget, that issue was not be a lifelong health challenge. Wonder tlefield, only to have her head grabbed resolved by the political process, but what’s on the menu in Johnny Rocket’s and her face smashed into the wall on rather by a bloody internecine war, Restaurant? All over the world children her way out of the room. I do believe in however much Ken Burns and mod - are nourished by their mother’s milk. turning the other cheek and being my ern-day Americans surround that Thank heaven for breast milk. Perfect brother’s keeper. But this is to be done tragedy with patriotic gore. for babies. with eyes wide open and not crawling Given that deficit hawks and doves SHEILA DURKIN DIERKS in with “Mea culpa.” Boulder, Colo. are divided more by class than by geo - RUTH BURR Rochester, Minn. graphic region, chances of a second ‘I Don’t Get It!’ civil war are reduced. However, voter I wish to add another word on your Famous Last Words apathy, widespread ignorance of even current comment “The New Mass” Re “Independence Vote Could the most basic economic principles, (10/4). In 1 Timothy we are told: Reignite Civil War” (Signs of the and growing tolerance for intolerance “God our savior…wills everyone to be Times, 10/25): Bishop Paride Taban’s offer prospects almost as bleak as saved and to come to knowledge of the reference to a possible Islamic govern - those facing the Union in 1861. truth. For there is one God. There is ment’s “continued oppression of the The resultant gridlock portends also one mediator between God and ethnic and religious minorities” of continued American economic the human race. Christ Jesus, himself Southern Sudan, brought back bad decline, the exacerbation of class and human, who gave himself as ransom memories. social tensions and the continued for all.” The same is true of his reminder at attraction of delusional military And one of the propositions of the University of Notre Dame last adventurism and xenophobia to divert Cornelis Jansen that was condemned October that “the people of the South attention from our underlying prob - by Pope Innocent X in 1653 was are beating day and night the drum of lems. Wilber’s ideas make perfect Jansen’s statement “it is Semi-Pelagian secession and independence.” This sense in introductory macroeco - [i.e. heretical] to say that Christ died reminded me of the terrible years of nomics; but alas, most Americans are or shed his blood for all men without persecution, torture and murders suf - neither interested in nor capable of exception.” Yet now I am told that as of fered by the animists and Christians of grasping these ideas. PAUL LOATMAN JR. Advent 2011, the priest is no longer to South Sudan and by the people of the Mechanicville, N. Y. say that Christ died “for all,” but “for Diocese of Torit. many.” In the late 1980s I was serving in Not Only Natural I don’t get it. Rome as Vatican director of the doc - Your current comment “The Right to THOMAS L. SHERIDAN, S.J. umentation, information and press Breastfeed” (10/18) reminds me that Jersey City, N.J. office of Caritas Internationalis. I human milk is designed by our shall never forget the three-line telex Forgive, But... Creator for humans. Therefore, feed - that Bishop Taban probably expected After reading “Guantanamo ing human babies is not only natural, to be his last message to us at Caritas: Pilgrimage” (10/25), I suggest that but also right, true and faithful. We are “God reward you for trying to help before the author, Luke Hansen, S.J., confused about the “rights” of women us. Now pray God will grant us a starts his “relationship” with to nurse in public. It is the baby who happy death.” Guantánamo detainees, he should sit has the right to eat when hungry. If the LARRY N. LORENZONI, S.D.B. down and have a heart-to-heart with best food is available and free of cost, it San Francisco, Calif. Salah Sultan, who has joyfully pro - is outrageous that society would make claimed on television in the Islamic it difficult for the baby to receive it. world that they will soon bring death America (ISSN 0002-7049) is published weekly (except for 13 com - Sometimes the feeding is difficult, but bined issues: Jan. 4-11, 18-25, Feb. 1-8, April 12-19, June 7-14, 21- and destruction to the United States. 28, July 5-12, 19-26, Aug. 2-9, 16-23, Aug. 30-Sept. 6, Sept. 13-20, the difficulties will pale in comparison Dec. 20-27) by America Press, Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New It is unforgivable that the United York, NY 10019. Periodicals postage is paid at New York, N.Y., and with later assisting the child with mid - additional mailing offices. Business Manager: Lisa Pope; Circulation: States befriends Israel, Sultan argues; Judith Palmer, (212) 581-4640. Subscriptions: United States, $56 dle school math. per year; add U.S. $30 postage and GST (#131870719) for C and, as a result of that friendship, we Canada; or add U.S. $54 per year for international priority airmail. COLLEEN M CAHILL Postmaster: Send address changes to: America, 106 West 56th St. Baltimore, Md. deserve destruction. This is common New York, NY 10019. Printed in the U.S.A.

30 America November 8, 2010 THE WORD Fearless Testimony THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C), NOV. 14, 2010 Readings: Mal 3:19-20a; Ps 98:5-9; 2 Thes 3:7-12; Lk 21:5-19 “Do not be afraid.... I will give you a wisdom in speaking” (Lk 21:9, 13)

live in Chicago, a city that boasts Luke’s Gospel, of course, was written Jesus does not leave his disciples of its exquisite architecture, and it some 15 years after the defenseless in such times of crisis. First I is easy for me to imagine the Temple had been razed. of all, he reminds his followers not admiration of the people in today’s We can imagine the to follow after anyone else; their Gospel for the monumental Temple in struggles of the attention must remain steadfastly Jerusalem. Although they weren’t Jewish Christian on him. When their focus is on snapping photos and posing in front of members of the him and not on their tribula - skyscrapers as contemporary tourists Lucan community, tions, they are able to stand fear - do, they seem to have been caught up who had to redefine less. He speaks the same words in the same wonder and awe that is their Jewishness not that Gabriel spoke to Zechariah evoked by grand buildings. People only in the absence of and Mary when their worlds marvel at the engineering genius of the their Temple, but also were being turned upside down: construction. In the case of temples as members of a mixed “Do not be afraid” (Lk 1:13, 30). and cathedrals, their beauty and community of Gentile grandeur lift the mind and heart and and Jewish followers of Jesus. help human beings feel connected to The Gentile members also had to PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE the divine. reconstruct their internal architec - • How does keeping our focus on Jesus The reverie of the onlookers in ture when they took on a Christian enable us to be fearless in times of crises? today’s Gospel is broken suddenly by identity. Jesus’ declaration that not one stone In today’s Gospel, there is a pro - • When have you experienced the power of would be left upon another. As a Jewish gression, as the discussion moves Christ speaking through you? e N reformer, Jesus frequently spoke and from the destruction of the Temple • What support structures enable you to N u d persevere? acted in ways that called into question to cataclysmic happenings that d a t

: t

religious structures, both external and wreak destruction on the earth and r internal, that impeded right relation - among peoples and, finally, to a ship with God and one another. But for threats against one’s life. It envisions any Jew, the destruction of the Temple crises on every level, moving toward an When disciples are seized and per - by Roman imperial forces would pro - apocalyptic end time. Jesus’ audience secuted and handed over to the voke a severe crisis. Everything would does not ask if such will happen. authorities because of Jesus’ name, have to be resignified. The Temple Rather, they ask when it will come these are times to testify to the power symbolized their connection with God about and if they will have advance of God. Jesus explains that the testi - and their fellow believers. And it was in warning. Jesus never answers those mony is not a speech that one compos - the Temple that the sacrificial cult was questions. Instead he directs his listen - es ahead of time. The preparation con - exercised in obedience to the com - ers how to respond to these crises. If sists in persevering in a life of faithful - mands of the Torah. they are following him, then they too ness and trust in the one who pro - will say and do things that threaten voked crises by his manner of life. It is BARBARA E. REID, O.P., a member of the some of the political and religious he, who is himself the temple (to bor - Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Mich., is structures of their day. Any who claim row from Johannine theology), who a professor of New Testament studies at his name will surely experience the will give the necessary wisdom for Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Ill., where she is vice president and academic same kind of fury that was directed at speech and action in the critical dean. him for doing such things. moment. BARBARA E. REID

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