OF MANY THINGS 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 n Sept. 18, 1965, Thurston N. as we cherish this house, we needed to Ph: (212) 581-4640; Fax: (212) 399-3596 Davis, S.J., editor in chief of skate to where the puck is headed. Subscriptions: (800) 627-9533 America, announced in this The sale achieves three goals: www.americamedia.org O facebook.com/americamag space that the offices ofAmerica were First, in a rapidly changing publishing twitter.com/americamag relocating from the Upper West Side environment, the sale will provide of Manhattan to our current Midtown baseline financial security for the President and Editor in Chief location on 56th Street. This was the future of America Media. Second, the Matt Malone, S.J. Executive Editors fourth time America’s offices had moved transaction will give us the resources to Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy since its founding in 1909. “For years,” continue our multiplatform expansion, Managing Editor Kerry Weber Father Davis explained to our readers, including the redesign of existing Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. “we have worked out of an editorial and platforms and the launch of new Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent business office that were five miles apart. digital products and video. Lastly, the Kevin Clarke Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. Now everything is under one roof.” transaction will allow us to create a Executive Editor, America Films It was no easy task to pick up modern facility to house our operations, Jeremy Zipple, S.J. and move: America’s headquarters one more suited to 21st-century Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. had been located at 329 West 108th America. Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent Gerard O’Connell Street for nearly 40 years. But Father America Media will remain in Associate Editor and Director of Digital Davis, rightly regarded as the second New York City. It is one of the most Strategy Sam Sawyer, S.J. founder of America, saw that the important social communications Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. world was changing. More and more apostolates of the Society of Jesus Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga Americans were getting their news from and should be located in the capital Segura, Robert David Sullivan Assistant Editor Joseph McAuley radio and television rather than from of global communications. We have Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder print, a change that was accelerated now begun an intensive search for Editorial Assistant Zachary Davis by the momentous events of that commercial office space in Manhattan Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., tragic November weekend two years to house the headquarters of America Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, before. Father Davis recognized that if Media. Just as Father Davis sought to Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider America was to survive and prosper in ensure that the business and editorial Correspondents John Carr (Washington), An- this new world, then the editorial and departments would be housed under thony Egan, S.J., and Russell Pollitt, S.J. (Johannes- burg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy business functions would need to be one roof, we are looking for a space Padgett (Miami), Steven Schwankert (Beijing), more closely integrated and, most of all, where both departments can be housed David Stewart, S.J. (London), Judith Valente the organization would need a space that on the same floor, for the integration (Chicago) Moderator, Catholic Book Club was better suited to a mid-20th century of both functions that Father Davis so Kevin Spinale, S.J. apostolate. As the N.H.L. great Wayne presciently foresaw continues apace in Editor, The Jesuit Post Michael Rossmann, S.J. Gretzky once said, “a good hockey player the digital age. Editorial e-mail plays where the puck is. A great hockey The Jesuit community will relocate [email protected] player plays where the puck is going to to a renovated facility at 120 West Publisher and Chief Financial Officer be.” Father Davis, like his predecessors, 60th Street, just across the street from Edward G. Spallone Deputy Publisher Rosa M. Del Saz Vice President for Advancement Daniel was a great hockey player. the entrance to Fordham University’s Pawlus Advertising Sales Manager Chris Keller So it was with a prayer for the Lincoln Center campus. America Media Development Coordinator Kerry Goleski and the Jesuit community expect to Business Operations Staff Khairah Walker, intercession of Father Davis that I Glenda Castro, Katy Zhou, Frankarlos Cruz recently announced the sale of our complete their moves within the next 12 Advertising Contact [email protected]; headquarters building in Midtown months. 212-515-0102 Subscription contact/Additional copies 1-800-627-9533 Reprints: reprints@ Manhattan. This was a long time With this move we renew our americamedia.org in coming. The current nine-story commitment to you to provide a smart, © 2016 America Press Inc. building houses not just our offices and Catholic take on faith and culture, every its 25 employees but a residence for week in print, every day online, every approximately 20 Jesuits. Months of hour in social media. We earnestly pray arduous negotiations, a few false starts that we will continue to be worthy for Cover: Detail of a miniature depicting the and a lot of deal making, not to mention many years to come of both your trust Holy Trinity, from the Grandes Heures of Anne a lot of prayer, went into the process. and the noble legacy we have inherited. of Brittany, Queen consort of France, by Jean Bourdichon (1503-1508). Source: Wikimedia It was apparent, however, that as much MATT MALONE, S.J. Commons/Bibliothèque nationale de France. Contents www.americamagazine.org VOL. 214 NO. 8, WHOLE NO. 5120 March 7, 2016

ARTICLES 15 PROPERTY AND PEOPLE The ongoing relevance of an oft-forgotten church teaching Robert Maloney 20 RESTORING RIGHT ORDER The transforming power of tragedy and poverty Travis LaCouter and Macarena Pallares

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

4 Current Comment 15 5 Editorial College Free for All? 6 Reply All

8 Signs of the Times

14 Column False Mercy Helen​ Alvaré

19 First Monday School Choice Challenges ​Ellen K. Boegel

24 Faith in Focus Spirit of the Desert Hills Sean Carroll

25 Generation Faith What We Built Maura Newell

39 The Word Repentance for All John W. Martens 20 BOOKS & CULTURE

27 BOOKS ON THE BIBLE Of Creation and Covenants OF OTHER THINGS Traces of The Transcendent POETRY A Truly Tuned Heart

ON THE WEB Video reports from Pope​ Francis’ visit to Mexico​, and from “America This Week,” a discussion of the judicial legacy of ​ Antonin Scalia​, right. Full digital highlights on page 38 and at americamagazine.org/webfeatures. 27 CURRENT COMMENT

this work are sometimes asked, “Wouldn’t this money be Mind the Gap better spent elsewhere?” A helpful answer is provided by To most, it comes as no surprise that for people in poverty Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit brother who is the director life can be hard. But new research indicates it may also of the Vatican Observatory, where news of the detection be short. A study from the Brookings Institution found of gravitational waves was greeted with great excitement. that the gap between the life spans of those in the top 10 Astronomy, he explains, “is something every human being percent and the bottom 10 percent of earners has widened alive can take pride in.” Everyone can look up at the stars in the United States over the last several decades. This and marvel at the planets. Astronomy can bring people longevity gap has grown from a six-year difference, for men together and give scientists a better understanding of the born in 1920, to 14 years, for men born in 1950. Among working of the universe. “Science is where I get to spend women, the gap increased from 4.7 to 13 years. Possible time with the Creator,” Brother Consolmagno once said. causes for this worrying trend include a significant decrease Seen as a great human undertaking, one that can unite in smoking among the wealthier group and increased abuse scientists around the world, believers or not, astronomy of prescription drugs among the less wealthy demographic. becomes a pursuit very much worth our time, our money The longevity gap also can exacerbate inequalities and our imagination. already present in society. For example, those who live longer reap the greatest benefits from programs like Social Security and Medicare, as they receive these benefits for Cable Competition longer amounts of time. Greater funding for programs On Feb. 18, the Federal Communications Commission that can help alleviate stress and offer care for those facing approved a measure opening a period of public comment addiction and increased education to discourage smoking on a proposal to require open standards in cable set-top could improve life expectancy in low-income communities. boxes, thus setting the stage for a final vote later this year. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act may help If approved, the rule would require pay-TV providers to to lessen this gap, but it is too soon to tell. And experts provide content and programming information to makers of argue that access to medical care is not at the root of this third-party hardware and software, giving cable subscribers problem. There is no easy answer to this growing disparity. the option to stop renting their box from the cable provider. Closing the longevity gap requires that our society address One advantage of the change would be financial savings the many systemic injustices and everyday challenges, in all for consumers, who pay an average $231 a year in rental fees their complexity, faced by those in need. for set-top boxes, totaling about $20 billion in revenue for the cable companies, according to a study commissioned Listening to the Universe by Senators Edward J. Markey and Richard Blumenthal. The discovery of gravitational waves by a pair of detection It would also potentially drive more innovation by making devices in the United States was major news in the field the interface to their video content something consumers of astronomy. Originally proposed by Albert Einstein in decide to buy rather than something cable providers dictate, his theory of relativity, the existence of gravitational waves both choosing the hardware and setting its price without was confirmed by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational- any meaningful alternate options. Companies like Apple Wave Observatory when it detected tremors caused by the or Google, or other new entrants, could offer devices that collision of two black holes in a distant galaxy. LIGO is a would be able to integrate programming from a cable major project of CalTech, M.I.T. and the National Science subscription a user already pays for. Foundation. Over $1 billion has been spent on the search The cable companies are predictably opposed to this since it began decades ago. This fall LIGO unveiled more move, but their objections—including that the regulation sophisticated detection technology that helped lead to this would somehow impose additional costs on consumers—do most recent discovery. not hold water. In fact, the existing situation, in which 99 For astronomers, the detection of gravitational waves percent of subscribers rent an expensive set-top box, reflects marks the official birth of a new field of study. “Gravitational not consumer choice, but rather the absence of effective waves provide a completely new way of looking at the competition in the cable TV market. Until these companies universe,” said Stephen Hawking. One billion dollars may are exposed to meaningful competition, we should not seem like a steep price to pay for what, at the moment, is trust them to have consumer interests at heart and should mostly theoretical knowledge. Astronomers engaged in support regulations bringing other players into the market.

4 America March 7, 2016 EDITORIAL College Free for All? s the Democratic and Republican conventions loom higher income taxes. In the United on the horizon, higher education has not been a States, with 50 different state edu- Awidely or deeply discussed issue. This is unfor- cational systems, California’s public tunate. The economic security of the American people re- colleges were free until 50 years ago; quires that each generation be educated to confront the so- and Tennessee, Oregon and the city cial, environmental and technological challenges of our time of Chicago have recently provided and to appreciate the arts and literature, which nourish the or will soon provide free tuition for personal and national soul. two-year colleges. This calls for greater access to a college or university ed- Whatever its limitations, the Sanders program has ucation. U.S. leaders once hoped that by 2025, 60 percent of started an important conversation and inspired other gov- the population would be college-educated. So far it is closer ernment leaders to propose alternatives. Some critics argue to 30 percent. The curse of inequality continues to isolate the that a larger role for Washington in public education would ruling elite from the common public. The average male high build bureaucracy and stifle entrepreneurship. Others praise school dropout might earn $24,000 a year. One with a four- President Obama’s plan for the federal government to pay 75 year college degree might make $52,000, while an advanced percent of the tuition to public two-year colleges only if the degree could merit $67,000. On a salary of $62,000 a fami- states pick up the rest. This nudges the states to take up again ly might enjoy a comfortable lifestyle; but the average college their responsibility for public education. graduate moves into public life overburdened by college debts. Free education clearly has its advantages. Costs are A college education today is not a luxury; for many ca- spread across the population, and there are fewer financial reers it is a personal necessity as well as a social good. Senator risks for the individual. Meanwhile, shifting various current Bernie Sanders has proposed that the government should expenditures for higher education to direct student tuition guarantee tuition for every student in a public university, support is more efficient; it becomes a collective investment which is 75 percent of the student population. This would be rather than an individual one. paid for by a tax on Wall Street. Hillary Clinton’s plan would A million people signed a petition in support of the spend $350 million in states that increase their funding, Student Loan Forgiveness Act in 2012. The hope is that this tighten rules on for-profit colleges, have students work for 10 law would liberate the debtors to spend money, build the hours a week and allow families to pay according to their in- economy, get jobs and pay their taxes. An interesting propos- come. Her plan would also offer some help to private colleges al that goes beyond President Obama’s initiative and is more with high numbers of needy students. Jeb Bush offered the focused than Senator Sanders’s comes from the Campaign for student a $50,000 line of credit to be repaid through federal Free College Tuition, which offers a full college scholarship income taxes over 25 years. Marco Rubio would “fundamen- at a public or private college to every academically qualified tally overhaul higher ed” and supports night school and online student whose family makes less than $180,000 a year. degree programs. What would be the impact of these proposals on A variety of theories explain the rising college costs at Catholic and other private institutions? If the federal govern- public institutions as a recent phenomenon. Critics blame ment, in fairness, can support needy students who could oth- luxurious dormitories and athletic centers and high-salaried erwise not afford Catholic schools, so much the better. But administrators and professors. In many cases state legislators we should recall that traditionally there are two rationales for have lowered funding year by year, forcing public universities Catholic education. Unburdened by state control, they strive to raise tuition. High tuition can also be falsely perceived as a to achieve academic excellence alongside their secular rivals, sign of quality, leading wealthier students to enroll and mid- but they also teach theology and philosophy and urge love for dle-class strivers to sacrifice and follow. one’s neighbor and the importance of a more just society. Even Proponents of free tuition, at least for the lower mid- in a competitive academic world where affordable education dle class, point to Germany, Finland, Norway and Sweden, would be available to all, a Catholic education offers some- all of which offer a free college education. It is “free” because thing unique. Catholic colleges have little to fear from a robust fewer students attend college in these countries than in the public education system and should see the overall benefits of United States and because citizens are willing to pay much an educated and engaged population.

March 7, 2016 America 5 REPLY ALL values complement each other well: See learned nothing from its original Ms. McCabe describes pornography Ostpolitik. During the Communist Voter’s Complex? as an imagined world teaching us that era in Eastern Europe, the Vatican women do not (and should not) have betrayed many martyrs in the name In “The Greatness of a Nation” (2/15), choices and agency in the realm of of dialogue. Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze- Bishop Robert McElroy writes, sex and intimacy, and Mr. Schlabach kiun is a hero in the mold of Stefan “Voting for candidates is a complex describes evil as the void that results Wyszyński, József Mindszenty and moral action in which the voter must when we pursue happiness in appear- Aloysius Stepinac. He knows the confront an entire array of competing ances and objects rather than living Chinese regime’s mentality; he knows candidates’ positions in a single act of relationships. the situation of Christians. He should voting.” It is not as complex as Bishop But with evil seemingly personified be listened to. Realpolitik is under- McElroy suggests. As today’s laws and as a glamorous and sensuous young standing the situation as it is, not as institutions permit the killing of inno- woman and the fantasy world of porn one would like it to be. The Ostpolitik/ cents, injustice grows. For nearly 40 characterized as a computer keyboard Sinopolitik dream world would yield years, the abortion mentality has poi- rather than a worldview offered to men, a document not worth the paper it is soned our family life and our national we may unwittingly reinforce the long- written on. debates, causing a deep divide in our held and limiting cultural belief that LEONARD VILLA political, religious and cultural institu- women’s sexual agency is unnatural (or Online Comment tions. even evil) and fail to offer a vision of To sanction the legal killing of in- A Christ-Centered Mission men’s ability to be self-aware, engaged nocent persons has a price. This recur- I greatly appreciated the article, “Our agents of intimate relationship. Reason for Being,” by Don Briel, rent crime has hardened the collective MAGGIE WRIGHT heart of our nation, has created a social Denver, Colo. Kenneth E. Goodpaster and Michael tolerance for other wrongs and crimes Naughton (2/1), with its much-need- and has set us free from the safe har- Rehabilitating Pilate ed challenge regarding the identity bor of truth and justice. All of the good Re “What Pilate Knew,” by Steven P. and mission of Catholic colleges and sought through social justice work is Millies (2/8): We need to be very care- universities. The authors rightly worry for naught unless we first pursue the ful about looking at Pontius Pilate as a that 25 years after “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” legal and actual protection of the most victim. There are accounts of him be- (Saint John Paul II’s apostolic consti- innocent persons among us. To change ing ruthless during a Samaritan upris- tution on Catholic universities), signs the cultural mindset about abortion is ing and also taunting the Jewish people of “mission drift” persist. the first step in actually achieving true in the Temple when he first arrived in The authors write: “A vital, artic- social justice. Jerusalem. Pilate had too much Jewish ulate Catholic vision of the school’s And that is why voting for the right blood on his hands before and after the intellectual life is often missing from candidate is not so complex after all. crucifixion of Jesus. The Jewish people mission documents, convocation JOHN KEENAN are not to be blamed, and we should speeches, curriculum designs, research Online Comment not let Pilate off the hook. Jesus was agendas and strategic plans.” To this Jewish and suffered along with his end they appositely cite the trenchant Mixed Message Jewish brothers and sisters. We must remarks of Michael J. Buckley, S.J., in The graphic layout of the neigh- not historically rehabilitate a man like an article in America in the aftermath boring articles “Create in Me a Just Pilate, who caused so much pain and of “Ex Corde,” about the danger of re- Heart,” by Megan McCabe, and suffering. ducing the “richness of the Creed” to “a Gerald Schlabach’s “The Glamour of THOMAS RUDA morality or a general social ethic.” Evil” (2/8) caught my attention. “The Online Comment In the light of Father Buckley’s re- Glamour of Evil” is introduced by an mark, I only regret that the authors did image of a young woman in a glitzy No to ‘Sinopolitik’ not underline the distinctive Christo- low-cut dress, tanned skin, cham- The title of Gerry O’Connell’s column logic of the Creed and, hence, of the pagne glass in hand, in the middle of (2/8) asks, “Will the Church Lose Catholic university’s vision and mis- a flirtatious laugh. “Create in Me a Just China?” It depends what it means to sion. Perhaps they do so in the book Heart” leads with a gray computer key- “lose China.” If it means accepting a from which their article was excerpted. board, one key of which shouts a sor- puppet, patriotic church subservient But unless this rich Christ-centered did “XXX.” to the regime in China—then yes, it vision and language is brought to the The articles’ critiques of cultural is a real danger and it means the Holy fore, the danger of an (at best) mor-

6 America March 7, 2016 alistic deism will remain. To further many things I admire about America one articulates, the other shows the this crucial conversation, I recommend is the tone and content of the pub- action needed to put the belief into another article from the America ar- lished letters to the magazine. When effect. We Americans get hung up on chive that forthrightly confronts the people are seriously disagreeing with labels, which become blinders, and this challenge: “Christ and the Catholic one point or another, as happens in makes it difficult to put the Gospel of University,” by Brian Daley, S.J. some of the letters in the Feb. 1 issue, life into action. (9/11/93). the writers are polite, constructive- ANTOINETTE CARBONE (REV.) ROBERT P. IMBELLI ly critical and charitable. What hap- Online Comment Newton Centre, Mass. pened to Father Malone’s column in that same issue? Modern Monastics Education Examen His criticism of the Republican Re “Fugitives From Injustice,” by James In my days as a Catholic high school Party is what we usually read in T. Keane (2/1): Someone once said teacher and administrator, I was con- America and is not unexpected or that the jail cell is the new monas- stantly confronted by the amenities offensive—until he insults the voting tery cell. There are still those who are war, nowhere more evident than in public with, “The electorate is anxious willing to risk arrest and go to jail to athletics, as we all rushed to keep up and afraid; their thirst for some sense confront an evil. Dorothy Day did it. with the Joneses with artificial turf of control is so great that they’ll drink Dan and Phil Berrigan, Kathy Kelly, fields, new gyms and the like. This is the sand just because some would-be Sr. Megan Rice and all those who have certainly evident at the college level as Moses tells them it’s water.” Thank you crossed the line at the School of the well. Where does it all fit in the con- for telling us that we are so lacking in Americas did it. Or what about Alfred text of Catholic education? What do comprehension that we cannot eventu- Delp, S.J., or Dietrich Bonhoeffer? The we say to the student body when we ally identify someone who is selling us merry chase is only part of the story. alter admissions requirements, when a bill of goods. BETH CIOFFOLETTI we spend an inordinate amount of (DEACON) THOMAS E. BRANDLIN Online Comment money to attract a coach, when we rely Los Angeles, Calif. on athletic dollars to fund operations? Victim-Shaming One question missing from the Without Blinders In his letter “Shocking Study?” (Reply self-examination suggested by the au- “A Rooted Vision,” by Rafael Luciani All, 1/18), James Booth objects to the thors is about whom exactly we are and Félix Palazzi (2/1), is an excellent use of the phrase “battered by life” to asking to be board members. How article that makes its point without describe those left behind in today’s many board members would support labeling the views of modern popes as economy, saying it implies “victimhood the ultimate mission of the university conservative or liberal. Pope Francis rather than resilience.” I disagree. when confronted with a conflict on the has much in common with Benedict Victimhood is neither voluntary financial side between athletics and ac- XVI. In fact, when it comes to their nor shameful. It is the result of be- ademics? How many board members positions, I often think that where ing victimized, and has nothing to embrace the social teaching of do with how resilient a the Catholic Church? Finance person is. To be made committees tend to dominate incapacitated, physically, boards and board meetings, emotionally, financially and we have done little to alter or psychologically as the that over the years. Of course, result of someone else’s no Catholic college can func- brutal victimization tion without financial stability should not be trivialized at its core, but mission ques- by people who consider tions cannot always be an- themselves merciful and swered or developed using the compassionate. In my bottom line as the main guide. experience, the church BARRY FITZPATRICK and Christians are still Online Comment walking past those who have been brutalized by Adding Insult “Talk about government waste. others. Re Of Many Things, by Matt ROBERTA FITZPATRICK

A tombstone would’ve been sufficient.” HARLEY SCHWADRON CARTOON: Malone, S.J. (2/1): One of the San Jose, Calif.

March 7, 2016 America 7 8 America March 7, 2016 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

A PROPHETIC MOMENT. Pope Francis arrives in Ciudad Juárez on Feb. 17. CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING CNS PHOTO/PAUL THE POPE IN MEXICO Francis Calls for Conversion Across Borders here is still time to change,” Pope Francis told the people of Mexico, as suffering and oppression.” Recalling he called for “conversion” six times during the homily at his final Mass in how the king and people of Nineveh ‘TCiudad Juárez, on the border with the United States. His insistence on repented and wept for their wrongdo- the need for conversion and change has been the leitmotif of his speeches through- ing, Francis told his Mexican audience out the six-day visit to this country, but it was particularly striking how strongly it that “to weep over injustice, to cry over featured in the three main talks on his last day in Mexico, Feb. 17. corruption, to cry over oppression” is It was the common thread linking his talk to 3,000 prisoners at El Cereso pris- the path “to transformation.” on, his address to more than 1,000 business and labor leaders at the Colegio de During his visit to Mexico, and es- Bachilleres of the state of Chihuahua and his homily at a Mass attended by more pecially in his homily in Ciudad Juárez, than 200,000 people on the fairgrounds 90 yards from the border with the United Francis appeared to take on the man- States. The homily had a message for those on the other side, as well. One could tle of Jonah as he set out “to help” the describe these discourses as part of a triptych painted by Francis, as he sought to Mexican people—but also those north send a “wake-up call” to Mexico (and the wider world) to change course urgently of the border—to understand the and respect human dignity. great suffering that comes with invol- He compared the way people lived in the biblical city of Nineveh and way they untary migration, describing it as a hu- live in Mexico today. Nineveh, he said, “was self-destructing as a result of oppres- manitarian crisis that is now “a global sion and dishonor, violence and injustice,” and “its days were numbered because the phenomenon.” violence within it could not continue.” Pope Francis asked people to pray But God did not wish to destroy the city and in his mercy sent the prophet to God for “the gift of conversion, the Jonah “to help” its citizens “understand” that destruction would surely come if they gift of tears” and “to hear his call in the continued with “the way they treat each other…only creating death and destruction, suffering faces of countless men and

March 7, 2016 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES women.” He appealed for “No more north of the border to stop looking at of the spectacle of Pope Francis visiting death! No more exploitation!” people from Mexico, Central America a community like San Cristóbal de las Going off script at the end of his and even farther south who are mi- Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. Just a few homily, Pope Francis said, “I wish to grating north seeking a better life as months after visiting with the most use the opportunity of this moment a problem or as numbers, but to see powerful people in the world, he has to greet our brothers and sisters who them as individuals, each with a sto- come to the ends of Mexico to meet are simultaneously accompanying ry to tell, each with a different drama with perhaps the most marginalized us at the other side of the border.... propelling them into the North and its people in Mexican society. The indig- Thanks to the help of technology, we uncertain welcome and future. enous communities here have been can pray, sing and celebrate together denied their land, denied their culture the merciful love that the Lord gives Listening and denied their languages—often by us, and which no border can prevent the church itself. But Francis came here us from sharing. Thank you, brothers To the Humble today as hermano, a brother, as pockets and sisters of El Paso, for having made They came down from the moun- among the crowd chanted. us feel one only family and one same tains surrounding the city; they came For one small family who managed Christian community.” from faraway villages in other parts of their way through the crowd at the Mexico and Guatemala. They came by urging of others around them, des- A Prayer for bus, by car and taxi; they walked into perate hopes were realized with great town on their own two feet. bounty. A small disabled girl, pushed Migrants They came and waited overnight in to the front of the dense crowd first In a moment which will surely rever- berate across the border, Pope Francis paused at the fence between Mexico and the United States on Feb. 17 to pray for migrants who have lost their lives making the perilous journey north. Silence fell over the nearby Ciudad Juárez fairgrounds as the pope walked up a ramp lined with yellow flowers to a specially built platform facing across the fence toward the United States to reach a large cross erected along the border. During a homily delivered a short time later, Francis called for “open hearts” and recognition that the thou- A HEALING EMBRACE. Pope Francis stops to embrace a disabled girl brought to him outside the cathedral in San Cristóbal de las Casas. sands fleeing their homelands are often PHOTO: KEVIN CLARKE victims of the worst forms of exploita- tion. “We cannot deny the humani- the cold and then in the morning under by her mother and father and then tarian crisis which in recent years has a punishing sun. Those thousands who by everyone around them who saw meant the migration of thousands of were turned away from the Mass itself what they were trying to do, was final- people, whether by train or highway or waited for hours alongside the roads; ly lifted over the metal barricade and on foot, crossing hundreds of kilome- they waited pressing against metal brought out into the square before the ters through mountains, deserts and barricades surrounding the ZÓcalo, cathedral. As Pope Francis drew near, inhospitable zones,” he said. “They are crowding around the cathedral nearby the people around the little girl called our brothers and sisters, who are being for tiny precarious vantage points; they out to him and gestured to the girl. expelled by poverty and violence, drug waited with ailing children for a hoped- Their hopes were not disappointed as trafficking and organized crime.” for moment of Francis’ touch. the popemobile slowed to a stop and The pope has asked policymakers It is hard to overestimate the impact the little girl in pink was lifted from

10 America March 7, 2016 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

her wheelchair and brought to the pope. He embraced and blessed her as Plane Talk on Bridge-Building the crowd roared in approval. After making history with tough talk to bishops and politicians on the ground Just a few hours earlier, the pope in Mexico, Pope Francis was not done in the skies above on the way home had told the indigenous people who to Rome on Feb. 17. During one of his back-of-the-plane press conferences, had gathered to celebrate Mass with the pope was drawn into the U.S. him in the city’s stadium, “Some have presidential race by a reporter’s Pope Francis gets considered your values, culture and question about the Republican drawn into the U.S. traditions to be inferior. Others, in- election during candidate Donald J. Trump. toxicated by power, money and market a Q&A with Trump has already announced journalists on trends, have stolen your lands or con- that were he to become presi- the way home taminated them.” “You have much to to Rome on dent, he would deport 11 million teach us,” Pope Francis said. “Your peo- Feb. 17. undocumented people from the ples, as the bishops of Latin America United States and build a pre- have recognized, know how to interact

sumably impenetrable wall along HARING CNS PHOTO/PAUL harmoniously with nature, which they the U.S. border with Mexico. respect as a source of food, a common “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, home and an altar of human sharing.” and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel,” Pope Francis said. Asked “if an American Catholic could vote for a person like this,” Lecturing the Elite Francis responded, “I am not going to get involved in that. I say only that this Pope Francis sought to shake up man is not Christian if he says things like that.” Mexico’s bishops on his first morning He added, “We must see if he said things in that way, and in this I give the here on Feb. 13 with a powerful, chal- benefit of the doubt.” lenging speech, in which he called on Pope Francis also waded into the debate over the use of contraception in them to live as humble pastors, “not South American regions affected by the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which princes,” to be close to the poor and op- has been tentatively linked to the birth defect microcephaly. While the pope pressed, and to prophetically denounce deplored abortion in response to the crisis as a “crime, an absolute evil,” he left the drug trade and other evils of society. open the possibility of “avoiding pregnancy” until the crisis abates. Francis is aware that not a few Mexican bishops are closer to the rich, powerful and influential sectors benefits for a few to the detriment of urged them to live as pastors who in- of society in this country where the the good of all, sooner or later the life carnate that tenderness. economic and social inequalities are of society becomes a fertile soil for cor- “It is necessary to have an outlook striking, than they are to the some ruption, drug trade, exclusion of differ- capable of reflecting the tenderness of 50 million people (among the many ent cultures, violence...bringing suffer- God,” he told them. In this context, he indigenous peoples) who are living in ing and slowing down development.” asked them “to be bishops who have a poverty or misery and to a large extent Before his arrival here, he revealed pure vision, a transparent soul and a discarded by that other society. that his main reason for coming to joyful face.” He urged them, “Do not He had just moments earlier issued Mexico City was to pray before the re- fear transparency. The church does not a similar call to conversion to Mexico’s vered image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, need darkness to carry out her work.” civic and political leaders at the Palacio and he focused his talk to the bishops The bishops applauded at the end, Nacional. He told these elite, “A hope- around the message of Guadalupe, but in a rather muted way. It now re- filled future is forged in a present made which is at the heart of the spiritual- mains to see what effect the visit of up of men and women who are up- ity of the people of this land. He re- Pope Francis will have on how they right, honest, and capable of working minded them that La Virgen Morenita conduct their ministry as pastors after for the common good. “teaches us that the only power capable he has left this land. “Experience teaches us that each of conquering the hearts of men and time we seek the path of privileges or women is the tenderness of God” and All reporting by America Media staff

March 7, 2016 America 11 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

DISPATCH | MIAMI of the 389 prisoners now on Florida’s death row were sentenced when the Death Penalty on Trial state was essentially a constitutional scofflaw. Should their cases now be re- ven death penalty supporters stances” in a murder case that warrant viewed, if not thrown out altogether? agree that Florida’s attitude capital punishment. The judge then On Feb. 2, the Florida Supreme Etoward capital punishment is makes the final call. Court signaled it is wrestling with that a little too cavalier for comfort. The This year, writing for the majori- quandary when it issued an indefinite chronic and gruesome malfunctions ty in Hurst v. Florida, Justice Sonia stay of execution for Cary Michael of its electric chair—including flames Sotomayor said a “jury’s mere recom- Lambrix, a prisoner on death row. It is shooting from prisoners’ heads—led mendation is not enough” to “impose a also hearing the cases of other death- Bob Butterworth, the attorney gener- sentence of death.” row inmates who insist their sentences al in 1997, to quip that “Old Sparky’s” Florida’s Catholic bishops welcomed should be scuttled as a result of Hurst. problems were a splendid murder de- the court intervention. A conference The Florida legislature also has to terrent. statement notes that while the bishops decide whether to mandate that jury Three years later, amid na- members impose death sentences tional outrage, the U.S. Supreme unanimously rather than by ma- Court pressured Florida into Florida has been oper- jority vote, as current state law ditching the chair and adopting ating unconstitutionally allows. Should it stick with the lethal injection. majority procedure, it risks hav- But the Supremes have re- when it comes to impos- ing the U.S. Supreme Court strike cently had to weigh in again on ing the death penalty. that down as a Sixth Amendment Florida’s death-penalty doings. breach as well. This time the issue is not how the Whatever the legislature does, state carries out executions but how it believe “that life imprisonment with- death-penalty sentencing has been all decides who faces them. out parole…renders the death penalty but suspended in Florida. And since Few disagree that Florida has been unnecessary,” they have also long iden- Florida is among the states that em- operating unconstitutionally when it tified the need to address the state’s ploy capital punishment most—it has comes to imposing the death penalty. “flawed death sentencing scheme.” the fourth highest number of execu- The Supreme Court justices them- At first glance, it would seem that tions in the United State in the past 40 selves certainly do not. In a nearly January’s ruling would not be a huge years—legal scholars believe that legal unanimous 8-to-1 ruling in January, legal disruption for Florida. The late limbo could have the psychological ef- they struck down the state’s capital Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme fect of further dampening death-penal- sentencing system, calling it a violation Court’s sole dissenter, pointed out that ty enthusiasm nationally. Last year, the of the Sixth Amendment—or at least a if a jury recommends the death penalty, number of people condemned to death violation of how the court interpreted it follows that it would also impose that in the United States was the lowest in the Sixth Amendment 14 years ago. sentence if it had the final say. So all the almost half a century. Back in that 2002 case, Ring v. state should need to do is adjust its law “It clearly contributes to the sense Arizona, the court said the Sixth and give juries that power. that the death penalty is dying in this Amendment requires that juries—not As if to make precisely that point, country,” says Stephen Harper, a law judges—apply the death penalty. But the Supreme Court issued its judgment professor at Florida International Florida disregarded the ruling. in Hurst v. Florida on the same day the University. “It will change the perspec- It adhered instead to a practice in Florida state legislature started its 2016 tive.” which juries recommend to judges session. But in Florida, this is turning That perspective has changed even whether there are “aggravating circum- out to be more complicated than simply in Florida. A new F.I.U. law school tweaking flawed legislation. survey finds only a third of Floridians First, there is the question of retro- now favor the death penalty over life TIM PADGETT, Latin America editor for NPR affiliate WLRN, isAmerica ’s Miami correspon- activity. Ring v. Arizona, after all, has imprisonment. dent. long been the law of the land, and many TIM PADGETT

12 America March 7, 2016 March 7, 2016 America 13 HELEN ALVARÉ False Mercy he Zika virus is the latest Yet no matter how often it is repeat- the literature urges caution at the very predicate for the argument ed, the “merciful” case for abortion fails. least, before commencing a full-on Tthat we need to make abor- First, poor women have never want- contraception-will-fix-it campaign. No tion more available to poor women. ed abortion as much as more privi- matter one’s theological opinion about It’s just tragic all around. Abortion leged women have wanted to provide contraception, the net health effects of advocates trade on fears that poor it for them. This finding has been contraception are uncertain. There are women would give birth to children constant for years, and the situation in the increased rates of nonmarital and suffering microcephaly, though a re- Colombia is no exception. Poor wom- unintended pregnancies among the view of Colombian and U.S. medical en have fewer abortions per pregnancy poor who receive free contraception, as resources indicates that the link is than women of greater means. This is noted above. There is the Department quite uncertain. despite (and because of ) the hundreds of Health and Human Services’ ad- Though Zika is new, the argu- of millions of federal dollars mission that the current ment tying more legal abortion to the (domestically and interna- The argu- array of contraception plight of poor women is old. And it tionally) spent on contra- (the same array the gov- always goes like this. Step 1: Find a ception targeted to them. ment tying ernment would foist health problem that poor women or Second, abortion really upon the Little Sisters their children suffer disproportion- does cause women’s suf- more legal of the Poor) is unpop- ately more then other women. Step 2: fering, even or perhaps es- abortion to ular with women (40 Recommend abortion as the solution. pecially on the grounds of percent annually leave Step 3: Include self-deprecating lan- the child’s disability. This is the plight of their method), danger- guage about how the person making not a debating or debatable poor women ous especially for obese the argument is a woman of privilege point any longer. We are women (36 percent of who is not at risk of the aforemen- well past anecdote on this is old. the population) and in- tioned health problem and who is matter. And no one knows effective at surprising therefore promoting abortion strictly it better than the Catholic rates (failure rates of 9 altruistically. Step 4: Round up the Church, with its Project Rachel min- percent to 30 percent). There is also the usual suspects. These inevitably in- istry to thousands and thousands of fact that nearly five years after the pre- clude the Catholic Church, pro-life women after abortion. A few weekends ventive services report that provoked politicians and uncaring men. Special ago I spent time with several women the H.H.S. contraception mandate, the disdain is reserved for pro-lifers who who had experienced abortion fol- government’s preventive services body cannot demonstrate that they recent- lowing rape. Ten, 20, 40 years ago…it has yet to adopt its recommendation to ly tried to adopt a disabled child. Step doesn’t matter. They regret the loss of list contraception. Then there are the 5: Recite a litany of the programs and the child bitterly. They just do, and it nearly annual settlements, amounting opportunities that would alleged- makes all the sense in the world. to billions of dollars, paid by pharma- ly preclude the “need” for abortion Third, one has to wonder at what ceutical companies to women harmed among the poor but that are expen- point advocates of more legal abor- by contraception or to their surviving sive and unachievable over the short tion will acknowledge not only that families. run—hence the continued resort to opponents are taking care of women Finally, there is the poignant fact the cheaper and quicker abortion solu- and children before and after birth in that one cannot recommend abortion tion. extraordinary numbers, but that “pro- on the grounds of the disability of the choice” organizations are doing almost child involved without making an awful nothing. It is extraordinary, really, this statement about the value of the lives of HELEN​ ALVARÉ is a professor of law at George false—and ironic—accusation. I call it all disabled people. It cannot be helped Mason University, where she teaches law and religion and family law. She is also a consultor the “lazy slander of the pro-life cause.” and even by itself should shut down the to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Fourth, a fair, empirical review of “merciful” case for abortion.

14 America March 7, 2016 HELPING HAND. Denver Broncos defensive end Robert Ayers helps a boy at the Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids event in Jersey City, N.J., in 2014.

The ongoing relevance of an oft-forgotten church teaching CNS PHOTO/EDUARDO MUNOZ, REUTERS Property and People

BY ROBERT MALONEY

e forget many things. Usually, they do not disappear completely from memory; they just lie buried under countless other things. From time to time they rise to the surface, but quickly fall back into oblivion. When reminded about forgotten things, we often say, “Oh yes, now I remember; but I haven’t thought about that in ages!” WOne of these oft-forgotten truths, the universal destination of material goods, is extreme- ly relevant today, especially in societies like the United States and Western Europe, where we defend the right to private property almost always without question. Pope Francis is reminding us of it. In “Laudato Si’” he cites St. John Paul II: “The principle of the subordination of private property to the universal destination of goods, and thus the

ROBERT MALONEY, C.M., the former superior general of the Congregation of the Mission, lives in Philadelphia, Pa. He serves as administrator for DREAM, a joint project of the Community of Sant’Egidio and the Daughters of Charity for combating H.I.V./AIDS in Africa, and is also involved in efforts to feed and educate children in Haiti.

March 7, 2016 America 15 right of everyone to their use, is a golden rule of social conduct ing and the sabbatical year emphasizes the social responsibili- and ‘the first principle of the whole ethical and social order.’” ty of those holding private property. He returned to the theme in Bolivia in July 2015, a few In the New Testament, many sayings of Jesus address the months after the publication of “Laudato Si’”: “The universal use of property to aid one’s brothers and sisters. St. Paul tells destination of goods is not a figure of speech found in the the Corinthians that since the form of this world is passing church’s social teaching. It is a reality prior to private property. away, they should possess as if not possessing. The ideal pic- Property, especially when it affects natural resources, must al- ture of the primitive community in Acts shows Christians ways serve the needs of peoples.” so bound together in selfless love that they voluntarily hold While welcomed by many, this assertion has also aroused all things in common, so that those in need have their share. strong negative reactions. Calmer voices have pointed out that The motive behind the Christian attitude toward property is the universal destination of material goods has been part of clear from Acts and Second Corinthians: the conviction that the church’s teaching for centuries, though, in candor, one this community, founded on Jesus’ love and his two-fold com- must admit that it has often been a “forgotten truth.” mand, must be a fellowship of brothers and sisters. Actually, negative reactions to this teaching are not new. These are merely indications, but clear ones, that if In early centuries, some bishops Christian love is to permeate all who preached on the theme met human coexistence, then it must with exile and death. In modern be given flesh on the level of times, sharp criticisms have fre- The universal destination owning too; that if human love quently greeted encyclicals that of material goods has been is to be the love of an embodied touched on the matter. spirit, then it must manifest it- On March 26, 1967, for ex- part of Catholic Church self in the material possessions ample, “Populorum Progressio” that are a necessary extension of called for “concrete action to- teaching for centuries, corporeality. ward each person’s complete de- velopment and the development though…it has often been Creation Is for All to Use of all humankind.” In a quick, The early Christian writers do strong reaction, The Wall Street a ‘forgotten truth.’ not consider the right of pri- Journal labeled the encyclical vate property as the basic norm “warmed-over Marxism,” as if in considering a Christian’s re- it were a radical departure from previous Catholic thinking. lationship to material goods; rather, what is primary is that Paragraph 22 was the focal point of the criticism: “The recent God created the world for the use of all. The human person is Council reminded us of this: ‘God intended the earth and all primarily the guardian and steward of goods; only secondarily that it contains for the use of every human being and people....’ is he or she their owner. All other rights whatsoever, including those of property and The Didache, written toward the end of the first century, of free commerce, are to be subordinated to this principle.” clearly reflects the early Christian attitude toward property This is hardly a radical departure from prior Christian and its use: “Do not turn away from the needy; rather, share teaching, as critics have suggested; rather, the universal desti- everything with your brother, and do not say: ‘It is private nation of material goods or the social function of property is a property.’” long-standing tenet in Christian thought. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) strongly emphasiz- es the prime importance of the common destiny of material What Do the Scriptures Say? goods: “It is God himself who has brought our race to pos- It is clear from the Old Testament that God is the sole king of session in common, by sharing himself first of all, and by Israel and sole lord of the soil. God apportions land to God’s sending his word to all alike, and by making all things for all. people as its stewards. To use the more affective language Therefore, everything is common, and the rich should not favored by Pope Francis, Yahweh’s people are to care for the grasp a greater share.” land. Ambrose (339-97) also emphasizes the primacy of the God protects the land and, through the Seventh and Tenth common destiny of created goods. He argues from the natu- Commandments and other prescriptions, guarantees it as ral order: “God has ordered all things to be produced, so that the private property of those to whom it has been given. But there should be food in common to all, and that the earth private property also has a religious and social thrust. One’s should be a common possession for all. Nature, therefore, has property must be used for tithing, for offering sacrifice and for produced a common right for all, but greed has made it a right giving alms to the poor. Legislation on interest-taking, glean- for a few.” Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) lists the common

16 America March 7, 2016 possession of material goods as a natural-law right, alongside St. John Paul II defended the theme vigorously on many the right to acquire goods. occasions, but especially in “Centesimus Annus” (1991). He In summary, it is clear that early Christian writers, while calls the right to the common use of goods the “first principle recognizing the right of private property, strongly emphasize of the whole ethical and social order” and “the characteristic the destiny of material goods for all; they see the social func- principle of Christian social doctrine.” tion of property as the primary moral norm. Ambrose and The Catechism of the Catholic Church, promulgated by St. others stress this norm so much that they declare that materi- John Paul II in 1992, summarizes this theme carefully: al help is owed to the poor person in justice. The universal destination of goods remains primordi- Need Is Crucial al, even if the promotion of the common good requires St. Thomas Aquinas reflects the same tradition. He writes respect for the right to private property and its exer- that nature as such is indifferent to private ownership. But cise.... The ownership of any property makes its hold- rational reflection shows the necessity of private property in er a steward of Providence, with the task of making our fallen state. In the Summa Theologiae he distinguishes it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others.... between the right to private property and its use. Nature Political authority has the right and duty to regulate prescribes the preservation of peace, the maintenance of or- the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for der and the encouragement of human industry as necessary the sake of the common good. ends. Reason shows that the best way of attaining these ends is through the institution of private property. Private prop- Some Implications of the Universal Destiny erty is therefore commanded by the secondary principles of of Material Goods natural law. Still, nature does not determine who shall own From the evidence presented above, it is clear that Pope what. The determination of specific property rights is the Francis’ statements about the universal destination of ma- concern of positive law. terial goods, while striking for their strength and urgency, It is noteworthy that this defense of private property is are by no means revolutionary in a theological sense; rath- conditional. It sees the right to private property as necessary er, they echo a strong, though sometimes forgotten, strain in our fallen state and as the most rational way of preserving in Christian tradition. But Francis’ views are revolutionary peace. But in the same article St. Thomas adds forcefully: “The in this sense: that their application would produce radical second thing that is competent to man with regard to external changes in social structures. In the interest of stimulating things is their use. In this respect, man ought to possess exter- discussion, let me propose 10 considerations, some contain- nal things, not as his own, but as common, so that, namely, he ing crucial questions. is ready to communicate them to others in their need.” First, to summarize the matter briefly, a long Catholic Aquinas’s approach is subtle. His point of departure is the Church tradition about the universal destiny of material general necessity of material goods as a means for the human goods, described above, states that the right to private prop- person’s self-realization. The right of individuals to own ma- erty must be conditioned by the right of all to have a just terial goods is a corollary of this, given our sinful human con- share in the universe’s material goods. dition. But the right to the use of material goods is primordial Second, Pope Paul VI’s statement in “Populorum and superior: each person, because he or she is a person, is Progressio” has played a pivotal role in recent official Catholic entitled to a share of the means necessary for his or her well- teaching on the universal destination of material goods. It being. has been cited again and again: “All other rights whatsoever, including those of property and of free commerce, are to be The Social Aspect of Property subordinated to this principle.” The social encyclicals “Rerum Novarum” (1891), Third, even more forcefully, St. John Paul II calls the right “Quadragesimo Anno” (1931), “Mater et Magistra” (1961) to the common use of goods the “first principle of the whole and “Pacem in Terris” (1963) take up the theme with in- ethical and social order” and “the characteristic principle of creasing force. At Vatican II, the “Pastoral Constitution Christian social doctrine.” on the Church in the Modern World” (1965) makes the Fourth, ethics are crucial in guiding the economic and strongest statement up to that time on the common pur- social choices that determine how various rights are to be pose of created things: “God intended the earth and all that balanced. Adequate solutions will be found only in ethical it contains for the use of every human being and people.... choices made by individuals, groups and governments. Such Whatever the forms of ownership may be...attention must choices will inevitably incorporate concrete elements from always be paid to the universal purpose for which created various “systems.” To address issues in general terms of sys- goods are meant.” tems like “capitalism,” “socialism” and “communism” is of little

March 7, 2016 America 17 help. The bottom line is that no pure system exists and no “the ‘Evangelii Nuntiandi’ of Latin America.” “Laudato Si’” “system” as such provides a solution. There is no pure capi- echoes many of its themes. In the words of Aparecida: How talism, no pure socialism and no pure communism. In the might society “pursue an alternative development mod- concrete, all socioeconomic systems incorporate elements el, one that is comprehensive and communal, based on an from other systems, though, of course, the mix varies consid- ethics that includes responsibility for an authentic natural erably. If one condemns “unbridled capitalism,” for instance, and human ecology...?” “Laudato Si’” repeats this question the concrete question becomes: What “bridles” could make and expands on it. How might society redouble its efforts the system acceptable? If one condemns “totalitarian social- to enact government policies and also promote private sec- ist governments,” then the question becomes: What about tor involvement to assure the protection, conservation and socialist states that are democratic? restoration of nature? What is the most appropriate forum Fifth, key questions requiring an ethical response are: for deciding how to monitor the application of international What should the public sector (the state and the services environmental standards within particular countries? it provides) and the private sector (N.G.O.’s, private firms, Seventh, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that charities and individuals) do to provide a social safety net— goods of production—material or immaterial—like land, that is, to prevent people who are vulnerable to disasters, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to displacement, unemployment and poverty from falling be- employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number. low a certain socioeconomic level? What can the public and It emphasizes that those who hold goods for use and con- private sectors do to reduce the huge gap between the rich sumption should use them with moderation, reserving the and the poor within countries, and between rich nations and better part for the migrant, the sick and the poor. It asserts poor nations? that for the sake of the common good, political authority has Sixth, one of the clearest optics for understanding Francis the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the is the final document from the Fifth General Conference right to ownership. of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, held Eighth, to put the principle of the universal destination in Aparecida, Brazil, in May 2007. Pope Francis, serving of material goods into practice concretely, we must further as the chairperson of its editorial committee, was a key ask: How can clean water be made readily available to all? figure in preparing the document. He later described it as Basic health care? Basic education? How can all be provided with the opportunity to work at a just wage? Have access to adequate housing? What are valid criteria for land re- form? Ninth, might the Catholic Church, which is in fact a large landowner in many countries, be not only a thought lead- er in regard to the universal destination of material goods but also a leader of practice, as Pope Francis has suggested? While leadership through teaching is very significant, lead- ership through witness is all the more so. Tenth, Pope Francis is convinced that a basic spirituality underlies this entire discussion. He regards such a spiritual- ity as central to living out the biblical call to care for creation and to share material goods justly with our brothers and sis- ters in need. The pope calls for the creation of an ecological culture in which we adopt a “distinctive way of looking at things, a way of thinking, policies, an educational program, a lifestyle and a spirituality which together generate resistance to the assault of the technocratic paradigm.” In his recent trip to the United States, he emphasized the importance and interconnectedness of land, lodging and labor, all essential to a truly human life. He has consistently affirmed that a cultural transformation is the only lasting way to counter widespread poverty. If we are convinced of the universal destination of mate- rial goods, a largely forgotten truth, such a transformation will be possible. A

18 America March 7, 2016 FIRST MONDAY School Choice Challenges issatisfaction with public do not violate the establishment clause Missouri playground case also may school education has led many if they serve a public purpose, are neu- determine whether states that exclude Dstates to pass laws that facili- tral to religion, and if parents, not the religious schools from these tax breaks tate school choice. Options include government, make final voucher-use violate the free exercise clause. Whether charter schools, scholarship and tuition decisions. Various state constitutions, private school tax benefits violate state tax benefits, and publicly funded edu- however, may prohibit publicly fund- law depends on the state. An Alabama cation savings accounts. Each of these ed private school scholarships. The school tax credit was upheld by its state programs must comply with applicable Colorado Supreme Court recently supreme court; litigation regarding a federal and state constitutional provi- struck down a scholarship program similar Montana law is pending. sions. based on the state’s constitutional pro- The First Amendment to the U.S. hibition against the use of public funds Education Savings Accounts Constitution prohibits government “in aid” of sectarian schools. Now the Some states, like Nevada, are combining establishment of religion and protects State Board of Education favorable tax laws with the free exercise of religion. Thirty- wants the U.S. Supreme Whether other school choice fund- seven state constitutions contain more Court to declare this inter- private ing programs. As dis- restrictive provisions that, using vari- pretation of Colorado’s con- cussed in Kevin Clarke’s ous language, prohibit or limit the use stitution unconstitutional. school tax blog post on America of public money to aid private and/or The state board argues that Media’s website, “Nevada sectarian schools. a scholarship program that benefits vio- School Choice Program discriminates against reli- late state law Threatened by ‘Little Charter Schools gious schools violates the Blaine’ Amendment,” Publicly funded but privately operated free exercise clause. depends on the Legislature recently charter schools do not violate the estab- Prior to Justice Scalia’s the state. created a state-funded lishment clause as long as they do not death, the U.S. Supreme savings account pro- teach religious doctrine and are not run Court agreed to hear a similar argu- gram available to all children taken out by religious organizations. They may, ment brought by a religious school in of public schools. Nevada’s program however, run afoul of state constitution- Missouri that was denied state funds is unique in that it is not restricted to al provisions. In 2015, the Washington for playground improvements. These low-income households or children in Supreme Court cited a school tax fund- cases call into question Locke v. Davis, a low-performing schools and the funds ing limitation in the state constitution 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision that may be used for a broad range of ed- to invalidate the state’s Charter School upheld the right of states to deny public ucational purposes, including online Act. The Legislature is working to pro- scholarship money to college-level de- learning, tutoring and therapy. Savings vide alternative funding, but the case votional theology (ministry) students. accounts give parents far more choice illustrates that school choice options Scalia wrote a strong dissent in Locke and the public far less say in how state affect public school budgets. and would have voted in favor of equal money is spent. Nevada’s claim that treatment for religious schools. His parentally controlled savings accounts Vouchers death makes it impossible to predict the avoid the state constitution’s prohibi- The U.S. Supreme Court held in outcome of these cases. tion against public funding of private Zelman v. Simmons-Harris that pub- schools also is being litigated. licly funded voucher scholarship pro- Tax Breaks grams that pay private school tuition Tuition and scholarship tax credits and The U.S. Supreme Court is the ul- deductions granted to private school timate arbiter of these cases. The court parents and benefactors steer funds operates best when it is at full strength, ELLEN K. BOEGEL, who teaches legal studies away from public coffers but are not as tied 4-to-4 decisions leave lower at St. John’s University in New York, clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the prohibited by the establishment clause court rulings in place. Second Circuit. if they meet the Zelman standard. The ELLEN K. BOEGEL

March 7, 2016 America 19 Restoring Right Order The transforming power of tragedy and poverty BY TRAVIS LACOUTER AND MACARENA PALLARES

n a jab at abstract theorizers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau stated. and bloodless systematizers like Carl Linnaeus, the And it is indeed tragic. For Aristotle, tragedy by defini- Spanish thinker Miguel de Unamuno defined his in- tion requires three steps: 1) The arousal of fear and pity in terest as “the man of flesh and bone,” who “is at once the the audience, 2) with the aim of affecting genuinekatharsis, Isubject and the supreme object of all philosophy.” This con- or a cleansing purgation, which 3) results in a restoration of cern for the fleshy man—for the person as subject—perme- right order. So it always ends with some kind of cadence, so ates Unamuno’s idiosyncratic brand of Spanish personalism. to speak, with a resolution, with right order. The best of Catholic fiction also places the “man of flesh and This idea of tragedy as purgation continues past Aristotle bone” at its center. And the church’s longstanding defense and throughout the Western literary tradition. And in this of “poverty of spirit” cannot be fully understood apart from sense, Christianity’s soteriological dimension is distinctive- this tragicomic personalism. For what the church means ly tragic. The need for the Incarnation begets fear of just when it speaks of “poverty of spirit” is very much connected punishment; the reality of the cross begets a sense of pity to a phenomenological experience of being that shapes and and scandal at the reversal of debtor and master; and an guides our spiritual identities prior to any reflective, rational enfleshed God orients us toward a proper appreciation of project of theology or humanitarian praxis. humanity’s “fundamental poverty.” Divine grace is in a sense Our first task is to understand the Christian faith as ani- tragic because God, when faced with human sinfulness, mated by a certain tragic sensibility. This becomes apparent chose not to destroy humanity (which would be justified) once we reflect on the Incarnation, which is fundamentally a nor ignore humanity (which would preserve God’s pristine sort of tragic grace. An understanding of salvation history is dignity) but rather entered into the fallenness of creation useful here, as it makes clear the unfolding reality of human himself, even to the point of death on the cross. fallenness and the relatively measured responses of an om- Salvation history can thus be understood as God’s open- nipotent God. Until the Incarnation, it seems God tended ness to the contingency of human freedom; this openness to maintain a regal distance from the brokenness of creation, is rooted in love and is defined by its sacrificial character. a brokenness rooted in man’s capacity for freedom. Because Man’s freedom, and God’s respect for that freedom, moved God valued man’s freedom, humanity’s repeated failings God to swap God’s place above creation for a place among elicited from God both severe condemnation and generous the beings of creation, putting an absolute end to the “logic promises of clemency. of exchange” between God and man and giving birth to the “logic of gift.” A Radical Shift Throughout the Old Testament and Old Covenant theolo- The Logic of Grace gy, we can trace a recurring theme of transactional grace, of From the very outset of his ministry Christ took on a dispo- God entering into contracts of various forms with his cho- sition of poverty. During the temptations in the desert, for sen subjects. However, as Pope Benedict XVI has taught, example, Christ eschewed Satan’s various offers of worldly the New Covenant represents a replacing of the old “logic power. Johann Baptist Metz interprets the three tempta- of exchange” with the “absolutely gratuitous” reality of God’s tions as three assaults on the “poverty” of Christ. Satan is participation in creation. The radicality of this shift from baffled by the logic of grace; he tries to tempt Jesus by at- transactional grace to incarnational kenosis cannot be over- tacking his poverty because what he really fears is the power of powerlessness—that is, the powerlessness of God as a sort of “Trojan horse” that will open the human heart to its TRAVIS LACOUTER is a graduate of The College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass., and currently is studying for his master’s in theology at “native poverty[,]...suffer the misery and abandonment that Campion Hall, Oxford University. MACARENA PALLARES is a graduate is humanity’s, and thus save humankind.” This is, of course, of St. John’s College, Md., and now serves as a client services manager at exactly what happens. American Philanthropic, LLC. A version of this article was presented at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Annual Conference, Nov. 1, It is important that the Greek word used for “poor” in our 2014. common translation of the beatitude “Blessed are the poor

20 America March 7, 2016 in spirit,” is ptochoi. In classical Greek from Homer on, this word has been closely associated with “beggarliness,” literally meaning “one who crouches or cowers” in a beggarly fashion. In this way, the word ptochos, “poor,” means much more than just a lack or deficien- cy of some kind. Poverty implies a more active (though receptive) disposition. The beggar, once he acknowledges his own deficiency, goes beyond it by accepting his condition and becoming actively open to receiving a gift. Following Pope Benedict XVI’s exhortation for Catholics to “expand their understanding of poverty,” we choose to understand Christian poverty as primarily a phenomenological disposition to- ward a radical self-emptying open- ness—a condition of beggarliness similar to that which Christ as- sumed in the Incarnation. The beatitudinal blessing can- not simply refer to a level of materi- al poverty, for the question of salva- tion is not just a matter of separat- ing rich from poor. Indeed, the fixa- tion on material categories in order to determine questions of theolog- ical justice is precisely what caused the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to warn against mate- “CRUCIFIXION AFTER MICHELANGELO,” MARCELLO VENUSTI, CA. 1550. PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/SALIKO rialist “concepts uncritically bor- rowed from Marxist ideology” in certain aspects of so-called “liberation theology.” Christ else- The Radicality of the Cross where reminds his disciples that the poor will always be with The Augustinian disposition is interior and personal since us, suggesting that the transformative love of God applies to it gives pride of place to conscience rather than reputation. internal conditions, not external, economic ones. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross cannot be counted as a polit- No, rather, Christian tragedy orients us toward a beggar- ical victory, and only according to the rubrics of Christian ly disposition in our own lives, an experience of our “native love can it be counted as a victory at all. In fact, it would poverty” before all else. This is not a political stance but a seem that in the crucifixion Christ faced total defeat. But at disposition that practicing Christians inevitably take into the Easter miracle, for the first time in history, we learn of a politics. St. Augustine grasped this in a most profound way, power greater than death. The radicality of the cross, then, by nature both of his own dramatic conversion from sin and of Christ’s beggarliness generally, is that God transforms and his historical position at the end of the Roman impe- poverty into new life. rium. As Pierre Manent has written, Augustine articulated This tragic disposition is something distinct from an an- a “half-practical...half-theoretical” disposition “that could be cient pagan understanding of tragedy, which rests on exter- called affective or pathetic” for its emphasis on the tragic or nal evaluations of “shame.” Pagan tragedy is political where transitory nature of human life. Christian tragedy is personal; the pagan emphasis on rep-

March 7, 2016 America 21 utation, or shame, suggests how thoroughly pre-Christian Christian experience is prepolitical, then, though it need not valuations of worth and justice are decided by reference to be antipolitical. external reality over conscience. We need only glance at var- This shift in emphasis from the public to the personal is ious depictions of pagan greatness to see multiple examples unavoidably demanding for the individual. Conscience pur- of this. chases its agency at the price of the clarity that marked the Pagan pride, motivated by the power of shame, is a cen- pagan system of shame. Once the logic of exchange has been tral theme of Homer’s Iliad, for instance, as the driving force replaced by the logic of gift, the individual comes to occupy behind both Achilles’ and Hector’s actions. And Augustine a space of relative freedom in which he must accept the prof- addresses precisely this point when he evaluates the sui- fered love of his creator, rather than defend himself against cide of Lucretia, who stands even to this day as a model of the predations of chance and demigods. This freedom is, as Roman republican chastity. Lucretia erred in killing her- freedom tends to be, disorienting. self, Augustine argues in City of God, because she confused The Christian life, then, involves a unique degree of dra- the external judgments of propriety with the truth of her ma, even angst, since it requires a relational, organic and own conscience; her inability to communicate the secret of uncoerced act of love between creature and creator, a love her conscience (“conscientiam demonstrare non potuit”) left which cannot ultimately be born of the pressures of shame. Lucretia unable to defend her virtue even to herself. Under pagan rubrics of shame, then, her suicide was not just under- The Here and Now standable but necessary. And this brings us to a diagnosis of tragedy in present age. For Augustine, Christianity endows conscience with a Christians in the modern world must relearn to do what certain agency that “liberates the human soul from the ty- Lucretia could not: to communicate the secrets of their rannical grip of honor and public praise,” as Pierre Manent consciences and to be sensitive to the anthropological reali- put it in his Metamorphoses of the City. The Christian looks ties that mark them as created beings. to the example of the cross and concludes that death and But if the empowerment of conscience marked the pivot- dishonor do not in themselves constitute a moral failing but al break between pagan and Christian thought, then the de- that instead what matters are the inner truths of the soul, struction of conscience marks the break between Christian which only God can know. Our native poverty makes us de- and modern secular thought. For conscience requires a sirous of God’s personal love, while our natural freedom en- healthy sense of sin, and the rise of ideology in the modern sures that any love between God and man is truly relational. age has dismantled a formerly solid consensus about sin, This relationality is distinct from paganism’s implicit sense goodness, grace and mystery. Eric Voegelin, who explained of coercion. This empowerment of conscience is perhaps the mechanics of ideology with unique insight, understood one of the most important and decisive revolutions in the that the ideologue ultimately seeks to control the world, to history of thought. eliminate its tragic contingency. If the Christian attempts Christianity destroys ancient pagan conceptions of trag- to use his natural freedom in order to reinforce his native edy, then, but we cannot say it forsakes tragedy completely. poverty, the ideologue does the opposite, using his freedom Instead it shifts the locus: rather than resulting from the to create an alternative reality—to reshape himself and the conflicting obligations owed to desire and duty, tragedy be- world around him. The ideologue cannot content himself comes an internal process involving the dynamics of con- with the alienating in-betweenness of existence, much less science and grace. That is why, for instance, the Christian let it orient him toward heaven. tradition does not quite recognize Thomas More as a tragic This results in a kind of self-imposed blindness as the figure: his conscience was clear. It is closer to the truth to ideologue looks to construct alternative universalizing call “tragic” figures like St. John of the Cross, Mother Teresa, epistemological systems to make sense of the world. These or Augustine himself, who struggled at times to even desire various systems share a rigidity that can be understood as Christ’s love. The cross provides a distinct moment of genu- what one observer called an “unwillingness to submit to the ine tragedy, when Jesus himself cries out in seeming despair, structure of reality, and to bear the evils of the world.” It is “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” precisely this same pretension to existential omnipotence To be clear, pagan greatness of spirit is not wholly mis- that constitutes man’s first sin and that motivates Satan’s guided. A healthy sense of shame and honor and a desire cosmic act of rebellion. It is also, as we have already men- to see the external order reflect the eternal one are all con- tioned, the opposite of God’s kenotic openness to the con- structive impulses. But in light of Christian revelation— tingency of human freedom as seen in the unfolding of sal- and the Christ event in particular—shame and honor can vation history. no longer be normative. Justice, as the end of politics, has We should note here with Voegelin that Christianity been displaced or superseded by love in the Incarnation. The has had some role to play in enabling ideology: In “de-di-

22 America March 7, 2016 vinizing” the pagan world (that is, by revealing its untruth), the particular tragedy of our own times to be demonstrat- Christianity left an opening for nihilism to take root. In ed, and the novelist tries to give you, within the form of the place of ancient pagan practices, which amounted to vari- book, the total experience of human nature at any time. For ous forms of hedonism, relativism and brutalism but which this reason, the greatest dramas naturally involve the salva- undoubtedly captured the imaginations and dominated the tion or loss of the soul.” external lives of pagan people, Christianity offers an inte- O’Connor’s view of the Christian imagination both de- riorly focused—that is, experiential—call to personal ho- feats pagan dynamics of shame and honor—since it takes liness. The temptation to ignore the hard personalism of our universal experience of “native poverty” as a starting Christian holiness is one not easily resisted, even by pro- point—and confounds ideological attempts to narrow and fessed Christians. Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor voices sanitize the scandalous nature of Christian love—by em- this danger perfectly when he indicts Christ for not “giving bracing the “mystery of incompleteness” particular to any a firm foundation for setting the conscience of man at rest given time. This tragic Christian love, which we arrive at by for ever, [but rather choosing] all that is exceptional, vague way of death, was modeled by Christ on the cross. It is by and enigmatic.” the same self-emptying stance of beggarliness that we come This shift from the pagan external to the Christian inter- to authentic abundance, and by the powerlessness of death nal leaves a space in the political sphere for ideological spec- that we come to the fullness of life. ulation. Furthermore, the space between the Christian and Tragedy requires a certain restoration of right order as ideological view of history is rather narrow. The Christian its final cadence. In fact, acknowledging man’s native pov- God’s salvific action in history lends coherence to time, es- erty is the restoration of the right order of things. And the tablishing a beginning, middle and eventual end. The ideo- Christian narrative and the serious work of fiction are essen- logue makes the fundamental if understandable mistake of tially portraits of this tragicomic drama. Shakespeare’s trag- thinking this structure is animated by anything other than edies always end in death, and his comedies in a wedding. divine love—by economics or racial superiority, for exam- The biblical story, in a way, ends in both. As a path out of our ple—and simply works to effect the promised “self-salva- current state of moral confusion, we could start by ponder- tion” ahead of schedule. ing that central tragicomic Christian paradox. A Thus Christianity has a crucial role to play in counter- ing ideology and can do so only by maintaining an organic connection to the “man of flesh and bone” and by embracing FOLEY POETRY CONTEST a disposition of poverty of spirit that is in clashing tension with ideological self-glorification on one hand and pagan Poems are being accepted for the 2016 Foley Poetry Award. triumphalism on the other. It is precisely in understand- Each entrant is asked to submit only one unpublished poem ing how a beggarly disposition gives way to charity that on any topic. The poem should be 30 lines or fewer and not Christianity can “redivinize” the world. under consideration elsewhere. Poems will not be returned. Poems should be sent in by Submittable or postal mail. The ‘Mystery of Incompleteness’ This discussion begs for recourse to fiction. If our central Include contact information on the same page as the poem. contention is true—that is, that Christianity constitutes in its essence an experiential rather than a political or even in- Poems must be postmarked or sent in by Submittable tellectual reality—then fiction is the most appropriate me- between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2016. The winning poem will dium through which to explore this truth. Fiction, rather be published in the June 6-13, 2016, issue of America. Three than apologetics or academic philosophy, can mimic the in- runner-up poems will be published in subsequent issues. terior, narrative nature of Christian revelation, and the best Cash prize: $1,000 fiction invites us to test our consciences against the experi- ences of compelling characters. To send in poems through Submittable, go to In particular, Flannery O’Connor understood the power americamedia.submittable.com. fiction has to open people to the transformative power of Christian tragic grace. “Drama usually bases itself on the To submit poems by postal mail, send to: bedrock of original sin,” O’Connor wrote, “whether the Foley Poetry Contest writer thinks in theological terms or not.... The novelist America Magazine doesn’t write about people in a vacuum; he writes about 106 West 56th Street people in a world where something is obviously lacking, New York, NY 10019 where there is the general mystery of incompleteness and

March 7, 2016 America 23 FAITH IN FOCUS Spirit of the Desert Hills Discovering God on the U.S.-Mexico border BY SEAN CARROLL bout once or twice a ing wind in the wintertime. A week, I make my way line of deported migrant men, Aacross the U.S.-Mexico women and children stretches border from Nogales, Ariz., to down the sidewalk, many car- Nogales, Sonora. I know the rying their belongings in large path well. As I approach the plastic bags, compliments of the heavily fortified gate, I can see U.S. Department of Homeland the high, serpent-like border Security. Their body language wall on each side, undulating communicates everything they up and down the desert hills of are feeling: fear from being in an Ambos Nogales. unfamiliar place; despair at be- I often think about my resis- ing deported and separated from tance to coming here in the first loved ones in the United States; place. My Jesuit provincial supe- uncertainty about where they rior had asked if I would be in- are and what to do next. terested in being the director of And yet, a profound change the Kino Border Initiative, a new takes place when the migrants binational migrant ministry on walk through the door. Their the border, focused on human- faces slowly brighten, as we itarian assistance to migrants. welcome them and invite them Being an obedient and faithful to be seated at the table, where

Jesuit, I told him no. I had proj- TAKE THIS. Sean Carroll, S.J., gives Communion they are introduced to our staff ects I wanted to finish, and the during Mass at Tumacacori National Historical Park and volunteers and participate in idea of switching to another min- in Tumacacori, Ariz., Jan. 10. a presentation on human rights. istry did not excite me. me to become a Jesuit years ago, when, When the moment arrives to bless the Weeks later, however, when talking much to my surprise, I discovered meal, I step forward and look out over about this project with a friend, I felt Jesus walking next to me in a medita- the migrant men, women and children. a deep movement in my heart, and as tion on his appearance to Peter on the They remind me of others who have I paid attention to this deep desire, I lake shore, asking me if I trusted him come to us over the years: the woman could see that God was inviting me to enough to accept this call. In spite of who was beaten by her guide and then this work, to this border, with all of its my own terror and fear, I had said yes. raped and abandoned in the desert; challenges and uncertainties. God had I could never have imagined the many the man who crossed into the United surprised me with an invitation I had blessings that God has poured into my States hoping to be reunited with wife never anticipated. I was both excited life, all because I said yes. So if this in- and children in California but died be- and scared. How could this be? vitation to the border was from God, I fore reaching them; the man who was I had never been a director of a figured, then God would make it work savagely kicked in the ribs by Border Jesuit apostolate, let alone a cross-bor- somehow. Patrol agents while attempting to der ministry. Yet I felt deeply that this I pull up to the Kino Border surrender; the woman who was strip- was God’s initiative. God had invited Initiative’s comedor, or soup kitchen. A searched while in Border Patrol custo- corrugated roof covers a small, semi-en- dy and then left standing in a cold cell, SEAN CARROLL, S.J., is the executive director closed boxlike structure, with stifling naked, for hours. of the Kino Border Initiative. heat in the summer and bone-chill- At the same time, as I make the sign CNS PHOTO/NANCY WIECHEC

24 America March 7, 2016 of the cross, something powerful hap- spouses, children and siblings far away, in prayer. In that moment, they show pens inside me. I feel a soulful and pro- in their parents and grandparents who me how to place myself and my life into found silence descend over the comedor walked them to church in their home- the hands of God, how to welcome the and fill my heart. I watch heads bow, town years ago, in the woman who Spirit into my heart and in that place Spirit of the Desert Hills hands slowly folded together, eyes tossed food to them as they rode on to find strength for the journey. closing. The Spirit of God gently en- top of the train in southern Mexico. There are times when I want to flee velopes me and all of us present. These Maybe they feel what one migrant in this border filled with tragedy, disap- men, women and children have every our comedor has written, that “Jesus’ pointment, loss and injustice. reason to be bitter, to be angry, to hate. footsteps and mine are the same.” And yet, when those moments Instead, I am amazed as they place God’s Spirit is palpable, and the Spirit come, the migrants teach me how to themselves, their spirits, their lives, that surrounds me now opens up in discover the presence of God’s Spirit, their beings in the hands of God. me, as I stand before them and begin and how to live from that experience. Perhaps they recall how God has to speak, while at the same time feeling Perhaps I am still on the border to been present to them, through their that the migrants are really leading me continue to learn that lesson. A

GENERATION FAITH What We Built Faith and friendship at WorkCamp BY MAURA NEWELL

hat Sunday afternoon, when was giving the tour. She was so excit- son who loves doing things that I have we walked onto the worksite, ed to welcome us into her home, dis- no control over. I enjoy being a leader, Tthere were foul smells, piles of playing great pride in everything that being in charge and not necessarily junk and dangling weeds that covered she had. This was the beginning of my branching out to others, but I realized the wood and ground of the structure first real experience with our church that with WorkCamp this would not that was our assigned “house.” After WorkCamp. be the case. It took not only the opin- taking a second to look around, all I WorkCamp is a program through ions of all six teenage crew members to could think was, “How could someone the Diocese of Arlington, Va., that al- live here?” When we walked toward lows teens to come together through the house, a lady came outside smiling work and prayer. When my crew first to welcome us to her home. She intro- saw Ms. J’s house, we were amazed. duced herself as Ms. J. and gave us a There was lots of hard work to be done. tour of her five-room house. The floors It was the middle of the summer and were nowhere to be seen, as they were sweltering hot. Now I am not a per- piled with junk; the living room had a gaping hole in the ceiling that allowed THE CREW. WorkCampers on site you to see the sky outside; the roof was above and at morning Mass below unusable; and the bathroom plumbing OF THE ARCKDOCESE ARLINGTON, VA. PHOTOS COURTESY did not work. Yet Ms. J. was smiling and making jokes the whole time she

MAURA NEWELL attends Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind. She is a 2015 graduate of Georgetown Visitation High School in Washington, D.C. PHOTO: GERALD MARTINEAU figure out what work needed to be done something like this there is still a good always making sure that others were but also the help of our experienced, portion of people who don’t want to be doing the task that they were best at or adult contractor. Slowly but surely we there, but at WorkCamp, I saw that al- enjoyed the most; Maria through her began our week filling dumpsters with most everyone was there because they motherly gentleness being the responsi- weeds, rotted wood and fallen plaster. wanted to help others. ble leader of our crew; John as the pa- At WorkCamp, every morning be- My crew soon became a special part tient contractor kindly helping us learn gins with a 6 a.m. wakeup followed by of my life. Every day we would wake up, to use new tools and fixing our mistakes morning Mass. Prayer is a major part go to Mass and breakfast together, then as we went along; and Declan, being a of the experience, with daily inten- soon head out to our worksite, Ms. J’s helpful presence doing everything asked tions, prayers before meals, adoration, house. Every day we would make jokes of him and even taking on the gruel- talks and songs every night. Kids are while working, tell each other stories ing task of emptying the dumpsters. I encouraged to branch out of their com- about our lives and friends back home learned positivity, loyalty, kindness and fort zones, use new tools that they have and sometimes even squabble about friendship through each and every one never seen before, talk to other camp- the best way to complete a project. of these people in special ways that have ers that they may never have imagined We would pray before lunch and all sit affected me today. being friendly with and leave the out- down together, take a break and talk all Over the course of the week I side world for the week at camp. This at once. This group of people became watched as we tore apart the rotting experience of being open, honest and my family for the week. deck, rebuilt the entire deck, weeded present is not always easy, especially if it I soon began to realize that not only the yard, plastered the roof, created a is with a group of people that you have was I with an amazing group of people, wheelchair ramp and became close with never met before and do not know. but I could see God shining though new people in a way I never imagined During WorkCamp, I really began each and every one of them. Through J. possible. Though the work was hard to see the virtues of faith, hope and T. in his hard, unrelenting work ethic; it was rewarding, especially because I love all put together. It was amazing to Kate in her gentle attitude, always being was able to open up in a new way by see others who really wanted to make a positive motivator when things be- letting others lead and witnessing God a difference. Usually when you go to came tough; Peter with his friendliness, through my encounter with them. A

26 America March 7, 2016 Books & Culture

BOOKS ON THE BIBLE Walter Brueggemann and W. H. JOHN C. ENDRES AND JEAN-FRANÇOIS RACINE Bellinger Jr., Psalms (Cambridge University Press). Co-authored by two masters of Psalms-study, this is a very OF CREATION AND COVENANTS substantial commentary that uses the Exploring Scripture today New Revised Standard Version trans- lation, offers commentary on the entire his selection of books on the in a lively and perceptive way. Even Psalter, contains mini-essays on almost Bible contains one offering for though he highlights narrative texts, his all significant questions and is aimed at Tordinary Catholic laypersons, approach to texts could also prove quite an intelligent, educated, religion- and especially those engaged in various stimulating if applied to the Psalms and church-related audience. Its usefulness church ministries who wish to begin the Wisdom books. This part of his is quite clear, since usage of the NRSV deepening their knowledge of the Bible: book well illustrates the tone and con- is widespread in mainline Protestant Michael Cameron, Unfolding Sacred tent of a Catholic reading that he pre- congregations and seminaries, as well Scripture: How Catholics Read the viously described. In fact, it might prof- as many Catholic universities and sem- Bible (Chicago: Liturgy Training inaries. Although the text is focused for Publications). Bringing 13 years of ex- nonspecialist audiences (i.e., without perience teaching introductory courses extended philological, textual and crit- in Bible, he divides his material into two ical academic discussions), specialists parts: I, “The Catholic Way of Reading will quickly recognize its value for them, Scripture,” (four chapters); and II, in the range of issues these authors in- “Unfolding Sacred Scripture: Touring corporate. the Texts” (10 chapters). Although con- After a remarkably concise but cerned to distinguish Catholic from complete Introduction to the Book of evangelical approaches (more person- Psalms, with matters of Hebrew poetry al and less focused on historical and at the outset, the authors pay “attention institutional commitments), he urges to genre, liturgical connections, societal Catholics not to reject anything good issues and the psalm’s place in coming from various biblical study pro- the book of Psalms as a whole.” grams, but always to engage in a catholic Societal issues both ancient both/and approach, which he holds as and modern are treated, and communal, sacramental, historical and readers of discussions titled flexible. “Bridging the Horizons” will This section reflects well the Catholic be rewarded with thoughtful approach to Scripture since the Second reflection on North American Vatican Council, reflected in prac- itably be read before Part cultural, social and political tice and in church documents. For I. This is an engaging little issues as they intersect with Cameron, a Catholic reading should book, especially for those the interpretation of Psalms. embrace theological and scientific con- who wonder about the Examples are: “Adversaries cerns, as well as those of contemporary role of the Bible in Catholic life today. and Allies” and “The Righteousness of culture. For this reader, however, Part God,” usually located in the first signif- II (“Touring the Texts”) proved more Next I would like to turn to three books icant place where a Psalm features the engaging. Here Cameron displays an on the Psalms that enrich the interpre- term or issue. Many theological and his- uncanny ability to describe the differ- tive and religious opportunities for torical topics that emerge in reading of ent parts of the Bible (e.g., Pentateuch: readers. Two are recent commentaries Psalms are presented in the section title Creation and Humanity; Exodus (2014), which could not be included in “A Closer Look” (e.g. “Job’s Similarities and Covenant; Kingship; Prophecy; last year’s review; one is an older book to the Psalmist”). Overall, these authors Apocalyptic; Gospels—three topical on the Psalms that has just recently present a very readable and astute ap- chapters and treatment of each Gospel) been translated into English. proach to Psalm reading; and members

March 7, 2016 America 27 of study groups, divinity students, pas- than the NRSV. They do not trans- Beauchamp also demonstrates a tors and biblical scholars will be well-re- form masculine-singular nouns and healthy way of reading psalm texts in warded for their attention to this com- pronouns into generic plurals, but use the light of Christ. Jesus defines him- mentary. other terms, like “one,” in an attempt to self as one who has done the will of A second major commentary on stay closer to the poetic language. In the the Father, and that “will” for him was Psalms was written by three scholars: commentary sections, one soon notices “discovered” in the Psalms that he him- Nancy DeClaisse-Walford, Rolf A. that they shift from masculine to femi- self knew, dictated to him through Jacobson and Beth Laneel Tanner: The nine pronouns whenever gender is not other people. I was prepared to read Book of Psalms, New International determined by the content. Overall, this through an academic introduction to Commentary on the Old Testament commentary will attract a wide variety Psalm-reading, but continually learned (Wm. B. Eerdmans). Advertised as “the of readers; translation and to slow down, read slowly most complete and detailed one-vol- commentary are quite ac- and reflectively. Finally, it ume commentary available on the cessible, notes and compar- seemed that reading his text Psalms,” it lives up to most expectations. isons with other commen- resembles spiritual reading, The author of the commentary on each taries will reward scholarly perhaps a lectio style, more psalm is indicated, and together they readers. than academic reading. The provide a rich approach to Psalm study Just released, by Paul end result will be a deeper and interpretation. Indebted to Martin Beauchamp, is Psalms, perception of Psalms and Luther’s view of the Book of Psalms as Night and Day, translat- their power in our lives. a “little Bible,” (as also for Bellinger and ed by Peter Rogers, S.J. Brueggemann), their Introduction cov- (Marquette University The next book constitutes ers a similar range of issues as the pre- Press, originally published a wide-ranging (chrono- vious volume. as Psaumes nuit et jour, 1979). This logically and geographically) ‘story’ by Since the authors provide their own volume is well worth the wait of 36 the prolific historian Philip Jenkins, fresh translation of each Psalm, the in- years for a translator. With neither a The Many Faces of Christ: The troduction includes a detailed presen- scholarly introduction nor treatment Thousand-Year Story of the Survival tation of textual issues (Hebrew texts, of the Psalms, these chapters, which and Influence of the Lost Gospels importance of witness of the Dead Sea originally appeared as talks during (Basic Books). Jenkins argues against Scrolls, the Septuagint and other ver- the 1970’s, during the great heyday of what he terms an alternative history of sions) that guide their translation deci- Scripture study after Vatican II, bear Christianity that views the disappear- sions. The commentary on each Psalm the stamp of a significant scholar in ance of lost Gospels (many Apocryphal begins with a summary of its contents touch with nonscholarly audiences. Gospels, especially Gnostic texts, etc.) and literary structure, comment on the Divided into sections on: The Psalms as the result of narrow restrictions superscription (if there is one), transla- and Us, Supplication, Praise, Promise imposed by the church during Late tion (accompanied by very helpful notes and Psalms and the World (with focus Antiquity, probably from the fourth on philology, other scholarly positions, on Creation), each chapter consists of century A.D. New publications in the other uses of words in the Psalter), fol- five to seven compact pages (originally last 40 years, especially of Gnostic texts lowed by clear and rewarding commen- addressed to a live audience). Footnotes like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel tary on sections (of verses) of the Psalm. are few, but the issues usually found in of Judas and others, attracted much Each entry concludes with reflections the footnotes of Psalm-study are treat- media attention, presented as exposing on the significance of the Psalm in con- ed here, in clear prose. Beauchamp has truths that have long been suppressed temporary society, dealing with issues an intriguing way of introducing the by the “main church.” He surveys a wide both communal and personal, as well as questions that might concern us (e.g., swath of data—literary, liturgical, vi- theological. imprecatory, cursing psalms) in a con- sual (e.g., church art)—from the era Two features are original to this versational way that builds on his view between 400 and 1500 (the Protestant commentary. Convinced that the aes- of the human issues in these texts, Reformation) to argue that these so- thetic power of the language is part of which demonstrate especially that the called “lost” texts were anything but lost, its theological truth and power, they Psalmists’ world is not very “spiritualis- if one looks carefully at the medieval try to draw meaning from the poetic tic” but always concerns the “body”; his church not only in Western Europe, but techniques of the ancient psalmists. avoidance of the body-soul language of throughout the East, extending even to They also attend to gender-inclusive theology in the West keeps readers cor- India. language, though in a different way porally focused. The survey includes not only

28 America March 7, 2016 March 7, 2016 America 29 Christian but also Muslim and Jewish at the beginning of the Persian period, collective memory, they have generally sources that illustrate the complexi- when Yhwh became the sole God of the stayed away from cognitive psychology ty of the religious scene during these monotheistic religions. about individual memory and refrained thousand years. For Jenkins, most of In his parlance, “invention” does not from asking some hard questions about the heresies of these centuries were du- mean something contrived or made up, changing and distorted memories when alist (e.g., the Bogomils, Albigensians, but a gradual invention or discovery it comes to Jesus. Paulecians, etc.), and they witness to the by a culture as a whole. The crucial era Each chapter begins with contem- ongoing life of those “gospels” and texts for Yhwh’s development into the sole porary situations—mostly from North that had supposedly been suppressed. God was the aftermath of the Exile, America—which involve individual He provides a fascinating historical when both priests and Deuteronomists and collective memories. Each includes contextualization of many texts of the described their God as universal and a brief exposition of findings and the- Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Apocrypha transcendent, a process ories about memory and and other bodies of Christian and that continued through an investigation about Jewish literature that have been studied the Persian era. His analy- the remaining memories more in recent decades. Readers will sis hits on major themes in about Jesus in the canoni- encounter historical tidbits that need what has been known as the cal Gospels, the rest of the saying in our era. For example, it was priestly document and the New Testament, and perit- an Albigensian who claimed that Mary Deuteronomistic history, estamental literature. These Magdalene was a concubine of Jesus and then focuses on import- memories pertain to Jesus’ and was the woman taken in adultery ant parts of Isaiah 40–55. words and deeds, memories in the Gospels! Some traditions, for His grand story incorpo- about his birth, childhood, example about the church of the Holy rates much of the recent trials and death. The book Sepulcher in Jerusalem, come from a discussion about the dating may help to reflect on the little-known sixth-century Syriac text: of these text traditions, demonstrates appropriateness of the common ade- that the cross of Golgotha, the implications of these quation made between historical exact- for instance was situated di- studies and integrates it all ness and truth and at moving beyond rectly above the tomb–and with newer archaeological it. Its organization and lucid style make skull–of Adam. Many other discoveries. In short, he tells the book enjoyable to read for lay read- traditions abound, and this a credible and recognizable ers, seminary and college students. book is recommended be- tale, though not one that cause it reads so enjoyably, his scholarly colleagues will If everyone loves Jesus, the spectrum sometimes almost like a his- agree with in all details. of attitudes toward Paul is far more torical novel (but the mass It reads very well, is well diverse. Patrick Gray has chosen to of documentation belies translated and has a bit of focus on the critiques formulated any thought of a fictional the excitement of discovery against Paul from the origins until account). for engaged readers. now in his forthcoming book Paul as a Thomas Römer has writ- Problem in History and Culture: The ten several intriguing Old Testament With Jesus Before the Gospels: How Apostle and His Critics Through the studies translated into English. The the Earliest Christians Remembered, Centuries (Baker Academic). There is Invention of God is the most recent, Changed, and Invented Their Stories no risk of running out of material on well translated by Raymond Geuss of the Savior (HarperOne), Bart D. this topic since critiques against Paul (Harvard University Press). In this Ehrman has written a thought-pro- are as old as Christianity, as we see in book Römer traces the development voking book prompted by his interest Paul’s letters themselves, the earliest of the notion of Yhwh as the only as a historian in the various traditions Christian writings to have been pre- God, from its origins in southern des- about Jesus. To conduct his inquiry, he served. Paul indeed devotes much space ert regions, among Moses and the uses insights from cognitive psychology to responding in his letters to critiques Midianites, into Jerusalem, its cult in about individual memory, from sociol- formulated against him, for example Israel and then in Judah, its statue in ogy about collective memory and from in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Judah and Yhwh and his Asherah. He anthropology about the preservation Corinthians, Philippians and Galatians. interprets developments especially after of traditions in oral cultures. If New Gray has read broadly to identify the fall of Samaria, the reforms of Josiah Testament scholars have for some time negative attitudes toward Paul. The and the origins of biblical monotheism been interested in oral cultures and book includes critiques with origins

30 America March 7, 2016 in Jewish, Muslim and Christian tra- tention to the eschatological context of visioned himself as a new Moses, who ditions ranging from antiquity to our Paul’s spirituality. The final section dis- would have launched a new exodus, set time. To establish such a rich collec- cusses the enduring value of Paul’s spir- a new Passover, brought back the mira- tion is quite an achievement, but there ituality by focusing on some core con- cle of manna and gathered the tribes of is more. The second part of the work victions encountered in the lives of four Israel into the kingdom of God. Pitre’s examines the contexts, subtexts and North American witnesses: St. Kateri book makes an important contribution pretexts of all these critiques. In doing Tekakwitha, the Rev. Stanley Rother, to the quest for the historical Jesus as it so, Gray describes, for instance, the Mother Antonia Brenner, and St. situates him well in his Jewish context. traditional Western representation of Katherine Drexel. This book is a valu- Second Temple Judaism and how the able resource for Bible study groups, JOHN C. ENDRES, S.J., and JEAN-FRANÇOIS RACINE are professors at the Jesuit School of post-Holocaust period has challenged college students and independent read- Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, it in the new perspective on Paul. The ers looking for a deeper understanding Calif. book ends by creatively addressing the of the spiritual message of Paul. perennial question of the relation be- tween Jesus and Paul from the perspec- Research on the historical tive of comparative religion. All in all, Jesus published since the XIII. Jesus Is Taken this volume covers an amazing amount 1990s has produced tomes, Down from the Cross of ground. Gray’s lucid and at times hu- for example John Dominic morous style makes this book accessible Crossan’s The Historical Jesus: This morning, I hauled to the street to a wide audience. The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant and John P. A heavy wooden pallet, so beat Most books on Paul aimed at a gen- Meier’s five massive volumes The workmen had left it behind: eral audience deal with his mission- of A Marginal Jew: Rethinking ary work and the theological charac- the Historical Jesus, which total Its boards, rough-hewn and splintering ter of his letters. Patrick J. Hartin’s A over 3,550 pages. Brant Pitre’s Against the asphalt. When I leaned Window Into the Spirituality of Paul Jesus and the Last Supper It on the dumpster, with some twine (Liturgical Press) takes the less traveled (Eerdmans) is consistent with path of studying the spiritual vision this trend with nearly 600 that emerges from Paul’s letters. Hartin pages of tightly knit prose And flattened cardboard boxes, too, considers Paul’s spirituality as a whole that deals with the historical For the trash-man, a March gust blew while paying attention to the context of aspects of Jesus’ Last Supper, And overturned what I had built. specific letters and focusing on specific a topic that has not received passages. He locates Paul as a Diaspora an extensive treatment in re- The hard wood clattered on the road Jew immersed in the Greco-Roman cent years and is replete with And split, exposed its secret load world and the spiritual tradition of the difficulties. Scholars are di- people of Israel. vided, for instance, about the Of bent and rusted nails, now spilled, Next, Hartin follows Gustavo likelihood that Jesus asked his Gutiérrez’s insight about significant disciples to drink his blood Scattered like seeds, like teeth and bones, moments in the development of a spir- in a Jewish context, where Awaiting tires, the feet of those itual tradition. Accordingly, he begins it is forbidden to consume Too lost in song to watch their step. with Paul’s encounter with the Lord blood. In this context, Jesus’ Jesus on the road to Damascus and request sounds gross. Besides moves to the reflection it prompted and the historical plausibility of One nail stared up from the cracked wood. to its lasting effects in Paul’s preaching. Jesus’ words and deeds in a I plucked it out, just as they would Hartin explains how Paul reconfigured first-century Jewish context, Who returned you to your mother’s lap. his system of beliefs to place the cross Pitre investigates what the and resurrection of Jesus Christ at its Last Supper reveals about JAMES MATTHEW WILSON center, redefined the terms of the cov- Jesus’ self-understanding, enantal relationship with God once overall eschatological outlook JAMES MATTHEW WILSON was a runner-up in Christ acts as its mediator, described and intentions toward the the 2015 Foley Poetry contest. His most recent books the role of the Spirit and of the commu- community of his disciples. are Some Permanent Things and The Catholic nity of believers, all this while paying at- Pitre suggests that Jesus en- Imagination in Modern American Poetry.

March 7, 2016 America 31 OF OTHER THINGS | BILL Mc GARVEY TRACES OF THE TRANSCENDENT

. S. Lewis described it as a “stab and church teachings only have mean- visitations were rather the moments of of Joy.” A rabbi friend refers to ing insofar as they relate existentially to clearest consciousness we had, when we Cit as the “burning bush,” and our own experience. There is no sense became aware of our fragmentary and a priest colleague speaks about it in telling people: ‘Here’s an answer, now go phantasmal nature and ached for that terms of a “4-o’clock-in-the-afternoon” find the question!’” impossible reunion....” moment. For me it was a song. Father Rolheiser directed me to a few John Collins, C.S.P., a Paulist mis- In my previous column, I described lines from Elizabeth sion priest, likes to the frequent encounters I have had Barrett Browning’s use the story from the with people who have lost their faith. poem “Aurora Leigh:” first chapter in John’s When those conversations are allowed “Earth’s crammed with Belief is less Gospel where Andrew to go deeper, I often find that their un- heaven,/ And every about mystical and another disciple derstanding of God as children was common bush afire first encounter Jesus, not able to grow up with them, and as with God;/ But only knowledge who asks them, “What a result, their childhood God no longer he who sees, takes off are you looking for?” seems relevant to their adult lives. his shoes,/ The rest than about They reply that they I can’t help but wonder whether in sit round it and pluck noticing. want to know where those situations the hurdle to belief blackberries.” he is staying, and Jesus is less about information than it is It is this ability tells them, “Come, and about imagination, less about mystical to pay attention and you will see.” The epi- knowledge than about noticing. I’ve see—not one’s intellect sode ends with the line, come to believe that what some see as or level of study—that “It was about four in a loss of faith has more to do with the separates the blackber- the afternoon.” inability to build a bridge between a ry pickers from those A few years ago, child’s catechesis and an adult’s experi- who recognize they Father Collins asked a ence. For these people, the notion that are on sacred ground. congregation in upstate experiences in their daily lives could Rabbi Dan Ain, found- New York why the actually be a window into the mind er of the Brooklyn-based organization Gospel writer included that last, seem- and heart of God is a revolutionary Because Jewish, cites rabbinic com- ingly pointless, detail. What happened concept. I tell them that—as someone mentary on Moses’ encounter with the at 4 o’clock? After several parishioners who is allergic to piety and suspicious burning bush (Ex 3:3-4). Moses says, “I offered up some guesses about Jewish of the overly abstract—a relationship must turn aside to look at this remark- law or cultural norms, a retired state with God in my life would not be pos- able sight. Why does the bush not burn trooper raised his hand. “I know what sible without my own experience of up?” The passage continues: “When the happened at 4 in the afternoon” he said. finding traces of the transcendent in Lord saw that he had turned aside to “They fell in love.” Nodding to his wife, the world around me. look, God called out to him from the who was sitting next to him, he contin- “Jesus chided his generation for not bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ He answered, ued: “I can remember every detail from ‘reading the signs of the times,’” Ronald ‘Here I am.’” Rabbi Ain notes: “It is 35 years ago about meeting my wife: Rolheiser, O.M.I., once told me. “John only when Moses decides to stop and what time it was, what she wore, what of the Cross would recast that into this pay attention to this burning bush that the weather was like. The disciples’ first dictum: ‘The language of God is the ex- God calls out to him. His openness and meeting with Jesus was when their lives perience God writes into our lives.’ We awareness enable God to connect with changed forever. You remember the de- need to hear how God is speaking to us him.” tails of an event like that.” inside of our experience.... Scriptural In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis de- One of God’s great gifts to us is the scribes his journey from atheism to sense of wonder and beauty, love and BILL McGARVEY, a musician and writer, is Christianity as a growing understand- longing that seems hard-wired into us the author of The Freshman Survival Guide, ing of the brief glimpses of clarity, or as children. The challenge is not how we owner of CathNewsUSA.com and was the long- time editor in chief of BustedHalo.com. Twitter: “joy,” he had experienced throughout should remain children, but how we can @billmcgarvey. his life. “Joy was not a deception. Its grow up and dream again.

32 America March 7, 2016 March 7, 2016 America 33

POETRY | ROGER BERGMAN since, and those to come also, That we all labor together trans- A TRULY TUNED HEART mitting the same charge and succession, Meditations for troubled times We few equals indifferent of lands, indifferent of times, We, enclosers of all continents, all castes, allowers of all theologies,

Compassionaters, perceivers, rap- port of men, We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers nor any thing that is as- serted, We hear the bawling and din, we are reach’d at by divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side, They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my comrade, Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, journeying up and down till we make our ineffaceable ne need not believe that ours that is not what makes the case for this mark upon time and the diverse are the worst of times to be- being among the worst of times. eras, Olieve they are pretty bad. What make this such a particular- Till we saturate time and eras, that It’s not just that the U.S. economy is ly troubled time are the intractability the men and women of races, making a slow recovery from a Great of the disputes, the endless assertions ages to come, may prove brethren Recession and that many people are and counterassertions, the bawling and lovers as we are. un- or underemployed or that wages and the din from entrenched ideologi- are stagnant while top executive in- cal foes, the seemingly insurmountable As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was comes soar astronomically; or that divisions and recriminations. When I fond of saying, “The arc of the universe the United States leads the world in am particularly feeling the weight of is long but it bends toward justice.” incarceration rates, mainly of minori- all this, I often turn to a lovely poem To envision oneself on that arc may ty populations, particularly of young from Walt Whitman for a reminder provide no small measure of consola- men; or that we were terrorized on of a more expansive vision of human tion. But is it enough to transcend the Sept. 11, 2001, and then launched a community. hatreds and hostilities as if they were war of “shock and awe” on a nation that “symmetrical warfare”? Are there no had nothing to do with the events of To Him That Was Crucified discernments to be made among the that horrible day, a war that has left Walt Whitman disputers and theologies and worl- thousands dead or maimed in body dviews? A pox on both your hous- and spirit, both in the United States My spirit to yours dear es? Is the justice at the end of the arc and in Iraq. It is not even that we are brother, not to be pursued passionately, if also collectively altering the chemistry and Do not mind because many sound- compassionately and irenically in the physics of the planet, to our own ruin, ing your name do not under- meantime? Are we not called to take a or at least the ruin of the lives of our stand you, stand when precious lives and essential grandchildren. Any one of these cri- I do not sound your name, but I un- values are at stake? But how do we do ses would warrant deep concern and derstand you, this in the spirit of Whitman’s broth- urgent action. Taken together—and I specify you with joy O my comrade erly and sisterly love, not just for those other challenges could be added—it to salute you, and to salute we see as victims but also for those we is easy to feel overwhelmed. But even those who are with you, before and see as victimizers? When I feel lost

March 7, 2016 America 35 amid the welter of competing and even to declare is seawater. vicious voices, I return to a magical the words of our traditional cures poem by Seamus Heaney. To what or and charms Their sacred symbol is a stylized whom do we belong? What referent to heal dumbness and avert the evil boat. point gives us compass and rudder on eye. The sail is an ear, the mast a slop- a sea of troubles? ing pen, No porters. No interpreter. No the hull a mouth-shape, the keel an From the Republic of Conscience taxi. open eye. Seamus Heaney You carried your own burden and very soon At their inauguration, public lead- I your symptoms of creeping privi- ers When I landed in the republic of lege disappeared. must swear to uphold unwritten conscience law and weep it was so noiseless when the engines II to atone for their presumption to stopped Fog is a dreaded omen there but hold office – I could hear a curlew high above lightning the runway. spells universal good and parents and to affirm their faith that all life hang sprang At immigration, the clerk was an swaddled infants in trees during from salt in tears which the sky-god old man thunderstorms. wept who produced a wallet from his after he dreamt his solitude was homespun coat Salt is their precious mineral. And endless. and showed me a photograph of seashells my grandfather. are held to the ear during births III and funerals. I came back from that frugal re- The woman in customs asked me The base of all inks and pigments public

36 America March 7, 2016 with my two arms the one length, You—too—take Cobweb attitudes Hillesum is the exemplar to whom I the customs Upon a plane of Gauze! turn for an image of what a human can woman having insisted my allow- be even in the worst of circumstances. ance was myself. I don’t think Dickinson’s epistemo- logical caution subverts the Republic Equanimity The old man rose and gazed into of Conscience or the need to act boldly For Etty Hillesum, 1914-1943 my face for whatever modicum of justice we and said that was official recogni- might realize on that long arc of the An inner disposition of readiness; tion universe, but it does remind us we poise that I was now a dual citizen. are humble ambassadors, not mighty with ballast; more dynamic than kings. But is this possible for mere mere stolidity; He therefore desired me when I got human beings, greater than the beasts imperturbability without iron or home but lesser than the angels? Do we have rust. to consider myself a representative exemplars who prove that even in the and to speak on their behalf in my truly worst of times, human compas- The equananimous suffers surprise own tongue. sion can remain upright without suc- without panic, as a gyroscope spins cumbing to self-righteousness? Etty and bobs Their embassies, he said, were ev- erywhere but operated independently and no ambassador would ever be relieved.

The Republic of Conscience is both familiar and strange, both intimate and distant, both calm and demanding. But if we were centered in that kind of gen- tle yoking of opposites, would we not be better equipped to enact the hu- manizing vision of Whitman’s poem? Would we not be better able to pro- mote both justice and peace? But such a lofty vision of the self may lose track of its humble origins, in sea salt and tears. Better, if we’re feeling too grand, with our vision of a better world, to be reminded of our common human- ity and the difficulty of knowing even ourselves in any definitive way. One of Emily Dickinson’s sharp little medita- tions can help.

#105 Emily Dickinson

To hang our head—ostensibly— WANT YOUR AD HERE? And subsequent, to find CLASSIFIED Visit americamagazine.org. That such was not the posture Retreats Email: [email protected]. Of our immortal mind— CELEBRATE Pope Francis’ vision. Inspiring, dy- Call 212-515-0102. namic parish missions, retreats: “Discipleship and the Francis Effect” and “Celebrating the Jubilee of Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. 1-5 Affords the sly presumption Mercy.” Website: www.sabbathretreats.org. times: $2; 6-11 times: $1.75; 12-23 times: $1.50. That in so dense a fuzz—

March 7, 2016 America 37 in its groove, an inner-eye always Jewish woman, Heaney’s ambassador of conscience, attending, who found freedom in compassion Dickinson’s self-effacing mind, all move a watchman with night before him, for her fellow deportees toward a certain balance that can’t be and behind, on the way to the camps when she shaken, or at least not unhinged, even a sleeping city, a mother dozing could have escaped. in and by the worst of times, of recrim- but alert to her infant’s every inations and counter-recriminations. breath. As if death for her were the dwin- Equanimity is the mark of Ignatius’ dling hum contemplative in action, of Newman’s What the hawk possesses, hungry of a tuning fork, perfected in silence, educated citizen of philosophical mind. but patient a standard by which to set one’s It is the life-giving hum of the human for prey; what the mouse or rabbit heart. heart deeply and truly tuned. lacks utterly, all nerves, all scamper, the victim Equanimity sums up for me the psy- DR. ROGER BERGMAN is director of the mentality. chic or spiritual or existential virtue that Justice and Peace Studies Program at Creighton University and the author of Catholic Social runs through the previous three poems. Learning: Educating the Faith That Does The preeminent virtue of a young Whitman and his unnamed comrade, Justice (Fordham University Press, 2011).

Poems published with permission. “From Poem #105: THE POEMS OF EMILY Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 the Republic of Conscience” from OPENED DICKINSON: READING EDITION, edited by the President and Fellows of Harvard GROUND: SELECTED POEMS 1966-1996 by Ralph W. Franklin, Cambridge, Mass.: College. by Seamus Heaney. Copyright © 1998 by The Belknap Press of Harvard University The Whitman poem is in the public do- Seamus Heaney. Reprinted by permission Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the main. “Equanimity” is published here for of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. President and Fellows of Harvard College. the first time.

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38 America March 7, 2016 THE WORD

to cast a stone at her according to the laws governing adultery if any of them Repentance for All is “without sin.” Whether the charge of FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (C), MARCH 13, 2016 adultery against this woman is real or Readings: Is 43:16–21; Ps 126:1–6; Phil 3:8–14; Jn 8:1–11 trumped up, the accusation against her simply hides their own motives and “Go your way, and from now on do not sin again” (Jn 8:11) sins. Refusing to repent for their own wo stances toward our spir- has not been in vain” (1 Cor 15:9–10). sins, Jesus actually shows them mer- itual health stand in the way Paul’s recognition of his personal cy by allowing them to walk away to of repentance, and each of us sinfulness and his subsequent sense of consider their need for forgiveness. It T is not just the woman who is asked “not might take either of these stances at worthlessness are redeemed by God’s various times. One is self-satisfaction, grace in Jesus Christ. Once Paul ex- to sin again,” whatever her sins might which can saturate our sense of spiri- periences this grace, he recognizes be, but all of us. Jesus challenges all of tual worth: “What do I need to repent the abundant forgiveness God us to reckon with our own sin before of? My relationship with God is fine.” lavishes on those who re- that of others. Conversely, worthlessness can enve- pent. Paul knows that Those who are over- lope us: “God could never forgive me; the grace on offer to whelmed by their own God does not want a person like me.” him, and to everyone, sinfulness often feel that When we reject our need for per- is not due to human their sins make them un- sonal repentance, we convince our- achievements; nor is fit to be called a disciple selves that we are always in tune with the offer rescinded be- of Jesus. Those who refuse God and only others need to change. cause of overwhelming to acknowledge their own The apostle Paul persecuted Jesus’ sins. It is presented to each disciples because of his “zeal” for God of us as beloved creations of and judged his “righteousness under God. Repentance is our proper re- PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE the law, blameless” (Phil 3:6). Paul’s sponse to God’s mercy. All the hu- Reflect on God’s mercy and forgiveness. goal was to serve God by doing what man gains Paul achieved prior to his Do you sometimes feel that there is he understood God and the Torah de- call on the road to Damascus can be nothing for which you must repent? Or do you more often sense that you are not manded. described only as “rubbish” (skybala, worthy of God’s mercy and forgiveness? In looking back on his previous a much earthier word in Greek that What allows you to experience God’s behavior, Paul will say that he is “the also means “dung”) in light of the overwhelming grace? least of the apostles, unfit to be called saving act of Jesus Christ. ART: TAD DUNNE TAD ART: an apostle, because I persecuted the John’s Gospel also gives us a por- church of God,” invoking that human- trayal of God’s mercy for those who sinfulness see mercy and forgiveness ly generated sense of worthlessness think they do not need to repent and as something others need. But just as that can be felt when we reflect on our those who might fear they are beyond none of us is unworthy to repent and own sinfulness. But Paul does not stop it. Jesus encounters a woman who was to approach God for forgiveness, so there, for God’s call generated Paul’s said to have been caught in adultery we must be willing to acknowledge repentance and the overwhelming by the religious officials who brought that we are all in need of God’s mercy. power of grace that permeated Paul’s her to Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees If you believe God’s mercy is only life and writing: “By the grace of God I took the woman to Jesus, however, not for others or that you do not need am what I am, and his grace toward me because of her sinfulness but because it, heed the apostle Paul: “press on of their own. They wanted to “test him, toward the goal for the prize of the so that they might have some charge heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” JOHN W. MARTENS is a professor of theology to bring against him.” This is a ruse God’s mercy and forgiveness are con- at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. intended to snare Jesus; but like Paul, stant, and repentance is the path that they must believe they are fulfilling reveals God’s grace and allows us to God’s law by seeking to accuse Jesus. press on to Christ, the goal itself. Jesus challenges the religious leaders JOHN W. MARTENS

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