How Do Bishops Decide When to Speak? an Exclusive Excerpt from a New Report

NOVEMBER 26, 2018 THE JESUIT REVIEW OF FAITH AND CULTURE 2018 CPA MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR How Do Bishops Decide When to Speak? An exclusive excerpt from a new report

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2 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 3 America’s (Un)Civil War

The genius of the American founders said about a journalist. “She doesn’t It is unlikely that Mr. Trump will lay in their ability to design institutions know what the hell she’s doing…. But change his ways. But we can—if we that would call forth the best in a fallen she’s very nasty. And she shouldn’t be. want to. I fear that too many of us, humanity while containing the worst. She shouldn’t be. You’ve got to treat while loudly complaining about the The separation of powers in the U.S. the White House and the office of the polarization and coarseness in our Constitution, novel for its time, is a presidency with respect.” public discourse, quietly rather enjoy good example of this theo-political That last bit is true. But the it, even if only subconsciously. Deep balancing act: No single person can president should be treated with down in places we don’t like to talk be trusted to wield power; therefore, respect because all people should be about, we seem to get a thrill from the power must be shared among many treated with respect. That is the value politics of destruction. It makes us feel and policed by a legal system of checks that justifies civility. Embedded in the powerful, if only for a moment. Cain and balances. Yet our founders also very notion of democracy, of a free and didn’t kill Abel, after all, over a mere recognized that the U.S. Constitution fair society, is the principle that we are difference of opinion. He killed him is but one part of a larger whole called all worthy of respect or none of us is. out of jealousy, arrogance and pride. the American political economy. When challenged about his lack of So too do we. As I have previously noted in this decorum, Mr. Trump responds by Overcoming sin requires grace. space, while the United States does telling us that he is the victim of slander Our founders knew that. They did have a single document called “The and is therefore justified in employing not understand civility to be some- Constitution,” with an uppercase T and a bombastic style. People hit him, so thing like a social contract: We agree C, the American system also presumes he hits them back, his handlers tell to treat each other a certain way; and nonconstitutional values and customs us. Yet that is the moral reasoning if the other party breaks the deal, then that are just as vital, if not more vital to of a 12-year-old. Few parents would we are released from the obligation. the health of our democracy. accept the excuse “Everybody else is No, our founders understood that the Among these indispensable cus- doing it” from their children. So why duty to be civil is not rooted in social toms are decorum and civility in public do we accept this justification from custom but in the divine command to argument, which largely distinguish a the president? Why do some offer it in love one another. And God didn’t say: polity from a mere mob. A presuppo- defense of his actions? “Since some of you are not loving one sition of our political economy is that I am well aware that Mr. Trump another, all bets are off.” reasonable people can and do disagree is not the only demagogue in the God doesn’t ask us, he orders us about important public matters and country. A quick glance at my Twitter to love one another. Civility is one that they will do so through spirited feed is enough to establish that sad fact. way we carry out that command. The yet civil public argument. Americans But Mr. Trump is the only one who task of every citizen, but especially have not always been civil or decorous happens to be president of the United the Christian citizen, is to testify to with one another, of course; but until States and, as such, has a greater duty this divine command in all our public recently this was the minimal expec- than most to deploy his rhetoric with actions; to labor to build a public tation, and when one failed to meet it, prudence, decorum and moral clarity, square that calls forth the best in a some social penalty was often applied. an extra-constitutional but nonethe- fallen humanity while containing Yet the words of the previous para- less essential duty of his office, one he the worst, a place where destructive graph now seem as quaint as a telegram. consistently fails to execute. While Mr. confrontation yields to creative The public discourse has devolved to Trump is far from the only culprit in encounter, a place of true civil such an extent that the value of civility the demise of the civic discourse, he is dialogue not for the sake of one but for itself is now openly questioned as often the most visible; and, whether we like it the many. as its conventions are routinely vio- or not, he establishes the standard for lated. “You talk about somebody that’s others. As we used to say growing up on Matt Malone, S.J. a loser,” President Trump recently Cape Cod, “a fish rots from the head.” Twitter: @americaeditor.

2 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 3 THE ISSUE GIVE AND TAKE DISPATCHES FEATURES

6 12 20 YOUR TAKE MIDTERM ELECTIONS: THE BISHOPS SPEAK Does political rhetoric HISTORIC TURNOUT, How do bishops decide when incite violence? NEW DIRECTION? to discuss political issues? Results from a new survey 8 Infographic: Tracking the results of Stephen J. Fichter, Thomas P. Gaunt, OUR TAKE the November vote Catherine Hoegeman, Paul M. Perl After the midterms, the case for bipartisanship; the moral duty to Our 40-foot Lady at the border 28 fight anti-Semitism #CHURCHTOO In street protests South Africans How can the church prevent 10 demand progress clergy misconduct? SHORT TAKE Lea Karen Kivi Catholic colleges should turn Pope Francis prays for Pittsburgh and off pornography an end to anti-Semitism Patrick T. Brown

4 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP Photo Marin/Pool Ludovic

The leaders of Morocco, Germany, France, Canada, Niger and the Republic of Guinea walk toward the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as part of the commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice ending World War I, Nov. 11. THE ISSUE Cover image: iStock FAITH IN FOCUS IDEAS IN REVIEW THE WORD 34 40 50 REMEMBERING MAC THE EVOLUTION OF Do the satisfactions of your life blind My mentor was killed in a newsroom RENÉ GIRARD you to grace? massacre—and I had to cover it How one man made us think differently about religion, violence In what ways must you renew and desire yourself? VANTAGE POINT Cynthia L. Haven Michael Simone 38 BOOKS WALTER ONG ON The Collected Stories of Machado LAST TAKE MICKEY MOUSE de Assis; The Incendiaries; Fear; Oct. 4, 1941 Refuge in Hell 54 KAYA OAKES POEM CULTURE Reflections from a Catholic feminist “Bohemian Rhapsody”; “Downstate” 43 WHOSE RESOLVE, WHICH SALVATION? Joshua Wall

NOVEMBER 26, 2018 VOL. 219 NO. 12 WHOLE NO. 5205 YOUR TAKE

Does political rhetoric incite violence?

Ninety-fi ve percent of respondents toldAmerica that yes, comments about anything, but especially people, those political rhetoric can incite violence. Respondents cited who are already angry feel justifi ed in acting out on their current events as evidence for how irresponsible political negative feelings.” rhetoric can result in violence. Sixty-three percent of respondents, including Ms. “The recent pipe bombings and the murders at the Caldwell, said political rhetoric had aff ected their person- Tree of Life seem to be inspired by the appeal to violence al relationships. “I have been called a heretic, a liberal and and hatred espoused by the president,” wrote Sheila Kurtz a non-orthodox Catholic because I disagree with certain of Knoxville, Tenn. “The demonization of desperate refu- political opinions, not to mention the support of refugees, gees and sending thousands of soldiers [to the U.S.-Mexico immigrants and others,” she said. Andrea Pogan of Perrys- border] will infl ame others.” burg, Ohio, shared that her family has suff ered as the result Diane Dragonetti of New York said: “The heated polit- of political rhetoric. “I have two sons who are Trump sup- ical rhetoric is giving public permission to people to vent porters and it has strained my relationship with them. At their deepest prejudices.” She continued, “All bets are off fi rst I fought very hard to set politics aside, but one of my since the president, and others in his party, are so public in sons will not stop bringing it up around me,” said Ms. Po- their vitriol about those who don’t support their political gan. “I cannot help but feel that as a parent I have failed in agenda.” Jill Caldwell of Helena, Mont., agreed. “When a some profound way. I have decided not to spend Thanks- politician makes inappropriate, hateful and disparaging giving with them.”

Do you think today's heated political rhetoric has contributed to or could lead to violence in the United States? It’s no longer the case that our co-workers Yes 95% or friends simply have political views that differ from our own. Now their political views have become a threat to our identities, No 4% a threat to our concept of what America stands for. It seems we’ve lost the charity of the old attitude of agreeing to disagree. 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Jose Rodriguez, Santa Maria, Calif.

Has the current political rhetoric a ected your own relationships with family/friends/coworkers/neighbors? Although I am Catholic, my husband is Yes 63% Jewish. My Republican relatives used to welcome him; they now refuse to refute the hateful rhetoric coming out of the No 37% White House and have actually suggested that Jews bring the anti-Semitic violence on themselves. 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Christine C., Rochester, N.Y.

These results are based on reader responses to a poll promoted on Facebook, Twitter and in our email newsletter. Because of rounding, percentages may not add up to 100.

6 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 7 READERREADER COMMENTS COMMENTS

A Survivor’s Hope Re “Building a Future for the Church” (Our Take, 11/12): parish are now asking for a Catholic Strong fund for over Thanks to the editors for these ideas, these words, these $1.25 million for church repairs—without providing any tiny lights in the darkness all around us. This survivor was details for what items need to be repaired and at what cost. forced to leave organized religion decades ago. But all these I received my donation envelope this past week, and it will thousands of days and nights later, I still fi nd that faith, not be returned until full transparency is given. hope and love lead to the only answers currently available. Mike Macrie Fare forward, voyagers! Sheila Gray Personal Experience Re “Hungry for More,” by Liam Callanan (11/12): When my God’s Grace daughter went to college, she had previously stopped going Re “Intrusions of the Spirit,” by Jeremy McLellan (11/12): to weekend Mass at our home parish. As we were moving Thanks to Mr. McLellan for his thoughts in this article. I her into her freshman year dorm at a major university just began working as a volunteer at an equestrian riding with a very active Newman Center, I signed her up for the center for persons with disabilities; and already in my short contact list, as I knew she had no such inclination. When a time there, I see what the author speaks of and realize that representative from the Newman Center came knocking at they are all gifts God has placed in our lives to show God’s her door, she politely declined. presence and grace. Catherine Arventos Dave Koss Is the Church Declining? Far Off Broadway Re “A Church Not Divided,” by Joseph Hoover, S.J. (10/29): Re “The Troubles Bring Trouble to a Farm Family,” by Rob Brother Hoover is probably correct in saying that there Weinert-Kendt (11/12): It would be so nice if plays like Jez is no Catholic civil war, in the literal meaning of that Butterworth’s “The Ferryman” could be produced outside term. But there is large-scale secession, manifested in major cities. But that will never happen unless someone diminished attendance, diminished fi nancial support, and, adapts the script to four actors, with perhaps one or two from my local sources, diminished interest in initiating actors playing one to three roles. adults into the church (R.C.I.A.); and coming years will John Mack bring a massive demographic secession as death removes so many of our members. Clarifi cation Jerome Heavey Re “L.G.B.T. Issues Raised by Youth During Synod Easton, Pa. Discussions,” by Michael J. O’Loughlin (11/12): It is an important question that needs to be settled, but a A Diff erent Era ministry that denies the church’s longstanding teaching Re “Cardinal Ouellet Responds to Viganò Charges, Accuses on sex is no ministry at all. Whether we are talking to Him of Blasphemy,” by Gerard O’Connell (10/29): The days L.G.B.T. Catholics or young people or the remarried when prominent ecclesiastical personages could suppress or seminarians, I think the ambiguity around church criticism are now over, fortunately. The traditional posture teaching on sex is really harmful. of “You may not say anything negative about the church or Nick Heckman clergy” was in no small measure responsible for the sexual abuse scandal in the fi rst place. Waiting for Transparency Robert Dyson Re “Has the Sexual Abuse Crisis Aff ected Your Donations to the Church?” (Your Take, 11/12): After collecting donations for the bishop’s annual appeal, our diocese and

Comments drawn from our website, americamagazine.org, and America Media’s social media platforms. Letters to the editor can be sent to [email protected]. Please include the article title, author and issue date, as well as your name and where you are writing from.

6 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 7 OUR TAKE

Can the New Congress Live Up to Pope Francis’ Vision of ‘Good Politics’?

As Americans went to the polls in people died from drug overdoses in place an “undue burden” on the com- record numbers for the midterm 2017—it is an accomplishment worth pany. Ensuring basic protections for elections on Nov. 6, delivering the building on in the new year. working mothers is a small but worth- House of Representatives to the Several other legislative opportu- while step toward building the hu- Democrats and strengthening the nities stand out as ripe for bipartisan mane family leave system this country Republican hold on the Senate, the action. First, tax reform that priori- desperately needs. Vatican announced that the theme tizes working families would be a wel- Finally, while the oft-touted for Pope Francis’ 2019 World Peace come development after the 2017 tax grand bargain on infrastructure has Day message will be “good politics.” bill, the benefits of which largely went become more of a punchline than a The pope’s annual message, which is to the wealthy and corporations. Con- serious policy proposal, there is a rea- sent to national leaders around the gress should especially consider an son lawmakers and the president want world, will focus on “mutual trust” expansion of the Earned Income Tax every week to be infrastructure week. and encourage “dialogue among Credit, a tax refund that targets low- Vice President Mike Pence said in an stakeholders in society, between and moderate-income Americans and interview with The Hill on the eve of generations and among cultures.” encourages participation in the work- the election that Mr. Trump would As a country increasingly polar- force. The E.I.T.C. not only has a prov- push for an infrastructure package ized along lines of gender, race, educa- en track record of lifting people out of in the new year that includes “our tion and geography enters at least two poverty but has also long enjoyed sup- roads and bridges, and highways and years of divided government, members port from both sides of the aisle. byways, and ports and airports.” He of the 116th U.S. Congress face a choice. Next, Republicans and Demo- continued, “We think there’s an op- While partisan divisions regarding crats can come together to protect portunity to work in a bipartisan way oversight of the executive branch and working women and their unborn in the Congress of the United States to issues like immigration and abortion children by strengthening the Preg- advance that.” are likely to remain entrenched, there nancy Discrimination Act. Passed in Nancy Pelosi, the presumed lead- are other issues on which compromise 1978, the current law requires em- er of the new Democratic majority in is still achievable and where “good pol- ployers to provide special accom- the House of Representatives, has also itics” can still be practiced. modations for pregnant women only cited infrastructure as one of the most Although this fall’s campaigns de- if other workers are also entitled to promising areas of bipartisan legisla- picted opponents as existential threats similar protections. tion. “One of my themes is build, build, to the future of the republic, there was A recent investigation by The New build,” Ms. Pelosi said at an event an October surprise worth celebrating: York Times examined working condi- hosted by CNN on Oct. 22. “Build the On Oct. 6, the Senate voted 98 to 1 to tions for pregnant women at ware- infrastructure of America from sea to pass legislation aimed at confronting houses—one of the fastest-growing shining sea.” the opioid epidemic. The bill easily job markets in the country. The re- The extreme partisanship afflict- passed the House in June, 393 to 8, port chronicled a number of preg- ing U.S. politics may be made worse and was signed into law by President nant women at a single warehouse in by the perception that Washington is Trump on Oct. 24. The bill expands ac- Memphis who suffered miscarriages broken and that progress on major is- cess to addiction treatment, increases after their requests for lighter lifting sues is possible only if one’s preferred penalties for the overprescription of assignments were refused. party takes complete control of the le- painkillers and steps up enforcement A bipartisan group of 125 law- vers of power. to stop the flow of illicit drugs at the makers in the House and Senate has While compromise on the issues southern border. co-sponsored the Pregnant Workers noted here will not defuse partisan While experts say the package is Fairness Act, which would require opposition—nor should it—practical not nearly ambitious enough given the employers to accommodate pregnant legislative achievements could help enormity of the crisis—a record 72,000 women as long as doing so does not reclaim some public support for bi-

8 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG demand deeds. (No. 5).Powerful words—but words that race, color, conditionoflife,orreligion” harassment ofthembecausetheir “any discriminationagainst peopleor and we must avoid and indeed condemn has taughtsince“Nostra in1965, Aetate” mon toChristians andJews,” thechurch odious head. itism whenever andwherever itrears its Jewish neighbors, tocalloutanti-Sem- tians, have amoraldutytosupportour justifi ed.All people,butabove allChris- it isthatlookingtheother way isnever from itsown history ofanti-Semitism, violent depravity. even ifunintentionally, totheseactsof groups, whichgives encouragement, villainization ofJews andother minority fertile soil.Thismeanschallengingthe political culture inwhichtheyfi nd a that canspawn suchactsandthetoxic ideologies thederanged challenge is muchwe cando. We must directly prevent suchcrimes?Inreality, there descend onusall.Isthere any way to a feelingofhelplessnesscansometimes synagogue inPittsburgh onOct.27occur, Jewish worshippers at the Tree of Life When atrocities like themurder of11 Anti-Semitism The Moral Dutyto Fight the campaignrhetoric of2020. politics” might fi“good nd their way into be someofthoseaccomplishments partisanship and cooperation. And may- There is a“spiritualpatrimony com- If the church has learned anything SpecialAssistant to thePresident Associate Director ofAdvancement V.P. for Finance andOperations Moderator, Catholic BookClub

Director ofAdvertising Services MattMalone, S.J. President andEditor inChief Business Operations Staff Regional Correspondents Chair, Board ofDirectors Director ofAdvancement National Correspondent facebook.com/americamag New York,10036 NY New facebook.com/americamag Executive V.P. &C.O.O. Vatican Correspondent Editor, TheJesuit Post Deputy Editor inChief wte.o/mrcmg America Press Inc.d/b/a America Media©2018 twitter.com/americamag Director ofMarketing Contributing Writers Special Contributors EllenBoegel Contributing Editors Assistant Producer americamagazine.org and Editor inChief Editorial Assistant Production Editor Zachary Davis Associate Editors Assistant Editors Sam Sawyer, S.J. Executive Editors Graphic Designer Creative Director O’Hare Fellows Editor atLarge Editors Emeriti Senior Editors Poetry Editor Producer Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. ElenaTe Karina Clark,Sean Connelly, AnaNuñez, EmmaWinters Brandon Sanchez JimMcDermott,S.J. (Los Angeles) Jan-AlbertHootsen (Mexico City) Anthony Egan, S.J. (Johannesburg) Paul McNelis,S.J. Maryann CusimanoLove Adam Hincks,S.J. Patrick Gilger, S.J. Eve Tushnet Stephanie Slade NathanSchneider Oakes Kaya JimMcDermott,S.J. EileenMarkey Cecilia González-Andrieu Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry NicholeM.Flores EricSundrup, S.J. Robert David Sullivan Leopold Stuebner, S.J. OlgaSegura Ashley McKinless Edward W. Schmidt,S.J. J.D. Long-García James T. Keane Kerry Weber 1212 Avenue oftheAmericas, 11thFl. Susan S. Braddock Raymond A.Schroth, S.J. Anastasia Buraminskaya, GlendaCastro, Nicholas D. Sawicki James Cappabianca Heather Trotta Louis Cassetta Kenneth Arko Rosa M.DelSaz Ciaran Freeman Kevin Spinale, S.J. Daniel N.Gustafson, S.J. Jake Martin,S.J., Sean Salai, S.J. Ted Nadeau Dean Dettloff(Toronto) Brendan Busse, S.J. Colleen Dulle Eloise Blondiau Vivian Cabrera Joseph McAuley Gerard O’Connell Michael J.O’Loughlin Joseph Hoover, S.J. Alison Hamilton Shawn Tripoli Kevin Clarke Robert C.Collins, S.J. James Martin,S.J. Maurice Timothy Reidy NOVEMBER 26,2018AMERICA | 9

Advertising [email protected] 212.515.0126 General Inquiries 212-581-4640 Subscriptions and Additional Copies 1.800.627.9533 Reprints [email protected] Editorial Email [email protected] SHORT TAKE

Catholic colleges should turn o pornography

Despite—or perhaps because of— stead raises questions about the practi- This argument might have held its prevalence, pornography is an cality of a ban and its potential spillover more weight before we knew how easy uncomfortable topic to talk about. eff ects. How would an antiporn policy it was for a mistyped URL to bring So it is notable that 82 male students be enforced? What about threats to le- you to a bazaar of sex and nudity that (as well as a separate group of female gitimate academic research? even the most straitlaced altar server students) at the University of Notre These concerns are overstated. might have a hard time clicking away NOW MORE Dame signed their names to a letter Students who might trip the fi lter from. Particularly in the #MeToo era, in October asking the school to bar while researching sex traffi cking, Na- the assumptions and decisions made access to pornographic material on tional Geographic archives or Renais- without thinking about how we are campus internet networks. sance art could be asked to fi ll out a teaching students to view each other A fi lter to make pornography simple form and receive a research deserve more scrutiny. THAN EVER You are the mission. inaccessible on campus networks, waiver from fi ltering. (Plus, anyone Pornography teaches a person to Your support empowers us to lead the conversation they wrote, would help the university who has ever tried to stream a World view the other as an object for one’s YOU ARE THE MISSION. “send the unequivocal message that Cup game at work knows that no fi lter own sexual gratifi cation, and its val- for the church and the world. pornography is an aff ront to human is foolproof.) ue to any community, particularly a Will you join the more than 2,600 people who have rights and catastrophic to individuals The idea is not to create a vice university one, is zero at most. Mak- made a charitable contribution to America? and relationships.” The students also squad to kick down dorm room doors ing it even marginally harder to ac- condemned “the highly addictive na- and check browser histories but to cess would be a concrete way colleges ture of pornography, which aff ects the nudge students toward living up to could demonstrate their commitment human brain as both a stimulant and their own expectations through a to a fuller account of true human dig- an opiate.” healthier view of human sexuality nity. It would also make the statement Not every viewer of pornography than is found in the exploitative un- that the crass utilitarianism of por- is an addict, but neither is every deci- derbelly of the web. nography’s view of the human person sion to view porn a perfectly rational New research fi nds that young men is not something they want to promote one. Many students end up doing so spend nearly an hour a week viewing through their IT infrastructure. because of loneliness, romantic frus- porn, on average, and a 2007 survey If a group of students asked for tration or even plain boredom. Put- found that about half of college students a public health initiative to increase ting the onus on students to purchase viewed it at least every other day. Even their ability to say no to the temp- their own internet fi lter, or to rely on secular colleges should think about tation to abuse drugs or alcohol, we sheer willpower to avoid temptation what this widespread consumption would applaud them. Catholic univer- Featured in photo: Rev. Matthew F. Malone, S.J., editor in chief, hosting a live discussion on social media, with both America Media staff and viewers addressing the abuse crisis this past summer. when it strikes, seems like setting the is doing to gender relationships. But sities owe their students no less than default in the wrong position. church-affi liated colleges, in particular, to take their requests seriously when Catholic colleges should limit ac- have a duty to care for their students’ it comes to a less noticeable form of Your support empowers us to lead the conversation for the church cess to pornography on their campus souls; and their unwillingness to in- harm and potential addiction. and the world. infrastructure to make it easier for fringe on dubious components of per- students to live up to the best ver- sonal freedom for fear of being called Will you join the more than 2,600 people who have made a sion of themselves. Even raising a few puritanical borders on negligence. Patrick T. Brown is a graduate charitable contribution to America? mild hurdles to accessing porn could student at Princeton University’s Some may ask: Why not let stu- Woodrow Wilson School of Public reduce the tension between what students train themselves to avoid por- and International Affairs. dents say they want for themselves nography? After all, we trust college Twitter: @PTBwrites. Support America today at and what they actually end up do- students to make their own decisions www.americamagazine.org/donate CONTACT ing—what behavioral economists call in all sorts of realms, and the days of in James Cappabianca “dynamic inconsistencies.” loco parentis are long gone. And isn’t Office of Advancement Some of the thoughtful opposition some sort of internet fi lter removing 212.515.0101 to the idea of barring access does not the ability for students to build up the [email protected] defend pornography as such but in- moral fi ber to say no on their own?

10 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 11 NOW MORE

THAN EVER You are the mission. Your support empowers us to lead the conversation YOU ARE THE MISSION. for the church and the world. Will you join the more than 2,600 people who have made a charitable contribution to America?

Featured in photo: Rev. Matthew F. Malone, S.J., editor in chief, hosting a live discussion on social media, with both America Media staff and viewers addressing the abuse crisis this past summer.

Your support empowers us to lead the conversation for the church and the world.

Will you join the more than 2,600 people who have made a charitable contribution to America? Support America today at

www.americamagazine.org/donate CONTACT James Cappabianca Office of Advancement 212.515.0101 [email protected]

10 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 11 DISPATCHES

A 2018 midterm roundup: health care, wages, abortion and more By Michael J. O’Loughlin

While the waviness of the midterm election on Nov. 6 appeared to break for Democrats in key suburban congressio- continues to be debated, Simone Campbell, S.S.S., called nal districts, as well as the record number of women headed to the day “a tremendous success,” at least when it came to the House of Representatives as the Democrats took control the dozen U.S. House races targeted by the Nuns on the of the House, including the fi rst two Native American women Bus national tour that ended earlier this month outside and the fi rst two Muslim women elected to Congress. President Trump’s Florida home. “I take heart in that people are standing up for the com- Sister Campbell, executive director of Network, said mon good,” Sister Campbell said. one factor shaping the results in eight House races was A number of ballot measures supported by other Catholic the “substantive conversations about the common good” leaders passed on Election Day. the group facilitated. Network kept its advocacy focused In Florida, voters approved an amendment to the state on turning back efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Constitution that will automatically restore voting rights Act and on a federal tax cut last year that it charged put to more than one million convicted felons. The Florida funding for social programs at risk. Catholic Conference had urged voters to accept the pro- Sister Campbell was encouraged by women voters, who posal, writing in a voters’ guide, “Restoring their right to

12 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 13 Voters at Assumption Catholic Church in Los Angeles on Nov. 6.

vote is a meaningful step to engage their full tend a few times each month voted for Democrats, 52 per- participation in their communities.” cent to 46 percent. (The AP VoteCast poll showed similar A minimum wage increase was approved results; see charts on next page.) in two states. Arkansas will raise the wage Pro-life measures were on the ballot in at least three from $8.50 an hour to $11 by 2021, while Mis- states. Voters in Oregon rejected a ban on public funding souri will gradually raise the $7.85 minimum of abortion, 64 percent to 36 percent. But West Virginia wage to $12 an hour. prohibited the use of state funds to pay for abortions by The Catholic bishops of Missouri had a four-point margin—52 percent to 48 percent. And Ala- supported the increase, writing in a voting bama passed a constitutional amendment banning pub- guide, “We have seen within our own parish lic funding of abortion and “declaring...the state’s policy communities the eff ect that unemployment, to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life,” 60 underemployment, and low wages have on percent to 40 percent. our own parishioners and on society at large.” While pro-life groups found plenty to like about Tuesday’s Expanding Medicaid to cover people who results, particularly a Senate that appears ready to confi rm cannot aff ord health insurance was on the bal- the appointment of conservative judges to the U.S. Supreme lot in three states. Voters in Idaho, Nebraska Court, Kristen Day, head of Democrats for Life, said her group and Utah approved the move by solid margins. is “really sad” at the defeat of Senator Joe Donnelly, Democrat The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City was of Indiana. He lost to pro-life Republican Mike Braun. part of a coalition of religious groups urging But she also pointed to re-election victories for Demo- voters to pass the initiative in a state where cratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Casey most residents belong to the Church of Jesus in Pennsylvania, who sometimes cast pro-life votes, as signs Christ of Latter-day Saints. of hope. With the exception of the Republican Dean Heller of Catholic voters made up about a quarter of Nevada, senators who supported Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s those voting in House races on Nov. 6, accord- nomination to the Supreme Court were re-elected, while at ing to a CNN exit poll, and those voters were al- least two other Democrats from red states who opposed Mr. most evenly split between Democratic and Re- Kavanaugh, Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and publican candidates. Writing at Religion News Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, were defeated. CNS photo/Mike Nelson, EPA CNS photo/Mike Service, Mark Silk noted the change from 2014, Ms. Day said she is hopeful that a Democratic majority when one exit poll showed 54 percent of Cath- in the House may be able to work with Senate Republicans olic voters favoring Republican candidates. and the president to enact paid maternity leave, an issue “[This shift] may refl ect the higher turnout in the Latino she hoped would not “get bogged down in the abortion de- vote, representing a larger, more Democratic portion of the bate but could help reduce abortions.” Catholic vote as a whole,” Mr. Silk wrote. In other races of interest to Catholic voters, Repre- Though the Catholic vote was important, the polling sentative Conor Lamb won re-election to the House from group P.R.R.I. estimated that white evangelicals contin- Pennsylvania. Mr. Lamb, a Democrat, won a special elec- ued to be overrepresented at the polls this year. Robert P. tion earlier this year in a normally reliably Republican dis- Jones, the group’s founder, noted on Twitter that white trict. The Catholic candidate had faced controversy over evangelical Protestants comprised 26 percent of this his views on abortion, which he said he personally opposed year’s electorate, though they make up only 15 percent of but would not seek to ban. the overall U.S. population. Representative Dan Lipinski, a Democrat from a Among all voters, according to the CNN exit poll, Chicago suburb who is against abortion, handily won his those who say they attend services weekly or more went seat, following a close primary challenge earlier this year. for Republicans, 58 percent to 40 percent. Those who at- Mr. Lipinski’s Republican opponent was a self-described

12 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 13 neo-Nazi who denies the Holocaust. In Colorado, Jared Polis became the fi rst openly gay And in the fi rst statewide referendum on trans- man to be elected governor, while Gov. Kate Brown of Or- gender rights, Massachusetts voters on Tuesday beat egon, who identifi es herself as bisexual, was re-elected. back a repeal attempt and reaffi rmed by a 2-to-1 mar- Both are Democrats. gin a 2016 law extending nondiscrimination protections to transgender people, including their use of public Michael J. O’Loughlin, national correspondent. bathrooms and locker rooms. Catholic leaders were mostly Twitter: @MikeOLoughlin. silent on the question. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

NEWLY ELECTED

Alexandria Ocasio- Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Mike DeWine, a pro-life Catholic Jared Polis, Democrat of Cortez, a 29-year-old Minnesota who came to the U.S. as Republican, bucked the “blue Colorado, is the ﬁ rst openly Democrat from New York, a refugee from Somalia, and Rashida wave” and won election as gay man to be elected is the youngest woman ever Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, governor of Ohio. At 71, he is the governor of any state. elected to Congress. are the ﬁ rst two Muslim women oldest of the 20 new governors. in Congress.

RELIGIOUS IDENTITY CHURCH ATTENDANCE White evangelicals Catholic Voters 80% 22% 49% Democratic Republican 49% Republican 10% 25% 6% All other voters 44% White Catholics, 12% estimated at 16% of 58% Democratic voters, voted 56% 31% 28% Republican 3% 21%

Catholics (22% of all voters) 49% 49% Weekly (25% of all voters) 37% 61% Protestants/other Christians (44%) 41% 57% A few times a month (10%) 47% 51% Jewish (3%) 71% 28% Once a month (6%) 50% 47% Other religions (12%) 63% 33% A few times a year (31%) 51% 47% Unaffi liated (21%) 70% 27% Never (28%) 63% 35%

Sources: The AP VoteCast, conducted on Election Day and the preceding week by telephone and mail by the University of Chicago for Fox News and the Associated Press, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. CNN Exit Polls, conducted on Election Day, reported similar results: It estimated that 26 percent of the electorate was Catholic and that 50 percent of that group voted for Democratic and 49 percent for Republican candidates. Photos: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews), Ilhan Omar (AP Photo/Jeff Baenen, File), Mike DeWine (AP Photo/Tony Dejak), Jared Polis (AP Photo/David Zalubowski).

14 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 15 Perfect Gifts for Every Christmas List

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14 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 15 CNS photo/David Maung CNS photo/David Faith.

Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego greets Jim Inspiration. Bliesner next to a replica A statue of the Virgin Mary will be a of the statue of Mary he is creating near the U.S.- sign of welcome on the U.S.-Mexico border Mexico border. News. Two parallel fences line either side of the Tijuana River. It is personal for Mr. Gonzalez, whose mother was The southernmost barrier roughly marks the international born in Mexico. He also has undocumented friends in the boundary between the United States and Mexico, between community who “are doing very well, helping the economy San Diego, Calif., and Tijuana, Baja California. and everything,” he said. The area is patrolled 24/7 by U.S. Border Patrol agents “I feel a love for two countries. I believe there is so in S.U.V.s and helicopters. Cameras monitor the area to much culture that can be shared,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “Peo- spot anyone who might try to cross the border illegally. ple are coming to fi nd liberty and to have a better life.” Education. But it was not always this way, according to Deacon Parish and community members like Mr. Gonzalez José Luis Medina, the administrator of Our Lady of Mount gathered with the artist Jim Bliesner to collaborate on the Carmel parish in San Ysidro, a San Diego neighborhood just sculpture’s design. Mr. Bliesner, who has been involved in north of the border. Deacon Medina was born in Tijuana. what he called “advocacy by design” in the past, has had “We have a good relationship between Mexico and San work exhibited around the world. He produced several Diego,” Deacon Medina said. “A lot of people come from Ti- pieces of public art in San Diego and Tijuana. juana to go shopping here. We’re not very happy with the wall.” The “Welcome the Stranger” sculpture may be the Our Lady of Mount Carmel will be the site of a 40-foot most complex of his works to date. It is meant to be a bea- “Welcome the Stranger” sculpture. The steel monument to con of hope, a welcoming hand and a memorial to interna- In Arctic Alaska, you make Catholic the Virgin Mary, which will be surrounded by a meditation tional immigrants, he said. garden, was inspired by the Statue of Liberty and commis- “The experience of the migrant is a hard one,” Mr. radio possible. sioned by the San Diego Organizing Project. Bliesner said. “That experience cuts across cultures. The “The president wants to build the wall, and we want to motif starts as religious, but it is a universal statement.” build a bridge,” Deacon Medina said. “We are Christians. The challenge will be to go from the existing four-foot Our faith tells us that everyone is a human being.” model to something 10 times larger, Mr. Bliesner said. The sculpture will stand in stark relief to the increas- Planners wanted an even taller monument, but it would ingly militarized border. During his presidential cam- have been in the way of two fl ight paths. The project is paign, Mr. Trump vowed to build a “great border wall.” scheduled to break ground in January. Now accepting volunteer Earlier this year, the president visited San Diego to see “Fundamentally, people of our culture welcome the fellowship applications. eight border wall prototypes, but community members stranger. We’re all from somewhere else, and we’ve learned say the “Welcome the Stranger” statue is not meant as a to get along,” Mr. Bliesner said. “That’s part of what makes political statement. this country what it is. We might fi ght, but in the end, we Visit KNOM online at knom.org, “This has nothing to do with politics,” said David Gon- work it out.” email [email protected], zalez, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel for 20 or call: (907) 868-1200. years. “This is who we are and what we believe in. We wel- J.D. Long-García, senior editor. come people.” Twitter: @jdlonggarcia.

16 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 17 Faith. Inspiration. News. Education.

In Arctic Alaska, you make Catholic radio possible.

Now accepting volunteer fellowship applications. Visit KNOM online at knom.org, email [email protected], or call: (907) 868-1200.

16 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 17 ‘Service’ protests sharply up in South Africa

In recent months South Africa has experienced a spike in While a new black middle class emerged and grew, and street protests. The disturbances are rooted in poverty and while some (often politically connected) individuals got public dissatisfaction with government delivery of basic rich, the vast majority of South Africans have remained services like electricity, water and public housing. Reuters poor. Through a mixture of corruption and mismanage- reports that there were 198 “service delivery protests” by ment, public resources were wasted. the end of September, surpassing the previous record of And despite making a signifi cant public investment 191 in 2014, when former President Jacob Zuma was still in education and skills training, a poisonous cocktail of in power. corruption and ineffi ciency has led to little improvement The historical foundation of these protests can be lo- in national education. The result is a new generation of cated in the transition to democracy in 1994, as public poorly educated and often unemployable youth who have expectations grew to the point that the new political es- few prospects of escaping poverty. The national unemploy- tablishment could not satisfy them. The African National ment rate—between 25 percent and 30 percent—is higher Congress’s election slogan then was “A Better Life For All!” than the rate experienced in the United States during the Many South Africans who voted the A.N.C. into offi ce took Great Depression of the 1930s. It reaches astronomical the party at its word. They believed they would shortly see proportions in the 15-to-25 age group. housing, jobs, land reform and a basic welfare system, all of Battered by more competitive countries in the global which would build a more equitable society denied to them market, South Africa has suff ered a decline in many eco- under apartheid. nomic sectors. That pain has been compounded by low pro- They were mistaken. While the A.N.C. under Nelson ductivity, perhaps rooted in frustrated high expectations, Mandela and his successors, guided by one of the most pro- the latter enabled by labor militancy. In sectors where the gressive constitutions in the world, introduced welfare ser- economy is growing—or at least could grow—the skills defi - vices, tried to build public housing, expanded the electric cit, traceable to poor education, hampers growth. Neglected grid in South Africa and introduced economic empower- or overstretched state infrastructure has exacerbated the ment and affi rmative action policies, the great equalization problem, with massive levels of corruption draining funds never happened. that could be used to invest in infrastructural improvements.

18 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 19 A mother and child join a housing and land protest in Johannesburg in May 2017.

A memorial grows outside the

Tree of Life Synagogue on Oct. 28. J. Puskar AP Photo/Gene In aft ermath of Pittsburgh terror, Pope Francis demands ‘ban’ of anti-Semitism

“As I have often repeated, a Christian cannot be an anti- Semite; we share the same roots. It would be a contradiction of faith and life,” Pope Francis said at the Vatican on Nov. 5. “Rather, we are called to commit ourselves to ensure anti- Semitism is banned from the human community.” The pope made his remarks during an audience with a

CNS photo/Kim Ludbrook, EPA Ludbrook, CNS photo/Kim group of rabbis attending the World Congress of Mountain Jews, a community believed to be descendants of Persian Jews who settled centuries ago in the Caucasus region. It is not surprising, then, that people are angry. Days earlier the pope had denounced the “inhuman” Promised the moon, they barely eke out an existence, and “terrible attack” on a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa., on while the old middle class, mostly white, and the new Oct. 27, expressing his “closeness” to the Jewish commu- middle class, mostly black, seem to be doing all right, nity and the people of that city and praying for all the vic- and the old and new super-rich thrive. tims and their relatives. The A.N.C. is losing favor, though opposition parties “May the Most High receive the dead in his peace, do not seem to be gaining followers. The Democratic Al- comfort their families and sustain the wounded,” he liance is seen as a party of the elite in general and whites prayed as he addressed thousands of pilgrims from many in particular. (In all likelihood, too, its free market eco- countries gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 28. nomic policies are simply unacceptable to the poor.) “We are all, in reality, wounded by this inhuman act The rhetorically left-wing Economic Freedom of violence,” he said. On Oct. 27 a gunman started shoot- Fighters have not gained suffi cient popularity outside ing indiscriminately inside the Tree of Life synagogue in some urban areas to be seen realistically as a “govern- Pittsburgh. The attack left 11 dead and others wounded, ment in waiting” as the country heads to the 2019 gen- including four police offi cers. eral election. And with the party’s enthusiasm for Vene- The attack against the community, one of the deadli- zuelan-style “reforms,” experts see an E.F.F. government est anti-Semitic attacks in U.S. history, took place amid a as the potential coup de grâce to South Africa’s economy. climate of hate speech and political violence as midterm Truth be told, there are no easy solutions to socio- elections approached. Pope Francis alluded to that cli- economic malaise in South Africa. In the meantime, mate when he prayed, “May the Lord help us to quench daily frustration sometimes boils over into violent pro- these hotbeds of hate that are developing in our societies, test. Their expectations denied, the poor are resorting by reinforcing the sense of humanity, the respect for life, to what Martin Luther King Jr. once called “the lan- moral and civil values, and the holy fear of God, who is guage of the unheard.” Love and the Father of all.”

Anthony Egan, S.J., Johannesburg correspondent. CNS/staff

18 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 19 The Bishops Speak How and when do bishops call our attention to vital issues of the day? By Stephen J. Fichter, Thomas P. Gaunt, Catherine Hoegeman and Paul M. Perl

Editor's Note: Catholic Bishops in the United perhaps equally vociferous in its critiques of States: Church Leadership in the Third the bishops, except the problem in this case Millennium, to be published by Oxford is that the church’s leaders have remained University Press in January 2019, is the too silent. In advance of a 2013 assembly ﬁ rst major research-based book to study the of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops bishops of the United States since 1989. It in Baltimore, two politically liberal groups, reveals the bishops’ individual experiences, Catholic Democrats and Catholics in Alliance their day-to-day activities, their challenges for the Common Good, called on the assembly as church leaders and their strategies for attendees to speak out more on issues of poverty. managing their dioceses. The following is an Whether one believes religious leaders should excerpt from the book on how U.S. bishops speak out on politics seems to depend less on approach the task of publicly commenting one’s philosophy regarding church and state on political and social issues. than on the particular issue at hand. In conducting our survey of U.S. bishops in Catholic leaders, from parish priests to the 2016, we were interested in the extent to which pope, are bombarded with opinions on whether individual bishops step across the invisible line they should or should not speak out on issues of some people perceive (when it suits them, per- the day—and if so, on which particular issues. haps) as separating the spiritual and temporal When the U.S. bishops published “Economic realms. How often do the bishops call for re- Justice for All” in 1986, some thinkers on the fl ection or action regarding politics or vital is- political right urged them to leave economics sues of the day? We asked survey respondents to the economists and focus on the purely four questions on this topic. (The table on Page “religious” realm. The political left has been 23 summarizes the results.)

20 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 21 CNS photo/Bob Roller CNS photo/Bob

WHO IS THE AVERAGE BISHOP? The average bishop in the United States is 65 years old and has served for 12 years in a diocese not in his home state or region. He is a non-Hispanic white born in the United States. He graduated from a Catholic high school, went to a college seminary after high school and earned a graduate degree in theology. Prior to being named a bishop, he served as both an associate pastor and then pastor of a parish and also spent several years in an administrative role in his diocese. As a bishop he leads a diocese of about 250,000 Catholics in 92 parishes served by 87 active diocesan priests (another 51 diocesan priests are retired, infirm or serving in other dioceses) and 98 permanent Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo oversees deacons. His diocese has about 250 the archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, sisters, but most of them are retired. which is home to approximately 1.7 million Catholics. The average diocese in the —From Catholic Bishops in the United States: United States has 250,000 Catholics. Church Leadership in the Third Millennium

20 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 21 Bishops in ‘red’ states have most frequently asked Catholics to consider Catholic teaching when voting for candidates.

We were particularly interested in how bishops speak relatively more conservative. However, this does not seem out in the context of elections. The criticism they receive to extend to other ways of speaking out, such as lobbying for lack of balance or overstepping their bounds often aris- lawmakers or making statements to the general public. es as elections approach. Many bishops reported that they have asked Catholics to consider Catholic teaching when The Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal and the Church’s voting for candidates, with 38 percent saying they have Perceived Credibility done so “on a regular basis” during the past five years and There were many aspects to the shock, dismay and anger lay 37 percent that they have done so “often.” One bishop said: Catholics experienced in 2002 during the large-scale national revelations of clergy sexual abuse within the church. I do not tell Catholics [in my diocese] to vote for a Foremost among them were sympathy for the victims, specific candidate. What I do tell them is not to vote disbelief about the magnitude of the problem and outrage for someone who opposes our values. I tell them to about cases where superiors were inadequate in address- make sure that the candidate they choose conforms ing the problem. We wanted to examine another concern to Catholic teaching. I make every effort not to be that has arisen in the wake of these revelations—that the seen as “pro” any party, but that doesn’t mean that I scandal has hampered church leaders in other ways, partic- don’t teach clearly about the issues. ularly their ability to speak with credibility and authority. In the wake of the scandals in 2002, Francis Fiorenza, a A majority of bishops have lobbied political leaders at Catholic studies professor at Harvard Divinity School, told least “often,” and a majority also made statements to the a reporter, “One of the major tragedies of the recent scan- general public about current social or political issues. The dals has been precisely the loss of moral authority at a time frequency with which bishops have spoken out varies little when such moral authority is most needed.” by self-described theological orientation. It seems clear Are people now disregarding what the bishops have to that most bishops see an important role for the church and say on issues of the day? In the survey we asked bishops its teachings in guiding political thought and action. to agree or disagree with the following statement: “Media We did uncover an interesting difference among bish- coverage of clergy sexual abuse has made it challenging to ops based on whether their dioceses are located in red present or defend church teachings in my diocese.” A ma- (mostly Republican) or blue (mostly Democratic) states. jority agreed, with 43 percent agreeing “somewhat” and Bishops in red states have most frequently asked Catholics 20 percent agreeing “strongly.” Thirty percent disagreed to consider Catholic teaching when voting for candidates. “somewhat,” and just 8 percent disagreed “strongly.” The Almost half (48 percent) reported having done so “on a table on Page 25 shows the relationship between these re- regular basis” during the last five years. This compares to sponses and several other factors. There is no significant 36 percent of bishops in “purple” states and 26 percent in difference between archbishops and other ordinaries. And blue states. Perhaps bishops are more likely to perceive the somewhat surprisingly, those who were already bishops laity as receptive to messages about Catholic teaching and in their current dioceses in 2002 do not significantly dif- voting where Catholics (and the electorate generally) are fer from those who were bishops in other dioceses or who

22 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 23 The frequency with which the bishops have spoken out varies little by self-described theological orientation. CNS photo/Bob Roller CNS photo/Bob

Frequency With Which Bishops Engage in Various Political or Policy Activities “In the last five years, “On a Regular “Never” “Occasionally” “Often” how often have you...?” Basis”

Asked Catholics to consider Catholic 8% 18% 37% 38% teaching when voting for candidates

Lobbied lawmakers or other political 4% 28% 43% 24% leaders about law or policy

Made statements to the general public 7% 26% 47% 21% about current social or political issues

Asked Catholics to vote a particular way 49% 38% 13% 1% on a ballot initiative or referendum

Note: Due to rounding, percentages in a row may not add up to 100.

were still priests in other dioceses. We had expected that news media in other Northeastern cities were particular- those who were already bishops at the time of the scandal, ly aggressive in their reporting of the scandal so as not to be especially if they were then in their current diocese, would shown up by The Boston Globe. Indeed, the table on Page be fighting a stronger headwind in this regard. 25 shows a correlation between difficulty defending church Instead, what seems most important is the region of the teaching and the amount of media coverage bishops said country where a bishop’s current diocese is located. Bishops has been directed at the scandal in their diocese. We asked a in the Northeast were significantly more likely than those bishop in the Northeast if he still heard negative comments in other regions to agree “strongly” that it is challenging to from the laity in his diocese about the 2002 scandal: present or defend church teaching due to the scandal. This finding seems consistent with CARA polls of lay Catholics We do get comments, and sometimes people use it taken during 2002. Catholics in the Northeast region ex- as a club to beat you over the head about any issue pressed considerably more awareness and anger regarding you talk about. Whether it’s care for the poor, im- the scandal than Catholics elsewhere. Some of this may migration, or whatever the issue, there will be some be proximity to Boston (where the scandal received ma- people who will throw that back at you and say, jor news coverage in 2002) and greater exposure to news “You know what? You should take care of your own from that archdiocese. Further, we suspect that secular [abusive] priests.”

22 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 23 If you are not with the crowd, you are op here. My predecessor had to deal with the state [debate] on same-sex marriage. He took the brunt of the heat that the media and the general public accused of being directed towards the church. It was truly sad and actually frightening to learn of the vehemence directed towards him; he even received death threats. Some ‘judgmental’. horrible graffiti was scrawled on the walls of the ca- —A Bishop thedral and the chancery office.

Criticism and Pushback From Laity and the Media One bishop we interviewed told us he tries to avoid Of course, criticism from lay Catholics is not uncom- speaking about politics or political issues because of the mon in the life of a bishop. One told us that preaching at conflict it can cause with laity. Most bishops, however, are Mass is the only thing he is not criticized for. However, more apt to speak their minds and then take a respectful when controversial issues are at play, tempers can run and pastoral approach with those who disagree. One says: particularly high. In personal interviews, we asked bishops if they ever experienced negativity from laity due There is some negativity with [the church’s stand to stances taken by themselves as individuals or by the on] cultural issues. If you are not with the crowd [on bishops collectively. Most could readily recall being on these issues], you are accused of being “judgmental” the receiving end of anger. A bishop described such an with folks. That’s a reason for what Pope Francis is instance to us: trying to model for bishops and priests. If you are accompanying your people, then difficult situations Just prior to the invasion of Iraq, I issued a pasto- are not as negative because the people understand ral letter saying that as far as I could judge, the war the teachings of the church in the light of the Gospel. was going to be unjust and therefore participation in it was going to be immoral.... My letter was pret- Another bishop also emphasizes the importance of re- ty positively received by priests of the diocese. But spectful engagement with those who take exception to the there was one parish with a lot of police and ex-mil- church’s positions: itary parishioners. The pastor there instructed everyone to read the letter without comment [during I just had a letter from somebody that didn’t like our, a Mass], and it was a fairly lengthy letter. He said the bishops’, statement on immigration. This is the it turned into a reaction like the prime minister in second time somebody wrote me a letter about that. Parliament: boos and heckling. [After that] I got a I wrote back and said, “Number one, I’m thrilled you few irate letters. read the statement.” [Laughs]. I said my grandma’s name was Loretta Catherine _____ [an obviously Another bishop talked with us about reactions to the Irish surname]. She used to work for German Prot- church’s opposition toward efforts to legalize same-sex estants, and they wouldn’t hire the Irish. This was in marriage in his state: the days before Social Security.... I’m talking about 1910: “Irish need not apply.” She changed her name Same-sex marriage has been quite the hot button to Gertrude because it was more conducive [to being issue [in my diocese]. Most people know where the hired]. Loretta Catherine was too Irish, too Catholic. church stands. Of course, I have gotten some nega- I said, “What would this policy have done to her?” tive correspondence from people who disagree with And plus, you have to wrestle with: “I was a stranger our stance. Where I get the most questions about and you welcomed me.” So, anyway, negative things this is from kids at schools, usually from non-Cath- do come across my desk.... But I try to put a positive olic kids who attend our Catholic grammar schools. spin on it, and I try not to take it as a personal attack I do my best to articulate our teaching in a way that on me. I try not to get flustered. they can understand.... Most of the drama around this issue occurred here before I was named as bish- One factor raised by several bishops we spoke with is

24 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 25 Response to Media Coverage of Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal by Selected Characteristics “Media coverage of clergy sexual abuse has made it challenging to present or defend church teaching in my diocese”

“Disagree “Agree Somewhat” “Agree Strongly” Strongly or Somewhat”

All 38% 43% 20%

Archbishop 38% 42% 21%

Other Ordinary 36% 42% 22%

Priest in another diocese in 2002 36% 43% 21% Bishop in another diocese in 2002 41% 41% 17% Bishop in current diocese in 2002 28% 50% 22% Midwest 43% 49% 9% South 44% 42% 15% West 33% 41% 26% Northeast 14% 36% 50%

“Little or no” or “Some” media coverage of clergy sexual abuse in 47% 40% 14% the diocese

“A large amount” of coverage 26% 41% 33% “Extensive” coverage 18% 46% 36%

Note: Due to rounding, percentages in a row may not add up to 100.

whether a diocese is located in an area where people are [to the media]. We created a press release for the lo- relatively religious or relatively secular. Bishops tend to cal newspaper, and I was available for questions, as perceive the press as being more hostile to Catholicism was our chancellor. They got the press release, and in secularized areas. For example, we asked a bishop in a they called the chancellor and got all their questions Southern and very religious state whether criticism in the answered. There was a front-page story in the local secular media has been a problem for him. He replied: newspaper, but at least it was our story. We sent them all the information. Nationally, yes [media negativity is a problem]. Lo- cally, no, because I try to foster relationships with We spoke with a bishop in a relatively secularized and the local media. I’ve taken the editor-in chief of the urban area. He has often spoken publicly with compas- local newspaper out to lunch.... And I try as much as sion about immigrants and the poor in our society, in possible to be very upfront with the press. When we addition to advocating a pro-life position on abortion do anything, we issue a press release. For example, and the traditional model of marriage. Local newspa- a few years ago the economy here was really strug- pers frequently label him a “conservative” or even “ul- gling. Over a million dollars of our operating budget traconservative” bishop. If not unfair, this designation dried up. So that necessitated layoffs in our pastoral certainly lacks nuance. He described to us the hostility staff.... Companies in the area were laying off too, but toward Catholicism in the local press, especially toward we knew that ours would be of particular interest its traditional moral teachings:

24 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 25 Criticism in Secular Press or Media by Selected Characteristics “How much of a problem is ‘criticism in the secular press or media’ on a day-to-day basis?” “No or Very little “Somewhat of a “A Great Problem” Problem” Problem”

All 38% 44% 18%

Archbishop 38% 33% 29%

Other ordinary 37% 48% 16%

“Traditional” theological orientation 41% 29% 29%

“Moderate” theological orientation 28% 58% 14%

“Progressive” theological orientation 43% 52% 5%

Relatively religious state 50% 33% 17%

Average state 43% 43% 15%

Relatively secular state 19% 57% 24% “Little or no” or “Some” media coverage of clergy sexual abuse in the 45% 45% 10% diocese “A large amount” of coverage 30% 41% 30%

“Extensive” coverage 27% 45% 27%

Note: Due to rounding, percentages in a row may not add up to 100.

I did have one particular instance of a direct attack We turned to the survey data to test whether or not against me when I had to intervene in an issue con- media criticism is indeed a systematically greater prob- cerning the contracts of teachers in our Catholic lem for bishops in more secular areas. As we have seen, schools. We were trying to make sure that they 44 percent of all the bishops said criticism in the secular upheld Catholic morality not just in the classroom press or media is “somewhat” of a problem for them, and but also in their personal lives. Given the very sec- another 18 percent said it is “great” problem. The table ular nature of our area, this was a big news item for above shows how these responses vary by several factors. a while.... I was told that I was interfering in oth- Under the heading “Religiosity of State,” we created three er people’s private lives and that that was wrong. categories based on the religious commitment of people The way I saw it was that, just like people getting in the states where dioceses are located, as measured by fired from their jobs for their personal positions on the Pew Research Center. Our survey results show little social issues, like the case of the owner of a profes- difference between relatively religious and relatively sional basketball team who was fired for the racist secular states in the likelihood that bishops said criti- comments he made.... He got fired for the awful cism is a “great” problem. However, there is a statistically comments he made using his own private phone significant difference in whether or not they said it is at and doing so on his own time, not company time. least “somewhat” of a problem (50 percent of bishops in If a basketball team can have a moral philosophy, religious states, compared to 81 percent in secular states). a moral position, why can’t the church, which rep- Thus, it seems plausible that the media is indeed more resents the teaching of Jesus Christ, have one? hostile toward bishops in more secularized dioceses.

26 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 27 Bishop George V. Murry, S.J., of Youngstown, oversees the diocese’s 104 parishes. The average diocese in the United states has 92 parishes.

Among other notable findings, self-described traditional bishops are significantly more likely than progressive bishops to describe criticism in the press as “a great problem” (29 percent compared with 5 percent). Is this an issue of perception by the bishops themselves? It seems possible that traditional bishops genuinely receive more criticism to the extent that they become identified with the church’s teachings on cultural issues such as abortion, homosexuality and contracep- tion. Not surprisingly, bishops were also significantly more likely to say that criticism in the secular press or media is a great problem for them if the sexual abuse issue received relatively more media coverage in their dioceses. To summarize, when the bishops speak out on issues of the day, they do so in their capacity as teachers of the faith. This is one of the central roles identified for bishops in theCate - chism; survey responses suggest the role is important to them and that they take it seriously.

Rev. Stephen J. Fichter is the pastor of St. Roller CNS photo/Bob Elizabeth Church in Wyckoff, N.J., a research METHODOLOGY associate for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and a professor at the Immaculate The central source of data for Catholic Bishops in the Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University in United States: Church Leadership in the Third Millennium South Orange, N.J. (Oxford University Press, January 2019) is a survey conducted in 2016. In April of that year the authors Thomas P. Gaunt, S.J., is the executive director of CARA; he has also served at the Jesuit Conference mailed a questionnaire to all active and retired bishops and the Maryland and New York Jesuit Provinces, of the Latin and Eastern rites in the United States. To and as a pastor and director of planning in the preserve the anonymity of responses, they included Diocese of Charlotte, N.C. a postcard the bishops could mail back separately to let them know they had completed and returned their Catherine Hoegeman, of the Sisters of St. Joseph questionnaires. The surveys were sent to 179 Latin rite of Carondelet, is an assistant professor of sociology at Missouri State University and researches ordinaries (127 responded), 18 Eastern rite ordinaries nonprofit organizations and leadership, focusing on (12 responded), 65 auxiliary bishops (33 responded) religious organizations. and 168 retired bishops (42 responded). The authors supplemented the survey with telephone or face-to-face Paul M. Perl is a researcher for CARA, where he interviews of 13 bishops—10 active Latin rite ordinaries, has worked on national surveys of lay Catholics and one Eastern rite ordinary, one auxiliary bishop and one diocesan surveys of priests; much of his academic research examines how religiosity varies in different retired bishop. areas of the country.

26 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 27 #CHURCHTOO

Much attention has been paid in recent years to Preventing the horrifi c sexual abuse of minors in the church, and rightly so. But many men and women who the abuse experienced sexual abuse by members of the clergy in adulthood have yet to receive compassionate acknowledgment of the harm they have suff ered. of women Regardless of the age at which sexual abuse by clergy was experienced, churches of all denom- by Catholic inations have a long distance to travel in setting up healing ministries for and with survivors. I have great respect for the many Catholic clergy priests who have blessed my journey of faith. I am grateful to my parish pastors, and to the Paulist, By Lea Karen Kivi Franciscan, Jesuit and Basilian priests who have fed my faith and inspired me by their sacrifi cial service. Accepting a call to the priesthood at this point in history may be especially challenging, and I hope those currently in the priesthood or consid- ering a call will persevere despite the revelations of wrongdoing in the church. This wrongdoing has always existed. The good news is that we now know about it, are talking about it and therefore can work to eliminate it. We must consider how to prevent abuse of women in the church, and how to make it easier for women (and men) to come forward should they themselves experience abuse by clergy in adulthood. iStock 28 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 29 28 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 29 I use the term abuse to describe any situation in which a He proceeded to describe a woman acquaintance of his as priest attempts to use his position of power over or proximity “really knowing how to dress to show off her figure.” Un- to someone to sexualize the relationship. The example of in- der normal circumstances I would have decided at that appropriate clergy behavior that I share here is not the only point not to seek direction from him. However, I was feel- incident I have experienced, and it is far from being the most ing quite desperate for spiritual guidance at the time, and serious. My complaint was handled within the church. I have knew that Father X had specialized training to help me chosen not to name the priest or his religious community. discern what God was trying to tell me in my then-current life circumstances. I could put up with some sexist com- One Story of a Professional Boundary Violation ments, I thought. At a point in my life when I was experiencing deep spiritual, We did actually have a good conversation about physical and emotional pain, I sought out the guidance of spiritual matters, but he also made some very inappro- a spiritual director. While on a brief women’s retreat, I priate comments, including “We’ll figure out as we go noticed the names of spiritual directors with whom one along how love will be expressed in our relationship” and could meet posted on a wall. After the retreat, I called one “Don’t think I’m going to let you get out of here without of them, Father X (a Roman Catholic priest). We set up an giving you a hug.” appointment for spiritual direction at a location that I had This comment disturbed me a great deal—he did not never previously visited. seem at all interested in whether I wanted to have a hug When I arrived at the location, Father X met me at the from him or not. Also, when he said “Don’t think I’m going front door and led me straight upstairs to a room which to let you get out of here” I couldn’t help but remember an turned out to be his private quarters—where he had a busi- assault by two men seeking to forcibly confine me which, ness-sized desk with chairs and his bed. Although I felt un- thankfully, I was able to escape. I felt a flash of anxiety as comfortable with the setting, I did not feel I was in any sort I realized that Father X was between me and the door—as of danger. Another priest saw us there together and did not had been one of my assailants. In any case, his words con- do anything to indicate there was anything wrong. stituted a demand—not a request—for physical contact To introduce himself, Father X said, “It’s no secret—I love from a woman who was a virtual stranger seeking spiritual women!” and “I’m new here—haven’t yet built up my harem.” direction, not a personal friendship.

30 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 31 iStock

At the end of the conversation, true to his word, he ran Other questions also troubled me. I had come to know around his desk to give me a hug—not a quick, friendly one, the community of priests to which Father X belonged as but a much too long (and tight) embrace. I strained to keep highly intelligent, educated, respected and respectful. If a respectable distance from him. If he had been someone they knew his behavior was suspect, why were they recom- other than a priest, I would likely have opposed him as mending him as a spiritual director on women’s retreats? forcefully as necessary by word or deed, but a combination Why didn’t his community warn women about Father X’s of my respect for clergy, politeness, fear, compassion and behavior or have clear information available about whom confusion made me acquiesce. one could complain to about one of their priests’ miscon- After the appointment, I read through a book he had duct with adults? lent me. It was fascinating and truly ministered to me in I began to wonder how prevalent this sort of behavior was that dark hour of my spiritual life. I obviously did not want in other Catholic and Christian faith communities and what I to have this priest as an ongoing spiritual director, but I might do to help prevent other women from experiencing it. needed to return the book to him and thought I might as well ask him about some of the points in the book, as he Statistics on Abuse of Women by Clergy seemed to be a specialist in the field. I made one more ap- Through online networking, I came into contact with a pointment with the intention that this would be my last number of women who had experienced sexual exploitation meeting with him. by clergy. One woman was sexually exploited by her spiritual At that meeting, Father X said he had felt my body director—a Catholic priest who, it turned out, had entered tensing when he hugged me at our previous meeting, and into sexual relationships with several women directees that he thought, “What’s wrong with this woman?” More at the same time, professing his not-so-unique “special” inappropriate comments followed. He described one wom- love for each of them at a point of particular vulnerability an as “a great lover.” He told me “You are so intense...but in their lives. As a result of her experience, she could not we must be disciplined and cut off the discussion before we imagine ever being spiritually intimate with another priest would like to have it end.” At the end of the meeting, he fol- in a setting like a confessional. Another woman was one of lowed me to my car and told me: “I can love you from near the 47 known child-victims during the 1950s to 1980s of or far.” This priest went from being a painfully lonely, sexist the convicted abuser Father Charles Sylvestre in Ontario, man in my eyes to a potential sexual predator, possibly with Canada. She said to me that she could not imagine setting a mental health issue. He seemed to have lost any ability to foot in any church again. set appropriate boundaries in his relationships. According to the late A. W. Richard Sipe, the sexual I could have just ignored what had happened. Howev- exploitation of women by priests is not uncommon. Other er, I tend to speak up when I feel there is potential harm to researchers have argued that misconduct by clerics toward others. Not knowing whom to contact regarding potential women is even more prevalent than their sexual abuse of sexual exploitation of women, I contacted the priest re- children. According to research cited in When Pastors Prey, sponsible for taking complaints about sexual abuse of chil- a publication of the World Council of Churches, 90 to 95 dren in Father X’s community. percent of victims of clergy sexual exploitation are women. He was not surprised when I mentioned Father X and This book also cites a 1984 survey of clergy in various Prot- told me that he believed that immaturity was behind Fa- estant denominations that found that 39 percent admitted ther X’s behavior. I truly appreciated his skill in listening to to having sexual contact with a congregant and 12.7 percent and responding appropriately to my experience. I left the had had sexual intercourse with a congregant. meeting assured that this specific matter would be dealt Michael W. Higgins and Peter Kavanagh note in their with appropriately. As far as I know, it was. book Suffer the Children Unto Me, that in 2000-1 women re- Although the physical violation was minor, the spiri- ligious in several African countries were subject to system- tual violation of trust by this priest and by his community atic sexual exploitation by priests—with one superior gener- turned out to have a profound effect on me. I had previous- al reporting that 29 of her sisters had been impregnated by ly considered myself a strong person, based on my own and priests. A study paid for by several orders of women religious others’ observations about me. I found myself withdraw- conducted at St. Louis University in 1996 found that nearly ing emotionally—unable to trust clergy, friends and family one in eight women religious in the United States had expe- with my inner thoughts or feelings. rienced some form of sexual exploitation, with three out of

30 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 31 The spiritual treasures of the Catholic Church in the Church) and priests themselves have been sexually abused by clergy, but these men would not fall under the are obscured when any category of vulnerable as defined by the commission. Once a person turns 18 years of age, does that imply in one of us harms another the church’s eyes that any sexual contact involves full, legal consent on that person’s part? If abuse policies only apply by words, thoughts to adults who are considered disabled, might that prevent other adults from coming forward for fear of being labeled or actions. weak or damaged in some way? To their credit, the Jesuits in Canada state in their current document, “Policies & Procedures for Cases of four of those abused having been victimized by a priest, an- Alleged Abuse and Misconduct,” that they “are commit- other sister or some other religious person. ted to the protection of all who are within their spiritual According to the survey of Catholic women published and physical care, especially Minors and Vulnerable Per- in America (1/22/18), 0.3 percent of women referred to ac- sons.” They also define vulnerable persons as “minors or cusations of inappropriate behavior when describing how persons of any age who by reason of their condition, suffer they had experienced sexism in the church. In my expe- from physical, mental, emotional or spiritual handicaps or rience (at least up until the #MeToo movement began), I disabilities”—words painted with a broad enough brush to have found few women who share stories of violation with include a more comprehensive view of vulnerability than anyone at all, so the number of women who might feel safe is typical of the abuse policies and procedures of religious reporting their experiences (even in an anonymous survey) communities. may be relatively low. Another enlightened policy document that shows an The America survey also found that few of the wom- understanding of power imbalance as a factor in sexual en surveyed participate in the sacrament of reconciliation abuse of adults by clergy is that of the Maltese Ecclesias- (confession). As I mentioned, some women who have been tical Province from 2014. In its definition of sexual abuse abused do not feel emotionally or otherwise safe being between adults, it states: “when a pastoral functionary en- spiritually intimate with a priest. The small size of a typical gages in sexual contact or sexualised behaviour in a pasto- confessional may make anyone who has experienced some ral relationship, or in cases of an existing power imbalance, form of violence feel trapped. such behaviour is considered to be always abusive whether with or without consent.” What Does It Mean to Be a ‘Vulnerable’ Adult? At a conference on “Trauma and Transformation” in Does Church Law Help Prevent Abuse? Montreal, Quebec, in 2011, I asked a speaker who presented I began to wonder if there might be any universal church statistics on sexual abuse of minors in the church about abuse document providing protection to adults regardless of of women. He had not studied abuse of women in the church the extent of their vulnerabilities. Delving into the New because, according to him, “we never hear about such abuse.” Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, published in The public might not hear about it, but church leaders are 2000, I began to research what sorts of warnings might be certainly aware of it. Why, then, do church leaders not warn provided by the church. the faithful about the fact that some priests will seek to abuse The only warning I found was Canon 1339, which states their power over adults, not only over children? that a church official can discipline a priest who is suspect- It is true that the Pontifical Commission for the Pro- ed of committing some sort of scandal, but the warning is tection of Minors gives some attention to the protection not to be passed on to the faithful—rather, it is to be kept in of so-called “vulnerable” adults, but the adults in this a secret archive. population include only those considered vulnerable ac- The faithful are obligated to speak up if there is some cording to such criteria as disability, age or illness. But sort of impediment to a forthcoming marriage (Canon aren’t all men, women and children vulnerable to abuse of 1069) or to a man’s ordination (Canon 1043). Per the com- clerical power? Seminarians (as asserted, for example, in mentary, there was an obligation in the 1917 version of the Donald Cozzens’s book, Sacred Silence: Denial and Crisis code for all the faithful to report solicitation to sin against

32 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 33 the Sixth Commandment by a confessor (that is, priests How Can Laypersons Prevent Abuse? asking someone for sex during confession, Canon 1387), The faithful often look to the church hierarchy for but that there is no such obligation in the 1983 code. How- leadership regarding sexual abuse by clergy or other ever, there remain Canons 982 and 1390, which deal with members of the faith community. But members of false denunciation of a confessor—that is, “calumny”—a the hierarchy comprise a very low percentage of word recently invoked by Pope Francis with respect to ac- the membership of the church. We cannot lay the full cusations made by a Chilean claiming abuse by a member weight of responsibility for the resolution to this problem of the clergy (for which Francis later apologized). at their feet. Should the Code of Canon Law be amended to im- At a recent conference, I met a woman who was a lead- pose an obligation on the part of bishops and other er in a prominent Catholic organization. She confided to church leaders to warn the faithful that some priests, me that she would not know with whom she would feel safe whether through malice or some mental health disor- sharing an experience of clergy misconduct. She said she der, might make sexual advances towards an adult—and might let a girlfriend know. Certainly, if we have experi- not only in the confessional? Certainly some priests are enced spiritual, emotional, sexual or other physical viola- aware of suspicious behavior on the part of their brother tion, we might reach out only to a trusted personal friend priests. Should there not be an amendment to the Code for support. But if we tell only a trusted personal friend, to include an obligation for priests to report their suspi- how are we to help protect others? cions to their superiors, and for their superiors to act on Sharing our stories can help others know that they these reports? are not alone. Support groups, blogs, the #MeToo and Currently, many religious communities wait until a #ChurchToo hashtags on Twitter can provide anonymity. victim comes to them before taking action. In other words, Of course, survivors should not be forced to share any of they rely on a complaint-driven response model. As it is their stories but should be supported in their choices on sometimes difficult even to find information on whom one how to deal with their experiences. should contact to report abuse of someone by a priest or All members of a community should also be mindful of other religious person, how likely is it that someone would those members who are the most vulnerable. Whose sala- feel supported in coming forward with a complaint? ry depends on a priest’s good recommendation? Who has It would be also helpful to distinguish between types poor language skills? Who is not a citizen of the country? of abuse that women experience. Well-meaning but misin- Who else might be afraid to come forward on such issues formed clergy I have encountered have suggested that sup- and might for that reason be a likely target for abusive port groups for battered or trafficked women would pro- priests, women religious or laypeople? vide suitable support for women who have been abused by The church is resplendent with spiritual treasures, in- clergy. Each type of abuse, however, is unique and requires cluding priests, women religious and laypersons who shine specialized support for victims. Peer-to-peer support with the light and love of Christ. This treasure is obscured groups, therapist-led support groups, specially trained and when one of us harms another by words, thoughts or ac- survivor-sensitive spiritual directors and other support tions. When the harm is particularly damaging—when we providers would figure in a healing outreach toward survi- violate the trust of another person to fulfill our sexual de- vors of abuse by clergy. sires—it can be hard for the person violated to remember I mentioned earlier that I know women who avoid the that there was ever any treasure. sacrament of reconciliation after instances of clergy abuse. We all need to listen to one another so that the Catholic According to Canon 991, the faithful are entitled to con- Church can be a safe place for all the faithful to call home. fess sins to a confessor of their own choice—even to one of Let us as a community of faith come together for respect- another rite. Would it be possible to extend this canon to ful, compassionate and sensitive discussions to ensure that enable persons abused by a priest to confess to a woman God’s love protects and nurtures wholeness and holiness in Anglican priest, assuming that they would feel emotionally all of God’s children—whatever their age or condition. safer? Survivors might also be allowed to avail themselves of the provisions of Canons 961-63, which allow for the rec- Lea Karen Kivi is president of Angela’s Heart Communications Inc. (www.angelasheart.ca) and author of Abuse in the Church: onciliation of several persons through general confession Healing the Body of Christ and A Survivor’s Journey Through and absolution. the Bible.

32 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 33 Remembering How do I find God in a newsroom Mac massacre? By Gary Gately

On a brilliant Thursday in late June, a deeply disturbed shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead.” 38-year-old man armed with a pump-action shotgun My throat tightens. I knew the world changed in 1999 opened fire in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, at Columbine High; so many have fallen in mass shoot- Md. Frantically seeking a witness while reporting on the ings since then, as “never again” keeps happening again shooting as a stringer for The New York Times, I send a with heartbreaking frequency. But a newsroom? This is Facebook message to John McNamara, an award-winning the “Crapital,” the “Crab Wrapper,” the paper everybody sportswriter and news editor at the paper. kvetches about but everybody reads, every day. Surely, Mac—a friend, mentor and editor to the skinny Baltimore’s WBAL News Radio interrupts afternoon kid who used to be me in spring 1982, when I started as a talk with a bulletin: Five are dead after a gunman shot his cub reporter at the University of Maryland’s student paper, way into the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper. The Diamondback—would describe whatever happened in The phone rings. Let it be Mac. vivid detail on deadline and employ his Irish gift for putting It is not he but a fellow Diamondback alum providing, words around it just so. on background, the names of the dead: Mac, along with two I obsessively check my cell phone for news, any news. others connected with the University of Maryland, the ed- At 3:45 p.m., I gasp when I see the tweet from Phil Da- itorial writer Gerald Fischman and Rob Hiaasen, an editor vis, the Capital Gazette police reporter: “A single shooter and columnist. The Gazette’s longtime and beloved com-

34 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 35 CNS photo/Joshua Roberts, Reuters Roberts, CNS photo/Joshua

munity columnist Wendi Winters and the young ad sales first met Mac at the daily Diamondback in May 1982. I had assistant Rebecca Smith also died in the rampage. been assigned to cover a daylong energy conference at the I am suddenly nauseous. It would be a natural human university’s adult education center. Exasperated and try- response to pause and weep for Mac and his fellow fallen ing to make sense of the event, I recorded the whole thing. I newspaper staffers, to rage against whatever sociopath filed my lead: “U.S. Energy Secretary James Edwards, util- would gun down people putting out a newspaper. ity officials and other energy experts gathered Saturday at But there is news to report, so I do as I have done for the conference center at University College to discuss the more than three decades: say a quick prayer and keep mov- complexities of America’s energy crisis.” ing. Give in to emotions on a big, breaking story, however Mac, the paper’s managing editor, told me, with his horrific, and you become the journalistic equivalent of the baby-faced leprechaun smile: “This is called a label lead. surgeon with shaky hands. That means you could have written it before the event For much of two days and well into the nights, I keep even happened. Focus instead on what happened, what’s moving. But in the hurry-up-and-wait lulls between police new, what’s news.” updates, a court hearing for the suspect, seeking eyewit- Then Mac patted me on the back and said: “Don’t wor- nesses and comments from friends and loved ones of the ry about it, kid. Every cub makes this mistake. Now you victims, my mind meanders through the decades to when I won’t anymore.”

34 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 35 So many have fallen

I think of the words of a hero, the writer Joan Didion: in mass shootings, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.... We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the as ‘never again’ keeps murder of five.” The social or moral lesson in the murder of five? It sounds absurd in the context of the newsroom massacre, save perhaps happening again for the lesson that the United States does a pitiful job keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill mass murderers. with heartbreaking But I keep mulling over that Didion quotation and keep asking: If we must strive to find God in all things, how frequency. do I find God in this, the violent death of my long-ago friend and mentor and four of his colleagues in a newsroom? I pose the question to my priest-confessor, spiritual That is how John McNamara taught—with compas- director, counselor and friend, the 84-year-old Jesuit Bill sion and grace, at a student newspaper that put a premi- Watters. He patiently tells me, yes, we must see God as the um on comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable, crucified Christ in the lives stolen from us by a man filled where the editor in chief who mentored Mac, David Si- with hatred. The tall, thin, Irish priest also does what he mon (of “The Wire” fame), would write, “The journalist is does so well, gently nudging me toward the light and help- the kid who stood at the edge of the playground, plotting ing me see anew that sometimes the light can shine bright- his revenge.” ly, even at the precipice of darkness. Neither Mac nor Fischman nor legions of other Dia- Remembering Mac and his kindness and what he mondbackers in that newsroom crucible could imagine a taught me in that college newsroom half a lifetime ago higher calling in life than journalism. sends me on a journey to beginnings—to what made me Nor could any of us have conceived then of an America switch my major from pre-law and never look back—and where the president regularly condemns the Fourth Estate doing so somehow rekindles my passion for journalism as the “enemy of the people,” where alt-right commentators more than anything has in years. and extremist groups call for the assassination of journalists, In the aftermath of Mac’s death and those of his col- where a Capital Gazette column exposing a deranged man’s leagues, we the press—unaccustomed to getting much love criminal harassment and stalking of a former high school in this age or any other if we are doing our jobs right—sud- classmate would prompt him to shoot up a newsroom. denly found ourselves embraced in an outpouring of sup- ••• port. Across the country, 350 newspapers published edito- At last, exhausted late Friday night, I send The Times rials affirming that the work of a free press as essential to my final feed, but I cannot turn off the adrenaline or a democracy in these febrile times and rebuking the pres- stop reading about the rampage or watching the videos— ident for labeling journalists “enemies of the people” and until I recall the words I found on Mac’s Facebook page purveyors of “fake news.” the previous day, when I still thought I was preparing to And the loss of Mac and his colleagues brought forth an interview him: “Are we not all precious in God’s eyes?” abundance of admiration for those who have recognized the With that, I break down, and the image of myself as a value and the power and the dignity of seeking out the stories hardbitten newspaperman that I have maintained over the of others, sharing them with the world and enriching us all. past two days crumbles. I weep—for Mac, for his wife and As with so many untimely deaths I have covered, the story college sweetheart, Andrea Chamblee, for his colleagues, of the Capital Gazette massacre is not only about incalculable for all of us. For they are us, and we are them but for grace loss but also all the gifts the departed gave us and leave us. And and circumstance. there we find God and his light, even amid the darkness. I have covered hundreds of murders and other untimely deaths. But this one’s personal. I had never before known Gary Gately, a Baltimore-based journalist, has won 15 a victim I was reporting on, and as a journalist, I know you national, regional and local awards for investigative, public service, feature, business and travel stories. have to move on, for another story, another deadline looms His work has appeared in The New York Times, The always. Yet I can’t shake this one easily. Washington Post, The Boston Globe and elsewhere.

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2018 | 7:00 p.m. Sheen Center for Thought & Culture 18 Bleecker St. New York, N.Y. 10012

Professors Robert P. George and Cornel West discuss the importance of freedom of speech in the search for truth, both on campus and in wider society, in a conversation moderated by Matt Malone, S.J., editor in chief of America. For More Information & Tickets: sheencenter.org/shows/campus

36 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 37 Walter Ong on Mickey Mouse

On Nov. 18, Mickey Mouse, the widely It is no easy task to find any common have brought Mickey into being have beloved cartoon character created denominator in the various mixtures always worked with some of their fin- by Walt Disney, turned 90. In 1941, as of ideologies existing in the minds of gers on the pulse of the American pub- Mickey was entering his teens, American men and women. But from lic. And, since Hollywood, at least in Walter J. Ong, S.J., the estimable scholar of our Victorian ancestors we nearly this one instance, is functioning frank- language and media studies, censured him all seem to have inherited one first ly and freely to produce movies and in America’s pages (10/4/1941) and lamented principle in common—an abiding not canned stage plays, little has stood his insidious effects on American culture. faith in youth when it is accompanied in the way of their realizing the artistic Today America remembers an argument that by vigorous animal activity and a effects desired. The result is the cre- raised some still-valid questions about one healthy grin. ation of a world which offends almost of the country’s—and the world’s—most Hence it is ticklish business to un- no one and meets with uncritical and recognizable icons. dertake a critique of Mickey Mouse. For enthusiastic acclaim. if all normal human beings are supposed Mickey’s popularity is a popular- to like young creatures engaged in phys- ity that has come with the living of a ical activity and grinning, they do not all mechanically busy life in an intellec- put the same value on this sort of thing. tual and moral vacuum. In most of the But suppose we examine what Mickey “stories” we watch Mickey’s quaint Mouse is, not in himself, but in his rela- smile and queer poses. We watch the tion to our national culture, and see if, characters making faces or pirouetting thereby, we can arrive at something that at the vortices of multi-colored whirl- is very difficult to attain—an evaluation winds or rocketing along with blasts of of our own culture. vapor in their wakes. We watch Pluto’s If a product of an age is entirely flexible muzzle as it crawls across the free from criticism, it is something of screen. And that is all. great interest. Its immunity from crit- Though Mickey’s animal ancestry ical examination is the guarantee that is very old, none of his animal fore- such a product has risen out of those bears were quite like Mickey. Ani- principles which are considered so mal stories reach far back toward the basic as never to be questioned. If we beginnings of the human race, and can, then, bring our critical attention yet the Mickey Mouse stories differ to focus upon such an adventitious vastly from all the traditional variet- being universally taken for granted, ies. As for the earliest animal stories we will be in a position to see our age with which everyone is familiar, a very somewhat in the way it will appear to brief recollection of Aesop will make succeeding generations. it plain that Mickey has swung wide of Now, Mickey Mouse is singular- this tradition. ly free from criticism. He is taken for Aesop’s stories all have deep moral granted because if he does not repre- connections. The morals themselves sent the entire scheme of values that may be simple and easily gathered. But Americans live by, at least his scheme they are serious, and the story, enter- of values is fitted into theirs without taining as it may be, is inextricably in- demanding for itself any readjust- volved with the ordinary moral issues ment in the process. The artists who which confront human beings.

38 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 39 This connection between beast tence is a tacit acknowledgement of gloves which evidently supersedes fable and the serious things of exis- our own weakness. the traditional American eagle that tence is the usual thing. It is found in It is entirely true that we can appears rather diffidently in the the Sanscrit Panchatantra, in the me- find in other ages certain forms of background of the design. dieval beast fables and epics such as art with which Mickey Mouse has as Here, it seems, we have a kind of Reynard the Fox, and down to La Fon- close affinities as he has with the an- plenary treatment of Mickey Mouse- taine and Hans Christian Andersen’s imal stories. There is the dumb show, ism. When a nation prepares for war, it Ugly Duckling. the Punch-and-Judy show, or the jig, is in a serious mood. Even in peacetime Yet these stories, like the Dis- in all of which antics might be antics its emblems and insignia, such as the ney stories, are entertaining. It has and nothing more. But apart from flag or the American eagle, give expres- not always been necessary to side- the fact that in these forms of enter- sion to the highest national aspirations, step every serious issue in order to tainment there is not quite the stud- and in a time that threatens war we amuse. Perhaps a more entertaining ied isolation from all serious mean- may reasonably assume that there is an animal story will never be told than ing that we find in Mickey, no age has all-out on inspirational devices. Pre- the popular medieval account of the opened its arms to such things in the sumably at such a time the most inspi- fox who fell into the well and talked way we have to Mr. Disney’s world. rational must be seized upon. And thus his old enemy, the wolf, into riding Further, although every age has its is betrayed where Mickey’s scheme of the other windlass bucket down into slapstick and a certain measure of values fits into our national life. For, the depths (where he had given the entertainment built around mere although all these new insignia are wolf to understand a veritable para- moving and smiling, in no other age not recognizable Mickey Mouses, they dise was to be found), thus enabling have these phenomena achieved the are most unmistakably in the Mickey himself to ride back up in the other complete divorce from everything Mouse tradition and stand for what it bucket. But for all its sheerly amus- of importance that we find in Mick- stands for and for no more. ing qualities, the tale quite obviously ey Mouse. And in no other age have But are not these insignia per- involves itself in the question of flat- the individual and national ideals forming merely the function of mas- tery and of the man who lives off so- of a people found such satisfactory cots? Yes. And a mascot is the prop- ciety by his wits. expression on this level. Certainly, er attribute of an athletic team. Of An artificial secularism puts in no other age has a similar figure course, a mascot may serve a function Mickey Mouse outside this tradi- been apotheosized and reproduced even in an army—a recreational function, delimiting the field in which he in so many forms of idols as Mr. Dis- tion. Recreation and a spirit of jovial operates and effectively blocking off ney’s West-Coast rodent has today. camaraderie are certainly in order. connections with basic and serious As an instance of how far matters But it is not in order to substitute a truths which have characterized his have gone, we are now given the in- mascot appeal for a serious appeal. animal forerunners. Thus, the Dis- formation by the press that the Dis- Mickey Mouse motivation is sure ney picture-stories whether mov- ney studios have recently received to crumple before one of the serious ies or newspaper strips, gravitate a new assignment—this time from major ideologies. It is late now to start toward the shallowly spectacular. Uncle Sam. It has been decided that to rehabilitate the deliberately secu- Mickey in his own way is merely fol- the insignia for our men in the ser- larized and emasculated set of values lowing out the segregative processes vice should be designed in the true which we have allowed to spring up of a secularism which has eaten the Mickey Mouse tradition. Photo- and flourish in our nation and espe- marrow out of our national culture graphs of the designs recently pub- cially in our public schools. But we had by isolating religious and moral con- lished disclose a Laughing Jackass, better begin. We cannot erect a de- siderations from everything except Butch the Falcon, Dusty (a cuddle- fense of democracy on a set of nation- the most private departments of some winged calf wearing an airman’s al ideals where the things for which each individual’s life. And our being helmet and a moonish smile), and Mickey Mouse stands find place so so taken with Mickey’s vacuous exis- a genuine Disney eagle with boxing near the top.

38 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 39 IDEAS IN

The Evolution of René Girard By Cynthia L. Haven

Armed with a copy of the Iliad and a well as literal, sense: He scrutinized Like Schliemann, the French ac- shovel, Heinrich Schliemann set out the words of the text and believed that ademician trusted literature as the to fi nd Troy in 1871. Two years later, they held the truth. repository of truth and as an accurate he hit gold. “I’ve said this for years: In the glob- refl ection of what actually happened. He was vilifi ed as an amateur, an al sense, the best analogy for what René Harrison told me that Girard’s loyalty adventurer and a con man. As archae- Girard represents in anthropology was not to a narrow academic disci- ologists refi ned their methods of ex- and sociology is Schliemann,” said the pline, but rather to a continuing human cavation in the subsequent decades, French theorist’s Stanford colleague, truth: “Academic disciplines are more Schliemann would also be deplored Robert Pogue Harrison. “Like him, his committed to methodology than truth. for destroying much of what he was major discovery was excoriated for us- René, like Schliemann, had no training trying to fi nd. ing the wrong methods. The others nev- in anthropology. From the discipline’s Nevertheless, he found the lost er would have found Troy by looking point of view, that is ruthlessly undisci- city. He is credited with the modern at the literature—it was beyond their plined. He’s still not forgiven.” discovery of prehistoric Greek civili- imagination.” Girard’s writings hold I have appreciated Harrison’s zation. He ignited the fi eld of Homeric revelations that are even more import- analogy, though some of Girard’s oth- studies at the end of the 19th century. ant, however: they describe the roots of er friends will no doubt rush to his de- Most important, for our purposes, he the violence that destroyed Troy and fense, given Schliemann’s scandalous broke new ground in a fi gurative, as other empires throughout time. character—but Girard scandalized

40 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 41 For Girard, literature is more than a record of historical truth; it is the archive of self-knowledge.

people, too; many academ- best known for his notion of mediat- couples dissolve and reassemble, tear- ics grind their teeth at some ed desire, based on the observation ing friendships asunder as the two of Girard’s more ex cathedra that people adopt the desires of other men suddenly want the same woman. pronouncements (though people. In short, we want what others Whatever two or three people want, surely a few other modern want. We want it because they want it. soon everyone will want. Mimetic de- French thinkers were just as Human behavior is driven by im- sire spreads contagiously, as people apodictic). He never received itation. We are, after all, social crea- converge on the same person, position the recognition he merited on tures. Imitation is the way we learn; or possession as the answer to a prayer this side of the Atlantic, even it’s how we begin to speak, and why or the solution to a problem. Even con- though he is one of Ameri- we don’t eat with our hands. It’s why fl ict is imitated and reciprocated. ca’s very few immortels of the advertising works, why a whole gen- Eventually, one individual or Académie Française. eration may decide at once to pierce group is seen as responsible for the For Girard, however, liter- their tongues or tear their jeans, why social contagion—generally, some- ature is more than a record of pop songs top the charts and the stock one who is an outsider, who cannot historical truth; it is the archive markets rise and fall. or will not retaliate, and so is posi- of self-knowledge. Girard’s The idea of mimesis is hardly tioned to end the escalating cycles public life began in literary foreign to the social sciences today, of tit-for-tat. The chosen culprit is theory and criticism, with the but no one had made it a linchpin in a therefore a foreigner, a cripple, a study of authors whose protag- theory of human competition and vio- woman or, in some cases, a king so onists embraced self-renunci- lence, as Girard did, beginning in the far above the crowd that he stands ation and self-transcendence. 1950s. Freud and Marx were in error. alone. The victim is killed, exiled, Eventually, his scholarship One supposed sex to be the building pilloried or otherwise eliminated. crossed into the fi elds of an- block of human behavior; the other This act unites the warring factions

alamy.com thropology, sociology, history, saw economics as fundamental. But and releases enormous social ten- philosophy, psychology, theolo- the true key was “mimetic desire,” sion, restoring harmony among in- gy. Girard’s thinking, including his tex- which precedes and drives both. Imi- dividuals and within the community. tual analysis, off ers a sweeping reading tation steers our sexual longings and First the scapegoat is a criminal, then of human nature, human history and Wall Street trends. When a Coca-Co- a god. More important, the scape- human destiny. Let us review some of la advertisement beckons you to join goat is both, since the single-handed his more important conclusions. the glamorous people at a beach by power to bring either peace and har- He overturned three widespread drinking its beverage, mimetic desire mony or war and violence to a soci- assumptions about the nature of desire poses no immediate privations—there ety is seen as supernatural. Oedipus and violence: fi rst, that our desire is au- is enough Coca-Cola for all. Problems is deified at Colonus, Helen of Troy thentic and our own; second, that we arise where scarcity imposes limits, or ascends Mount Olympus, and even fi ght from our diff erences, rather than when envy eyes an object that cannot as Joan of Arc is burned at the stake, our sameness; and third, that religion is be shared, or one that the possessor the mob begins to murmur, “We have the cause of violence, rather than an ar- has no wish to share—a spouse, an in- killed a saint!” Archaic religious sac- chaic solution for controlling violence heritance, the top-fl oor corner offi ce. rifice, Girard argued, is no more than within a society, as he would assert. Hence, Girard claimed that mi- the ritual reenactment of the scape- He was fascinated by what he calls metic desire is not only the way we goat’s killing, invoking the magical “metaphysical desire”—that is, the love; it’s the reason we fi ght. Two hands powers that pre-empted a societal desire we have when creature needs that reach toward the same object will catastrophe previously. He offered a for food, water, sleep and shelter are ultimately clench into fi sts. Think of complete deconstruction of religion, met. In that regard, he is perhaps “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” where just as he had deconstructed desire.

40 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 41 Girard is a champion of the long thought in a world that favors increasingly short and trivial ones.

He not only replaced Freudian de- favors increasingly short and trivial cars, their couturiers, their circle of sire with a more streamlined notion of ones. He is one of the few real thinkers friends) we will acquire their meta- mimesis, he also reconsidered Freud’s we have had in our times. physical goods—authority, wisdom, Totem and Taboo, the psychoanalyst’s Many have attempted to compart- autonomy, self-fulfillment—which are ventures into archaeology and anthro- mentalize him according to his various largely imagined, anyway. pology, at a time when the book was interests (literature, anthropology, The imitation puts us in direct largely rejected. Girard took its notions religions) or according to the distinct competition with the person we adore, of collective murder, and its insight that phases of his work (mimesis, scape- the rival we ultimately come to hate the foundation of culture is murder, one goating, sacrifice). However, Girard and worship, who responds by de- step further. He reaffirmed the book’s cannot be parsed into segments be- fending his or her turf. As competition importance but ultimately refuted it cause the phases of his work are not di- intensifies, the rivals copy each other with his daring, erudite argument. verse moments in one person’s episod- more and more, even if they’re only His next step was to prove the ic life. They show the substance of his copying the reflected image of them- most provocative of all. He describes intellectual, emotional and spiritual selves. Eventually, the objet du désir how the Judeo-Christian texts are involvement with 20th-century history becomes secondary or irrelevant. The unique in revealing the innocence of and his personal effort to come to grips rivals are obsessed with each other the scapegoat, thus destabilizing the with it. More often, journalists and oth- and their fight. Bystanders are drawn mechanism that allowed the victim ers marshal one piece of his thought to into “taking sides,” and so the conflict to be both criminal and redeemer, the support the discussion at hand, while can envelop a society, with cycles of violent solution to social violence. We failing to consider the context of the retaliatory (and therefore imitative) can no longer have clean consciences whole. But attempts to put him in a box violence and one-upsmanship. as we murder. Individuals and groups reveal something about our own need That’s why Girard’s theories must even compete for the cachet of being a to comfort ourselves. explode inward rather than outward. victim in the Oppression Olympics, as Compartmentalizing his ideas is a If you use these tools to castigate the the power-holders play defense. Wars mistake, obviously. It cannot and should defective “other,” you miss the point. continue but end with no clear resolu- not be done, for the simple reason that Desire is not individual but social. The tions. International rivalries still esca- if you do so you won’t be changed. That, other has colonized your desire long late toward uncertain ends. The stakes in the end, is the real core of Girard’s before you knew you had it. And the are higher than ever today: We teeter thought: change of being. phantom being that you covet recedes on the nuclear brink. “All desire is a desire for being,” he as you pursue it. Girard asks you to ask For the reader meeting René Gi- wrote, and the formulation, stunning yourself: Who do I worship? rard for the first time, the obvious in its implications, is an arrow that question is why, in a world flooded points the way out of our metaphysi- Cynthia L. Haven writes regularly for The Times Literary Supplement and has with new information daily, we should cal plight. We want what others want contributed to The New York Times, care about the books, interviews, arti- because we believe the “other” pos- The Nation, The Washington Post and cles and life of a man who died quietly sesses an inner perfection that we do many other publications. This essay in his early 90s in late 2015. I would not. We become consumed by the wish is an excerpt from her book Evolution of Desire: A Life of René Girard (© begin by noting that he is a champi- to be the godlike others. We hope that 2018 by Michigan State University on of the long thought in a world that by acquiring their trappings (their Press, reprinted by permission).

42 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 43 “ The best thing I did in ministry was to teach children the Gospel through plays,” says Sister Clare Vandecoevering, 88. “Oh, they were just delighted!” A member of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon, she spent over 50 years in Whose Resolve, the classroom. Which Salvation?

By Joshua Wall

Jesus said: Suff er the children, forbid them not from me. Such is my father’s Retirement Fund kingdom, heaven: Their names are legion for Religious where they lay tunneled beneath our borders. Please give to those who have given a lifetime. Raise the tattered knuckles of their corpses, Roman play things, marbles and jacks cast upon the suff ering of children, whose unnamed legion will separate our bones, dissolve our joints, on resurrection day. Sister Clare (top) is one of 31,000 senior Catholic sisters, brothers, and religious order priests Joshua Wall has published work in First Things, Frontier Poetry and Jewish Fiction.net. who benefits from the Retirement Fund for He holds a Ph.D. from the University Religious. Your gift helps religious communities of Michigan, where he teaches. care for aging members and plan for future needs. Please be generous. Almost 94 percent of donations directly aid senior religious.

To donate: National Religious Retirement Office/AMR 3211 Fourth Street NE Washington DC 20017-1194 Make check payable to Retirement Fund for Religious. Or give at your local parish.

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Photos: Meet them at retiredreligious.org/2018 photos. ©2018 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Photographer: Jim Judkis. 42 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 43 BOOKS

The Writer’s Catholic Writer? By Randy Boyagoda istock

The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis happily married for 35 years and died America”; Rushdie contends his “fan- Translated by Margaret Jull in 1908, receiving a state funeral. tasticating imagination” is so fertile, Costa and Robin Patterson That honor was not in recognition profound and original as to suggest Liveright of superior bureaucratic accomplish- he might have been a descendant of 930p $35 ments. Instead, it was for the lifelong otherworldly literary gods who set bibliophile’s seven short story collec- him into “the South American literary tions and nine novels, alongside poetry, wilderness of that period.” plays, journalism and librettos. He also The easy way to explain the phe- Stop me if you’ve heard this before: co-founded the Brazilian Academy of nomenon of an apparently great and What do Susan Sontag, Philip Roth, Letters and served as its fi rst president. generally unknown author is to praise Allen Ginsberg, Harold Bloom, This biographical information that person as a “writer’s writer.” This Salman Rushdie and a 19th-century comes from the introduction to The is a diplomatic way of excusing general Catholic priest from Brazil have in Collected Stories of Machado de Assis, readers from engaging with the works common? They all rate highly the which was published earlier this year of a diffi cult or idiosyncratic artist talents of Machado de Assis. in a new English-language transla- whose eff orts are assumed to appeal Born in 1839, the grandchild of tion by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin only to fellow practitioners. That could freed slaves, Machado lived outside Rio Patterson. This 900-page tome off ers easily explain (away) Machado’s work, de Janeiro with his family until losing a chance for readers unfamiliar with but an immersion in his world suggests both his little sister and mother to un- Machado to fi gure out why a writer he is actually more of a “writer’s Catho- timely deaths. He and his father moved so little-read outside his native Brazil lic writer.” Regardless of his personally elsewhere, his father remarried, and seems such a big deal to elite Anglo- held beliefs or religious practice, his Machado eventually found work with phone literati. Ginsberg praised him cerebral, playful and mystical-myste- Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Com- as “another Kafk a”; Sontag declared rious stories consistently reveal, affi rm merce and Public Works, where he was he was nothing less than “the great- and depend upon a fundamentally reli- employed for three decades. He was est writer ever produced in Latin gious sense of things.

44 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 45 Machado de Assis is a big deal to elite literati, but is little-read outside his native Brazil.

While almost any fabulist depends the world, then I am of the fi rm opinion tion with a beguiling older woman. on and opens up views of worlds be- that something, either love or dinner, That tautness depends on Machado’s yond the immediate that are not neces- must still exist somewhere or other.” reminding us of the chronological and sarily religiously-shaped—the stories Other stories are more explicit- ethical stakes of the narrator’s ambiv- of both Edgar Allan Poe and Jorge Luis ly moralizing in their conclusions but alent chatting, either just before going Borges come immediately to mind— usually not to great eff ect, because to church, or for so long that he misses Machado’s eff orts in this respect prove their pointed endings collapse all of Mass and does something else instead. consistently so, and particularly Cath- the meaningful ambiguity and impli- More mischievous in its study olic, in their most striking features. cation of the stories themselves. This of our too-human spirits, “Among “The Devil’s Church” (1884), for is the case, for instance, with “Brother Saints” (1896) is a feverishly told tale instance, is a wry and slanted update Simão” (1870), a brisk reworking of the of a sacristan who hears men talking of Milton’s Paradise Lost. In this story story of Abélard and Héloïse, whose in his parish church in the middle of the Devil decides to open a church of many intriguing turns and shocking the night. He discovers the statuary his own. First, he goes to heaven and revelations lose their purchase, by sto- saints of the church have come to life parlays with God. Initially amused, ry’s end, to the too obvious poetic jus- and stepped down from their niches. God soon grows tired of the Devil’s tice visited upon the man responsible The sacristan recounts their banter: talk about his grand and puritanically for separating the lovers. “Me? Smile?” scoff s John the Baptist evil ambitions and sends him away to Elsewhere, Machado comes at Francis de Sales while promising try his best. Back on earth, the Dev- across as more provocatively exper- to tell a story of a recent petition that il disguises himself as a Benedictine imental, as in “In the Ark” (1882), will entertain him, while from off to monk and begins proclaiming a new, which he subtitles “Three Unpub- the side St. Joseph meekly insists he counter-Biblical message. He gains lished Chapters From the Book of has a better one to tell. The sacris- many followers only to learn, eventu- Genesis.” This explores sibling rivalry tan listens in; what he learns of one ally, that his most outwardly devout among the sons of Noah, which Mach- particularly desperate man’s prayers followers prove the least genuinely ado unexpectedly extends from the proves too much, and he faints while faithful to his teachings. One can al- atemporal realm of the mythic-bib- the saints laugh “not the great guff aws most hear God calling down “I told lical into late 19th-century geopol- of Homer’s gods when they saw lame you so” from on high. itics by way of a leap from Shem and Vulcan serving at the table, but a po- Deep and even didactic irony ap- Japheth arguing over territory to a lite, pious, very Catholic laugh.” pears across Machado’s stories, usual- suddenly related citation of the war Machado’s imagination is so boldly ly in their denouement. Others prove between Russia and the Ottoman Em- literary and religious that at his best he more bookishly playful. “The Sacris- pire in the late 1870s. does what every great writer tries to do. tan’s Manuscript” (1884) recounts the The size of this collection disclos- His stories let us imagine our way into story of a lonely, austere priest and his es unevenness and repetition—partic- familiar perspectives and situations lonely, generous, unmarried cousin. ularly the premise of failed romances from unexpected vantages that enlarge Their coming together, surprisingly between devout women and seminar- and transform our sense of what is and and intensely, ends badly but also, in ians or priests. That said, two stories what can be in this life, and the next. a way, nobly, for both. Machado’s nar- stand out: “Midnight Mass” (1899) is rator, a self-described “philosophical a work of veiled meaning and temp- sacristan” and friend and confi dant to tation involving a young man (who both people, concludes a heated tale narrates) and an older woman. It is Randy Boyagoda is a professor of of the heart with an intellectual’s cool, English at the University of Toronto, brilliantly taut in its telling of why and where he is also principal of St. Michael’s ethereal irony: “If it is true, as Schiller how the young man’s “soul grew indo- College and holds the Basilian Chair would have it, that love and hunger rule lent” over the course of his conversa- in Christianity, Arts and Letters.

44 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 45 BOOKS

The Incendiaries Fear By R. O. Kwon devastating consequences. Trump in the Riverhead Books Phoebe and Will date casually White House 214p $26 until he tells her the truth about his By Bob Woodward evangelical childhood and loss of Simon & Schuster faith, which intrigues her. From then 448p $30 on, they are a couple, but as they become more entwined, Phoebe falls under the sway of John Leal, a former Edwards student who claims to have spent time in a North Korean gulag Crises of faith and leads a strict Bible study group Real news R. O. Kwon was raised a devout called Jejah. Will recognizes John’s Readers of Bob Woodward’s latest, Catholic by her Korean parents conversion techniques, sees Jejah as Fear, can be forgiven if they forget before becoming agnostic at 17. a cult and tries to convince Phoebe at times that the best-seller is She beautifully delves into the that John is “a low-rent Jesus freak allegedly the result of dogged pain of lost certitude of God’s with Franciscan affectations.” research and interviews with grace in her poised debut novel, With an informed respect that is real, if mostly anonymous people The Incendiaries. The book cycles rare in contemporary fiction, Kwon in the actual world. The various through three perspectives and grapples with religious and roman- confrontations, policy mishaps, flits through time to construct its tic devotion, faith and its loss, the joy personnel missteps and general haunting story. and comforts of God’s love and the White House mayhem Fear depicts Will Kendall became an evan- shadow its absence leaves behind. suggest a work of fiction, but the gelical in junior high, when his Her prose is precise and filled with action in Fear is too over-the-top mother fell ill. “A kid evangelist, and gorgeous sentences that arrive reg- for the story ever to be credible as a pain in the ass,” he describes his ularly, like pearls on a string. “Sun- mere political satire. young self. After stints of mission- lit paths crossed the green, lines in Fear is allegedly named for ary work and semesters at a Bible a giant palm, holding students who Donald Trump’s “strategy” in busi- college, Will loses his faith and ends lazed on the grass," Will observes ness wheeling and dealing, but the up at Edwards, a tony East Coast about the campus. “It was a lost gar- title perhaps best describes the only college where children of the rich den, but I’d been allowed in.” rational response of its exhausted frolic. “In thrift-store ballgowns, The Incendiaries startles and readers after 300-plus pages of this they splashed through off-limits unsettles with insights, as its char- narrative of the White House as a fountains,” Will observes. acters act to prove their beliefs to clown car. Much has been made of While Will works multiple jobs, themselves and to the world, with Woodward’s exhaustive methods lies to convince others his family explosive results. and the resulting capacity to recre- isn’t poor and evades questions about ate real-time dialogue and brain- his past, he meets Phoebe Lin and is storming sessions behind closed immediately enchanted. Phoebe ap- Jenny Shank’s first novel, The Ringer, White House doors, but the hot-rod pears to be a happy-go-lucky party won the High Plains Book Award. pace and shifting standards for di- She is on the faculty of the Mile High girl with an endless supply of friends M.F.A. program in creative writing rect quoting can leave readers bereft and lovers. But she, too, is improvis- at Regis University in Denver. of emotional and intellectual breath. ing young adulthood after a fervent In Fear, Trump as an actual youth. Her devotion was to the piano, human being makes a few rare ap- with ambitions to become a concert pearances—for example, in con- pianist, a goal she abandoned with templating a response to the Syrian

46 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 47 regime’s chemical attacks. He seems Refuge in Hell description of the prisoners he met genuinely appalled by the Syrian dic- Finding God provide a glimpse for the reader into tator, but there is no follow-through in Sing Sing life in prison that few outside the By Ronald or deliberation or doubt before or af- D. Lemmert walls of the criminal justice system ter any of his major decisions, even as Orbis Books can see. they contradict themselves. By turns 208p $22 The most poignant moment petulant, explosively peevish or na- comes at the end, when the author kedly self-serving, Trump appears describes vividly just how hellish as a bizarro-world inverse of what the system is: the incompetent, lazy the public has come to expect of the and often corrupt correctional em- presidency. The day-care staff swirl- A modern day inferno ployees; the cruelty and indifference ing around him at the White House While studying theology as a Jesuit of many mental and medical health have become expert at Trumpian im- scholastic, I was blessed to have providers; and, sadly, even some pulse control, from pacifying flattery James Keenan, S.J., as a teacher. chaplains who do nothing more for and bureaucratic obfuscation to out- Father Keenan taught that sin in the inmates than pick up a check right deception. Many take to simply the Gospels is always about not each week. I know from my own long hiding material from the president bothering to love. The clearest experience that his descriptions are to prevent jaw-dropping policy blun- example of this is found in Matthew no exaggeration. ders. (Spoiler alert: He finds ways to 25, where Jesus says those who While he provides a very clear, make them anyway.) never bothered to feed the hungry, sharp and critical view of the prison We also learn some interest- clothe the naked, care for the sick or system in New York’s “Dept. of Cor- ing things about the current White visit the imprisoned are condemned ruptions,” people who are ignorant House. Staffers in the Trump ad- to hell for their indifference to of or indifferent to the suffering of ministration appear not to know too human suffering. prisoners are not likely to pick up a much about history, biology or the Perhaps nowhere in our contem- prison memoir. What is needed is French they took—or‚ God forbid‚ porary culture in the United States is a book that will reach a wider audi- foreign policy—but no one seems to the contrast between Christian love ence and hold a mirror up to all of let all that ignorance get in the way of and hellish indifference more stark us—a book that forces us to grapple preposterous arguments, relentless than in our prison system. In Refuge with our societal failure to bother to scheming and backstabbing or the in Hell, the Rev. Ronald Lemmert, a love. This failure has created pock- practical matters of government— prison chaplain, offers us a glimpse ets of hell like Sing Sing and is spill- something else they don’t seem to of the price one pays to follow the ing over poisonously into all the oth- know too much about. Gospel of Christ, taking the reader on er areas of our selfish culture. Father All in all, Fear is a sorry and a Dante-esque journey through the Lemmert’s book serves as a warning, depressing read. If Woodward’s ac- circles of hell in a modern-day Infer- a kind of canary in the coal mine. count turns out to be an example of no, Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Sadly, no one listens to canaries. the president’s beloved fake news, we New York State. can only be relieved. As a fellow priest and prison George Williams, S.J., is the Catholic chaplain who has devoted most of chaplain of San Quentin State Prison Kevin Clarke, senior editor. his ministerial life to working in jails in California. Twitter: @ClarkeatAmerica. and prisons, I can attest that what Father Lemmert writes is spot on: “Prison is the closest thing to hell on earth.” His descriptions of daily Full book reviews at life in prison and his compassionate americamagazine.org/books

46 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 47 CULTURE

A martyr’s tale for the classic rock set By John Anderson

Loud, vivid and yearning to be ducers. Knowing this adds to the sense The morning after I saw it with operatic, “Bohemian Rhapsody”— that the story has been laundered: The my regular movie-screening partner, a.k.a. the Queen movie—was always band dynamics in the fi lm have almost Sue, she emailed me: “Do you think destined to be a martyr’s tale, a tragic no edge at all. The confl icts are always the movie vilifi es the gay communi- romance, maybe rock’s answer to outside the group, never within, at least ty?” It was not the question I had ex- “La Bohème.” Freddie Mercury, the until late in the game, when Freddie pected. But it was not a bad one. band’s guiding diva, died of AIDS decides he needs to go solo. He ulti- In one sense, no. The Freddie complications in 1991. The band was mately sees the error of his ways and Mercury of the fi lm arrives fully huge, and Mercury was pop’s most returns just in time for the justly cele- formed. The child of conservative im- fl amboyant performer—a closeted brated performance by Queen at 1985’s migrant parents (Parsi, by way of Zan- icon who rode a gay aesthetic to Live Aid benefi t concert. zibar), he undergoes no clichéd evolu- stardom. It is a poignant story even The shared sense of musical mis- tion from shrinking, unsure violet to now. Or especially now. chief among the bandmates is an emo- screaming Queen; he may not be out, The “problems” with “Bohemian tionally comforting element in “Bo- but he is outré. Rhapsody” begin with the enormous hemian Rhapsody”; the portrait may On the other hand, the one-time expectations of the movie and the emo- actually be true, but movies seldom let manager Paul Prenter (Allen Leech), tional investment so many fans have facts get in the way of convenient dra- who emerges as Freddy’s sole gay ally in the band. And with Mercury, whose matic confl ict. Elsewhere, however, amid the vast Queen machinery, is also portrayal by Rami Malek, outfi tted with the history is really off . Mercury never the villain of the piece, cutting Fred- a set of Freddie-worthy buck teeth, is a actually married his best friend, Mary die off from all others and jealously close-to-alarming thing to watch. Mer- Austin, for example. And there are oth- protecting his turf. He also seems to cury, with all the outsider credentials a er problematic aspects aswirl around be Freddie’s conduit to a leathery gay young man might not want in ’70s Lon- the movie’s release. The director, Bry- world that is introduced with as un- don, triumphs over not only conven- an Singer, was not only fi red shortly be- subtle a piece of Christian imagery as tional pop but also conventional beauty. fore principal photography was com- one might cook up. Intercutting con- But the movie is far more conserva- pleted; he is currently facing sex-abuse cert footage and Freddie’s off -stage tive than its subjects, two of whom, the allegations. And for all its energy and temptations, the movie ultimately guitarist Brian May and the drummer uplift, “Bohemian Rhapsody” seems to juxtaposes its subject’s surrender to Roger Taylor, are among the fi lm’s pro- be a movie in confl ict with itself. his darker impulses with a scene of a

48 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 49 A new play asks: what is owed to abusers? Premiering in the #MeToo era and and his wife tell Fred he is not al- as the Catholic Church continues to lowed to question the memories of grapple with the sexual abuse crisis, victims because it causes them to “Downstate” challenges viewers to relive their trauma. All four men en- Alex Bailey/Twentieth Century Fox via AP Fox Century Bailey/Twentieth Alex consider what, if anything, society dure daily reminders of their status owes those who harm minors. as sex off enders, even after they have Written by Bruce Norris and directed served their full sentences. by Pam MacKinnon, the play asks “Downstate,” playing at Chi- audiences to consider sexual abuse cago’s Steppenwolf Theatre before not from the perspective of victims heading to the National Theatre in but from the viewpoints of off enders. London next year, poses a number of The four men living in the fi c- uncomfortable questions. Are some Freddie Mercury was tional group home in “Downstate”— forms of sexual abuse worse than pop’s most flamboyant performer—a closeted Gio, Fred, Felix and Dee—all try to others; and, if so, should off enders be icon who rode a gay rationalize their crimes. A former treated diff erently? Do sex off enders aesthetic to stardom. piano teacher who sexually abused who have served their prison sen- at least two of his students, Fred is tences have rights? Is it just to restrict confi ned to a wheelchair follow- where they can live, shop and walk? supine Freddie, crowd-surfi ng an audi- ing an attack in prison that broke Do abusers maintain their dignity; ence of worshipful fans and assuming full his spine. When confronted by one and if so, what does that look like? crucifi xion mode. It ain’t subtle. of his victims, Andy, who visits the Norris asks us to consider the But what exactly does it mean? It will group home, Fred does not deny the humanity of individuals who have seem odd, but in my ruminations about abuse, repeatedly affi rming Andy’s committed atrocious crimes. Andy “Bohemian Rhapsody,” I keep thinking anger and admitting that what he did is not having it. He wants to be made about “Lawrence of Arabia,” a genuine 30 years ago was wrong. whole. When he realizes this is not epic but also a fi lm with many parallels But when Andy asks Fred to possible, at least not by way of Fred, to Mr. Singer’s. Its hero was sexually re- sign a “reconciliation contract” that he grows angry. Andy points out that pressed, the war within himself being lays out what Andy alleges Fred did as he suff ers everyday, the abusers refl ected in his confl ict with an outside to him, Fred refuses because he dis- live comfortably. But, Norris seems force (Freddie’s enemy being standard putes the kind of abuse Andy details. to ask, do they really? pop musicality). He had allies who were Fred notes he admitted to the abuse fi ercely loyal, but the forces of the system in court—but says that he commit- Michael J. O’Loughlin, national were fatally arrayed against him. His de- ted that particular act of abuse on correspondent. mise is foreshadowed—or, actually, just another boy, not on Andy. Both Andy Twitter: @MikeOLoughlin. spelled out—from the opening moments of the story. And while historical accura- cy is not the fi rst priority, the point of the story is sacrifi ce: the artist on a cross. That may seem a bit grandiose, but grandiosity was always the fuel source of Queen and Freddie Mercury—and of “Bohemian Rhapsody” as well.

John Anderson is a television critic for The Wall Street Journal and a “Downstate” poses a number contributor to The New York Times. of uncomfortable questions. Photo by Michael Brosilow, courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre

48 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 49 THE WORD | FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT (C), DEC. 2, 2018

A Citizen of God’s Kingdom Readings: Jer 33:4-16, Ps 25, 1 Thes 3:12-4:2, Lk 21:25-36

A new liturgical year begins today, and with it a new set of ‘Stand erect and raise Sunday readings. With only a few exceptions, this year’s Gospel readings will come from the Gospel of Luke. A your heads because your very early Christian tradition held that the author was the physician and travel companion that Paul mentions redemption is at hand.’ in several letters. Writing around the year A.D. 80, Luke gave an account of two signifi cant events—the destruction (Lk 21:28) of Jerusalem and the rapid spread of belief in Christ. The former called into question God’s power and faithfulness, PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE while the latter needed someone to place it into the wider narrative of salvation history. Luke explained both events Do the satisfactions of your life blind you to grace? with an elegant thesis: God’s promises to Israel were fulfi lled in Jesus. The Temple was no longer necessary, What would you have to leave behind to enjoy the since the divine Spirit now dwelt with the Christian freedom of God’s kingdom? community. People fl ocked to the Christian community to enjoy the beginning of life in God’s long-awaited kingdom. In Luke’s Gospel, the kingdom appears gradually, like those few of high status who longed for something more, the gathering clouds of a storm. Like distant thunder, signs by contrast, heard in the Gospel a confi rmation of their in- like angels, prophecies, miracles and dramatic conversions tuition. The enthusiasm with which they followed Jesus or portend the arrival of God’s reign. The storm breaks on left behind their possessions symbolized, for Luke, the au- Pentecost, when the Spirit arrives amid wind and fi re. But thority of truth that Jesus’ message carried. Pentecost is just the beginning of a season of grace that will Luke speaks of three arrivals of Jesus: his nativity, his continue until the defi nitive establishment of God’s king- second coming and his daily arrival in the Spirit to his dis- dom at the end of time. ciples. Luke’s hope is that when Christ comes again, those Not everyone was paying attention. Luke drew a who had been living daily in the Spirit would have grown so sharp line between those who recognized the kingdom’s accustomed to following Christ that they could enter with- arrival and those who did not. His line did not separate out fear into the fullness of the kingdom. The world after as one might expect. Although the poor in general were Pentecost provided the fulfi llment these disciples sought. quick to respond to the Gospel (Lk 7:22), there were also The sharing of resources alleviated the poverty of many. some rich and powerful people among those transformed Bonds of love assuaged disorders of body and spirit. No by Jesus’ preaching (Lk 8:3; 19:1-10). Some of the poor, longer ground down or mesmerized by the world’s allure- meanwhile, failed to understand their encounter with ments, they could attend completely to the presence and grace (Lk 17:11-19). action of the Spirit, which sent them out to preach, heal and The diff erence among people lay in their self-satisfac- advance the kingdom. tion. Those who sought no more than they could grasp with their own eff orts either failed to understand Jesus’ message or saw it as a threat. That their satisfaction came with Michael Simone, S.J., teaches Scripture at Boston College a price to others was a matter of indiff erence. The poor and School of Theology and Ministry.

50 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 51 CLASSIFIEDS The Rosary of Modern Sorrows Love, Laughter & Living Saints A beautiful gift for those Short Stories: 1950’s Catholic School Days to Parish Happenings Today. dedicated to social justice By Rev. Charles J. Cummings.

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50 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 51 THE WORD | SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT (C), DEC. 9, 2018

Prepare Yourselves Readings: Bar 5:1-9, Ps 126, Phil 1:4-11, Lk 3:1-6

All four Gospels include, near their beginning, a description Luke understands John the Baptist to be more a mys- of John the Baptist’s preaching and baptism, reminding tic than a moralist. John woke Israel up to God’s hidden their audiences then and today of John’s importance to the work. John was at the center of the divine plan; only Luke early Christian community. Some of Jesus’ fi rst disciples includes an account of John’s miraculous birth and hands came from among John’s companions (Jn 1:35-42). Even on the tradition that John and Jesus were related. As an decades later, Christian missionaries encountered John’s adult, John’s ministry affi rmed God’s fi delity, countering disciples on their journeys and found them eager to follow those who had begun to wonder. For example, a Jewish tra- Christ (Acts 18:24–19:7). dition recorded around 175 C.E., but possibly much older, John’s apocalyptic preaching was popular. Many suggests that after the prophet Malachi (late fi fth century longed for an end to the world’s disorder. Sin had poisoned B.C.E.), no further prophetic messages came from God. It is politics, economics, law and everyday social interactions. not clear if people in Jesus’ day believed this, but it is clear The world was haunted by evil; the widespread belief in in Luke’s Gospel that people were hungry for a word from demonic power one fi nds in the Gospels testifi es to the pro- God. The fact that Luke saw in John a fulfi llment of Mala- found anxieties of fi rst-century life. Something was very chi’s prophecy (see Mal 3:23-24 and Lk 1:17) suggests that wrong, but no one could fi gure out what it was or how to in John, God again spoke plainly, without the need for spe- address it. cial instruction or interpretation. John countered these fears by affi rming that God was John’s ministry also pointed forward to the coming indeed at work, preparing a savior who would clean out kingdom. John’s preaching, recounted in Lk 3:7-14, empha- Israel’s spiritual and moral corruption. To prepare for the sized generosity, honesty and humility. John’s preaching savior’s appearance, each individual had to purge all per- also insisted that the arrival of the Messiah was at hand, sonal corruption as well. This was the point of John’s bap- and that repentance and a change of life were necessary for tism: John had adapted the normal ritual washings prac- redemption. John’s very life affi rmed that God was doing ticed in every Jewish household into an act of total rebirth. something new, and the individuals who wished to be part John’s ritual bath symbolized inner transformation, gave of the new thing God was doing had to renew themselves individuals a clean break with their past and prepared them as well. to recognize the savior to come. John’s mission has become ours today. We live in an age of anxiety, but for many, the traditional means of hearing God’s voice have ceased to function. Certainly, we can ‘All ﬂ esh shall see the fi nd the right words to address those anxieties, but this is not enough. Beyond his words and ministry, John’s pres- salvation of God.’ (Lk 3:6) ence on earth was a sign that God remained faithful. As we prepare to celebrate Christ’s coming, may our own lives be a sign to someone that God is still at work, still interested PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE and still ready to save.

In what ways must you renew yourself? Michael Simone, S.J., teaches Scripture at Boston College To whom can you be a sign that God is still at work? School of Theology and Ministry.

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52 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 53 THE CHURCH IN AMERICA

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Brian P. Flanagan Stumbling in Holiness Sin and Sanctity in the Church “With a graceful style and a gritty realism Brian Flanagan wrestles with one of the most deeply felt theological issues over the last century.” Bradford Hinze Fordham University Paperback, 192 pp., $24.95

Stephen Okey A Theology of Conversation An Introduction to David Tracy Foreword by David Tracy “Okey’s insightful analysis of Tracy’s focal concerns provides a clear map to the contributions of one of the most interesting and important theologians of our time.” Anthony J. Godzieba Villanova University Paperback, 248 pp., $34.95

LITURGICAL PRESS litpress.org • 800-858-5450 eBooks also available 52 | AMERICAMAGAZINE.ORG NOVEMBER 26, 2018 AMERICA | 53 LAST TAKE The Catholic Mystique What does it mean to be a feminist in the church? By Kaya Oakes

For over a decade, I have taught a in Catholic schools by women, and one another. That means recognizing writing class on the intersection my writing is inspired by the work our accomplishments as well as the between music and social movements of the towering Catholic theologians struggles we face. Believing the tes- at the University of California, Elizabeth Johnson, M. Shawn Cope- timony of women is what makes the Berkeley, where the free speech land and Sandra Schneiders, activist #MeToo movement so crucial. For movement was born. On the fi rst day Catholic laywomen like Dorothy Day, Catholic feminists, who are regular- of class, we talk about the history of and contemporary Catholic writers ly told we should just quit the church protest music, and I give the students like Natalie Diaz, Toni Morrison and or that we should quiet down, it also the etymological defi nition of the word Rebecca Brown. means bearing witness to the beauty protest, from the Latin pro testari: To Yet the most frequent responses and grace of being Catholic women protest means to witness and then go to my work in Catholic publications and to the challenges as well. forth and testify. often ring of bias against my gender. The Catholic “both/and” is useful Two years before the #MeToo A male reader once told me it was not here: Feminism is both necessary for movement went viral, I added Rebec- my job to question the church; it was being a Catholic woman and one of the ca Solnit’s book Men Explain Things my job to “get down on my knees” and reasons you will be tested as a Catho- to Me to the syllabus so my students be thankful to belong to it. That is one lic feminist. Platform is privilege, and could explore the connections be- of the printable comments I have re- those of us with a public role to play tween music and a resurgent feminist ceived. We will skip the unprintable in conversations about women in the movement. Ms. Solnit, a highly prolifi c ones. The irony is that weekly, I do church are called to use it to challenge historian, activist and social critic, did get down on my knees in church and outdated notions about the inferiority not coin the term mansplaining, but in give thanks. But that does not mean I of women. We are both Catholic and the title essay from her book, she talks should not occasionally stand up, too. women. God created us to be our full, about a time when a man she met at St. Mary Magdalene is known as authentic selves, and God sees us as a party refused to believe she was the the Apostle to the Apostles, but she is our full, authentic selves. And some- author of one of her own books. Mans- more than that. Chosen by Christ to times we have to stand up and say this. plaining is just one example of the be the fi rst witness to the resurrection, We hope the church can do the same. ways in which women’s expertise and Mary Magdalene goes forth and testi- experiences are devalued, doubted fi es about the good news. And the reac- and silenced. It is also unfortunately tion of the male apostles is telling. They rife in the Catholic Church. do not believe her. They doubt her tes- Kaya Oakes, a contributing writer for America, teaches writing at the One of the questions I am asked timony. She is my patron saint, chosen University of California, Berkeley, and is most often as a writer is how I can be when I was confi rmed, but she is also the author of The Nones Are Alright. a Catholic and a feminist. My usu- the patron saint of the mansplained. al response is to ask how I could be Feminism is not about women be- Catholic and not be a feminist. I was ing better than men. It is about wom- raised in the church and nurtured en being recognized as equals, about in catechesis by women, educated men and women working alongside

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