OF MANY THINGS

y first foray into Republican is it simply an accurate reflection of Mr. 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 politics was in the winter Bush’s true character? Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 of 1980, when George H. I suspect that it’s somehow both. Subscriptions: 1-800-627-9533 M www.americamagazine.org To my knowledge, no one has ever W. Bush was battling Ronald Reagan facebook.com/americamag for the presidential nomination. really called his character into question. twitter.com/americamag At the invitation of Marty Flynn, a Sure, his worldview stems from an old- local Republican and an old Central fashioned (some would say naïve) way of President and Editor in Chief Matt Malone, S.J. Intelligence Agency chum, Mr. Bush thinking about the world, one in which Executive Editors made a whistle stop on Cape Cod en faith, know-how and neighborliness Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy route to the New Hampshire primary. can tackle even the toughest problems: Managing Editor Kerry Weber Well, it wasn’t literally a whistle stop, “There is a God and He is good, and his Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. but rather a quick speech at the Red love, while free, has a self-imposed cost: Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent Coach Grille near Barnstable Municipal We must be good to one another,” he Kevin Clarke Airport. My dad was a friend of Marty’s told us in 1988. Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. and a fan of Mr. Bush and, with his On the other hand, Mr. Bush has Executive Editor, America Films Jeremy Zipple, S.J. 8-year-old son in tow, he set out in our made some very questionable public Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. yellow AMC Pacer to meet the future choices, about war and peace and right Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent president. and wrong, especially his decision to Gerard O’Connell I don’t remember anything that Mr. launch a barely credible, unrelentingly Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. Bush said that day, but I do recall some negative assault on his opponent, Engagement and Community Editor of the tidbits I picked up from the buzz Michael Dukakis, during the 1988 Elizabeth Tenety Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga Segura that filled the room: “He’s a family man, presidential campaign. That wasn’t Assistant Editors Francis W. Turnbull, S.J., a true American hero,” they said, “a guy very neighborly. It also helped to usher Joseph McAuley who can put the country back on track.” in our contemporary slash-and-burn Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder The “family man” talking point was in politics, and it should be included in any Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., part a veiled critique of Mr. Reagan, discussion of Mr. Bush’s public character. Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, who was divorced. The United States No one should travel to College Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider, Robert David had never elected a divorced man as Station, however, expecting to see a Sullivan president, and many people were asking balanced assessment of the politics of Correspondents John Carr (Washington), An- thony Egan, S.J., and Russell Pollitt, S.J. (Johannes- whether we could or even should. In the Willie Horton ad. Fair enough. It’s burg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy any event, later that year we settled his library, and it reflects Mr. Bush’s Padgett (Miami), Steven Schwankert (Beijing), the question by electing the man who, self-understanding. Still, he must have David Stewart, S.J. (London), Judith Valente (Chi- cago), Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M. (U.S. Church) with Mr. Bush as his vice president, a regret or two, even about his public Moderator, Catholic Book Club inaugurated the Reagan Revolution. life. Why not share it with us? It might Kevin Spinale, S.J. This was all on my mind when I help us to understand better the people Editorial e-mail visited the George Bush Library and who govern our country. It would help [email protected] Museum last week in College Station, us to see that while politicians like Mr. Tex., part of my effort to visit every Bush might be decent folk, they are just Publisher and Chief Financial Officer Edward Spallone. Deputy Publisher Rosa Del Saz. Vice presidential library before I shuffle off as imperfect as the rest of us, and we President/Advancement Daniel Pawlus. Devel- to the big Buffalo in the sky. Regrettably, should be reluctant, therefore, to invest opment Coordinator Kerry Goleski. Operations but understandably, Mr. Bush’s trip to in any one of them our messianic hopes, Staff Chris Keller, Glenda Castro. Advertising contact [email protected]; 212-515-0102. the Red Coach Grille does not feature in whether they originate with the duty- Subscription contact/Additional copies his library and museum, nor does much family-country crowd or with the so- [email protected]; of anything else from his unsuccessful called liberal elites. It’s six of one, half a 1-800-627-9533 run for the 1980 nomination. What’s dozen of the other. As Dennis O’Brien © 2015 America Press, Inc. interesting, however, is how the writes in this issue: “The temptation of museum’s narrative is built on the very conservatism is that of wandering off same themes he stressed that day on into outmoded historical formulae that Cape Cod: duty, family, country. Is this a are as distant from living reality as the singular example of consistent political liberal’s utopian projects.” messaging across three-plus decades, or MATT MALONE, S.J. Cover: Shutterstock.com/rmnoa357 Contents www.americamagazine.org VOL. 212 NO. 9, WHOLE NO. 5082 March 16, 2015

ARTICLES 16 REDISCOVERING JESUS Pope Francis wants you to get personal. Timothy P. Schilling 19 WHO SPEAKS FOR ISLAM? Muslim authorities call for an end to militant violence. Elias D. Mallon 23 ON DYING WELL A paradoxical relationship with death Jessica Keating

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 16 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial Ars Moriendi 6 Reply All 9 Signs of the Times 14 Washington Front The Lives of David Carr John Carr 26 Vatican Dispatch Partners in Protection Gerard O’Connell 27 Faith in Focus Paying Our Respects Brian Doyle 39 The Word Following the Servant John W. Martens 23 BOOKS & CULTURE

29 FILM “Merchants of Doubt” OF OTHER THINGS The Sounds I Live By BOOKS Richard John Neuhaus;The Tyranny of Experts; The Bright Continent; We Are Not Ourselves POEM True Believer

ON THE WEB Sean Salai, S.J., interviews Camille Paglia, right, and Eric LeCompte of Jubilee USA talks about debt relief on “America This Week.” Full digital highlights on page 15 and at americamagazine.org/webfeatures. 29 CURRENT COMMENT

lingering anti-Washington sentiments have so far inoculated Father Ted’s Legacy President Maduro from having to give a full accounting for Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., popularly known as Ted, his leadership, which is pressing Venezuela into political and who died on Feb. 26, was one of the pre-eminent public humanitarian collapse. If the United States is scheming in figures of American Catholicism in the late 20th century, Venezuela, it is failing. Maduro’s challengers have yet to win noted for his devotion to his twin vocations as a Holy Cross over poor voters despite the economic and security chaos. priest and a university educator. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in Venezuela has been During his 35 years at Notre Dame (1952–1987), he engaging in full-throated denunciations of the Maduro was a pioneer in stressing academic achievement, making government. Archbishop Roberto Lückert of Coro called the university coeducational and, most important, stressing the arrest of the mayor “proof ” of dictatorship. Fair enough greater lay participation in the university’s governance. In under the circumstances, but the church is already estranged 1967 he and other presidents of Catholic universities issued from the government in Venezuela. A clear alignment with a statement at Land O’Lakes, Wis., that committed Catholic the opposition will obliterate any hope that it could play universities to standards of excellence and academic freedom a mediating role. Venezuela’s problems—and the cast of that would equal those of any secular school. At Notre characters leading the nation—are not going away soon, Dame, Father Hesburgh accomplished those goals and then and Venezuela’s bishops should consider toning down some, while remaining committed to the importance of the rhetoric and reaching out more to help get the nation Catholic identity and scholarship. through this crisis. Another state teetering on the brink of an His initial involvement in national affairs began when abyss is the last thing this hemisphere needs. President Eisenhower appointed him a charter member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He long held the view that university presidents must be involved in national affairs Deliver Them From Evil and lamented the dearth of such influence among educators “First of all, I thank God Almighty. I thought I would never in recent years. be safe. God has saved me,” said Alexis Prem Kumar, S.J., Notre Dame’s current president, John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., freed in late February after eight months in captivity. Before hailed Father Hesburgh as “a steadfast champion for human his abduction by the Taliban, the Indian Jesuit priest had rights, the cause of peace and care for the poor.” As William served as the country director for the Jesuit Refugee Service J. Byron, S.J., former president of the Catholic University of team in Afghanistan. America, noted in an appreciation, Father Hesburgh wanted Father Prem exemplifies the commitment and courage to be remembered among his colleagues for his friendship of the many bishops, priests, sisters and brothers who toward them and because he tried, “on our forward march,” to regularly face danger in their daily ministries. While the be “fair and tried to make the place better.” There could be no mainstream media may focus on heroic individuals working more fitting obituary than that. with secular aid organizations in harm’s way, the heroism of those who work with religious organizations often goes unsung. Yet the threat to religious workers may be greater, Venezuela Stumbles given increased religious tensions worldwide. Today Catholic The price of a barrel of oil is not the only thing in free fall sisters work in refugee camps amid fierce ethnic rivalries; in Venezuela. Standards of living are falling; employment brothers minister on the borders between warring countries; is falling; hope is falling. On the rise are urban crime and priests choose to stay with their parishioners rather than how long Caracas residents have to wait for basic services, flee the threat of violence; and bishops speak out against medicines and foodstuff. At stake is democracy itself. On oppression and terrorism—all aware that they could be Feb. 19 the embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, threw the beaten, kidnapped or killed. In 2013, for example, another mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, into jail, denouncing Jesuit priest, Paolo Dall’Oglio, S.J., was abducted from the him as a golpista—a participant in a purported U.S.-led city of Homs in Syria. He is still missing. That same year, the conspiracy against the “Chavist” government. Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Indeed, some in the region see U.S. machinations at Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim, both leaders of their churches in work in the remarkable decline of the economy and the Aleppo, Syria, were also kidnapped. Maduro administration’s decreasing capacity to govern. Let us pause and pray for all these men and women, But the Obama administration insists that the socialist whose day-to-day ministries include the possibility of regime is simply looking for someone to blame. Those offering up their lives for the sake of the Gospel.

4 America March 16, 2015 EDITORIAL Ars Moriendi

moral seduction.” That is how our late friend and should be on alleviating suffering. columnist John F. Kavanaugh, S.J., described the Much can be accomplished with ‘Adebate around physician-assisted suicide in 1997. proper treatment. Consider the late “We have succumbed before,” Father Kavanaugh work of the historian Tony Judt, wrote, “in our always justifiable wars, in the treacherous who died of ALS. As Dr. Michael bargain with capital punishment, in the 1973 Roe v. Wade J. Brescia, the executive medical decision to dehumanize unborn children. But now the director of Calvary Hospital in New stakes are higher. The ‘slippery slope’ of diminished human York, a widely respected palliative care facility, says in a new value is in deep descent.” video produced by the New York State Catholic Conference What would Father Kavanaugh say today, with several (catholicendoflife.org): “The physical aspects of suffering are states considering bills to legalize assisted suicide? Oregon the easiest to control; the hard part is the emotional suffering.” led the way in 1994, and now California and New York are Here lies the primary danger with expanding legal following suit, prompted by the very public death of 29-year- assisted suicide. Patients, not wishing to be a burden on old Brittany Maynard last year. Ms. Maynard decided after their friends and family, may seek to end their lives out of being diagnosed with cancer to end her life and moved to a sense of loneliness or desperation. Safeguards can be set Oregon for this purpose. The “right to die” movement had been up, as they have been in Oregon, to make sure patients are largely moribund, at least in the United States, but sometimes making the decision for the “right reasons.” But they are an all it takes is a single episode to rekindle a seduction. insufficient solution to what remains a much larger problem. A ballot initiative proposing the legalization of Our society must re-evaluate its notion of personal assisted suicide failed in Massachusetts in 2012, but the freedom and how far it extends. Do we not have obligations question will not go away. It cuts to the heart of many issues beyond ourselves? What if we began to think about death not that are important to our society: the rising costs of health as a moment to assert our personal autonomy to its fullest care; personal liberty; questions of human dignity. As more extent, but as a moment to teach our sons and daughters, baby boomers enter their elder years, and fewer turn to our nieces and nephews, about what it means to suffer and, religion for consolation and guidance, more states will begin finally, to die with dignity? As Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I., to consider assisted suicide as a legitimate path for those writes in his book Sacred Fire, this is the final challenge we who suffer. face as Christians. We cannot shy away from it. Is this the solution? The medical community places But what is dignity? The term is widely misused, as the utmost importance on individual agency. Decisions evidenced by the title of Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act. made by a patient or proxy on questions of nutrition, pain In our secular culture, dignity means living as you would management and resuscitation are accorded full authority want to live, being seen as you wish to be seen, not in a under the law. Why should it not be so for the ultimate degraded state and certainly not in diapers. But this is the decision, when to end our lives? moral seduction: to think we can avoid suffering, or at least Marcia Angell, a respected Harvard physician and limit it—to control our lives to the very last moment. former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, We believe that dignity is deeper than that. Viktor E. speaks for many when she argues in favor of legalizing Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, wrote, “Every human person assisted suicide “for terminally ill patients whose suffering constitutes something unique; each situation in life occurs cannot be relieved in any other way.” Some of the most ardent only once…a man’s life retains its meaning up to the last— supporters of assisted suicide laws are those who work with until he draws his last breath.” This is our starting point as people who have ALS, who face a painful physical decline. believers. It is why Catholic health care workers excel at These are people who care deeply for patients under their palliative care, and why they must continue to model this watch. It is people like these the church must address when service to the whole medical community. Who knows when it makes the case for caring for patients until their natural moments of grace may come for us and our families? Our death. job is to care for one another, at all moments of our lives, and The focus, for ALS patients and others in distress, trust that our loving God will shelter us in the end.

March 16 , 2015 America 5 REPLY ALL recent resumption of diplomatic re- ban America, this surely ranks very lations between the United States high. To Cuba’s Credit and Cuba is, in my opinion, a stretch. I hope clergy and faithful citizens Re “A ‘Francis Effect’ in Cuba” (Current Permission to construct a new church will take seriously the challenge to Comment, 2/23): Having served as building is a good step forward, but craft solutions to the mass incarcer- the pastor of two parishes in Santa it is part of a continuum of improve- ation of our youth. A reform of the Clara, Cuba, from 1994 to 1998, I ments that have been happening for juvenile judicial system is needed, as think I ought to point out some errors years. are ways to rescue young people from in this commentary. The editors write PAT SULLIVAN, O.F.M.CAP. becoming a permanent subclass and to that “conditions in the country first Naha, Okinawa restore to them their God-given digni- started to change after the 1998 visit of Editor’s Note: In addition to the correc- ty and confidence that they can be pro- St. John Paul II.” The marked increase tions noted in this letter, there are sev- ductive citizens in their communities. in religious tolerance in Cuba actual- eral more. Bishop Serpa is the bishop of (MOST REV). JOSEPH A. FIORENZA ly began in the early 1990s, when the Pinár del Rio; Sandino is not a diocese. Houston, Tex. Communist Party changed its statutes Christmas has long been celebrated pub- The writer is archbishop emeritus of the to allow believers to become members. licly; the change was that it was made Diocese of Galveston-Houston. Reprisals against workers for attend- once again a national holiday. ing church services were prohibited, Holy, Not Perfect and the local Religious Affairs party Restoring Justice “Saintly Sinners, Sinful Saints,” by officers were instructed to intervene in “Prison Addiction” (2/23), Bishop James Martin, S.J. (2/23), is a column such cases. Harassment of students by Dennis Madden’s powerful exposition well worth reading. I suspect that what their teachers for having gone to reli- about the mass incarceration of young has happened in the modern era is that gious instruction was greatly reduced. offenders, mostly African-Americans a form of moralism has taken over the Churches were repaired (with some and Hispanics, for nonviolent and popular imagination. It is an attitude difficulty), although new churches drug-related offenses, sounds an alarm that cannot accommodate the notion were still not permitted. University for all urban centers. As I read about that God’s love can infuse a person students were permitted to form his experience in Baltimore, I kept who is endowed with less than a per- Christian campus associations. thinking, “This is Houston.” fectly agreeable personality or that God be praised for the wonderful Bishop Madden speaks to the fail- someone who acts in accord with his efforts of St. John Paul II and Pope ure of the juvenile justice system that or her own day’s standards but not Francis. But also give the Cuban gov- contributes to a subclass of uneducat- ours could be deeply in love with God ernment credit for the major self-cor- ed citizens who are disenfranchised and human beings. rections it made long before any pope from voting or have great difficulty Before the 20th century, few came to visit. And to attribute today’s finding gainful employment. Among Europeans could escape their culture’s improved religious freedom to the the horrific social problems facing ur- belief systems, systems that considered Europe the epitome of high culture. In that worldview, you were doing a favor by chastising members of “less fortu- nate races.” Alas, we too will be judged harshly by people several centuries from now—unless misdeeds resulting from our blindness pollute the planet to an extent that Gaia does away with humanity. Serra was a good holy man, not a perfect holy man. WILLIAM BURROWS Online Comment

The Wrong Message Should Junípero Serra be made a saint? Absolutely not. The treatment of the “Laugh out loud, best friends forever, be right back, in my experience, people of the California missions is so never again volunteer yourself....” odious an event in the history of the CARTOON: HARLEY SCHWADRON CARTOON:

6 America March 16, 2015 STATUS UPDATE Readers respond to “Raising Peter: parish as she has gotten older. Her face have an excellent public school sys- What my son taught me about my faith,” absolutely glows during Mass as if the tem that accommodates their needs by Mary Beth Werdel (2/23). angels or perhaps our Lord is speak- most wonderfully, so they are getting ing to her. She flaps her hands and a great education, but before having I have a 25-year-old daughter with rocks back to the pew after receiving children, we had been committed to severe autism, and bringing her to Communion. My sweet, mostly non- Catholic schooling. church before age 9 was at times the verbal daughter is the happiest one at CATHY FARMER EARLY hardest, most humbling thing I did Mass, and all those years of struggling most weeks. Like the author I had were worth it. I wish I had a platform I was recently hired by a Friends an episode in which, because of my to encourage other mothers to bring Church in Portland, Ore., to provide daughter’s behavior, the woman in their children with disabilities to Mass. inclusion services for the children’s front of me at Mass refused to shake NANCY JOHNSON ANTONINI ministry program. What I love about my hand at the greeting of peace. I it is that the pastoral team has a good kept my daughter away from Mass for While our boys have been largely ac- understanding of disability justice, and six months following that episode. But cepted, and their sensory issues have we approach inclusion as a community there was another time, when a wom- lessened over the years, I still recall practice of removing barriers. As a per- an gave me a hug after Mass and told some exceptionally difficult Sundays. son with a disability myself, I pray that me I was a wonderful mother. I also find it frustrating that our local people of faith will be liberated from I feel my daughter has become a Catholic schools have no obligation ableism. treasured and loved member of our to accommodate special needs. We KITT REIDY church that canonizing Serra would fact that I punched my friend ‘should Cardinal Reinhard Marx by Luke send a deathly message and counter- be proof enough that’ he deserved it.” Hansen, S.J. (2/16). So much of the act any efforts to evangelize. If it were If we use this faulty logic in reverse, we focus is on reform of the Vatican, so recognized, instead, that it was not are forced to conclude that if a couple little on change in doctrine regarding Serra but his predecessors, Bartolomé does not divorce, then their marriage family issues, as if the church merely de las Casas, a repentant Dominican, must in fact be valid. I think not. needs to teach so that we laypeople un- and Father Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit, who Further, based on Catholic teaching, derstand better. made California a multicultural region it is not possible for a valid marriage to The need for more involvement of that is more accepting and embracing “die.” If a marriage could “die,” then so women in church administration is ac- of racial, religious and cultural diversity could a baptismal seal, a confirmation knowledged, but recognition of their than any place in the past—that would seal and an ordination—and all that wisdom and perspective, particularly be a positive and evangelizing message. would be needed for “proof ” of those on family matters, is overlooked. Is Missionaries like Las Casas actually deaths would be a loss of faith. By this there no hope for substantive change struggled through their encounter with logic, we are forced to conclude that if regarding second marriages, premari- the people of the New World and came someone loses faith, then obviously his tal cohabitation, long-term loving gay to champion their rights as human be- or her baptism and confirmation didn’t relationships, birth control? These are ings deserving of respect. “take.” Or, if a priest leaves his ministry, realities families deal with day by day. CHRIS NUNEZ he must never have been ordained. Pope Francis urges a church that Online Comment Feelings can be allowed to die. A is “bruised, hurting and dirty be- relationship can be allowed to die. But cause it has been out on the streets.” What Cannot Die sacraments cannot die because Christ Unfortunately, it seems the synod is “The Annulment Dilemma,” by Msgr. is their guarantor, and he conquered being conducted only within the an- Paul V. Garrity (2/16), was a good arti- death. tiseptic halls of the Vatican, unable to cle until the last paragraph. Monsignor MARK LOYET grapple with the gritty realities fam- Garrity concludes, “The fact of a di- Online Comment ilies face in our fast-changing world. vorce should be proof enough that Happily, most are at peace with our something essential was missing in Synod ‘On the Streets’ Lord; unfortunately, many are finding a marriage or that the marriage has As the father of seven adult children, little solace in our church. died.” This statement is, in my opinion, I was dismayed by “We Have a Lot ART MAURER hogwash at best. It is like saying, “The of Work to Do,” an interview with Rochester, N.Y.

March 16 , 2015 America 7 8 America March 16, 2015 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

CATHOLIC LIVES its heart today, but Father Ted’s spirit lives on at Notre Dame and among the Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Recalled millions of lives he touched around the world.” As a Leader of Courage and Vision Father Hesburgh was born on May 25, 1917, in Syracuse, N.Y. He was educated at Notre Dame and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained in 1943. Hesburgh became president of Notre Dame in 1952. By the end of his ten- ure he had transformed the university, nearly doubling its student body, mov- ing it to mixed lay and religious gover- nance in 1967 and in 1972 admitting women students to the university for the first time, noting in his wry way, “If we say we are educating for leadership, we ought to educate the other half of the human race.” Father Hesburgh rose to national prominence because of his vanguard role on civil rights. He was a found- ing member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission in 1957 and was pho- tographed joining hands with Martin Luther King Jr. at a civil rights rally in Chicago in 1964, singing “We Shall Overcome.” His efforts to promote lay leadership and academic inde- pendence at Catholic universities was Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., 1917–2015 also groundbreaking, while literal groundbreakings came to be regular he University of Notre Dame website went dark on Feb. 26, its usually occurrences at Notre Dame under his lively front page replaced by an image of Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., leadership, including the groundbreak- Tand a quotation from him: “I never wanted to be anything but a priest, ing for the 14-story library that today which is in itself a great and unearned grace. I hope to live and die a priest, nothing bears his name. more, but nothing less either.” So wide were his social interests— Father Hesburgh, among the most influential Catholic priests in the history of from nuclear proliferation to civil the American church, had passed away at Holy Cross House on the campus of his rights to economic development—and beloved university at the age of 97, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross for so numerous his Vatican and political 71 of those well-packed years. appointments that a joke regarding As a Catholic leader in the U.S. civil rights movement, a social activist and the globe-trotting university presi- advisor to presidents and popes, a consistent innovator in higher education and, dent began to circulate on campus: at 35 years, the longest-serving president of the University of Notre Dame, Father “What’s the difference between God Hesburgh had an influence across a remarkable array of social, educational and and Father Hesburgh? God is every- economic developments in contemporary U.S. life. where. Father Hesburgh is everywhere The University of Notre Dame’s current president, John Jenkins, C.S.C., said but Notre Dame.” in a statement announcing Father Hesburgh’s passing, “Notre Dame lost a piece of In a statement on Feb. 27, President

March 16 , 2015 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Obama wrote: “Father Hesburgh in- faced our nation and the world—from kept him going.” spired generations of young men and his fight for civil and human rights Father Kumar was abducted from women to lead with the courage of and against nuclear proliferation and a J.R.S.-supported school in Herat their convictions. His deep and abid- global hunger to his ongoing efforts to Province in western Afghanistan on ing faith in a loving God, and in the seek peace among people in conflict.... June 2, 2014. In India on Feb. 26, power of our shared humanity, led His vocal concern regarding the treat- Father Kumar told reporters that he him to join the first-ever United States ment of immigrants led me to name was released with a warning by his cap- Civil Rights Commission, and join him chair of the Select Committee on tors: “I was told that I will be shot if I hands with Dr. King to sing ‘We Shall Immigration and Refugee Policy, and choose to come back to Afghanistan.” Overcome.’ His belief that what unites his recommendations served as the Father Kumar said his abductors kept us is greater than what divides us made basis of crucial congressional reform him in chains most of the time, and he him a champion of academic freedom legislation.” was never left without an armed guard. and open debate.” President Carter added that Father According to Father Balleis, the A warm remembrance from former Hesburgh helped “spearhead relief first eight days after his kidnapping President Jimmy Carter on Feb. 27 efforts that averted mass starvation were perhaps the hardest on Father suggests the great breadth of Father among Cambodian refugees” and Kumar. He was kept in handcuffs and Hesburgh’s interests and pursuits on served for him on U.N. development shackles in a cave during this period. behalf of peace and justice: “Father and technology conferences. He said, Why Father Kumar was taken in Hesburgh has devoted his long and “Father Hesburgh has made the world the first place may never be clear, said consequential life to serving human- a better place—for those of us whose Father Balleis, nor could he speculate ity, always taking courageous stands lives he has touched directly and as an on the terms of his release. “Normally on the serious moral issues that have inspiration for generations to come.” most of the people are taken for ran- som or for the exchange of political prisoners,” he said, adding, “we don’t AFGHANISTAN know what the negotiations were with the Indian government.” Jesuit Captive Released; Abduction Father Balleis said that prior to Ordeal Leads to Beefed-Up Security Father Kumar’s abduction, Indian Jesuits had worked in Afghanistan he international director of morning time to pray, which was very for years without being targeted by the Jesuit Refugee Service, important to him,” Father Balleis said. Taliban or criminal gangs active in the TPeter Balleis, S.J., said, J.R.S. “Trusting that J.R.S. will look for him region, and a degree of complacency staff in Afghanistan and around the and will do what is necessary to get may have set in regarding the inherent world were elated to have Alexis him back,” Father Balleis said, “that risks of working in such a troubled re- Prem Kumar, S.J., home in gion. Ironically Father Kumar India and recuperating after al- had been attempting to leave most nine months of captivity. Afghanistan because of a se- “He’s in good spirits, physically curity alert. His flight out was well; [though] he lost a lot of canceled and he had returned weight.…We are happy to have to the school “without people him back,” Father Balleis said. realizing it.” At that time, Father Describing Father Kumar’s Balleis believes an “informer” at ordeal, Father Balleis said the the school contacted kidnap- Indian Jesuit had not been mis- pers and alerted them to Father treated by his kidnappers, pre- Kumar’s presence. sumed to be members of the The kidnapping has not led Taliban, who frequently told to any diminishment to J.R.S. FREED AT LAST. Alexis Prem Kumar, S.J., in India Father Kumar they intended after his release by a group in western Afghanistan activities in Afghanistan or to release him. “He had in the believed to be associated with the Taliban. other conflict zones, like Syria

10 America March 16, 2015 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

and Iraq, where J.R.S. operates. Father Balleis said, however, that J.R.S. did NEWS BRIEFS begin a review of its security protocols. “There is a need for immediate action “Our security concern and prepared- similar to what took place in Kobani,” ness has come to another level,” he said. said Bassam Ishak, president of the “We are running now in all regions Syriac National Council of Syria, urging where it is risky security training for coalition airstrikes to aid Christian and our teams because a few things you can Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State avoid and save lives. They’re sometimes militants on Feb. 26. • On Feb. 25 a Escaping ISIS very simple mistakes [that can put hu- Greek Orthodox seminary in Jerusalem manitarian workers at risk] and that was damaged by arson and “anti-Christian” graffiti were found at the we can really improve.” scene of what Israeli police said could be a hate crime. • The Rev. J.R.S. is working with a former U.N. Jean-Paul Kakule Kyalembera, a diocesan priest in Congo’s North security officer to improve its proce- Kivu province, was shot to death on Feb. 25 in an apparent attempt- dures. That officer told him that he had ed robbery. • The Federal Communications Commission’s vote on seen “too many colleagues dead because Feb. 26 to safeguard net neutrality was welcomed by Bishop John C. some small rules weren’t followed.” Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee According to Father Balleis, howev- on Communications, who called the Internet “a critical medium for er, the new security measures would not religious speech,” since other media are “closed to noncommercial mean hiring armed guards or escorts for religious messages.” • Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit led J.R.S. programs or officers. “That’s not employees of the archdiocese into a new chancery building in down- our way,” he said. “We are very much town Detroit’s Capitol Park on Feb. 9. • The National Demographic a grassroots organization, very much Survey of American Jewish College Students, released in February, community based in general. The com- found that 54 percent of Jewish students experienced anti-Semitism munity is our best protection.” on campus in the first six months of the academic year 2013/14. Father Balleis added, “The one real- ity is that humanitarian work is much more at risk now than before, and church personnel, humanitarian work- said. In a statement on Feb. 25, Syriac documents to the press for polemical ers, are not respected [anymore].” Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem ends or to foster conflict is not new, but II of Antioch condemned the killings is always to be strongly condemned and Christians in Syria and terrorist acts that targeted the is illegal,” Father Lombardi said. “The Christians of the Khabur region. He fact that complex economic or legal is- Seized by Islamic State called upon the international commu- sues are the subject of discussion and On Feb. 26, the Melkite Catholic nity to work for the “immediate and diverse points of view should be con- Patriarch Gregoire III Laham said, “It unconditional release” of all kidnapped sidered normal.” L’Espresso reported is shocking that the whole world” has and detained people. that Cardinal George Pell’s economy not responded in a proper way to the secretariat had run up a half-million ongoing crisis in Syria. He called for Cardinal Pell euros in expenses in its first six months international unity against the Islamic of its existence. Vatican watchers sug- State to protect Assyrian Christian Defended by Vatican gest the leak was intended to discredit villages in northeast Syria. As many The director of the Holy See Press Cardinal Pell, who has been aggres- as 400 Christians may have been Office, Federico Lombardi, S.J., came sively seeking to reform Vatican finan- seized during attacks by Islamic State out swinging on Feb. 27 in response cial institutions and processes. “The ar- extremists. “It is time for the interna- to a collection of articles published in ticle makes direct personal attacks that tional community to work very closely the Italian weekly L’Espresso. The arti- should be considered undignified and with Syria and also with Iraq, who are cles purport to show internal struggles petty,” Father Lombardi said. really the real victims of these takfiri within the Vatican on ongoing eco- and jihadist groups,” Patriarch Laham nomic reforms. “Passing confidential From CNS, RNS and other sources.

March 16 , 2015 America 11 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

DISPATCH | JOHANNESBURG ployed urban poor, who have not ben- efited from almost 21 years of A.N.C. Democracy in Disarray rule and who have decided they will no longer rely on Zuma’s increasingly hol- he chaos in South Africa’s The D.A. immediately challenged low promises. It’s an unlikely alliance by Parliament on Feb. 12—the the speaker’s actions, charging that it any estimation—a party dedicated to Texpulsion of one party and the was a violation of Parliament to use Obama-style social market capitalism walkout of a number of others during armed police in what is a “gun-free and a socialist movement that offers President Jacob Zuma’s annual State zone.” When no satisfactory response few clear policies other than wealth re- of the Nation address—was arguably came from the speaker, the D.A. walked distribution. the worst moment in the history of out, followed by a number of smaller What united them on Feb. 12 South Africa’s legislature. The specta- opposition parties. In effect, 30 percent was disgust at the high-handed and cle was rooted in deep discontent with of South Africa’s Parliament had left or self-serving practices of the A.N.C. and the president and the ruling African been ejected. Jacob Zuma. In the aftermath of the National Congress. Throughout this process President address, the D.A. parliamentary lead- The left-wing Economic er, Mmusi Maimane, has described Freedom Fighters, an emerg- Zuma’s address was President Zuma as a disgrace to the ing political rival to the A.N.C., office and called for his dismissal. vowed to use the address to chal- arguably the worst This will almost certainly not lenge Mr. Zuma on the use of $20 moment in the history happen. Holding 63 percent of the million in public funds to reno- seats in the House, the A.N.C. can vate his private home at Nkandla, of the legislature. block any such attempt. The par- Kwazulu Natal Province. Zuma ty leadership will also not remove has refused to respond to oppo- him—unless they think ordinary sition questions about the scandal and Zuma barely reacted, apart from gig- voters will turn against the A.N.C. at ignored E.F.F.’s call to “Pay back the gling. He made no mention of the in- the next election. money!” cident in his speech, apparently uncon- Though the majority of A.N.C. Just before Zuma’s address, a num- cerned that in effect the State of the supporters do not seem to care about ber of parliamentarians from E.F.F. and Nation address had become a presiden- Mr. Zuma’s possible misdeeds or the Democratic Alliance—a center-right tial pep-talk to his own party. breakdown in Parliament or—fearing party and the official opposition— The illegality of E.F.F.’s initial ac- in some cases for their welfare grants— were harassed, arrested and then re- tions notwithstanding, this incident feel they cannot do anything about it, leased. Riot police with water-cannons reflects the grave divisions in South many former A.N.C. supporters, and were deployed outside Parliament to African politics. On a symbolic level, even a few A.N.C. members, agree with deal with possible protesters, and cell the two major parties that walked out the opposition’s analysis. They see the phones within the building were tem- represented sections of South African ruling party as a corrupt organization porarily jammed. society that already feel marginalized. dedicated to its own enrichment, will- Even before Zuma could begin, The Democratic Alliance represents ing to flout the rule of law and use or- E.F.F. members interjected as promised. mainly white voters and the middle gans of state for its own purposes. After a few minutes, the speaker of the class as well as sections of the business Noting the use of riot police out- house ordered parliamentary securi- community not affiliated with the rul- side Parliament, armed police within ty, augmented by armed plainclothes ing A.N.C. and its so-called “patriotic” and the attempts to block cell-phone police, to expel the 25 E.F.F. members. elite. (In this usage, “patriotic” suggests communication during the address, They were dragged out, some of them unreserved support for the A.N.C., not many are concerned that South African sustaining minor injuries in the process. love of country or support for the con- democracy is heading toward a police stitution, the rule of law and the Bill of state. They fear that this, not the con- Rights.) ditions depicted in President Zuma’s ANTHONY EGAN, S.J., a member of the Jesuit Institute South Africa, is one of America’s The E.F.F. claims to speak for the in- speech, is the real state of the nation. Johannesburg, South Africa, correspondents. creasingly radicalized under- or unem- ANTHONY EGAN

12 America March 16, 2015 March 16 , 2015 America 13 WASHINGTON FRONT The Lives of David Carr

ven in Washington there are an alley in Minneapolis or from an Respect Matters. David was a tough things more important than earlier bout with cancer. At the wake reporter and often a critical colum- Epolitics. There are losses more of a beloved cousin who died of a nist, but many of those he covered and profound than an election defeat or drug overdose, my dad whispered to worked with recalled the respect and the failure of a piece of legislation. David, “Is this what you have planned fairness he brought to journalism. He When we lose someone who reminds for us?” With the help of God, and made judgments in his column every us of what is important and what is many others, David took a different Monday, but, given his own failings not, there are lessons for personal, path. His rise and recovery were made and wounds, he was rarely judgmental. public and religious life. For me, and possible by second, third and fourth He treated interns, waiters, taxi driv- apparently many others, my youngest chances and by his faith, hard work ers and homeless people like they were brother, David Carr, was such a per- as a reporter, AA partners and good Pulitzer Prize winners. son. friends, and especially by his wife Jill Faith Gives Hope. David was a be- On Feb. 12 I got a stunning call and three daughters, Erin, Meagan liever, a product of his strong Irish that David had collapsed and died at and Madeline. Though the age of 58 in the newsroom of The he had no distinguished David’s life was New York Times, where he served as degrees nor an establish- a media columnist. As I tried to reach ment résumé, The Times far too short, but our family, the terrible news was al- took a chance on David, it was very full. ready on our phone and TV screens. and he became, in the I was horrified. But minutes later, we words of the publish- saw the beginning of an outpouring er, “one of the most gifted journalists Catholic family and his reliance on of memories and reflections on the who has ever worked at The New York God in recovery. Neither pious nor Internet, in the media and later at his Times.” self-righteous, he found strength and wake and funeral. Family Comes First. David’s twin direction from his Catholic faith. He David’s life was far too short, but it daughters saved his life and gave it once addressed a group of bishops on was very full, with so many unbeliev- purpose. He brought his infant twins the church and addiction: “The uncon- able downs and ups that even he had to to the local parish seeking baptism, ditional love of the church could possi- fact-check it for his book The Night of saying that he could be a bad son, bly mean the difference between some- the Gun, in which he reported his hell- employee, friend, but not a bad fa- body living or dying.... By demonstrat- ish life as a coke addict and his rise to ther. The pastor simply said “welcome ing a willingness to minister to those become a loving and loved father, a re- home.” Our parents and family never afflicted with this disease, the church spected journalist, valued mentor and gave up on David, which made his becomes better.” I’m grateful David friend. David did not hide his failings recovery and achievements sources of lived to see Pope Francis and hear and mistakes; he documented them in enormous relief and gratitude. his calls for greater mercy, a humble his book and acknowledged them in Loyalty Counts. David challenged church and a loving faith. his column. But the overwhelming re- the media status quo and his own In his consoling and challeng- sponses to his passing focused on the paper, but he was a fierce defender of ing homily during the funeral Mass, good he had done and the lessons we good reporting in The Times and be- America’s James Martin, S.J., remind- can learn from his unique journey. yond. David was a demanding, often ed us that David was not a saint, but There Are Second Chances. We profane boss, but also a mentor who he was a miracle—an example of how could have lost David decades ago in offered young reporters chances to God’s grace, a family’s love, honest fail and grow and his enduring loyalty work and loyal friends can lift all of us JOHN CARR is director of the Initiative on and encouragement. Being his friend sinners to live with faith, hope and love Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at or colleague was not always easy, but and leave our piece of this world a bet-

Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. it was never dull and often rewarding. ter place. JOHN CARR CARR: CHESTER HIGGINS, JR. / THE NEW YORK TIMES PHOTO OF DAVID

14 America March 16, 2015 FROM OUR BLOGS In Caracas, Arrest of Mayor is Proof of Dictatorship Kevin Clarke Encountering the Other in Shake- INTERVIEW speare, Judith Valente Sean Salai, S.J., interviews Camille Paglia about the Seeing Washington from the Piazza Catholic roots of her cultural criticism. of Mount Vernon, Joseph McAuley

WHAT YOU ARE READING Cardinal Wuerl speaks out on Pope THEATER Francis and his discontents Rob Weinert-Kendt reviews “The Iceman Cometh,” Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M. with Nathan Lane. Fortunate Pilgrims Carolyn Martin Buscarino The Monk and Me, Kaya Oakes In San Francisco, a Lenten Examina- PODCAST tion for Children Goes Awry Eric LeCompte of Jubilee USA talks about debt Jim McDermott, S.J. relief for the world’s poor on “America This Week.” Want to ‘take up,’ rather than ‘give up’ something for Lent? Try the Acts of Mercy, Elizabeth Tenety

“Admit it, ask for forgiveness, and do your penance.” —James Bannon on Brian Williams and the Media’s Profit-Driven Ratings War

March 16, 2015 America 15 Rediscovering Jesus Pope Francis wants you to get personal. BY TIMOTHY P. SCHILLING

hat is the lifeblood of the church and not stand empty-handed before this pervasive suffering. We its service to the world? Pope Francis may address it with a healing love that casts out fear. This says nothing new in “The Joy of the love comes from God, and we have recourse to it thanks to Gospel” when he stresses the impor- Jesus, the Son of God, who died that we might embrace it. tance of a personal relationship with In his Gospel we find an answer to “our deepest needs” (No. WJesus Christ. What is striking, however, is the passion with 265). “Those who accept Jesus’ offer of salvation are set free which he makes his case and the fullness of his account of from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness” (No. 1). what that relationship involves. As a Catholic working in one of the world’s most secular- What Gets in the Way ized countries, I am acutely aware of the timeliness of this Unfortunately, we Christians sometimes forget what we are exhortation. Here in the Netherlands, the recent 50-year about. In “The Joy of the Gospel,” Francis perceives that we decline in church involvement has been accompanied by a (he explicitly includes himself ) at times shut God out and proportionate decline of belief in the divinity of Christ and lose our enthusiasm for sharing and proclaiming his love. of attestation to a personal relationship with God. I cannot How can this be? In a particularly insightful section (Nos. help but wonder about the relationship between these de- 76-109), he describes the temptations faced by those who velopments, especially given Christ’s reminder, “Without me work in and for the church. As I read this account of how you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). I am also intrigued by the fact worldliness undermines the would-be evangelist, my first that signs of new life here in the Dutch church have come thought was, when did the pope start stalking me? Time most visibly from ecclesial communities that strongly em- and again, he cites examples of blasé egoism that I recognize phasize a personal relationship with Christ. For this reason from my own life. I would like to draw attention to the pope’s treatment of this The underlying problem, of course, is that while Christ theme in “The Joy of the Gospel.” has definitively “saved” us, we still have to accept that salva- Since papal teachings arrive steadily from Rome, we may tion and allow it to flower within us. Meanwhile, we are beset be tempted to treat them as pro forma exercises—as just an- by influences that urge us to do otherwise. The nature of this other sign the pope is doing his job. But Francis warns re- social pressure, Francis observes, varies from religious perse- peatedly against indifference. The main reason for “The Joy cution and the lack of religious freedom in some countries of the Gospel,” he makes clear, is not to close the Year of to more subtle forms of resistance to the Gospel elsewhere. Faith and summarize perspectives from the 2012 Synod on The latter applies in both my native country, the United the New Evangelization but to serve a suffering humanity. States, and my current European home, the Netherlands, The human race suffers physically and mentally. It suffers where highly secularized market economies preach compet- from poverty, disease, thwarted opportunity and violence; itiveness and materialism. In thoroughly capitalist environ- from loneliness, emptiness and the fear of death. In his anal- ments, the highest choice (one is led to believe) is the choice ysis the pope ranges widely but also gets specific—mention- for oneself. All else is relative. As for salvation, a range of ing, for example, the current plights of refugees and victims options is on offer, and invariably the alternatives are more of human trafficking. In his view, no one is free of suffering. easily and cheaply had than the one proposed by the church. Even those who insulate themselves against it know fear Within such a context it is not surprising that faith corrodes, within, feel the decline of the body and see the pain borne turning the (aspiring) loving giver into a demanding con- by others if not by themselves. sumer. Compounding the problem is widespread suspicion “The Joy of the Gospel” reminds us, however, that we do and cynicism toward the church’s message—some of it un- derstandable in light of the sex-abuse crisis, for example— that induces many Christians “to relativize or conceal their TIMOTHY P. SCHILLING writes from the Center for Parish Spirituality, identity and convictions” (No. 79). Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The center is sponsored by the Congregation of I recognize myself in this description of the self-conscious the Blessed Sacrament. proclaimer. How hard it is to speak of Christ in a country

16 America March 16, 2015 where the faith has been largely abandoned! How hard it is to get children to church when none of THE POPE AT PRAYER. Pope Francis prays before an icon of their classmates go! How hard it is to recommend Mary, Salvation of the Roman People, in a chapel of the Basilica discipleship in a rich country that excels at meeting of St. Mary Major in Rome the morning after his election. immediate needs! One tires of answering for and defending the church. It is so much easier to keep quiet and fit in. I see myself, too, in the pope’s warning against “an inordinate concern for personal freedom and relaxation” (No. 78). And not only myself: this pre- occupation thrives in Dutch society. Few concepts resonate more winningly in the Western world than self-actualization, and this is increasingly as- sociated with autonomy (“I alone decide about my life”) and comfort-based approaches to “wellness.” It amazes me how much time, energy and money can go into self-care. Yes, certainly, we must nourish the body and mind God has given us. But far too often I see myself putting self-indulgence ahead of loving service. Francis, bracingly confrontational, calls self-absorption “slow suicide” (No. 272). I could go on. Let us just say I find the pope’s analysis of the situation (far more extensive than I have presented here) to be persuasive—painfully so.

Renewing the Relationship So what to do about it? How are we to emerge from our self-centeredness, that we might wel- come again and share God’s love? According to Francis, the key lies in “a renewed personal encoun- ter with Jesus Christ” (Nos. 3 and 8). We must hear again—or for the first time—thekerygma , the core of the Gospel message: “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is liv- ing at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you” (No. 164). And not only hear it. We must experience in a profound, existential way that Christ’s resurrection is not an event of the past but “a vital power...an irresistible force,” by means of which beauty is every day born anew in the world (No. 276). We must make room in ourselves that he might live and reign through our lives. Happily, Francis does not leave it at a love- ly image. He goes on to specify reorientations of thought and practice that will help us to grow in communion with Christ. What follows is a brief summary of his recommendations. A reorientation of thought. The essential first step in this process of rediscovering Christ is, of course, to acknowledge our full dependence on God in coming to know God. Only God can bridge the CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE

March 16, 2015 America 17 gap between him and us. Renewal of the personal encounter hand of the Father. with Christ thus begins with an appeal to the Holy Spirit, A reorientation of practice. But knowing Christ is more that he might lead us to Christ. Such an appeal is indeed than a mental exercise. Above all it is an existential encounter already a sign of the Spirit at work within us (God is ever the that remakes us. For it to occur, we need spiritual practices initiator). And Francis encourages us with his observation that invite Christ into our lives. Francis recommends to this that Christ always meets us more than halfway. “Whenever end the tried and true: listening to God’s Word (at Mass, but we take a step toward Jesus, we come to realize that he is also in Bible study and lectio divina), receiving the Eucharist, already there, waiting for us with open arms” (No. 3). turning to him in prayer (particularly in contemplative forms If a willing heart is the essential precondition to a vibrant like eucharistic adoration), receiving spiritual direction, find- friendship with the Lord, Francis points out that we need ing support in a small Christian community and performing to engage our minds as well. works of mercy and reconcili- The mind allows us to focus on ation. Interesting to see in the what is truly important and to Getting to know Christ Netherlands is how helpful new imagine unforeseen possibilities ecclesial movements and small (always helpful when dealing better involves learning Christian communities can be with God). We Christians eas- in promoting a vital relation- ily get bogged down in “second- to think as he does—to ship with Christ. The Focolare ary” matters—church politics or movement, Sant’Egidio, the lesser points of doctrine, for ex- join him in seeking what Catholic Charismatic Renewal, ample—“that do not convey the he seeks and loving the Emmanuel Community and heart of Christ’s message.” The many others prioritize the per- pope reminds us that we recog- what he loves. sonal relationship with Christ nize a hierarchy of truths in our and send forth believers who are tradition (Nos. 34-37) and that ready to share their faith with love of God and love of neighbor others. At the national resource are the points Christ himself put at the top of the list (Mk center for parishes where I work, we are looking into how 12:28-31). Getting to know Christ better involves learning parishes can do more of the same. to think as he does—to join him in seeking what he seeks With Jesus in the world. To Catholic ears, “a personal re- and loving what he loves (No. 267). lationship with Christ” may sound like a private, unworld- Expanding our minds is also necessary, because, as ly encounter. But Francis says it is the opposite. While ac- Francis notes, we enclose Christ in “dull categories” of our knowledging that in trying times the church may be tempted own making (No. 11). Instead of letting God “bring us be- to reject the world and retreat into a closed-off friendship yond ourselves to attain the fullest truth of our being” (No. with the Lord, he warns that doing so is a betrayal of the 8), we either detach ourselves from God or reduce God to Gospel: “True faith in the incarnate Son of God is insepa- our size. One finds startling manifestations of this in the rable from self-giving, from membership in the community, Netherlands, where increasingly “God” is understood (even from service, from reconciliation with others” (No. 88). In by large numbers of Catholics) to be an impersonal, higher fact, Jesus calls to us from the world, where he is present “in force. According to the latest numbers in the research project the faces of others, in their voices, in their pleas” (No. 91). God in Nederland (1966-present), 55 percent of Catholics Being church, Francis says, means participating in God’s fall into this category. Sadly, for these Catholics God is an great plan of fatherly love. It means “proclaiming and bring- abstraction, and—as I often remind people in parishes ing his salvation into our world, which often goes astray and here—you cannot have a relationship with an abstraction. needs to be encouraged, given hope and strengthened on the The same survey shows only a slight majority of respondents way” (No. 114). Just as much, it means recognizing that God (55 percent) calling Jesus “the Son of God or sent by God,” is already out there, active and alive, for heaven and earth are with the rest saying he was “an extraordinary person with full of God’s glory. extraordinary gifts” (30 percent), “an ordinary person” (12 With Christ we need not fear the future, for in him all percent) or “did not exist, is a legend” (3 percent). things are “gathered up—things in heaven and things on This research confirms my impression from 11 years of earth” (No. 181; cf. Eph 1:10). He reconciles “God and work with Dutch parishes—namely, that Arianism, the man, time and eternity, flesh and spirit, person and society” denial of Christ’s divinity, is hardly a thing of the past. In (No. 229). Our world is ever in his hands, and his is a ten- answer to this challenge, the pope urges us to rediscover the derness that never disappoints (No. 3). This is the joy that Jesus of the Creed: the crucified one, now seated at the right Christians know and gladly proclaim. A

18 America March 16, 2015 Who Speaks for Islam? Muslim authorities call for an end to militant violence. BY ELIAS D. MALLON

hy don’t they speak out?” religious minorities have appeared in newspapers and lan- Faced with the savage persecution of guages rarely picked up by news agencies that publish in Christians and other religious minori- Western languages. It has not been the case that no one was ties in Syria and Iraq, that is a question speaking out but that no one in the West—for various rea- ‘Wone often hears as the atrocities of the so-called Islamic sons—was listening. State continue in the name of Islam. Why aren’t moderate Muslim leaders speaking out against the Islamic State (also Voices Raised known as ISIS or ISIL)? Until recently the response to this The situation has changed considerably in recent months, question has been that Muslims are indeed speaking out, and the non-Muslim world needs to take notice. Muslim and loudly. But there have been two major obstacles to their scholars as well as official and unofficial organizations voices being heard. have been issuing significant condemnations of the move- First, Islam is not a centralized religion like Catholicism; ment called the Islamic State and its self-declared caliphate. there is no single person or institution that speaks for all Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husayni al-Sistani, the leading Iraqi Sunnis or all Shiites, much less for all branches of Islam. Muslim authority, issued a brief fatwa in June condemning When the pope speaks out, he speaks for more than a billion the persecution of Christians and Yazidis and inviting them Catholics. There is in Islam no person or structure paral- to seek refuge in southern Iraq. lel to the pope or the secretary general of a religious body. On the Sunni side, Muhammad Haniff Hassan and Second, many of the voices raised against crimes targeting Mustaza Bahari, two Muslim scholars, published a list of 86 organizations and individuals that have spoken out against ELIAS D. MALLON, S.A., is external affairs officer at the Catholic Near the Islamic State. The list contains statements made by the East Welfare Association in New York, N.Y. Grand Muftis of Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and the polit-

FINAL REST. Men place a headstone at the grave of Seydo Mehmud Cumo, 44, at a cemetery in Suruc, Turkey, Oct. 11. Cumo was a Syrian Kurdish fighter killed in clashes with Islamic State militants in Kobani, Syria. CNS PHOTO/UMIT BEKTAS, REUTERS CNS PHOTO/UMIT BEKTAS,

March 16, 2015 America 19 ical leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia in tone and ever so slightly reminiscent of the language of and Iran, together with numerous Islamic universities, soci- papal encyclicals. It is most assuredly not a document that eties and individual scholars. translates well into sound bites. This is precisely what makes The Vatican News Service (07/26/14) and Eurasia the document so extremely important. Muslim scholars and Review (10/1/14) ran articles on the many different non-Muslim scholars of Islam will be studying this docu- Muslim groups that are ment for some time. responding to the chal- It is often said, with lenge of the Islamic State, Islam is not a centralized some justification, that declaring it illegal by the religion like Catholicism; there is Islam does not presently standards of both Islamic have a discipline similar and international law. The no single person or institution that to what Christians call most detailed and perhaps theology. Instead, Islam most devastating critique speaks for all Sunnis or all Shiites, has developed a highly so- and condemnation of the phisticated system of juris- Islamic State, however, much less for all branches of Islam. prudence called fiqh. For was released in English Muslims, jurisprudence in September in an open letter to “Dr. Ibrahim Awwad Al- is not merely law; it is the systematized guidelines for liv- Badri, alias ‘Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi,’ and to the fighters and ing a life in conformity with the will of God. Never purely followers of the self-declared ‘Islamic State.’” Al Badri is the theoretical, Islamic jurisprudence is geared toward solving leader of the Islamic State who declared himself caliph on practical problems and balancing a 1,400 year tradition with June 29, 2014. He has changed his name several times, each modern exigencies. Both Sunni and Shiite Muslims have time giving himself a grander pedigree, ultimately linking developed over the centuries an extremely complex set of himself to the tribe of the Prophet by taking on the name principles (the “pillars of jurisprudence”—usūl al-fiqh) to Al-Qurayshi. The letter pointedly acknowledges none of his help scholars address contemporary problems. There is a hi- recently assumed names, to say nothing of his title as caliph. erarchy in the application of the principles of jurisprudence The letter was originally written in classical Arabic and that is clearly evidenced in the letter. is clearly intended first and foremost for Al-Badri and the fighters of the Islamic State. Even a cursory reading indicates By the Book that the document was not produced primarily for media The first principle of Islamic jurisprudence is, not surprising- distribution. For the average reader, especially in the West, ly, the Quran. A sophisticated exegesis searches the Quran the document is ponderous, detailed in the extreme, foreign for guidance, taking into account the language, the circum- stances in which the verses were revealed and their context within the entire Quran. In second place is the Sunna. The Sunna is a vast collection of sayings by the Prophet or stories about the Prophet re- lated by his closest companions. There are several “canonical” collec- tions of the Sunna and an exacting science of determining the value and relevance of any given tradi- tion. There are traditions that are “strong” and those that are “weak.” This difference appears in the let- ter. Therefore, traditions have to be carefully sifted out and evaluated before they are included in an argu- ment. Third, there are the examples from Islamic history—a type of precedent. Last, there are interpre- tive principles that help the scholar

20 America March 16, 2015 deal with situations for which there are no clear precedents. These are in decreasing order of authority. The Quran is the highest authority, followed by the Sunna. History and anal- ogous reasoning in unprecedented situations are of a lesser authority. The letter deals with 24 topics. The opening topics lay the ground for or against the Islamic legitimacy of the Islamic State. As would be expected, jihad receives considerable attention, with subtopics like rules of conduct of jihad, in- tention, goal, killing of innocents, killing of emissaries, etc. Each topic is treated in detail, starting with the Quran and working down through the contemporary situation. The letter declares the killing of innocents to bemūbiqat, a mortal sin (No. 6). The killing of emissaries, a category that includes reporters and aid workers, is haram, or total- ly forbidden (No. 7). In dealing with Christians the letter states: “These [Arab] Christians are not combatants against Islam or transgressors against it, indeed they are friends, neighbors and co-citizens. From the legal perspective of Shariah law, they fall under ancient agreements that are around 1,400 years old, and the rulings of jihad do not ap- ply to them” (No. 10). The paragraph after that declares that the Yazidis, whom the Islamic State fighters consider “devil worshippers,” are, in fact, “people of the Scriptures,” together with Jews and Christians, and hence protected. The language of the letter, especially in English transla- tion, contains expressions and references that readers not familiar with Islam could easily overlook. In the paragraph dealing with slavery, the letter recognizes that the Islamic State has taken and sold human beings as slaves. The letter states, “You have revived strife and sedition, and corruption and lewdness on the earth” (No. 12). The wordsedition in the English text has the Arabic word fitnah after it in paren- theses. The notion offitnah in Islam evokes very powerful feel- ings. Fitnah is rebellion, the breakdown of all social and mor- al norms and total chaos. After the death of the Prophet, some Arabian tribes abandoned Islam and fought against the Muslims. That was called the First Fitnah. Islamic law provides for the relaxation of many rules in order to avoid fitnah. In Islamic jurisprudence, fitnah would never be the lesser of two evils. The second expression is “to spread corruption fasād( ) on the earth.” Several times in the Quran the expression “to spread corruption on the earth” appears, and it is looked upon as the greatest of crimes and the crime subject to the harshest penalties (5:32, 34; 7:57, etc.) Anyone familiar with Islamic legal language would recognize that this is the harshest accusation one Muslim can make against another. At its publication in September 2014, the document was signed by 126 Muslim leaders and scholars. Several Muslims have added their names since the publication.

March 16, 2015 America 21 An Alert From Authority While the document is extraordinary by any standard, It is important to keep several things in mind when read- it would be unwise to either overestimate or underestimate ing the document. First and foremost, it is an intra-Muslim its authority. As mentioned earlier, there is no one person document. It is not an Islamic statement on worldwide ter- or institution that speaks authoritatively for all Muslims. It rorism, a judgment on jihadis all over the world or a judg- is to be expected that there will be Muslims who disagree ment on any global issue, regardless of what non-Muslims with the document or reject it entirely. Nevertheless, there in the West might want it to be. It is addressed by a large is in Islam a principle called i j m a ‘, “consensus,” similar to the number of Muslim scholars to a particular Muslim and his Catholic principle of sensus fidelium. movement. While by no means the only Muslim judgment According to this principle, if Muslims agree on some- against the Islamic validity of the Islamic State, it is by far thing, they are immune to error. Of course, the vast major- the most specific, the most concrete and the one in the most ity of the instances of ijma‘ are judged after the fact—the traditional form. There is a 24-point executive summary for community came to an agreement on something in the past those who do not wish or are not able to follow the tight and it has become common practice. There are, however, no reasoning of an Islamic fatwa. The 10th point is: “It is forbid- criteria as to exactly how or when an ijma‘ is achieved. Nor den in Islam to harm or mistreat—in any way—Christians is there any given number of Muslims or percentage thereof or any ‘People of the Scripture.’” The seventh point is: “It is who must agree on something for it to constitute a consen- forbidden to kill journalists and aid workers.” sus. Nonetheless, the unusually varied and large number of As a religious ruling and as an intra-Muslim document, it Muslim leaders and scholars who have come out against the would be unfair to look in the document for any support of Islamic validity of the Islamic State and who have condemned things like U.S. policy in the Middle East or the civil war in its atrocities must carry great weight in the Muslim world. Syria. Muslim religious documents are no more obliged to While there may be some who do not agree with every- approve of U.S. foreign policy than are documents issued by thing in the document or some who do not think it goes far the Vatican. In point of fact, in the last 15 years the Vatican enough, it remains a masterpiece of Islamic juridical thought has on several occasions disagreed with U.S. policies in the and procedure and a document eminently worthy of the re- Middle East. It would be unrealistic and unfair to expect spect and attention of all religious people who are commit- more of Muslims. ted to interreligious understanding. A

22 America March 16, 2015 On Dying Well A paradoxical relationship with death BY JESSICA KEATING

ast year Brittany Maynard’s controversial decision Despite modern efforts to deny death’s sting and to excise to “die with dignity” captured the national imagina- it from the daily goings-on of life, we remain keenly aware tion and rekindled the contentious debate over the of death’s nearness, fearful of its capricious cruelty. Indeed, right to die. She was lauded by many for what they euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are as much about Lcalled her courage. The Washington Post columnist Richard unseemliness and fear of suffering as they are about death. Cohen praised her suicide, calling it “admirable,” “sensible” and “dignified.” Others have derided Ms. Maynard for what they considered cowardice, calling For those who cannot see beyond her “selfish” and “prideful.” Nearly every the material horizon of death, angle of this story was exhausted as Ms. Maynard increasingly became a prop for suffering is emptied argumentation. Though in many ways she was an outlier among those who of the possibility have chosen assisted suicide, her case is important because our rapacious con- of meaning. sumption of her suffering and death has revealed just how deeply conflicted we are about these profound human reali- ties. On the one hand, we naturalize death. We make it just another point on the continuum of life. At the same time, we fear death and push it to the mar- gins of lived experience. The dead are gotten out of the house—or more often the hospital bed—and into the ground as quickly as possible. Yet on the other hand, death continues to be experienced as an evil, as a break, a foreclosing of the possibility to love a particular somebody. But the more we push death and dying to the peripheries, the more we consume the spectacle of death. Such a conten- Brittany Maynard tious and contradictory relationship is only exacerbated by the fact that suffer- ing so often accompanies death, and we are as ill-equipped A Peaceful Death? to encounter suffering as we are to face death. Euthanasia is currently prohibited in the United States, but For those who cannot see beyond the material horizon physician-assisted suicide is legal in five states. Oregon led of death, suffering that does not appear to have proximate the way in 1994, followed by Vermont, Washington, New material benefit is emptied of the possibility of meaning. Mexico and Montana. New Jersey and Connecticut are cur- rently considering legislation that would legalize the practice JESSICA KEATING is the program director of the Office of Human Dignity of physician-assisted suicide. In Europe, the Netherlands and Life Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame. was the first country to legalize voluntary active euthana-

March 16, 2015 America 23 sia, amending its Penal Code in 1985. Voluntary active eu- a peaceful death.” thanasia is distinct from physician-assisted suicide in that With the advance of utilitarian idealism and medical the doctor, and not the patient, administers a life-ending technology, it seems that nothing but a peaceful death will be injection. Belgium and Luxembourg have since introduced acceptable, wherein peace is reduced to the absence of pain, similar legislation. In 2004, a Dutch doctor euthanized a emotional and physical suffering or the loss of cognitive and Catholic nun, who was dying of cancer, against her will be- physical abilities. This understanding of peace emptiescom - cause he believed her religion prevented her from rationally passion of its original depth of meaning as co-experiencing, assessing her situation. suffering with. This logic cannot account for the martyrs or In February of last year, the Belgian parliament voted to for anyone who endures great suffering all the way to the legalize euthanasia for terminally ill children with parental end. Rather, the use of this grammar masks the insidious af- consent. Belgium legalized euthanasia for adults 12 years firmation that the one who stands to lose all her abilities and ago and now leads the way in expanding euthanasia laws to suffer greatly is better off dead. Indeed, so thin an account include children. In Lithuania, the health minister has re- of peace means that the Catholic nun who was euthanized cently proposed the possibility of euthanasia for poor peo- against her will was in fact incapable of rationally assessing ple who cannot access palliative care. The logic of euthanasia her situation. and physician-assisted suicide tacitly asserts that suffering The use of the termdignity to describe this death is deep- necessarily devalues human life. In an attempt to radically ly problematic, since it masks the reality of fear and equates reconfigure and domesticate the mystery of death, a “death dignity exclusively with radical autonomy, choice and cog- with dignity”—that is, a death without suffering— becomes nitive capability. The result is the not-so-subtle implication preferable to a life that remains open to the possibility that that the person who chooses to endure diminishment and suffering can intersect with love. suffering dies a less dignified death. While the mendacious Arguments for euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide logic of this narrative of dignity is largely unexamined, the typically invoke the grammar of compassion, peace and dig- logic of absolute autonomy remains unquestioned. nity. We all hope the dying have a peaceful death. In fact, in Yet not all narratives are equal, and there is another nar- the Liturgy of the Hours, Night Prayer ends with the peti- rative that is routinely neglected or, worse, rejected out of tion, “May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and hand, a narrative grounded in the logic of the Cross. This is a narrative in which suffering unto death can be penetrated and transfigured by the mystery of love—particularly in cases like Ms. Maynard’s, when one is surrounded by loving family and friends. This transfiguration occurs in hidden in- timacies. Choosing to die early forecloses such possibilities. Had she not taken her own life with the assistance of a physi- cian, she, like many who suffer terminal illness, almost assuredly would have been stripped bare of her abilities, perhaps even her mind. Indeed, there was noth- ing material for her to gain in suffering, only loss. Almost assuredly there would have been no inspiring recovery story to tell at the end. Rather, Ms. Maynard might have become unproductive, unat- tractive, uncomfortable. She would just have been. But she would have been pres- ent in a web of relationships. Even had she fallen unconscious, she likely would have been read to, washed, dressed and kissed. She would have been gently ca- ressed, held and wept over. She would simply have been loved to the end. A

24 America March 16, 2015 March 16, 2015 America 25 VATICAN DISPATCH Partners in Protection he Center for Child Council for the Protection of Minors, flection-action. The online qualification Protection, based at the Jesuit- welcomed the outreach of the center, program sensitizes those who work Trun Pontifical Gregorian which provides support for the work with minors to the problem of sexual University in Rome, is at the forefront of his commission. “We are painfully abuse and trains them to relate to vic- of the Catholic Church’s global re- aware of the many places in the world tims/survivors of abuse. sponse to prevent the sexual abuse of where the issue of clerical sexual abuse In addition to all this, Baroness minors and vulnerable persons. in the church has not been adequately Sheila Hollins of the United Kingdom, This pioneering venture offers assis- addressed and we hope that the pon- chair of its scientific advisory board, tance, particularly through education, tifical commission and the outstanding said the center is stepping up its re- to churches and religious and nongov- work of the center will make a differ- search and teaching activities and envis- ernmental organizations, especially in ence,” he said. ages the creation of a network of aca- Africa, Asia and South America, to “We must render justice to the vic- demic institutions engaged in research enable them to deal with and prevent tims, but we must also do concerning safeguarding abuse in their fields of responsibility. all we can to prevent abuse Gregorian minors. It also provides formation for priests from happening,” Father As part of the Institute and seminarians studying in Rome and Zollner stated at the open- University is of Psychology, the center courses for members of the Roman ing ceremony. is integrated into the Curia and for new bishops. He said the center draws at the front- Gregorian University’s Established as a pilot project in on the expertise of psychol- line of efforts academic structure and January 2012, through collaboration ogists, psychiatrists, social collaborates with its fac- among the Gregorian University, the scientists, theologians and to prevent ulties of theology, canon Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, canon lawyers. It provides “a the abuse of law and social sciences. It and the Department of Child and platform for best practices” conducts interdisciplin- Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology and “a structure of assistance minors. ary research and doctor- of the State University Clinic of Ulm based on the principles of al programs. Its execu- in Germany, the center was originally subsidiarity.” The partners share re- tive director, Prof. Karlijn Demasure, based in Munich. Now, after three years sponsibility for the project and contrib- a Belgian, announced that beginning successfully conducting an e-learning ute to the development of the program. in 2016 it will offer an annual one-se- course that includes online training Since 2012 it has cooperated mester diploma course on safeguarding in awareness and prevention of sexual with partners in Argentina, Ghana, of minors and vulnerable persons for abuse of children and care for survi- Germany, India, Indonesia, Kenya, students who want to work in this field. vors, it has relocated to the Gregorian New Zealand, Spain and Uruguay, and And Father Zollner said he is discuss- University, where the inauguration cer- some 1,000 persons have participated. ing with the Dominicans and Salesians emony was held on Feb. 16. But, Zollner said, it is vital to reach out the possibility of cooperation with their In a message for the occasion to more widely, “in a culturally sensitive Roman universities. Hans Zollner, S.J., a German Jesuit way,” to churches and religious institu- In these years, the Gregorian who is president of the center, Pope tions where there is little awareness of University has shown vision and cour- Francis praised and encouraged the the problem and few resources to ad- age by working at the frontline of the center’s work. dress it. church’s global effort to prevent the Cardinal Seán O’Malley, The center’s e-learning program was sexual abuse of minors. After hosting O.F.M.Cap., head of the Pontifical developed in the period 2012 to 2014 the symposium “Toward Healing and and is currently being revised in collab- Renewal” in February 2012, which was oration with Georgetown University to attended by representatives from 100 GERARD O’CONNELL is America’s Rome develop an interdisciplinary practical, bishops’ conferences and 30 religious correspondent. America’s Vatican coverage is sponsored in part by the Jesuit communities of interactive online course based on the orders, it is now home to this important the United States. Twitter: @gerryorome. Jesuit learning model of experience-re- center. GERARD O’CONNELL

26 America March 16, 2015 FAITH IN FOCUS Paying Our Respects Life, death and the home country BY BRIAN DOYLE

he wedding was on Saturday of the uncle’s famous soft-shoe dance in our blacks, for I am reminded of my afternoon, between an while singing in pubs, which he loved forebears, and that is a warm and wel- TAmerican Irish woman and come memory. We waked the dead in an American Irish man. Both vast the old way in our family, the wake go- clans were in nearly full atten- ing all night long over the casket dance and there was a great and then everyone off to Mass deal of dancing and laughing in the morning, several men and dandling of babies. I trundling the casket down counted four young wom- the steps of the house to en who were enormously the church. pregnant and, as a priest There was a moment said to me, if God is in at the funeral, just af- high humor today one ter one of the pregnant or more of those women women read aloud from will deliver during the the New Testament and wedding reception and before the older brother we will welcome new of the deceased spoke a guests to the feast. wry and heartfelt eulogy, Sunday everyone slept when a small great-niece in and then went to late needed to go to the crying Mass. room, and her lanky father car- Monday morning was the ried her down the aisle, through funeral of the bride’s beloved bach- the massed rank of the clan of both elor uncle. More than 50 of the people the bride and the deceased, and as the who had been at the wedding were at to do and did very well and fairly often. father and the child walked down the the funeral. Three of the four pregnant At the funeral a number of people aisle several hands, male and female, women were there also and the priest laughed so hard they wept. rose up to touch the man and the child, said it would be good for one to deliver Because so many of us at the wed- just for an instant, without any drama here because we have a lovely baptis- ding and the funeral were American or even conscious intent, I think, and I mal font in this church. Irish, there was Gaelic in the air and stood there, in the back of the church, None of the pregnant women deliv- most of the older men wore the black near the baptismal font, and wept, for ered during the funeral, although one suits that every American Irish male of reasons that are not wholly clear to me of them said to me later she thought a certain age has in his closet for wakes even now as I try to speak them with she was going to deliver right there in and funerals. Most of the younger men my fingers. Life and love and death her pew because she was laughing so wore suits of many different colors and and laughter and black suits and ba- hard when the deceased uncle’s neph- sheens. The priest and I noticed this bies on shoulders and Gaelic in the air ew did a spot-on hilarious imitation and he said with a smile that it is the and your beloved bachelor uncle open- nature of traditions to change, this is ing his mouth to sing in the pub of a normal and natural, and we would be Friday evening. BRIAN DOYLE is the editor of Portland foolish to gnash our teeth about the It was long ago our people left Magazine and the author, most recently, of A Book of Uncommon Prayer (Ave Maria loss of the old ways, but I do like the Ireland, and well they should have,

Press). way so many of us of a certain age are fleeing famine and savagery at the TIM LUECKE ART:

March 16 , 2015 America 27 hands of the imperialist slavemaster, and finding peace and joy in America, where they were free to speak their minds and worship as they please; and not one of us at the wedding and the funeral would choose to return to the wet green rocky island from which so many of our forebears came, for our beloved America, despite its greed and violence, is a nation unlike any other in its verve and roar, its creativity and courage, its sweep and scope, the na- tion where our people came to harbor after many a storm at sea; but very many of us at the wedding and the fu- neral these last few days were proud that we were Meiriceánach Ghaelach, American Irish, and the only thing that would have made it an even more deliciously American Irish triad of days is if two of the pregnant women had delivered their babies, one as a sudden wet gift to the newly married couple and one as a vigorous squall- ing prayer in memory of the deceased, may he rest in peace. A GENERATION FAITH

28 America March 16, 2015 Books & Culture

FILM | JOHN ANDERSON does not exist in order to give global warming enough time to melt the ice CLIMATE CHANGE ARTISTS caps and make them more money? Don’t anyone leave this room; I can’t ‘Merchants of Doubt’ play scientists on TV. find my wallet. ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. James Hansen, Right now, there are readers saying, adjunct professor in the Department of Earth “But isn’t there some question about and Environmental Sciences at Columbia whether climate change exists?” And University, in “Merchants of Doubt” as the film reveals, that’s precisely what the eponymous “Merchants” are paid to achieve. And they don’t even bother denying it. “I’m not a scientist, but I play one on TV, occasionally,” laughs Marc Morano. “O.K., more than occasion- ally.” Morano is one of the well-paid “experts” who regularly materialize on places like CNN and FoxNews and insist in the face of actual science, and genuine scientists, that the earth is not getting warmer—and if it is, humans are not to blame. (That Kenner got Morano, and got him to say what he says, is a minor miracle.) It was much the same with ciga- magine the climate-change debate Kenner’s don’t-we-wish-it-were-fic- rettes. As those old masters of disin- as a Wagnerian opera, and what we tion film about the lushly financed dis- formation at the public relations giant Iare hearing now—as Pope Francis information industry at work on be- Hill & Knowlton told their clients at prepares his encyclical on the environ- half of U.S. coal, gas and oil and all its Big Tobacco years ago, all you need to ment—is the overture: the rising and attendant industries, working to deny create is doubt. The public and its pol- swelling of clangorous themes and mo- that climate change exists. Peopled iticians will do the rest. Because they tifs, i.e., talking points, about a socialist by many of the professional liars who really don’t want the truth. pope and a leftist church, all of which used to work for Big Tobacco and now That money is the root of all evil is will set the stage for a full-throated work for Big Oil, it is a business that hardly news, but Kenner’s documen- assault on the integrity of the papacy, has, for years, used the ignorance and tary is more than just a plaint against a chorus of faux-theological rebukes, biases of the American public against corruption. He is, for one thing, a first- Rick Santorum carrying a spear and, it. Grievous enough, as sins go. But the rate filmmaker, who has created—no, ultimately, the bluntest attack on crimes catalogued by Kenner include conjured—a work of engaging cine- Rome since the Visigoths were at its the rape of creation itself. The film ma out of what is largely whole cloth. gates. eventually leads its viewer to the new The cloth consists of archival footage It may also be, for all Francis’ no- oil fields of the Arctic, areas of explo- and talking heads, but also a lot of vi- ble pronouncements about first world ration that have been made accessible sual mischief that keeps the eye as en- greed and third world need, perhaps only by global warming and are now gaged as the mind. Opening the film his sharpest rebuke yet of pure evil. coveted by the likes of Exxon-Mobil. at Hollywood’s Magic Castle, with the For those who consider that some Wait a minute: You mean the de- magician Jamy Ian Swiss dazzling the kind of gross overstatement, we of- niers—and those who finance them— viewer with some sleight of hand (and

PHOTO:MELISSA MOSELEY/HBO fer Merchants of Doubt, Robert have been arguing that climate change making some pointed remarks about

March 16 , 2015 America 29 HOT AIR? Michael Skeptics Society and onetime Shermer, executive climate-change denier himself. director of the Skeptics He doesn’t quite say it, but what Society, changed his position on climate turned him off to the global-warm- change in 2006. ing mission was the smugness of its missionaries. But he read all the data, questioned his own skepti- cism and now tries to convert peo- ple at, say, a libertarian convention in Las Vegas, where he is attacked as a Communist. Why are so many on the politi- cal right seemingly immune to the theories about global warming? Because what’s more important to many, Shermer says, is “being a consistent tribal member.” They honest deception versus outright warming,” to “the earth is warming but see themselves as member of a col- fraud), Kenner employs a palette of it’s not caused by humans” to “the earth lective, a tribe, and what the tribe be- manipulated images—playing cards is warming and it’s caused by humans, lieves is that global warming is a hoax. floating through the air, incriminat- but to do anything about it would You see the same thing when one ing documents levitating their way to cause economic collapse”—which, he of the film’s real heroes, Bob Inglis—a a Xerox machine—to keep the viewer says revealingly, “is what many of the former South Carolina congressman amused as well as appalled. enviros want.” and dyed-in-the-wool political con- There are some arguments to be What are the motives of these servative-turned-environmental activ- made with the film, which is based men? “Most people would assume the ist—visits a Mississippi radio station. on the book of the same name by answer is money,” Oreskes says. But The host is, predictably, aghast. “As a Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. no; both Freds, each of whom at one conservative I’m supposed to accept Oreskes is a bright, intelligent pres- time worked for a tobacco company, this?” the radio guy says in response ence on screen and in one sequence are also old Cold Warriors who see the to Inglis. And while Inglis is too polite addresses the cases of the Freds—the environmental movement as part of a to say it, what the viewer has to ask is, physicists Fred Singer and Fred Seitz, leftist-cum-communist conspiracy. “Since when does being a political con- who have become the poster boys for But that doesn’t necessarily mean servative mean you have to deliberately climate-change denial because they their case is not about money. The ignore the truth?” Inglis has not, as far are actually scientists. Oreskes says anti-big-government interests in this as we know, embraced every other po- that some years ago she and her col- country are not against accepting sition of so-called “liberal America.” He leagues set out to compile a list of all Medicare; they’re just against regu- does not keep a picture of Elizabeth the scientists who, according to de- lation, because it means government Warren, say, on the dashboard of his niers, claimed that global warning was oversight of business, which means— S.U.V.—he just accepts the well-estab- a hoax. They collected all the scientific possibly—imperiled profits. The peo- lished stuff about the dying planet we papers published between 1992 and ple who keep the likes of Singer and live on, which is home to many, many 2002 that mentioned “global climate Seitz afloat, Kenner more than im- well-paid people willing to sell it out change” and read them. None disput- plies, people like the Koch brothers, and sell their souls. It is very early in ed that the environment was under want to smear the eco-movement as the year, but “Merchants of Doubt” assault by humans. Which does not left-leaning political liberals, which certainly looks like the most important keep people like Singer and Seitz from many are. And what does this have to movie of 2015, although, somehow, it claiming otherwise. do with believing in climate change? is hard to imagine that radio host in Or, for that matter, claiming what- Probably the most important Mississippi running out to see it. ever serves their purpose: As Kenner theme of “Merchants of Doubt”— shows through particularly delicious important, that is, with respect to JOHN ANDERSON is a film critic for The Wall Street Journal, Indiewire and Newsday and a series of clips, Singer’s case has evolved the soul of America—is articulated regular contributor to the Arts & Leisure section over the years from “the earth isn’t by Michael Shermer, founder of the of The New York Times.

30 America March 16, 2015 OF OTHER THINGS | MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY THE SOUNDS I LIVE BY

n the long ride home, driving my phone or laptop. Apps like “I only so far. But I think that is one of south on the New York State Heart Radio” give almost unlimited their charms, and one of the reasons OThruway, I marked the time access to radio outlets from across the I keep tuning in. Listening to satellite by listening for the slow transition of country and around the world. Many radio I could be anywhere in the world. local radio stations. I listened for a bit commercial radio stations may sound Listening to WFAN or WNYC, I to Albany’s local NPR affiliate, but I similar these days, but stations like know I am close to home. was eager for the moment, near New WBEZ in Chicago and WHYY in Traditional radio is also precious Paltz perhaps, when I could pick up Philadelphia still offer plenty of local because it is fragile. Your radio can WFUV, a public music station broad- flavor. I like tuning in now and then, break; the transmitter can be damaged. casting from Fordham University in but the variety is both heady and A struggling station can go off the air the Bronx. I had only been away a disorienting. There is at a moment’s notice. short time, but I looked forward to my almost too much to But there are also mo- return, and the crackle of New York listen to. Throw satel- Without a ments of serendipity. City radio was the first signal that I lite radio into the mix, human voice Sometimes, when you was close to home. and the choices for are lucky, you can catch Radio has always served as a hom- today’s listener are al- to guide me a signal from a faraway ing signal for me. I think it dates to most limitless—Frank through the station. my days in high school when I kept Sinatra radio, Grateful This is one of the the radio tuned to 92.3 K-Rock (Meg Dead Radio, E-Street rivers of plot points of the suc- Griffin in the evenings) as I toiled away Radio; the list goes on. song, I am cessful novel All the on my Latin homework. The back- I have experiment- Light We Cannot See, ground noise helped me to concen- ed with satellite radio, unmoored. by Anthony Doerr. trate, though I guess I should not be and with Spotify and Two characters, a boy surprised that while the opening lines Pandora too, but I find in Germany and a of the Aeneid now elude me, the open- myself returning to young girl in France, ing chords of “Smoke on the Water” my local radio stations are tied together by ra- are still immediately recognizable. again and again. One dio, which inexorably I went to college in New Jersey, only reason is habit. The brings them togeth- an hour and a half from home, but I radio hosts on WFUV er during World War was displeased to find that I was in and WNYC help to II. Growing up in an Philadelphia radio country. The dif- set the rhythms of orphanage, the boy, ficult transition to freshman year was my day. I also respect their judgment, Werner, comes across a mysterious made worse by my inability to tune whether they are picking new music or radio signal, and listens with rapt at- in to Alison Steele or Pete Fornatale. reporting new stories. Pandora is a for- tention to the lessons of a nameless Later, when I moved to Connecticut midable force, but music by algorithm, French science teacher. For Werner, for a job, I lived alone, but I could still while enjoyable in certain circumstanc- the radio is both a mechanical object, hear WFAN in New York, which al- es, ultimately feels inadequate to me. which he learns to master, and a vehi- lowed me to fall asleep to Mets games Without a human voice to guide me cle for grace, which opens up his life or the monologues of Steve Somers. through the rivers of song, I am un- to a new world of knowledge. Today, I don’t feel I have arrived home moored. Because it is portable, because it from an airplane trip until I climb in a So I like traditional radio because focuses attention on the human voice car and hear the familiar rat-a-tat-tat it’s tied to a person but also because it’s and because it emanates from a specific of 1010 WINS. tied to a place. Satellite radio enthusi- place, radio holds a special place in the If I were in college today, I could asts sometimes refer to old-fashioned crowded media landscape. It is both listen to my hometown stations on radio as “terrestrial radio.” That is not intimate and communal, a comforting meant as a compliment; local radio voice in the dark and a symbol of the MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY is an executive outlets are aligned with a place and are ways we are all tied together. editor of America. therefore limited. Their signals reach MAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY

March 16 , 2015 America 31 BOOKS | DENNIS O’BRIEN for the “madness” of the war. In 1969, Neuhaus and Peter Berger published FROM LEFT TO RIGHT Movement and Revolution. Neuhaus wrote, “The Movement is the cluster RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS of persons, organizations, world views A life in the Public Square and activities located on what is con- By Randy Boyagoda ventionally called the Left and acting Image. 480p $30 in radical judgment upon the prevail- ing patterns, political, economic, social Using an upturned chair as a make- and moral of American life.” The state- shift pulpit on the front porch of his ment could serve as a manifesto for the house, Richard John Neuhaus, age 5, rest of Richard John Neuhaus’s life as early established himself as a preach- political actor and commentator, with er, instructing his 3-year-old sister, one minor change: substitute “Right” Johanna, in the articles faith. Through for “ Left.” the rest of a long career as a Lutheran Neuhaus’s rightward drift contains pastor, Catholic priest, author, editor several significant markers. In 1975 and public intellectual, he never left he and Berger organized the Hartford the pulpit. His message, however, took Appeal, a meeting of prominent theolo- some surprising turns: from left-wing gians and religious leaders from across crusader with Daniel Berrigan, S.J., in denominational lines. Participants in- the anti-war movement, to apologist cluded the Jesuit Avery Dulles and the for George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq; pacifist Stanley Hauerwas. The appeal from Missouri Synod Lutheranism offered a 13-point criticism of liberal to Catholic priest. His final pulpit as rabbits. When Neuhaus applied to Christianity’s capitulation to secular founder and editor of First Things es- Concordia-Austin, facing two regis- fashion. It rejected the mistaken no- tablished him as an influential spokes- tration lines, high school or college, tion that “[m]odern thought is supe- man for what can properly be called he chose college. In 1955 he entered rior to all past forms of understand- “conservative” positions in church and Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, the ing reality, and is therefore normative politics. Randy Boyagoda, profes- premiere school of Missouri Synod for Christian faith and life.” Time sor of American studies at Ryerson Lutheranism. After graduation and called the Hartford Appeal document University, Toronto, has written a several apprentice appointments, he “bone-rattling.” Neuhaus kept up a thorough chronicle of Neuhaus’s life received assignment to St. John the steady stream of critical comments and work, relying on Neuhaus’s own Evangelist in Brooklyn, N.Y., with about main-line churches in articles autobiographical writings and exten- a dominantly black congregation. and books, culminating in his most sive interviews with family, friends and Neuhaus served as a successful and well known and influential publica- colleagues. much valued pastor for 17 years. tion, The Naked Public Square (1984). Richard John Neuhaus, the sev- New York, if nothing else, is an In 1989, Neuhaus’s then primary fi- enth child and sixth son of Clemens ideological hotbed, the home of major nancial supporter, the conservative and Ella Neuhaus, was born May 14, publishing houses, journals of opinion Rockford Institute, literally threw him 1936, in Pembroke, Canada, where his and “the paper of record,” The New out in the street after he had sharply American-born father was a Lutheran York Times. For a pastor who loved criticized anti-Semitism in the in- pastor. His educational history was argument, it was an ideal environ- stitute’s publications. Fortunately, spotty. His first teacher regarded him ment. And the times were right: the his secretary escaped with the office as “uneducable.” He earned a reputa- civil rights movement was shaking Rolodex. A few phone calls to old sup- tion as a prankster at Pembroke High. social assumptions and the law; the porters provided the funding for First When sent to a Lutheran boarding Vietnam War brought protest even to Things, the venture that was to occupy school in Nebraska, he was asked not sedate establishment colleges. Richard Neuhaus until his death in 2009. to return. A year in Cisco, Tex., with Neuhaus marched with Martin Luther In 1990, Richard John Neuhaus, in distant relatives followed, where he King Jr. and he joined Abraham his own words, was “received into full avoided school altogether and spent Heschel and Daniel Berrigan in a communion with the Roman Catholic the year reading and shooting jack peace fast as “a call for repentance” Church.” Two years later, he was or-

32 America March 16, 2015 dained as a Catholic priest. This con- miration for John Paul II. The single described a conversation with “a dis- version was not as surprising as his po- specific quotation about abortion in tinguished medical proponent of litical change. At Concordia Seminary, Boyagoda’s biography suggests, howev- abortion,” stating the doctor claimed he was deeply influenced by Professor er, that disdain for a prochoice advoca- that “many...of the people who live in Arthur Carl Piepkorn. Piepkorn held cy enhanced his opposition. Neuhaus our horrible slums would...agree with strongly to the view that Luther was truly a reformer and had no intention of breaking with the Catholic tradi- tion. Known affectionately as Father Piepkorn, he not only encouraged stu- dents to study Catholic theology; he led them to participate in traditional liturgies. Much later, Neuhaus created his own “monastic” community com- plete with evening prayer in a commu- nal residence at 338 East 19th Street in Manhattan. Boyagoda’s biography is an in- valuable account of the political and ecclesiastical controversies in which Neuhaus played a central, influential and controversial role. For all the care and detail of the biography, Neuhaus’s transition from liberal activist to con- servative commentator remains puz- zling. Boyagoda suggests the problem when he notes “there is no single event that comprehensively accounts for and solidifies Neuhaus’s intellectual and political migration from Left to Right.” What was it about “liberal” views that dismayed Neuhaus? The dis- ruptions at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago were an initial turning point in his migration to the right. He was appalled by the anarchic behavior of supposed allies. They were on the right side, but their reasons— or lack thereof—were destructive. I recently asked a long-time “liberal” sparring partner of Neuhaus about the rightward shift. He commented that Neuhaus often seemed to look behind an issue to its advocates. Good or bad as the issue might be, the ide- ology of the advocate could be even more telling. Neuhaus’s opposition to abortion is a case in point. Anti-abortion was a premiere and persistent issue for Neuhaus; it helps explain the attrac- tion of Catholicism and his deep ad-

March 16 , 2015 America 33 me that it would have been better for Square. The temptation of conserva- generally embarrassed by the legisla- them not to have been born.” Neuhaus tism is that of wandering off into out- tion, which had called for life sentences countered that by that policy most of moded historical formulae that are as for those found guilty of “homosexual his Brooklyn parishioners would have distant from living reality as the liber- acts.” been aborted. To Neuhaus, the “liber- al’s utopian projects. Neuhaus in the The older generation (which dom- al” doctor was advocating an abstract Hartford Appeal properly chastised inates Uganda’s national parliament) utilitarian utopia utterly detached “liberals” for thinking that “modern had passed a law that the medical from the reality of love, care and heart- thought is superior to all past forms.” worker and others felt had not lined ache he experienced as a pastor. He might also have remembered the up with their growing sense of cosmo- The best part of Richard John value of the movement “acting in rad- politan values. The worker even used Neuhaus’s conservative allegiance was ical judgment upon prevailing pat- the term “more civilized” to describe this concern for the reality of our ev- terns”—including some “conservative” his generation’s outlook in contrast to eryday communities of family, neigh- dogmas. an older group that is often seen as cor- borhood and church. It is the heart rupt, not particularly nimble and loath of his distinction between liberal DENNIS O’BRIEN, a philosopher, was the presi- to accept new ideas. and conservative in The Naked Public dent of the University of Rochester. In their separate ways, William Easterly, a veteran economist at New York University, and Dayo Olopade, CHRIS HERLINGER a young Nigerian-American journal- ist, would recognize this young man, HELPING THE POOR PROSPER as well as the reaction to the ongoing conflict in South Sudan, for what they THE TYRANNY OF EXPERTS The basic complaint I heard was are: signs of a changing continent, Economists, Dictators, and the this: both leaders—in their early 60s and changing from the grass-roots Forgotten Rights of the Poor and veterans of South Sudan’s pro- up. Both authors have written fine— By William Easterly tracted war of independence from though very different—books that ex- Basic Books. 394p $29.99 Sudan—were playing the type of old- plore some of the themes undergirding style (and bloody) pow- these changes. THE BRIGHT CONTINENT er games that South First, Easterly’s book, Breaking Rules and Making Sudan had come to ex- in which Africa plays Change in Modern Africa pect from their former a prominent, though By Dayo Olopade overseers in Khartoum. not the only, role. The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 272p $26 The sense of frustration Tyranny of Experts is a and world-weariness “big-think” volume in Twice this year, in separate assign- was most acute among which economics, glob- ments to Africa, I have been confront- women, who seemed al history (with stops ed with the issue of generational lead- particularly frustrated along the way not only ership. about shouldering the in Africa, but in Latin In South Sudan, there was hard- civilian fallout from yet America, Asia and the ly a person I spoke to who didn’t feel another war between United States) and that their national leaders had let them men. philosophical debates down. Hopes for the world’s youngest The other moment all get a hearing. And country—only three years old—have came during an assign- to what end? Easterly, been dashed because a long-standing ment in Uganda, when a well-known figure in political conflict between President I asked a young medical worker in his development studies circles, argues Salva Kiir and his former vice president, 20s about his take on Uganda’s Anti- that since the end of World War II, the Riek Machar, accused by Kiir of plot- Homosexuality Act (since overturned world has yet to debate fully what “de- ting an attempted coup. Their conflict by the nation’s constitutional court). velopment” really means. turned ugly, prompting violence that He framed it as a generational issue: “The conventional approach to eco- spawned ethnic tensions and escalated whatever their feelings about homo- nomic development, to making poor into a serious humanitarian and politi- sexuality (and some were uncomfort- countries rich, is based on a techno- cal crisis that has yet to be fully resolved. able with it), he and others his age were cratic illusion: the belief that poverty is

34 America March 16, 2015 a purely technical problem amena- fixes to technical problems is not ble to such technical solutions as the solution; he is the problem.” True Believer fertilizers, antibiotics, or nutrition- Authoritarian governments “What men truly want is peace,” al supplements,” Easterly writes. make troublesome appearances in Says the last one true prophet. This technical illusion has led to a The Bright Continent and, in some Peace feels so like submission situation Easterly calls “authoritari- essentials, both authors make sim- Good prophets can fool most men. an development.” By that he means ilar arguments. But in Olopade’s For the rest, there’s the hammer, autocrats, perhaps even well-inten- telling of the story, African govern- Followed by a gentle tongue tioned ones but autocrats nonethe- ments are viewed by Africans much less, are being advised and tacitly as my medical worker acquaintance To sweet-talk the wounds. A tongue supported by key humanitarian views them: as flat-footed anach- Works wonders keeping the peace, players, including the World Bank ronisms that are hopelessly out But wonder-workers keep hammers and the Gates Foundation, two of of step, particularly with Africa’s Handy. Ask any prophet the groups Easterly young people. They Who’s spent some time among men: names critically as are best ignored. Supervising submission disrespecting the If Easterly’s is a poor. provocative traverse Is no humble lamb’s mission. In one of the of history and phi- You must learn to scold in tongues. most vivid examples losophy, Olopade’s The cold acumen cold men Easterly cites, the book has to it a Make war with is of a piece World Bank pro- sense of discovery With the poet’s and prophet’s. Sometimes words, sometimes hammers, moted and financed and almost conta- a 2010 forestation gious optimism— Sometimes words shaped like hammers project in Uganda though the opti- Bring about the submission that uprooted mism sometimes So cherished by all prophets, 20,000 farmers at overlooks the real- Heart of gold or golden-tongued. gunpoint from their ity that states and Submission has a certain poise, homesteads. In the governments aren’t A certain beauty. What men case of the Gates going away and, Foundation, a relatively new but as in the case of South Sudan or Want is the same thing women powerful player in global efforts to Uganda, can’t always be dismissed. Want: That is, a sound hammer improve childhood health, Easterly Governments can still produce Against the skull, and the peace cites the foundation’s cozying up mischief. Or much worse. That sees stars. True submission to Ethiopia’s authoritarian govern- Still, Olopade’s belief that many Begins in the throat, the tongue. ment because of the government’s in Africa simply work around inef- No God but this. No Prophet goal-based, numbers-driven cam- ficient and corrupt governments is paign to lower child mortality. winning. “Look,” she almost seems But this. You see the prophet’s “The sleight of hand that fo- to be saying to the reader, “This is Quite wise when it comes to men: cuses on technical solutions while Africa today. It is an exciting and Simple thoughts in a simple tongue, covering up violations of the rights dynamic place, and I am eager to And, just in case, the hammer. of real people is the moral tragedy be sharing this news with you.” Some men call peace, submission. of development today,” Easterly Certainly The Bright Continent can Some men call submission, peace. argues in what some would say is help counter what Olopade de- an unfair and overly political at- scribes as “the depressing top-level The prophet nods and strokes his piece. tack on groups and foundations narratives that have held the region His yes men are on a mission. “doing good.” Put another way, the back.” (And about which there is Stick out your tongue, says the hammer. absence of political and economic already a mountain of literature.) AMIT MAJMUDAR rights for the poor, Easterly says, Sharing Easterly’s suspicion of is not an issue at the sidelines—it experts and governments, Olopade Amit Majmudar, a diagnostic nuclear radiologist, is the actual cause of poverty itself. writes that one of the problems of lives in Columbus, Ohio. His poetry and prose have “The dictator who the experts ex- the world’s view of Africa has been appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The pect will accomplish the technical “a preference for interactions be- Best American Poetry 1988-2012.

March 16 , 2015 America 35 tween governments, or between formal way it has to be, she argues, as neces- educational statistics. In Malawi, the institutions, when the most vibrant, sities like “health care, electricity, and average size of a first-grade class is 100 authentic, and economically significant education flourish outside the reach of students. Of those, 7 out of 10 won’t interactions are between individuals the African state—and even roads and make it past primary school, the au- and decentralized groups.” sanitation are increasingly the province thor notes. And in Kenya, she writes, Anyone who has traveled to Africa of private ambition.” (In my travels, it’s 3 out of 10 third-graders still cannot in recent years will recognize some of been hard to miss the role Chinese are read at a second-grade level. these changes and the kind of excite- playing in building up Africa’s infra- African youth, Olopade argues, ment Olopade chronicles. Some of structure.) “are ready to go” and embrace the fu- that is due to technological change—a In short: “Public institutions are ture. But in order to do that, they need continent whose land-line telephone not maturing at the pace the region education “grounded in risk-taking service was often poor or nonexis- deserves.” and rejection of conventional pedago- tent has embraced the cellphone and Olopade is right. But the unan- gy.” Absolutely. But can kanju do that Internet service in all corners, among swered question here is: O.K., now alone? I’m not sure. But I hope so. rich and poor, urban resident and vil- what? Though optimistic, Olopade lager alike. knows there are still major obstacles CHRIS HERLINGER is senior writer for the hu- manitarian agency Church World Service and Olopade makes much of the con- ahead for the “bright continent,” a fact a contributing writer to The National Catholic cept of kanju, a term she defines as borne out by some of Africa’s still-grim Reporter and its Global Sisters Report. the act of creativity, or improvision, that emerges from the difficulties of J. GREG PHELAN the African context. In one notable example, a group of African computer programmers transformed old, low- LEAVING QUEENS frills computer monitors—so-called WE ARE NOT OURSELVES of Woodside, Queens, where we meet “castoffs” no one in the West wanted— A Novel the fourth grader Eileen at the bar ad- into usable “up-cycled” hardware for By Matthew Thomas miring her father holding court. “There use in hospitals and clinics throughout Simon & Schuster. 620p. $28 was something clarifying in her fa- Malawi. Kanju transformed junk into ther’s authority; it absolved other men life-saving equipment. Recommending any novel is a hard sell of embarrassment.” Indeed, when one In the realm of entertainment, in our smart phone-addled culture, but of the petitioners confesses he’s been Olopade cites the case of Kenneth how about a 620-page cheating on his wife, Nnebue, a one-time electronics doorstop about ear- Eileen’s father, after dealer in Nigeria who, with thou- ly onset Alzheimer’s? making sure he has the sands of empty VHS tapes on his A book with no high facts straight, absolves hands, began making films with his drama or plot twists or the man with severe ef- friends. The b-grade films proved (dare I say) any lasting ficiency: “Swear before popular beyond measure and helped insights into the human God that’s the end of create Nollywood, the film indus- condition, but rather it,” and the man does, try that produces the second largest merely a story about an glad to admit he is a number of films in the world after ordinary family deal- damn fool. India’s Bollywood. (“The N stands ing with this horrific Ah, this is good and for Nigeria,” Olopade patiently ex- disease? Where faith satisfying. We are eager plains. “It’s hard to believe that many offers little or no conso- and willing to embark millions of people haven’t heard of lation? on this family epic as Nollywood.” I have to confess I hadn’t From the first line of we watch Thomas, like until I read Olopade’s book.) We Are Not Ourselves, an expert bricklayer, Olopade makes no excuses for her by Matthew Thomas, God is felt carefully lay his foundation, beginning enthusiasms. “It may be easy to read by his absence: “Instead of going to with Eileen’s observations of her father. this book as a libertarian celebration the priest, the men who gathered at of hustling, hacking, and free-form Doherty’s Bar after went to see Eileen Everyone called him Big Mike. development in sub-Saharan Africa. Tumulty’s father.” It’s 1951, we are He was reputed to be immune And it is,” she writes. And that is the among the immigrant Irish Catholics to pain. He had shoulders so

36 America March 16, 2015 broad that even in shirtsleeves he one son, Connell, neither of whom see Groping to understand why this looked like he was wearing a suit that Ed’s quirks are signs of his im- happened to her husband, Eileen jacket.… If you caught him in a pending disintegration. It’s like reading doesn’t care for the secular answers, moment of repose, he seemed to a very real horror story as we witness that “it was random, senseless, genetic, shrink to normal proportions. If the increasing strains on their family environmental,” nor can she “sign up you had something to hide, he until at last Ed’s diagnosis becomes for any system that said it had all hap- grew in front of your eyes. evident, then for many years more, pened for a reason.” She’s more prag- we watch as Alzheimer’s increasingly matic, or so she tells herself. Yes, this is good. The clarity, speci- erodes his ability to function in terri- ficity and concreteness of the detail— ble and unpredictable ways. It hadn’t happened for a reason, it’s all here, beautifully written and During his erratic wanderings in but they would find something necessary, but then Thomas attempts town, Ed finds his way into the church to glean from it anyway. There to summarize Eileen’s observation of between Masses because it’s quiet and didn’t have to be a divine plan her father and his admirers: calm. Though the thought of him for there to be meaning in life. alone in a big church oppresses Eileen, People’s lives will be better because She wasn’t too young to under- who has given up on the faith of her of his illness, she told herself. stand that the ones who pleased youth, she writes out a prayer for him. They’ll appreciate life more. He’ll him were the rare ones who remind them that their lives are didn’t drain the frothy brew of “Dear God,” she wrote, “I will of- better than they think. It was as his myth in a quick quaff, but fer this up to you without com- good a story as any, and it had nosed around the brine of his plaint, but please protect all I the virtue of often seeming plau- humanity awhile, giving it skep- know and love.” She copied it out sible, though never when she lay tical sniffs. neatly onto an index card that awake at night, when the public she folded and put in his wallet. life faded away, and other people “Frothy brew of his myth?” “Brine vanished, and she was left star- of his humanity?” “Skeptical sniffs?” So early in a long book, these overwritten abstractions—attributed to a fourth grader no less—are enough to sow a seed of disappointment that the book will not fulfill its promise. Regardless, if we don’t have a text to reply to, we press onward. Eileen spends her childhood nurs- ing her alcoholic mother while long- ing for a way out of her one bedroom apartment in Queens. She is resource- ful and goal-oriented, convinced her ticket out is to study hard, become a nurse administrator and marry an in- telligent, kind and (she hopes) ambi- tious man, like Ed, a quirky scientist. But Eileen’s life doesn’t proceed as planned: Ed turns down lucrative job offers to leave his position at the com- munity college. He doesn’t want to move—as she so desperately does—to Westchester, but stay in their decay- ing neighborhood of Jackson Heights. And as the years go on, he becomes increasingly eccentric in maddening ways that frustrate Eileen and their

March 16 , 2015 America 37 ing at the back of her hand and ual for when you get married, no emer- for meaning? Yes, of course, there is no thinking, All of this is an illusion, gency kit with a flashlight for when the manual for when you are married, for even the consolations. power went out. You had to feel your when your family faces a crisis or for way around in the dark for the box of when your loved one gets a terrible ill- Yes, the novel is long. And at times, matches.” But the more these lives seep ness. But however trite it may sound, like life, it is sometimes hard to under- into you, the harder it is to find fault. a rare novel like this that convincing- stand where the story is going. And On the contrary, there seems some- ly tells the story of a very real tragedy while the writing is consistently a plea- thing right and true and even comfort- might be the next best thing. sure to read, every so often you trip on ing about even these awkward passages, another patch of overwrought prose however trite they may be. Isn’t that J. GREG PHELAN has written for The New York like this one—“they gave out no man- what we all do in times of crisis, grope Times, The Millions and other publications.

CLASSIFIED Positions including our Honduras ministry and Justice and résumé and cover letter to [email protected] PASTORAL ASSOCIATE. Newton, Mass. A large, Peace Committee; and collaborating with staff in no later than April 1. vibrant, Catholic Collaborative of 3,600 families various shared ministries, including regular pasto- outside of Boston is seeking a Pastoral Associate ral involvement in the liturgies of the Lord’s Day, WANT YOUR AD HERE? to serve on the Pastoral Service Team for the funeral ministry and phe implementation of our Visit americamagazine.org. Collaborative of Sacred Heart and Our Lady Help pastoral plan, with its focus on evangelization. Email: [email protected]. Those interested must be willing to work closely of Christians Parishes. The position will develop Call 212-515-0102. according to individual strengths, gifts and experi- with parishioners who are actively involved in the ence, as well as according to the needs of the collab- life of the collaborative. A degree in pastoral min- Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. 1-5 orative. Those needs include, but are not limited to: istry or a related field is required. Spanish a plus. times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; For an additional $30, developing young adult and Adult faith formation To see a profile of the parishes, go to www.ourladys. your print ad will be posted on America’s Web site for ministries; overseeing some outreach ministries, com and www.sacredheartnewton.org. Please email one week.

Poems are being accepted for the 2015 Foley Poetry Award. Each entrant is asked to submit only one typed, unpublished poem on any topic. The poem should be 30 lines or fewer and not under consideration elsewhere. Include contact information on the same page as the poem. Poems will not be returned. Please do not submit poems by email or fax. FOLEY Submissions must be postmarked between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2015. Poems received outside the designated period will be treated as regular poetry submissions and are not eligible for the prize. POETRY The winning poem will be published in the June 8-15 issue of America. Three runner-up poems will be published in subsequent issues. Notable entrants also may be considered for inclusion on our poetry site, americaliterary.tumblr.com. Cash prize: $1,000 CONTEST Send poems to: Foley Poetry Contest America Magazine 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019

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38 America March 16, 2015 THE WORD Following the Servant FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (B), MARCH 22, 2015 Readings: Jer 31:31–34; Ps 51:3–15; Heb 5:7–9; Jn 12:20–33 “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also” (Jn 12:26)

hen we hear of the mar- Jesus’ death offers, unlike any other renew within me a steadfast spirit.” We tyrdom of Christians, like death, is the possibility of salvation for have constant need to renew ourselves Wthe 21 Coptic Christians humanity. Through his death, Jesus of- along the path of discipleship. killed in Libya recently, we identify fers to us the model of the faithful wit- We have a means of salvation and with them immediately as disciples of ness, but more than that the model wit- through Jesus the means also to repent Jesus and as our brothers and sisters ness is the source of salvation. The path when we fall away from it. Through in Christ. However little we might of Jesus, Hebrews says, was the process confession, prayer, fasting, almsgiving know about the history of the Coptic through which “he learned obedi- and all the other spiritual and cor- Christians, in their suffering witness ence from what he suffered; and poral works of mercy, we can we recognize them as family, servants of when he was made perfect, he seek to have God’s law before Christ. Martyrdom purges the ephem- became the source of eternal us at all times, inscribed on era of human life to reveal its cruciform salvation for all who obey our hearts. We can seek to meaning. him.” have our hearts most crooked We recognize in their suffering This is why Jesus warns straightened again by the love the witness and model of Jesus. It is that “whoever loves his life los- and mercy of God. through sharing in our human suffering es it,” for the gains and power of that Jesus is able to sympathize with us. this world can entrap and distract PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that us from the weight of discipleship. “when Christ Jesus was in the flesh, he Instead, “whoever serves me must Meditate on the example of Jesus. How has following Jesus shaped your response to offered prayers and supplications with follow me, and where I am, there suffering? loud cries and tears to the one who was also will my servant be.” Discipleship A. DUNNE TAD ART: able to save him from death,” desirous, might indeed entail suffering and loss as are we all, to avoid suffering if pos- now, but whoever follows Jesus is track- And even more, by shaping our lives sible. ing the path he has cleared to eternal in the model of Jesus, even when it en- Yet the Gospel of John explains that life. For all who face suffering, as Jesus tails the possibility of suffering which when Jesus acknowledged “my soul did, the desire to be saved from suffer- might lead even to death, we can be- is troubled” as he waited on the cusp ing is profoundly human. Nevertheless, come models for others. As the psalm- of suffering, he also asked, “and what the humanity of Jesus is real and the ist calls out, “Restore to me the gladness should I say—‘Father, save me from this choice he made on our behalf was freely of your salvation;/ uphold me with a hour’?” For our sake, Jesus remained a chosen. willing spirit./ I will teach the wicked servant to the will of the Father and of- And yet a most profound difference your ways,/ that sinners may return to fered a yes to his destiny because “it is exists between us and our model, Jesus: you.” A constant willingness to repent for this reason that I have come to this sin. We have it; Jesus did not. This is and to turn back to God’s mercy is a hour.” why our prayers and supplications are model of steadfast faith seen in martyrs What was this reason? “Unless a offered to God in the key of repentance. ancient and current. They teach us that grain of wheat falls to the ground and Repentance emerges when we recognize discipleship offers us a sure hope that dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but the suffering we create when we sin and death, suffering and violence are not if it dies, it produces much fruit.” What the broken relationship with God sin the last words, but instead a sign of the produces. When we cry out to God our fading powers of this world, conquered sincere desire that we might turn from through the service of the Son, who JOHN W. MARTENS is an associate profes- sor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, sin, we echo the plea in today’s psalm: leads us to eternal life. St. Paul, Minn. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. “A clean heart create for me, O God,/ JOHN W. MARTENS

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