JUNE 3-10, 2013 $3.50 THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY

Pursuing the Truth in Love AMERICA ’S MISSION FOR THE 21 ST CENTURY Matt Malone OF MANY THINGS

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES his December marks the 50th matters concerning individuals or anniversary of “Inter Mirifica,” the community. The proper exer - EDITOR IN CHIEF the “Decree on the Means of cise of this right demands, howev - Matt Malone , S.J. T er, that the news itself that is com - MANAGING EDITOR Social Communication” promulgated by the Second Vatican Council. The municated should always be true Robert C. Collins, S.J. and complete, within the bounds decree is one of the guiding lights for DIGITAL EDITOR of justice and charity. In addition, America . The reflections on our mis - Maurice Timothy Reidy the manner in which the news is sion and identity in this issue are heavi - LITERARY EDITOR communicated should be proper Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. ly indebted to the insights contained in and decent. This means that in that landmark decree. The following are both the search for news and in POETRY EDITOR James S. Torrens, S.J. excerpts. reporting it, there must be full Matt Malone, S.J. respect for the laws of morality and ASSOCIATE EDITORS for the legitimate rights and dignity Kevin Clarke Among the wonderful technologi - of the individual. For not all Kerry Weber cal discoveries which men of talent, knowledge is helpful, but “it is Luke Hansen, S.J. especially in the present era, have charity that edifies....” EDITOR AT LARGE made with God’s help, the Church Since public opinion exercises James Martin, S.J. welcomes and promotes with spe - the greatest power and authority ART DIRECTOR cial interest those which have a today in every sphere of life, both Stephanie Ratcliffe most direct relation to men’s minds private and public, every member ASSISTANT EDITOR S and which have uncovered new of society must fulfill the demands Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. avenues of communicating most of justice and charity in this area. Olga Segura readily news, views and teachings As a result, all must strive, through COLUMNISTS of every sort. The most important these media as well, to form and Angela Alaimo-O’Donnell of these inventions are those spread sound public opinion.... Colleen Carroll Campbell media, which...can, of their very The principle moral responsibility John J. Conley, S.J. nature, reach and influence, not for the proper use of the media of Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M. only individuals, but the very mass - social communication falls on James T. Keane es and the whole of human society, newsmen, writers, actors, design - John W. Martens and thus can rightly be called the ers, producers, displayers, distribu - Bill McGarvey media of social communication.... tors, operators and sellers, as well Margot Patterson Michael Rossmann, S.J. The Catholic Church, since it as critics and all others who play wa s founded by Christ our Lord to any part in the production and WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT bear salvation to all men and thus is transmission of mass presenta - John Carr

obliged to preach the Gospel, con - tions.... CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER siders it one of its duties to All the children of the Church Lisa Pope announce the Good News of salva - should join, without delay and tion also with the help of the media with the greatest effort in a com - 106 West 56th Street of social communication and to mon work to make effective use of New York, NY 10019-3803 instruct men in their proper use. It the media of social communication Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 is, therefore, an inherent right of in various apostolic endeavors, as the Church to have at its disposal circumstances and conditions E-mail: [email protected]; and to employ any of these media demand.... [email protected] insofar as they are necessary or use - The Synod invites all men of Web site: www.americamagazine.org. Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 ful for the instruction of Christians good will, especially those who have and all its efforts for the welfare of charge of these media, to strive to © 2013 America Press, Inc. souls…. [T]he laity especially must turn them solely to the good of soci - strive to instill a human and ety, whose fate depends more and Christian spirit into these media, so more on their proper use. Thus, as that they may fully measure up to was the case with ancient works of the great expectations of mankind art, the name of the Lord may be and to God’s design.... glorified by these new discoveries in Cover: America ’s coat of arms. The motto is from the Latin Vulgate [I]n society men have a right to accordance with those words of the translation of Eph 4:15. Background information, in accord with the cir - Apostle: “Jesus Christ, yesterday image: Shutterstock.com/Jason cumstances in each case, about and today, and the same forever.” Winter. CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org VOL. 208 NO. 19, WHOLE NO. 5014 JUNE 3-10, 2013

ARTICLES 12 PURSUING THE TRUTH IN LOVE The mission of ‘America’ in a 21st-century church Matt Malone

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment

5 editorial Food Aid for Whom? 6 Signs of the times

12 10 Washington Front Dear Prudence John Carr

19 Faith in Focus Love Aflame Silas Henderson 35 Reply all

37 the Word Rise Up!; A Woman Beloved by God John W. Martens

BOOKS & CULTURE 19 22 FILM “The Great Gatsby” POETRY The 2013 Foley poetry contest winner COLUMN Thumbs Way Up! BOOKS Pope Francis: The Pope From the End of the Earth; Pope Francis: From the End of the Earth to Rome; The Unwinding; From the Jaws of Victory

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Select articles on the mission and history of America . Plus, an interview with theater reviewer Rob Weinert-Kendt. All at americamagazine.org.

22 CuRRent CoMMent

General Ríos Montt was acquitted of the same charges. Big and Little Wars International human rights organizations lauded the A Congolese battalion trained by the U.S. military com - landmark conviction. This time, it is not just the poor and mitted mass rapes and other atrocities last year, according powerless held accountable for criminal activity, but a for - to a newly released United Nations report. Soldiers from mer head of state—whose friends are still in power. No one the unit joined with other Congolese soldiers to rape 97 should be above the law. While America has supported women and 33 girls in eastern Congo. This represents a forums like the International Criminal Court for trying setback for the U.S. military’s little-known efforts to train such cases, this unprecedented case shows there are addi - troops in third-world countries. tional options for bringing about long-delayed justice. Consider another story from two years ago. In October Other countries could follow Guatemala’s example, provid - 2011 the United States sent a small combat unit of 100 ing a warning to the powerful everywhere: If you commit special forces troops to Central Africa to track down and genocide or torture or other serious crimes, you will be held “remove” Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance accountable. Army, which has murdered and raped tens of thousands of In delivering the verdict and sentence, Judge Yasmín men, women and children in Uganda and the surrounding Barrios mandated the attorney general to investigate and countries over two decades. prosecute all others implicated in these crimes. Some wonder If you were not aware of U.S. military action against whether Otto Pérez Molina, the current president of Mr. Kony, then perhaps you have not read Instances of Use Guatemala, could be subject to prosecution once he leaves of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2013, pub - office. President Molina served as a military field commander lished on May 3 by the Congressional Research Service. under General Ríos Montt. Questions also remain about The report describes every deployment of the U.S. mili - whether U.S. officials might face accountability for support - tary, from the undeclared naval war with France in the ing General Ríos Montt. The United States provided the Dominican Republic in 1798 to Defense Secretary Chuck Guatemalan military, as an ally in the fight against Hagel’s deployment of up to 200 additional troops to Communism, with money, weapons and intelligence. This Jordan on April 17 of this year. The list includes five kind of support carries with it a moral responsibility to declared wars, eight undeclared wars and recent deploy - understand its consequences. As Guatemala has exemplified, ments as part of NATO or the United Nations. it must also involve accountability for crimes committed. The sheer volume of interventions comes as something of a shock. Just zoom in on the 21st century. The United States Last Words deployed troops 70 times in 23 countries, including Niger, The graduation ceremonies at universities in the United the Philippines, Libya, East Timor, Kosovo, Haiti, Liberia, States are more and more in danger of becoming battle - Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of these interventions seem war - grounds. The administrations, faculties and student bodies ranted—peace missions, disaster responses, assisting the still are split on what commencement means and how to cele - unsuccessful pursuit of Joseph Kony, saving a U.S. citizen brate it. At Swarthmore College near Philadelphia the stu - from Somali pirates. Some appear less justifiable, and a dents opposed as a speaker the former president of the handful have proved disastrous. But they all suggest how World Bank, an alumnus, who had supported the invasion grave the responsibility and how well-measured the decision of Iraq. must be before U.S. troops are sent into harm’s way. Meanwhile, some alternatives to “controversial” speakers are poor substitutes: sitcom stars, celebrities, television ¡Justicia en Guatemala! anchorpersons, comedians or sports “heroes,” who allegedly Guatemala made history in April, when a national tribunal make graduation memorable. Some make the circuit, pick became the first ever to try a former head of state for geno - up stipends and deliver the same bromide on every cam - cide and crimes against humanity. Now they can claim the pus. Mark Schwartz, a Swarthmore alumnus, says it best: first conviction, too. On May 10 Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, “This isn’t about tolerance or intolerance. It’s about 86, was sentenced to 80 years in prison for attempting to whether or not you honor someone within the highest ide - destroy the Maya Ixil ethnic group during Guatemala’s als of Swarthmore’s Quaker tradition.” Catholic universi - decades-long civil war. General Ríos Montt ruled for 17 ties should follow the same rule. The commencement is months in 1982-83, one of the bloodiest periods in the the university’s last opportunity to teach. It should careful - war. The director of intelligence who worked under ly choose a person who embodies the school’s ideals.

America June 3-10, 2013 4 editoRial Food Aid for Whom?

hrough its signature Food for Peace Program, each relief agencies monetize aid, some year the United States sends about $1.4 billion in worry that they are participating in Temergency food aid to hungry people around the a process that risks weakening or world. The United States has saved the lives of millions of obliterating local food production people with such assistance, and it could save millions more. systems. This diminishes local and Unfortunately, much-needed reforms in the way food aid is regional food self-sustainability delivered that would reduce costs and improve effectiveness and, perversely, sets the stage for the next hunger crisis. may be thwarted in Congress. The roster of supporters of the president’s proposals Under current law, practically all the food distribut - reads like a Who’s Who of the nation’s leading disaster and ed as aid through the U.S. Agency for International development organizations. In addition to C.R.S., the list Development is produced in the United States and then includes Mercy Corps, CARE, Oxfam America, Bread for shipped overseas. The current process is deeply wasteful. the World and more. C.R.S. has long advocated cash fund - According to a study done by the American Jewish World ing of food aid programs and local procurement. While sup - Service and Oxfam, nearly 55 percent of the program’s porting these reforms, C.R.S. officials also stress the impor - total expenditure goes not to acquire foodstuffs but to ship tance of authorizing legislation that sets these reforms in them. Resources that could be devoted to more anti- congressional stone. These experts in hunger relief do not hunger efforts are being spent on transporting tons of want programmatic reforms to become a political football U.S.-produced commodities. This enriches transport each year when the federal budget comes up for review. companies but shortchanges the hungry. One is tempted to They advocate reforms that will eliminate uncertainty and ask: Who is “aided” the most when food is delivered in this allow relief and development specialists to develop depend - manner, the victims of hunger crises or U.S. shipping and able, long-term strategies to reduce global hunger. agricultural concerns? At a time when deficit hawks presumably intend to In his proposed 2014 budget, President Obama hopes squeeze as much waste and inefficiency out of the federal to introduce changes that have long been sought by advo - budget as possible, this restructuring of food aid would cates on the front lines of hunger disasters, including seem to be a no-brainer, but the proposal has already drawn Catholic Relief Services. The president has called for creat - determined resistance from major agricultural states, where ing greater flexibility and alacrity in the way food for aid is corporate lobbyists have long nurtured fields of influence. acquired by allowing as much as 45 percent of future aid to Worth noting is the budgetary size of the issue. Food aid be sourced locally—that is, in or near the nation for which represents about a quarter of 1 percent of the U.S. budget, the aid is intended. According to a U.S.A.I.D. study, local and the total dollar value of all aid is approximately 0.75 procurement could allow the agency to reach as many as two percent of total annual U.S. agricultural sales. The Book of to four million more hungry people each year without Leviticus calls us to leave the edges and gleanings of the increasing expenditures. fields for those in need (19:9 –10), yet even this tiny per - The president’s reforms also seek to end another con - centage of wealth and sustenance intended for the world’s troversial practice, known as food aid “monetization.” poorest people is being vigorously pursued by U.S. agricul - According to that process, commodities produced in the tural and shipping interests. United States—rice, vegetable oil, flour, dry beans and Only a few lawmakers have gone on the record sup - more—are acquired by U.S.A.I.D., donated or sold at porting the president’s proposals, and various campaigns to reduced cost to relief and development agencies, shipped water them down or spike them completely have begun in overseas and then sold by these agencies as a way to relieve Congress. It would be a tragedy if these eminently reason - hunger and to raise funds for their development efforts. able improvements are unable to survive the lobbyists’ That model has frustrated aid experts for years. It is plainly gauntlet in Washington. It is up to the American people, in wasteful. The U.S. Government Accountability Office solidarity with the truly needy people in the world, to urge reported in 2011 that U.S.A.I.D. squanders by monetiza - Congress to find a way to implement these fiscally and tion about 24 cents of each dollar it spends. Worse, when morally responsible reforms.

June 3-10, 2013 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

GLOBAL FINANCE Pope Calls for Ethics Reforms, End to ‘Cult of Money’ n his strongest remarks yet concerning the world’s economic and financial crises, the pope said, “Money has to serve, not to rule. I “We have created new idols,” Pope Francis told a group of diplomats gath - ered at the Vatican on May 16, and the “golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.” According to Pope Francis, a major reason behind the increase in social and economic woes worldwide “is in our rela - tionship with money and our acceptance of its power over ourselves and our soci - ety.” He called for global financial reform that respects human dignity, helps the poor, promotes the common good and allows states to regulate markets. The Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, S.J., told journalists it was the pope’s “first forceful speech on the economic and financial crisis,” social justice and the attention needed to the world’s poor. Father Lombardi described the speech as “in continuity with his previous talks on these subjects” as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina. “But as pope it is his first powerful and explicit speech,” touching on such themes in-depth, he said. The pope made his remarks during a speech welcoming four new ambassadors as they presented their credentials to the Vatican. The pope highlighted the root causes of today’s economic and social established, one which unilaterally and remind the rich to help the poor, to troubles, pointing to policies and irremediably imposes its own laws and respect them, to promote them.” Why actions that stem from a “gravely defi - rules,” Pope Francis said. Ethical princi - shouldn’t world leaders “turn to God cient human perspective, which ples and policies of solidarity are “often to draw inspiration,” the pope asked. reduces man to one of his needs alone, considered counterproductive, opposed Looking to God and “his designs,” he namely, consumption. to the logic of finance and economy” said, would help create “a new political “We have begun this culture of dis - and “ethics, like solidarity, is a nuisance,” and economic mindset” that would posal,” he said, where “human beings and so they are rejected along with bring economics and social concerns themselves are nowadays considered as God. “These financiers, economists back together in a healthy and harmo - consumer goods which can be used and politicians consider God to be nious relationship. and thrown away.” unmanageable, even dangerous,” he The wealth of a minority “is added, “because he calls human beings CATHOLIC increasing exponentially,” while the to their full realization and to indepen - DEMOGRAPHICS income of the majority “is crumbling,” dence from any kind of slavery.” he said. This economic inequality is Pope Francis called on the world’s caused by “ideologies which uphold political and financial leaders to con - Church Enjoys the absolute autonomy of markets and sider the words of St. John Fastest Growth financial speculation and thus deny Chrysostom: “Not to share one’s the right of control to states, which are goods with the poor is to rob them and in Asia, Africa themselves charged with providing for to deprive them of life. It is not our he number of Catholics in the the common good.” goods that we possess, but theirs.” world and the number of bish - The lack of adequate economic reg - The pope said he “loves everyone, Tops, priests, religious men and ulation or oversight means “a new, invis - rich and poor alike,” but that as pope seminarians all increased in 2011, ible and at times virtual, tyranny is he “has the duty, in Christ’s name, to while the number of women in reli -

America June 3-10, 2013 6 outpaced their regions’ population years, in Europe by 18 percent and in growth, which was 2.3 percent and 1.2 the Americas by 3.6 percent over the percent, respectively. past decade. The growth of the Catholic com - The number of women in religious munity in Europe and the Americas orders has shown “a sharp downward was even with regional population trend,” with a 10 percent decrease in growth, which was about 0.3 percent the numbers of women religious for both, the yearbook said. At the end worldwide since 2001. Increases in of 2011, most of the world’s Catholics Africa and Asia were not enough to (48.8 percent) were living in the offset the reductions seen in Europe, Americas, followed by Europe with the Americas and Oceania. Catholic 23.5 percent, Africa with 16 percent, women’s orders went from having a 10.9 percent in Asia and 0.8 percent in total of more than 792,000 members Oceania. in 2001 to just over 713,000 women at The Vatican said the number of the end of 2011. bishops in the world increased from The number of candidates for the 5,104 to 5,132. The total number of priesthood—both diocesan seminari - priests—diocesan and religious ans and members of religious orders— order—around the world grew from showed continued growth worldwide, BAD TRADE? Pope 412,236 to 413,418, increasing every - rising from 118,990 at the end of 2010 Francis calls for ethical and moral reorientation where except the Americas where to 120,616 at the end of 2011. The of the economy. numbers stayed mostly the same, and yearbook reports that the number of Europe, where the number of priests men preparing for the priesthood rose has gone down more than 9 percent more than 30.9 percent in Africa and gious orders continued to decline, over the past decade. 29.4 percent in Asia between 2001 according to Vatican statistics. The The number of permanent deacons and 2011. Numbers decreased in number of permanent deacons is reported—about 41,000—was an other regions of the world, particular - showing “strong expansion” globally, increase of more than 1,400 over the ly Europe, which saw a 21.7 percent but especially in Europe and the previous year and a 40 percent drop in priesthood candidates during Americas, the Vatican press office increase over the past decade. The vast the same period. reported. majority—97.4 per - At the end of 2011, the Catholic cent—of the world’s population worldwide reached 1.214 permanent deacons billion, an increase of 18 million or 1.5 live in the Americas percent, slightly outpacing the global or in Europe. population growth rate, which was The number of estimated at 1.23 percent. Catholics as men joining a reli - a percentage of the global population gious order showed remained “essentially unchanged” at substantial growth around 17.5 percent. over the past decade The numbers represent just a hand - in both Asia (up 44.9 ful of the statistics contained in the percent since 2001) Statistical Yearbook of the Church, and Africa (up 18.5 which reports worldwide church fig - percent since 2001); ures as of Dec. 31, 2011. According to in contrast, their the statistical yearbook, the increase in numbers fell in RISE UP SINGING: Mass at St. Mary’s Parish in Nairobi, Kenya. The Catholic population in Africa is the number of Catholics in Africa (4.3 Oceania by 21.9 per - growing at almost twice the rate of the continent’s gen - percent) and Asia (2 percent) greatly cent over the past 10 eral population.

June 3-10, 2013 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES Despite Truce, Violence NEWS BRIEFS Plagues El Salvador A year-long truce among El Salvador’s In Rome on May 9, Sally Hodgdon of the United street gangs has resulted in a dramatic States, superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of reduction in homicides, but it “has not Chambery, was elected vice president of the produced the [other] benefits that International Union of Superiors General, a body that the…population was expecting,” said includes 1,900 religious orders of women worldwide. Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chávez, auxil - • Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York on May iary bishop of San Salvador, reading a 13 warned Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to prepare statement on behalf of El Salvador’s for “vociferous” and “rigorous” opposition if he Timothy P. bishops. “Robbery, extortion and other attempts to expand New York abortion-rights. Kesicki illegal activities carried out by gang • Marking 40 years of ecumenical dialogue on May 10, members continue; for this reason, the Pope Francis told Pope Tawadros II , leader of 10 million Coptic population does not perceive the bene - Orthodox, that Copts and Catholics are united by an “ecumenism of fits of the truce,” said the bishops’ suffering.” • The Rev. George Kloster, of the Diocese of Charlotte, statement. At a press conference the N.C., was named Catholic Charities USA’s 2013 Volunteer of the next day, gang leaders countered that Year on April 25. • The Obama administration said on May 3 that they were engaged in a process of it would not seek to block a federal court injunction that allows peace, “not just a truce,” pointing out Tyndale House Publishers, an Illinois-based Christian book pub - that the problem of social violence in lisher, not to comply with the contraceptive-coverage mandate for El Salvador had deep structural roots new health insurance plans. • The Society of Jesus in the United after more than two decades of gang States announced on May 10 that Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J. , will be war. “We regret that the statement of the next president of the Jesuit Conference, beginning Aug. 1, 2014. the church does not speak of the posi - tive results achieved so far, as well as more than 3,000 lives saved,” gang leaders added. late-term abortions. Pennsylvania law developed. The combined effort will prohibits abortions after 24 weeks of focus on broader education about sex Gosnell and the gestation. “We need to stop cloaking the and labor trafficking, legislative advo - ugliness of abortion with misnomers cacy for stricter laws and penalties for ‘Ugliness of Abortion’ like ‘proper medical coverage’ or ‘choice,’” traffickers and improved social ser - Dr. Kermit Gosnell was convicted on Archbishop Chaput said. “It’s violence vices and employment support for vic - May 13 of murder at his Philadelphia of the most intimate sort, and it needs to tims. Jeanne Christensen, S.M., the abortion clinic, but “nothing can bring end.” justice advocate for the Sisters of back the innocent children he killed, or Mercy West Midwest Community in make up for the vulnerable women he Uniting Against Kansas City, Mo., said, “Coming exploited,” said Archbishop Charles J. together in one group helps to concen - Chaput, O.F.M.Cap., of Philadelphia. Human Trafficking trate the voice and the power in a In a statement on May 14, the archbish - Human trafficking is so widespread good sense.” The collaborative cam - op said: “Gosnell is not an exception. that U.S. congregations of women reli - paign was formalized during a three- Others just like him run abortion mills gious are uniting in a nationwide effort day meeting of representatives of a throughout our country.” A to limit its reach. For years individual dozen congregations active in antitraf - Philadelphia jury on May 13 found congregations have run human traf - ficking programs in local communities Gosnell guilty of murder in the deaths ficking awareness programs regionally. and the Leadership Conference of of three babies born alive during abor - Sister Margaret Nacke, of the Sisters Women Religious in mid-April in tions and of involuntary manslaughter of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kan., said Washington. in the death of an adult patient. Gosnell, it was time for congregations to come 72, was charged with snipping the together to make better use of the spines of babies born alive during illegal resources and programs they had From CNS and other sources.

America June 3-10, 2013 8

WaShington FRont

Dear Prudence eware those in Washington these” is essential Catholic teaching. talking points or attacks on the faith of who minimize moral dimen - We should be debating how to give individual legislators. Despite these Bsions of issues by insisting that priority to the poor, practice solidarity distortions, the conference has chosen public choices are simply matters of and subsidiarity. We should not be this wise path on immigration: outlin - “prudential judgment” and that there - debating whether we are obliged to ing moral principles, offering applica - fore religious teaching and moral argu - protect their lives and respond to their tions on key policy choices and then ments are really not important. They needs. Indifference and inaction are assessing various proposals. They have emphasize the distinction between not prudential judgments, but viola - made clear that inaction or just a big - fundamental moral principles that tions of a core Catholic principle. ger, longer fence or linking immigra - have compelling moral claims (like the “Prudential judgment” can become tion to same-sex unions may be pru - duty to protect innocent human life) a mistaken rationale for ignoring dential judgments, but they are incon - and prudential judgments that are Catholic teaching that con - sistent with Catholic matters for debate (like how to over - flicts with our partisan or The duty moral principles. come poverty). ideological preferences or to Catholic teaching is a The distinction is valid, but neither act on some principles and to care for coherent wholenot a stands alone. We have a duty both to ignore others. Some resist the ‘least menu of compelling reject policies that violate fundamental racism or other denials of moral absolutes, a set of principles and to pursue positive human rights but fail to of these’ fundamental ethical actions to carry out moral obligations. protect the foundational principles and a collec - When advocates overemphasize these rights to life and religious is essential tion of optional posi - distinctions, they often ignore the freedom. Others deeply Catholic tions. Bishops are not moral urgency and ethical criteria for committed to unborn just another interest action that come with the principles human life resist the teaching. group, and their state - they claim to respect. Catholic condemnation of ments are not just The war in Iraq, a tragic “war of torture or the church’s call to end use of another set of talking points. They choice,” was a prudential judgment. the death penalty. Pope Francis is chal - deserve serious attention and action. President George W. Bush and lenging us to embrace the fullness of But they are not the whole church. Congress ignored the appeals of Pope the Gospel, to resist isolation and ide - Lay women and men need to become John Paul II and the moral questions ology to protect the lives and dignity of more informed and engaged in their of the U.S. bishops with horrible costs all. vocation to be “salt, light and leaven” in for our nation and the people of Iraq. In the budget debate, elected lead - public life. This is the mission of the How best to protect human life also ers of the bishops’ conference outlined new Initiative on Catholic Social involves prudential judgments. What Catholic moral principles and applied Thought and Public Life at measures are achievable? What excep - them to key budget choices. The bish - Georgetown University. tions, if any, are permissible (e.g., ops then shared the judgment that the The recognition that public choices should a ban on federal abortion fund - House budget failed to meet the con - require prudence is not a way of ing allow exceptions for the life of the ference’s criteria. (It included $36 bil - escaping ethical responsibility; it is a mother, rape or incest)? lion in reductions for hungry families call to principled discernment and The duty to care for the “least of but no cuts for agricultural subsidies.) decision-making. It is a beginning of Some mistakenly said the bishops moral discussion, not the end. Budget John CaRR is the director of the Initiative on were not speaking for the conference, priorities and immigration reform are Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, soon that they ignored needed fiscal matters of both moral principle and to be launched at Georgetown University. He restraint or were advancing a partisan prudence that reflect who we are as a served for many years as a leader of the justice and peace efforts of the U.S. Conference of agenda. Others overplayed the state - people and shape what we will Catholic Bishops. ments, turning them into partisan become as a nation. John CaRR

America June 3-10, 2013 10 June 3-10, 2013 America 11 Pursuing the Truth i The mission of ‘America’ in a 21st-century church BY MATT MALONE S N C

D N A

M O C . K C O T S R E T T U H S

M O R F

S E G A M I

America June 3-10, 2013 12 he mission of America, wrote its first editor in chief, is not only to “chronicle events of the day and the in Love progress of the church” but also to “stimulate effort and originate movements for the betterment of the masses.” When John Wynne, S.J., penned those Twords in 1909, he was expressing one of the venerable teachings of St. Ignatius Loyola: “Love manifests itself more in deeds than in words.” America has never been content to play the role of the aloof interpreter of events. We aspire to something more: to be contem - platives in action at the intersection of the church and the world. Thurston N. Davis, S.J., editor in chief from 1955 to 1968, put it this way: America is “a weekly raid on the City of God in order to publish, in the City of Man, a journal that talks common Christian sense about the world of human events.” Yet while America ’s mission remains constant, the challenges we face today are unprecedented. It is no secret that the vanguard of the digital revolution has toppled the ancien régime: a billion tweets, for example, will be sent in the five days it takes to process and print this issue of the magazine; more than 10 billion pieces of content will be added to Facebook in that same period. Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report, once rightly regarded as the Ford and Chrysler of news magazines, have virtually disappeared. America will not meet a similar fate. Like most magazines, we will probably stop publishing an edition in print someday, but that day is not anytime soon. For a variety of reasons, America is better posi - tioned than most to meet the challenges of the digital age; we also have a talented staff and the most loyal readers in publishing. The most important challenge we face, moreover, is neither tech - nical nor financial; it is existential. It is also the most important chal - lenge facing the Catholic media at large. In fact, if the Catholic media are to have any reasonable hope of meeting the serious technical and financial challenges we face, then we must first reckon with a more fundamental question: Who are we? For America, indeed for all Catholic media, questions of mission and identity were more easily answered in times gone by. Throughout much of American history, when the church in the United States was relegated to a social, cultural and sometimes a lit - eral ghetto, the need for a uniquely Catholic press was obvious. Today, thanks be to God, Catholics are no longer second-class citi - zens. At the same time, however, the public square has less space for overtly religious perspectives than at any previous time in American history. The last two decades have also seen the emergence of an increasingly moralistic and dogmatic secularism among the nation’s political class. The twin scandals of sexual abuse and ecclesiastical

Matt Malone is editor in chief of America. This article is based on a talk given at the American Bible Society in New York on Feb. 27, 2013.

June 3-10, 2013 America 13 mismanagement have further enfeebled the church’s public lineup: everybody has a favorite outlet, and more often than witness. not it is the one that caters best to our pre-existing views. The complex problem is simply put: While we may have If the Catholic media are to make a meaningful contribu - solved the problem of the relationship between the church tion to solving the problem of the church and the political, and the state, the problem of the relationship between the then we must first reckon with how we have been complicit church and the political remains. Solving that problem, or at in this subtle secularization of the church in the United least presenting credible solutions to it, is the pre-eminent States. America is no exception. We too must return to the task of the Catholic media in the United States. basic question: Who are we?

The View From Here Who Are We? Another of my predecessors, Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., editor America is not a magazine, though we publish one; nor is in chief from 1975 to 1984, bequeathed a warning to his America a Web site, though we have one of those as well. successors: “Beware of metaphysical traps!” So I will not America is a Catholic ministry, and both of those words— attempt to answer the question “Who are we?” on behalf of Catholic and ministry —are carefully chosen. We are not the entire Catholic media; that would be futile as well as journalists who happen to be Catholic, but Catholics who presumptuous. My aim is more happen to be journalists. That is modest: to answer the ques - not to denigrate or neglect the tion on behalf of America, to Next Steps good and valuable work that state simply what we believe. “Love manifests itself more in deeds than in the non-Catholics on our Yet while “we are a people words.” America makes the following commit - staff do every day; it is simply who respect belief,” Father ments: to express our fundamental Wynne wrote, “we value commitment. America does action more.” Any discussion, 1. Church. The church in the United States not labor in the service of must overcome the problem of factionalism. This then, of America’ s identity begins by re-examining our language. America mere speech, words with a and mission necessarily will no longer use the terms “liberal,” “conserva - lower case w; nor are we in involves some analysis of the tive” or “moderate” when referring to our fellow pursuit of some idealized, contemporary social and Catholics in an ecclesiastical context. dreamy, Platonic-style dis - political context. course. Rather, we labor in From our window over - 2. Charity. How we say things is as important the service of the Word with as what we say. America seeks to provide a looking the public square we model for a public discourse that is intelligent an upper case W, the self- see many of the same things and charitable. In the next few months, America communication of God in you see. Chief among them will announce a new set of policies for the pub - Jesus Christ. we see a body politic sickened lic commentary on our various platforms. Admittedly, these words by the toxin of ideological “might sound a bit preten - 3. Community. America will appoint a com - partisanship. As the theolo - munity editor who will moderate our public con - tious,” as Father Davis once gian William T. Cavanaugh versation, ensuring that it rises to the standards said about a similar statement has observed, American polit - we set for thoughtfulness and charity. We will of his own. Journals of opin - ical discourse is dyadic; it continue to provide a forum for a diverse range ion are constantly at risk of oscillates between certain of faithful, Catholic voices. taking themselves too seri - dualisms: left and right, liber - ously. America is no excep - al and conservative, public and tion here either; we freely admit private, secular and religious. These dyads structure and that some of our opinions can have a preachy, eat-your-peas sustain conflict. While this kind of thinking may or may not quality. Still, it is nonetheless true that America’ s funda - be helpful in our secular, civic discourse, it is a mortal threat mental commitment is to God in Jesus Christ. This must be to the ecclesiastical discourse for it reduces the one to the so if we are to fulfill the purpose envisioned for America by many. When we conceive of the church in predominantly its founders: to furnish “a discussion of actual questions and secular, political terms, then it is no longer in principle the a study of vital problems from the Christian viewpoint.” church; it is no longer a communion but a polis composed of The Christian viewpoint involves a constitutive element factions. As a result, the terms and the tenor of the ecclesi - that a Catholic media ministry like ours must constantly astical conversation become increasingly indistinguishable bear in mind: “Communication is more than the expression from those of the larger culture. For our part, the Catholic of ideas and the indication of emotion,” says “Communio et media become the ecclesiastical equivalent of the cable news Progressio,” the 1971 pastoral instruction on the means of

America June 3-10, 2013 14 social communication. “At its most profound level, it is the giving of the self in love. Christ’s communication was, in fact, spirit and life.” This sentiment is also expressed in America ’s motto: V eritatem facientes in caritate (which we loosely translate, “Pursuing the truth in love”). America, then, is also a ministry in the service of the truth. In the Catholic tradition, truth is ultimately a person, whose name is Jesus Christ, the one who is both the mediator and the content of revelation, “the way and the truth and the life.” Without this personal dimension, truth becomes strictly propositional and therefore incapable of sustaining an authentically human moral framework. It is now possible to see better how America’ s funda - mental mission and identity—who we are—relate to the question of the church and the political in the 21st-century United States. For they suggest certain political positions, not in a partisan or policy sense, but in the sense of our basic orientation to American political life. First, since our principal point of reference is Jesus Christ and his body, the church, then our principal point of refer - ence is not civil society, and it is not the state. We are not, moreover, by any stretch of the imagination, disinterested observers of civil society and the state. America, Father Davis once wrote, is “deeply committed…to the moral law of God as this is promulgated through the universal forum of human conscience,” and, “on a wide and varied field of subjects, to the principles enunciated by the Popes, the Vicars of Christ, and in the major statements of the American hierarchy.” Further, while we may incorporate the insights of the secular sciences and secular culture into our analyses of ecclesial events (in fact, the integrity of our work requires it), we understand these events first and most importantly in terms that are proper to the church herself. In other words, America seeks to understand and interpret the church principally through theology, not politics. Second, America examines secular politics through theol - ogy. When we analyze the church in categories that belong more to secular politics than to theology, then we inevitably debase the church’s intrinsic identity. Similarly, when we neglect theological categories in our analyses of secular poli - tics, then the church’s prophetic mission is further removed from its source. The solution to the problem of the church and the political, therefore, is not for the church to retreat from the public square, but to assume a more robust presence there. The church is not merely one more private actor orga - nized for public action. The church makes truth claims that are per se public claims. While the church and state must remain separate, then, the separation of the church and the political is inconceivable. Third, America understands the church as the body of Christ, not as the body politic. Liberal, conservative, moderate are words that describe factions in a polis , not members of a

June 3-10, 2013 America 15 communion. It stands to reason, moreover, that America’ s Christ. Partisanship is the stuff of parliamentary politics, fundamental commitment precludes certain self-concep - not sacramental life. tions. Since the word of God is incoherent when it is sepa - Fifth, America’ s fundamental commitment means that rated from the church and its living teaching office, America we view ideology as largely inimical to Christian discipleship. could never envision itself as “the Loyal Opposition.” Nor do Revelation is humanity’s true story. Ideologies, which are we understand the phrase “people of God” as a theological alternative metanarratives, invariably involve an “other,” a justification for setting one part of the body of Christ against conceptual scapegoat, some oppressor who must be over - another. The people of God are not a proletariat engaged in thrown by the oppressed. Only the Gospel’s radical call to some perpetual conflict with a clerical bourgeoisie. It is obvi - peace and reconciliation justifies a radical politics. Catholic ous to us, moreover, that a preoccupation with episcopal social teaching is not the Republican Party plus economic action, whether it bears an ultramontane or a Marxist char - justice, nor is it the Democratic Party minus abortion rights. acter, is nevertheless a form of clericalism. None of this is to Yet neither is it some amalgamation of the two. Catholic say that America cannot bring a critical eye to ecclesiastical social teaching is far more radical than our secular politics events; this is, in fact, our very purpose. precisely because it is inspired by the Gospel, which is itself Fourth, as St. Paul reminds us, “There is neither Jew nor a radical call to discipleship, one that is subversive of every gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, creaturely notion of power. There is more to Christian polit - for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Accordingly, there is no ical witness than the tired, quadrennial debate about which faithful Catholic voice—“liberal,” “conservative,” “moderate,” presidential candidate represents the lesser of two evils. male, female, gay, straight, young, old, clerical or lay, Sixth, our fundamental commitment means that we are American or not—that is not welcome in the pages of not beholden to any political party or any special interest. America. There is no quarter of the church, moreover, in “America will aim,” wrote Father Wynne, “at becoming a which America is not at home. The prevailing notion that representative exponent of Catholic thought and activity Catholics cannot work together, worship together or reason without bias or plea for special interest.” Admittedly, we do together, simply because we hold different worldly philoso - harbor one bias: a preferential option for the poor and vul - phies or vote differently or have different habits of dress or nerable. “The poor,” however, “are not ‘special parties’ and liturgical tastes—such a notion has no place in the body of they usually have no ‘special parties’ to speak for them,” wrote Father Davis in 1959. America believes that the work of social justice is a constitutive element of Christian disciple - ship. We also share with the Society of Jesus the conviction that “the faith that does justice is, inseparably, the faith that engages other traditions in dialogue, and the faith that evan - gelizes culture.” Seventh, America’ s fundamental commitment means that what we communicate is inseparable from how we communicate it, since both are inseparable in the one we seek to serve. We must not be afraid to speak the truth. But if truth is ultimately a person, who is love, then no state - ment, however factually accurate, can ultimately be called truthful if it is not spoken in charity. This is precisely what it means to say, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal”(1 Cor 13:1).

We Are Christians Every Christian ministry, as a participation in the one min - istry of Christ, is necessarily a ministry of reconciliation. Through our media ministry we seek to address the prob - lem of the church and the political by generating content that bridges the divides created by faction. That means we must generate content that applies the insights of the Second Vatican Council to the 21st-century church, that bridges the generational divide between those who came of

America June 3-10, 2013 16 age with the council and those who have come of age with God. Our hope lies not in worldly utopian dreams, but in the Internet. It means generating content that is nonideo - the saving love of Christ; our communion is revealed and logical, that bridges the partisan divide, that finds its realized anew in the Eucharist, not in the paraliturgies of dynamism and credibility in the scandal of the Gospel the nation-state. We are disciples of Jesus Christ, not sub - rather than in some self-affirming worldview. It means gen - jects of any Leviathan. erating content that is postmodern, being unafraid to pro - America aspires to nothing more than to live up to the claim the final inadequacy of every meta - fullest meaning of our motto, to pursue narrative except for revelation. It means ON THE WEB the truth in love, for as Pope Emeritus generating content that builds on the More on America ’s history Benedict XVI has written, “The only work of John Courtney Murray, S.J., and mission. strength with which Christianity can americamagazine.org/aboutus respecting the distinction between church make its influence felt publicly is ulti - and state, as well as the relative autonomy mately the strength of its intrinsic truth.” of culture, but also building bridges between public and pri - The fundamental truth of Christianity is personal, the per - vate and religious and secular. son of Jesus Christ, the one for whom love and forgiveness Addressing the problem of the church and the political and justice are the only standards of human action. The is critically important not only for the credibility of the political witness of Christians, then, is the witness of sinners church’s public witness but also for our spiritual well- who are loved and forgiven and are ever ready to love and to being. If the church is to find its distinctly American voice forgive in turn. Only in this way is Christianity “credible.” and the Catholic media are to survive and prosper in the If you ask us, therefore, whether America is a philosoph - digital age, then we must remember who we are: members ical or theological journal, we will answer: “We are of the body of Christ, the truest res publica. We love our Christians.” If you ask us whether America is modern or country. We cherish our country’s freedoms, and we are postmodern, we will answer: “We are Christians.” If you ask grateful to share in its abundance. The United States is whether we are liberal or conservative, Democrat or our home, and “the object, scope and character of this Republican, we will answer: “We are Christians.” If you ask review,” as Father Wynne wrote, “are sufficiently indicated whether we have really said anything at all, we will answer: in its name.” Still, a Christian’s true home is the city of “We have said everything.” A

June 3-10, 2013 America 17 America June 3-10, 2013 18 Faith in FoCuS Love Aflame Recovering an old devotion BY SILAS HENDERSON

ne of the strongest images I Every age produces its have of my paternal grandpar - own particular expres - Oents’ home in east Tennessee sions of Christian truth. is of a rather large print of the Sacred Although we might be Heart of Jesus that hung at the far end embarrassed by some of of their hallway. My grandmother told the sweet and unsophis - me that she and Grandpa had received ticated devotions of the it as a wedding gift in 1946. It had past, including highly been hanging in the same spot since sentimentalized devo - the early 1950s and, as far as I could tions associated with the tell, it was probably forgotten about as Sacred Heart, we should soon as the job of hanging it was fin - also remember that the ished. As with so many things in our theological truths behind lives, those that are familiar and com - these “family tra - fortable eventually become invisible. I ditions” are quite don’t quite know if the old expression, important. “familiarity breeds contempt,” is always Devotion to true, but in this case familiarity had the Sacred Heart bred benign neglect. of Jesus first devel - who were among the great For most of us, the church’s annual oped in the late promoters of this devotion. celebration of the Solemnity of the Middle Ages. This The celebration invites us to Sacred Heart of Jesus is like that print was a time when rejoice in the way divine love . R in my grandparents’ house. If we are Christ was most was made human and vulner - E P I U K aware of it at all, it is probably little often depicted as able in Jesus of Nazareth. The R E T more than a point of nostalgia, a con - the Divine Judge, E

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June 3-10, 2013 America 19 person with the breath of Paradise hovering over him. The sick came streaming to Him. It reveals a great deal about a man if the suffering press themselves upon Him because they feel they are welcome to do so…. They kept coming to Jesus, from every corner. From the side streets and hovels. From all sides, this dark, embittered army pressed upon Him. He laid His hands upon them, raised them up, touched them, cleansed them, made them whole.

Jesus’ reaction to the nine ungrate - ful lepers, his weeping over Jerusalem, his grief at the death of Lazarus, his love for Martha and Mary and his reaction to the betrayal by Judas and the fear of the other apostles all reveal the love and vulnerability of Jesus. In Jesus, God became a human being who was able to touch, support, comfort and heal all those he met, regardless of their place in the world, their moral standing or how attractive they were. As the late Cardinal Basil Hume observed, this tells us some - thing about God: “God has this indi - vidual concern for me, irrespective of my weakness, and irrespective of my shortcomings.” Love is always giving of itself; it requires self-sacrifice. This is why the Sacred Heart of Jesus is so often depicted as a heart on fire, burning itself out with love. That was the great lesson of Jesus as he hung upon the Cross. John’s well-known teaching is a reflection on this great gift: “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him” (1 Jn 4:9). God’s heart calls to our hearts, inviting us to come out of ourselves, to trust in him and, following the example of Jesus, to offer our love, our lives, as a gift: “This is my commandment, love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12). A

America June 3-10, 2013 20 June 3-10, 2013 America 21 BOOKS &CULTURE

through whose eyes we view the not- FILM | JOHN ANDERSON entirely-knowable Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). In a specious alteration of all that glitteRS the original, Nick is recovering from Baz Luhrmann’s overwrought ‘Gatsby’ for the digital age “morbid alcoholism” and—as pre - scribed therapy—writes the story aving rendered some of the only thing Luhrmann provides less of. we’re seeing from the confines of the more majestic prose in In telling a tale that found its transcen - Perkins Sanitarium (a clever enough HAmerican fiction, F. Scott dence in the holy place between the insertion: Maxwell Perkins was Fitzgerald is often cited for a line that author’s nuanced prose and Gatsby’s Fitzgerald’s editor, and editors are has always seemed to me to make very blinkered dream, Luhrmann’s use of often, rightly, considered cogs in a cor - little sense: “There are no second acts computer-generated stimuli is like a rectional institution). What is being in American lives.” What? Of course pneumatic hammer that has gone out written will ultimately be called “ The there are. Second chances are the stuff of control and is manically pinging the Great Gatsby by Nick Carraway,” American dreams are made of. Let’s brain-pans of everyone in the audi - which is inane, but hardly out of char - not forget Richard Nixon. ence. Nothing ever stops moving, rac - acter for the film. Redemption may not be American. ing, cutting, twitching—save for when From his lonely room, Nick flashes But America, by definition, is all about Luhrmann suddenly shifts into slo- back to 1922, the delirious postwar redemption. mo, for no apparent reason, or for rea - period of Prohibition booze and Wall The line is not from The Great sons that betray his malformed feel for Street gone go-go. Even Nick, a writer Gatsby. (It’s from Fitzgerald’s notes for drama itself. by avocation, has gotten into the bond The Last Tycoon ). But any confusion is Do they still read Gatsby in high business and winds up renting a house understandable. After all, Jay school? That might explain the strate - in West Egg across the bay from the Gatsby—the wealthy, polished, slight - gy of the movie, which seems a fairly more fashionable East Egg (think ly shadowy Horatio Alger-ish center - contemptuous pandering to short Hamptons). Directly across the water piece of what well may be the finest attention spans, a disinterest in subtle from Nick—and his next-door neigh - American (and the most American) storytelling, a primal response to bor, Gatsby—lives Nick’s cousin Daisy novel ever written—believes he can something shiny being thrust before (Carey Mulligan), her unseen 3-year- change the past with money. It’s the one’s eyes. It is, admittedly, a story, like old daughter and her brutish husband key to the whole novel. And that he Huck Finn or Fitzgerald-pal Ernest Tom Buchanan, who, as played by Joel fails to pull it off makes the book the Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, that Edgerton, seems ready to huff and puff glorious thing it is. requires some sophistication; it can be and blow Gatsby’s house down, maybe Director Baz Luhrmann fails, too, read and re-read again and again, not from across the bay. in his shiny new, absurdist, big-screen because the book changes but because Edgerton is Australian, as is 3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby, the reader does. Luhrmann’s version is Luhrmann, who faithfully casts his and there’s nothing glorious about it. not made for the mutable. films with fellow countrymen—see Luhrmann seems to regard In what must have been a major Nicole Kidman in “Moulin Rouge” or, Fitzgerald’s book the concession by the much worse, Kidman and Hugh way hardcore martini ON THE WEB director, for whom Jackman in “Australia.” It hardly mat - drinkers regard ver - The Catholic Book Club discusses characters and con - ters in “Gatsby,” since actors hardly mouth: its inclusion The Violent Bear It Away. text seem unneces - matter. is necessary, one sup - americamagazine.org/cbc sary impediments What matters is the excess. poses, if one is going to manufacturing Luhrmann apparently thought to mir - to make this thing one calls a martini. more and more computer-generated ror with it the giddy tenor of the times But less, to Luhrmann’s mind, is cer - images, Luhrmann retains Nick he was recreating, but it comes off tainly more. Carraway (Tobey Maguire), the narra - more like World War I—senseless and Unfortunately, Fitzgerald is the tor of the story, and the character unending. It is this critic’s contention

America June 3-10, 2013 22 THE TITANIC IT AIN’T: Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan in “The Great Gatsby.”

that the “spectacle” of computerized and it therefore figures that Tom because they are being told through - movies and 3D technology have taken would be given much more promi - out how deeply they should be feeling all the awe out of cinema. If those nence than he possesses in the book. toward the story and its characters, technicians we refer to as studio film - Carey Mulligan may not be the type while being provided no emotional makers can do anything, then what that most romantic obsessions are basis to feel any such thing. difference does it make whether made of—but then, it’s not our It has been argued by some scholars Gatsby’s parties are attended by hun - romantic obsession. It belongs to that when Fitzgerald talked about sec - dreds or thousands? They’re just ones Gatsby, who was made a cipher by ond acts, he was not talking about sec - and zeros anyway. (The party scenes Fitzgerald for a reason: If you get to ond lives. He was referring to the and their wretched excess are given a know him too well, his compulsion American experience in terms of dra - shot of energy by hip-hop maestro Jay- begins to look pathetic. The reason he matic structure—that the first act Z, one of the film’s producers, whose made his millions, reinventing his always led to the third, with no devel - music in the film is an anachronism, poverty-stricken, North Dakota self, opment in between. Or as an “act,” a but far from the only one). In fact, it just like any immigrant stumbling routine, a well-practiced series of tech - would be surprising if there were one onto the American shores, was Daisy, niques and stunts, maybe even sleight- real-life surface in the entire movie; and neither can stand up to much of-hand, all reflecting the artistic limita - and unless another “Hobbit” is objective scrutiny. The reasons that tions and imagination of the performer released this year, Gatsby would seem Fitzgerald’s Gatsby became a bootleg - in question. In other words, shtick. a shoo-in as a nominee for Best ger, allied himself with the likes of As he has already proved in the Animated Picture. Meyer Wolfsheim and bought his cas - past, Lurhmann’s shtick is about filling But the soullessness of the movie is tle on the shores of West Egg were all the screen with the kind of vastness not a result of those surfaces but of a illusions. and flash that distracts from a lack of profound lack of emotional depth, a No director hires Leonardo heart. If “The Great Gatsby” is any .

S decision on the part of Luhrmann to DiCaprio to have him occupy the mar - indication, there are no second acts in O R B stimulate his audience rather than gins of a story, but in subjecting both the life of Baz Luhrmann. R E N

R make them feel, based in a lack of faith Gatsby and DiCaprio to the hard A W

/ John andeRSon is a film critic for Variety

O in their sympathy or understanding. focus of conventional Hollywood, he T

O and The Wall Street Journal and a regular H P The casting is certainly question - strips both of their dignity. He strips contributor to the Arts & Leisure section of S N

C able: Edgerton, as said, is ridiculous, the viewers, too, for that matter, The New York Times.

June 3-10, 2013 America 23 POETRY | JAMES S. TORRENS FoRayS oF the iMagination This year’s Foley poetry contest

By the time of March Madness, entries hand” and says, “My time is now a MonPere McIsaac, professor of were pouring in for the Foley poetry light/ I carry carefully,/ Like a child’s English at Santa Clara. contest, with its $1,000 prize. We gift.” That’s the poetic spark! W. F. Since I am retiring as poetry editor heard from Ljubljana, Slovenia; Lantry writes of a mournful all-night on July 1 to allow for a much younger Alicante, Spain; Lagos, Nigeria; and watch at a deathbed. Near dawn a replacement, Joseph Hoover, S.J., this Vatican City; plus Dijon, Edmonton, woman enters, bringing daylight. “She essay is my swan song in that role. Queensland and Kerala State. crossed herself and then began to sing” Poetry will continue to be my life’s Forty entries came to us from the (“Music Vigil”). blood, but it will be a relief not to have seventh grade at Lakeside Junior High We value poetry as a foray of the to say no so often to aspiring writers, in Ashtabula, Ohio. In “Lovely Lass,” imagination into the prosaic. I myself and sometimes to very accomplished Nicholas Enos says, “My heart never value it as the incursion of music into ones. I have tried to add notes of beat/ Without a piece to complete/ prose, however elusive that music may encouragement to my form letter, but Life’s most challenging puzzle.” be. Take these few lines about the true that is a far remove from acceptance. Starting early! A number of the stu - face of Ireland by Marian O’Shea In the course of reading regular dents dealt with bullying, the nagging Wernicke, from “Cycling on submissions, I have enjoyed picking concern of today. Thanks to their Inishmore,” the largest of the Aran out poems that have some clear teachers, Mrs. Marple and Miss Neely. Islands: merit but also noticeable flaws and About 60 entries arrived from pointing out the flaws so that the women religious. Those in retirement The waves of history beat against you, poem sooner or later can dare show like to contemplate the seasons, the erosion of time and sorrow, itself in print. If this sounds a bit like a outdoor works of the Lord. In her yet your bluegreen luminous gaze poetry workshop, the old teacher in poem “Wake Up,” Sister Phyllis lights up the storm dark western sky of me is behind it. Tousignant writes: “Artist is at work!/ the world. For the good of future submissions, Sky is on fire!/ Crimson red covers the I encourage the wider reading and blue.” “Seek the Mother of the Desert The lines are palpable music. A half study of poetry by those who are if you are searching for God,” says dozen villanelles arrived, with more moved to write it. Poetry is an art. We Maria Vera del Grande, O.S.J. On complex music. They reminded me need examples of what the best another note, Joan Mitchell, C.S.J., how devilishly hard that form is to do looks like so as to widen our choice laments “the new inquisition,” remind - well. As for making music amid of poetic forms, sharpen our wording ing those who “jab at reformation” of cacophony, a sprinkling of poems came and stimulate our imagination. And women religious that “the world is from the incarcerated and were very dear poets, attend a little more to the round now.” “Alpha to Omega,” by welcome. music of your words (that does Maris Stella Leonard, P.B.V.M., Once again we are proud of this not necessarily mean rhyming). deceased at 96, was sent in “post- year’s winning poem, “Citrus Paradisi,” May the appreciative reader more humorously.” We hope she can savor by Chelsea Wagenaar. The compari - and more turn to America for poems that. son she makes is so inventive, the of quality and substance—to be found As poetry editor, tempted to read wording so exact and the couplets so weekly, please God. Of course may quickly over poems more soulful than well formed that it stood out. Our those who submit poems outside the artful, I have often had to pause and three runners-up will appear later in structure of the Foley Contest always think: “That’s beautiful! Too bad I the year: “Pomp,” by Muriel Nelson; remember to include the stamped, can’t give the writer some feedback.” In “Missile Silos, North Dakota,” by self-addressed envelope! And God one nice touch, the members of a writ - Kathleen Spivack; and “Ignored bless Dr. Foley, whose generosity has ing workshop in Cocoa Beach, Fla., Woodwork in Old Churches,” by John underwritten the contest I have sent in “Firefly,” by Russell Jennings, a Poch. My fellow judges again this year been privileged to oversee. member just deceased. Jennings tells are William Rewak, S.J., chancellor of how a firefly is caught in one’s “cupped Santa Clara University, and Claudia JaMeS S. toRRenS is America’ s poetry editor.

America June 3-10, 2013 24 The editors of America are pleased to present the winner of the 2013 Foley Poetry Award, given in honor of William T. Foley, M.D.

Citrus Paradisi for Anna

I came to grapefruits late in life. Their juiced heft in the hand,

the exact weight and girth of a small head one has waited

a long time to see. This morning I slice one in half for us

even as I hear you twist in your sheets, your cheek pillow-printed no doubt,

my son who came to me late in life. My incisions are surgical,

practiced. There it is, the placental pink inside, the perfect, evenly

spoked wheel I turn onto a porcelain plate. Sugar for you,

salt for me. And why is it grapefruits are always compared to tumors?—

it was swollen the size of a grapefruit, right there on her fallopian tubes,

as though the body were a reluctant vine, a branch in need of pluck.

You are in the doorway, shirt carefully misbuttoned, five years

burgeoning into six. I know what you will say. It is what you say

first every morning. My love for you is halved on the table,

granulated bitter and sweet. You know I know what you will say. But still

we wait in the momentary quiet for the hungry words to come.

ChelSea WagenaaR

ChelSea WagenaaR, a doctoral fellow at the University of North Texas, is the 2012 winner of the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize for poems published in Nimrod. RayMond a. SChRoth thumbs Way up! When I taught critical journalism I disses it for its incredible plot and to believe in God. From first grade he never offered Roger Ebert as a writer’s sinks it with two stars. gazed at the midnight sky and asked role model. Our guide was William Only after his death did I discover how God could be infinite. He loved Zinsser, whose On Writing Well distin - that Ebert had “died”—and lived— his nuns and in the winter mornings guished between the reviewer, seen as three times. rode his bike to serve Mass. part of the marketing game, and the A journalist from his birth in Catholicism made him a “humanist” critic, who was a literary artist. We Chicago in 1942, as a child Roger but left questions unanswered. He turned to H. L. Mencken, for whom Ebert published his own neighborhood said his belief in evolution enriched his the novel or play was like the swim - newspaper. He edited his high school search, opening him to symbolism, lit - ming pool’s diving board, from which and college papers and was named film erature and the arts. Though never an the critic would soar into space and critic of The Chicago Sun-Times at the atheist, he could not accept zealots show off his style. Finally, there was the age of 24. He won a Pulitzer “more Catholic than the critics’ critic, the merciless John Simon, Prize in 1975, the same year Roger Ebert pope.” Refusing to be for whom the critic’s job was to kill off he teamed with the Chicago categorized, in the week bad books, plays and films so the good Tribune’s Gene Siskel on told before he died he wrote ones would have space to breathe. public television, with their Esquire in on his blog “I consider Nevertheless, because I had been a “thumbs up/thumbs down” myself Catholic, lock, moviegoer since grammar school, tak - verdicts, which annoyed 2010: stock and barrel, with ing in two films a week during the established critics but this technical loophole: 1940s, I watched Siskel and Ebert reli - delighted ordinary viewers. ‘All is well. I cannot believe in giously for years. I needed their advice. Less profound, perhaps, I am as I God.” When Siskel died, I stuck with Ebert than some critics, he was A week ago I saw as he moved through several replace - nevertheless the most influ - should be.’ Terrence Malick’s “To ments until I lost him when he moved ential. the Wonder” because his time and network; then he too All this changed in 2002 when thy - that was the last film Ebert reviewed. began to die. roid cancer devastated him. Portly, he Two lovers lose their love, and a priest For Ebert the all-time great film became gaunt; his jaw was gone. Fed cares for the most needy and unlovable was “Citizen Kane,” because every time through a tube for years, he could not persons, who are incapable of return - he watched it he discovered something eat, drink or speak, but he kept writing ing his affection. Ebert reports he is new. Great films may confuse the and blogging for nearly a million fol - overwhelmed by the priest’s loneliness. intellect, he said, but never lie to the lowers on Facebook and Twitter. He does not criticize the director for emotions. I tested him, and myself, on He knew how he looked, but he not explaining himself. It is enough to my own favorite: Alexander Korda’s told Esquire in 2010: “All is well. I am “reach beneath the surface and find a “Four Feathers” (1939), about a dis - as I should be.” Weeks after his death I soul in need.” graced British officer who in 1875 came across him in a panel discussion In his homily at Ebert’s funeral, John proves his courage by traveling in dis - on late night television. His appear - Costello, S.J., compared Ebert’s accep - guise to a battlefield in Sudan in order ance was shocking. With no jaw, his tance of suffering to that of the Jesuit in to return white feathers that had been chin dangled, his mouth hung open, Shusaku Endo’s novel The Silence, in given him as symbols of cowardice by his eyes blazed with light as he typed which God is silent as martyrs die. his officer comrades. Alas, Ebert had comments into his laptop and a Apparently Chicago’s Cardinal Francis reviewed only the version by Heath mechanical voice proclaimed his George saw no need to label Roger Ledger in 2002, the sixth remake. He words. Only courage could enable him Ebert’s pilgrimage. In a letter read at the to carry on believing this was how he funeral, he declared: “He was a believer, RayMond a. SChRoth, S.J. , is America’ s “should be.” he has always been a believer, and I wel - literary editor. Meanwhile he struggled with how come him into this church.”

America June 3-10, 2013 26

June 3-10, 2013 America 27 nuances. He points, for instance, to the | BOOKS JON M. SWEENEY prescient and immediate grasp of the situation from St. Peter’s Square as BaCkgRound CheCk white smoke rose, of the Argentine journalist Sergio Rubin, who said: “It POPE FRANCIS is the first time a pope has taken this The Pope From name. That means he wants to give a The End of the Earth message: the message of Saint Francis, By Thomas J. Craughwell a man who arrived to the church in a Saint Benedict Press. 176p $22.95 great moment of opulence, bringing with him humility and love for the POPE FRANCIS poor to revitalize the church, to give From the End of some fresh air.” This was before Pope The Earth to Rome Francis ever emerged at the balcony. By The Staff of The Wall Street Some of the first 75 pages in Journal Craughwell’s account are not about HarperCollins. $4.99 eBook only Pope Francis. One chapter, devoted to the resignation of Benedict XVI, America’ s former editor in chief, could have been excluded in favor of Thomas J. Reese, S.J., described our more fresh word from Argentina. But new pope recently in The National that is a small quibble. Using accounts Catholic Reporter as one who had pre - reveals the conclusion to come later in from media around the globe, the viously been “a little-published, low- more detail: “During Argentina’s author finds occasional backstories profile Latin American archbishop.” In Dirty War, two Jesuit priests, Fathers that even the most devoted pope- other words, we know relatively little Franz Jalics and Orlando Yorio, are watchers may have missed. There is, about him, even though he has had a seized by the military. Working behind for instance, more to the story of jetti - long career in the church. the scenes, Father Bergoglio manages soning the red shoes of his predeces - There are several quickly published to win their release.” Meanwhile, at sor. Pope Francis’ black ones, it turns Pope Francis books on the market “2005” the author leaves this curiosity out, were purchased by friends just right now that attempt to tell the story unresolved: “Took part in the conclave of how we came to have the first that elected Pope Benedict XVI and is Hispanic, Jesuit, Southern widely believed to have finished sec - Hemisphere pope. None are of the ond in the balloting.” scholarly sort; none could be called A foreword by Cardinal Sean P. biographies. But Thomas J. O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., then offers a Craughwell’s does a great job present - helpful firsthand chronological ing what we know so far. He quotes account of the election of Pope most of the Vatican reporters, expert Francis. O’Malley and the other cardi - commentators, papal-watching blogs nal-electors knew many things before and past papal biographers, including we did. They heard Cardinal John Allen Jr., Father Reese, Margaret Bergoglio explain his choice of the Hebblethwaite and George Weigel. name Francis; then each greeted and Nearly 70 photographs, including a congratulated him; together they all rare shot of the pope’s parents, Mario sang the Te Deum; and then the new and Regina, on their Dec. 17, 1936, pope went off to dress and pray pri - wedding day, tell the story as well. vately—all before the ballots were sent Craughwell’s book opens with a up as white smoke. timeline that offers a broad overview Craughwell himself then proceeds of the events from 1936 to the 2013 to retell the story that many of us have prior to the conclave, since his old ones election. Two contentious issues are already read and heard in varying were embarrassingly shabby. addressed right up front in the annota - accounts, while emphasizing interest - We learn that Jorge Bergoglio was tions. Under “1976,” Craughwell ing facts and underappreciated an exceedingly happy child, interested

America June 3-10, 2013 28 in soccer, tango, girls and chemistry. viewed subjects reveal, as Jesuit called Dirty War. He usually succeeds, Craughwell’s research into the pub - provincial superior Father Bergoglio but there are times when Craughwell lished reports is thorough, and his steered his priests clear of political seems to embody the perspective of his curating of them is inspired. For exam - involvement, cut back on funding of a subject. For instance, when he writes, ple, a single long paragraph on a youth - liberal Jesuit-run think tank and chid - “Liberation theology is a theology with ful Bergoglio love interest is just ed priests who refused to baptize chil - a political agenda,” it feels like we are enough. At 12, he developed a crush dren of unwed mothers. He attempted hearing Bergoglio’s own words. on a neighbor girl, writing her a love to counter the perception that priests We are all waiting to see how the letter that included a drawing of the were a threat to the government by new pope, who opposed liberation house they might live in, one day, when instructing members of the Province theology and yet champions the poor they marry. of Argentina to disassociate them - and oppressed so vigorously, will speak Similarly, we heard often and early selves from unions and political orga - on political issues when faced with of Cardinal Bergoglio’s understanding nizations, without wavering in their them. In Argentina he most often and appreciation of Jews and Judaism, commitment to the poor. avoided the political. As pope, such beginning the day after his election as The Journal offers accounts from silence would be a radical departure pontiff—Orthodox Christians and several of the pope’s detractors, all from from the recent past, as well as deeply Muslims, too. But his respect for evan - Argentina. They relay a message we disappointing. gelical Protestants and evangelical haven’t heard in the media, yet: Pope Craughwell pays Emeritus Pope Protestantism has been reported much Francis is adept at politics. They quote Benedict XVI more respect than the less, and their challenge to the one journalist who says, “Everybody is Journal does, while pointing to the Catholic Church in Latin America is talking peace and love, and that’s all near crisis caused by his resignation, as of the greatest importance to many right, but he’s a real tough son of a well as the broad opportunities for Catholics. Craughwell does a good job [expletive]. He’s a Jesuit. He doesn’t reform that are possible in the church telling this story. move directly on an objective. He will that Pope Francis has inherited. Meanwhile, the reporters at The surround it and when it is the right Toward the end of the book Wall Street Journal have written a moment, he will pulverize it.” The Craughwell intriguingly refers to the book with almost the same title as Journal’s writers also refer to problems emeritus pope as Pope Francis’ “great Craughwell’s. The Journal’s work takes in the Holy See like “a leaks scandal of helper and model.” Unpacking that a decidedly more journalistic approach cinematic proportions” and an phrase alone would make for an and, as their team included four “entrenched culture of secrecy.” For his intriguing, quick sequel. But perhaps it reporters in Argentina, they were able part, Craughwell seems to try to avoid cannot be written—not yet. to interview several of the pope’s taking sides as he describes contentious friends, ordained and lay, including issues, whether it is the need for reform Jon M. SWeeney ’s new book is Francis of even the archdiocesan handyman. of the Roman Curia or Father Assisi in His Own Words: The Essential Pictures they paint in the slums walked Bergoglio’s activities during the so- Writings (Paraclete Press). by Cardinal Bergoglio are valuable to inform what we see now in Rome: “The new pope forged his ethos at the ANDREW J. BACEVICH bottom of the pyramid of life and faith, in the slums of Argentina, where enter - PilgRiMS Without PRogReSS ing a Catholic parish is often as much about getting a warm meal and sanctu - ary from drug dealers as it is about THE UNWINDING Nominally, the ad touts the benefits of prayer and reflection.” An Inner History subscribing to a particular provider of We also learn more about Pope Of The New America “information services.” Yet however Francis’ life as a Jesuit. The Journal By George Packer inadvertently, the pitch captures some - describes how he was drawn to the Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 448p $27 thing essential about the state of con - missionary rigor of the order, but temporary culture, where rights con - when a lung infection at 21 halted his “I have the right to be unlimited.” So tinuously expand even as obligations plans to go abroad, he turned his full asserts a commercial currently running dwindle and where “us” takes a back - attention to the missionary needs in on network television, the “I” referring seat to “me” and “mine.” In The Argentina. Then, as several inter - to the U.S. citizen-consumer. Unwinding, a grim if often moving

June 3-10, 2013 America 29 book, the New Yorker staff writer wield the power and have the money, bly pry open those doors to earthly George Packer examines what hap - their heroics prove futile. limitlessness. For the downtrodden, pens to a society that privileges unen - Interspersed in this bleak chronicle Scripture serves as a hoary but still ser - cumbered individual autonomy over are shorter profiles of those who pre - viceable 12-step program. all other values. The result is anything side over and sustain the new order. Packer has modeled The Unwinding but a pretty picture. Although Packer adds little to what we after John Dos Passos’ U.S.A . trilogy, Surveying the last several decades already know about these figures— the Great Recession of our own day of life in the United States, the author among them, Newt Gingrich, Colin standing in for the Great Depression recounts the demise of what Packer Powell, Robert Rubin and Oprah of the 1930s as interpretive prism. For calls the Roosevelt Republic, the Winfrey—his account affirms the an earlier generation, U.S.A. seemed arrangements dating from the New mediocrity, shallowness like the real stuff—lit - Deal and World War II that had pro - and mendacity of what erature likely to stand vided the foundation for the postwar passes today for an the test of time. Today, era. However imperfectly, those American elite. Once few apart from Packer arrangements had benefited ordinary admitted to its ranks, himself are likely to Americans, most notably in the realm members of this elite share that judgment. of economic life. A steady job that paid play by a different set of In retrospect, Dos enough for your average working stiff rules. “The establish - Passos’ achievement— to buy a house and raise a family—this ment,” writes Packer, a very honorable one defined the signature of the Roosevelt “could fail and fail and at that—was to give Republic. As long as the norms gov - still survive, even thrive. voice to the voiceless. erning that republic prevailed, the It was rigged to win, like U.S.A. tapped into leaders of basic institutions, public and a casino.” To the game’s and helped to revali - private alike, displayed a modicum of beneficiaries, the date a strain of responsibility and self-restraint. It rules—and the protec - American radicalism wasn’t utopia, but for tens of millions tive provisos they that had lain largely of beneficiaries, it wasn’t half bad. enshrine—make perfect sense. dormant since the demise of late 19th- Those norms have now collapsed, An exception of sorts is Peter century populism. Along with others the resulting void being filled by a Thiel, a gay libertarian from the Bay writing in a similar vein, Dos Passos predatory combine of Big Money part - Area with a Midas touch for making thereby helped foster a political cli - nering with Big Government, with money (without actually producing mate conducive to the social democra - doleful consequences for society as a anything). In Packer’s depiction, Thiel cy of the Roosevelt era, with its whole. To illustrate those conse - comes across as someone with an emphasis on solidarity and at least quences, Packer charts in sympathetic inkling of the spiritual dead-end nodding attention to the common detail the struggles of ordinary people toward which the United States is good. Out of literary radicalism came hammered by bewildering economic hurtling. Having made billions profi - progressive political reform. upheaval, social dislocation and moral teering from the potential of the so- As successor to Dos Passos, Packer anomie. His principal protagonists—a called Information Age, Thiel feels charts the transformation of that single mom in a dying Rust Belt city nothing but contempt for his country - social democracy into the oligarchy determined to do right by her kids, the men, who are “beguiled by mere gad - that defines our system today. Like son of a tobacco grower vainly pursu - getry” that purports to “empower” Dos Passos, he invites us to acknowl - ing up-by-your-own-bootstraps while serving chiefly to enforce a bland edge the plight of those marginalized dreams of entrepreneurial success, a conformity or to provide an outlet for or silenced. In the present moment, college kid fired by a determination to escapism. the Occupy movement on the left and redeem politics who ends up a self- Religion per se does not loom large the Tea Party movement on the right loathing K Street lobbyist, a newspa - in Packer’s America, even though a sort (Packer casts a favorable light on the per reporter clinging to the belief that of a faux religiosity lingers among those former while treating the latter dis - blowing the whistle on wrongdoers hoping to see the Roosevelt Republic missively) are only the most obvious ought to generate outrage and make a comeback. For believers (as manifestations of a resurgent pop - action—demonstrate a sort of stub - rendered by Packer at least), God rep - ulism. Yet whether the disenchant - born gallantry. But faced with a system resents a sort of higher Oprah, handing ment and anger of the dispossessed rigged in favor of those who already down bits of wisdom that can ostensi - can provide the basis for genuinely

America June 3-10, 2013 30 effective political action remains to be gogue calls for considerable judgment. deeply flawed autocrat, and these flaws seen. The odds, not to mention the Still, whatever one’s reservations were instrumental in dismantling the interests of the moneyed classes, are about radical politics, any critique of immense gains of the movement at its against it. the existing American order informed height, raising important questions Whether one should entrust pro - by radical sensibilities offers cause for about the American obsession to pre - ponents of radical change with the celebration. This is what Packer, writ - fer legend to truth when anointing nation’s fate is likewise a large ques - ing with insight and no small amount national heroes. tion. The catastrophic spawn of politi - of eloquence, provides in The This work can be read as a three-act cal revolutionaries from 18th-century Unwinding . His too is an honorable tragedy that homes in on how power France to 20th-century Russia, achievement. and its abuse can corrupt individuals Germany and China remind us that and institutions. First we encounter those who would overthrow the estab - andReW J. BaCeviCh is a professor of histo - the young former farm worker and lished order on behalf of “the people” ry and international relations at Boston navy man Chavez, who, in the late may well unleash evils that ultimately University. His book Breach of Trust: How 1960s emerges as a master of commu - Americans Failed Their Soldiers and do the people harm. Distinguishing Their Country will be published later this nity organizing in the tradition of Saul between the prophet and the dema - year by Metropolitan Books. Alinsky. Motivated by Franciscan spir - ituality, the more progressive side of Catholic social teachings and the non- violent example of Ghandi, Chavez TIMOTHY WADKINS has charisma, dedication and the flexi - a legend unRaveled ble leadership skills that help him recruit and empower a talented group of student volunteers and dedicated FROM THE JAWS prefer the myth, he explained to social activists. We are introduced to a OF VICTORY Stoddard, “When the legend becomes cadre of very diverse, often quirky per - The Triumph and Tragedy of fact, print the legend.” sonalities, including Delores Huerta, Cesar Chavez and the Farm Cesar Chavez is widely considered Gilbert Padilla, the Protestant clergy - Worker Movement a great American hero. Since his death men Chris Hartmire and Larry Drake, By Matt Garcia in 1993, some 52 schools, 37 parks, 57 Larry Itliong and Elaine Elinson, University of California Press. 368p libraries and 82 streets have been given among many others, who manage to $34.95 his name. Bill Clinton posthumously work together in the tedious trench presented him the Medal of Freedom, warfare of creative nonviolence that In the Epilogue to his From the Jaws of and across the nation, his birthday, characterized the early days of the Victory , a narrative about Cesar March 31, is designat - movement that came to Chavez and the farm workers move - ed as Cesar Chavez be known as la Causa . ment, the labor historian Matt Garcia Day. Chavez was cer - Beginning with the repeats a line from John Ford’s classic tainly not a fraud. As successful Tulare rent western, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Garcia explains in this strike in 1965, through Valence.” Although Ransome somewhat dense and the Delano grape boy - Stoddard (played by Jimmy Stewart), plodding chronologi - cott and secondary boy - received credit for killing the notorious cal narrative of the cott that finally brought criminal Valence, he did not actually movement’s organiza - the growers to the bar - kill him. This unearned and unde - tional dynamics and gaining table, the move - served notoriety nevertheless enabled leadership, Chavez’s ment became a force to Stoddard to leverage his way from leadership was sincere, reckon with. By the small town Shinbone, Ariz., into fame, often virtuous, and the time California’s fortune and a seat in the United States movement as a whole Agricultural Labor Senate. Years later, after Valence’s real demonstrates “the Relations Act was killer had died, Stoddard tried to set capacity of consumers passed in 1975, giving the record straight for a newspaper and volunteers to take action in the agricultural workers the right to nego - editor, who refused to print the confes - interest of people far removed from tiate conditions of their employment, sion. Believing that the public would them.” Nevertheless, Chavez was also a Chavez’s United Farm Workers of

June 3-10, 2013 America 31 America, now designated a union, was cle of devotees at La Paz, the union’s day song, followed by a special break - already representing a significant seg - community-based headquarters and fast, Mass and an all-day celebration. ment of the farm labor work force. organizing training facility in Keene, He expressed the belief that eventually The future seemed very bright. Calif., and accuses many of his associ - he and some of the movement’s leaders Both internal and external forces ates of being spies seeking to under - would be honored as saints. almost immediately began to rip apart mine his authority. Most significantly, With such bizarre activities, it did the movement’s successes, however. In he becomes enamored with Charles not take long for the gains of the union this second phase of the drama, we see Deterich, known as Chuck, founder of to unravel. Chavez became increasing - the pro-Nixon teamsters trying to the controversial and radical commu - ly isolated from the union representa - nudge the farm workers movement nal movement Synanon. Chavez tives working directly with the field aside to take over and weaken farm implemented Deterich’s encounter workers and from union lawyers who worker contracts; huge Filipino- group method, known as “the game”— represented them in Sacramento. Mexican rivalries within the leader - a meeting in which one person is tar - After a few devastating investigative ship of the union; conflicts over boy - geted by the rest of the group and exposés of the activities at La Paz, cott strategies; and, most important, repeatedly verbally assaulted to get Chavez began to lose the support of the crushing defeat of Proposition 14, him to break down and examine his union leaders and friends, leading the bill introduced to California vot - life. Even after Synanon became a reli - eventually to the U.F.W.’s joining the ers to revive the A.L.R.A., which by gious and personality cult and A.F.L.-C.I.O. in 1972 and the official 1976 had all but died due to legislative Deterich was arrested for attempted ending of the grape boycott in 1978. enemies cutting off funding. As murder and kidnapping, Chavez con - The immense gains achieved over a Garcia explains it, the defeat of the tinued his friendship with Deterich very short time by a group of dedicat - proposition dramatically changed and began to purge the union of any - ed organizers and a very charismatic Chavez, and he began a downward one at La Paz who refused to play the leader tell us much about the plight of spiral into psychological paranoia and game. Like Deterich, Chavez also farm workers and the power of com - erratic behavior. began to see himself as a leader of a munity organizing. At the height of As the final phase of the tragedy religious movement. With Catholic the movement in 1975 field workers unfolds, Garcia introduces a very dif - overtones, he implemented high holy were able to negotiate double the ferent leader who begins to balk at the days, martyr days and, most impor - minimum wage, vacations, unemploy - increasing bureaucratization necessary tant, Founder’s Day, which coincided ment insurance and a modest pension for building a union and yearns for the with Chavez’s birthday. On that day, plan. But these gains were localized days of marches, fasts and boycotts. Chavez was serenaded by mariachis and short-lived. Today’s U.F.W. has Chavez closes ranks with an inner cir - and residents with the Mexican birth - very little power. In our postmodern version of The Grapes of Wrath , most field workers come from Mexico and Guatemala; most of them are illegal; and there is no federal program to protect them. They labor for $3 less than minimum wage and not one of them is under a labor contract. At present consumer attention is direct - ed toward green living and healthy eating, and few consumers care about the farm workers who harvest what is eaten. Meanwhile, the legend lives on. Last October, in the middle of his campaign to get the Hispanic vote, President Obama dedicated a nation - al monument to Cesar Chavez at La Paz.

tiMothy WadkinS is a theology professor at Cansius College, Buffalo, N.Y.

America June 3-10, 2013 32

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America June 3-10, 2013 34 RePly all clusively, it seemed to me) whether a churches. Now that classical concern— consistent ethic of life linking the vio - “Why Prophecy Sags”—might be a Tears of Joy lence of abortion and war has “sagged good topic for Father Conley’s next As the grandparent of a Providence under the weight of its own inclusive - Philosopher’s Notebook. College student, I saw the “Papal ness” and should be replaced by a new, JIM KELLY Embrace” before it became viral on the Brooklyn, N.Y. narrower consistent ethic focused Web. But, in looking at it anew on the more inwardly on institutional con - cover of the April 29 issue, I gained a Compassion Missing science and health care. new appreciation of the sanctity of the Re “A New Consistent Ethic?”: I do not There are many individuals and moment caught not by the central have a biological child, as it would have groups in the more than 25-year-old characters, but rather by tears of joy required “extraordinary” measures. I Consistent Life Network who are, shed by the “supporting cast” strug - walked with my husband daily as his unsaggingly and robustly, committed gling to provide the spontaneous lift to dying was significantly prolonged by a to the consistent ethic promulgated by assist a true child of God to rise to the feeding tube. I rejoice with my step- the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and moment of grace we all witnessed. granddaughter in her loving relation - others. By 2010 the network had over Scripture does not record it, but it ship with her gay partner. No one has 250 member organizations, and many is hard not to imagine that similar ever had an abortion in my name, but prominent peace activists have linked tears of joy were shed by the apostles the state executes and goes to a “just” the violence of war and abortion. in the Upper Room when they beheld war, killing many innocents in my name. A consistent ethic of life is marginal the risen Christ. Surely, Pope Francis Each morning I awake, place my to popular opinion largely because its must be giving thanks that he had the feet on the ground, breathing in the radically challenging principle of non - opportunity to meet the risen Christ breath of “Who Is.” I trust a God who violence is hard to embody in once again so early in his papacy on the is more merciful than the institutional American politics and culture. But this streets of Rome. church. Am I the only one in the cru - is a variation on an old story. Indeed, PAUL LOATMAN JR. cible of living who has not found that Mechanicville, N.Y. the early and strong biblical traditions much “self-evident”? Consistent ethic, showing that Christ and his followers questions of conscience and moral For Next Time taught nonviolence have been cautious - vision may or may not be robust. In “A New Consistent Ethic?” John J. ly (not prudently) marginalized in the What I found missing in Father Conley, S.J., (4/29) speculates (incon - mainstream preaching of Christian

STATUS UPDATE I struggle with the death penalty. If can repair broken relationships among there are no societal repercussions for victims, criminals, their family and Dr . Kermit Gosnell was convicted on evil, then what deters evil behavior? Is friends and the entire society. Jesus May 13 of first-degree murder in the not a greater good served by deterring himself demonstrated this. deaths of three babies he killed with future evil, if possible? CY Kao scissors after they were born alive in his And who says they can’t repent abortion clinic in Philadelphia. In before the penalty is enforced? The I agree that the death penalty devalues “Life, Not Death” (5/20), the editors penalty itself does not determine the human life. I would add that the argued that Dr. Gosnell as well as final disposition of their souls; their implementation of the death penalty Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, if convicted for contrition does. David Roney in the United States devalues some the Boston Marathon bombings, should lives more than others—for example, not receive the death penalty. You About the only pragmatic rationale for poor males of color, particularly responded: the death penalty nowadays would be African-American men who kill for a heinous criminal whose behavior whites. Adria Gallup-Black The 47 countries and 800 million peo - in custody continues to pose a real ple of the Council of Europe get along threat to the lives and safety of custo - I struggle with this, but life imprison - without the death penalty. Why do we dial personnel. Carol Voss ment could be a stiffer punishment Americans act as though we were than an easy death. They will suffer for unique in the world? Our neighbors in Abolishing the death penalty is not a prolonged time for their deeds. Canada and Mexico manage criminal enough. It is even more important to Dee Magee justice without the modern equivalent integrate the concept of reconciliation of crucifixion. Russell Sveda into criminal justice. Only forgiveness Visit facebook.com/americamag

June 3-10, 2013 America 35 Conley’s “requiem” is compassion for were written independently of each legal institutions continue to exclude each of us in our struggle. other, in effect they offer contrasting the descendants of slaves from full par - DIANE GREENAWAY approaches to the new evangelization. ticipation in the mainstream, as if they Buffalo, N.Y. Father Imbelli, drawing on a recur - were still strangers rather than free Roots of Evangelization ring presence of Jesus in the docu - and equal citizens of this nation. Along with other recent articles on ments of the Second Vatican Council, While I recognize the timing of the evangelization, I found “Mass offers a broad and rich portrait of Jesus editorial to coincide with the immigra - Evangelization,” by Scott W. Hahn most suitable to be the content of a tion debate in Congress, the oversight is (4/22), stimulating and helpful. My new evangelization. Professor Hahn, disheartening. That the plight of problem, however, with all I have read after a long and fine summary presen - African-American citizens is so invisible, is that there seems to be a general pre - tation of writings on the new evange - even as we call for justice for the stranger, sumption that evangelization finds its lization, concludes with a section that supports the Rev. Bryan Massingale’s roots in biblical times. I find this to be repeatedly uses the expressions “sacri - observation in Racial Justice and the too narrow a starting point. fice” and “sacrifice of the Mass.” I find Catholic Church that our church has not Did not the proclamation of the good that disappointing. yet come to understand the radical evil news begin at the beginning of creation In using these terms so often, he festering in plain sight in American life. some 14 billion years ago, and does it leaves untouched a notion that many Perhaps it is time to create a path - not continue on into the present time? of us were brought up with that may way for people of all backgrounds and Creation proclaims the good news that need re-evaluation—namely the ten - histories to move into the mainstream. dency to associate “sacrifice” with Jesus’ ALISON M. BENDERS the Creator values differences; every - Cleveland, Ohio where we look in God’s universe we find suffering and death as paying God back for human sin. Perhaps the new differentiation. Creation also shouts out Lay Cardinals evangelization could become a re- the good news that the Creator values Since Pope Francis first stepped out evangelization for the growing number communion; everywhere we look we on the balcony to meet the world, one of Catholics who find the implied find everything and everyone caught up word has continued to pop into my in relationships, in mutuality. image of God offensive. GEORGE TRAUB, S.J. mind: astounded—a word repeated in Our important search into the true Clarkston, Mich. the Gospels to describe the reaction of meaning of evangelization needs to be people to Jesus’ words and actions. nurtured within this wider context. Disheartening Oversight Francis has certainly caught the atten - JOHN SURETTE, S.J. La Grange Park, Ill. Re “Welcome, Stranger” (Editorial, tion of the world with his personal 4/8): I was astounded by the absence style and simplicity. ‘Sacrifice’ Offensive of any mention of African-Americans, Now we await fresh policy deci - Thank you for running the articles by who suffer many of the same difficul - sions and structural changes so needed Professor Scott W. Hahn and the Rev. ties as undocumented immigrants. in the church. One change many have Robert P. Imbelli (4/22). Although they White American culture, customs and called for is to put in place a true func - tioning structure of collegiality. One first prophetic step in this direction: BLOG TALK tant way—I’ve observed this with stu - name 12 new cardinals, six Catholic dents on the University of Detroit men and six Catholic women, the I encourage Rock and Theology read - Mercy campus, where I work. In fact, a majority of them married, with proven ers to check out “Post-Christian Rock,” student suggested that my campus min - track records of a holistic spirituality, a by Bill McGarvey (5/6) about the band istry team use a Mumford & Sons track strong theological foundation and a Mumford & Sons. While I can’t say I for a midnight Ash Wednesday prayer commitment to service, especially to am a huge fan of this band (more my service. I often feel a tension between the most needy. fault than theirs), I do appreciate their wanting to know exactly what it is This is not so radical a proposal musicianship, and I believe McGarvey about a particular song or band that that affects doctrinal teachings, but the highlights an important point: that connects deeply with someone, on the symbolism of naming 12 would be popular music can hold a spiritual sig - one hand, and just accepting that there strong and would open once more a nificance without being relegated to the is something special there that I do not window of fresh air at the highest lev - label of “Christian rock.” need to understand in order to respect els of the church. Mumford & Sons does connect and believe it. Dave Nantais GENE TOLAND, M.M. with listeners in a spiritually impor - rockandtheology.com Cochabamba, Bolivia

America June 3-10, 2013 36 the WoRd

bereft but in his return would increase the joy not only of her but of all his Rise Up! followers, no longer bearers in a 10th Sunday in oRdinaRy tiMe (C), June 9, 2013 mournful funeral procession but Readings: 1 Kgs 17:17– 24; Ps 30:2– 13; Gal 1:11– 19; Lk 7:11– 17 brought to new life. But as with Elijah’s act, what Jesus performs is also con - “When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her” (Lk 7:13) crete help for those who are weak and vulnerable. Jesus’ action at this level is not so much the fulfillment of a he prophet Elijah “went to this scene when he spoke in the syna - Messianic type, but a copy of how God Zarephath of Sidon to the gogue in Nazareth (Luke 4). The has always acted on behalf of those house of a widow.” While needs of the suffering outsider were a T most in need. God brings unexpected Elijah was at the widow’s home, her model for Jesus’ own ministry, and not life to the sons of widows because God son died. Already bereft of a husband, just in speech and archetype. In today’s is for the least among us. which itself often led women into Gospel Jesus comes It is certainly the case, poverty in the ancient world, she has across a situation very though, that unlike Elijah and now lost her son, the remaining source similar in character Jesus, we do not bring to life of her emotional and economic suste - to that which the dead sons of mourning nance. She turns on Elijah, “Why have Elijah faced. widows. Still, these stories you done this to me, O man of God? In the town of point us to the type of person Have you come to me to call attention Nain, Jesus wit - Christians are called to be. to my guilt and to kill my son?” Elijah nessed a funeral Like Jesus, we are all capable of does not defend himself or declare his procession, with a innocence, but responds directly to the widow mourning her only son. Jesus pain and loss underlying her accusa - is moved with compassion by her PRaying With SCRiPtuRe tion. He responds, that is, with com - suffering, a compassion expressed Reflect on the mercy and compassion of passion. with the Greek verb splanchnizomai . Jesus. Where am I witnessing the suffer - E

Surprisingly, perhaps, Elijah aligns The verb evokes Jesus’ emotional ings of our world and how can I best N N U

respond to those in need? D

himself with the widow as he cries out response by expressing the kind of D A T

: to God, “O Lord, my God, will you deep physical experience that often T R afflict even the widow with whom I am accompanies empathy. He is moved A staying by killing her son?” He contin - “in his bowels,” thought then to be ues to pray, “O Lord, my God, let the the location of the emotions of pity performing acts of mercy and compas - life breath return to the body of this and love. He instructs her, “Do not sion for those in need. Our culture child.” God hears Elijah’s prayer, and cry!” This command becomes Jesus’ might hold up as ideals power, control life returns to the boy. When Elijah word that he will bring relief to the and strength, especially for men, but at returned the child alive to his widowed bereaved widow. Jesus goes directly to the heart of Jesus’ strength is compas - mother, she said to him, “Now indeed the coffin and, touching it, speaks: sion for weakness, mercy for the help - I know that you are a man of God. “Young man, I tell you, arise!” When less. The person who acts against the The word of the Lord comes truly the young man sat up, “Jesus gave him victimization of women, the prolifera - from your mouth.” to his mother.” tion of pornography, the scourge of This act of mercy and compassion, Just as the widow at Zarephath rec - human trafficking and slavery is acting returning a child to his mother, ognized God at work through Elijah, like Elijah and Jesus with compassion becomes a model for Jesus in his own the people who witnessed Jesus’ action and mercy. Those women and children teaching and healing. Jesus referred to declare that “God has visited his peo - released from poverty and sufferings ple.” God’s power at work in Jesus’ share in some part the resurrection of action also points beyond itself and Jesus in the world. This is a model for John W. MaRtenS is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. foreshadows another mother and only us, the type of people Jesus calls us to Paul, Minn. son, who in his death would leave her be for those in need.

June 3-10, 2013 America 37 the WoRd A Woman Beloved by God 11th Sunday in oRdinaRy tiMe (C), June 16, 2013 Readings: 2 Sm 12:7– 13; Ps 32:1– 11; Gal 2:16– 21; Lk 7:36– 8:3 “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Lk 7:50)

esus’ love for the weak and story of two debtors, one of whom thanksgiving for the forgiveness of her marginalized is made manifest in owed the creditor 500 denarii and the sins and in acknowledgment, a powerful account in Luke’s other 50. Seeing that they were unable expressed especially through the JGospel, as is the human willing - to pay their debts, the creditor decided anointing with oil, of his messiahship, ness to label and disenfranchise people to cancel the debts of both debtors. that he is the one with the authority to we consider less worthy. In today’s nar - Jesus asks Simon, “now which of them wipe away her debt. As a result, Jesus rative, Jesus suggests that we start to will love him more?” Simon answers by can say to her, “Your faith has saved identify who we truly are in relation - saying that the one with the greater you; go in peace.” ship not to social standards but to debt will love the creditor more, and But Simon is unable either to see God’s overwhelming love. Jesus is Jesus agrees with him. The meaning of himself as a debtor—that is, a sin - invited to eat at the home of a Pharisee this simple story for Simon, the ner—or Jesus as the one who is willing named Simon. His identity is clear: woman and Jesus will soon become and able to forgive sins. Jesus agrees Simon, the Pharisee. But a woman, clear. It depends upon identifying the with the identification of the woman who remains nameless, operating on creditor and the two debtors. as a sinner, but what Simon does not the assumption that well-behaved Jesus explains the story by women rarely meet the Messiah, hears describing the love the unnamed of Jesus’ presence in the house and woman poured out on Jesus, by PRaying With SCRiPtuRe crashes the dinner party. Her identity washing and kissing his feet and Imagine yourself in Simon’s house. When is also clear: “a woman in the city, who anointing his head with oil, which you hear Jesus tell the story, do you identi - was a sinner.” stands in stark contrast to Simon’s fy with the woman who is a sinner or When this woman found Jesus, she diffidence to Jesus. Jesus says, “I tell Simon? treated him with honor and love: “She you, her sins, which were many, have stood behind him at his feet, weeping, been forgiven; hence she has shown and began to bathe his feet with her great love. But the one to whom lit - tears and to dry them with her hair. tle is forgiven, loves little. Then he said recognize is that he too is a sinner, Then she continued kissing his feet to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” It is even if his debt is lighter. Unless and anointing them with the oint - with Jesus’ claim that her sins were for - Simon can see himself as “the sinful ment.” Simon’s response to these given that Simon’s friends began to man” and acknowledge his debt, he demonstrations of affection and love question Jesus and to ask each other, cannot be forgiven. Unless he identi - emerge in the context of his under - “Who is this who even forgives sins?” fies Jesus as the one who can forgive standing of how people should act: “If It is the answer to this question, his debt, he cannot turn to him in love this man were a prophet, he would however, that allows the proper identi - and repent. have known who and what kind of fication of all parties in this scenario. Yes, the woman is a sinner, but so are woman this is who is touching him— Jesus does not deny that the woman is we all. Simon judges her on human that she is a sinner.” A prophet, clearly, a sinner—she is the one with the terms, but we need the ability to identi - should not allow a “sinner,” especially a greater debt than Simon in Jesus’ para - fy her as God sees her, known by name woman, to touch him; and a woman, a ble—but she has correctly identified and beloved by God, and to recognize notorious sinner, should not touch a Jesus as the one who is able to forgive in ourselves the need for God’s healing prophet. Everyone knows that. her sins. That is, Jesus is her creditor. forgiveness regardless of our names or Jesus responds by telling Simon a She pours out her love on Jesus in positions. John W. MaRtenS

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