A Wall Rises in Bethlehem Austen Ivereigh

Sept. 1, 2008AmericaTHE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY $2.75 A Wall Rises in Bethlehem Austen Ivereigh

Also in this issue: Why Unions Still Matter Amata Miller Mother Seton and the U.S. Church Regina Bechtle ARINAS WITH SAILBOATS under the school. “We ran the beds up two and a blue sky over the Hudson three flights of stairs,” he said, recalling River—that peaceful view one apartment in particular. “A little girl America from the train stood in looked up and said, ‘Is that a bed for me?’ Published by Jesuits of the United States Mmarked contrast to my destination, I realized she’d never slept in a bed, but Newburgh, N.Y., a city long suffering on some blankets on the floor in the cor- from economic downturns. A year had ner.” At times the academy helps with Editor in Chief passed since my first visit there to a rent payments. Initially, Father Connell Drew Christiansen, S.J. school for girls from low-income fami- and Sister Lois said, they thought they lies, based on the NativityMiguel model were educating children. But soon, they EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT that includes small class sizes and an realized “we were taking on the whole Managing Editor extended day. Now my destination was a family.” Robert C. Collins, S.J. similar school for boys, the new San Even with only two grades in place at Editorial Director Miguel Academy. the time of my visit (there will eventually The Rev. Mark Connell, the acade- be four in all, grades five through eight), Karen Sue Smith my’s president who met me at the stain just two years test scores have risen by Online Editor tion, spoke of Newburgh as one of the almost two grade levels. Sister Lois Maurice Timothy Reidy four poorest urban centers in the nation. spread the score reports out on the table Associate Editors In the midst of such a scene, I was soon where we sat together in the assembly Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J. to learn, was a haven in which boys from room by the kitchen. “When I’m feeling George M. Anderson, S.J. 11 to 14 could have a learning experience tired at the end of a long day,” Sister Lois Dennis M. Linehan, S.J. aimed at developing gifts that might oth- said, “I look at these scores and think, James Martin, S.J. erwise remain buried. ‘It’s all worth it.’” Matt Malone, S.J. Minutes after I entered the school, As in other schools around the coun- James T. Keane, S.J. housed in space rented from a Methodist try that follow the NativityMiguel model, Peter Schineller, S.J. church, a Latino the extended student stepped day is long Literary Editor forward with a indeed, to Patricia A. Kossmann firm handshake Of Many Things ensure maxi- Poetry Editor and, introducing mum possi- James S. Torrens, S.J. himself, said, “Welcome to the San bilities for learning in its widest sense. It Miguel Academy.” His poise was one begins at 8 a.m. with breakfast and con- Assistant Editor benefit of an education that includes tinues till 5 p.m., with lunch and a Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. instilling a self-confidence that many lack healthy snack along the way. Design and Production when they begin their first year. Two LaSallian volunteers, and a de la Stephanie Ratcliffe The student body is roughly two- Salle brother who is a master teacher, thirds Latino and one-third African- along with other staff members, create BUSINESS DEPARTMENT American. Although the school is named not only a fertile learning environment, Publisher after a 19th-century Ecuadoran saint-edu- but also one through which, as Sister Jan Attridge cator, Miguel Febres Cordero—a de la Lois put it, the close relationships make Salle Christian brother—both Father clear to all in the building that “we are a Chief Financial Officer Connell and the principal, Lois Dee, family.” The school year actually begins Lisa Pope O.P., try to dispel the mistaken percep- with a five-week summer school, in part Marketing tion of the academy as a “Spanish school.” to prepare incoming fifth graders for Eryk Krysztofiak Outreach efforts to the African-American their new experience. community make it clear that the school What pays for the special features that Advertising is open to all so long as their incomes are distinguish NativityMiguel schools? Julia Sosa low enough to meet federal guidelines for Funding is a constant challenge, since the free or reduced price lunches. per-student cost is $10,000 a year. In 106 West 56th Street As with all NativityMiguel schools, addition to grants from foundations, the New York, NY 10019-3803 tuition is low, and inability to pay is never lay board of trustees plays a major role in Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596. an impediment to acceptance. Parents fundraising, Father Connell said. Other E-mail: [email protected]; generally work in factories or in the schools based on this model may lie in [email protected]. area’s apple orchards. Both Father the future for the mid-Hudson Valley. Web site: www.americamagazine.org. Connell and Sister Lois were dramatical- Both he and Sister Lois envisage the pos- Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533. ly reminded of the city’s poverty when sibility of two more, in the nearby cities © 2008 America Press, Inc. nearby Mount St. Mary College offered a of Poughkeepsie and Kingston, forming gift of beds in mint condition. Father “a triangle” of NativityMiguel schools. Cover photo A Palestinian woman carries a Connell, who is the chaplain and campus Fulfillment of that dream may lie far in baby as she walks beside Israel's contro- minister as well as a faculty member, the future, but at least one corner of the versial security barrier near the West rounded up students, loaded a truck with triangle is off to a promising start. Bank town of Bethlehem. Reuters/Yannis the beds and drove through streets near George M. Anderson, S.J. Behrakis. www.americamagazine.org Vol. 199 No. 5, Whole No. 4824 September 1, 2008 Articles 11 Organizing Principles 11 Amata Miller Unions are still needed in the global marketplace. Bethlehem’s Wall 15 Austen Ivereigh Can U.S. Christians help revive the sacred city? An American Daughter 18 Regina Bechtle Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton and the birth of the church in the United States Bad Neighbor, Good Neighbor 21 David Paul Deavel They lived in a real estate zone, not a neighborhood.

Current Comment 4 21 Editorial 2008 Voting Challenges 5 Signs of the Times 6 Reflection Place 10 The Best-Laid Plans... Margaret Silf Poem 20 In a Cedar Tub Edward A. Dougherty Book Reviews 23 Left at the Altar; Diary of a Bad Year; Lincoln and Douglas Letters 29 The Word 31 Forgiven and Reconciled Daniel J. Harrington

This week @ Matt Malone, S.J., and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend discuss the Democrats and religion, and two theology students review "The Dark Knight." Plus, an audio America Connects interview with Regina Bechtle, S.C. All at americamagazine.org. Current Comment

colored in shades of gray, liked Mr. Obama’s appreciation Who Lost Russia? for nuance and complexity. Did the Russian invasion of Georgia succeed because the For the most part, Pastor Warren did a better job than American president was preoccupied with the Beijing most television interviewers, asking clear and direct ques- Olympics? So suggested a Wall Street Journal editorial tions about a range of policy issues. He also asked both that elicited a sharp response from the White House, men a number of questions about their theological views which in turn was the subject of a Washington Post story and personal faith. Such questions are not new in the 2008 about divisions among neoconservatives. campaign. Both Democrats and Republicans have been But the Bush administration, like its predecessors, has asked similar questions on everything from the inerrancy long been tone deaf to Russian trends. The Russian attack of Scripture to the power of prayer. Yet it is not obvious was as predictable as the Georgian move against the that such questions are relevant or even appropriate. The Ossetian separatists was injudicious. In the face of Russian public clearly has a right to know the views of the presi- opposition, the administration recognized the indepen- dential candidates on all matters of public policy, many of dence of Kosovo—a bad precedent for unilateral recogni- which also involve profoundly moral questions. But do we tion of breakaway states; and within days of Georgia’s need to know, as Pastor Warren asked, what their greatest attack on South Ossetia and Russia’s intervention, the personal moral failings are or how they view the salvific administration signed a controversial antimissile treaty character of Jesus Christ? with Poland. The Bush I, Clinton and Bush II administrations all failed to deal wisely with the emergence of a post-com- Harbinger Penguins munist Russia. They failed to heed Churchill’s maxim: “In Some of God’s creatures are so endowed that they easily war, resolution; In defeat, defiance; In victory, magnanimi- capture the human imagination. Dogs, cats and horses ty; In peace, good will.” Each administration confused come immediately to mind. So too do bears. Smokey Bear, Russia’s interests with American dominance. Russian the fire-prevention icon, is a revered national symbol. feelings of loss and shame following the failure of commu- Knut, an abandoned polar bear cub, made for a successful nism, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the ensuing season at the Berlin Zoo. economic crises were never seriously assuaged. If effective Among the birds, surely the penguin, with its prepos- policies had been found to ease Russia’s liberalization and terous gait and formal attire, elicits human affection as eas- more discretion demonstrated to alleviate the fears of ily as it slides through cold Antarctic waters. It now may Russia’s neighbors, the lure of autocratic imperialism be serving as yet another harbinger of the environmental might not have been so great for Russia and American chaos we could be facing. leverage so weak in the ongoing Georgian crisis. The The Magellanic penguins of Antarctica breed in question is not who lost Georgia to a newly assertive colonies in the extreme south of Argentina and Chile and Russia, but rather who, in the critical post-Soviet years, then head out to sea, northward, to find fish. Overfishing failed to win the hearts and minds of the Russian people has depleted their food supply. This year’s changes in and so facilitate the transformation of their institutions. ocean currents and increased cyclonic activity due to global warming have driven them off course, and even further north. Many of them were victims of petroleum pollution One Last Question off Uruguay and in the offshore Campos oil field of Brazil. Voters who have closely followed the presidential race had In a weakened condition due to exhaustion, hypothermia a bit of déjà vu during the recent candidates’ forum hosted and immunity depleted by exposure to pollution, they by Pastor Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church in were washed ashore in northern Brazil. While some pen- Southern California. Though Pastor Warren asked both guins have always gotten lost, and been found as far north Senator McCain and Senator Obama to give original as San Salvador de Bahia. Only 20 did so in 2001. This answers rather than tidbits from their stump speeches, year the number is 25 times higher, and 10 percent of most of the candidates’ responses were typical and reflect- those were washed ashore dead. ed their very different but by now familiar styles. In Brazil will airlift the survivors back to Antarctica and response to Pastor Warren’s questions, Mr. McCain told Patagonia, as it does every year. This year, though, it is as stories; Mr. Obama responded like a professor. Many in if the penguins came with a warning to the whole world the audience seemed to like Mr. McCain’s simple yes or no that we, as stewards of God’s creation, must do more to decisiveness. Others, perhaps believing that the world is head off an impending environmental catastrophe.

4 September 1, 2008 America Editorial 2008 Voting Challenges

BOUT A DOZEN NUNS in their 80s and 90s Bader Ginsburg also signed, “The interest in combating from the convent of the Franciscan Sisters voter fraud has too often served as a cover for unnecessari- of Mary in South Bend, Ind., arrived at ly restrictive electoral rules.” The executive director of the their polling place in May only to be told Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, that they could not cast ballots in that state’s Michael Waldman, has said that laws like Indiana’s “invari- Aprimary election. Why? They did not have acceptable ably are crafted to impact the poor, minorities, the elderly photo identification. Indiana now has the strictest of all and others who simply lack the required photo I.D.” voter identification laws, a matter of concern to civil rights Also disturbing are efforts to restrict voter registration advocates who believe that laws like Indiana’s are excluding drives. On behalf of the League of Women Voters in otherwise eligible voters from exercising one of the most Florida, the Brennan Center filed a federal lawsuit over basic rights of U.S. citizens. Florida’s restrictions on voter registration groups. Laws of this kind primarily affect low-income people, Even more troubling is a directive by the U.S. secre- the elderly, people with disabilities and racial minorities. tary of veterans affairs, James B. Peake, on May 5 banning Under the Indiana statute, voters must present at the polls nonpartisan voter registration drives at federally financed a government-issued document with a photo, like a driver nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and shelters for license or passport—documents that many of the people in homeless veterans. The department contends that such these categories can obtain only with difficulty or not at drives are disruptive to patient care, and also argues that all. Although Indiana’s Department of Motor Vehicles pro- the drives violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal vides a free photo I.D. card for nondrivers, one needs an workers from taking part in partisan political activities. But original birth certificate to obtain it, and this is in itself a as Connecticut’s secretary of state, Susan Bysiewicz, point- significant hurdle for some. ed out, registering people to vote is not a partisan activity. The stated purpose of the Indiana statute is to prevent Congress is considering bills that would require the V.A. people from casting a ballot in another’s name or under an to repeal the ban, but they must be signed into law before assumed name. But there has been virtually no evidence of Oct. 1 if they are to have any effect on the 2008 election. this type of fraud in Indiana in recent decades. Neverthe- less, in the case Crawford v. Marion County Election AT THE VERY LEAST, restrictive voting and registration laws Board, the U.S. Supreme Court in late April upheld the are sure to cause confusion at the polls and deter many Indiana law’s requirement of a government-issued photo from even attempting to cast a ballot. Yet surely one goal I.D. as a condition for voting. That decision opens the way of any election regulation in the United States should be for other states to adopt equally restrictive laws. Over a to encourage as many eligible voters as possible to go to dozen are considering similar measures that, if not calling their local polling stations in one of the nation’s most for a photo I.D., would require proof of citizenship. important participatory processes. Missouri was on the verge of passing an amendment to its Electronic voting poses another problem, because it is state constitution to this effect, but the bill failed to pass in susceptible to malfunctioning and fraudulent activity. In mid-May. early July, the elections supervisor of Palm Beach County Such requirements are clearly aimed at illegal immi- in Florida apologized because machines there failed to grants. These people, however, are among those least likely count 14 percent of the votes in a city commission elec- to attempt to vote. With current anti-immigrant sentiment tion. Electronic voting also makes possible vote-stealing. stronger than ever, and as states and localities pass ever The danger of voter fraud could be reduced by paper trails more stringent laws affecting employers and landlords who for electronic voting, backed by audits to uncover errors. rent out rooms and apartments, those without papers pre- After two presidential elections that were tainted with fer to remain in the shadows rather than risk arrest, incar- allegations of voter fraud, the upcoming November presi- ceration and deportation by attempting to vote. dential election has special significance. Given the pre-emi- Not all the Supreme Court justices agreed with the nence of the United States in global affairs, not only U.S. decision upholding the Indiana law. As Justice David citizens, but people around the world are waiting to see Souter put it in his dissenting opinion, which Justice Ruth how fairly the 2008 presidential election will be conducted.

September 1, 2008 America 5 Signs of the Times

conference hosted by the evangelical Web Seminar Focuses on Disabled Catholics organization Sojourners, Catholic and Protestant religious leaders called the The 30th anniversary of the U.S. changes to the platform “a real step for- bishops’ pastoral statement on people ward” and “an excellent example of the with disabilities offers an opportunity possible,” which moves the party toward to acquaint a new generation of bish- a position they said abortion opponents ops and young people with the docu- can support. They also said they still ment’s message, according to speakers object to the party’s unequivocal endorse- at an Aug. 13 “Webinar.” The hour- ment of legal abortion and the platform long Web-based seminar sponsored section’s suggestion that anyone would by the National Catholic Partnership ever “need” an abortion. But the platform on Disability brought together cate- committee’s consultation with abortion chists, parish advocates, directors of opponents and the effort to represent at disability ministry and others. least some of their views was described as “I’m not suggesting you take on a “a historic and courageous step,” by the whole new line of work,” said Peg Rev. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Kolm, director of the Office for Northland Church in Orlando, Fla., and Ministry to Persons With Disabilities former president of the Christian in the Archdiocese of Washington. Coalition. Others who did not participate “But you need to take this work to the in the teleconference or the drafting pro- next generation in a partnership year.” cess, however, disagreed. They said while Janice Benton, executive director of they appreciate the additions dealing with the National Catholic Partnership on support for pregnant women and parents, Disability, said many in the disabilities the rewording actually made the section community viewed the November worse, because it eliminated phrasing 1978 pastoral statement as “our from the 2004 version of the platform Declaration of Independence.” The that said abortion should be “rare.” document said there “can be no sepa- A university student counselor talks with a par- rate church for people with disabili- ticipant in a Catholic summer camp for people ties” but only “one flock that follows a with disabilities at Camp Sharing Meadows in U.S. Bishops Seek Clarity single shepherd.” Rolling Prairie, Ind., in a 2007 file photo. on Jewish Covenant Tough Economy Calls for and irresponsibility that led to the mort- The U.S. bishops have voted to ask the Renewed Solidarity gage foreclosure crisis,” Bishop Murphy Vatican to approve a small change in the wrote. “He would have had some caustic U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults to clarify Invoking the spirit of the late labor priest comments on the price of gas for the church teaching on God’s covenant with Msgr. George Higgins, the chairman of working person and its impact on family the Jewish people. The proposed the U.S. bishops’ Committee on life.” But ultimately Monsignor Higgins change—which would replace one sen- Domestic Justice and Human would have reasserted “his faith in a tence in the catechism—was discussed by Development said Americans must “move nation and a people whose creative ener- the bishops in executive session at their beyond hand-wringing and negative gies and productive capacities should and June meeting in Orlando, Fla., but did assessments” of tough economic times to would move us to a healthier economic not receive at that time the needed two- a renewed commitment to Catholic prin- situation,” the bishop said. thirds majority of all members of the ciples of subsidiarity and global solidarity. U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In a message for Labor Day, Bishop After mail balloting, the final vote of 231 William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, Democrats Change to 14, with one abstention, was N.Y., praised Monsignor Higgins for his Wording on Abortion Plank announced Aug. 5 in a letter to bishops “extraordinary ability to measure the large A draft of the section on abortion in the from Msgr. David Malloy, U.S.C.C.B. economic issues by their impact on the Democratic Party platform that adds lan- general secretary. The change, which average working man and woman.” guage about supporting alternatives such must be confirmed by the Vatican Monsignor Higgins, who died in 2002, as adoption and reducing the number of Congregation for Clergy, would remove wrote the annual Labor Day statement on unintended pregnancies was hailed as an from the catechism a sentence that reads: behalf of the U.S. bishops for many important improvement by some and “Thus the covenant that God made with decades. “Monsignor would have been derided by others as “adding a good thing the Jewish people through Moses harsh in his judgment about the greed to an evil position.” In an Aug. 12 tele- remains eternally valid for them.”

6 America September 1, 2008 Signs of the Times

Replacing it would be this sentence: “To the Jewish people, whom God first chose Building Bridges Among Cultures to hear his word, ‘belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ’” (Rom 9:4-5; see Code of Canon Law, No. 839).

Chicago Pays $12.6 M to Sexual Abuse Survivors The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay 16 victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy more than $12.6 million in a settlement announced Aug. 12. In addition to financial payments, the archdiocese agreed to make public additional information and files related to the cases, including a deposition of Cardinal Francis E. George Msgr. Robert Stern, right, walks with Abune Timotheos, rector of Holy Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox of Chicago. “My hope is that these settle- Theological College, and Christian Brother Vincent Pelletier in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2006. ments will help the survivors and their families begin to heal and move forward,” Growing up in a family where “differ- attended public and private schools in Cardinal George said in statement. “I ence was normative” proved to be and near New York. He got his first apologize again today to the survivors excellent preparation for Monsignor whiff of anti-Catholic bias when he and their families and to the whole Robert Stern’s priestly career of build- went to Amherst College in Amherst, Catholic community. We must continue ing bridges between and among differ- Mass., to major in nuclear physics. He to do everything in our power to ensure ent cultural groups. Monsignor Stern, said, “There was a condescension the safety of the children in our care.” a priest of the Archdiocese of New about the church and Catholicism, and Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who part- York, is the secretary-general of the a class thing, too.” Monsignor Stern nered with lawyer Marc Pearlman of the Catholic Near East Welfare responded by “digging in more. It Chicago law firm of Kerns, Frost & Association and the president of the made me look more and more at my Pearlman in representing the victims, Pontifical Mission for Palestine. He faith and my religion.” And while he called the settlement “a giant step” celebrated the 50th anniversary of his had never considered a vocation to the toward accountability and transparency ordination in May. Monsignor Stern’s priesthood, several college experiences on the part of the church. The settlement Irish Catholic mother and his German pointed him in that direction. “I wasn’t covers 14 cases of abuse involving 10 Jewish father were married in a rectory particularly attracted to being a priest, priests between 1962 and 1994. The two in the Bronx, a borough of New York but there was the idea of being avail- others relate to the Rev. Daniel City. He was raised Catholic and able for the work of God.” McCormack, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to charges related to the abuse of five to be a president, to be a free president, church jurisdiction that includes Latin- children. He is serving a five-year prison to move according to his faith rite Catholics in Israel, the sentence. The settlement followed two and his conscience, according Palestinian territories, Jordan years of mediation between the archdio- to justice,” the patriarch told and Cyprus, so he could only cese and attorneys for the victims. Catholic News Service in a imagine the responsibilities of Washington interview in mid- being president of the United Latin Patriarch’s Message August. However, he said, States. However, he said that “we know that politics is poli- amid it all “the new presi- for New U.S. President tics. I will pray for him for dent...and any president must If Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jeru- sure.” Patriarch Twal, not forget his family.” The salem had a chance to send a message to installed as head of the Latin Patriarchate patriarch was in Washington to be hon- the next U.S. president, he would urge of Jerusalem in June, said he knew how him to follow his conscience. “I wish him much responsibility he had as head of a From CNS and other sources. CNS photos.

September 1, 2008 America 7 Signs of the Times ored at a luncheon sponsored by the year-old pontiff was vacationing. Virgin Mary “urges us to raise our gaze Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Although reporters were not allowed toward heaven, not a heaven of abstract Foundation, an organization founded to inside the city’s cathedral for the one- ideas nor an imaginary heaven created in assist Arab Christians in the Holy Land. hour encounter Father Lombardi art, but the true reality of heaven which is described some of the give and take in an God himself. God is heaven.” During the interview with Vatican Radio. One of six Mass in the small parish Church of St. Humanitarian Corridors questions posed by priests touched on the Thomas, located on the main square in Needed in Georgia pastoral care of children, Father Castel Gandolfo, the pope said that while Pope Benedict XVI urged the interna- Lombardi said. Mary’s assumption is “totally unique and tional community to establish humanitari- extraordinary”; it also assures believers an corridors in Georgia so that the dead Benedict Discusses that their destiny, like hers, is to be with can be buried, the wounded can receive God forever. God is “our goal, he is the medical help and refugees can return Heaven on Feast dwelling place from which we came and home. The pope, speaking at a noontime Heaven is not an abstract idea or an toward which we are called,” the pope blessing Aug. 17, said he was continuing imaginary place, but heaven is God, Pope told about 200 people who had crowded to follow “with attention and worry” the Benedict XVI said. Celebrating an early into the church, while hundreds of others events in Georgia, where a cease-fire morning Mass Aug. 15, the pope said the watched on a large screen erected in the agreement was reached the day before. feast of the Assumption of the Blessed square. The pope said the situation of the refugees, in particular women and chil- Newman’s Body to Be Moved to London dren who lack basic necessities, requires a generous response by the international community. The pope said it was important that ethnic minorities in the region be protected and their fundamental rights respected. A Georgian attack on the breakaway province of South Ossetia Aug. 7 followed by a Russian invasion of Georgia left an unknown number of dead, including civilians, and prompted an esti- mated 60,000 people to flee their homes.

Pope Now Less Strict on Sacraments Pope Benedict XVI said the church should be generous when it comes to administering the sacraments to young people, recognizing that Jesus would have done the same. The pope spoke about the need to take a broad approach to the administration of sacraments, reflecting the merciful atti- The British government has agreed to allow the exhumation of the body of Cardinal John tude shown by Christ. Federico Henry Newman, whose cause for sainthood is widely expected to progress soon to beatifica- tion. The Ministry of Justice granted a license to allow undertakers to transfer the body of Lombardi, S.J., the Vatican spokesman the 19th-century cardinal from a grave in a small cemetery in the suburbs of Birmingham, reported, “The pope said, ‘I used to be England, to a marble sarcophagus in a church in the city, where it can be venerated by pil- more strict about this, but the example of grims. The license was expected to arrive Aug. 11, the 118th anniversary of the cardinal’s Christ led me to become more welcom- death in 1890. ing in cases in which, perhaps, there is Approval had been delayed by several months because of a 19th-century law that forbids not a mature and solid faith, but there is a the transfer of bodies from graves to church tombs. But Sir Suma Chakrabarti, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Justice, finally decided to make a special exception to allow the glimmer, a desire of communion with the exhumation to go ahead. church.’” The pope made the remarks in Born in London in 1801, Cardinal Newman was an Anglican priest who led the Oxford a closed-door meeting Aug. 6 with about movement in the 1830s to draw Anglicans to their Catholic roots. He converted to the 400 priests and religious in the northern Roman Catholic Church at the age of 44 after a succession of clashes with Anglican bishops Italian city of Bressanone, where the 81- made him a virtual outcast from the Church of England.

8 America September 1, 2008 Reflection Place

from a fellow camper’s frying pan. It does not mention that the five miles we hike to The Best-Laid Plans...‘ the waterfall, which nearly kill us and lead us into a swarm of angry bees, are only a We can let faith open us up to quarter of 1 percent of the Appalachian Trail. But neither will it betray this unim- God’s‘ inexhaustible surprises. portant detail to our friends back home when we boast about “walking the Trail.” Nor does it hint at the gales of mirth from our neighbor on the next site who catches HERE HAS BEEN a great that I am not unbreakable, as I fall head- me in celebratory mood trying to negoti- deal of commotion outside long and fracture my elbow and enter ate a graceful entry into the tent with, as my window these past few unceremoniously into the inside workings he so engagingly expresses it, “your bust- weeks. The builders have of North American hospitals, where a ed arm, and your glass of wine and your finally got round to laying Canadian orthopedist puts me in plaster British accent.” Tthe road surface in this new development, and his counterpart in Washington, D.C., No, when you scan the travel so we no longer have to negotiate the relieves me of it two weeks later, leaving itinerary, thinking you know what you are “raised ironworks,” as the warning notices me to reflect on how it might feel to be getting into, you can only wonder at your euphemistically describe these tire-killers. more completely, and more permanently own innocence. For every click sets free a Today we got the finishing touches: white dependent on the personal care of others thousand stories. But the best story of lines and new street name signs. Now if I and how grateful I am to those who were them all unfolds from the final click that forget where I am (which happens not there for me when I needed them. books my return flight and brings me infrequently in my nomadic existence) I Another click and life zooms in on the winging home with days to spare before can see my street name from my study Chicago skyline, and more of the kindness my daughter goes into premature labor window. of strangers. People I hardly know open and delivers a tiny but perfect and beauti- But what does a street sign really tell their homes to me. Within hours, ful first granddaughter. us about the personalities and life stories strangers become friends, and conversa- Our life with God is like that. We can of the people who live here? About as tions happen that change perspectives and confine it to a once-a-week click on the much as a travel ticket reveals about the challenge preconceptions. When I was 11, mouse that pays lip service to our faith, or journey it makes possible. A few months my geography teacher once asked me we can let that faith take us over and open ago I sat here at the computer, booking where Chicago was located. I answered us up to God’s inexhaustible surprises the arrangements for journeys that were confidently: “At the bottom of Lake along our everyday paths. Those surpris- easily described in terms of dates and des- Michigan,” to which she caustically es will take us where we never intended tinations. In just an hour or two, and with replied: “A very damp location.” Now I to go and down paths we cannot control. a few clicks of the mouse, I organized know a bit more about Chicago, because I They will bring us face to face with our flights, accommodation and rail trips. My have wandered her streets, and tasted her profound limitations, fears and self- printer disgorged invoices and itineraries taste. I have dodged her downpours and deceptions. But if we are willing to risk and, eventually, even boarding passes. I been bitten by her mosquitoes. I have this unpredictable journey that we like to thought I had got it all together. No more breakfasted in her coffee bars, lunched on think we have so well arranged, God will surprises. But the reality of living my plans her lakeside, and dined in her pubs, always also bring us to moments of breathless has been a different matter entirely. in the stimulating company of some of her wonder at this amazing world we live in, One click brings me to Canada. Seven sons and daughters. What would I say and its amazing people, who are so very minutes on the computer, seven hours in now if I were asked to describe Chicago? much more than they seem when we sim- the sky, and I am immersed in another It would take a lifetime to describe what ply file them neatly under “name and world: a Toronto street party, a barbecue takes a lifetime to experience. address.” in Kingston with friends I haven’t seen in The click that books the campsite like- It is the difference between the idea years, a delighted discovery of the wise does not give any indication of what and the experience of God, between Thousand Islands (plus a few) that nature awaits us in Shenandoah National Park. It thinking about our faith from a safe van- has sprinkled in the St. Lawrence Seaway. does not prepare us for the misty vistas of tage point and living it in a risky, chaotic But that same “click for Canada” also the Blue Ridge Mountains or warn us and wonderful world. When you click on opens up into the unwelcome discovery about the thunderstorms that arrive punc- God.com, expect the unexpected. And you tually every evening just as we have got the may even get to hear peals of heavenly MARGARET SILF lives in Staffordshire, fire going to cook our supper. It does not laughter along the way, because, as you England. Her latest books are Companions tell us about the black bear who emerges know, nothing makes God laugh so much of Christ: Ignatian Spirituality for Everyday without warning from the roadside or as people who make plans. Living and The Gift of Prayer. helps himself to breakfast sausages straight Margaret Silf

10 America September 1, 2008 September 1, 2008 America Vol. 199 No. 5, Whole No. 4824 PHOTO: REUTERS/REBECCA COOK Members of the United Auto Workers union picket outside the American Axle plant in Hamtramck, Mich., March 7, 2008.

Why unions still matter Organizing Principles – BY AMATA MILLER –

N HIS NEW BOOK, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, Steven Greenhouse documents the current plight of our nation’s working people, especially those at the bottom. He cites their low and stagnant wages at a time when executive compensation soars, their decreasing health care insurance and pensions, their increasing job insecurity and their experience of weak publicI support for their rights as workers. Specifically, Greenhouse describes the

AMATA MILLER, I.H.M., is an economics professor and director of the Myser Initiative on Catholic Identity at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn.

September 1, 2008 America 11 struggles of security guards, janitors, hospital and hotel restrain the power of huge food companies. They can do workers—those who perform service jobs that are poorly this because the supermarket chains are more nearly equals paid but essential and who experience broad opposition in bargaining with the food suppliers. Likewise workers are when they try to join a union. What’s wrong? helpless unless they affiliate with larger unions. Galbraith Although the classic case wrote, “The trade union for capitalism assumes a free remains an equalizing force marketplace, equal bargain- The Church and Labor in the labor markets.” The ing power on both the sup- 1891-1934 union’s raison d’être is to ply and the demand sides and • Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) serve as a “countervailing freedom from an outcome- upheld workers’ rights, including the right to organize power.” controlling power on either into associations of their choice. Leo endorsed increas- For more than a century side, its assumptions do not ing associations of workers or of workers and employ- the Catholic Church also neatly fit reality, especially ers together and thereby assisted the worker-directed has recognized a positive for workers with little educa- labor movement in the United States. role for labor unions. The tion and few well-compen- basic principles of Catholic sated skills. In labor markets • Forty years later Pope Pius XI, in Quadragesimo Anno, social teaching (respect for without unions, each worker envisioned a corporatist social order and stressed the human dignity, the right of is left to face, alone, an importance of effective intermediary associations on individuals to participate in employer who has significant behalf of individuals and society. He articulated the decisions that affect them, control over his or her concepts of social justice, the common good and sub- solidarity in human com- employment, compensation sidiarity. He also recognized the structural foundations munity, co-responsibility package and working condi- of social injustices, highlighted necessary reforms and for the common good, sub- tions. upheld the struggle for a living wage and for distributive sidiarity and the dignity of In an employees’ mar- justice. all workers) form a moral ket, where the supply of • Since their 1919 Program of Social Reconstruction, basis for the right of work- jobs is greater than the the U.S. Catholic bishops have upheld the worker’s ers to organize, which is number of workers, an right to organize and to negotiate through chosen rep- rooted in the social nature employee could quit one resentatives. In 1934, during Congressional hearings of human beings and their job to look for another, bet- preceding the Wagner Act, the bishops described the responsibility to participate ter job. That is how free right to form labor unions and bargain collectively as an in shaping the common market competition is sup- inherent human right, parallel to voting rights. They good. The church regards posed to work, with the var- urged safeguarding workers’ free choice of representa- unions as an indispensable ious employers considered tives in order to equalize power in the wage contract element of social life today to be equals. Or one could and argued that undue interference with this choice is (see sidebars). Still, many find oneself in an employ- unjust to worker and public alike. Catholic institutions, like ers’ market, where jobs are hospitals, struggle to bal- few and the number of ance the needs of their workers is large. Unions, with their emergency funds, workers with the institution’s service to the poor. Labor demands for standards and experts in collective bargain- advocates are baffled whenever workers seeking unioniza- ing, work on behalf of laborers in all types of markets. tion within Catholic institutions are actively discouraged or The economist John Kenneth Galbraith developed a penalized by their employers. theory that explains in part how labor unions help to equalize the marketplace. While studying the tendency of Perceptions and Obstacles an economy dominated by large corporations to suppress If unions are vital to healthy capitalism and if Catholic competition, he realized that the largest would dominate teaching supports them, why are unions held in such low unless there were some “countervailing power,” as he regard by the public? The Economic Policy Institute, in called it, to restrain them. (Galbraith reasserted this the- its publication The State of Working America: 2006/2007, sis, first articulated in 1952 in American Capitalism: The notes a decline in the bargaining power of unions as their Theory of Countervailing Power, in his introduction to a membership levels have fallen. The institute links the ero- 1993 edition of the book.) By then Galbraith recognized sion of union influence to difficult trade pressures, a that globalization has diminished the role of exploitative national shift from manufacturing to service industries, market power in much the same way that supermarkets ongoing technological change, employer militancy and

12 America September 1, 2008 changes in the way labor law is being implemented cur- ance such inequality brings to the workplace. rently in the United States. Yet their data also show measurable benefits for workers Tilted Against Unions in unions, especially for those at the bottom of the wage In What Workers Want (1999), Richard B. Freeman, a labor scale. For example, the 2005 economist, and Joel Rogers, differential between union a political scientist and and nonunion wages for The Church and Labor lawyer, studied a national comparable workers was 1948-1986 sample of 3,048 adults work- 14.7 percent overall—8.4 • In 1948, the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human ing in U.S. private compa- percent for men and 10.5 Rights set a standard for all cultures and nations; it rec- nies or nonprofit corpora- percent for women. For ognized the primary dignity of the human person, which tions of more than 25 African-Americans the gain undergirds the right of association. In 1963 Pope John employees. Their data indi- was 20.3 percent, for XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris spelled out the human cated that 44 percent of pri- Hispanics 21.9 percent and rights of all and emphasized the importance to society vate-sector American work- for whites 13.1 percent, of organized labor. ers wanted to be represented indicating that unions help by a union, while only 14 close wage gaps. Minority • In 1982 Pope John Paul II specifically addressed percent of the sample were women in unions have labor unions in Laborem Exercens. He wrote that labor union members. The work- roughly twice the gains of unions are an “indispensable element of social life.” ers who wanted a union but their white counterparts. (On this point, the 2004 Compendium of the Social had not joined one were dis- Union workers are also Doctrine of the Church also calls them “indispensable” proportionately black, more likely to have health and notes that labor unions “defend the vital interests reported poor labor-man- insurance benefits and to of workers” and “are a positive influence for social agement relations, and had have better coverage than order and solidarity.”) John Paul called unions “a attitudes toward indepen- nonunion workers. The per- mouthpiece for the struggle for social justice, for the dence of workplace organi- centage of union workers just rights of working people,” and added that the strug- zations like those of union with pensions is almost twice gle is “for” the just good, but not “against” others, members. One can conclude that of nonunion workers, since working together should build community among that workers do want a voice and those in unions report managers, owners and workers. Unions are responsi- and representation, and that more time off. ble for fostering the common good; they can also fos- both employers and society Nonunion employees ter solidarity with all workers. would benefit from helping profit indirectly from the • In their 1986 pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All, them get it. work of unions when the U.S. Catholic bishops supported a worker’s right to How does the workplace employers, for example, organize to secure just wages and working conditions, become tilted against union- improve the compensation opposed organized efforts to break unions and prevent ization today? It may begin and benefits they offer in workers from organizing and urged legal reform to fur- with an employer, but cur- order to avoid unionization. ther worker rights and remedy unfair labor practices. rent law also contributes. Also, unions have pioneered Workers have both rights and duties (to their employ- So-called “employer mili- standards and practices that ers); collective power ought to advance the common tancy” is one cause of the have become industry-wide good. Labor negotiations require some measure of decline of union bargaining norms, and unions continue equality of sacrifice by unions, managers and share- power, according to the to be innovative in the areas holders. Economic Policy Institute. of childcare, work-time flex- Freeman and Rogers write: ibility and sick leave. “The law de facto reduces The reverse is also true. When labor’s public influ- the chances of successful worker organization.” In From ence is weakened, the ill effects can be felt throughout Blackjacks to Briefcases (2003), Robert M. Smith documents society in the form of economic hardship, job insecurity, the 150-year-old struggle for labor rights in the United the fraying of the social safety net and the destruction of States. Describing the rise of business power over labor the American dream for thousands of workers. And as after a period of cooperation during World War II, Smith the income gap grows between society’s most highly notes that new union-busting agencies with labor relations paid workers and the vast majority of workers, some specialists have affected both national labor law and the cli- leaders are calling attention to the skewed power bal- mate for workers considering unionization. Such agencies

September 1, 2008 America 13 operated within a legal framework set up by the Wagner place justice in nonunion situations. In their 2004 study, Act, proliferated and have effectively served employers who Workplace Justice Without Unions, Hoyt Wheeler and his co- seek to avoid unionization. authors examined the practice extensively. They concluded The past excesses of some unions also played a role. that from the standpoint of employees, arbitration offers the During the late 1950s Congress found not only unscrupu- best chance for workplace justice, but that “justice is least lous tactics by some labor unions but also criminal infiltra- likely to weep when there is a union.” tion of prominent unions. By the late 1970s, the public Economic globalization requires an international voice mood had soured on unions, for labor. International and efforts to suppress or labor organization standards exclude them aroused less The Church and Labor call for a social partnership, concern. Political and social Today and unions are a major insti- factors, especially Ronald tution through which work- • The statement of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Reagan’s breaking of the air ers can participate in mak- Bishops in 2007, Forming Consciences for Faithful traffic controllers’ union, ing decisions about employ- Citizenship, reiterates: “Catholic social teaching sup- fueled a pro-business envi- ment. The United ports the right of workers to choose whether to orga- ronment. Steelworkers union just nize, join a union, and bargain collectively, and to exer- According to a report announced a merger with cise these rights without reprisal.” It urges the cooper- issued by the N.L.R.B., in the largest labor organiza- ation of workers, owners, employers and unions “to 1980, the unions began to tion in Britain and Ireland, create decent jobs, build a more just economy and see that the unionization calling the three million advance the common good.” processes conducted under members of the new organi- the supervison of the zation to global union N.L.R.B., which had been set up by the Wagner Act to fair- activism to challenge antiworker injustices. ly regulate these processes, were leading to outcomes that The vision of innovative employer-employee partner- were unfavorable to the unions. In 1970 organized labor ships has been consistently supported by Catholic social had won 57 percent of representative elections; by 1980 the teaching, which insists on co-responsibility for the common number had dropped to 46 percent. Organized labor won good, the dignity of work and the rights and responsibilities only 27 percent of de-certification elections. Because of fed- of social participation. Development of economic commu- eral appointments to the N.L.R.B. that favored business, nity is also essential to a sustainable future, as laid out by the same skewed pattern has continued, making unions less Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb Jr. in For the Common willing to accept the process as fair. In N.L.R.B. certifica- Good (1989). The economic success of workplaces, union- tion processes, employers frequently seek to defeat union- ized or not, that focus on employee well-being and loyalty ization efforts by using delaying tactics and challenging demonstrates the value of structuring relationships in which whom unions can represent. Penalties for illegally pressur- workers and employers can use their best gifts and exhibit ing employees have been minimal. And courts at various “power with” instead of “power over.” levels, even up to the U.S. Supreme Court, decided to allow For the economy to further the freedom and well-being replacement workers during a strike and to expand the of workers, as well as of employers and shareholders, the exclusion of supervisory workers from bargaining units. right of workers to participate in decisions that affect their Labor sees the current operating framework as unfair. lives must be guaranteed and a social contract insuring cooperative working relationships re-established. Enabling Current Alternatives workers, especially those in low-wage occupations, to help Increasingly unions have used “card-check” elections themselves through freely chosen unions is in accord with (workers simply check a card to say they do or do not want Catholic moral principles and with American traditions of to belong to the union) combined with neutrality agree- individual economic freedom and democracy. Both an ments during the decision-making period. Both labor and improvement in the public mood toward worker rights and management agree not to harm the reputation of the oppo- a reform of labor law are overdue. Justice in the workplace site side. Data show that with this new strategy, unions do is not a narrow interest, but part of the ongoing struggle twice as well in organizing firms with 500 or more employ- for human rights and democracy. The current economic ees as they did in the past and are more apt to increase orga- climate provides a teachable moment (as well as a chal- nizing efforts. The method demonstrates that nonadversar- lenge) for leaders of Catholic institutions who wish to pro- ial unionization efforts are still possible and effective. mote justice for workers and better relationships in the Labor arbitration is a common way of achieving work- workplace. A

14 America September 1, 2008 Bethlehem’s Wall Can U.S. Christians help revive the sacred city?

BY AUSTEN IVEREIGH

Claire Anastas, a Palestinian Catholic, stands between her family's apartment and the Israeli security wall in Bethlehem, West Bank.

OR THE FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS, there is some away is the 30-foot-high concrete wall the Israelis have been good news out of Bethlehem. The pilgrims on building in fits and starts since 2002, which has severed whom the town’s Christians depend have begun to Bethlehem from its sister city, Jerusalem, only a 20-minute F return; their number has increased by at least 50 drive away. The justification for the wall is security, to pro- percent from last year, which was in turn better than 2006. tect Jerusalem from suicide bombers. But the path it follows One can still sit in one of the chapels in the Basilica of the makes clear its real purpose: to consolidate the illegal Israeli Nativity, the world’s oldest church, without being dis- settlements, which now flow down from Jerusalem almost turbed—impossible in Jerusalem’s holy sites. But now you to the borders of Bethlehem, on land seized from the town’s need to wake up early to seize solitude in the little grotto of Christian farmers. The wall is gray, chilling and spreads a Christ’s birthplace, time enough to touch the metal star fearful message. The Archbishop of Canterbury described it embedded in marble and to ponder the divine eruption— as “a symbol of all that is wrong in the human heart,” when before the Greek Orthodox priests throw a rug down the he visited at Christmas in 2006. So the pilgrims who come ancient steps and bark at you to get out so they can say are disgorged from their coaches into the basilica and sent Mass. quickly around the Shepherd’s Fields in nearby Beit Sahour, before they hurry back to Jerusalem—spending little, hear- Behind the Wall ing little and passing up the chance to learn from one of the Yet because so few tourists spend much time in the town, it world’s oldest Christian populations. remains shuttered and depressed. The reason they stay They miss out on the reasons why that population’s future is under threat. Bethlehemites have long depended AUSTEN IVEREIGH, a writer, journalist and former adviser to on the Jerusalem economy, yet they can no longer pass Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, has been a regular visitor through the checkpoint without a special permit that is sel- to Bethlehem. He was recently awarded a symbolic “Bethlehem dom granted. Some 345 square miles of land around

passport” by Open Bethlehem. Bethlehem, mostly owned by the town’s Christian families, PHOTO: CNS/DEBBIE HILL

September 1, 2008 America 15 have been confiscated by the Israelis, because the territory especially water. While settlers in Gilo hose down their cars is in the “seam zone” area under military control. Two- and fill their swimming pools, Bethlehemites have to buy thirds of the governorate of Bethlehem, which includes the water weekly from trucks to fill the rooftop tanks that mark adjoining hill suburbs of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, has been the town’s skyline. declared a military zone from which Palestinians are barred. The Salesians who make wine at the Cremisan estate, Beit Jala has lost half its land, central Bethlehem a quarter located on the terraced hillsides to the west of Bethlehem, and Beit Sahour a third. live in the path of the wall. They cannot stop its expansion; Bethlehem has become a ghetto, severed from lands to they have a settlement behind them, far into the West Bank, the north and west by the wall, and to the south and east by and the wall is designed to ensure that the settlements are settler-only roads. On land confiscated from Christian included within the Israeli border—when that is finally Arabs, Jewish-only settlements such as Gilo and Har Homa agreed upon. The Vatican has added its voice to the inter- have been erected. Unemployment in Bethlehem is above national condemnation, but until Israel implements the 50 percent, and 3,000 Christians have left in the past few 2001 Fundamental Agreement with the Holy See, the years. The shops lie idle, and the Christian olive-wood juridical status of the Catholic Church is at best fragile and traders use increasingly desperate means—paying coach its power to negotiate limited. Israel has agreed to a Vatican drivers huge commissions to snag the tour groups—to request not to divide church lands that lie beneath the path achieve sales. of the wall, so when the wall is extended later this year, The Salesian-run bakery in the old town is a barometer Cremisan will be cut off from Bethlehem—depriving the of Bethlehem’s poverty. Early each morning before the town of one of its oldest and popular landmarks—and from commercial bakeries open, the town’s neediest families line the Palestinian workers on whom the winery depends. “We up outside to receive their daily bread, for which they pay are negotiating to allow the workers to come each day only a few shekels each month. Suleiman, the chief baker, through the wall,” says Father Luciano, an elderly Italian has worked with the vast ovens for 60 years, beginning as an Salesian at Cremisan. “But everything is very uncertain. It is eight-year-old boy. Every day, he says, they bake and give a great weight on us.” out 3,000 loaves—lighter and fluffier now, because the price Because of the slow but steady emigration of Christians of flour has soared—to around 600 families. Four years ago, from Bethlehem—who tend to be among the town’s better- they served 320 families. educated people, and who often go to live with relatives in The wonder is not that Bethlehem’s Christians are emi- the United States or Chile—this historically Christian town grating abroad, but how many stay. Next door at the is fast becoming a Muslim one. Only a few years ago 90 per- Salesian technical school, Father Nicola describes how only cent of the “old core” of Bethlehem was Christian; now it is 10 years ago most of its graduates commuted daily to less than 50 percent. Christians now make up just one-third Jerusalem. But the wall has stopped the flow of all but a few of the district’s population. Christian families are moving manual laborers (recruited, in a final humiliation, to help abroad, while farmers forced off their land are moving into build the Israeli settlements on the land their own families ancient quarters like Anatreh, alongside the Nativity once farmed). “There is no freedom,” Father Nicola says. Church. The Latin patriarchate, based in Jerusalem, is dis- “There is no opportunity to develop.” creetly buying up the empty houses abandoned by Christians on Star Street and Manger Street, hoping for the Christian Exodus day when their owners will return. Since 2004, when the International Court of Justice ruled Yet the town retains a distinctive Arab-Christian charac- that the settlements were illegal and should be dismantled ter, bolstered by the presence of religious orders and church and the land’s owners compensated, Israel has built 30,000 associations (whether Latin, Melkite, Orthodox or Jewish-only housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Protestant) and the witness of many remarkable Christian Bank, according to the Applied Research Institute- charities. Edmund Shahadeh, the director of Bethlehem’s Jerusalem, an independent watchdog group supported by famous hospital for the disabled, says, “The best possible the European Union. Bethlehemites wake up each day to treatment for the poorest—this is Christianity.” He is pas- see Gilo and Har Homa, wealthy suburbs on the other side sionate about the need for Christians to remain in the town, of the wall that were built on their land. Others (A.R.I.J. has whatever the odds. “We are the bridge,” he says. counted 220 “outposts” where settlers are claiming land) are His point is regularly made by the Christians of far inside the West Bank, ringed by Israeli army checkpoints Bethlehem. Without them the cycle of land annexation, and fences. This is not just a land grab, creating “facts on reactive violence and further annexation will only get worse. the ground” that will determine the borders of a future The two eruptions of (Muslim) Palestinian violence protest- balkanized Palestinian state, but a rush to control resources, ing the settlements, the intifada of the late 1980s and anoth-

16 America September 1, 2008 er beginning in 2000, have only exacerbated the situation, is unsafe to visit. As a regular visitor these past years, I am handing Israel a justification for more annexations under amazed by this misconception. A sleepier, safer place is the guise of security. hard to imagine. Not only has there been no political violence for many years, but the last recorded incident in Dispelling American Myths which a tourist was harmed took place in the early 1970s. The wall is strangling Bethlehem and its Christian popula- Bethlehem has been for the most part a model of peaceful tion. It will come down only when Christian public opinion Christian-Muslim coexistence since the seventh century. in the United States awakens to that fact and issues an The key to Bethlehem’s survival as Christianity’s capi- S.O.S. for the birth town of Christianity, putting pressure tal is for the world’s believers in Jesus Christ to come and on Washington to enforce international law. claim it, taking advantage of its many merits as a base for But that means dispelling some deeply held myths. A visits to the holy sites in Jerusalem as well as the Judean 2006 Zogby opinion poll commissioned by the campaign desert. The idea of Bethlehem-based pilgrimages has organization Open Bethlehem found that only 15 percent begun to catch on, encouraged by visits from church lead- of Americans know that Bethlehem is a Palestinian town ers and the efforts of Open Bethlehem to persuade people with a mixed Christian-Muslim Arab population in the that the town is safe and welcoming. Christians in occupied West Bank. Bethlehemites, when asked why Bethlehem need, above all, for people to come and stay Christians are leaving, point to the wall and speak about the and hear their story—and to pray with them. Visitors will- land confiscations; yet most Americans believe Christians ing to do so assist Christian livelihoods and rescue are being pushed out by “radical Muslims.” Most Americans Bethlehemites from an isolation that threatens their con- simply do not realize that the wall is responsible for the tinued existence. The beleaguered descendants of the first destruction of the town’s Christian population; instead, they witnesses to the Incarnation do not want to leave. And accept Israel’s argument that the wall was built to protect they need our help to stay. A Israel from terrorist attacks, not to consolidate the illegal settlements and land annexations. From the archives, Drew Christiansen, S.J., on the The poll also accounted for the difficulty in attracting uncertain future of Middle East Christians, at tourists to Bethlehem. Two-thirds of Americans believe it americamagazine.org/pages.

September 1, 2008 America 17 An American Daughter Elizabeth Ann Seton and the birth of the U.S. church BY REGINA BECHTLE

ARLY ON THE York addresses close to the MORNING of homes of Alexander June 9, 1808, a Hamilton and Duncan petite, 34-year- Phyfe, the famous furniture Eold woman in widow’s designer. A devout weeds and her three young Episcopalian, she thrilled daughters stood on the to the preaching of the deck of the packet boat Rev. John Henry Hobart at Grand Sachem in New Manhattan’s elegant York harbor. Elizabeth Trinity Church and St. Ann Bayley Seton found Paul’s Chapel. herself bound for Catholics in New York Baltimore, the next step on City at the time occupied a journey of faith that had another world entirely. already taken her across an Until Elizabeth Seton was ocean and into worlds she 10 years old, the Catholic never imagined, a journey Church in the fledgling that paralleled the revolu- country was outlawed, its tionary growth of the priests subject to arrest. Catholic Church in When the ban was lifted, America. Catholics built a modest Just two months wooden church, St. Peter’s, before, on April 8, 1808, on Barclay Street. The Pope Pius VII had named city’s elite (Bayleys and Baltimore an archdiocese. Setons among them) Within the vast territory regarded it as a “horrid stretching from the place of spits and pushing,” Atlantic westward to the and scorned the mostly Mississippi, and from the immigrant Irish and French border of Canada to congregation as “dirty filthy Spanish Florida, four new red faced…ragged.” Cath- dioceses were created: olic widows and children Boston, New York, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, 1774–1821 were undoubtedly among Philadelphia and Bards- the poor to whom town, Ky. Elizabeth Seton had been a She was born in New York in 1774, a Elizabeth and her friends ministered in Protestant for 31 years, a Catholic for just British subject; by her second birthday, their charitable work, but for her to join a three; she was a laywoman without means, she was an American. Her grandfather was church so identified with the lower class influence or official status. Yet her life of rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church would then have been unthinkable. profound faith was intimately linked with on Staten Island; her father was a health each of these five centers of the young officer of the Port of New York, who Faith Through Tragedy church in America, which celebrate their treated shiploads of sick immigrants at the Elizabeth, who loved children, had five in second centenary this year. quarantine station he began, where seven years. When her father-in-law died Elizabeth learned lessons of compassion suddenly, Elizabeth and her husband also REGINA BECHTLE, S.C., of the Sisters of and selfless service. Her marriage to took on the care of his father’s eight Charity of New York, is a theologian, spiri- William Magee Seton, son of a prosperous younger children. As the Seton shipping tual director and co-editor of the multi-vol- business family, solidified her standing business struggled under the impact of the ume Elizabeth Bayley Seton: Collected among New York’s social elite. The Napoleonic wars, William’s health began

Writings (New City Press, 2000-6). young couple lived at fashionable New to fail. Elizabeth and William, with their CNS FILE PHOTO

18 America September 1, 2008 oldest child, Anna Maria, crossed the year, while visiting his flock in New York, But as her inner life deepened and ocean hoping that the Italian sun would Bishop Carroll confirmed her. At their first her spiritual horizons widened, other revive him. Instead, he languished in quar- meeting, she won his respect and admira- doors opened. Prominent Catholics in antine, died in December 1803, and was tion; she in turn increasingly came to rely Boston and Baltimore became deeply buried in Livorno, home of his business on his judgment and practical advice. interested in Seton’s situation. Cheverus associates, Antonio and Filippo Filicchi. Elizabeth also found a sympathetic sent prayer books and spiritual reading. The Filicchis opened their home to the and astute spiritual guide in Michael Antonio Filicchi suggested that bereft widow until she and her daughter Hurley, an Augustinian priest. Hurley had Elizabeth apply as an assistant teacher to could secure passage back to America. come from Philadelphia in July 1805, on a convent school in Montreal, where she During her stay with the Filicchis, loan to St. Peter’s during one of the yellow could live as a boarder while her two Elizabeth witnessed for the first time a fever epidemics that beset New York. She boys attended a college seminary. Bishop vibrant Catholic faith among her intellec- and her sister-in-law Cecilia Seton, whom Carroll’s offer to pay her sons’ tuition for two years at Georgetown relieved her worries for a time. The “gentlemen in Boston,” ‘You are called to take a great place in Cheverus and his colleague Rev. Francis Matignon, at first con- the United States, and it is there that you curred with the “Canada scheme,” but then found more merit in a proposal enthusiasti- should remain.’ cally promoted by William Dubourg, a Sulpician from Baltimore. tual and social equals. Already accustomed he instructed in the faith, continued to Dubourg first met Elizabeth in New to a life of prayer, Scripture study and ser- correspond with him even after he York in November 1806 while raising vice to others, she was deeply stirred, espe- returned to St. Augustine’s Church in funds for one of his many projects, St. cially by her experience of Christ’s real Philadelphia. Mary’s College for boys. He was also presence in the Eucharist. “I fell on my keenly aware of the need for Catholic knees without thinking when the Blessed Newfound Vocation education for girls in America. An expan- Sacrament passed by,” she wrote her sis- Elizabeth’s decision to become a Catholic sive, persuasive man of ideas, Dubourg ter-in-law Rebecca, “and cried in an agony immediately placed her in the ranks of the convinced Elizabeth that relocating to to God to bless me if he was there, that my poor widows whom she and her Baltimore, the center of Catholic life at whole Soul desired only him.” Episcopalian friends had sought to help the time, would provide the security she Armed with St. Francis de Sales’s only a few years earlier. Cut off from fam- needed. He offered to help her establish Introduction to the Devout Life, apologetic ily support, she tried to maintain herself a girls’ school near the Sulpician semi- treatises and a newfound devotion to Our and her five children by tutoring and tak- nary. Continuing on his circuit to Lady, Elizabeth returned to New York. ing in boarders, but many non-Catholic Boston, Dubourg consulted with Her family was shocked that she would parents feared that her devotion would Cheverus and Matignon, whose judg- even consider abandoning her religious taint their children. Already some of her ment Elizabeth respected. Matignon and social roots to worship with Catholics. Seton sisters-in-law were showing signs of spoke for the three clerics: “You are, I Father Hobart countered her experiences following Elizabeth’s spiritual path. Doors believe, called to take a great place in the with learned discourses. Elizabeth, so wea- slammed shut, closing off her chances to United States, and it is there that you ried by the inner struggle that she could make a living. should remain.” It took another year and barely sleep, compared her soul to “a Bird struggling in a net.” Antonio Filicchi, traveling on business THE CASAGRANDE INSTITUTE FOR INTERFAITH CONVERSATION in America, advised her to write for guid- American Indian, ance to Baltimore’s Bishop John Carroll Buddhist,Christian, and Boston’s Rev. John Cheverus. Both sent promises of prayer. Cheverus, edified Jewish and Muslim perspectives by her “Christian courage and resigna- tion,” encouraged her to become Catholic as soon as possible. It was the push she needed. OCTOBER 31 — NOVEMBER 2, 2008 Elizabeth made her profession of faith at St. Peter’s on Barclay Street in New WISDOM HOUSE RETREAT AND CONFERENCE CENTER York on March 14, 1805, and received her LITCHFIELD, CT • 860-567-3163 first Communion 11 days later. The next [email protected] • www.wisdomhouse.org

September 1, 2008 America 19 a half and many machinations, divine and 17th-century France seemed well suited otherwise, before Elizabeth bade farewell for 19th-century American needs. On to her New York home to begin her new Flaget’s return Elizabeth and her advisors life in Baltimore. made several significant adaptations. By In a Cedar Tub She arrived on June 16, 1808, as the the time the rule was approved by Carroll magnificent chapel at St. Mary’s and by Seton’s community, Flaget had left Nearly midnight Seminary, designed by Maximilian for his new diocese in Kentucky, taking and traffic still goes on, Godefroy, was being dedicated by John David as his assistant. Elizabeth, whose Carroll, newly named archbishop. It was temperament had clashed with David’s people not where the feast of Corpus Christi, an auspicious from the beginning, was not sorry to see they want to be. sign for the woman irresistibly drawn to him go. To serve the needs of the frontier Catholicism by the Eucharist. The warm diocese, David soon organized another Up to my neck welcome of her Sulpician hosts and the community, the Sisters of Charity of Mass of consecration with its choir, can- Nazareth, with a rule adapted from in fire-warmed water, dlelight and crimson, stood in sharp Emmitsburg and based on the same relief to the struggle and opposition she Vincentian model. my arms arc had left behind in New York. She took it Early in the life of her community, the tub’s round rim as a sign of God’s blessing that her Elizabeth wrote, “There is every hope Philadelphia friend Michael Hurley was that it is the seed of an immensity of and a school’s lights there, with Samuel Cooper, a recent future good.” God speedily fulfilled her convert. Dubourg predicted that this hope. After opening an academy and free amber-stain the clouds. phase in Elizabeth’s life would prove to school in Emmitsburg, she sent Sisters of We know by faith be “of infinite importance for Religion Charity to Philadel-phia in 1814 and to and humanity.” New York in 1817 to care for orphans in stars burn above them. both cities. When Elizabeth died in A Home in Maryland 1821, her community was only a dozen Feet gripping the far wall, Within the year, Cooper had donated years old, yet some 60 Sisters of Charity property in Emmitsburg, about 50 miles in three dioceses were tending orphans, I become a shallow cup, northwest of Baltimore, as a permanent visiting the sick, teaching, catechizing an open parenthesis home for Elizabeth’s school for both rich and serving the poor of every type. and poor children, and for the sisterhood Elizabeth Seton’s journey to in which you lie, half- that was rapidly forming around her. Baltimore in 1808 led eventually to the Young women and widows from several high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. floating, half-stretching, states, inspired by the charismatic For her indomitable hope, fidelity to Elizabeth, were drawn to join her. God’s will and unswerving devotion to so our bodies declare “Providence has disposed for me a plan Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and in again a wordless fidelity. after my own heart,” she wrote, as her life, she was canonized in 1975, the first dream of a life of devotion and service native-born American to be so honored. Snow swirls around us took shape in the Maryland hills. The Like the community she founded, the five Sisters of Charity, begun by Elizabeth original dioceses linked with her life have as we celebrate Seton in 1809 in St. Joseph’s Valley, had flourished beyond all expectation. Today, in over 190 dioceses coast to coast, the our anniversary, the distinction of being the first active religious community of women founded in church that Elizabeth Seton cherished as our union and reunion, the United States. her “ark” serves more than 64 million Less than a year later, the community Catholics. During this bicentennial year of our lasting buoyancy. numbered 12, and there were 12 more the Baltimore Archdiocese, one can readi- women awaiting admission. In 1810 ly imagine the diminutive convert-moth- Benedict Flaget, the bishop-elect of er-widow-foundress contemplating the Edward A. Dougherty Bardstown, was asked by his Sulpician American Catholic scene, with all its scars confrere John Baptist David, the second and struggles, from the vantage point of director of the Sisters of Charity, to bring her beloved eternity, and celebrating the EDWARD A. DOUGHERTY is author of two from Paris the rule followed by the French “immensity of future good” that has recent books of poems and of a textbook, Daughters of Charity. Elizabeth Seton’s sprouted from the seeds planted 200 years Exercises for Poets: Double Bloom, co- fledgling community needed the security ago. A authored with Scott Minar, available from of a tested rule. The firm but flexible Prentice-Hall. This poem is one of three structure designed by Sts. Vincent de Paul Listen to an interview with the runners-up in the 2008 Foley Poetry and Louise de Marillac for their apostoli- author at americamagazine.org Contest. cally mobile community of women in /podcast.

20 America September 1, 2008 or-something usually mowed his lawn twice before I got to mine once. He could Bad Neighbor, have been in one of those house-and-gar- den magazines. But the fact is that if we occasionally Good Neighbor talked to them, we rarely if ever talked with them. Their parties always involved BY DAVID PAUL DEAVEL people driving in from all over the city and beyond. They never came over to say hello. They never borrowed sugar or had HE NEIGHBORS have not manage our property. Whenever we saw a beer with us. Even when Jeff-or-some- mowed their lawn in two them they were outside mowing, scraping, thing mowed his lawn, he wore a surgical weeks, thank God. Many peo- raking, building, fixing or otherwise mask. Perhaps it is cruel to use such a fact ple do not like neighbors who improving the quality of their house. Jeff- against him. Maybe he had allergies. Yet it areT not fastidious about their house and seemed a fitting symbol lawn. I do. Let me of his relationship to explain. what he was tending: The pretty red house careful, antiseptic, ster- next to us has gone ile—afraid that its life through three owners in would get inside him and the five years we have change him. He and the lived on our block. I do others had a property, not have even a vague not a home. They lived memory of the people in in a real estate zone, not it when we arrived. The a neighborhood. It next couple’s names have showed in the fact that as escaped me, and all I can soon as they had finished say about the last guy is fixing up their home to a that his name was Joe. Or higher notch, they all Jeff. Or something with a moved somewhere else. “J.” All of them were I have noticed this youngish, good-looking, about our neighborhood. professional people with- There are those who out any children and with work on their properties, lots of disposable income. and there are those who They may well have been live in their homes. nice people. They may Those who work on still be nice people. They their properties think of were, however, rotten them as investments, no neighbors. more mystical than a It’s not that they mis- 401(k) or a mutual fund. treated their house or They live their lives held wild parties. Their somewhere else—at parties were mild affairs work, at the gym, at in the backyard or in the restaurants, perhaps at house with tastefully hip somebody else’s home. music. And their care of Ultimately they are the house was such that I ghosts from the moment wished we had the dis- they move in, all their posable income to pay precious fixer-upping no them to care for and more human than the clanking of chains and DAVID PAUL DEAVEL is an moving of furniture of associate editor of Logos: purgatorial spirits biding A Journal of Catholic time until their release Thought and Culture and a into heaven. contributing editor of Those who live in Gilbert Magazine.

their homes think of ART BY DAN SALAMIDA

September 1, 2008 America 21 them as their castles or, quite often, as a hand-me-downs. Their snowblowers clear the quiet psalms of backyard gossip are sort of sacred shrine or holy place. They whole blocks of sidewalk for those who are heard alternating praise of the “old man” clean and fix, paint and repair, decorate near them. They tease each other when or the kindness of “the sweet young cou- and all the rest. But they inhabit their they stop to say hello. They stand and talk ple” and lament over their quirks (“That homes not as ghosts but as flesh-and- and comfort each other as if they were the parking was the damnedest thing”) and, blood creatures. They awake each morn- best of friends when the ambulance comes most of all, the loss of their figure walking ing to walls filled with the angelic scrawl of for one of the others. They even enjoy dogs, smoking cigars or pausing to bask in crayon. Their carpets have dark red swirls gossip. Not just bad gossip but good. For the autumn sunshine as they rake the first from wine spilled in fits of laughter. Their they take interest in the mystery of those of the fallen leaves. Finally, petition is lawns and gardens may be beautiful or a strange yet familiar beings near them and raised for someone worthy to take up mess, but they never taste of the glossy wish both a deeper share in that mystery dominion in the old place, bringing the and unreal perfection of those depicted in and the reputation for having a deeper neighborhood back to wholeness. real estate brochures. share. That is why they bring hot dishes What we want from the house next The dwellers of homes both charm and frozen lasagnas when a new baby has door is not an immaculate lawn or a beau- and annoy their neighbors, because living come home and why their sunny Sunday tifully painted fence or lovely flower in the close quarters of a neighborhood evenings are occasions not only for tennis boxes—and certainly not varnished wood breeds familiarity, and familiarity general- at the park but visits to the hospital and floors and tasteful décor. The old saying is ly breeds contempt at some point. “Ha! sometimes the funeral home. often taken too literally. Good fences do That guy always parks two feet from the When a worker of properties is gone, not make good neighbors, though good curb” quickly becomes, “Will that idiot we usually do not know for months, neighbors may indeed make good fences. ever quit parking in the middle of the maybe a year, for they were never really What we want beyond the fences and in street?” “Those cute kids are always run- there in the first place. Their names and those houses is the people inside. They do ning through the sprinkler” becomes, their features fade from our memories like not have to be our best friends. They do “Can’t they keep those damn kids out of vague late-morning dreams, unfocused not even have to be particularly friendly. my tulips?” “He’s really friendly” and unyielding to any close scrutiny. We They may even be something of a nemesis becomes, “Does he ever stop talking?” wish them well but feel no desire that they to us. But they have to be real. While But charm and annoyance are part of return. every house, no matter how well cared for, the dance of any form of common life. When a home dweller moves away or eventually ends in dust, a home echoes not And that is what home dwellers have—a dies, though, a hole, palpable like a only in the lifelong memories of the common life. They give small children wound, opens up in the neighborhood and neighbors, but into eternity. A

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22 America September 1, 2008 affect the 1960 election, when John F. Book Reviews Reviving a Kennedy, a Catholic, ran for president. In order to address these concerns, cially when they used Kennedy’s “privacy” ‘Common Good’ Kennedy attempted to make his religion doctrine to justify their position with inconsequential to his qualifications dur- “rights” talk. Partnership ing his famous Sept. 12, 1960, speech to During the 1960s and 70s, the immi- the Houston Ministerial Association: “I grant families fled their “urban ghettos” Left at the Altar am not the Catholic candidate for and moved out to the suburbs, where they How the Democrats Lost the President. I am the Democratic Party’s adopted “new secular and commercial Catholics and How the Catholics candidate for President who happens also identities” that further separated them Can Save the Democrats to be a Catholic.” from their church—and the Democrats. By Michael Sean Winters Kennedy argued for a “privacy of The Democrats ignored the fact that Basic Books. 256p $26 faith,” which attempted to distinguish most Americans and most Catholics were ISBN 9780465091669 between his “religion problem” and the deeply religious. They rejected the “liber- “real issues.” In doing so, he misconstrued tarian and utilitarian impulses of liberal- American Catholics may have an opportu- the nature of religion, says Winters, and ism” and sought to “reclaim their moral nity to influence this year’s elections as made a critical shift away from what voice.” As a result, the Democrats well as to help resolve some important Monsignor Ryan had worked so hard to appeared to be irreligious, and the issues like abortion, the Iraq War and frame, namely, that religion addresses Republicans began to look like the “God family values. societal realities. During Party.” Catholics respond- In Left at the Altar, Michael Sean the 1930s, economic ed politically by helping to Winters, a political journalist, speechwrit- issues were religious elect Ronald Reagan to the er and religion scholar (and blogger for issues because they were presidency in 1980. In America), traces the history of Catholics’ justice issues. 1994 they helped elect a role in American politics since the 1930s, The “real issues” of Republican Congress, and when they first became aligned with the the 1960s turned out to by 2005 a majority of the Democratic Party. He also shows how and be civil rights and the judges occupying the why Catholics abandoned the party. Vietnam War; in the Supreme Court were con- President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1970s they were abor- servative—Catholic! New Deal sought to alleviate the severe tion and consumerism. Winters’s last two unemployment caused by the Depression Americans wanted to chapters address the sec- by addressing workers’ rights, condemn- debate these issues on ond part of his book title: ing laissez-faire economics and instituting religious and moral “How the Catholics Can public works projects. One of Roosevelt’s grounds, but they gradu- Save the Democrats.” To chief advisers on this program was Msgr. ally became disaffected appeal to Catholic swing John Ryan. A theological scholar born to by the “liberal” politics voters, he suggests Irish immigrant parents, Ryan saw the the Democrats had represented. Democrats should focus on the people’s Catholic Church as an “agent for social Kennedy and the Democrats after him needs by rekindling Monsignor Ryan’s justice and an integral, progressive politi- responded to civil rights as a justice issue, approach of tying political issues to the cal force.” He felt that religion could be but they missed the ball on the Vietnam core principles of Catholic social thought: applied to the public sphere without vio- War partly because a majority of concern for the common good and the lating the separation of church and state. Americans believed that Communism dignity due every American. The New Deal made sense to should be defeated. They also did not Because Republicans generally Catholics, especially the ethnic, working- appreciate the tactics of war protesters like embrace a brand of social Darwinism and class Catholics who lived with their the Berrigan brothers, Catholic priests economic efficiency, Democrats can extended families in urban neighbor- who pointed out the immorality of the hoods. Their lives centered around the war. Instead, they saw such tactics as anti- parish and school; and they had their own American and traitorous. The Reviewers newspapers, entertainment, holidays and The reforms of the Second Vatican Olga Bonfiglio is a professor at Kalamazoo feast days. People were assimilated into Council, which sought to modernize the College and the author of Heroes of a American culture and democracy by church, were also perceived by many Different Stripe: How One Town Responded understanding the rights and responsibili- Catholics resistant to the changes to be to the War in Iraq. ties of citizenship and the value of public aligned with liberals. John C. Hawley is chair of the English service through their participation in local Also, the highly emotional abortion department at Santa Clara University and for- politics and unions. But many non- issue of the 1970s separated Catholics and mer literary editor of America. Catholics remained prejudiced against the Democrats even more. Liberals (espe- Thomas Murphy, S.J., is associate profes- Catholics because of their “strange” reli- cially feminists) responded by being more sor and chair of history at Seattle University, gious practices. This prejudice would strident in defending Roe v. Wade, espe- in Washington.

September 1, 2008 America 23 counter them with more humanistic and when it comes to issues like the environ- state-sponsored violence from starting. pragmatic approaches to issues like health ment, education and marriage. By focus- This is a less convincing argument, since care, abortion, stem cell research, genetic ing on the common good with regard to our national purpose for nearly 100 years engineering, capital punishment, euthana- these issues, Democrats could address has been fixed on national security and our sia and care for the elderly. And instead of economic well-being, justice, protection economy for the last 50 years has been concentrating on legalistic concerns (one’s of basic freedoms and concern about the buffeted by the “military-industrial com- right to do or not to do something, for nation’s moral and cultural fiber. Such an plex”—with no end in sight. example), Democrats should direct atten- approach provides some hope that the Finally, Winters points out that the tion to human dignity concerns, like what conflicts over these important issues can burgeoning Latino presence in the United to do with an enfeebled Grandma. be resolved. States has created a significant change Most Americans admit that selfishness Winters also suggests that applying demographically, culturally and political- and consumerism have taken over our cul- just war theory, a 1,600-year-old ly. Both Democrats and Republicans have ture, and they yearn for a shared sense of Augustinian tradition, could not only end been vying for their support. But as immi- responsibility. Such sentiments work well the war in Iraq but prevent other serious gration remains the single most important issue for this population, Republicans have actually inflamed anti-immigrant feeling. =FI;?8D:@FE8E;:LCKLI< Democrats could counter such policy by ?<8;C@E<=FILD opposing restrictive and punitive measures, especially since there are now 11 million undocumented Latinos in the United States. Furthermore, Democrats J`ee\ijXe[N`ee\ij could institute a pro-family approach to immigration reform in order to find com-

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J. M. Coetzee’s critics suggested some years ago that he and some others (Zakes =I<<8E;FG

24 America September 1, 2008 hope and possible forgiveness. But now cent of Yeats—about having transcendent from two fresh (if biased) points of view that he has won the prestigious Mann- aspirations that are housed in a dying and recognize the “pessimistic anarchistic Booker prize twice and the Nobel Prize body, situated in one little quietism” that he espouses (only once) and has moved to Australia, place and time. (At one for what it truly is: the Coetzee seems, almost as a lark, to have let point he rifles through a struggle of an accom- fly with a preposterously gem-encrusted box of his father’s junk plished man in his closing political screed, a double-cream-laden that he has neglected to decades, coming to terms macédoine of opinions on contemporary cull for 30 years, and with aspects of life that newsy diversions as various as terrorism, finds written on a scrap of lesser individuals choose intelligent design, authority in fiction and paper the phrase “can to evade: sincerity, pedophilia. something be done Im integrity, belonging, dis- If that were all, the book would be [sic] dying.”) To say that honor, materialism, rea- interesting enough. But coming from Coetzee has written a son, fatherhood. Coetzee it is much more fun than that. book about the Early in the book the After you have read Diary of a Bad Year, I mind/body problem is to protagonist argues that recommend you track down some other strip his creation of all its those around him cannot readers and ask how they did it, and I mean ingenuity and beauty, be reasoned with by an the question literally. The pages of the since this reader, for one, appeal to moral princi- book are divided in half, with the “opin- was unexpectedly ples, since their lives are ions” offered in the top sector and a more brought to tears at the novel’s conclusion. full of contradictions and they are used to typical narrative advancing on the second In the protagonist’s eyes, the book he is accommodating themselves to them. half of the page. Twenty-five pages in, a dictating (one-third of Coetzee’s volume, Instead, he writes, one must “attack the third section is added at the bottom of recall) is a contest between the philoso- metaphysical, supra-empirical status of each page. Occasionally, the sentences phies of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, a con- necessità and show that to be fraudulent.” I carry over onto the next page. Every once fection made up of “the personal anguish take this to mean that he wants to demon- in a while paragraphs continue on into the of a soul unable to bear the horrors of this strate that we cannot wiggle away from next chapter. The reader is left to decide world.” But when the very different voices the consequences of our choices. By whether to proceed across pages in the of Anya and the scurrilous Alan are added demonstrating the distinction between heady political section (ah, at last we are to the mix, we see the anguished writer Anya and Alan in the “lower” two-thirds getting the reclusive author’s real views on Bush and the literary establishment!), or stop and jump down to the two lower nar- ratives, which—this being Coetzee—are pretty compelling stories. VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY Much like a combination of Lolita and the troubled relationship between W. B. 2008 Saint Augustine Lecture Yeats and the actress/Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne, the story involves an aging Professor Gareth Matthews protagonist from South Africa who hires University of Massachusetts the voluptuous Filipina lady living down- Augustine on Reading Scripture as Doing Philosophy stairs, half his age, to be his typist. Anya, Wednesday meanwhile, has a cynical stockbroker September 17 th, 2008 lover, Alan, who is the polar opposite of 7:30 PM the protagonist—much like Yeats’s Bartley Room 1011 description of the man Maud Gonne ended up marrying. When Alan’s story Sponsored by: begins in the bottom third of the page, The Augustinian Institute and that new narrative sounds a lot like a Harold Pinter play, with Darwinian Augustinian Studies of Villanova University aggression simmering restlessly just below For more information please visit our webpage: the surface of the taut language. So, in a http://www.villanova.edu/artsci/augustinianinstitute short volume, Coetzee has found a structure for fascinating musings on any num- or call ber of contemporary issues, a sexy-but- 610.519.4780 sublimated love story and a tantalizing story of crime and implied violence. And there’s more. The book is really about aging or—and this is again reminis-

September 1, 2008 America 25 of the book, the higher consciousness of er, Allen C. Guelzo argues that the cir- ical procedure not followed since 1913: the protagonist is rendered in soap-opera cumstances of the Lincoln-Douglas the selection of U.S. senators by state leg- format and made not only comprehensible debates are poorly islators rather than but, finally, compelling. This was the sort remembered. They did direct popular vote. of reading experience in which I found not take place during the Anyone reading this myself frequently turning to the author’s presidential campaign of book would not wish photo on the jacket, as if asking myself 1860, but during an for a return to the sys- about the relation between the artistry and Illinois race for the U.S. tem used in 1858, as the artist—or, as Yeats might put it, the Senate two years earlier. Guelzo demonstrates dancer and the dance. John C. Hawley The use of the debate that an unfair legislative transcripts to seek signs apportionment plan of the future Lincoln was largely responsible presidency and the Civil for the defeat of The Great War ignores their imme- Lincoln, the popular- diate context, forgetting vote winner. It is sober- Debates that these exchanges had ing to reflect that the in view one particular debates, for all their Lincoln and Douglas election. quality, may have had The Debates That Defined America Guelzo (Henry R. absolutely no influence By Allen C. Guelzo Luce Professor of the on this result. Simon & Schuster. 416p $26 Civil War Era at Ironically, Lincoln car- ISBN 9780743273206 Gettysburg College) seeks to revise ried the state for president over Douglas understanding of the debates by focusing two years later with a virtually identical Those Americans who follow presidential on that election. He gives us the political popular vote because Illinois’ electoral politics know that Abraham Lincoln once culture of economically troubled antebel- votes were distributed in a different way debated Stephen Douglas in a series lum Illinois, whose poorer white voters that now favored Lincoln. remembered as the paradigm of that form feared competition with freed slaves for Guelzo also discusses alternative evi- of political discourse. In the introduction land and jobs, and the campaign strategies dence that suggests the debates did influ- to his new study of these debates, howev- of each side. Thus he reconstructs a polit- ence Lincoln’s defeat. Republicans were unpopular in heavily Whig central Illinois, whose moderate Unionist voters considered them too close to abolitionists. Lincoln lost this swing area in both 1858 and 1860. In fact, Guelzo reveals that Lincoln’s famous “House Divided” acceptance speech to the Republican State DIRECTOR FOR TRANSITION Convention in June, 1858, was delivered YEAR EXPERIENCE against the wishes of advisors who feared it would unsettle traditional Whigs. A reluc- Fordham University's Office of Student Leadership and Community Development, located at our Rose Hill campus, is currently seeking a Director of Transition Year Experience to oversee all first year tant Lincoln, however, later had to accept experience and orientation activities and programs. Responsibilities will include supervising the direction of the Republican State orientation programs for first-year and transfer students; serving as liaison between the Academic Deans, Undergraduate Admissions and the Division of Student Affairs regarding first year experience Committee that he debate Douglas, again and orientation programs; supervising Orientation Coordinators and volunteer Orientation Leaders; in hopes of reassuring the Whigs. facilitating the continuing development of a comprehensive curriculum for the First Year Experience seminar; and other duties related to all aspect of the First Year Experience program. You will also Guelzo’s attentiveness to voting records participate in long-term planning related to the Division of Student Affairs strategic Planning process, shows definitively that this strategy failed as well as support all programs and services offered by the Office of Student Leadership and Community Development, and assist with night and weekend programming supervision as needed. in essential districts. Qualified candidates must have a Bachelor's degree; a Master's degree in student personnel At this point a flaw in the book administration,higher education,counseling or education is strongly preferred.Must be a strong leader becomes troublesome. Guelzo despises with authentic passion for the work of Student Affairs and the creation of a strong campus culture in the Jesuit Catholic tradition. Must possess excellent written/verbal communication skills, strong Douglas, whom he regards as the proto- organizational skills,and attention to detail involving staff and resource management,budget allocation type of the pandering politician, eager to and program advisement. 3-5 years full-time experience in New Student Orientation, program assume that whatever was popular with advisement or event management, a background in student development, and an understanding of the tenets of Jesuit Catholic higher education are required. the electorate was ethical, in contrast to For more information about our program, please visit www.fordham.edu/orientrh Lincoln’s stand for principle. In fact, We offer a competitive salary and benefits package, including tuition remission.To apply,please submit Guelzo describes the Lincoln Memorial as a letter of interest, resume and three professional references to: Jennifer Mussi, Ph.D, Assistant Dean for Student Leadership & Community Development a rebuke to the United States Capitol, OFFICE OF STUDENT LEADERSHIP & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT which has been made a memorial to McGinley Center, Room 204, Bronx, New York 10458 Fax: 718-817-4375 • Email: [email protected] Douglas by the antics of our recent FORDHAM UNIVERSITY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION INSTITUTION. Congresses. This bias prevents Guelzo

26 America September 1, 2008 from considering what was compelling to niques. He puts us inside each campaign. encouraging sign for the American politi- some voters about the doctrine Douglas He does not neglect the well-known con- cal system. The immortality of the defended in the debates—popular tent of the debates, but he also shows how debates, though, may not be due only to sovereignty. much of what was said and done by both Lincoln’s reminder that government Douglas believed that individual ter- camps was determined by the proximate should promote what is right, but also to ritories should choose for themselves goal of winning an election rather than a Douglas’s reminder that a democracy whether to enter the Union as slave states desire to speak to the ages. needs a legally respectable process for or free states, while Lincoln wanted to That the Lincoln-Douglas debates determining a true majority vote. restrict slavery to the territories in which became immortal despite that is an Thomas Murphy it already existed. Their different ways of reading the Constitution resulted in con- trasting positions. Douglas read the Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Matt Malone, S.J., discuss E.J. Dionne's Constitution literally: it must approve of Souled Out, at americamagazine.org/connects. the slavery it permitted. Lincoln felt that the moral principles expressed in the Constitution were most important: it contained an underlying spirit of equality What Do Catholics that should be taken as a sign that the document was meant to produce a grad- Think About... ual end of slavery. History shows the tri- A Lecture Series for 21st Century Catholics in Every Pew and Aisle umph of Lincoln’s approach; but if Sponsored by The College of St. Scholastica’s Braegelman Catholic Studies Program Guelzo really wishes to recapture the mood of 1858, he should consider that Fall 2008 moderate Whig voters, more concerned Monday, Sept. 15 “What Do Catholics Think About… The Eucharist: Are You What You Eat?” with saving the Union than abolishing Father Michael Joncas from the Department of Catholic Studies slavery, likely found Douglas’s more cau- and the Department of Theology at the University of St. Thomas tious reading of the Constitution to be a 7 p.m., Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel safer course. Thursday, Sept. 25 “What Do Catholics Think About… The Consistent Ethic of Life and Guelzo’s dislike of Douglas may also Chronic Hunger?” Dr. Lee Stuart from The Hunger Project, a global, strategic have led him to ignore an episode in which organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger Douglas may have indeed stood for prin- 7 p.m., Somers Lounge ciple. In Kansas territory, the popular Thursday, Oct. 9 “What Do Catholics Think About… Faithful Voting?” sovereignty doctrine had brought about a A panel including: bloody insurrection in which pro- and Toby Pearson, executive director, Catholic Health Association-Minnesota Patrice Critchley-Menor, Department of Social Apostolate and antislavery factions produced rival state Campaign for Human Development, Diocese of Duluth constitutions. Late in 1857, President Kathy Langer, director of Social Concerns, Diocese of St. Cloud James Buchanan endorsed the proslavery Steve O’Neill, St. Louis County Commissioner Lecompton Constitution. Douglas dis- 7 p.m., Somers Lounge agreed, arguing that Lecompton was not Wednesday, Nov. 12 “What Do Catholics Think About… Cultivating a Spirituality of the legitimate product of a majority of Christian Marriage in North American Culture?” Dr. Richard R. Gaillardetz, the Margaret and Thomas Murray Kansas voters. Buchanan’s response allows and James J. Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Guelzo to discuss another lost aspect of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio the American political system—the com- 3 p.m., Somers Lounge plete control of federal patronage that the “What Do Catholics Think About… Becoming a Community of president enjoyed before the civil service Holy Conversation?” Dr. Richard R. Gaillardetz system was introduced in the 1880s. 7 p.m., Somers Lounge Buchanan set out to punish and unseat Douglas by his control of this spoils sys- Thursday, Dec. 11 “What Do Catholics Think About… Mary in the Americas?” Brother Mark McVann, F.S.C., professor of Theology and tem, nearly costing the latter his Senate Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s College of California, and a seat. Guelzo dismisses this episode as graduate of the former Duluth Cathedral High School nothing more than an example of 7 p.m., Somers Lounge Douglas’s love of a political gamble, but perhaps some voters took it as an admirable attempt to defend the lawful Open to the public. Admission is free. exercise of majority rule. Admirers of Theodore H. White’s For more information call Barb LeGarde at (218) 733-2287 1200 Kenwood Ave. Making of the Presidents series will recog- www.css.edu Duluth, MN 55811-4199 nize in Guelzo many of the same tech- An equal opportunity educator and employer.

September 1, 2008 America 27 Classified in financial management and institutional DIRECTOR OF LOYOLA RETREAT HOUSE, advancement is also necessary. Salary is competi- Faulkner, Md.: Responsible for operating L.R.H. tive and commensurate with experience. as an apostolate of the Maryland Province of the Education Interested and qualified candidates are asked Society of Jesus. Includes hiring and supervision of OBLATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY offers an M.A. to submit electronically a letter of introduction, a professional retreat staff; oversight of housekeep- degree in spirituality. Regular semester and inter- résumé, a statement concerning the significance ing and food service; management of facilities and session courses. Visit www.ost.edu. and importance of Catholic education for Pre- grounds; supervision of business and finance office; K–12 young women, as well as the names, leadership in communications, marketing and addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail address- development. Catholic candidates with solid expe- Parish Missions es of five professional references to Academy of rience in administration and management plus INSPIRING, DYNAMIC PREACHING: parish mis- the Holy Names, Campus President Search, familiarity with Ignatian spirituality desired. sions, retreats, days of recollection. www.sab- Catholic School Management, Inc., Attn: Lois K. Director reports to the Board of Directors. bathretreats.org. Draina, at [email protected]. Administrator of Ignatian Spirituality Programs on Review of applications will begin Sept. 1, 2008, staff reports to Director. Position begins July 1, Pilgrimage and continue until the position is filled. 2009. Send letter of interest (including salary VISIT BIBLICAL SITES and meet local Christians expectations) and résumé to: Search Committee, in the Holy Land. Small groups. Private rooms DIRECTOR, Diocesan Human Rights Office. The L.R.H. Board of Directors, c/o J. F. O’Connell, with bath in Christian guesthouses. Join a pil- Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, through the 4501 Connecticut Ave., NW, Ste. 316, grimage in November, January or March. Ask work of our Human Rights Office, is engaged in Washington, DC; e-mail: [email protected]. about other dates and programs tailored for your educational initiatives and other activities promot- group. E-mail: [email protected]; Ph: ing economic and racial justice, peace and human FULL-TIME DIRECTOR, Office of Youth and (415) 452-9634 (Pacific Time); www.HolyLand- rights in accord with Catholic social justice teach- Young Adult Ministries. The Director initiates, Institute.org. ing. We are seeking a skilled and inspiring leader develops, oversees and facilitates various pro- with a passion for the church’s social doctrine and grams and services that represent the essential justice to serve as the Diocesan Director of components and vision of youth and young adult Positions Human Rights. The selected individual must be ministry today. The Director supports pastors and CAMPUS MINISTRY, Priest Chaplain and an active, practicing Catholic who supports the their parishes in carrying out their responsibilities Coordinator of Liturgy (part time). Saint Joseph authentic magisterium and is ready to work with to meet the pastoral and formational needs of the College, West Hartford, Conn., seeks a Roman other agencies and offices of the church for an young church in the church of South Jersey. Catholic priest with a commitment to women’s integrated approach to charity, human rights and Candidates must hold an M.A. in theology, issues and a collaborative approach to ministry to advocacy for justice. pastoral ministry, religious studies or related guide all aspects of campus liturgies and to sup- Qualifications for this position include a mas- field, including a certificate in youth ministry port the Director of Campus Ministry to promote ter’s in theology, social sciences, public health, (preferred); be a practicing Roman Catholic; the spiritual growth of students, faculty and staff social work, or a law degree and/or at least five have sufficient years of formation experience of all faith traditions by providing an atmosphere years of program or executive work experience; with youth and young adult ministries; possess in which all members of the community can cele- knowledge of Catholic theology and social doc- strong leadership, organizational and excellent brate, explore and act on their faith. Part time trine; demonstrated commitment to human rights communication skills; and be experienced in during 10-month academic year. A full descrip- issues aligned with the Catholic Church; proven working with professional and volunteer staff. tion of responsibilities and qualifications is avail- community organizing and leadership skills; Experience with creating and monitoring bud- able in staff positions at www.sjc.edu/jobs. Please strong written and verbal communication, inter- gets is also preferred. send résumé by e-mail to [email protected]. An personal and relational skills; staff management Please submit a statement of interest with EOE/M/F/D/V employer. experience; public advocate and spokesperson experience and qualifications, plus your own experience; skilled at building bridges between vision statement for youth and young adult min- CAMPUS PRESIDENT. Academy of the Holy diverse groups. For a complete job description, istries, to: Diocese of Camden, Office of Lifelong Names, Albany, N.Y. Building on 125 years of please visit our Web site at www.diocese-kcsj.org. Formation, 631 Market Street, Camden, NJ tradition in academic excellence and commitment The diocese offers a generous benefit package and 08102; fax: (856) 225-0096; e-mail: rquinn@cam- to single-gender education, Academy of the Holy competitive salary. For immediate consideration, dendiocese.org. Names, Albany, N.Y. (www.ahns.org), is seeking a please forward your résumé to: stucinski@dioce- Campus President who will lead with vision and sekcsj.org. HEAD OF SCHOOL. Marian High School, a enthusiasm. This Catholic Pre-K–12 school com- vibrant and growing Catholic college preparato- munity, capable of educating over 500 young DIRECTOR OF CAMPUS MINISTRY. Reporting to ry secondary school for young women founded women, was founded and is sponsored by the the President of Saint Joseph College, West by the Servants of Mary and located in Omaha, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. The Hartford, Conn., the individual in this position Neb. (www.marianhighschool.net), is seeking a successful applicant will be responsible for contin- develops and sustains a faith community that is committed and visionary Head of School start- uing strong academic and faith formation pro- centered on the human and religious dimension ing July 1, 2009. The successful applicant will grams for young women from early childhood of the lives of all members of the Saint Joseph possess strong communication and leadership through high school, promoting a strong institu- College community. The successful candidate skills and will be responsible for continuing tional advancement program, continuing and will be an active Catholic with a master of divin- strong traditions of excellence in academics, enhancing strategic planning, providing oversight ity or master’s degree in religious studies/theol- faith formation, empowerment of young of financial matters and building productive rela- ogy; with five or more years of campus or pas- women, relationship building and institutional tionships with stakeholders. An applicant must toral ministry; and knowledge of student devel- advancement. Applicants must possess the mini- possess the minimum of a master’s degree in edu- opment, including spiritual development, at the mum of a master’s degree in educational admin- cation or related field, be a person of the Catholic higher education level. For a full description of istration or related field, the ability to obtain faith, demonstrate successful experience in the position and qualifications, please refer to appropriate licensure, successful Catholic school Catholic, public or independent school adminis- staff positions at www.sjc.edu/jobs. Please send administrative experience (secondary level pre- tration, and make evident a commitment to cover letter and résumé by e-mail to [email protected]. ferred) and demonstrate a commitment to Catholic education for young women. Expertise EOE/M/F/D/V. Catholic secondary education for young women.

28 America September 1, 2008 Salary competitive and commensurate with Letters experience. Interested and qualified candidates are asked to submit electronically a letter of intro- Taking Risks women experiencing all manner of crises. duction; résumé; the names, addresses, tele- As a woman religious and former mem- In doing so, I have learned that being phone numbers and e-mail addresses of five pro- ber of a formation team, I read truly pro-life encompasses more than fessional references; and a statement addressing “Religious Life in the Age of Facebook,” opposition to abortion. We must also the significance and importance of Catholic secondary schools for young women to: Marian by Richard G. Malloy, S.J. (7/7), with give voice to working single mothers, High School—Head of School Search, Catholic interest. I have had a number of experi- mothers who are incarcerated and fami- School Management, Inc., Attn: Lois K. Draina, ences where hundreds of young adults of lies who make choices you or I consider at [email protected]. Review of diverse backgrounds immersed them- less than ideal. applications will begin Sept. 1, 2008, and contin- selves in a communal setting where they It is my sincere hope that the future ue until the position is filled. Interviews are participated in prayer, meditation, of the pro-life movement includes sup- scheduled for mid-October, 2008. healthy nutrition and awareness of the port for more pro-family public policies Retreats earth. Unfortunately, it is the secular that, long after a child’s birth, continually institutes that seem to be drawing the reaffirm a woman’s (or couple’s) decision BETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, Ind., offers private and individually directed silent young by offering them the opportunity to parent. We cannot achieve and main- retreats, including Ignatian 30 days, year-round of a collective transformative experience tain a culture of life if we fail to prioritize in a prayerful home setting. Contact Joyce Diltz, through meaningful spiritual practices. support for families once the baby is P.H.J.C.; (219) 398-5047; bethanyrh@sbcglob- Perhaps we would see a turnaround if born. Comprehensive pro-life public pol- al.net; www.bethanyretreathouse.org. all involved with recruiting new members icy should follow families out the hospital would risk creating different spiritual doors, through graduation and beyond. BETHANY SPIRITUALITY CENTER, Highland practices of a multiethnic nature honor- Erin Grip Brown Mills, N.Y., offers the following fall retreats: Austin, Tex. “Your Story, Sacred Story,” with Margaret Silf, ing the evolution of a diverse culture’s Sept. 26-28; “Dreaming, Desiring, Despairing, way of prayer. There are many ways to Discerning, Discovering...,” with Margaret Silf, pray. Can we risk believing in God’s Hold the Applause Sept. 29-Oct. 3; “Open Your Heart...Transform imagination for the future? In “Parsing Race and Gender” (7/21), Loss...Enjoy New Freedom in Later Life,” with Also, a minor quibble. In discussing Terry Golway suggests there may be Ann Billard, O.L.M., Nov. 16-20. Private and religious orders, Malloy comments on some validity to the suggestion that directed retreats are also available. Please visit “sensitive issues concerning race and Catholics voted for Hillary Clinton in the www.bethanyspiritualitycenter.org or call (845) primaries because of their familiarity with 460-3061. class.” However, I missed the inclusion of the priesthood in his mention of the “L. women holding positions of leadership Translator L. Bean” lifestyles of men religious, and within the Catholic Church in the SPANISH TRANSLATOR, Luis Baudry, specialized would expand this to include the high- United States. But it can just as easily be in Catholic matters (Bible, spirituality, ministry, end rectories, homes and cars of some stated that women have not been given etc.). Books, articles and Web sites. Ph: (646) priests. Yes, I agree, many of us are any- leadership opportunities in the church, as 257-4165, or [email protected]. thing but countercultural. So why would the ordination of women and the role of a young adult “give it all up” when in lay women remain unresolved, con- Wills some cases, one received more than one tentious issues. Please remember America in your will. Our left in a previous life? If we expect the Perhaps Catholics voted for Clinton legal title is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th young to be attracted to our lifestyle, do not because they are accustomed to see- Street, New York, NY 10019. we need to clean up our act regarding the ing women in positions of power, but sexism in the church and the lifestyles of because they are unaccustomed to seeing AMERICA CLASSIFIED. Classified advertisements those who profess to give up all to follow persons of color in positions of power. are accepted for publication in either the print ver- Christ? Historically, the Catholic Church has sion of America or on our Web site, www.ameri- Lillian Needham, S.S.J. maintained a fairly homogenous mix of camagazine.org. Ten-word minimum. Rates are Chestnut Hill, Pa. followers, with exceptions and advances per word per issue. 1-5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 12-23 times: $1.23; 24-41 times: $1.17; made within the past 10 years because of an influx of immigrants. But its leader- 42 times or more: $1.12. For an additional $30, Outside the Hospital Doors your print ad will be posted on America’s Web site ship base continues to reflect its history, for one week. The flat rate for a Web-only classified As a pro-life twentysomething woman, I with white males primarily holding posi- ad is $150 for 30 days. Ads may be submitted by e- deeply appreciated the articles by tions of power. Instead of heralding the mail to: [email protected]; by fax to Jennifer Fulwiler (“A Sexual Revolution,” church for creating “familiarity” with (928) 222-2107; by postal mail to: Classified 7/7) and Shannon Crounse (“Cheering women in power, we should be asking Department, America, 106 West 56th St., New for Change,” 7/7). Through my profes- why it has failed to establish total gender York, NY 10019. To post a classified ad online, go sional career as a service provider for to our home page and click on “Advertising” at the and racial equality in positions of leader- top of the page. We do not accept ad copy over the homeless people and my parish involve- ship in the church. phone. MasterCard and Visa accepted. For more ment as a Gabriel Project volunteer, I Clare Greene information call: (212) 515-0102. have had the opportunity to work with Catonsville, Md.

September 1, 2008 America 29 Letters

Golden Age the Catholic faith since the 16th century. it affirms autonomy over and above the Congratulations to James T. Keane, S.J., When Ivereigh suggests that the cri- primacy of a faith and order through the for his review of Ron Hansen’s extraordi- sis is ecclesiological, not doctrinal, he is ministry of a formal college/synod of nary novel Exiles (7/7). With Mariette in fundamentally correct. But when one bishops. Ecstasy and Atticus, Hansen revealed that peels the skins of the ecclesiological It is clear from the events at Lambeth he is a gifted creator of that much-dis- crises within Anglicanism, one discovers that the covenant lacks the significance cussed entity, “the Catholic novel.” the crisis has spread to missiology and and substance to unify Anglicanism. The Reflecting on Hansen’s work, recent nov- doctrine. Catholic tradition East and West has for els by Alice McDermott, Mary Gordon, When one examines the process of ages called for a college of bishops in Peter Quinn and Anne Rice and the discernment and decisions in synod to embody and act as the expres- prodigious output of Andrew Greeley Anglicanism, one discovers that concil- sion of the church’s unity. It is very sig- and Ralph McInerny, I wonder if we are iarity in the church came to an end nificant, however, that whenever and witnessing an American Catholic when Henry Tudor suspended both wherever the federated view of “canonical renascence in literature reminiscent of canon law and conciliar precedent and subordinationism” occurs in Anglican that in Europe in the 1940s and 50s, as entrusted ecclesial governance to the conversations, the idea of the Catholic evidenced by the novels of Graham crown and Privy Council in consultation unity dissipates and the possibilities for Greene, Evelyn Waugh, François with the bishops of England. The conciliar resolution fade. Mauriac and Georges Bernanos. church lost a crucial dimension of its Ever since the Council of Jerusalem (Rev.) Robert E. Lauder heritage, and Anglicanism was set on a (Acts 15), the churches have realized the Jamaica, N.Y. course for governance that has set the need to express and strengthen their framework for the present global crisis koinonia by coming together to discuss Councils, Not Covenants of faith and authority. Without the clear matters of mutual concern and to meet Thanks to Austen Ivereigh for his connections to a canonical and conciliar contemporary challenges to the faith. thoughtful and comprehensive article on tradition that is historic, the fundamental Early in the history of the church, a the state of Anglicanism (“For the Sake of form and expression that has been pro- function of oversight of the other bishops Unity,” 8/4). These are perhaps the most moted is one of a covenant. Sadly, a of their regions was assigned to bishops crucial days in the life of this expression of covenant does not breed unity, because of prominent sees. One of their duties was to keep the churches faithful to the America will of Christ. This practice has continued to the present day but not in TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW Anglicanism, as it lacks the effective ❑ New subscription ❑ Renewal structures. Yearly rates are $48 for each subscription. Add $22 for postage, handling and GST on This form of episkope is a service to Canadian orders. Add $32 for foreign sub- the church carried out in co-responsibili- scriptions. Payment in U.S. funds only. ty with all the bishops of the region. All ❑ Payment enclosed ❑ Bill me recognize that every bishop receives at On occasion America gives permission to other organizations to use our list for pro- ordination both responsibility for his motional purposes. If you do not want to receive these promotions, contact our List local church and the obligation to main- Manager at our New York offices. tain it in living awareness and practical service of the other churches. The church W706 FOR of God is found in each of them and in CHANGE OF their koinonia. ADDRESS As it was then, it should be now. The AND calling of a council is perhaps the most RENEWAL: historic and hopeful prospect for Please attach the Anglicanism. mailing label from (Rev.) Kevin Francis Donlon the front cover Tampa, Fla. when writing about service or change of address. America (ISSN 0002-7049) is published weekly (except for 11 com- Allow 3 to 4 bined issues: Jan. 7-14, 21-28, March 31-April 7, May 26-June 2, June 9-16, 23-30, July 7-14, 21-28, Aug. 4-11, 18-25, Dec. 22-29) weeks for change by America Press, Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019. of address to take Periodicals postage is paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing effect. Thank you. offices. Business Manager: Lisa Pope; Circulation: Judith Palmer,

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30 America September 1, 2008 Forgiven and Reconciled Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), Sept. 7, 2008 Readings: Ez 33:7-9; Ps 95:1-2, 6-9; Rom 13:8-10; Mt 18:15-20 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone” (Mt 18:15)

ODAY’S SCRIPTURE readings like what we today might call revolve around the themes of an intervention. If that does sin, repentance, forgiveness not succeed, then you should and reconciliation. They tell the whole community. Tremind us that there is always hope, even And if that does not succeed, at our most sinful moments and even for the sinner should be cut off (in what we the most sinful persons we may encounter might regard as excommunication). But give those who trespass against us.” That (especially those whom we may know and even this extreme measure seems to have statement suggests a causal relationship love). been intended to shock the sinner into between our experience of forgiveness Today’s responsorial psalm (Psalm 95) recognition, bring about repentance and from God and our willingness to forgive alludes to ancient Israel’s murmuring foster reconciliation. others. In reciting this prayer we pledge ART BY TAD DUNNE against God and their idolatry in the A similar three-step process was used ourselves to be participants in the dynam- wilderness at the time of Moses. Even by the Jewish group that gave us the ic of repentance, forgiveness and reconcil- though God had freed them from slavery Dead Sea Scrolls. We can suppose that iation. If we have experienced this our- in Egypt and cared for them as they wan- other Jewish communities and other selves, we have the obligation to extend it dered in the wilderness, these people nev- early Christian communities did some- with regard to others. It is part of loving ertheless tested God and rebelled against thing like what the Matthean communi- our neighbor. him. Their sin became, for many biblical ty did. The three-step process itself is Paul’s instruction in Romans 13 about writers, the archetypal sin. (See Hebrews not what is especially important. What is love of neighbor and fulfilling the Old 3–4 for an extensive early Christian appli- important is the dynamic that was Testament law indicates that loving the cation of Psalm 95.) behind it. The dynamic is one that can neighbor may prompt us to confront The reading from Ezekiel 33 concerns move from sin to repentance, forgiveness someone close to us who is clearly doing the prophet’s duty to warn the sinners and reconciliation. things that are harmful or sinful. among God’s people. The reason why the This dynamic reminds us that sin is Echoing the second part of the double prophet should do so is to bring the peo- always a possibility (as Paul indicates in love commandment taught by Jesus, Paul ple to their senses and make them con- Romans 7), and that even very good per- contends that if we really love our neigh- front their sins. The hope is that they will sons can fall into bad habits and be over- bor as set out in Lev 19:18, then we will turn from those sins and be forgiven by whelmed by them. Nevertheless, a descent not commit adultery, murder, steal or God and be reconciled with God. into evildoing need not be irreparable or covet another’s property. That is what The passage from Matthew 18 fatal. Moreover, the three-step process Paul means when he declares that love is describes the process by which a sinner suggests that loving our neighbor may the fulfillment of the Law. Today’s read- might be reconciled to God and to the entail at times our calling to account the ings suggest that at times love may require Christian community. There are three neighbor or loved one who sins. an extraordinary willingness and capacity steps. If someone sins (not all manuscripts The goal of the entire process is not to forgive others and to help them turn include “against you”), you should first condemnation but restoration. To be for- from their evil ways. confront that person and point out the given and reconciled, however, demands Daniel J. Harrington fault. If that does not succeed, the second that one recognize the enormity of sin and step is to take one or two others along with repent of it. This is where hope comes in. Praying With Scripture you so that all of you might bear witness to From a Christian perspective, there is the sinner’s fault. This sounds something always hope for ourselves and for even the • Have you ever participated in an worst sinners. Through God’s grace we intervention? What happened? DANIEL J. HARRINGTON, S.J., is professor of can repent, be forgiven and be reconciled • What is the goal of the three-step New Testament at Boston College School of to God and to our community. process outlined in Matthew 18? Theology and Ministry in Chestnut Hill, When we recite the Lord’s Prayer, we • Can you imagine calling a sinner to Mass. say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we for- account as an act of love?

September 1, 2008 America 31