Pope Remains This Reason Someone Spoke About Pos- Others More Pastoral [Ones].” but He Is Itive Elements in the First Rough Draft

Of Many Things his year has been quite a changing church. Christmas is the time 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 journey for America, an for thanks, so on behalf of all of us at Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 unprecedented period of America: Thank you. You are warmly Subscriptions: 1-800-627-9533 T www.americamagazine.org growth and change. I am very proud remembered in our Masses and prayers facebook.com/americamag of the editors and staff who continue each and every week. twitter.com/americamag to bring you this smart Catholic take In past years, America’s readers have on faith and culture, not just each been particularly generous contributors President and Editor in Chief Matt Malone, S.J. week in print, but every day online and to our annual Christmas appeal. Executive Editors every hour through social media. The Without the support we receive each Robert C. 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America falling and horns are honking as rush 1-800-627-9533 is more than a journal of opinion. hour hits its peak in Manhattan. I am © 2014 America Press, Inc. We are a community, a resource for sure everyone heading home is quite spiritual renewal and social analysis, happy that it is not snowing. Normal guided by the Jesuit ideal of finding gridlock is bad enough without snow. God in all things. Everywhere I travel, But there may be another reason for I am reminded that America has the their smiles: Christmas is coming. Hope most loyal readers and supporters in and expectation are in the air. We have publishing. Many of you have supported much to be thankful for and much to Cover: Pope Francis leads the Angelus from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s us for decades, through fair and foul, hope for. Merry Christmas! Square at the Vatican on Dec. 22, 2013. CNS changing editors, changing times and a Matt Malone, S.J. photo/Paul Haring. Contents www.americamagazine.org Vol. 211 No. 19, Whole No. 5073 December 22-29, 2014

articles 14 Becoming Human The Incarnation calls us to a new life. Leo J. O’Donovan 17 Solid Foundations Grounding social justice in our common humanity Meghan J. Clark 20 Signs of That Peace Peacemaking is everybody’s business Gerald W. Schlabach 14 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 5 editorial Crossing Borders 6 Reply All 8 Signs of the Times 12 Column A More Perfect Union Helen Alvaré 25 Vatican Dispatch Rome in Review Gerard O’Connell 27 Faith in Focus Faith Amid Flowers B. G. Kelley 29 Philosopher’s Notebook Has Natural Law Died? John J. Conley 20 38 the Word Children of Hope; Journey of Hope John W. Martens BOOKS & CULTURE

30 film “Wild” and “Exodus: Gods and Kings” BOOKS Scalia; Goliath; Musings on Mortality

ON THE WEB Take an Advent journey with Pope Francis, featuring quotes from Scripture and questions for reflection. Plus, reviews of “The Imitation Game” and other winter films. Full digital highlights on page 26 and at americamagazine.org/ webfeatures. 30 CURRENT COMMENT

of states to train providers and develop safer and more One of Us effective child care services. Our faith calls us to see Christ in others—not always an These measures are important first steps in revamping easy task. But seeing ourselves as made in Christ’s image the U.S. child care system, though more action is needed can also be a challenge. Some young Catholics may find to expand access to affordable, quality services for working help in a newly released Bible. The African-American Youth families. The act also represents a rare legislative victory in a Bible depicts Jesus as an African-American man and offers historically unproductive session of Congress. The bill was commentary and artwork that are meant to put Scripture met with almost unanimous support in both the Senate and into relevant context for young black Catholics. The project, the House. In a time when government gridlock seems to be developed over four years, was spearheaded by Bishop John the norm, bipartisanship in service of the nation’s children is H. Ricard of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., welcome. president of the National Black Catholic Congress, and St. Mary’s Press, which published the Bible. “In the Bible, it speaks of slavery and it seeks to explain more fully what it Israel’s Referendum means to the history of African-Americans in the United After weeks of unrest and a rising sense of widespread States,” Bishop Ricard told Catholic News Service. insecurity and pessimism, Prime Minister Benjamin Today many young people struggle to understand the Netanyahu of Israel broke up his government on Dec. 2 relevance of Scripture, and this Bible may help them to and called for early elections. His decision may prove yet make meaningful connections between faith and real life. another stroke of cunning by a political survivor—or a poor “The Eucharist calls us to see everyone as our brothers and gamble that leads to the electoral overthrow of Netanyahu’s sisters,” Pope Francis reminded us during a general audience, administration. The Likud-led coalition currently in power “and to see in them the face of Christ.” As the United States may be remembered as the government that put an end to continues to grapple with its legacy of racial injustice and the two-state solution. In doing so, however, its members persistent inequality in our society, this new Bible may have been unable to offer an alternative vision of the future prove a valuable learning tool and jumping-off point for of the State of Israel except as custodian of its grim status discussion of race and faith among all Catholics, regardless quo or, worse, a separate and unequal society. of background, ethnicity or age. During the Advent season, In November tension over a possible change of the status the project serves as an important reminder that, even as we quo at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem led to deplorable wait for the birth of Christ, he is already present in each of acts of terror by Palestinians. In response the Netanyahu us every day. government returned to practices of collective punishment that have been condemned by the world and abandoned by Bipartisan Child Care previous Israeli governments as counterproductive. Instead On Nov. 19 President Obama signed the Child Care of seeking a way to de-escalate the crisis, the prime minister and Development Block Grant Act, a new law meant to ratcheted it up by introducing new legislation meant to improve the current $5.2 billion federal child care program, cement the Jewish identity of Israel and further isolate which was last updated in 1996. Over 1.5 million children Israel’s increasingly restive Arab population. Those proposals under the age of 13 received help through this program were denounced by centrist members of his coalition, last year. According to the U.S. House Education and prompting the prime minister’s call for elections in March. the Workforce Committee, however, “weaknesses in the It is hard to imagine that political conditions in the region program have raised the need for reform,” and because of could turn any gloomier than they are at the moment, but patchwork licensing and oversight “children are not always the possibility exists that after the elections Prime Minister as protected as they should be.” Netanyahu could be returned to office in a government that The law addresses these shortcomings, first by providing will have no coalition members to restrain its worst impulses. additional resources to better educate parents on what That will mean more settlements and more power for child care options are available. Changes will also be made Zionist radicals in all aspects of Israeli life. to caregiving facilities and staff. Facilities will face yearly At the very least, the results of the election should make inspections, while staff will receive additional training in age- clear whether any “partners for peace” remain in Israel, so appropriate techniques for fostering the brain development that the United States can power ahead with negotiations of each child. Funds will be allocated to enhance the ability toward a two-state solution or put an end to a peace process that has become a political mockery. 4 America December 22-29, 2014 EDITORIAL Crossing Borders

n some sense the Christmas story is one of borders. The produced greater divisions between Gospel of Luke tells us that the Holy Family’s journey our political parties rather than greater Ibegins with a population divided, a census of “the whole empathy for the families that are world...each to his own town” (2:1-3). And, in the Gospel struggling. of Matthew, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, then flee In the midst of uncertain times, to Egypt, then settle in Nazareth—crossing border after it is all too easy to cry “each to his own border so that the Son of God might one day break them town” and then settle into our own down. ways, to hole up in our own corners of The birth of Christ upends our earthly sense of order. the church or society. But Christ’s birth He is both a child and a savior; he is visited by shepherds and calls us to more carefully consider our kings alike. He disperses the arrogant, throws down rulers place in this world, where we have come from and where we from their thrones; he lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry with are headed. What borders are we called to cross or erase in good things. Later, Christ’s Passion blurs the neat borders we our lives? In what ways are we being asked to move beyond so often construct between life and death, between the human the boundaries we have set for ourselves? We must begin and the divine. He is one who gives drink to the thirsty, and to rebuild our trust in one another. We must not allow who, himself, thirsts. differences around faith, race, nationality or income to keep We know that our lives are meant to mirror Christ’s. us from truly seeing one another as neighbors, as children Yet we still struggle to live out God’s call to reconsider the of God. lines our world is so eager to draw. Conflicts over political and Often it is fear—of the “other” or even of our own religious divides result in ongoing suffering and tragic deaths inadequacies—that keeps us from crossing those lines. And for Israelis and Palestinians. Violence continues between yet we must cross them. Over and over the Gospels remind Ukrainians and Russian separatists long after cease-fires have us—in the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary, of the host been called. Individuals from West African nations affected of angels to the shepherds and of Jesus to the women who by Ebola have been quarantined and separated from their discover the empty tomb—“Do not be afraid.” We must take communities, often in a worthy effort to halt the spread of the these words to heart. Christ entered fully into our humanity; deadly disease. But stigmas and continued fear of contagions he crossed from death into new life on our behalf. He have resulted in the abandonment or isolation of many who understood what it meant to feel alone, cold, afraid, “other.” He have survived. understood the consequences of welcoming people who were In the United States, the deaths of black men at the considered outcasts. He understood that doing God’s will hands of white police officers have spurred nationwide anger sometimes means experiencing pain and sorrow. We must let and protests and drawn renewed attention to the many go of our fears and allow ourselves to be as vulnerable as that tensions and injustices that remain around issues of race in our infant child born into his own uncertain times, and in doing country. Such episodes seed increased mistrust of authority, so to become signs of good news. and Gallup polls show that our confidence in all branches of Christ’s birth sends a message that cannot be contained government is falling, with confidence in Congress at a record by a single country or ideology and that must be lived, let low. out, set free. Through his birth, death and resurrection, and Poverty, too, divides the American experience. In the through our own lives—by seeking peace, by welcoming the United States alone, an estimated one in seven households stranger—we continually break down those obstacles that are food insecure, even as Americans waste an estimated separate us from each other and from God. In each of us $165 billion of food each year. Families in the United States Christ is reborn. The Christmas season reminds us that we continue to seek stability, especially those with members who are invited to return to God’s love, to that place from which are undocumented. These families are described by President we have come, so that together we might build a reign of Obama as “part of American life” and by Archbishop Blase God that has no borders, one that has always existed and Cupich of Chicago as people “reaching out in hope”; yet that remains to be seen, one that even as we help create it is discussions about the best way to assist such families has already here.

December 22-29 , 2014 America 5 REPLY ALL with open and generous minds at next Amendments, by Justice John Paul year’s Synod on the Family. Stevens, implies that other than on Not A Choice Mary Catherine Bateson the death penalty, it was the court that Online Comment “The Loneliest Choice” (12/1), by moved from 1975 to 2011, not Justice Stevens. But this is clearly false. In the the Rev. Rhonda Mawhood Lee, dis- Climate Commitment most iconic affirmative action case in appointed me greatly. While pastoral The Catholic Climate Covenant is try- court history, the 1978 Bakke decision reflection on suicide remains a crucial ing to help make a difference in many of regarding California medical school topic, the article seems to hark back to the areas mentioned in Gary Gardner’s admissions, in which Justice Lewis F. pre-Enlightenment days, when there excellent piece. I agree that it was as- Powell “split the baby” by introducing was little understanding of grave men- tounding how the top minds from sci- “diversity” to the legal lexicon, Justice tal illness. For example, if a document- ence and social science made a plea to Stevens actually wrote the opinion ed kleptomaniac steals, he certainly the church to help shape minds and for the four-justice block that wanted commits a crime; but does he sin if his hearts and generate a new vision for our a clean “quotas are unconstitutional, mental illness compelled him to do it? covenant on the earth. We must learn to period” decision against the California Has not the church always taught that be a part of God’s gift of creation, not Regents. And yet 25 years later, in the for sin to happen the actor must freely apart from it. Readers can take the St. Grutter v. Bollinger decision involv- choose to break the fundamental op- Francis Pledge and commit to prayer, ing the University of Michigan Law tion to remain with God? The Rev. Lee education, assessment, action and advo- School, he had long since abandoned quotes the Catechism of the Catholic cacy at catholicclimatecovenant.org. Church: “When someone takes his/her Daniel Misleh his original position. Justice Stevens is own life, however, ‘grave psychological Online Comment better understood as a legal contrari- disturbances’ or other mitigating fac- The writer is the executive director of the an, swimming the opposite way of the tors ‘can diminish the responsibility Catholic Coalition on Climate Change. zeitgeist. This is not a good or bad of the one committing suicide.’” Can thing per se, but it is the only accurate grave mental illness not only diminish Knowing Nuns way to understand him. responsibility but even extinguish it In “Living on the Edge” (12/1), a review Paul Conlin Lake Zurich, Ill. altogether? of five books on the past, present and If we believe in a God who holds us future of women religious, Carol K. Taxing Charity accountable for things we cannot stop Coburn states, “Whether the Vatican “A Sister in the Spotlight” (10/10), doing, do we really write about a mer- acknowledges it or not, women religious Hank Stuever’s review of Sister Simone ciful God? are leading the church into the future.” (Rev.) Robert Vitaglione This strikes me as wishful thinking. Campbell’s book, A Nun on the Bus, Brooklyn, N.Y. Few American Catholics have any con- leaves out a couple of important facts. tact with women religious. Sister Campell is the executive direc- Climate Control Nuns taught me long ago in ele- tor of two nonprofit organizations, Re “Renew This World,” by Gary mentary school. Since then, though I NETWORK and the Network Gardner (12/1): Surely the environ- went to Catholic high school and col- Education Program. If Sister Campbell mental crisis is a reason for re-examin- lege and have belonged to a local par- wants to protect vital federal programs ing the church’s stand on artificial birth ish wherever I’ve lived, I haven’t even from budget cuts, then why doesn’t she control, on which participants of the spoken with a nun. My grown children help pay for them by surrendering both Second Vatican Council were divid- have never met a nun. Is this unusu- of her organizations’ tax-exempt status? ed, as is well known. The prohibition al, or is it the common experience of Contrary to popular belief, tax-ex- of birth control extends and deepens today’s Catholics? I think the latter. I emption isn’t just for houses of wor- poverty, threatens the earth’s carry- would like to know whether the situ- ship and charities. Many entities, like ing capacity and puts stress on mar- ation is substantially different in other most colleges and universities (includ- riages. “Natural Family Planning” not countries. ing those with generous endowments only fails frequently but also strains Thomas Farrelly and lucrative sports programs), labor marriages, while large numbers of Online Comment unions, activist organizations on the Catholics, following their conscienc- right and left, lobbying organizations es, find themselves alienated from the Stevens’s Shift and even periodicals like America also church. I pray that this uncompleted “Democracy in Danger” (11/17), enjoy tax-exempt status. According task of Vatican II will be addressed Daniel J. Morrissey’s review of Six to the National Center for Charitable

6 America December 22-29, 2014 Status Update Readers respond to “The Loneliest loved ones may have a funeral Mass pain. One of the things we can do as Choice: Puzzling Through Suicide’s and Christian burial. It is comfort- Christians to reduce suicide and the Sorrowful Mystery,” by the Rev. Rhonda ing to be able to reassure them, first, despair it causes is to stop the stigma Mawhood Lee (12/1). that suicide is not a choice. No one associated with mental illness and its would give up the most precious gift treatments. And we should be there There is a great need for education in they have and hurt their loved ones so to listen and pray with people suf- this area. As a parish secretary, I am on deeply if they were in their right mind. fering from mental illness. So many the front line, receiving the call to help I also remind them that the divine people with chronic depression and plan funerals for suicides. I am often mercy of Jesus, as the Rev. Mawhood other problems are terrified of losing the first one to speak to the family, the Lee has suggested, extends far beyond their jobs or loved ones, and therefore first one to greet them at the church, the human imagination. don’t seek or continue treatment. We the first one to try in some small way Heidi Thibodeau must be more understanding of each to offer comfort and solace to the ship- other and stop being so judgmental wrecked families and friends. Some The author’s mother must have been about it. families (still!) don’t know that their incredibly depressed and in horrible Bonnie Weissman

Statistics, there are over 1.4 million ment. What about all the Israeli groups just didn’t try hard enough. Similarly, nonprofits registered in the United that, visibly and loudly, oppose the cur- Father Christiansen focuses on the dis- States today, with total assets of nearly rent government policies? What about crimination faced by Mizrahi Jews in $5 trillion. the articles and letters to the editor in Israel, certainly a dark chapter in Israeli If we want the federal, state, county the Israeli press that indicate support history. But perhaps he should compare and local governments to spend their for the Arabs in the West Bank? that to the experiences of minorities in way to social justice and solve all sorts Father Christiansen’s own sympathy the Arab countries where the Mizrahi of problems from education to the en- seems distinctly lacking. After stating Jews came from. vironment without turning the United that the creation of Israel was “not the It is that lack of context and propor- States into a bankrupt and socially cha- outcome of the Holocaust,” he goes on tion that makes Father Christiansen’s otic country like Greece, then we will to dismiss the actual historical roots review so egregious. We object to the need to find new sources of revenue. In of Zionism in Europe’s longstand- false, distorted image of Israel por- my view, there is something hypocriti- ing, virulent anti-Semitism. Father trayed in this article and its underlying cal and extremely self-righteous about Christiansen sums up the latter with a questioning of Israel’s right to exist. entities, religious or non-religious, cavalier line: “Assimilation in European that are exempt from paying their “fair society had proved a failure for Jews.” In Peter Minowitz, Steven Nahmias, Irina Raicu share of taxes” calling for increased the absence of historical knowledge, one and Hersh Shefrin government spending and, in effect, might almost wonder whether the Jews Santa Clara, Calif. higher taxes for everyone else. Dimitri Cavalli Bronx, N.Y. OMG!

Israel In Context We are a group of Santa Clara University faculty and staff who were dismayed to read the distortions of history in “Building an ‘Ethnocracy’” (9/29), by Drew Christiansen, S.J., a review of Jo Roberts’s book, Contested Land: Contested Memory. Father Christiansen claims, “Israelis have no sympathy for Palestinian suffering,” though his own article then goes on to quote several of the many Israelis who completely contradict his state- written by jake martin, s.j., art by bob eckstein s.j., art written by jake martin,

December 22-29 , 2014 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Vienna From Deterrence to Abolition; Vatican Revises Stance on Weapons he Catholic Church seemed to throw its support behind what is, in Europe at least, an accelerating movement toward the abolition of nucle- Tar weapons during the first day, Dec. 8, of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. In a message to the conference participants from Pope Francis, read by Archbishop Silvio Tomasi, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, the pope said: “Nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction cannot be the basis for an ethics of fraternity and peaceful coexistence among peoples and states. The youth of today and tomorrow deserve far more…. Peace must be built on justice, socio-economic development, freedom, respect for fundamental human rights, the participation of all in public affairs and the building of trust between peoples.” Pope Francis added, “I am convinced that the desire for peace and fraternity planted deep in the human heart will bear fruit in concrete ways to ensure that nuclear weapons are banned once and for all.” Expanding on the pope’s statement later at a press conference, Archbishop Tomasi said: “The consistent position of the Vatican has been against atomic FALSE SECURITY. Ballistic missiles at a Russian parade. weapons. From the very beginning, from John XXIII in ‘Pacem in Terris’ onward, there has been a consistent line opposing the use, the possession, the devel- that condition has not been met, at gion and faith” in its own right. opment of nuclear weapons. During least not fully, by global nuclear su- According to the statement, the ’80s, especially during the cold war, perpowers. As other officials at the “Rather than providing security…re- the use of deterrence was accepted as Vienna conference have pointed out, liance on a strategy of nuclear deter- a condition for avoiding worst results, U.S. and Russian negotiations have rence has created a less secure world.” but not as a value in itself.” led to substantially reduced stockpiles Instead, the Holy See argues, the cur- But after the end of the cold war of nuclear warheads in recent years. rent deterrence regime works “more and in a multipolar world, Archbishop A document released at the con- as an incentive for countries to break Tomasi later suggested, deterrence ference by several of the participat- out of the nonproliferation regime and was no longer justifiable, explaining ing organizations, entitled “Nuclear develop nuclear arsenals of their own.” that the risk of accident or the threat Disarmament: Time for Abolition” Just as bad, Vatican officials added, of terrorists acquiring fissile materi- called nuclear weapons a global prob- is the troubling misallocation of na- al has become too great. During the lem, arguing, “Now more than ever the tional resources that will persist under press conference, he said, “So we go facts of technological and political in- current nuclear weapons policies. The back to the principal that the posses- terdependence cry out for an ethic of United States has recently announced sion and use of atomic weapons is not solidarity in which we work with one plans to spend billions on the mod- at all acceptable.” another for a less dangerous, morally ernization of its nuclear force using A Vatican official explained that responsible global future.” resources, Vatican officials say, that deterrence had been accepted only The Holy See statement calls for would do far more for the common because of the crisis situation of the scrutiny of the belief that nuclear de- good if they were invested in resolving near past and only as a step toward terrence “is a stable basis for peace.” A social inequities. complete nuclear disarmament, but as Vatican official went so far as to de- Kevin Clarke decades passed since John Paul II had scribe political fealty to the strategic Kevin Clarke attended the conference as reluctantly acknowledged deterrence, policy of deterrence as “a kind of reli- America’s chief correspondent.

8 America December 22-29, 2014 Benedict XVI, homilies, declarations alone is not a solution; the solution is and “The Joy of the Gospel.” integration. They are not excommuni- “There are always fears,” Pope cated, that is true. But they cannot be Francis said, “but [it is] because they godparents at baptism, they cannot don’t read [the texts], or [they] read read the readings in the Mass, they news in a daily paper, an article. They cannot give Communion, they cannot do not read what the synod decided, teach catechism, they cannot do some what it published.” seven things. I have the list here. Stop! Pope Francis pointed out that “no- If I take account of this, it seems they body spoke about homosexual mar- are excommunicated de-facto,” he re- riage in the synod, it did not occur to marked. us. What we spoke about was how a So the question, he said, is “to open family that has a homosexual son or the doors a little bit more.” daughter, how can they educate him/ All the recent popes have met with her, how can they raise her/him, how resistance at some stage, and now after can this family be helped to move for- 20 months, the resistance to Francis ward in this situation which is a little that was at first silent and underground unprecedented. So in the synod they has become more evident. Pope Francis spoke about the family and homosex- considers it “a good sign” that this resis- ual persons in relation to their families tance is ventilated openly, “that they do because it is a reality that we encounter not speak behind the back when they many times in the confessional.” do not agree. It is healthy to ventilate So the synod has to see “how to help things, it is very healthy.” this father or this mother who accom- He thinks this resistance is linked to The Vatican panies this son or daughter. That’s what decisions he has taken, “decisions that was touched upon in the synod. For have touched some economic interests, Pope Remains this reason someone spoke about pos- others more pastoral [ones].” But he is itive elements in the first rough draft. not worried. “It would be abnormal if ‘Not Afraid’ But that draft was relative.” there were no diverging points of view.” mmediately after his election on He said he is “not afraid” to follow As he moves ahead with clean-up and March 13, 2013, Pope Francis told this process of synodality, that is a jour- reform, he feels totally at peace, and re- Ihimself, “Jorge, do not change, con- neying together, “because it is the jour- marked, “God is good to me, he has giv- tinue being yourself because to change ney that God asks of us. Furthermore, en me a healthy dose of unconscious- at your age would be ridiculous.” He the pope is the guarantor; he is there to ness. I keep doing what I must do.” revealed this interesting personal de- take care of this also. So it is necessary Gerard O’Connell tail in a wide-ranging exclusive multi- to carry on with this.” Gerard O’Connell, America’s Vatican cor- part interview with Elisabetta Piquè The Jesuit pope recalled that in his respondent, is the husband of Elisabetta Piqué, published in the daily La Nación of final speech to the synod he drew at- who conducted the interview for La Nación. Argentina beginning on Dec 7. tention to the fact that “no point of Reaching out. Pope Asked why he thought some sec- the doctrine of the church on mar- Francis in St. Peter’s Sq. tors in the church feel disoriented and riage has been touched.” And in the assert that today the church is like a case of the divorced and remarried, he ship without a rudder, especially after said, “We raised the question: ‘What the recent synod, Francis questioned can we do with them, what door can whether people had really said this. be opened?’ It was a pastoral concern: He suggested that part of the problem So will they get Communion?” is that people don’t read what he has But, Francis said, “It is not a solu- written: an encyclical together with tion if they go to Communion. This

December 22-29 , 2014 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES In Search of Unity In Istanbul on Nov. 30, Pope Francis NEWS BRIEFS stated unequivocally that “full commu- Citing a lack of funding, the World Food Program an- nion” was his goal with the 300-mil- nounced on Dec. 1 that it was suspending food vouch- lion-member Orthodox churches. ers for more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees, a move its He added that the only condition for president called “disastrous for many already suffering achieving that unity is “the shared pro- families.” • The final report of a Vatican-ordered study fession of faith.” Significantly, seeking of communities of women religious in the United to overcome suspicion and fears, he States is expected to be released by the Vatican on Dec. re-assured the Orthodox that such uni- 16. • Less than a week after he was installed in his new ty does not in any way mean “the sub- Cardinal Zen position, Chicago’s Archbishop Blase J. Cupich on mission of one to the other, or assimila- Nov. 25 had a private meeting with President Obama, tion.” The pope spoke at the end of the during which they discussed the president’s executive actions on im- solemn Orthodox eucharistic celebra- migration. • Advocates for the more than 140 men still being held at tion for the feast of St. Andrew in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, report that the release of several prisoners 300-year-old church of Saint George in from the U.S. detention facility in November is seen as a sign that the Fanar, Istanbul. “The one thing that other transfers are in the works. • Just a few weeks after Georgetown the Catholic Church desires, and that University’s adjunct faculty and administration successfully conclud- I seek as bishop of Rome, ‘the church ed contract negotiations, adjunct faculty at another Catholic cam- which presides in charity,’ is commu- pus, St. Michael’s College in Vermont, voted 2 to 1 to form a union nion with the Orthodox churches,” he on Dec. 1. • Cardinal Joseph Zen and three leaders of the Occupy told the assembly in his homily. He as- Central protest movement in Hong Kong turned themselves in to sured Patriarch Bartholomew I and the police on Dec. 3, asking to be arrested for illegally occupying public Orthodox churches that “to reach the places, but were dismissed without charges. desired goal of full unity, the Catholic Church does not intend to impose any conditions except that of the shared profession of faith.” damental conviction that all people are “women play a key role in peacebuild- equal and have the same freedom and ing.” Christianity and Islam both teach dignity, is a crime against humanity.” that “humanity is one family,” and re- End to Slavery? Some sources put the number of peo- ligious leaders have an obligation to History was made in the Vatican on ple trapped in slavery at 36 million, resist attempts to divide brothers and Dec. 2, when Pope Francis and oth- including children. sisters with violence, said John Bryson er leaders of the world’s main reli- Chane, the Episcopal bishop of gions—Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Christian, Muslim Washington. Bishop Chane spoke on Buddhism and Judaism—signed a Dec. 4 at the final, public session of the joint declaration to work together to Leaders Promote Peace summit, which concluded with a “call eradicate modern slavery in its various Catholic, Anglican, Sunni and Shiite to action” that also included pledges: forms by the year 2020. Pope Francis leaders vowed to do all they can to to travel together to areas affected by was the first to sign the pledge “to do combat “ugly and hideous” distor- severe violence as a sign to their fol- all in our power, within our faith com- tions of religion and to involve more lowers that Christianity and Islam munities and beyond, to work together women—often the first victims of are religions of peace; to focus more for the freedom of all those who are violence—in official interreligious di- attention on equipping young people enslaved and trafficked so that the fu- alogues. Holding the third Christian- to live with respect for other faiths; ture may be restored.” They declared Muslim Summit in Rome on Dec. 2-4, and to promote collaboration among that “modern slavery, in terms of hu- the leaders said that while more and Catholic, Anglican and Muslim aid man trafficking, forced labor and pros- more women are involved in high-lev- agencies. titution, organ trafficking, and any re- el dialogues, there is still much to lationship that fails to respect the fun- be done, including recognizing that From CNS, RNS and other sources.

10 America December 22-29, 2014 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

dispatch | chicago are more likely to be found with ille- gal drugs or weapons. The crime rate After Ferguson, Learning to Listen among African-Americans in the twin cities has been falling consistently since he shooting of Michael Brown blacks and whites mingle mainly on the 2007. Still, African-Americans who are by a police officer in Ferguson, Walmart checkout line. arrested spend more time in jail than TMo., exposed long-ignored, Ricardo Cruz is a writer and associ- whites. long-simmering tensions in the United ate chair of Illinois State’s English de- The question of law enforcement States. Ferguson amounts to a kind of partment. He says he sometimes feels and race is a complex one. At its crux national Rorschach test on race. Polls “stalked” by local police officers. “You are two sometimes opposing objectives: show blacks and whites hold decided- know, you walk from the grocery store fighting crime and safeguarding civil ly different views about the unarmed toward your home and you see them rights. Sean Vinson is an I.S.U. senior teenager’s death. riding by looking at you in ways you who is African-American. He was The twin cities of Bloomington and know they’re wondering if you’re do- pulled over for having a license plate Normal, where I live, are on the central ing something you shouldn’t be doing,” light out, then subjected to a pat down Illinois prairie between Chicago and a canine search of his car for and St. Louis. Both are anchored drugs. None were found. “I don’t by great universities—Illinois A local business owner fear the police,” he says of the inci- Wesleyan in Bloomington and remembers hearing from dent, but “it does make me feel I’m Illinois State in Normal. People not as valuable a citizen as a white here still leave their cars and back his father, ‘The police individual.” doors unlocked. A political science aren’t your friends.’ Fighting and solving crime professor is Bloomington’s may- will always be paramount, says or; a bicycle shop owner is mayor Brendan Heffner, Bloomington’s of Normal (the name itself evokes a Cruz says. police chief. “When we have probable “Wonder Years” type of serenity). It’s an impression of the police that cause for searches, when we execute The community is overwhelmingly begins early in life. Wayne Patterson, a arrest warrants, we look at people’s ac- white. Bloomington hired its first-ev- local business owner, remembers hear- tions, what has occurred, not race.” er African-American police chief last ing from his father that “the police aren’t Both police departments in year, but he is one of only two blacks on your friends.” Bloomington and Normal are beefing the police force. Normal has one black “I think he understood that you up recruiting practices to become more police officer. There are no African- couldn’t look to the police for help as far diverse. But arriving at a better balance American judges or state’s attorneys. as thinking they are somehow on your will take time. In the meantime, can At a series of discussions about side or they’re there to benefit you,” people of faith wait and be silent? diversity (pre-Ferguson) at the local Patterson remembers. The Rev. Robert Rosebrough is pas- Y.W.C.A., white participants described Both Cruz and Patterson instruct tor of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta parish Bloomington-Normal as if they were their own sons on how to act if they are just a few miles from where Brown was conjuring up Mayberry. African- questioned or pulled over by police. “I shot in Ferguson. He’s begun an ini- American professionals on the panel have said to my son, ‘Understand that tiative called “Lean In,” which he says said they preferred to live in more ra- you are a black male. You can’t always means “lean in and listen.” He wants cially diverse Peoria, even if it meant do what other people do,’” says Cruz. “I blacks, whites and all colors in between driving 45 minutes to their day jobs want him to be prepared, to be poised, to simply begin talking to one another, here. At least they could have a social hopefully to be able to do things so that to hear each other’s stories. Perhaps it is life in Peoria. In Bloomington-Normal, he’s not shot.” time for other majority-white commu- In Bloomington-Normal, African- nities to follow suit—to explore what Americans are more likely to be life is like for those who are minorities. Judith Valente, America’s Chicago corre- stopped while driving and have their We could all do a lot more leaning in spondent, is a regular contributor to NPR and “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.” Twitter: cars searched, according to state traffic and listening. @JudithValente. stop reports, even though white drivers Judith Valente

December 22-29 , 2014 America 11 Helen Alvaré A More Perfect Union

ost Americans probably marriage plays in Christians’ under- harmonizing to reflect the oneness of think that Catholics talk standing of the economy of salvation. God, of Yin and Yang and of men and Mabout the subject of the From the Old Testament to the closing women changing and elevating one an- relationship between men and wom- scenes of the New, God’s identity and other. en to the point of exhaustion. But relationship to humanity is explained Reaction against exploring the we don’t. We have rather peered into with spousal analogies. The Scriptures meaning of the male/female union every corner of their sex lives and by point to marriage and family life as can be harsh. The notion of “comple- turns gossiped and wrung our hands the school for learning the meaning of mentarity” is branded a plot against over couples’ failure to gel or their fall- life as loving mutual service and sacri- women’s equality. Marveling at pro- ing apart. As to the natural and divine fice—Jesus’ way of life. creation is called a tool for putting significance of the fact that there are Sex, marriage and par- women on a pedestal in two sexes, drawn to one another in a enting are pre-eminent Complemen- order to sideline them. one-flesh bond? As for this being the themes of our age. Scholars, Throughout, there lurks origin of all human life, all human so- activists and film-makers tarity must a suspicion that any talk ciety? Of this we say very little of con- cannot stop investigating of the ties between men sequence. them. Recent popes have begin with and women and of their This should change for reasons paid them extraordinary at- the radical procreative potential both natural and divine. At the natu- tention. Pope John Paul II is narrowly directed to ral level it only becomes clearer week taught that misunderstand- equality of undermining respect by week, as the tides of qualitative and ing the “complete and indis- men and for those seeking same- quantitative evidence roll in, that the soluble human commu- sex unions. differences and similarities between nion” in marriage “would women. In order to move men and woman matter. Biology sees make incomprehensible forward toward ac- it even at the cellular level. Eminent the very work of salvation.” knowledging that a business consultancies advise clients Pope Benedict XVI called marriage two-sexed, procreative humanity mat- to harness it. Psychological and socio- “the icon of the relationship between ters a lot, it is necessary to deal with logical data regularly show both the God and his people and vice versa.” these reasonable fears. We have to cor- unique and the overlapping talents And Francis, after devoting years to rect interpretations of “complementar- of men and woman. Women on both family themes, has said that “God’s al- ity” that fail to begin with the radical sides of the political aisle affirm it. liance with us is represented in the alli- equality of men and women. We have And outcomes for children and com- ance between man and woman.” to admit that some responses to wom- munities deprived of fathering mani- Religions and cultures across the en’s fertility demeaned both women fest it. globe and throughout history have and children. We may even have to There is also the sheer fact of a two- also affirmed the natural and divine face the possibility that deep disorders sexed humanity that gives birth to all significance of the relationship be- of our human nature incline us to fear human life. That’s a “wow” all by itself tween the man and the woman. At the giving proper value to caring for others and deserving of study, care and con- Humanum conference at the Vatican and to diminish people different from servation. two weeks ago, Pope Francis and lead- ourselves—whether these are of the Layer onto this the central role ers from 14 religions and 23 nations opposite sex or people attracted to the mined a wide-ranging vocabulary to same sex. But at the same time, we re- speak about the natural and divine ally have to find a way to move forward Helen Alvaré is a professor of law at George meanings of a two-sexed humanity. to nurture and promote the natural Mason University, where she teaches law and religion and family law. She is also a consultor Religions of East and West spoke of and divine wonder that is the male and to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. “cosmic polarities,” of nature’s dualities the female together.

12 America December 22-29, 2014 December 22-29 , 2014 America 13 Becoming Human The Incarnation calls us to a new life. by Leo J. O’Donovan

ow to choose from the bountiful trea- Christ in whom divinity and humanity are one and through sury of images awaiting our contempla- whom the entire creation is meant to be redeemed. Even the tion (and sheer delight) in this darkening baptism of Jesus, intimated at least by the appearance of the season before Christmas? Do you pre- dove of the Holy Spirit who descended upon Jesus in the wa- fer Netherlandish precision and detail? ters of the Jordan, is included. For the early church, the bap- HItalian tenderness and warmth? The classical proportions tism was in fact a more central part of the mystery than we and palette of Poussin? The transcendent simplicity, for recognize now. all their mastery, of Rembrandt or Velázquez? Or perhaps In Western Christianity we currently celebrate Christmas something admittedly sentimental but so familiar that we on Dec. 25, Epiphany two Sundays afterward and then, on love it all the more? the following Sunday, the Baptism of Jesus. But in the early Let me pause with you before “The Adoration of the Kings,” church the inner coherence of these different aspects of the painted some 400 years ago by the Flemish artist Jan Gossaert Incarnation was celebrated with a greater sense of their tem- and now in the National Gallery in London. At first there is poral unity. nothing surprising here, except of course for the ravishing per- Until the late fourth century, the church in the East cel- fection of the piece. But the longer we look (as is always the ebrated “Epiphany” on Jan. 6, “the manifestation of God in case), the more we are lost in the scene. The beautiful Virgin Jesus” both in his birth (including the visit of the Magi) and his Mother, dressed in robes of precious lapis lazuli blue, holds baptism. (Reference was also made to his manifestation at the her poised child, who, in a rhapsodic interpretation of the sto- wedding in Cana.) By the end of the century, however, imitat- ry in Matthew’s Gospel, is receiving the gift of a golden cup ing Western practice, the East began to celebrate Christmas as from the eldest king—biblically a magus, or wise man, and the nativity, the birth of Jesus, on Dec. 25 (including the visit traditionally named Gaspar. His younger colleague, Balthazar, of the Magi), leaving the baptism and the wedding at Cana to stands to the left, with Melchior to the right, each likewise be celebrated on Jan. 6. When the West borrowed from the holding elaborate gifts. (The names are carefully inscribed on East in turn and began to celebrate a feast of the Epiphany on their clothing or the gifts.) The entire scene unfolds—no one January 6, it took only the visit of the Magi for that day. seems entirely still—in ruins that may represent either antiq- I recall this (all too abbreviated) history of a complex li- uity, the Temple of Judaism or both. turgical development, because it reminds us that incarnation, Looking longer, we notice telling further detail. The God’s becoming human with and for us, was from the begin- handsomely gowned attendants of the royal visitors; Joseph, ning conceived as an extended temporal event, less a moment half-hidden in the ruins between Balthazar and Mary, with (birth) than a story (the beginning of a life). And clearly the a bright red robe and a cane; the shepherds of Luke’s Gospel life, the humanity, of Jesus cannot be complete at birth. There behind the picket fence at the back of the ruins, but also, mi- were years yet of unseen labor, presumably learning carpentry nutely, in the far distance, first hearing the news of the child’s from Joseph. After the baptism by John, the opening of his birth from an angel; and flights of angels, nine in number to public life and ministry, there was his testing in the wilder- represent the heavenly hierarchies beloved of medieval specu- ness, both crucial experiences for the course of his life. He had lation—the whole world of God’s creation is suggested, cen- yet to experience the effect of his preaching, his healing of the tered on the child. And presiding discreetly over all is a small sick, his companionship with outcasts, his mastery of the nat- dove, at the very top of the picture, under what seems at first ural world, not to mention the growing antagonism of leaders the star of the Magi but may well also refer to God the Father, both religious and civil. mabuse P hoto: shutterstock.com/aisa everett of the K ings,”by jan gossaert opposite: “ T he A doration who sends the Son among us. More and more clearly it appeared who this unique man The painting, named after one part of the “Christmas sto- was and who he presented himself to be. The climax of his life, ry,” as we know it today, proves in fact to be a visual theology the cresting of its saving course, comes with a week of utmost of the mystery of the Incarnation, God’s revealing to us the challenge and ultimate rejection, only then to be vindicated by the God who was (and is) his Father. “As with all of us,” Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., is president emeritus of Georgetown University. writes Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., “the mystery of his person

14 America December 22-29, 2014 was never totally expressed...until the time of his death, when But is his humanity complete even then? He is “One and he transcends this world and is raised from the dead. Then his Unique,” writes Hans Urs von Balthasar, “and yet one…who is ultimate identity burst upon him in all clarity.” Then he is the to be understood only in the context of mankind’s entire his- fully human and fully divine person he was meant to be, the tory and in the context of the whole created cosmos.” He was startling, suffering Savior once born in utter helplessness and not born for himself and the glory that was naturally his but now raised as “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” “for us and for our salvation.” And we are one with humanity

December 22-29, 2014 America 15 past and, we now realize, one with a vast humanity for centuries to come. They too are called to be his, the body of Christ, which will be complete only when time is complete. It is not simply a matter of adding to the communion of saints. It is a matter of “completing Christ,” achieving the whole Christ (St. Augustine’s “Totus Christus”). The early Christian writers we call the Fathers of the Church, meditating on the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel and the first chapter of the Letter to the Colossians, knew this, and we are invited to appropriate it again and in a still deeper sense by theologians who speak of “deep incarnation,” writers who point out that in becoming flesh the Word of God becomes united not only with the human species but with all living creatures and with “the cosmic dust of which they are composed,” as Sister Johnson says. “The incarnation is a cosmic event.” Reflecting many years ago on humanity in the cosmos and the hope our faith gives us for it, Karl Rahner, S.J., wrote:

Is not each person completely that person’s self, entirely brought to that fulfillment which the person should have and which God has eternally planned for the person, only when all persons are made perfect in the Kingdom of God? Must not all individuals wait for their ultimate fulfillment upon the complete fulfillment of all things?

We think we are human because we behave as humans (though how often so deplorably). But we know, when we are honest with ourselves, that we are but struggling wayfarers whose true selves will appear only when brought finally before the blinding light of God—when we are fully one with the risen Christ. Could Jesus have become human without sharing, though faultlessly, that journey? Is not the deepest blessing of Christmas not that he was born as the infant child of Mary but rather that he was born to become fully human, and with the promise that we too might be so? Still, this wide full vision, this hope for the redemption through Christ of all God’s creation, should not deprive us of the moment that is the fulcrum of the whole, the birth of the divine infant in Bethlehem. Nor should one overlook the bread of life that sustains us in our remembering and our journey. In Gossaert’s painting, the child who has been given golden coins by Gaspar returns one to his visitor, a clear and potent symbol of the eucharistic host taken from what the visitor does not yet know to be a ciborium. When we celebrate again this Christmas the birth of Jesus, the appearance of God and humanity united in one small infant, we celebrate as well our birth for heaven—and the call to everlasting life of all the universe and the children of God in it for ages to come. A

16 America December 22-29, 2014 Solid Foundations Grounding social justice in our common humanity By Meghan J. Clark

n March 2010, I traveled to Bagaces, Costa Rica, for a community invited us to participate in what was their project, weeklong service project with a dozen college students not ours. As a community, they had chosen the family and and a colleague. Volunteer programs, service learning housing site. We were building community with them, not and weeklong service trips are now commonplace on building a house for them. This participation was crucial—it IAmerican college campuses. These programs offer students was not enough to bring resources and accomplish our task. powerful opportunities to engage the wider community Despite the language barrier, we were one community through experiential learning. Our experience was organized through the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (which has since been renamed Unbound), and we were tasked with building a house for a young immigrant family who were homeless and expecting their second child. Each morning we left our motel around 8 a.m., walked down the street to a local café for breakfast, then headed down a mixture of paved and dirt roads to our building site. Working with some local craftsmen and the husband, we built a concrete house without machines or power tools. The intense physical labor was combined with short breaks to play catch with neighborhood children. When the house was completed, it would be connected to the electric wires, but these would only be hooked up on our last day when professionals came to install the roof. While most of the people we encountered had their basic needs met, life was a struggle for many and there was little room for er- ror. The town of Bagaces, in the province of Guanacaste, had widespread relative poverty, with few wealthy people and few facing extreme deprivation. Like many undergraduates, my students were focused on accomplishing their task. They did not want to take breaks and had to be forced to stop for lunch and dinner. This focus on helping and on the particular task is common in volunteer or other human rights work. However, BUILDING COMMUNITY. The author, left, works on a house. the vision of Catholic social thought calls for a different type of engagement. Success requires more than merely completing the task; it also asks us to build solidarity through practic- united in the project. Yet, this was the element with which ing human rights. many of my students genuinely struggled. Uncomfortable Each day at lunch, all of the women on the block helped with taking time or resources from the poor, they often cook and prepare the food C.F.C.A. provided for lunch. We manifested a laser focus on the concrete building task and were invited into their homes and extra tables were set up in experienced discomfort at eating the papayas the village the backyard. They welcomed us into their community with women bought for us off the fruit truck. Solidarity, however, their hospitality. We were providing needed labor, but the requires genuine mutuality and reciprocity in the relationship. I can come in and help you, but if the relationship is not one of mutual participation, then it will not be one of Meghan J. Clark is an assistant professor of moral theology at St. solidarity. John’s University, Queens, N.Y. This article is excerpted from her book, The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity Complete focus on the limited project of building a and the Praxis of Human Rights (Fortress Press). house provides insulation from the vulnerability, the ques- of the author P hotos courtesy

December 22-29, 2014 America 17 tions and the challenge posed by the reality of relative poverty. a preoccupation with the perception of poverty. In the neigh- For Catholic social thought, the elements that often make us, borhood in which we were working, it was different because as Americans, anxious are absolutely crucial. Those lunches there was a broader and deeper community relationship in- hosted by the women were a major element of what made volved that created a context for generosity outside of simply solidarity possible. Engaging the vulnerability and poverty the perception of poverty. This was not the case with random through solidarity in Bagaces forced us to be vulnerable and children from a different neighborhood following us down to ask difficult questions about the street. poverty in our own commu- “Can I have that?” a small nities. Solidarity with those child asks one of our students in Bagaces was made possible as we are walking home, point- only through the vulnerability ing first to her camera, then to experienced when we realized her bracelet. It was clear that our humanity is bound up with the mother had sent the chil- theirs. That experience gener- dren out “to the Americans.” ated an opening that draws us And we all struggled with why, into relationship with those in my only assertion as a facul- in relative poverty back home. ty member, I quickly moved us Engagement through those away from the group. Creating lunches pushed us beyond the a relationship in which moral problematic of seeing “Americans” come down and only what is lacking or of mak- hand out stuff, without solidar- ing sharp judgments about the ity, sets up structures of depen- people in poverty we encountered and people facing poverty dency. Broader questions of neocolonialism, racial justice and in our own communities. social sin on a global scale all complicate the interactions we had with the children we met in Bagaces. Seeing People, Not Poverty But this is not any different from questions of solidarity Commitment to human rights and solidarity is always within our national and local contexts. As we walked away grounded in the personal. Responding to human rights viola- from the family of children following us, I was taken back to tions begins with the recognition of the other my own time as an undergraduate volun- as an equal human being. As we respond, in teering at St. Ann’s afterschool program the interplay of these experiences locally and in the South Bronx. Made famous by globally, we begin to build solidarity. How do Jonathan Kozol’s book Amazing Grace, I engage a different context? How do I begin St. Ann’s provides homework help, food not with poverty but with personhood? As and a safe place to play. As I was helping the philosopher Charles Taylor notes, “Our an 8-year-old African-American girl with age makes higher demands of solidarity and her math homework, I still remember her benevolence on people today than ever before. looking up at me and saying, “I know you Never before have people been asked to stretch all come down here to help us.” “You all,” so far and so consistently, so systematically, so did not mean college students; it meant as a matter of course, to the stranger outside white college students. This is why soli- the gates.” Building solidarity and practicing darity as a social virtue, participation and human rights requires seeing the people in front of me first. the structure of our relationships are so important. The rela- Only then can I move to the injustice of poverty. Solidarity tionship between a college student and the child she is tutor- and substantive human rights are realized through human en- ing, or between a teacher and members of a weekly religious counter and not through the abstract. It is a challenge, howev- education class, is not one of equals in power or role, but can er, to see persons, not poverty, as the necessary starting point. be founded on the equality of persons. Thus, if the partici- During our trip, as we were walking home one night, a pants are vulnerable and fully human in the encounter, it can group of children from a different neighborhood swarmed us be one that builds solidarity. looking for stuff—footballs, Frisbees, stickers and so on. The My humanity is bound up in yours—this idea is funda- situation was upsetting and problematic from every angle. mental for the vision of Catholic social thought. I cannot Motivated by generosity, the students wanted to give the chil- build a relationship of equal human dignity unless I begin dren what they asked for, and yet behind the generosity was from that starting point. If your pain cannot change me and

18 America December 22-29, 2014 my pain cannot change you, then the relationship cannot be one of solidarity, even if basic needs are being met. For solidarity it is not enough to recognize and fight injustice; vulnerability and participation grounded in the one human family must also be present. I must see your dignity bound up with mine. Without that vulnerability and participation, motivation for basic human rights becomes more and more difficult. This sad reality is powerfully demonstrated by the international response to the Rwandan genocide and hauntingly depicted the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” Upon news that coverage of the genocide will run on international news, the hotel manager, Paul Rusesabagina, thanks the reporter:

Paul: I am glad that you have shot this footage and that the world will see it. It is the only way we have a chance that people might intervene. Jack: Yeah and if no one intervenes, is it still a good thing to show? Paul: How can they not intervene when they witness such atrocities? Jack: I think if people see this footage they’ll say, “Oh my God that’s horrible,” and then go on eating their din- ners.

Unfortunately, the reporter was right. Seeing and knowing about an ongoing genocide was not sufficient to prompt immediate action. Even today it is not sufficient to motivate sus- tained focus to determine a proper course of action, as long- term humanitarian crises like Darfur have shown. The hor- ror of injustice by itself has not proven sufficient motivation. Common humanity must be the starting point understood through radical interdependence. Catholic social thought offers an understanding of human persons in community in which human dignity is always both personal and universal. My dignity is bound up in yours, and mine is attacked where yours is attacked—this challenges hard distinctions between us and them. The popular Christian music artist Sara Groves, inspired by a mission trip to Rwanda, wrote the powerful song “I Saw What I Saw.” We played this song during reflection in Costa Rica. Her poignant expression, about the deeply human encounter that cut to the core of how she understood the world, captures what it means for our humanity to be bound up together. She movingly portrays the vulnerability and solidarity in which “your pain has changed me,” and she recognizes that once one recognizes the humanity in the other, one has seen something that cannot be unseen. In this radical encounter where one sees the victims of injustice as brothers and sisters, solidarity is possible and substantive exercise of human rights attainable. The virtue of solidarity and the praxis of human rights require your pain to change me. Participation in the humanity of one another is necessary. A

December 22-29, 2014 America 19 Signs of That Peace Peacemaking is everybody’s business By Gerald W. Schlabach

ROOTED IN FAITH. Israel’s President Shimon Peres, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (partially hidden), Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in the Vatican Gardens on June 8. CNS photo/ C ristian G ennari, pool

or decades now, popes and episcopal conferences “into that sort of thing.” Many associate peacemaking mainly have been insisting that to work for peace is the voca- with protesting war and injustice. If they know a little more, tion of all Christians. Too often, however, peacemak- they may think policymaking. If they know even more, they ing seems the domain of special vocations or techni- may think of on-the-ground practitioners in the developing Fcal specialists. This is certainly not the church’s hope. As Pope field of peace-building. But even if all these associations are John Paul II proclaimed in his World Day of Peace message positive, peacemaking can still seem like other people’s busi- at the opening of Jubilee Year 2000: “The church vividly re- ness. Protest requires a certain disposition. Policymaking remembers her Lord and intends to confirm her vocation and quires expertise. Peace-building practitioners need training in mission to be in Christ a ‘sacrament’ or sign and instrument of techniques like conflict resolution. peace in the world and for the world. For the church, to carry out Pope Francis would change this by widening our focus in a her evangelizing mission means to work for peace.... For the way that places every vocation, technique or tactic in the wid- Catholic faithful, the commitment to build peace and justice er context of God’s overarching strategy in history. is not secondary but essential” (No. 20). For Francis, after all, peace-building means building a peo- Yet peace often seems an activity only for those who are ple of peace—people-building. In his exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” he speaks repeatedly of all work for peace and Gerald W. Schlabach is a professor of theology at the University of St. the common good as building or becoming a people. This fol- Thomas in Minnesota and lead author and editor of Just Policing, Not War (Liturgical Press). He is currently at work on a book tentatively titled lows his portrayal of evangelization as the work of the entire A Pilgrim People: Becoming a Catholic Peace Church. church, which is “first and foremost a people advancing on

20 America December 22-29, 2014 its pilgrim way towards God,” thus opening out as “a people for every- Building a People of Peace one” and “a people of many faces.” The liturgical reform movement has been forming us as people of justice and peace We may ask which people he for decades. Social justice offices in parishes and dioceses have forged numerous proj- means. That would be the wrong ects to develop and practice global solidarity. Pro-life organizations walk with struggling families and women to protect the unborn. question. What we can do better in response to Pope Francis’ vision of people-building is to enact the liturgy and tell the story of God forming a people of peace down through People Within a People the centuries in ways that draw all our projects, vocations and lives together. Here are Within Peoples some suggestions. Picture a set of nested Russian dolls. Once we recognize the work of Liturgy and Preaching • The prayers of the people at Mass should always balance local concerns with peace-building as people-building, global solidarity for the church around the world. If we pray for “our troops,” we we start to notice that God’s own must also pray for conscientious objectors and above all—as Jesus taught—for peacemaking strategy always plac- enemies. es creative people as change agents • Attend to the liturgical message of flags: The U.S. flag should never stand alone within communities, within peoples. in our liturgical spaces. Either move it out of the sanctuary or add flags from That World Day of Peace 2000 many countries of origin of parishioners and ethnic groups in one’s diocese. message from John Paul II, for ex- • Longer-term, bishops and liturgical commissions should consider revising eu- ample, worked at multiple layers at charistic prayers in order to underscore how the nonviolent character of Christ’s once. As a sacrament of peace, the passion is normative for all disciples, as the Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy church is to be both a sign—be- (centerforchristiannonviolence.org) has advocated. ing—and instrument—doing—of Catechesis and Catholic Higher Education a saving reality beyond itself. But • Homilies should offer more than therapeutic spiritual counsel. They should even as the nesting pattern moves draw out the invitation that the church year and indeed every Eucharist al- outward into the world, it also calls ready embodies—to join in the drama of salvation history by which God has inward to an “essential” role for each been forming a people blessed to be a blessing for all the peoples of the earth of the Catholic faithful. through service to the common good of all humanity. The pattern is really the oldest • In parish settings and Catholic educational institutions, young people should and most basic in salvation histo- learn the dynamics of active nonviolence and the criteria of the just war tradi- ry. In Genesis, even as God called tion, so that any Catholic support or participation in warfare is truly an excep- Abraham promising the blessing tional last resort. of descendants who would become • Longer-term, the work of theologians should solidify and popularize the proper a great people, God’s strategic pur- Christian historicism that the Second Vatican Council reaffirmed, thus inviting pose for them was that they be a all the Catholic faithful to recognize their lives and vocations as participating in God’s saving work here and now, even as it promises eternal fulfillment beyond blessing to all other families or peo- this life. ples of the earth. The elegant para- dox of an Abrahamic community is Community Formation and Social Action that it can be true to its vocation as a • Pick up on a suggestion that Archbishop Hélder Câmara of Brazil once made as people only if it is ready to risk that part of his ringing call, “Abrahamic minorities unite!”—namely, form small affin- ity groups among professionals for reflection, mutual counsel and joint action very identity by blessing and living to direct their vocations toward true social transformation favoring the poor at for other peoples. home and around the world. Francis draws instinctively on • Support organizations like the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and Maryknoll Lay this Abrahamic pattern. The church Missioners so that offering two or three years of dedicated service might one must live its life on the streets, he in- day become as normative for Catholic young people as it is for Mormons. sisted as he began his papacy, prefer- • Continue developing “sister church” relationships among parishes not only ring the risk of getting wounded out across continents but also among parishes with different racial, ethnic and class there to the prospect of stagnating identities in our own dioceses. health from living behind closed • Bring home the pioneering work that the Catholic Peacebuilding Network has doors. In “The Joy of the Gospel” he been doing to learn and teach conflict transformation capacity in war-torn ar- demonstrates the theological heft eas of the world by offering similar parish- and diocesan-level training in the that sustains his pastoral practice. skills needed to transform our own relationships amid American and Catholic Turning midway to a natural-law “culture wars” into models of creative civility. —G.W.S.

December 22-29, 2014 America 21 mode of reflection, he lays out four principles. Together they obsessed with immediate results.” aim to transform the social conflict and cultural diversity that As a first principle of people-building, the priority of time are an inevitable part of human life into “a genuine path to over space should also blunt the besetting temptation to peace within each nation and in the entire world.” put nationalist loyalties above solidarity with other peoples around the globe—to say nothing of the global Christian Francis’ Four Principles people living in diaspora amid many nations. Robert George In writing his first apostolic exhortation, Pope Francis reit- of Princeton University has warned that in the face of secular erates many core lessons of Catholic social teaching. But to animosity toward Catholic teachings: “The days of acceptable summarize his vision, Francis ultimately turns to a fresh and Christianity are over. The days of comfortable Catholicism suggestive image—that of a polyhedron. are past.” Both a sphere and a polyhedron can serve as metaphors for One need not share all of Professor George’s alarm or his human equality, but the first is individualistic and the second agenda in every detail to share his presupposition: The de- is communal. While a sphere seems to offer perfect equidis- mands of Christian faith and Catholic identity are not co- tance from the center, the egalitarian justice of a sphere is de- terminous with the moral climate and borders of the United ceptive, for its cost is the globalized smoothing out of all cul- States or any other nation-state. As William Cavanaugh and tural differences. A polyhedron, in contrast, offers the image Michael Baxter wrote in these pages (“More Deeply Into the of a richer justice of equality World,” 4/21), all Catholics PEACE MEET. A Catholic Peacebuilding Network event through participation in local in Burundi should embrace the mestiza- cultures that have not lost their je that immigrant Latino distinctiveness. Catholics model as they Accordingly, the work of contribute to their land of peace-building must be the residence while maintaining very task of becoming a people an identity that crosses its of peace whose social posture borders. in the world serves the respec- 2. “Unity prevails over con- tive cultures and common good flict.” In introducing his four of all other peoples. Each of principles, Pope Francis re- Francis’ four principles builds iterates the teaching of the toward this vision. Second Vatican Council that 1. “Time is greater than peace is not merely the ab- space.” However urgent we sence of violence or warfare. sense the world’s needs to be, As the pope moves to his our first and most basic task second principle, the implica- as Christians is not to seize power but to generate processes tion is this: Conflict can in fact be a positive “link in the chain of people-building, not to hold territory through frantic and of a new process” of people-building, but only if it is “faced” domineering self-assertion but to be patient with history. rather than “ignored or concealed.” Facing conflict frankly, To instead give priority to time puts spaces and material with a willingness to work for resolution “head on,” in fact goods into their proper perspective. It allows us to engage in makes it “possible to build communion amid disagreement.” actions that “generate new processes in society and engage Such honest confrontation opens a “third way” between other persons and groups,” allowing them the time they need callous evasion of conflictual realities and resentful entrap- to grow and bear fruit in history. All this “without anxiety, but ment within conflicts. But to engage in conflict nonviolent- with clear convictions and tenacity.” ly requires a living hope that underneath our conflicts lies a The Christian horizon of action, after all, is not geo- more profound unity that allows us to build friendship in so- graphical, but eschatological. The most important location ciety and act in solidarity. we live within is not a space we may pretend to possess, but Surely such practices and hope must take shape within the a time given us as a gift. This is the time between thealready church’s own communion if it is to be a “sign and instrument of God’s beckoning future and the not yet of our limited of peace in and for the world.” Writing in these pages, my col- human condition. To be sure, life in this in-between time league Massimo Faggioli called for rebooting Cardinal Joseph presents a “constant tension.” But recognizing time as great- Bernardin’s Catholic Common Ground Initiative in order to er than space gives us “a first principle for progress in build- facilitate dialogue and consensus-building across all levels of ing a people.” We can live in that tension between fullness the U.S. church (“A View From Abroad,” 2/24). Widely prac-

and limitation and “work slowly but surely, without being ticed, the value of such a project would come not just from peace network of catholic P hotos courtesy

22 America December 22-29, 2014 December 22-29, 2014 America 23 inviting Catholics to transcend their own culture wars. The 4. “The whole is greater than the part.”Pope Francis now very effort would mean that Catholics across thousands of turns to the “innate tension” that “exists between globalization parishes would receive training in the same skills of conflict and localization.” We should neither allow the glitter of global transformation that the Catholic Peacebuilding Network has culture to seduce us nor encase local cultures unchangeably been developing around the world. in museums of folklore. Our challenge is to broaden our 3. “Realities are more important than ideas.” Coming from horizons even while putting deep roots down into our native Latin America, Pope Francis obviously knows the cultur- places. Again, this suggests that to work for strong families, al self-recognition that Cervantes captured in the figure of vibrant but hospitable neighborhoods and racial justice in our Don Quixote. In his flights of idealism, Quixote needed the cities and regions is as crucial to peace- and people-building as realistic Sancho Panza as a companion. Long before Jorge policymaking in national capitals or mediation in war zones. Bergoglio became Pope Francis, he undoubtedly knew many Here, then, is where Pope Francis presents his many-faced Latin American intellectuals advocating political ideologies “polyhedron” as a model of global reconciled unity. The who needed a dose of realism. Gospel certainly embraces all people universally. But it does Pope Francis’ third peace-building principle thus speaks so through creative inculturation that sustains the cultural ge- to both pastoral practice and politics. In the context of nius of every people and leaves no lost sheep behind. “Pastoral peace-building, that carries additional lessons. Whether com- and political activity alike seek to gather in this polyhedron ing from reformers or fundamentalists, he insists, ideas that the best of each” (No. 236). are “detached from realities” and “dwell in the realm of words alone, of images and rhetoric” are “dangerous.” A Church for All People Surely this is why peace-building for him must first of all As the first pope from the Global South, Pope Francis has be about people-building. One of Mahatma Gandhi’s most personally experienced the globalizing forces that buffet the famous aphorisms, we might recall, was to “be the change you peoples of the world. Amid the cultural corrosions and eco- wish to see in the world.” Likewise, Francis insists, Christian nomic exploitations that modern life accelerates, Cardinal peace-building must be incarnate. Jorge Bergoglio learned that we should not take people-hood What we offer to the world, therefore, cannot be mere pol- itself for granted. But if it is the vocation of the church as a icy proposals. It must be embodied in the life of the people whole to be a people-for-all-peoples, the church can build it- called church. Learning to talk constructively in our parishes self up as a people only through the diverse vocations of all about effective responses to poverty, what will really discour- the faithful. age abortions, how to welcome immigrants, when to resist un- Entities like the Catholic Peacebuilding Network— just wars and, for that matter, how to negotiate our disputes together with the academic peace studies departments, over liturgical matters—all contribute to world peace as sure- peace-building agencies and episcopal social justice offices it ly as Vatican diplomacy. brings together around the globe—represent growing expertise. The ecumenical Just Peacemaking Initiative, led by the late Glen Stassen, has documented proven peace-building strat- egies. Knowing what to do for peace is less and less of a problem. What we lack are people practiced in the skills and virtues of peace-building. Doing requires doers, after all. Peace- building requires peace-builders. Peace- builders require formation through participation in a people of peace. The Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas is famous for insisting that the church does not have a social ethic; the church is a social ethic. Likewise: the Catholic Church cannot be content to have Catholic social teaching; it must consti- tute Catholic social teaching in its very life together, church-wide and parish-deep, as a people of peace. A

24 America December 22-29, 2014 VATICAN DISPATCH Rome in Review hat an extraordinary a Secretariat for the Economy and ap- in visiting them he sought to strength- year this has been for the pointed Cardinal George Pell to head en Christian-Muslim relations, ad- WCatholic Church under the new structure; he gave him exten- vocated greater creativity in interreli- the leadership of Pope Francis, who sive powers to ensure all Vatican offic- gious dialogue and encouraged work- continues to inspire and reach the es will operate with an agreed program ing together for peace in the Middle hearts of people far beyond its bound- and budget starting on Jan. 1. East. aries! By December 2014, his cardinal During his Holy Land visit, In this last Vatican Dispatch of advisers were drafting the plan for he sought to revitalize the Israeli- the year, I will briefly review what the curial reform. One part envisages the Palestinian peace process and con- Argentine pope has done to change creation of two new congregations, for vened a prayer for peace in the Vatican the church in 2014 and how he has the laity and for charity/justice, and with the Palestinian and Israeli presi- reached out to the peripheries and incorporating several existing councils. dents. In the divided Korean peninsu- opened new frontiers. Another part involves rela, he encouraged a new During 2014 Francis opened new structuring the Secretariat effort for peace. And processes and sought to introduce of State and bringing all Pope in his meetings with changes in the church in several ways. Vatican tribunals and the Patriarch Bartholomew, He began with the process for the se- Council for Interpretation Francis he made every effort to lection of bishops. On Feb. 27 he vis- of Legislative Texts un- has opened overcome the Catholic- ited the Congregation of Bishops and der one umbrella. A pa- Orthodox divide. spelled out the criteria to be used in pal commission headed new During 2014 Francis the selection of bishops, in addition by Lord Patten is working frontiers. also led a major interna- to those he gave the nuncios in June on a project to incorpo- tional effort to combat 2013. He is monitoring this process rate the Vatican’s media human trafficking, pros- carefully, and sources say he person- operations into one new titution and slave labor. ally intervened in the appointment of Communications Secretariat. The This reached a high point on Dec. bishops to a number of major sees, in- reform plan should be completed by 2, when the leaders of the Catholic, cluding Madrid and Chicago. mid-2015. Orthodox and Anglican church- In February he held his first con- Like other popes before him, es joined faith leaders from Islam, sistory to create new cardinals and, Francis is appointing men of his Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism breaking with tradition, he sought own choosing to key positions in the to sign a common declaration to work to correct the imbalance that fa- Roman Curia. In 2014 he appoint- for the eradication of modern slavery vored Europe (especially Italy) and ed Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea by 2020. the United States in the College of as prefect of the Congregation for There is little doubt, however, that Cardinals and to give more represen- Divine Worship, Archbishop Paul the event that has most affected the tation to other parts of the world, es- Gallagher of Britain as secretary for Catholic Church and continues to in- pecially the peripheries. relations with states and Archbishop fluence it across the globe has been the Throughout the year, assisted by Dominique Mamberti of Morocco to two-stage Synod on the Family that his council of cardinal advisers, he head the Vatican’s top tribunal (the Pope Francis convened. The synod, made considerable progress toward re- Segnatura Apostolica). under his leadership, is enjoying a free- form of the Roman Curia. He created Pope Francis made five foreign trips dom hitherto not experienced and is in 2014: to the Holy Land (Jordan, shaking up the church in a way that has Palestine, Israel), Korea, Albania, the not happened since the Second Vatican Gerard O’Connell is America’s Rome European Parliament and Council of Council. We are likely to see more of correspondent. America’s Vatican coverage is sponsored in part by the Jesuit communities of Europe in Strasbourg, and to Turkey. the “Francis effect” in this and other the United States. Twitter: @gerryorome. Four are Muslim-majority states, and fields in 2015. Gerard O’Connell

December 22-29 , 2014 America 25 from our blogs The Beam in Our Own Eye: Pope Francis Speaks to Europe, and to the Church, Francis X. Clooney Disabled Seniors Could Be a ADVENT Powerful Voting Bloc Take an Advent journey with Pope Francis Robert David Sullivan featuring quotes from the daily readings and Blessed are the Pure of Heart: The questions for reflection. Ellacuría Tapes Michael J. Rogers, S.J.

what you are reading THE LIVING WORD The Loneliest Choice The full text of Bishop N. T. Wright’s talk on “Paul Rev. Rhonda Mawhood Lee and the Powerful Word: Gospel, Community, Mission” The Tyranny of Talk, The Editors The Preferential Option for Life Mark P. Shea FILM Working for Peace in Ferguson As John P. McCarthy reviews “The Imitation Game,” Violence Erupts Anew, Judith Valente and John Anderson discusses Christmas films on Faith and Science: 15 Questions for Dr. “America This Week.” Stephen Barr, Sean Salai, S.J.

“We must learn to be a part of, not apart from, God’s gift of creation.” — Daniel Misleh on Renew This World

26 America December 22-29, 2014 FAITH IN FOCUS Faith Amid Flowers Finding grace and new growth at Christmas By B. G. Kelley am the son of a florist, so I was ing basketball. I was the starting point I wrote a poem. The next day when I reared to accept that there are no guard for Temple. We were as different was again delivering poinsettias in the Itin flowers. And even the least of Northeast area, I stopped at her house. them are like rainbows or sunsets: I knocked on the door, and she opened worthwhile natural deities. I worked it. Awkwardly, I said, “These are for you. side-by-side with my dad for 25 of Maybe we can get together.” the 50 years he spent in his tiny “Maybe we can,” she said. “Call flower shop in a tiny Philadelphia me.” neighborhood called Paradise. I did, and several days after When my pop was in his shop Christmas we got together. She taking care of his customers, suggested we go for a walk. We he was truly in paradise. He stopped at a playground near taught me that flowers speak her house. “Let’s shoot some to the verities of the heart and hoops,” she said. (The way to my soul: honor, truth, love, prayer. heart wasn’t through food but For my entire life I have em- basketball.) And so we played a braced the power of flowers, one-on-one game of basketball. and they have helped guide me I won. I married her. through both good and chal- And for the 43 years we have lenging times. been married, I have given her One Christmastide I was de- a poinsettia and a poem every livering poinsettias in my pop’s Ford Christmas. panel truck when I noticed this girl waiting at a bus stop on Roosevelt as the Louvre and Madison Square Spirituality in Flowers Boulevard in the Northeast neighbor- Garden. I moved on. In difficult times, when I need a source hood of Philadelphia. I stopped the Ford panel, rolled of strength to fill whatever holes with- We had met as students on the cam- down the passenger-side window and in me need filling, I can call on those pus of Temple University, had even shouted, “Need a lift?” attributes of flowers: renewal, inspira- gone out several times. She was a rare After recognizing me, she said, tion, peace—and spirituality. “Strike beauty, statuesque with long dark hair “Sure,” and hopped in. the rock, and the water will flow from falling over her shoulders, and deep, “Are you still playing basketball?” it for the people to drink.” It is the dark brown eyes that lit up like pol- she asked, before noticing the cache of same with flowers for me. ished pinewood. But we were polar op- poinsettias in the back of the truck. “I Four days before Christmas, in posites. She spent most of her time in love poinsettias,” she said. “Do you have 1984, my pop the florist summoned me the library studying French literature; I any extras? I’ll buy one.” to the hospital where he was a patient. spent most of my time in the gym play- “Yes, I’m still playing basketball,” I Looking me square in the eyes from his replied. “And no there aren’t any extra hospital bed, with that distinctly Irish poinsettias.” Kennedyesque mug, a shell of a man B. G. Kelley is the author of The World I After dropping her off at her house, from the once strapping football play- Feel, a book of poetry, and was a writer for the I returned to my pop’s shop, picked er he had been—muscular and sinewy, television film “Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story” (1992). He is a regular contributor to out a rich, rose-pink poinsettia and fast as a cheetah—he said, “Billy, make

The Philadelphia Inquirer. hung a “sold” sign on it. On the card, sure there are a lot of flowers at the tim luecke art:

December 22-29 , 2014 America 27 viewing.” He died the next day. Why wouldn’t he want plenty of flowers present at his passing? He was certain that flowers played a spiritual role in death, bringing a symbolic presence and meaning. Flowers bloom beyond tears, fears and no next years, symbolizing that death is not separa- tion but transformation, not termina- tion but transcendence. My pop for- ever preached that flowers help us to view death with the promise that life does not flicker out for good. That is because he saw so often the comfort that his flowers brought to families and friends of loved ones who had died. Even science has now begun to take notice of the effects of flowers. A recent Rutgers University study revealed that in anxious, uncertain times, like death, flowers are a blissful and spiritual necessity. But then again, my pop didn’t need some scientific study to tell him that. He experienced it for 50 years in that tiny flower shop in Paradise. So many times I heard people say to him, “Thank you, the flowers meant so much to us. They were a source of strength, peace and, most of all, faith.” My father was buried on Christmas Eve. On the day of his viewing I made sure that the request he asked of me that night in the hospital was honored. There was a bounty of flowers circling his casket like a necklace. I arranged them. I am blessed with a usable past. A huge spray of bulbous, white chrysanthemums spread the length of the casket; baskets of white gladioli, shooting out like spires, stood at the head and foot of the casket; a rosary made of red roses lay clutched in his hands, and 25 to 30 other baskets and sprays, one after another, framed the funeral parlor. After everyone had gone, alone in the silence of the funeral parlor, I looked at my pop and all the flowers encircling him. They reminded me of that triumphant connection: Flowers were the other side of the silence, drawing life out of death. A

28 America December 22-29, 2014 PHILOSOPHER’S NOTEBOOK Has Natural Law Died?

he recent Synod on the cultural prejudice (what the majority rights cannot capture natural law’s Family had its surface con- thinks) or to biology (what animals teleological argument as to why an ac- Ttroversies: the admission of do). Given this impoverished concept tion is right or wrong in terms of its the divorced and remarried to the sac- of natural law, the working document end. In an age of subjectivism, rights raments and the pastoral care of ho- can only “request that more empha- themselves easily become subsets of mosexuals. It also had its background sis be placed on the role of the word self-indulgence. theoretical controversies. The Vatican’s of God as a privileged instrument in The effort to substitute biblical Humanum conference in November the conception of married life and the narrative for natural-law principles probed one of them: the comple- family, and recommend greater refer- suffers a similar limitation. Moral ar- mentarity of the sexes. Another con- ence to the Bible, its language and its gument based uniquely on the sources troversy concerns the value of natu- narratives.” This amounts to a tacit re- of revelation easily becomes a sectar- ral-law ethics. An ancient mainstay of placement of natural-law ian ghetto. Only those Catholic moral argument, natural law ethics by a moral argumen- who share the church’s suddenly appears consigned to ecclesi- tation based uniquely on theological presuppo- astical limbo. biblical narrative. In the Natural-law sitions could accept it. The documentary history of the synod’s closing report (re- ethics is Genocide is wrong not extraordinary synod tells the tale of latio post disceptationem), because majority public natural law’s eclipse. The 2013 Vatican the reference to natural law abandoned opinion or Western de- questionnaire preceding the synod has disappeared. at the mocracy condemns it. It asked, “What place does the idea of The problems concern- is not only because the the natural law have in the cultural ing natural law detected by church’s Bible or the church re- areas of society: in institutions, educa- the synod are real enough. peril. jects it. It has something tion, academic circles and among the The very term has become to do with human na- people at large?” confusing. In a recent eth- ture, human dignity and Early in 2014, the German bishops, ics examination, one stu- the basic human good of like many other national episcopates, dent defined natural law as the law life itself. It springs from the nagging replied negatively: “Very few people of gravity. Another identified it as impulse that we should not treat hu- are familiar with the term ‘natural law.’ evolution’s random selection. A pop- man beings this way just because they It has virtually no role to play at the ular textbook claims that natural-law are human beings. institutional and educational level or ethics condemns anything artificial. The current impasse in the church in everyday culture.” Preparing the According to the author, natural law over natural law is paradoxical. synod debate, the working document considers Diet Pepsi immoral. (The Although we have become agnostic (instrumentum laboris) issued by the status of un-diet Pepsi remains un- over the value of natural law, we inces- Vatican in spring 2014 evinces a simi- clear.) Clearly, such distorted concepts santly use natural-law arguments in our lar skepticism: “The concept of natural are far from an accurate grasp of natu- moral discourse. Pope Francis’ opening law today turns out to be, in different ral law, which resides in human nature speech to the recent Humanum confer- cultural contexts, highly problematic, and manifests itself in moral inclina- ence is illustrative. He makes no explic- if not completely incomprehensible.” tions to protect the basic goods of hu- it reference to natural law but defends When it survives at all, the appeal to man nature, essential to the quest for “the union of man and woman in mar- “nature” is distorted into an appeal to authentic happiness. riage as a unique, natural, fundamental personal preference (my nature), to Despite its confused semantics, and beautiful good for persons, com- natural-law ethics is abandoned at the munities, and whole societies.” Despite

John J. Conley, S.J., holds the Knott church’s peril. The proposed substi- its cultural variations, human nature Chair in Philosophy and Theology at Loyola tutes are problematic. Recasting natu- endures. The church funeral for natural University Maryland in Baltimore, Md. ral-law arguments in terms of human law is premature. John J. Conley

December 22-29 , 2014 America 29 Books & Culture

film | John Anderson other piece of equipment she hauls in her Witherspoon-sized backpack. Hopeful Wanderers Who, exactly, embarks on an 1,100- mile hike along the Pacific Crest The spiritual journeys in ‘Wild’ and ‘Exodus’ Trail without having put up the tent at least once? It does dilute some of hile Jesus spent 40 days Which is not to suggest, heaven for- the affection we generally feel toward and nights in the wilder- fend, that “Wild,” Jean-Marc Vallée’s Ms. Witherspoon, who does not give Wness, Reese Witherspoon ingeniously directed adaptation of a fully realized performance as much spends about three months there in Strayed’s bestselling memoir, is less as she puts an adorable face on a sto- Wild as the self-flagellating author than an engrossing, moving and/or ry of self-abasement and, ultimately, Cheryl Strayed, albeit with a nylon well-structured movie, made in a man- self-forgiveness. tent, gas stove, water-purification ner that evokes every ounce of sympa- But is it wrong to hold Strayed’s tablets, James Michener paperbacks thy for its heroine in her passion and lack of respect for the elements and a paralyzing aversion to serpents. her thirst for absolution. Of course, against her? Yes, in the sense that in Mortification of the flesh is one thing. the all-knowing Jesus may have more a Christ-inspired salvation tale, which Cold/hunger/boredom is quite an- readily handled the gas stove that ut- “Wild” quite definitely is, the sufferer other. terly baffles Strayed, along with every should not welcome the suffering, perhaps, but at least accept it—not SHE THIRSTS. Reese Witherspoon in “Wild” throw her ill-fitting boots down a mountain or silently curse the gas stove. Strayed, who in her former life was addicted to drugs, sex and general misbehavior, embarks on her trek the way spiritual seekers often do, at least in fiction, seeking a baptism by fire (so to speak) that will serve as a catalyst toward spiritual enlightenment, something for which all the personal crises serve as prelude. She does not take a cell phone, which would have been tough anyway 20 years ago, when she made the trip. On the other hand, she does not exactly throw herself, à la St. Benedict, naked into the thornbush. But if the metaphorical counter- part to Strayed is Jesus and his suffering, the precursor to Jesus was Moses, who prefigured Christ’s time on earth and served his own 40-day stint in the desert—to be echoed in that 40-year journey out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, all of

which are portrayed with the help of P hoto: fox searchlight pictures

30 America December 22-29, 2014 INTO THE BREACH. Christian Bale leads the charge as Moses in “Exodus: Gods and Kings.” hoto: twentieth century fox P hoto: twentieth century

wrath-of-God special effects by direc- Jewishness, his break with the Pharaoh several millennia—the story of Moses tor Ridley Scott in Exodus: Gods and (Edgerton), the various plagues—rec- and his leading of the Jews on a 40-year Kings. An epic of nostalgic excess, this reated with sometimes disgusting exac- walk around sun-baked Sinai, all the film stars Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, titude—and the Exodus itself, replete while wondering why God has forsaken Hiam Abbass, John Turturro, with a Red Sea sporting tidal waves. It them. “Exodus” is entertainment, make Goldshifteh Farahani, Sigourney is Hollywood at its most gratuitously, no mistake: There are romances, action Weaver and Ghassan Massoud—the technologically lavish, although in the and scenery chewing, although Bale is kind of international cast one puts cause of telling a divinely inspired story. his reliably brilliant self, making Moses together these days in hopes of inter- Despite their stylistic differences, a believable man as well as a believable national gold. In terms of pure screen the two films share a kinship of faith. prophet. It will intrigue movie fans to see time, it will provide global audiences Moses believes undaunted in the God how he approaches a role most identi- their money’s worth. who speaks to him through (spoiler fied with an actor and movie unfamiliar Dramatically speaking, one needs to alert) a burning bush, the wonders of with understatement, namely Charlton separate the message of God from the the natural world and, yes, a little boy Heston in “The Ten Commandments” message of mammon in “Exodus,” even named Malak (Isaac Andrews), whose (which these days would likely be titled if, like “Wild,” its underlying theme is steely look and intemperate use of toads “The 3D Ten Commandments!”). But redemption through suffering. To say and boils make him an intriguing and Scott—as is the wont of directors who that Scott’s epic is the aesthetic antithe- perhaps even convincing stand-in for have lived, worked and learned through sis of “Wild” would be stating the fairly the Almighty—one who wreaks havoc several decades of movies which, to be obvious. Vallée, through the lens of his on Egypt and finally frees the Jews from taken seriously, have had to take their fellow Quebecer, the cinematographer the yoke of the idol builders. subjects seriously and not burden them Yves Bélanger, presents a world joyous For her part, Strayed has a largely with bombast—strives, between the in its nature and largely unspoiled in its unarticulated belief that the unspoiled parting waters and buzzing locusts, to glory, unadorned and, to a large degree, world of the Pacific Crest Trail will make Moses as plausible as he might unforgiving. restore balance to her soul. That she have been to the Hebrew ancients. In “Exodus” is executed in fabulous, exhibits a streak of stupidity regarding his turmoil and pain he may not be state-of-the-art 3D computer graphics some elementary truths about the ele- a reasonable man. But he is a rational and tells, with reasonable fidelity and ments makes her less winning than she dreamer. sometimes unreasonable overkill, the might have been, but her blind belief in The same is true, in her own way, of story of Moses (Bale), his life as a royal her mission is ultimately inspiring. Cheryl Strayed in “Wild.” Vallée does ward in Memphis, the revelation of his Likewise—as has been the case for the strategic thing, eschewing a chrono-

December 22-29 , 2014 America 31 logical retelling of Strayed’s story and fits their themes: “Exodus: Gods and Murphy’s book recounts numerous introducing her at the start of her gru- Kings” is about freeing a nation from Supreme Court cases where Scalia’s eling trek—so that, narratively speak- its oppressor. “Wild” is about a woman biting opinions attack even those jus- ing, her penance precedes her sins, and who has to travel 1,100 miles to realize tices on his own conservative side of our sympathy precedes the revelations the mother she mourns (Laura Dern, the judicial spectrum for not seeing of her bad character. We see her trans- in yet another fine performance) had things exactly his way. When he was gressions only in flashbacks of naked it right all the time: Despite having no Chief Justice, William Rehnquist had flesh and intravenous injections, multi- money, no advantages and an abusive to write Scalia about the bitterness of ple partners and a saintly ex-husband, spouse, her mother reveled joyously one of his draft opinions, dissenting Paul (Thomas Sadoski), who later will in her children and in life itself. While from an opinion written by Justice forward batteries and food to Cheryl at Moses never got to enter the Promised Sandra Day O’Connor. “Nino,” Chief the various ranger stations on her route, Land, Cheryl Strayed lived next to it all Justice Rehnquist wrote, “you are piss- which arrive like manna from Heaven along. ing off Sandra again. Stop it.” (something left out of “Exodus,” by the Murphy spends a good bit of his way, which otherwise leaves out very John Anderson is a film critic for The Wall biography pondering how Scalia’s Street Journal, Indiewire and Newsday and a little). regular contributor to the Arts & Leisure section Catholicism has affected his judicial Aptly, the scale of the stories be- of The New York Times. decisions and his judicial philosophy. I must admit that I feel a bit queasy about these exercises because of their books | Nicholas P. Cafardi easy potential for Catholic-bashing. One of Murphy’s chapter headings is A ‘Catholic’ justice? “Opus Scotus,” a pun on “Opus Dei,” the controversial Catholic organiza- Scalia The subtitle of Bruce Allen tion, replacing “Dei” or “of God” (“Opus A Court of One Murphy’s extensively researched bi- Dei” means “The Work of God”) with By Bruce Allen Murphy ography, Scalia: A Court of One, is in- the initials for the Supreme Court of Simon & Schuster. 656p $35 dicative of what would appear to be the United States, “Scotus.” While Scalia’s tragic flaw—his inability to let there may be a potential value in this Antonin Scalia did not grow up the exercise, I found it troubling reading. son of typical Italian immigrants. Do we evaluate the Jewish justices on Unlike most of us, whose fathers were the Court for how their faith has af- brick-layers and masons, carpenters, fected their judicial philosophy and steel-workers and coal-miners, his opinions? And as for evaluating how father was a university professor. As any Protestant justices on the court are Scalia has said, he was not the poor affected by their faith, we need to recall son of immigrants who had to lift that for the first time in its long history, themselves up by their bootstraps. there are no Protestants on the nation’s He attended Xavier High School in highest court. Manhattan, a Jesuit school, and from Murphy does not claim that Scalia there he went on to Georgetown, the is a member of Opus Dei, but he does nation’s pre-eminent Jesuit univer- see a clear connection between Scalia’s sity, and then Harvard Law School. conservative version of Catholicism He caught the debating bug at Xavier and his judicial philosophy of original- and honed it well at Georgetown and ism. Originalism is Scalia’s announced Harvard. He has used those skills ex- yardstick for deciding whether a law pertly as an appellate judge, not just in is constitutional or not. Scalia holds his questioning of counsel during oral that the original meaning that would arguments, but also in judicial confer- have been given to the words of the ences after oral argument and in his Constitution or its amendments by written opinions, which often skewer go of his side of an issue to the point of the persons living when those terms what Scalia sees as the faulty reasoning alienating even those who are in par- were adopted controls the meaning of of those who disagree with him. tial, if not total, agreement with him. the words. (In the oral arguments on

32 America December 22-29, 2014 a case concerning whether the First That is quite some charge, and I won- thou perfect as thy heavenly Father is Amendment prohibited a California der if it would be made about a judge perfect,” and “Thou shalt not lie.” Those law that outlawed the sale of unusually of any other faith. Murphy also writes are hardly uniquely Catholic concepts. violent video games to minors, Scalia’s about the “possible link between the ex- Of course, there is always the pos- conservative colleague on the court, isting Catholic majority on the Court sibility that Scalia is being disingen- Justice Samuel Alito, joked that what and the reversal of the [partial birth] uous, that he says one thing and does Justice Scalia really wanted to know abortion decision in the Gonzales v. another. But, at least from my point was what James Madison thought Carhart case.” Unfortunately Murphy of view, his “originalism” decisions are about video games.) But Murphy is not alone in this speculation, citing far from four-square with the Catholic ponders whether Scalia’s version of as he does a number of national jour- faith. As Murphy recounts, Scalia has Catholicism, which Murphy refers to nalists and bloggers who expressed yet to see a death penalty that he does as “pre-Vatican II” and his originalism similar thoughts. Instead of blaming not believe the Constitution approves theory of constitutional interpretation the majority’s Catholic faith, might not of, including executing 15-year-olds. are not “so parallel in their approach the reason for Gonzales lie in the fact The court’s decision in Employment that Scalia could not help but realize that pulling a child part way out of its Division v. Smith, which Scalia au- that by using his originalism theory mother’s womb in order to end its life thored, did more to eviscerate the he could accomplish as a judge all that is something that no civilized society constitutional rights of churches than his religion commanded without ever can accept as a fundamental value wor- any other Supreme Court decision be- having to acknowledge using his faith thy of constitutional protection? fore or since. And on that video games in doing so.” Scalia has numerous times had to case, where California tried to keep ex- Murphy’s analysis clearly implies deny that he functions as a “Catholic” tremely violent video games out of the that Scalia’s well-known opposition justice. He has said, “There is no such hands of minors on the quite reason- to Roe v. Wade—because nothing in thing as a Catholic judge,” just as there able proposition that playing games the constitution mentions a right to is no such thing as “a Catholic way to like those taught impressionable kids an abortion, which is Scalia’s original- cook a hamburger.” When pressed, he the acceptability of violence against ism analysis—is really based on his has admitted that only two teachings one’s neighbors—you know, those Catholic faith’s abhorrence of abortion. of his faith affect his judicial work: “Be people Christ said to love—Scalia vot-

December 22-29 , 2014 America 33 ed to overturn the law. who has had a phenomenal influence have affected the daily lives of Israeli Murphy’s analysis of the Supreme on American law, worthy of a long Arabs, Palestinians in the occupied Court decisions that Scalia has been read, but with a grain of salt when it territories and African refugees. involved with, apart from his reli- comes to trying to guess what a jus- Blumenthal, an investigative re- gious speculation, is quite well done. tice’s religious motivations are in ren- porter and author of a book about the Murphy has a true ability for explain- dering a particular decision. Republican Party, presents many as- ing complex legal issues in a way that is pects of contemporary Israeli life that easily accessible to the layperson. This Nicholas P. Cafardi is a professor at have not generally been reported in is a doorstop of a book, about a man Duquesne University Law School in Pittsburgh. the American press. Some of the facts, particularly the surge of Israeli hatred of Arabs and African migrants, make Mark J. Davis for uncomfortable reading. Particularly chilling are Blumenthal’s eyewitness Majority Rules accounts of street violence against minority populations fomented by ex- Goliath since the 1980s. Ehud treme religious youths Life and Loathing Barak, the Labor par- and gangs affiliated In Greater Israel ty leader and defense with Yisrael Beteinu. By Max Blumenthal minister in charge of These events are con- Nation Books. 496p $27.99 Cast Lead, hoped that sistent with respected the aggressive military opinion polls that show When Pope Francis, during his recent force, which killed over most Israelis would visit to the Holy Land, spontaneous- 1,400 Palestinian civil- prefer to be completely got out of his jeep in Bethlehem, ians, would appeal to ly separated from their touched his forehead to the security Israeli voters. Palestinians neighbors. wall that separates Jews from Arabs Nonetheless, Labor Thus the security wall, and silently prayed for the suffering of finished in a disap- originally intended Palestinian children, the gesture was pointing fourth behind to be temporary, has widely seen as an expression of his love Netanyahu’s Likud become a permanent for humanity. Israel’s Prime Minister party, the centrist symbol of the separa- Benjamin Netanyahu, however, was Kadima party and the tion that most Israelis reportedly taken aback and asked the ultra right-wing Yisrael prefer. pope to visit a memorial to the Jewish Beiteinu party, led by the Russian- At the root of this turmoil is the victims of terror attacks. born Avigdor Lieberman, a former overriding concern of every political Netanyahu’s objection reflected his night club bouncer whose campaign party about the demographic threat core belief that only Jewish suffering slogan was “No loyalty, no citizen- the rapidly increasing Arab population matters. As Max Blumenthal docu- ship.” Lieberman’s harsh rhetoric poses. In 2010 the Israeli government ments in Goliath, this belief has since against Palestinians, including calls to approved legislation originally pro- the 2009 parliamentary elections led expel them from Israel, appealed to posed in 1984 by the outlawed extrem- to policies that have eroded the rights his Russian base, which yearned for ist Rabbi Meir Kahane that would of Palestinians living in Israel and the a Putin-type strongman. As a result deny full citizenship to any immigrant occupied territories. of the elections, Netanyahu formed a who refuses to sign a loyalty oath rec- The 2009 elections took place government in which Lieberman be- ognizing Israel as the homeland of the against the backdrop of Operation came foreign minister and his party Jewish people. In 2011 the Knesset en- Cast Lead, Israel’s invasion of the Gaza an influential partner of the governing acted a law that permitted towns to re- Strip to punish and destroy Hamas for coalition. ject Palestinian Israelis as residents on launching rocket attacks on southern Relying on interviews of govern- the basis of “social suitability.” In 2012 Israel. The simultaneous election and ment and party officials—Knesset Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a law military campaigns confirmed the members, intellectuals, activists, Jews that banned West Bank Palestinians rightward drift of Israeli politics, fu- and Palestinians from every position on from obtaining citizenship if they mar- eled by the influx of a million Russian the political spectrum—Blumenthal ried Israeli citizens and blocked them Jews who have immigrated to Israel explores how the government’s policies from receiving temporary residency. In

34 America December 22-29, 2014 December 22-29 , 2014 America 35 Blumenthal’s view, these and similar Moreover, Blumenthal’s account is a compared the occupation to apartheid. actions reflected the majority Israeli necessary corrective to a vacuous U.S. Unless Americans prefer to believe, view that preserving the essential dialogue in which any criticism of like many of Netanyahu’s defenders in Jewish character of the state trumps Israel is harshly condemned. Secretary the United States, that Israel can do no minority democratic rights. of State John Kerry was recently com- wrong, Goliath presents troubling facts These actions raise the larger ques- pelled to state that he misspoke when that every American should at least tion of whether Israel can exist as both he predicted that the breakdown of consider. a Jewish and a democratic state. While peace talks might lead to apartheid, Blumenthal’s method is to present the even though prominent Israelis, like Mark J. Davis, a retired attorney, lives in fruits of his interviews instead of argu- Barak and Ehud Olmert, have for years Santa Fe, N.M. ments, his selection of facts reflects his belief, expressed in other writings, that the answer is no. In fact, Blumenthal Jerome Donnelly believes, contrary to Zionist orthodoxy, that the creation of Israel was flawed Where is Thy Sting? at its inception because it expelled over 700,000 Arabs from their homes Musings on Mortality that Ivan’s “Epiphany” “can stand as an during the 1948 War of Independence From Tolstoy to Primo Levi encounter with nothingness or as a to create a majority Jewish popula- By Victor Brombert metaphor of revelation.” He wonders tion and then refused the refugees University of Chicago Press. 200p $24 if Ivan’s last thought (“Death is fin- the right to return. Blumenthal also ished…it is no more”) alludes to John shows how Netanyahu cynically uses Almost invariably, most of us go Donne but is unaware that both Donne the Holocaust to advance narrowly through life as if death is something and Tolstoy are recalling Paul’s words, nationalistic goals while deleting from that happens to other people. Yet ev- “Death shall be no more: Death shall school textbooks references to the ex- ery day that passes means we have one die.” Here and elsewhere, Tolstoy’s pulsion of Arabs. Despite Israel’s dom- less day to live. Death is Time’s shadow. “cultural references’’ include the New inant military position, Netanyahu Gnosticism and acedia assure death’s Testament; Ivan’s dying is filled with constantly evokes the Holocaust to prominence in Modernism. them. oppose a Palestinian state and re- Victor Brombert, now late in life, ex- In Thomas Mann’sDeath in Venice, mains content with what he calls “the amines the place of death in the work death is the victor. Aschenbach, a writer Big Quiet,” neither war nor peace but of eight modern authors, hoping for a rejuvenat- a status quo in which the subservient nearly everywhere dis- ing rest in Venice, allows population is managed. playing a mature critical his obsessive stalking Thus, Blumenthal disagrees with acumen and moving ef- of a young Polish boy many critics of Israel, including liber- fortlessly among authors vacationing there with al American Zionists, who believe the whose works he reads his family to destroy 1967 war, when Israel captured the in the original languag- him, as he refuses to West Bank and the Gaza Strip, was es. All eight, except for leave during a cholera the defining event that compromised Tolstoy, were born in the epidemic. Mann’s sto- the democratic values of the Jewish 20th century; and except ry, as Brombert shows, state. These critics of the occupation, for J. M. Coetzee, all of also portends Europe’s including Peter Beinart, the author them are now dead. heading into an abyss. of The Crisis of Zionism, celebrate the No novelist has dealt Aschenbach’s erotic birth of Israel but mourn the loss of any more directly with fascination has some- democratic values since Israel became the fact of death than thing demonic about it, an occupier. Tolstoy in his classic, as Brombert observes, While Goliath has been largely The Death of Ivan Ilych, where “Tolstoy’s and is part of “the death wish [that] is ignored in the United States, some unstated cultural references invite us a recurrent motif in Mann’s work.” The critics have derided Blumenthal for to consider The Death of Ivan Ilych as “self-destructive course of the artist… presenting a one-sided view, but a meditation on mortality.” Brombert and that of a diseased society” in the Blumenthal presents interviews with finds only “ambivalence” in the meaning Venetian novella “prefigure themes” de- defenders of the current policies. of Ivan’s last moments and concludes veloped in other of Mann’s major works.

36 America December 22-29, 2014 Franz Kafka’s work is also suffused of death in Auschwitz. Yet, like Woolf, of nature,” adding that “a sense of the with death. His incessant ruminations Levi had flirted with suicide even as a sin of existing seems to underlie his re- on “the miseries of the human body” be- child. Paradoxically, Auschwitz did not current sensation of an immense void.” gan well before he contracted tubercu- lead to his eventual suicide; Auschwitz Levi felt “political and cultural despair.” losis. In “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor postponed it. There, “survival remained Brombert sees him as “a suicidal Job.” Samsa, having become a disgusting bug, the supreme value.” Brombert attributes Jerome Donnelly’s reading of The Death refuses food his sister offers him. The Levi’s later self-destructive bent to his of Ivan Ilych appeared in the Spring 2013 “rejection of food” is a “recurrent Kafka conviction that “Death is at the center issue of LOGOS. motif,” Brombert observes. Gregor muses, “I am hungry enough, but not CLASSIFIED http://www.molloy.edu/about-molloy-college/ for that kind of food.” Perhaps a dim careers-at-molloy. longing for some other kind of food Books stirred Kafka’s taste for Kierkegaard Director of Music Ministry, Old St. Religion & Civility (faith & reason) Together; www. Joseph’s Church, Philadelphia Seeking minister to years later. Brombert recalls in that con- wordunlimited.com. infuse Ignatian spirituality in our music through nection Thomas Mann’s characteriza- solemn organ/choral music and contemporary tion of Kafka as a “religious humorist.” Conference piano styles. Provide music for liturgies and guide But Kafka could not shake a preoccu- Join us at the Interfaith Conference on sacred arts outreach program. Bachelor’s in mu- Drone Warfare at Princeton Theological sic preferred with prior experience. Email résumé pation with death and suicide, which he Seminary Jan. 23-25. Sponsored by national de- and brief cover letter to: Tony Corvaia, Search comes to see as liberation. nominations, the conference is the first religious Committee, [email protected]. Gnosticism can be recognized in convening on drones. Learn more at www.peaceco- alition.org/dronesconference. much of this pessimism, not only in Retreat Late winter retreat with Ron Rolheiser, O.M.I., Kafka. Virginia Woolf shares with Positions “Living With Less Fear in Our Lives: Trusting in him a sense of imminent catastrophe Molloy College is currently seeking to fill a Wise, Prodigal, and Fully Empathic God.” Feb. in a meaningless world. J. M. Coetzee’s the position of Chaplain. As a part of the 22–26. Oblate Renewal Center, San Antonio, TX “gloomy view of history” recalls Mann’s Campus Ministries team, the chaplain will work 78216. Information: Brenda at (210) 341-1366 ext. collaboratively with the team in providing for the 212. despair over Europe. As a young man, overall well-being of the Molloy College commu- Albert Camus had written, “There is nity, most especially our students. The sacramen- Rosaries no love of living without the despair of tal life of the College is a particular focus of the Rosaries. Beautiful hand-crafted and Italian ro- chaplain. As a person devoted to pastoral presence, living.” For Woolf, the temporary solace saries are available at The Rosary Beads Company. the chaplain will strive in word and action to em- Visit http://rosarybeadscompany.com. found in literature and writing can only body the mission statement of Molloy College temporarily stave off the haunting pres- in its Catholic faith and its Dominican charism. To place an ad, visit americamagazine.org. ence of death (“It will end, it will end”). For further information, please visit our website: or call 212-515-0102 for more information. If Coetzee is resigned to the bleak prospects of empires, wars and human cruelty, Camus eventually sees beyond them. His famous use of Sisyphus, as Brombert says, was only “a starting point.” Camus escaped from the spiritual wasteland of his Existentialist confed- erates. In his Nobel speech, he referred to the “intellectual grand inquisitors who threaten to establish kingdoms of death (‘les royaumes de la mort’).” Brombert concludes that “ultimately his musings on mortality lead him to a notion of transcendence.” (Brombert seems unaware that in the year before he died, Camus requested baptism.) Essays on George Bassani (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis) and Primo Levi foreground the great outpouring of death in the Shoah. Levi had seen much

December 22-29 , 2014 America 37 THE WORD Children of Hope Holy Family (B), Dec. 28, 2014 Readings: Gn 15:1–6, 21:1–3; Ps 105:1–9; Heb 11:8–19; Lk 2:22–40 And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him (Lk 2:33) he truth of the supposedly such hope was out of reach. In this was for Israel; and certainly none can clichéd phrase “every child is number we count Rebekah, Hannah be Jesus, the Messiah, the savior, both a miracle” hits home for most and the mother of Samson, all blessed God and man. But the mothers were T with children when it seemed it could real mothers, just like women today, people when a child is born to them or an adopted child is welcomed into the never happen. But the pre-em- who raise many children, one child, family. The instantaneous recognition inent example is the first or yearn for a child. And their of the child never before seen is a spiri- one we see in Genesis: children were real children, tual experience made tactile as a moth- Sarah. who had to be loved and er takes the newborn in her arms and a Sarah was too raised. God chose to father gazes at an infant who evokes on old, as was Abram, work his miracles not in sight the deepest of loves. to have and raise a opposition to nature but We tend to think of childbirth, es- child. Genesis tells through the most natu- pecially today, as something that is us she was 90 years ral of ways: childbirth. simple and straightforward. It is cer- old and Abram 100. But every family, tainly natural; and for many people, Abram petitioned God, whether gifted with many both in conception and at delivery, it saying, “You have given me children or none or one, has no offspring, and so a slave born poses no problems. Yet, there are many PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE others for whom having a child is a in my house is to be my heir.” God promises Abram, “This man shall struggle. We have no idea why some How does the Holy Family inspire your couples have no children and other not be your heir; no one but your family in hope? families have one, why some women very own issue shall be your heir.” a. dunne tad art: have miscarried numerous times or But how could it be? Sarah laughed had ectopic pregnancies that threat- at the promise of a child given to her a role to play in God’s dramatic story en the lives of mother and child. We after natural hope had vanished. of salvation and shares in the mirac- should never judge the size of a family, But God gave them Isaac, a child ulous gift of hope children represent. for we have no knowledge of the hid- of promise and a child of hope for Each child has been willed by God to den burdens that many women and Abram, now called Abraham, and serve a unique purpose. men carry. Many of the model families Sarah and for the future of a promised And it was through the birth of one throughout the Bible were overjoyed nation. The promised Messiah would child that all of us share in the hope that God blessed them with one child, come from this lineage and be given of salvation. As Simeon says in Luke’s a child they had long desired. miraculously to Mary, which reveals Gospel of the newborn baby boy Jesus, The miraculous nature of concep- another part of the equation: never “My eyes have seen your salvation,/ tion and childbirth is a theme that having engaged in sexual intercourse, which you have prepared in the pres- runs through the Old Testament and she was given a child by God—a child ence of all peoples,/ a light for revela- is often seen in families that have only given to this new mother and her hus- tion to the Gentiles/ and glory for your one child. Numerous women who band-to-be, but a child of hope for the people Israel.” were considered “barren” give birth to whole world. Mary and Joseph were “amazed at a child of hope, often when it seemed Yet the stories of the matriarchs, what was being said about him,” for he Mary and their unique children in- was the fulfillment of all hopes. But in dicate to us the miraculous nature of the reality of the Holy Family, we see John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. every birth. True, our children will the miraculous nature of every child Paul, Minn. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. not be patriarchs of a nation, as Isaac and every family reflected.

38 America December 22-29, 2014 Journey of Hope Epiphany (B), Jan. 4, 2015 Readings: Is 60:1-6, 21:1-3; Ps 72:1-13; Eph 3:2-6; Mt 2:1-12 “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?” (Mt 2:2)

summer ago my family set off journey are deeper spiritual realities They would return home warily on a cross-country car trip that Matthew’s Gospel is driving at, because they had been “warned in a A from Minnesota to Vancouver, connecting the natural revelation of dream not to return to Herod,” but it B.C., in part to pick up a wooden the pagan world to the revelation of is not wrong to suspect that they were bench that my great-grandfather had the Jewish Scripture and to the divine transformed people when they arrived made when my family immigrated to manifestation of Jesus himself. back home, for they brought home Canada. It was the first thing he built But when we imagine the journey, a new light. Compare this to Herod, when he arrived. As an old man, he coming from ancient Persia, Babylon who had access to the revelation of was too old to work in the fields, so he or Arabia, we wonder, what had they Scripture but whose only journey took care of his grandchildren as they experienced to arrive in Bethlehem? was one of despair. Jesus was a threat played outside and he needed a bench How long was a journey of hundreds to Herod’s narrowly conceived pow- to sit on. of miles on camel, donkey or foot? Did er; the hope represented by Jesus was About two hours into our journey, they ever think to turn around and just something to destroy, not celebrate. we realized that we had forgotten our go home? Matthew does not focus on Perhaps the Magi faced questions passports. We had to turn around and their daunting journey, however, only when they returned about why they drive back home, which added four on their arrival, because they had trav- hours to our long and looming drive elled to discover the source of salvation. PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE time. It was an unforeseen glitch, and But when they arrived, they were all journeys are full of them. But when lacking something, which is why they How does God coming to live among us there is a purpose to your journey, all went to Herod. What they lacked was help you on your journey? the missteps are made worthwhile. the special revelation given to the Jews, On the porch of my house an old as embodied in Matthew’s citation, bench sits now, almost 90 years old. It combined from Mi 5:1 and 2 Sm 5:2: travelled so far: Why go to see this is not much of a bench in some ways. It “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of child? Why follow that star? It was is a simple bench, built without screws Judah, are by no means least among a journey of hope, not just for them, or nails. It is a connection to our fam- the rulers of Judah; for from you shall but for all of humanity. Father Brown ily’s past, a journey of hope for our fu- come a ruler who is to shepherd my went on to say of this journey, “In these ture. We drove a long way to bring it people Israel.” Magi Matthew sees an anticipation of home. As for the Magi: “When they saw Jesus’ promise, ‘I tell you, many will According to the Gospel of that the star had stopped, they were come from east and west and will eat Matthew, the Magi knew where they overwhelmed with joy. On entering the with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in were travelling and they knew whom house, they saw the child with Mary the kingdom of heaven’’’ (8:11). The they had come to see, for they asked: his mother; and they knelt down and Magi, ultimately, are a symbol of the “Where is the child who has been born paid him homage. Then, opening their journey we are all on, the true journey, king of the Jews? For we observed his treasure chests, they offered him gifts which takes us not far from home, but star at its rising, and have come to of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” On a back home to God. This God took on pay him homage.” The late Raymond journey of hope, the disappointments human form and came to us as an in- E. Brown, S.S., reminds us that be- and struggles dissipate the moment fant child to show us how to journey yond the historical realities of their you arrive at your destination. home. John W. Martens

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