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OF MANY THINGS 106 West 56th Street n my desk at America Media The United States was their life raft on a New York, NY 10019-3803 Ph: (212) 581-4640; Fax: (212) 399-3596 headquarters sits a sealed sinking ship. Subscriptions: (800) 627-9533 glass bowl containing some The second thing to notice is the www.americamedia.org O facebook.com/americamag close connection between the faith and dark, hardened soil from the tract of twitter.com/americamag land my family tilled for more than two Irish culture. The Irish experience, of centuries in County Galway, Ireland. course, had been forged in a crucible of PRESIDENT AND EDITOR IN CHIEF This is unsurprising, I suppose. When hardship, starvation and war. For the Matt Malone, S.J. EXECUTIVE EDITORS I try to count back through my 13 Irish people, the cross of Jesus Christ Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy predecessors as editor in chief, I figure stood at the center of that history. For MANAGING EDITOR Kerry Weber just over three-fourths of them were centuries Ireland had united her struggle LITERARY EDITOR Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. Irish by descent. (Typically, as I was to the cross of our Lord, drawing from SENIOR EDITOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT composing the list with a colleague one his passion the strength, the courage, Kevin Clarke night at one of the weathered, wooden the hope to endure. Downtrodden and EDITOR AT LARGE James Martin, S.J. EXECUTIVE EDITOR, AMERICA FIlmS tables at McSorely’s Old Ale House in alienated from herself, Ireland placed her Jeremy Zipple, S.J. Manhattan, a nearby wit with a heavy desperate faith in the crucified one, the POETRY EDITOR Joseph Hoover, S.J. brogue suggested that we eliminate stone that the builders rejected, which ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND VATICAN CORRESPONDENT those Jesuits with obvious Italian had become the cornerstone. Thus, with Gerard O’Connell surnames, like Tierney and O’Hare.) their eyes firmly fixed on the hope of SENIOR EDITOR Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. ENGAGEMENT AND COmmUNITY EDITOR Those Jesuit editors, of course, heaven, a long-suffering people came to Elizabeth Tenety were always great sympathizers with believe in the promise of a new Earth. ASSOCIATE EDITORS Ashley McKinless, Olga the cause of Irish independence and The third thing to notice is Segura, Sam Sawyer, S.J. ASSISTANT EDITORS Francis W. Turnbull, S.J., with the plight of Irish immigrants. something many of us still feel today—a Joseph McAuley They were, to a man, great believers in terrible nostalgia for the old country, ART DIRECTOR Sonja Kodiak Wilder the destiny of the Irish people, which for home. It reminds us that in its true EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Zachary Davis included those here in the American meaning—from the Greek—nostalgia SUmmER INTERNS Abbey Guerino, Robert diaspora, those who have now made does not mean sentimentality about McCarthy COLUMNISTS Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., such lasting contributions to the the past, but longing for a place—the Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. political, ecclesial and cultural life of old country, the auld sod. So many Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, this country. mentions of Ireland in the pages of Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider, Robert David Sullivan That much seems obvious, but there America make it clear that while many CORRESPONDENTS John Carr (Washington), An- are several other interesting things Irish-Americans had bid farewell to the thony Egan, S.J., and Russell Pollitt, S.J. (Johannes- to note when viewing the literally old country, they had never really left burg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy Padgett (Miami), Steven Schwankert (Beijing), hundreds of articles this magazine it behind—not just because they were David Stewart, S.J. (London), Judith Valente published, even counting only those always getting letters asking if maybe the (Chicago) between 1910 and 1930, about Ireland American cousin couldn’t spare a few MODERATOR, CATHOLIC BOOK CLUB and the so-called Irish question. quid. Kevin Spinale, S.J. EDITOR, THE JESUIT POST Michael Rossmann, S.J. With Ireland now part of the The first is to notice something that EDITORIAL E-MAIL we forget—that even if things were European Union and with the ease of [email protected] not as bad as they had been during travel to the continent and even back PUblISHER AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Edward the Famine or other periods of Irish and forth with the United States, what G. Spallone. DEPUTY PUblISHER Rosa M. Del Saz. VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADVANCEMENT Daniel Pawlus. history, the country was still terribly is most interesting is to go back to the ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Chris Keller. DEVEL- poor in those years. Eight hundred stories of those years in the early life OpmENT COORDINATOR Kerry Goleski. BUSINESS OPERATIONS STAFF Glenda Castro, Katy Zhou, years of occupation cannot be undone of America magazine—the magazine Frankarlos Cruz. ADVERTISING CONTACT ads@ in just a few decades. Ireland was rural, was founded just seven years before americamedia.org; (212) 515-0102. SUBSCRIPTION the country was impoverished and a the Easter Rising—and hear firsthand CONTACT/ADDITIONAL COPIES subscriptions@ americamedia.org; (800) 627-9533 significant portion of the country’s the stories that today might be only population was living in New York. echoes, but that might also provide a © 2015 America Press Inc. Reading these articles, one is reminded useful point of reference for those of us Cover: Immigrants wait to file paperwork for that this was a time when subsistence or who are debating how to welcome the consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals outside the Coalition for Humane Immi- something slightly above it was all that huddled masses who arrived only this grant Rights in Los Angeles in 2012. CNS photo/ the average Irishman could hope for. morning. MATT MALONE, S.J. Michael Nelson, EPA Contents www.americamagazine.org VOL. 213 NO. 4, WHOLE NO. 5097 AUGUST 17-24, 2015 ARTICLES 14 LIFE CYCLES Understanding the connections between the land and the body Marc Barnes 20 SURVIVING IN AMERICA Race, assimilation and 19th-century Catholic immigrants To m D e ig nan 25 RELATIONAL ECOLOGY Thomas Aquinas and the metaphysical connection Brad Rothrock 29 SOMEWHERE, A UNICORN Missionary notes from the 17th century Edward W. Schmidt 14 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial Selling the Unborn 6 Reply All 8 Signs of the Times 12 Column Diplomacy Deficit Margot Patterson 32 Vatican Dispatch Man of the People Gerard O’Connell 33 Faith in Focus The Very Gate of Heaven Karen Beattie American Idyll Eric Anglada 20 45 The Word Subjects, Not Objects; Just Do It John W. Martens BOOKS & CULTURE 37 IDEAS The theology of Louis C.K. POEM On the New Physics OF OTHER THINGS Freeing the Sacred Self BOOKS Eugene O’Neill; Thomas Cromwell; Are Non-Christians Saved? ON THE WEB Joan E. Denton looks at the place of science and creation in the Bible. Plus, Arthur Fitzmaurice offers a video reflection on the response of L.G.B.T. Catholics to Pope Francis. Full digital highlights on page 18 and at americamagazine.org/ webfeatures. 37 CURRENT COMMENT Deal-Breakers in Congress the Central Intelligence Agency. Human Rights Watch The longest-serving Jewish member of the House of called the policy a positive step, but called on the United Representatives, Sander Levin, Democrat of Michigan. States to embrace a “permanent, comprehensive ban“ as we on July 28 threw his support behind the Obama work toward a legally binding global convention against administration’s nuclear accord with Iran. That should fully autonomous weapons. be enough to give the Iran deal a chance to get through If preventing a nuclear Iran seems a herculean task, the Washington gantlet. With other negotiation partners stemming the proliferation of “killer robots”—easier hopeful now that a workable plan on Iranian nuclear to replicate and harder to monitor than uranium enrichment has been reached, a repudiation of the accord enrichment—will be all but impossible. Further, as in Congress would confirm the United States as the Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s permanent unreasonable aggressor in the stand-off with Iran, and with observer to the United Nations, said in an address on the good reason. topic, “The encounter with the face of another is one of the While some in Congress are legitimately skeptical fundamental experiences that awaken moral consciousness of the deal, many more did not even bother to read it and responsibility.” By putting ever greater psychic and before attacking it, picking up a well-worn script and physical distance between the two sides, these weapons knuckling under to pressure from lobbyists who refuse create the illusion of surgical warfare while dehumanizing to acknowledge the net positives the deal offers both the killer and victim alike. United States and its ally Israel. Many of those in Congress and the U.S. media who would kill the Iran accord are the Climate Talk in 2016 same people who glibly supported the ruinous intervention On August 3, President Obama announced a new Clean in Iraq. Now they seem all too willing to block a diplomatic Power Plan, aiming to reduce the United States’ carbon course that offers some hope for long-term peace and dioxide emissions by 32 percent by 2030. Responses to improved security in the region. climate change are also shaping up to become a key issue in Those who are eager to break the Iran deal should the 2016 elections, as Democratic candidates are arguing answer one simple question: What is the alternative? There over whose clean energy proposals are bold enough to be is no “better deal” on any reasonable horizon.