OF MANY THINGS

he work of John Courtney “Unfortunately, this instrument has 106 West 56th Street New York, NY 10019-3803 Murray, S.J., once an associate become blunt,” he has said. Benedict Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 editor of this review, continues believes that when considering the Subscriptions: 1-800-627-9533 T www.americamagazine.org to dominate political theology in the tradition in a political facebook.com/americamag United States. Most students of Father context, one must account for the fact twitter.com/americamag Murray turn first toWe Hold These that, among modern thinkers, it is an , Murray’s most accomplished open question whether “there might President and Editor in Chief Truths Matt Malone, S.J. and well-known articulation of his exist a rationality of nature and, hence, a Executive Editors principal thesis: that Catholicism and rational law for man and for his existence Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy

American democracy are essentially in the world.” Managing Editor Kerry Weber compatible “because the contents of [the I would add that part of the reason Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. American public] consensus—the ethical why natural law theory is effectively Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent and political principles drawn from a “blunt instrument” is that it has Kevin Clarke the tradition of natural law—approve been detached from its theological Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. themselves to the intelligence presuppositions in the misguided and Executive Editor, America Films Jeremy Zipple, S.J. and conscience.” vain hope of rendering it more “credible” Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J.

Father Murray viewed “the fact that in the officially agnostic public square. Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent the American political community was True, Father Murray believed that the Gerard O’Connell organized in an era when the tradition natural law is theoretically inseparable Senior Editor Edward W. Schmidt, S.J. of natural law and natural rights was from its theological presuppositions. Engagement and Community Editor still vigorous” as nothing less than But what Father Murray and his Elizabeth Tenety Associate Editors Ashley McKinless, Olga Segura providential. This is because the natural followers failed to appreciate fully is Assistant Editors Francis W. Turnbull, S.J., law tradition, according to Murray, is a the extent to which natural law theory Joseph McAuley neutral theo-philosophical language, one and its theological presuppositions are Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder in which we are all fluent by virtue of truly inseparable in practice. For the Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., our human nature. Thus the language of natural law to be genuinely intelligible, Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, natural law should be the lingua franca of credible and liveable, then, it must be Margot Patterson, Nathan Schneider, Robert David political philosophy in a pluralist society. appropriated in the context of love, in the Sullivan Yet there have been challenges to context of a living relationship with the Correspondents John Carr (Washington), An- thony Egan, S.J., and Russell Pollitt, S.J. (Johannes- Murray’s appropriation of natural law. lawgiver who is loving creator. Without burg), Jim McDermott, S.J. (Los Angeles), Timothy Jean Porter, for example, has critiqued love, the law is reduced to its bare Padgett (Miami), Steven Schwankert (Beijing), Murray’s predominantly neo-scholastic ethical content, which cannot sustain an David Stewart, S.J. (London), Judith Valente (Chi- cago), Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M. (U.S. ) authentically human calculus. reading of natural law. But none other Moderator, Catholic Book Club than Emeritus Benedict XVI, both It is naïve to think that we can devise Kevin Spinale, S.J. as pope and as a working theologian, a common moral framework simply by Editorial e-mail has also commented on the relationship giving theoretical lip service to the divine. [email protected] of the natural law tradition to political Attempts to apply reason without faith, theology. According to Benedict, we says Benedict, are also unhistorical, for Publisher and Chief Financial Officer Edward Spallone. Deputy Publisher Rosa Del Saz. Vice may not need natural law to articulate a the state is not self-justifying but receives President/Advancement Daniel Pawlus. Devel- doctrine of human rights because “it is, “its basic [philosophical] support from opment Coordinator Kerry Goleski. Operations of course, possible for the contemporary outside: not from a mere reason that is Staff Chris Keller, Glenda Castro. Advertising contact [email protected]; 212-515-0102. consciousness to be content with the inadequate in the moral realm, but from Subscription contact/Additional copies inherent obviousness of these values.” a reason that has come to maturity in the [email protected]; Benedict would not deny that there historical form of faith.” Accordingly, “the 1-800-627-9533 are objective philosophical and moral real problem that confronts us today,” © 2015 America Press, Inc. principles at work in such claims; he just writes Benedict, “is reason’s blindness wonders, as a practical matter, whether to the entire nonmaterial dimension of such principles must be explicit. reality.” But Benedict has also expressed mild In other words, it may be time to start king for a new lingua franca. skepticism about the general explanatory Cover: The ceiling of a damaged church in power of the natural law tradition: MATT MALONE, S.J. Donetsk, Ukraine. Reuters/Marko Djurica Contents www.americamagazine.org VOL. 212 NO. 11, WHOLE NO. 5084 March 30, 2015

ARTICLES 14 SHOWDOWN IN UKRAINE A path to peace and Europe’s future Antoine Arjakovsky

19 THE WISDOM OF OZ Taking the long way home William J. O’Malley

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

4 Current Comment 14 5 Editorial A Space for Women 6 Reply All 8 Signs of the Times 13 Column Seduced by ISIS Margot Patterson 23 Vatican Dispatch Making Room for Women Gerard O’Connell 25 Faith in Focus Lifting Veronica’s Veil Silas Henderson Transformed From Within Ryan Rooney 29 Generation Faith Padre’s Portrait Courtney Saponaro 31 Philosopher’s Notebook Ionesco Again John J. Conley 39 The Word An Empty Tomb 25 John W. Martens BOOKS & CULTURE

32 TELEVISION “Call the Midwife” BOOKS ON THE BIBLE Many Voices, One Spirit

ON THE WEB Amy-Jill Levine, right, talks about her book Short Stories by Jesus on “America This Week.” Plus, the Catholic Book Club discusses Christ, Actually, by James Carroll. Full digital highlights on page 13 and at americamagazine.org/ webfeatures. 34 CURRENT COMMENT

That would be a shame. Few government programs Sitting Down With Iran can boast the kind of clinically proven results achieved by In an open letter to senior leadership in Congress dated the best home visiting programs. Randomized controlled Jan. 13, Bishop Oscar Cantú, chair of the Committee trials have found quality programs reduce child neglect on International Justice and Peace of the United States and abuse as well as mortality rates for infants and Conference of Catholic Bishops, made the case for mothers. And the positive effects can last for years. The patience in the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran. He program has also been found to reduce participating also wisely urged “avoidance of any measures that might families’ later dependence on government welfare. jeopardize the prospects for a diplomatic solution that can In his budget for fiscal year 2016, President Obama advance peace in the region.” requested $500 million to support home visiting programs Unfortunately, just such an ill-advised measure was put and $15 billion over the next 10 years. Studies show that forward by Senate leaders on March 9 in a letter to Iranian such an investment in infant and maternal well-being leadership warning that any deal with the United States would be more than recouped by cost savings down the could be undone when President Obama leaves office. The road. The teaches that life starts at letter was a reckless gesture, but we hope it will not derail conception. So should our generous support for expecting the negotiations. Iran’s religious leaders remain committed mothers living in poverty. to the talks, and the P5-plus-1 team of negotiators is still hoping to reach the framework of an agreement before the deadline on March 31. Gasoline on the Fire? There is no valid path forward other than negotiation. After the grisly executions of Kenji Goto and Haruna As Secretary of State John Kerry said, “Folks, simply Yukawa by Islamic State militants, Japanese Prime Minister demanding that Iran capitulate is not a plan.” Critics worry Shinzo Abe told Japan that he would “make the terrorists that the current proposal, which reportedly would allow pay the price.” Not exactly surprising political rhetoric, inspections, limit Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear fuel especially considering the circumstances. But coming from and force them to surrender fuel stockpiles in exchange the leader of a nation whose modern constitution was for the lifting of sanctions, would expire in 10 or 15 years. conceived with the idea of turning it back from some of the Yes, Iran could start compiling weapons again at that time. military outrages of its own recent past, the comment was But a lot could happen before then, too. The campaign for noted with concern. nuclear nonproliferation will progress only if negotiators Mr. Abe has already taken steps to unravel Japan’s post- stay the course. Patience is not a word one associates with war pacifism; in July, he pushed through new legislation U.S. foreign policy, but in this case it is a virtue to be that allows Japan to join allies in a collective response to embraced. mutual threats. That move sidestepped the intent of the 1947 Constitution’s Article 9, which renounces war “as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force Early Life Support as means of settling international disputes.” When it comes to closing the opportunity and Article 9 also commits Japan to maintain its military achievement gaps for children born into poverty, research at a purely defensive level. Having reduced the article’s shows that the earlier the intervention comes, the better. tactical grip, is Mr. Abe considering re-establishing Japan as That is the theory behind Maternal, Infant, and Early a regional military power? Japan’s defense budget, though Childhood Home Visiting, “one of the most innovative dwarfed by China’s spending, reached a record 4.98 trillion government programs you’ve probably never heard of,” yen ($42 billion) in 2015. according to the Brookings Institution. The federal The United States has encouraged Mr. Abe’s martial program, implemented as part of the Affordable Care Act impulses with an eye on China and North Korea—perhaps of 2010, provides grants to states to expand home visits by unwisely. The imprudent militarist strain that is a part of nurses, social workers and parent educators to low-income the psyche of every nation state is a cultural charcoal that pregnant mothers to help them create more nurturing may require very little to be breathed into deadly fire. Mr. environments in the vital first years of childhood. Absent Abe is fanning the flame. A world that has yet to figure out Congressional action, however, funding for the program how to bless its few peacemakers will be diminished, if not will end on March 31. endangered, if he succeeds.

4 America March 30, 2015 EDITORIAL A Space for Women atholic women from around the world recently shared tion open to discussion.” It remains the case, their stories of faith and service during an observance however, that there are many leadership roles Cof International Women’s Day at the Vatican. The in the church that either do not or should not event, called Voices of Faith, took place on March 8, during require priestly ordination. Accordingly, our Women’s History Month, and was notable for its open dia- church must create a more inviting, empathetic space that logue about the status of women in the church today. It is also recognizes the contributions that women have made and con- an important and necessary initiative in light of recent statis- tinue to make to the church and society. Some of those efforts tics from the Center for Applied Research in the might include: that suggest that women, who traditionally have reported Attention to language. What we say and how we say it being spiritual in higher numbers than men, are increasingly matter. Inclusive language in church documents and in lit- moving away not only from formal association with religion urgies is a small but welcoming gesture. The church could but from spirituality in general. also choose more readings about women for the Lectionary. For some women, a lack of interest in the church results, In addition, providing greater opportunities for lay people to in part, from the feeling that their voices are not heard or repre- preach would provide a greater variety of perspectives on the sented within the visible structures of the church. For example, word and a wider look into the ways in which we experience while women serve the church in myriad ways, there remains a God. lack of leadership roles for women at the Vatican. Women do Lift up the work already being done. has valuable day-to-day work needed to keep the Vatican running, voiced support for women in theology. And while the new but few are in positions of power or authority. Only two wom- theology of women encouraged by Francis certainly can be en serve as under secretaries, the highest ranking position to developed further, the church cannot ignore the rich theology which women have been appointed in the Curia. In 2014, the that already exists. total number of women employed by the Vatican was 371, up Provide guidance and opportunity. We must explicitly tell from 194 a decade earlier, according to Gudrun Sailer, a jour- young women that they matter, that they have a voice and that nalist at . She is among the 41 percent of women their voices will be heard. And then we must act. We must working at the Vatican who have university degrees and work help young women to envision how their gifts and talents in professional positions like archivists and department heads. might be expressed in leadership roles in the church and con- This is certainly a welcome trend. nect them with mentors who can guide these efforts. More Catholic women who succeed in other parts of their roles for women in Roman and diocesan curias would be a lives often see no outlet for their leadership skills within good start. church structures. This can result in women choosing to de- Think globally. The church must work for the inclusion vote their energy elsewhere. When this occurs, the church los- of women not only within church structures but within our es the perspectives and strengths of these women. Yet during larger society as well. We must also recognize that the chal- the Voices of Faith meeting, Sailer pointed out that greater lenges facing Catholic women in developed nations can be opportunities for women in the church does not mean simply very different from those in less developed nations. A report replicating secular structures. “It’s about recognizing, realizing produced by No Ceilings, an effort by the Clinton Foundation that excluding women from the church [does] not conform to to advance the status of women around the world, recently the Gospel,” she said. highlighted the fact that in many countries women still lack This sentiment was echoed during the Pontifical the right to vote and face forced marriages, a lack of education Council for Culture’s assembly on women, whose working and unsafe conditions for preparing food. paper urged the engagement of women “in full collaboration Meet people where they are. The church at every level and integration with the male component.” This full collab- must be willing to listen to the frustrations of all who feel oration is crucial if the church hopes to continue to attract alienated and be willing to accompany them in their spiritual and keep women active in the faith. Pope Francis, consistent journey. Open channels of discussion and greater inclusion of with the centuries-long teaching of the church, has stated that all people mean more room for dialogue and for the experi- “the reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ ence of true encounter that so many people—men and wom- the spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a ques- en alike—seek today.

March 30, 2015 America 5 REPLY ALL presumed guilty instead of innocent? people. Perhaps it is because commen- Police officers can keep their suspi- tary on social sins is constantly pitting Vigilant Justice cions out of their behavior and treat one group against another. Re “Listening in Ferguson,” by J. all courteously, constantly reminding First Father Horan states that those Augustine Wetta, O.S.B. (3/9): The themselves that the majority of every of us who are white need to recognize Ferguson incident began with the po- social and ethnic group are law-abiding. the unfair privileges from which we liceman verbally attacking Michael Cannot law and order be kept through benefit. Why is walking down the street Brown and his companion, shouting constant vigilance without constant without harassment “unfair”? Why is at them with rough language. Would it demonstrations of dominance? the possibility of a decent education not be better if law officers always chose TOM POELKER in responsible, safe schools unfair? Are courtesy over dominance? Would not Online Comment these privileges? I see them rather as this one simple change lead to better goals for all citizens, against which we overall community relations? Open Fire can measure our society. If some citi- The author speaks with one white I don’t know when I have read in any zens don’t have these possibilities, then police officer who hates having to re- respectable publication a poem so with a resounding yes we need to correct spond to calls driven by racial stereo- disgusting as “They Build a Hogan in that. In the words of Pope Francis (as types. But did this Officer Lutz ever Coal Canyon, Arizona,” by Stella Jeng quoted in Gerard O’Connell’s column apologize to the people he makes “feel Guillory (3/2). in the same issue), we must “obey the like dirt” because of the 911 call of JUSTUS GEORGE LAWLER call to go forth from our own comfort some bigot? Does he have to enter the St. Charles, Ill. zone in order to reach all the peripher- jewelry store or could he not sit outside ies in need of the light of the Gospel.” in the patrol car until the customers Not Guilty I do not hear accusation or charges of leave, then go inside to assure the man- Without doubt, “Examining Our Social guilt in those words. ager that he was there keeping an eye Sins,” by Danial P. Horan, O.F.M. (3/2), Father Horan slips right into the on his store. Can we not find alterna- is well intentioned. But I would suggest current sociological trap of analysis: tive ways to provide security without the article is both misguided and mis- whites against blacks, rich against poor, giving the impression that some are leading. We are an increasingly divided men against women and on and on. What good press and righteous indig- nation we can muster! A sacred silence, STATUS UPDATE giving us time for a little reflection, is Readers respond to “All the Angels and dren whose unions produced grand- now labeled apathy. But what happened ,” by Bishop Edward K. Braxton children of color. Bishop Braxton, to our Gospel message of not rushing (3/9). this country already is one of mixed to judgment and loving our so-named race. Pretending it is a white enclave enemy, even while caring for the poor In my third grade Sunday school does little to move the issue forward. and marginalized? class last weekend, a child asked JOHN WHALEN R. GERARD FADER what Jesus looked like. I said we don’t Royal Oak, Mich. know, but he probably looked more I love the Jesuits. They directed me in like some of the children than oth- the Long Retreat, which irrevocably Defending Distraction ers. We played a hot-cold game until changed my heart. I love America, “On Paying Attention,” by John J. one of the Hispanic children guessed which has so many fantastic and Conley, S.J. (3/2), was great until the that his skin was “tanner.” It was just a thoughtful articles each week. But I last sentence: “Perhaps distraction few minutes in a class focused on the have a bone to pick with you. This at prayer is a serious sin after all.” Transfiguration, but after class I heard short article is a good one, but I see Distractions can be a means to deep- one of my Hispanic girls excitedly tell so few articles by African-American er attentiveness and prayer. By being her mom, “Jesus looked like me!” authors in these pages. The illustra- aware of them and by looking past ADRIENNE KELLER tion is a good one, but I see so few them, they become not sins but part black people on your covers. Surely of the landscape in which God is the While I agree with the conclusion, I “this least Society” does not suffer center and focus. found the approach of the article dis- from a lack of creative thinking. How (REV.) JOE ROMANO tasteful. It is possibly because God Livonia, Mich. can this problem be ameliorated? Political Games has given these Irish American chil- KIM B. MALLET Although sports can be oversold and

6 America March 30, 2015 today we need more cooperation and that have already proven their success Children First less competition, there is wisdom in in reducing crime. Reformed criminals Right off the bat, the source of the “pas- “Good Sports,” by Rabbi Martin Siegel who work with other inmates to help toral dilemma” in cases of divorce and (2/23). As the author has observed, them get on the right path are valuable remarriage can be seen in Monsignor sports as well as religion require com- assets, which are still too rarely utilized. Garrity’s analysis. The article began by munal self-transcendence and rules. In DAVID H. LUKENBILL trying to demonstrate the difficulty in our competitive culture, finance and Sacramento, Calif. ascertaining the invalidity of a mar- politics are the other major arenas of riage that on the outside seemed val- competition. Unlike sports, however, All Saints? id. Immediately afterward we are told the rules in finance and politics are at The church should minimize or do how painful it is for people to relive a times ill defined, unfair or not enforced. away with canonizing imperfect saints, “failed marriage” when applying for an Furthermore, breaking the rules in fi- and maybe, just maybe, it should re-ex- annulment, a process that is supposed nance and politics can be considerably amine all the lives of saints and pull to find there was never a marriage to more consequential. Improper bank- out from the list those who do not begin with. A wiser man might have ing transactions caused many inno- meet strict criteria. I think many more said “failed relationship.” cent people to lose their homes, while Catholics will welcome transparency Further, I cannot help but lament improper funding of political elections and truth rather than having all those that some elderly pastors, molded by is undermining the foundations of our saints of dubious character. Let’s start a different time and circumstance, are democracy. Consequently, our finan- with the personalities involved in the removed from the reality of the pres- ciers and politicians should learn from Council of Nicaea and all the ent generation, wherein the backlash sports that fair rules and communal canonized just for being popes. against divorce is enormous. There self-transcendence are essential for the That we make a distinction between is a generation of youths who feel welfare of people and the survival of the “Saints” and saints every year around they were trivialized and humiliated democratic system. All Saints Day and All Souls Day just by parents who forced them to suffer GEORGE J. KROL highlights the very hierarchical thinking through divorce and remarriage (often Enfield, Conn. in the Catholic Church to this day. And more than once). The children are de- this mind-set does not apply just to the pendent on their parents and have lit- Prison Reformed clergy but to the as well, humbled tle or no political power. Where is the Re “Prison Addiction,” by Bishop Denis to the point of submission, not knowing pastoral tear-jerking over these suffer- J. Madden (2/23): I know better than that we are now all called to be holy and ing souls who feel alone and trapped in most that prison is not a fun place to be, the pyramid has been inverted. the world? having spent 12 years in maximum se- MONSERRAT WASHBURN TIMOTHY VICKERY Online Comment Online Comment curity prisons and local jails, but it is the only effective way we have as a society to isolate the criminal from the often innocent victims of crime. Each arrest was, for me, just another step in my criminal career of theft. Only after be- coming Catholic did the final remnants of the predatory and self-centered crim- inality that had informed my life gush out of me. Criminal justice policy sways be- tween the liberal rehabilitative ap- proach and the conservative policing, sentencing and incarceration approach. Right now society appears to be swing- ing back toward rehabilitation, but it is my hope that we can develop and keep only those programs that are rigorously evaluated and proven successful, while

retaining the incarceration strategies HARLEY SCHWADRON CARTOON:

March 30, 2015 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

VATICAN JUBILEE! Pope Francis announces a Holy Year Pope Francis Declares of Mercy during a Lenten penance service in A Jubilee Year of Mercy’ St. Peter’s Basilica on March 13. n a surprising and far-reaching decision, Pope Francis an- nounced an extraordinary holy year, a Jubilee of Mercy, Ithat will extend from Dec. 8, 2015, to Nov. 20, 2016, and will involve the Catholic Church throughout the world. He broke the news during a penitential celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica on the evening of March 13, the second anniversary of his election as bishop of Rome. The surprise announcement was greeted with warm ap- plause. Pope Francis said he is “convinced that the whole church can find in this jubilee the joy of rediscovering and making fruitful the mercy of God, with which we are all called to give consolation to every man and every woman of our time.” Pope Francis will open this 30th jubilee in the history of the church on the 50th anniversary of the closing of the and just over a month after the closing of the October gathering of the Synod of Bishops on the Family. A jubilee year is a great religious event that originated in Judaism and was linked to universal pardons and reconcilia- tion. As the Book of Leviticus tells us (25:8-13), it was cele- brated every 50 years; slaves and prisoners were freed, debts were forgiven and God’s mercy was made more manifest. The church revived that tradition in the year 1300 under Pope Boniface VIII. Since then there have been 29 jubilees, or holy years. Francis has been called the pope of mercy ever since his election on March 13, 2013. He has frequently proclaimed to the world the God of mercy, who wants to save people, not to condemn them. It was the central theme of his first Mass for the public in the Church of Sant’ Anna in the Vatican on March 17, 2013, and of his midday talk to the almost half mil- lion people who gathered in and around St Peter’s Square that same day, when he praised Cardinal ’s book on the topic of mercy. It is a theme that has surfaced again and again in his talks and homilies throughout the past two years. “I believe that this is the season of mercy,” Francis told journalists on the to show mercy in his homily to the demn anyone for eternity,” Pope Francis flight back from Rio de Janeiro, July 28, new cardinals on Feb. 15, when he said. “It is to pour out the balm of God’s 2013. “The church is a mother: she has concelebrated Mass with them in St. mercy on all those who ask for it with a to go out to heal those who are hurting, Peter’s Basilica. He recalled then that sincere heart.” with mercy,” he stated. “If the Lord nev- “the church’s way, from the time of the He expressed the same concept even er tires of forgiving, we have no other Council of Jerusalem, has always been more succinctly in a letter commem- choice than this: first of all, to care for the way of Jesus, the way of mercy and orating the centenary of the Catholic those who are hurting.” reinstatement. University of Argentina in Buenos Pope Francis insisted on the need “The way of the church is not to con- Aires in March, when he wrote: “Mercy

8 America March 30, 2015 is not just a pastoral attitude; it is the the jubilee on the Second Sunday of on the suffering of Christians and oth- very substance of the Gospel message.” Easter, also known as Divine Mercy er minority groups. Islam, he argued, Now he is taking this message a step Sunday, April 12, and place it on the must not be used as an ideological ex- further, with his decision to proclaim a front of the Holy Door in St Peter’s cuse for violence against vulnerable jubilee year. The Vatican said he will Basilica. communities. issue the bull formally proclaiming GERARD O’CONNELL According to Tomasi, the initiative has already prompted the MIDDLE EAST French government to call for a special session of the U.N. Security Council to Global Initiative Sought for deal with the problems of Christians in the Middle East. At this meeting, Protection of Christians scheduled for March 27, Archbishop n a joint statement, representatives to fear seriously for the future of the Tomasi said the French foreign minis- of more than 60 countries have Christian communities that have more ter will speak to the Security Council Irecognized that Christians are than 2,000 years of existence in this in New York on the need to defend particularly endangered in the Middle region, where Christianity has its full Christians in the region. Archbishop East, and they called on the interna- place and began its long history,” the Tomasi said he hopes that raising tional community to reaffirm the hu- statement said. global public awareness of the plight man right to freedom of religion. The The signatories called on the inter- of Christians in the Middle East “will violence carried out by terrorist groups national community to support the encourage local authorities and the in- “creates the risk of complete disappear- human rights of Christians and other ternational community to support their ance for the Christians” in the region, religious and ethnic communities in the right to remain and prosper in the land they said. Middle East and to work toward build- of their ancestors.” The statement, submitted to the ing “a culture of peaceful coexistence.” Just days after the statement was U.N. Human Rights Council in “A future without the different com- released, it became clear that Christian Geneva on March 13, was communities were imperiled sponsored by the delegations beyond Middle Eastern states of the , Lebanon when suicide bombers struck two and Russia. The United churches—one Catholic and one States, Canada, the United Protestant—in Lahore, Pakistan, Kingdom, Australia, Iraq and on March 15. The twin attacks Israel were among the 63 sig- took place during packed Sunday natories. services in Youhanabad, one of Ongoing conflicts in the Lahore’s largest Christian neigh- region have been “disastrous borhoods; 14 people were killed for the entire population” LIVING STONES—HAMMERED. Church leaders and scores were wounded. Street and have “seriously threat- implore a global response as state of Christian communities in Middle East reaches a crisis point. disorders quickly flared, and an- ened” the existence of “many gry mobs seized two men believed religious communities,” the to be involved in the attack; ac- statement said. People continue to fall munities in the Middle East will run cording to local media reports, one of victim “to barbaric acts of violence” and the risk of new forms of violence, exclu- them was burned alive. “churches and ancient shrines of all re- sion and the absence of peace and devel- Pope Francis quickly condemned ligions have been destroyed.” opment,” they warned. the suicide bombings. “Our brothers’ The statement then zeroed in on Discussing the statement, the Holy and sisters’ blood is shed only because the Christian situation. “Christians are See’s representative to U.N. agencies in they are Christians. As I assure you of now especially affected,” said the state- Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, my prayers for the victims and their ment. “These days even their survival is acknowledged the complexity of the families, I ask the Lord, I beseech the in question. region but stressed the importance of Lord, source of all good, for the gift “There are more and more reasons focusing the international community of peace and harmony to this country.”

March 30, 2015 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Concluding his appeal, Pope Francis prayed “that this persecution against NEWS BRIEFS Christians, which the world tries to Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, hide, might end, and that there be chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee peace.” on Communications, surprised America’s church correspondent Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M., with the prestigious St. Francis Romero Beatification de Sales Award from the Catholic Press The beatification of El Salvador’s Association in Albany on March 12. • On martyred Archbishop Óscar Romero March 12 a human rights group reported at Wester and Walsh will take place during a ceremony least 500 confirmed cases of Christian and in El Salvador on May 23, the day Hindu girls kidnapped by Muslims and forced to marry over the past before Pentecost Sunday. The date 18 months in Pakistan. • Faith-based investors cheered PNC Financial was announced on March 11 by Services’ decision in early March to cease financing coal-mining Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, postu- firms’ major mountaintop removal ventures in Appalachia. • Jean lator of Romero’s cause for sainthood, Vanier, an advocate for people with developmental disabilities who in El Salvador. According to a report helped create L’Arche, an international network of residential com- in Avvenire, the weekly newspaper of munities, was awarded the $1.7 million Templeton Prize on March the Italian bishops’ conference, the 11. • The -based International Cooperation for Development announcement came on the eve of an- and Solidarity, or Cidse, an international consortium of Catholic aid other significant anniversary, that of agencies, charged on March 9 that European businesses were causing the assassination on March 12, 1977, suffering and death by importing minerals from the world’s conflict of the Salvadoran Rutilio Grande, regions. S.J., three years before the death of Romero. The cause for the canon- ization of this early victim of repres- with “women and children,” were kid- Institution in Washington finds that sion by the Salvadoran military will napped in the province of Hassakeh single women whose income is 400 parallel Romero’s cause, according to in northeastern Syria on Feb. 28 and percent of the federal poverty line or Archbishop Paglia. He told report- March 1. “We’re waiting for news,” said higher are nearly four times as likely ers in El Salvador that a “close bond” Helene Afriat, communications officer to opt for an abortion when faced with unites Romero and Grande from a for the International Confederation of an unplanned pregnancy. The findings “theological and pastoral perspective,” the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in contradict earlier statements by the because “it is impossible to under- Paris on March 13. “The surrounding Guttmacher Institute, which reports stand Romero without understanding villages have been evacuated, the peo- that women with family incomes at Rutilio Grande.” According to the re- ple have fled, communication is very or above 200 percent of the poverty port, Pope Francis met Grande once in difficult and we have not been able to line have abortions at about half the the 1970s, though they did not talk to- establish contact with our volunteers national rate. The Brookings paper, gether. Pope Francis described him as and correspondents working locally,” released in February, reports that sin- a priest who “left the center to go to the Afriat said. “The people who report- gle women who make four times the peripheries,” a model that has become ed these recent kidnappings were un- federal poverty level have an abortion a familiar refrain of his pontificate. able to give us more precise details.” rate of 31.9 percent while those at or She said it is likely that those abduct- below the line have a rate of only 8.6 Kidnapped in Syria ed—all local Christians—might not percent. The authors cite a sociolog- have made their society membership ical study that states “a baby—even The Society of St. Vincent de Paul known, so as not to “aggravate their al- when unplanned—is a great source has been unable to confirm the num- ready dramatic situation.” of fulfillment in low-income commu- ber of its members abducted in Syria, nities.” nor where they are being held. The society announced on its website on Brookings on Abortion March 4 that “several colleagues,” along A study released by the Brookings From CNS, RNS and other sources.

10 America March 30, 2015 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

DISPATCH | MIAMI potable water to their slums. Second, the opposition and its affluent image The Post-Chavista Era in Venezuela still remind Venezuela’s poor of their pre-Chávez world. hings could not be worse in The fact is, those largely middle- One result of that epiphany is a Venezuela. No, actually, they and upper-class opponents can be Catholic-based expatriate charity group Tcould be—and probably will just as incompetent at winning over called Programa de Ayuda Humanitaria be. Venezuelans as Maduro is at gov- para Venezuela (Humanitarian Aid Despite its prodigious oil wealth, erning them. And that is especially Program for Venezuela). Run out of a Venezuela is heading over a finan- true when it comes to the revolution’s Doral strip mall, Ayuda started last year cial cliff, and it is heading there faster working-class base in the barrios— as a project to get medical supplies to thanks to the plunging price of crude folks who so far are not convinced that injured opposition activists. oil. The socialist revolution founded the opposition is a reliable alternative. But Ayuda leaders, like the group’s by the late Hugo Chávez, once the That cohort still remains at least co-founder, Marisol Dieguez, quickly populist patron of Latin America, tepidly loyal to Maduro and the saw there was potential for a broader is now a corrupt and misman- outreach. “It was obvious that the aged economic basket case best Chávez’s successor same shortages affecting the stu- known for hyperinflation and is watching dents and demonstrators we were crippling shortages of basic con- trying to help was afflicting every- sumer goods. antigovernment one else in Venezuela, especially Venezuela’s violent crime is the poor,” says Dieguez. the worst in South America. protests rise. Those scarcities are indeed And the political scene looks dire. The Venezuelan Association just as scary. Chávez’s inept and of Hospitals and Clinics says 78 authoritarian successor, President Chavistas, as the socialist party is percent of the items the medical sector Nicolás Maduro, is watching antigov- known. And that keeps Venezuela’s there needs to function effectively are in ernment protests rise as his approval polarized political math just enough seriously short stock. rating tanks. He loudly blames it all in the socialists’ favor to keep them in As a result, Ayuda now sends large on a U.S. “war” against him and on op- power. donated shipments of everything from position leaders who increasingly find But in Miami, home to the largest syringes to EKG machines to baby cribs themselves behind bars these days on Venezuelan expatriate community in into Venezuela, mostly to medical insti- kangaroo-court sedition charges. the United States, the anti-Chavista tutions that serve the indigent. Dieguez Last month, during demonstrations diaspora may finally be figuring out says the most frequent requests are for in the Andean city of San Cristóbal, a how to build bridges to their coun- pediatric needs. 14-year-old student was fatally shot by try’s masses. The expats, known as “I just got an email from Caracas,” police. Maduro condemned the kill- “Doralzuelans” because most live she says, “asking us if we can find infant ing, but it occurred just weeks after in the suburb of Doral just west of tracheotomy instruments.” his government gave security forces an Miami, were shocked last year when Dieguez is an outspoken Chavista O.K. to use deadly force against pro- antigovernment protests in Venezuela opponent. But she says one of the grat- testers if they feel “threatened.” left 43 people dead but did little to ifying facets of Ayuda’s work is being Given that unholy mess, you would bring poorer Venezuelans to the oppo- involved in something with Venezuela think la revolución’s days are numbered. sition side. that has “nothing to do with anyone’s But that is far from certain—and not Some of those Doralzuelans did a political affiliation.” just because the Maduro regime is little soul-searching and realized two There is obviously nothing politi- cracking down on its opponents. things. First, while things may be tough cal about making sure a baby gets an for the poor in Venezuela today, they emergency tracheotomy. But it does were in many respects tougher before help Venezuela’s opposition appear to TIM PADGETT, Latin America editor for NPR affiliate WLRN, isAmerica ’s Miami correspon- Chávez came to power in 1999 and be a bit more part of the poor’s post- dent. brought bodegas, schools, clinics and Chávez world. TIM PADGETT

March 30, 2015 America 11 MARGOT PATTERSON Seduced by ISIS very day our attention is caught resonate with them nonetheless. can a longing for meaning, a desire for by stories in the news. Usually, I suppose 900 years ago people excitement and a need to belong. Ethe thoughts they occasion are joined the out of a similarly Analysts who study jihadis say fleeting. Sometimes the impression is wide range of motives: a love of adven- there is no reliable socio-demographic more long lasting and they linger for ture, a wish to see the world or to es- profile. Some are troubled young peo- days. One such story for me is that of cape one’s situation at home, a desire to ple; others are those who would enjoy the three schoolgirls in Britain who take part in a great cause, to do some- good prospects in their home coun- on Feb. 17 left their comfortable mid- thing important, lack of good alter- tries if they stayed put. Researchers dle-class lives to fly off to Turkey and natives, religious idealism. Religious at Queen Mary University of London from there make their way to Syria to Zionists planting Jewish settlements found most jihadis from are join the Islamic State. The three girls, on the West Bank to redeem the land highly educated, from financially se- two of them age 15 and another 16, are following in the foot- cure families and spoke are classmates, described as good stu- steps of the Crusaders. The English at home. The dents, well integrated into their soci- Islamic State is so extreme, French newspaper Le ety and showing no previous signs of its practices so far from What lies Monde reported that a extremism. mainstream Islam, that it ahead for quarter of the French There’s a novel here, a dramatic beggars belief to think its jihadis in Syria come one. I hope it won’t become the tragic leaders are sincerely reli- these girls: from a non-Muslim novel I fear it might, but I can’t help gious. But they don’t have marriage, background. Whether wondering what lies ahead for these to be to succeed. Two states native or foreign-born, girls. Marriage to a young jihadi, or were created on the basis of combat, the great majority of ji- combat. Almost inevitably, hardship. religion in the 20th century. hardship? hadis are radicalized to- And if they don’t get killed in Syria, Pakistan was established as day not by someone they will they face charges if they return a state for Muslims after know or by an imam in to Britain? All this because they were the partition of India in a mosque but over the young, impressionable and intrepid. 1947; Israel as a state for Jews, both Internet, which Peter Neumann, di- Given the Islamic State’s many brutal secular and religious, in 1948. rector of The International Center for acts, it is difficult for me to fathom Religion has become something to the Study of Radicalization, calls “the its appeal, but judging from the num- be deplored today, especially Islam. most powerful tool that ever existed ber of young foreign recruits flocking “What’s the matter with Islam?” has for promoting ideas—good ideas and to join the group, it has it. Masters become a rallying cry, especially by bad ideas.” of media, the I.S. is said to put out those who know little about the reli- How will Shamima, Kadiza and compelling propaganda videos, has gion or about the politics in the coun- Amira fare in the Islamic State? 50,000 Twitter accounts and presents tries where Muslims live. But while There’s a great bildungsroman to be itself as offering opportunities for all religion plays an important role in written about their experiences if they who want to enroll. Analysts say any motivating and recruiting Muslims to survive them. Theirs is the face of in- number of factors drive recruits; there jihadi groups like the Islamic State, the nocent youth running into a war few of is no one path to jihadism. Many of chief drivers of Islamic terrorism lie us comprehend. They humanize what those who join the I.S. are religiously outside religion, in grievances shared otherwise strikes us as alien, horrify- ignorant and not particularly pious, widely across society. Undemocratic ing and barbaric. We marvel at their which doesn’t mean the dream of regimes that refuse to share power, illusions, their idealism, their reckless- re-establishing the caliphate doesn’t lack of opportunities, Western for- ness. Leaving childhood behind, they eign policy and feelings of disenfran- have stepped boldly into their future, MARGOT PATTERSON is the author of Islam chisement from the societies in which and we fear for them. Considered: A Christian Perspective. Muslims live fuel extremism. So too MARGOT PATTERSON

12 America March 30, 2015 FROM OUR BLOGS My American Feminism: A Response to Camille Paglia Olga Segura America Government May Be INTERVIEW Doomed by Efficiency, Not By Sean Salai, S.J., interviews Gary Wills about his Dysfunction, Robert David Sullivan book The Future of the Catholic Church With Pope I Can’t Wait to Buy My Gold Apple Watch, Jim McDermott, S.J. Francis. WHAT YOU ARE READING The Catholic Pagan: 10 Questions for PODCASTS Camille Paglia, Sean Salai, S.J. Amy-Jill Levine talks about her book Short Stories All the Angels and Saints, by Jesus on “America This Week” on SiriusXM. Bishop Edward K. Braxton Colbert Catechism: Stephen Colbert Professes His Faith to Fr. James Martin, America Films CATHOLIC BOOK CLUB Bishop Robert McElroy to San Diego, Kevin Spinale, S.J., leads a discussion of James Adds to Intellectual Heft of U.S. Carroll’s Christ, Actually. Dioceses, Mary Ann Walsh, R.S.M. The Lives of David Carr, John Carr

“As a society we have to begin to talk about what we value and how we can, as a country, live together given our different values.” —William A. Barry, S.J., Vaccine Wars

March 30, 2015 America 13 Showdown in Ukraine A path to peace and Europe’s future BY ANTOINE ARJAKOVSKY he undeclared war between Russia and by the new reactionary elite taking shape in Russia and even Ukraine cannot be contained in the same in parts of Western Europe, sociopolitical clusters that can way other recent Russian expansionist con- become radical in their rejection of the core values of modern flicts—Transnistria since 1990 and South civilization—freedom of conscience, participatory democ- Ossetia and Abkhazia since 2008—have racy and human dignity. Mr. Putin does not just challenge Tbeen isolated. Unlike these contested regions, Ukraine is international law by annexing Crimea and invading Ukraine’s a much more significant country, with a population of 45 Donbass region; he undermines the philosophical founda- million. A conflict between the largest country in the world tion of contemporary international law. and the largest country of Europe cannot pass unnoticed. In many of his interventions, he seeks to demonstrate that Moreover, the Russia-Ukraine conflict concerns all coun- his only philosophy is that might makes right. It turns out tries of the world, because interna- tional law has been openly violated by the annexation of Crimea. A global consensus may finally un- derstand that the very future of the European model is being threatened by the destabilization of Ukraine. In a violently anti-American speech given in October 2014 at Sochi, President Putin did not hide the fact that oth- er conflicts will follow everywhere “Russian interests” are at stake, be- ginning, of course, with the regions bordering Russia. Indeed, since September 2014, the Baltic countries, Poland and even Sweden have already endured provocations from Russia. These military feints should be taken seriously. In her excellent book Putin’s Kleptocracy, Karen Dawisha describes how Russia has become a mafia state grounded in terror. The recent murder of the opposition that in many Western departments of political science, that leader Boris Nemtsov, gunned down on a bridge in Moscow is exactly what is taught. Everyone knows that for Thomas near the Kremlin on Feb. 27, only seems to confirm her anal- Hobbes the modern state exists only as it can curb the vio- ysis. lence inherent to human beings and between religions, and political science students today hear the liberal dogma of Mr. Putin’s Intentions John Rawls’s separation between the righteous and the good, Western democracies will not be able to find a way to peace but they are unable to quote Nikolai Berdyaev or Michael in this conflict unless they take seriously the challenges posed Sandel, who argue that a just society cannot separate individ- ual virtue and social peace. This path to a just society is possible only through the rec- ANTOINE ARJAKOVSKY, founding director of the Institute of Ecumenical ognition of common values together with the organization Studies, Lviv, Ukraine, is the research director of the Collège des Bernardins, Paris, , and author of Russia-Ukraine: From War to Peace? The of inter-convictional and interfaith dialogues at all levels of English version of this book can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/1vZ5DBx. society. Only in this way will the pluralist Western world free

14 America March 30, 2015 IDENTITY CRISIS. Ukrainian armed forces ride on armored personnel carriers near Debaltseve, Ukraine, Feb. 12.

itself from the cancer of nihilism that Mr. Putin promotes Nationalist Dead-Enders today. If Western democracies do not reconsider the ques- Europe can help Ukraine and Russia emerge from their mu- tion of their values, the necessary pedagogy of virtues and tual crisis by encouraging new national identities that detour the spiritual foundations of their constitutional systems, they around the violent dead-end of extreme nationalism. But could let themselves be led into the black holes of secular- it can be such a guide only if it is able to recreate a secure ism—that is, radical individualism and reckless populism. and confident sense of its own identity, and it cannot do that It is clear that violence in our world is only growing year without first acknowledging the Christian heritage buried by year. The summer of 2014 was marked not only by the within European identity, Christianity’s historic contribution Russia-Ukraine war but also by the resurgence of open war- to crafting that identity and the sustaining, invigorating role fare between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza by Christianity still offers European culture. the increasing conflict between Sunni and Shiite states in the Fortunately, there are signs of a political-theological re- Near East, by the entry of the United States along with an im- newal. The Rev. Armand Puig i Tàrrech, dean at the Faculty portant coalition of states in the war against the Islamic State of Theology of Catalonia in Barcelona and a member of the and by a number of other conflicts elsewhere in the world. Community of Sant’Egidio, has said: “The process of glo- Everything is happening as if the elites of the planet had balization should take into account a fundamental differ- not learned the principal lesson of the fever of ideologies in ence between ‘strategic’ peace and ‘preventive’ peace. Peace the 20th century. For the last 25 years, the discourse of the cannot be the fruit of a globalization which links everything elites has been content to affirm that political power must be to economic calculations; it should become a ‘preventive’ separated from religious power in order to construct a lawful peace within a globalization which seriously envisages the state. That premise is not false, but it is insufficient. dream of a world peace and the end of all wars.” It cannot In fact the origins of the deadly ideologies of the 20th remain, he says, “a notion of peace which limits itself [mere- century can be found in the effective exclusion (although not ly] to...an absence of conflict.” always declared) by the modern state of the religious aspira- According to this theologian, global order will not en- tions of peoples and in the censure by the power of the uni- dure “unless justice is globalized.” And peace, “the great gift versity of the interpretation of these aspirations offered by of God,” is derived from justice, especially in a world where theological entities. (In France theology and religious stud- powerful interests can neglect the needs of the poor and po- ies are generally banned from universities). The self-licensed litically powerless. Father Puig suggests that state ministers critics of theological-political rationality, intellectuals both in of peace should be created to bring about preventive peace France and in the United States, prefer to invent new beliefs alongside the ministers of defense, who are responsible for such as “the end of history,” which will come about with the strategic peace. triumph of democratic consensus. New prophets announce This lack of connection between dialectical reasoning on

CNS PHOTO/GLEB GARANICH, REUTERS the time of a post-Christian secular order. the one hand, which produces a strategy of checks and bal-

March 30, 2015 America 15 ances, and open reasoning on the other, which understands a tenacious struggle against its destructive effects.” Ukraine authentic peace as a spiritual gift, has marked the reflection can create its own sustainable paradigm of otherness, a “par- of the philosophical current known as radical orthodoxy. The adigm which is both the cornerstone of democracies and English philosopher and theologian John Milbank rediscov- their point of vulnerability. Cornerstone because it offers a ered the Christian vision of the relational being from a med- speech which is both differentiated and regulated; vulnera- itation on the three persons of the . His participative bility because it can provoke an insane cultural fragmenta- ontology is based on the contingency of the created world, on tion.” the fact that this creation is fully realized only in God and Father Capelle adds, “It is here that the European expe- on the idea of the unity in the rience and tradition, which difference. This is why only is precisely a spiritual expe- Christianity can go beyond It is important to help the rience and tradition of oth- the contradictions of classical erness, has a historical and thinking about polis and oikos, people of Ukraine and Russia ethical responsibility towards polis and psyche or unity and to understand that otherness Ukraine.” He concludes that difference. the European nations, si- Thus, if the international is not contradictory to identity, multaneously marked by community wants to attain Christian culture and less and an order of justice and peace to remember that the church is less faithful to that Christian without having to fully “con- heritage, should first under- vert” to Christian dogma, it both one and diverse. take a project of self-criti- must rediscover the meaning cism. They might then find Christianity has given to the notion of peace. For that it themselves on the wide road of a European renaissance. must free itself from stale theologies that confuse the merci- A European “self-examination” should lead to a period of ful Pantocrator with Jupiter or reduce the God of Abraham, optimism and self-confidence founded on what is perhaps Isaac and Jacob to a great watchmaker. It will then find an Europe’s greatest 20th-century cultural achievement, what understanding of the Creator as a just God who acts in the Martin Luther King Jr. and Gaston Fessard, S.J., called per- world in the service of a just order. This involves serious sonalism. It is a doctrine grounded in the defense of human work on the theology of politics. dignity, on the natural rights of human beings but also on the responsibilities of each person in society. A new narra- The Rediscovery Of Europe tive of Europe has to be told by multiple voices in an open, At a colloquium in October 2014, at the College of the plural and democratic manner, but with the clear conscious- Bernardins on “The Ukraine and Europe: New Challenges,” ness that there is truly a European identity. This identity The Rev. Philippe Capelle-Dumont, president of the French is founded on common values inspired by Christian rev- Catholic Academy, spoke in this spirit. He believes the elation, from habeas corpus of 1215 through the dissident Russian people are torn between two visions, equally myth- movements of more recent times. ical and wrong-headed. One presses an understanding of Andrei Zubov, the great Russian historian, banned from Russia as a “utopic” state, the inevitable outcome of modern the Institute for International Relations of Moscow after European history and the progress of historical materialism; he publicly denounced the annexation of Crimea by Putin the other vision is radically nostalgic, harkening back to an in March 2014, said there is a wide distance between the imagined trans-European unity awaiting rediscovery. Russian and the Western understanding of civil society— That is why, according to Father Capelle, contemporary the relationship between nation, state and the individual. In Russian leaders seek to revive ancient myths such as “pan- Zubov’s eyes, in the 1930s “Europe thought of the nation Slavism” and the “Slavic brotherhood” or the “Third Rome,” as an organism, but after 1945, Western Europe arrived at “myths which have absolutely nothing to do with present a completely different idea of the nation. From the person historical reality, but whose activation reveals the deep fear seen as a cell in the national organism, the Europeans ar- of seeing a Ukraine which is not just autonomous, but pow- rived at the vision of the person as the central value of the erful.” Today Ukraine is defining itself as a bicultural, bilin- national body. This mentality, absolutely new and different, gual and ecumenical nation state—precisely the opposite of enabled the construction of the new democratic Europe.” It how Russians imagine a nation state should be (one territo- offered an escape from the historical complex of inferiority, ry, one language, one religion). paranoia and revenge that drove Europe into two world wars The crisis between Russia and Ukraine reflects a rejec- and accepted the spiritual potential of openness to others, tion by the Ukrainians of Russian radical nationalism “and mutual support and cooperation.

16 America March 30, 2015 The Ukrainian End Game The most striking aspect of the post-Soviet collective con- sciousness is the absence of a political sense of a common good, the absence of a sense of mutual responsibilities. Now the political stakes are formidable—a question of restor- ing to Ukrainians and Russians of the 21st century a con- sciousness of their political responsibilities as citizens and the hope that they can, each in its own place, contribute to transforming society towards more decency and justice. In European history it has been the church and the phi- losophers inspired by Christian doctrine, from Jean Bodin to Emmanuel Kant, that defined this consciousness of re- sponsibility, this idea that rights are not only given, they also create mutual obligations for human beings created in the image of God. But the Orthodox churches in Russia and Ukraine are themselves in conflict. This is why an ecumen- ical mission aimed at helping these churches find new ways to deal with modernity becomes necessary. It is important today to help the people of Ukraine and Russia to understand that otherness is not contradictory to identity, to remember that the church is both one and diverse. That understanding would help the Orthodox Church play a leading role in the restoration of democracy in Russia and Ukraine while actively promoting unity among Christians. The church has not yet built the kingdom, but it has a mission that tends toward it. Every act of justice is essential to its accomplishment. The church asks every man and every woman to participate in the coming of the kingdom of God on earth in the spirit of the Gospel and of the reconciled ecclesial tradition. Perhaps deploying a restored vision of a Christian nar- rative can help in this task of creating an identity within Europe for Ukraine and Russia. In being faithful to the of the Rus and the heritage of the holy princes Boris and Gleb, the sons of Vladimir I, the Russians and Ukrainians of today might be able to work toward peace. We know that these two princes freely accepted upon themselves the violence that racked the ruling family in the 11th century in order to make peace and public welfare possible. But the political heritage of Boris and Gleb is not of pas- sivity in the face of evil. The kind of peace expressed by the holy princes Boris and Gleb is, on the contrary, that each one should assume his own responsibilities at the risk of his own life. Public power has meaning and legitimacy only in the measure to which it places itself—risking all—at the service of peace and justice. The murdered Boris Nemtsov, a liberal politician who defied Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine, and the late Rev. Gleb Yakunin, a Russian priest and dissident who died on Christmas Day last year, have done their part. It is now the responsibility of their spiritual children on the in- ternational level to continue their common task. A

March 30, 2015 America 17 18 America March 30, 2015 The Wisdom Of Oz Taking the long way home BY WILLIAM J. O’MALLEY

have long puzzled over the ruby slippers in “The Wizard we age, we too are offered a new, parallel vocation: rediscover of Oz,” an archetype of childhood and transformation. after a lifetime of challenges that old enchantment that still When Dorothy’s house lands on the Wicked Witch stands in our own shoes. and Glinda shows up, these slippers are magically Like Dorothy moving into the whole new country of Itransfered to Dorothy. It would seem that she now possesses adulthood—sharing her newfound self in an entirely new her transport back to Kansas. Why then doesn’t Glinda tell way—our natural deceleration now invites us to fuse all the Dorothy that all she needs to do is to click her heels and say, disparate elements of our lives and their insights, forging “There’s no place like home?” them into a newly owned, unique personal wisdom. Jesus Well, for one thing, there would be no story, would there? keeps envisioning the master who returns from trips asking And the story is the point. Dorothy is not ready to move his servants for a tally of what they have made of his trust. into the next stage of her life until she has discovered—not Now, the tally of your having lived is you. proven—that she already has the virtues her three pals seem Once we acquiesce to two facts, we grown-ups can find an to lack: courage, intelligence and love. It is not a test from invitation to new life, locked in the jaws of a dilemma. First, some sadistic teacher to ratify her worth, but an occasion we must make peace with the inevitability of diminishing for her to prove to herself that she is ready to take on life in and dying, sooner rather than later. Second, we must keep a new way. Only by rising to new challenges can we lose our recalling the fact that we never merited to be here in the first fears of inadequacy. We find confidence by acting confident. place. Both insights intensify appreciation of true value— When Dorothy has surmounted her challenges, she can value only those of us lucky to last this long can fully appre- be allowed in on the secret: All along, the magic in the slip- ciate. The core of the Gospel is resurrection, starting over. pers has been Dorothy! We ourselves create the magic that But those two facts—both inexorable and easily ig- can transport us to the next stage of our journeys. Now, as nored—can also leech out the zest in our living, till nothing is left but iron resignation. You have surely seen it. However, WILLIAM J. O’MALLEY, S.J., teaches theology at Seattle University. His resilient folks grab hold of death and life—two contrary

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/CHAMELEONSEYE latest book is You’ll Never Be Younger (Orbis). poles of a magnet—and reignite a whole new force: the in-

March 30, 2015 America 19 domitable human spirit that transcends both. With a bit of day? Realizing every day is a gift you did nothing to de- resolve, we can become like children again. We can find the serve makes an honorable person appreciative. And vigilant. magic that is still there, brightness inside the unpromising, Forget Death catching me with sin on my soul—let Death though it involves ignoring superficial things like cellulite, never catch me bored! wrinkles and paunches. The essential—the soul—is always It is all in the attitude. If you go out looking for problems there. And immortal. Unlike the surfaces, you do have final or difficult people, it is amazing how many you find. But control of that because it is the essence of you. when we view the world through Christ’s eyes—the ones Grasping the gratuity of life and inevitability of death, I that penetrate the trivial surfaces—we become astonished rarely wake up grouchy. I do not think: “Oh, God, another as the real souls emerge, true selves who yearn for the same day!” I think: “Oh, God! Another day!” Many worthier than things: to be found, to be understood, even loved. Annie I did not wake up. I did. What am I going to do with this Dillard captures it in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside by a generous hand. But—and this is the point—who gets excited by a mere penny? But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your pover- ty bought a lifetime of days.

Now from a longer perspective, I look back at my biggest setbacks—hu- miliating grades, condescension, being dropped—and I find sour old Nietzsche was right. Every one made me stronger, forged a deeper leaden keel that lets me weather storms that founder flat-bottom boats. I discovered how shallow my ideas had been, about love, sex, death, success, character. I discover meaning. I now treasure how lucky I have been to have those times I was forced to find a reason to keep going. They are how God and I became good friends. Before, we were only acquaintances.

The Pursuit of Wisdom Like Dorothy’s journey, ours lead to a better self-understanding and, hopeful- ly, to wisdom. But what does “wisdom” mean? I suspect it consists precisely in having discovered the brightness, the enchantment inside everything we have encountered all our lives. St. Ignatius Loyola called it “finding God in all things.” We are meant to extract all the infectious goodness inside the unprom- ising, even the detestable, then process that into the sort of good that we can

20 America March 30, 2015 spread everywhere we go: contagious joy. We become alche- oneself which gives substance to the resolve not to quit. It is mists. Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons.” What will make us, at least “in the going,” fulfilled? The Kindness is the will to yield even to those who tax your resolve to keep asking questions—without hankering for patience, even when they find your caring cruel. Like all definitive answers, grateful we will never run out ofterras these virtues, it holds no hope of a return. Charity can be incognitas. Success is also rooted in attentive awareness for faked; kindness cannot. It is Burger, the psychiatrist in clues in the faces of those around us, alert as a new mother Judith Guest’s novel Ordinary People. to unspoken signals. That continual sensitizing of the mind Decency is often rendered “goodness,” which is unhelpfully and heart is demanding, often without palpable rewards. It vague. Decency means doing what is fitting, right, just. The can be fatiguing. But it sure beats dying before we are dead. best word is dependable. It is Gary Cooper in “High Noon.” This is the time to be sure that my life is not simply a Faithfulness adds the dimension of watchfulness, atten- story of what happened to me. Rather, it is a time to break tiveness, a vigilance beyond just being there for someone like through the surfaces under which God was hiding all along. an emergency phone number. It is Sam Gamgee in The Lord I have found romance inside the commonplace, the gold in of the Rings. Rumpelstiltskin’s straw, the enchanted princesses and princ- Modesty is closer to unpretentiousness than meekness, es inside all the scullery girls and froggy boys, and within which has prissy connotations. It has little to do with brash myself a peer of the realm of Christ. clothing; it is even less worried by sexual temptations than St. Paul compacted the contents of “wisdom” as well as by narcissism. It is Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. anyone when he described the fruits of the Holy Spirit— Self-control accepts responsibility. It has little to do with dead giveaways of God’s presence in a life: “love, joy, peace, the whip-and-chair of the animal tamer we recall from patience, kindness, decency, faithfulness, gentleness and childhood. Now it is honest, adult acceptance not only of self‑control” (Gal 5:22-23). Those essentials are all invisi- one’s weaknesses but of one’s strengths. It is Atticus Finch in ble, known only in their effects—like the oak in the acorn, To Kill a Mockingbird. Beethoven in his embryo, the spark of God in your own soul. Note that none of these virtues has ever been captured in The years have assuredly swerved our understandings of any catechism. We who claim to live an adult Christian life those virtues from what they were when we were Dorothy’s are these lessons—in the way we carry ourselves. A age. Love has little to do with palpitations, light-years from the need-based love that ate at us when we first pulled away from family validation. Genuine love sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from the slavery of teen infatuations. It is a blank check to be used anytime, no matter how inconve- nient. We offer that even to God. It takes years to learn. It is Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. Joy shows itself most clearly and paradoxically in hard times. Joy cannot be sought in itself, but arises only as a by- product of other endeavors. Like the legitimate pride in say- ing, “By God, I did my best today.” It blossoms automatically in a soul headed in the right direction, a grateful “victim” of God’s grace. It is Robin Williams’s character in “Dead Poets’ Society,” when he’s fired and his boys jump onto their desks saying, “O Captain, my Captain.” Peace is the serenity that comes from having it all togeth- er, from wholeness. Surely it is not the peace the world gives, the unbotheredness in Caribbean ads. Rather, it is the confi- dence of the tightrope walker, those who defuse bombs, ter- minal ward nurses; not lack of challenges but self-possession standing up to them. It is the two Aussie soldiers in “Breaker Morant,” joining hands to face the firing squad. Patience comes from having a reason to keep going. It is what Viktor Frankl means in Man’s Search for Meaning: a profound sense of purpose—an anchor in a truth outside

March 30, 2015 America 21 GENERATION FAITH

22 America March 30, 2015 VATICAN DISPATCH Making Room for Women hen Pope Francis wrote do likewise in their local churches. and departments.” in “The Joy of the Gospel” Women began working in the Pope Francis touched on this sub- Wthat “we need to create Vatican in large numbers only after ject in his interview with La Nación broader opportunities for a more in- the Second Vatican Council. Today in December 2014, speaking about cisive female presence in the Church” 762 women work there (20 percent reform of the . While and that “the presence of women must of the workforce), Gudrun Sailer, an the head of a congregation should be a be guaranteed” also “in the various Austrian journalist at Vatican Radio, cardinal, he said, it is not necessary for settings where important decisions told the Voices of Faith gathering. the secretary to be a bishop. If he were are made,” he raised expectations that The State Governorate, to decide that henceforth secretaries women would soon be able to make an which includes the museums, super- do not need to be bishops, this could even more significant contribution to market and post office, employs 371 open the possibility that women and the life of the Catholic Church. women. Most of these jobs do not re- lay men could be appointed to such That magisterial text, published quire a university degree. positions. on Nov. 24, is the programmatic doc- Another 391 women Besides a revision of ument of his pontificate. He feels work for the Holy See (18 If women canon law, Sailer believes strongly about all he has written there, percent of the workforce). are to access a change in mentality including the section on women (No. Forty-one percent of these could open a totally new 103). Since then, he has often reaf- have university degrees higher situation. If Francis took firmed “the need” to give “a greater role and serve in professional positions, the lead, she said, “We to women in the church,” including in positions (like heads of of- could have 10 or 20 un- decision-making. fices, archivists, historians, changes are der secretaries or even His words have raised hopes among journalists). Two are under needed. secretaries in the next women, and some impatience. They secretaries, but no woman two to three years.” She sparked an interesting, constructive holds a higher post; the meant women. debate at the second annual Voices of higher positions are reserved for cler- Currently both secretary and Faith meeting of women, held in the ics, usually bishops or cardinals. most under secretary positions in Vatican on March 8. Sailer, author of two books on the Roman Curia are filled by clerics; I shall draw on that meeting here women in the Vatican, argues that if these office holders would have to be as I examine the roles women current- women are to access higher positions, reassigned if the posts were opened ly hold in the Vatican and what they changes are needed in canon law and to women or laymen. That could not might occupy in the future. But before in the prevailing mentality. happen overnight. addressing this, I think it is import- Cardinal addressed In fact, things are changing, slow- ant to emphasize that Francis’ words this in his interview with America ly but surely, at the Vatican under and thinking extend far beyond the (2/16). He said: “The de-clericaliza- the pope’s impetus. The 17-member Vatican to include the local churches. tion of power is very important in the Council for the Protection of Minors, Certainly, if he were to appoint Roman Curia and the administrations headed by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, women to decision-making roles in the of dioceses. We must look at canon law has eight women and nine men. The Vatican, this would be of enormous and reflect theologically to see what 30-member International Theological symbolic significance and could inspire roles necessarily require priests; and Commission now has five women, the and encourage bishops worldwide to then all the other roles, in the widest biggest number ever. And one pontifi- sense possible, must be open for lay cal university has a woman rector for people, men and women, but especial- the first time. As Cardinal Marx right- GERARD O’CONNELL is America’s Rome ly women. In the administration of the ly observed, “Great things begin with correspondent. America’s Vatican coverage is sponsored in part by the Jesuit communities of Vatican, it is not necessary that clerics small steps.” the United States. Twitter: @gerryorome. guide all the congregations, councils GERARD O’CONNELL

March 30, 2015 America 23 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. FOLEY Please do not submit poems by email or fax. 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

24 America March 30, 2015 FAITH IN FOCUS Lifting Veronica’s Veil Meditations on a courageous BY SILAS HENDERSON espite various attempts over to Rome, curing the emperor Tiberius upon her was still there. On a the centuries to give her a through an image of Christ that she tall stone base at the gates of her Dpersonal story, there is no ev- had painted out of gratitude for her house stood a bronze statue of a idence that she was a historical figure. healing; when she died, the cloth woman, resting on one knee and She has never been included in any offi- was entrusted to the care of Pope St. resembling a suppliant with arms cial ; and although outstretched. Facing this was an- she is commemorated on July 12 in the other of the same material, an up- Orthodox churches, there has never right figure of a man with a dou- been a universally observed feast day for ble cloak neatly draped over his her in the Western church. shoulders and his hand stretching And yet there she is: Veronica. The out to the woman.... This statue, story of Veronica is depicted on the which was said to resemble the walls of countless churches through- features of Jesus, was still there out the world, and it is a fixture in the in my own time, so that I saw it prayer of Christians, particularly during with my own eyes when I resided Lent. in the city. Praying the has always been, for me, as much a discipline In the Western tradition, Bernice, as an act of devotion. Like the , I the woman cured of the flow of blood recognize that “making the stations” is and whose name has long been associ- a way to reflect on the life of Jesus in a ated with an image of Christ, has come particularly physical way. Over the years to be known as Veronica, the woman I have become increasingly drawn to the of the sixth station of the Way of the sixth station: Veronica wipes the face of Cross who took pity on Jesus, wiping Jesus. There is an intimacy and com- the blood and sweat from his face as he passion in that act that seems to push “Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus,” made his way to Calvary. This legend a sort of pause button in the litany of by Virgil Cantini, at the Pope John Paul was likely a medieval creation intend- pain that is the Passion. II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. ed to explain and support the prove- Each of the synoptic Gospels re- nance of images of Jesus kept in vari- counts the story of the woman, afflict- Clement I. Around the same time, St. ous churches throughout Europe. The ed for many years by a “flow of blood,” Eusebius of Caesarea recounted in his most important of these is the relic, who was cured by touching Jesus’ cloak Ecclesiastical History (vii.8) another tale kept in St. Peter’s Basilica, which has (see Mt 9:18–26; Mk 5:25–34 and of gratitude: come to be known as Veronica’s Veil. Lk 8:43–48). A fourth-century text, Many scholars have proposed that the “Acts of Pilate,” calls this wom- The woman with a hemorrhage, the name Veronica is a composite of an Bernice and tells how she went who as we learn from the holy two words: vera (Latin for “true”) and gospels was cured of her trouble eikon (Greek for “image”). Although by our Savior, was stated to have the name is thought to be a play on the SILAS HENDERSON, managing editor of come from [Caesarea Philippi]. title given to the “true image” of Christ Abbey Press Publications and Digest Her house was pointed out in the depicted on various pieces of cloth, I Magazine, is the author of numerous reflections on prayer and spirituality. He blogs at www. city, and a wonderful memorial of think it is a beautifully fitting title for

CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER fromseason2season.blogspot.com. the benefit the Savior conferred this woman, who is herself a true im-

March 30, 2015 America 25 age of Christian discipleship. presence of the Christ she loved and Only those afire with love are truly Luke tells us that many women ac- in whom she had believed. On Good alive, companied Jesus during his ministry Friday, as we recall the great gift that those who bend low before Christ and as he carried his cross. It does not God has given us, Veronica’s act is a who suffers seem unreasonable that one of these powerful reminder that we are called and awaits us in those who are suf- courageous women, perhaps even the to be people of compassion. A medita- fering: today! woman cured of the flow of blood, tion for the sixth station, composed by would have stepped forward to show Cardinal , Today! For tomorrow will be too Jesus some kindness as he walked to of St. Peter’s Basilica, stirs the faithful late! his execution. Perhaps on that Friday, to follow Veronica to the margins: the day Jesus died, one of his follow- For those of us who profess to be ers put his teachings into practice and A woman steps out of the crowd, followers of Jesus, Veronica’s Good reached out in compassion to show a keeping alight the lamp of our hu- Friday faith is a challenge to look at dying man that there were still those manity, the world around us, and those in it, who cared for him. ...and wipes his Face with the eyes of faith. Veronica’s act I find myself challenged and com- and finds his Face! of compassion becomes an example forted by the idea of Veronica being of Christian charity that is an amaz- the woman cured of the flow of blood. How many people today have no ing anticipation of the self-offering of Grateful for the gift of a renewed life, face! Jesus, represented only a handful of she expressed her gratitude and love How many people are relegated steps later. As I continue my own jour- in an act of courage, compassion and to the margins of life, ney of faith, I am grateful for the gift faith. Pushing her way through the exiled, forsaken, of her witness, whatever the origins of crowd, prompted by love, she recog- by an apathy that kills the apa- Veronica’s story might be. For now, for nized beneath the blood and gore the thetic. this Lent, that is enough. Transformed from Within One priest’s struggle with compulsive eating BY RYAN ROONEY hese days, when I light a can- was inching closer toward being un- For a long time I felt sure I was dle at the base of the make- able to dress myself. Today my life is a called to be a priest, but I increasingly Tshift shrine in my sitting much different story. felt doubt. Facing my problems head room, I feel at peace. I haven’t always I knew that I had a problem long be- on didn’t help. I grew up poor. My dad felt this way. A year and a half ago, I fore I was willing to accept help. That left my family when I was 4, leaving would have been sitting down in a moment came in September 2013, my mom to raise me and my sister. We room of similar size but crowded with when I was called into the bishop’s had no child support and subsisted on food wrappers and neglected dirty office for a meeting about my health. government assistance and whatever laundry. I probably would have been Getting called to the bishop’s office as income my mom could manage, often wolfing down a carton of Chinese food a young priest is hard. I am 29 years from multiple part-time jobs. My mom and binge-watching endless episodes old and the youngest priest of my dio- sacrificed much bringing us up, includ- of a Netflix drama. I was 200 pounds cese. When I was ordained at 26, I was ing taking on school loans so that I heavier, stressed, depressed, unsure a motivated and zealous curate, and I could attend a private boarding school about my future in the priesthood. My was eager to begin ministry and to try in my hometown of Northfield, Mass., body was slowly shutting down, and I to touch the lives of people like me. So as a day student. when I sat down in the bishop’s office, it I was well educated and was deter- REV. RYAN ROONEY is parochial vicar at Our was hard to hear that I had a problem, mined to make millions after graduat- Lady of the Sacred Heart in Springfield, Mass. He blogs at theweighandthetruth.blogspot. but I also knew that I was at a potential ing from an Ivy league school. Instead, com. turning point. God knocked me off my high horse

26 America March 30, 2015 when I went on a youth group retreat weight had never been flagged as what started to take its toll. In addition to and first felt moved by the Holy Spirit. seminary authorities would call a “for- regular parish duties, I was suddenly re- I knew my life would change dramati- mation issue.” sponsible for the needs of our Hispanic cally when the first thoughts of joining About a half a year into seminary, community, the adult Christian initia- the priesthood entered my 14-year-old with the aid of friends and faculty, I be- tion program, a budding youth group mind. gan the initial work of accepting my part and maintaining office hours at our pa- This singular focus guided me in the struggle with my weight. I began rochial high school. I loved the parish, through a significant knee injury and a program with a dietician. I had to do but I never quite felt at home, even in a diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in weekly check-ins with my seminary ad- the rectory. Ironically, that is where I iso- my neck just before graduating from visor to offer updates on my weight. I lated myself. I made efforts to get back high school. I felt that if God was call- drank meal-replacement shakes, sweat- to a gym, but a back injury and some ing me to be a priest, everything would turn out fine. Slowly I gained my strength back after four months of che- motherapy and radiation and entered college at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

A Constant Fight While at Steubenville, I formed deep spiritual foundations and many friend- ships. But it also was the place where my weight ballooned to 388 pounds, which at the time was the heaviest weight of my adult life. I made several attempts to keep my weight under control. I started working out. I tried eating healthier. I could lose about 20 pounds, but then it ed to workout DVDs and gave up junk personal issues convinced me to give up. would come back. I would binge on hot food, soda and alcohol. I lost 70 pounds The weight continued to pile on. I asked wings at a local college hangout, decid- in about four months. I continued to to be moved, but that would not happen ing that I could just start again after an lose weight and maintained it for two for another six months. I was depressed. upcoming exam or some other excuse. years. It looked like I had things under I was dying. During my junior year, my grand- control. I prayed for help, I asked for help, but mother died, and I had to go home and My last year of seminary brought nothing seemed to be materializing. I felt face the fact that I had no nice clothes to my first real-world experience of or- angry with God but also realized that wear. I had to go to the big-and-tall sec- dained ministry. I drove an hour and a this anger was not doing anyone much tion of a store, which at the time didn’t half each weekend during my deacon- good, especially since my job was to help have much in the way of fashion. The ate year to my assignment in western people to love God. I entered counseling picture of me wearing that 4X Hawaiian Massachusetts. I began to eat on the to deal with the stress. My established shirt still haunts me. I graduated from run. I encountered a lot of stress as I prayer life became nearly nonexistent. college in much the same shape—al- tried to balance work with the study in My academic strengths could no longer though commencement-gown black is seminary. The weight started to come hide the fact that I was profoundly un- somewhat slimming. back. Getting used to being a minister happy and needed a dramatic change. Looking at my graduation photos, I was really all I was thinking about at the felt embarrassed, but I was excited for time. My prayer life from seminary was A New Life the road ahead. I was accepted into sem- still strong, though some of the daily I began working at a new parish in April inary and motivated to continue towards routine at the seminary felt tedious. 2013, ministering in an inner-city parish the priesthood. My weight was increas- When I was ordained a priest, I was with very little money and lots of need. I ingly a visual problem, but I saw my assigned to the parish I had served as a poured myself out with my new pastor, vocation as something different, some- deacon. While I was initially very happy who was a good friend to me. Despite thing otherworldly. Even though I was and zealous, my relationship with my being happy to be in a new place, I could

ART: SONJA KODIAK WILDER ART: in a program of formation in college, my pastor was not very strong, and the stress not keep my weight under control. I

March 30, 2015 America 27 weighed 464 pounds. In September of ticed it in my Masses. There was a new that year, after seeing that my health visible energy in my eyes. People re- was not improving, my bishop asked marked that I looked comfortable with me to enter the Damascus Program, a myself. I felt as though for the first time compulsive eating treatment program in my life I could be truly honest with for clergy and male religious at Guest the Lord about every single issue that House in Rochester, Minn. lay hidden in my soul. I accepted this request, and when Another blessing was that I final- I arrived in Minnesota I hit the ground ly felt that I could be open about this running. The real game changer for me with other people experiencing additi- was finding other people were were go- tious. Twelve-step programs talk about ing through the same thing. I suddenly a “spiritual awakening,” and this is what was living with other priests and reli- occurred in me. I could be utterly pow- gious who were caught in the midst of erless over food and the circumstances addictions. I found a 12-step program. of life, but I knew that God and my I got a sponsor, made friends, went to support network were the power over lectures in our program, participated them. This was not some abstract theo- in truly valuable counseling and group logical concept. There was a real higher therapy and started swimming and power behind this change. working out at the gym. I accepted and After five months in Minnesota, I surrendered to the fact that I had a food had lost 102 pounds. I returned to my addiction. diocese healthier and happier than I Although our food was prepared had been at any time in my priesthood. for us, I needed to start to learn what I celebrated three years since ordination a portion was and what my body really just after my 29th birthday. My eating needed. I had to change my entire envi- habits and workouts have not been per- ronment and behaviors and prepare for fect since my return, but I have worked what my life would be when I returned. through my mistakes and leaned on my I received cognitive behavioral therapy, support system. God has been good to and I started telling myself that the little me. Since returning, I moved into a new things I could do to make changes were parish and established a healthy pattern better than nothing at all. I began to log of rectory life. I started to blog about all of my food with a popular app from my journey. Through training weekly MyFitnessPal.com. I used a wristband and a daily regimen of diet and exercise fitness tracker. I started seeing dramatic I have lost 200 pounds. Sharing my per- results in the gym. sonal story has given me the chance to It wasn’t easy. Stress was increasing participate in a new ministry within the back home. I didn’t know where the ministry of the priesthood. I have had Lord would take me. I didn’t even know the chance to speak with others about if I would be returning to ministry. I saw God’s power to transform us from others return for their second or third within. stay at the treatment center. I grew to I know that God is the power that understand the reality of addiction. I at enables me to live my recovery one least had one thing: I knew that I could day at a time. Over and over again, I die if I let this newfound way of life go. tell myself: Just for today I do not need I could not accept, after all I had been to overeat. I can keep to my new eating through, that this would be the way I habits. I can call upon a support network would go. This motivated me to turn to if stress gets the worst of me. Writing God more than ever. this story is part of my recovery. I am a My spiritual life, which had large- priest with an addiction, but I am also ly left me, was steadily coming back. I a priest in recovery and with a great wanted to pray again. The brothers no- reason for hope. A

28 America March 30, 2015 GENERATION FAITH Padre’s Portrait Through suffering we are made to be saints. BY COURTNEY SAPONARO mong the ever-growing pile of though I have no profound, instanta- sort of consolation in the midst of his books in my room is a small neous conversion story to tell, there was pain. And I myself have found com- Acompilation of quotations something there that my 11-year-old fort in knowing that he had rediscov- from the great St. Pio of Pietrelcina, self recognized as worth holding on to. ered closeness to those in heaven who often called Padre Pio. It is meant for By the end of that year, I had been bap- experienced pain like his, both physi- daily meditation during Lent, but I tized and made my first Communion. cally and spiritually. And it was out of find myself flipping through its pag- That turned out to be the last year this suffering that my own faith was es at every season of the year, looking for something fitting for whatever my current situation may be. There are profound quotes about loving God and struggling to find him and, more than anything else, about the intense suffer- ing St. Pio endured during his life. Just as many people my age learned about their faith from their families, I was first introduced to St. Pio because my father had taken up a devotion to him—he, too, began to read the great ’s writings and hung a framed por- trait of him over his bed. But this is where my story branches off from most others. I did not grow up going to Mass every Sunday (or ever) or praying the rosary every night (or ever). Religion was something other families did, but it was never a part of my upbringing, and maybe it never would have been had my father not been diagnosed with of my father’s life. He died the follow- born—this faith that has given me a terminal cancer when I was 10. ing January. It was hard on all of us. life I might never have known other- As time went by and his condition The faith I had just barely begun to de- wise. worsened, he realized that he needed velop was what sustained me through- Early on, I learned that we were all to return to the faith he had grown out those difficult first few months, but given life through Jesus’ death on Good up with. And so it happened that in at the same time, it made the situation Friday, but I never understood what ex- January 2007 he went to a Sunday even more difficult, because now I was actly that meant. It was not until about Mass for the first time in years. I went the only practicing Catholic in the fam- halfway through high school that the with him, for the first time ever, and ily. The Padre Pio portrait disappeared, Passion took on anything more than and I often found myself attending a surface-level meaning for me. I was Mass alone. in eucharistic adoration late at night COURTNEY SAPONARO, of Bellingham, My father suffered more than I will on a retreat with my youth group, idly Mass., is a sophomore at Providence College in Rhode Island, where she is majoring in English ever know, but I can only hope that staring at the crucifix behind the altar, with a minor in theology. my newfound faith offered him some when I was struck with what I would PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/MURPHNSPUD101

March 30, 2015 America 29 like to think was a direct response wonder, and I wonder, and maybe we came straight out of a horror movie. from God. I did not see the heavens all wonder: If God really cares about But he suffered through this because open up or hear God’s voice; it was just us, why does he let bad things happen? he was able to see the end result. a thought that popped into my head, Is there an answer? I don’t know. I This is the quotation for Day 19 of and I realized it was not my own. It struggle with this question probably my book: asked me, “Do you think I liked being more than anything else in my faith. At up here on this cross?” one point in high school, when I was You complain because the same Of course, when I told the rest in a difficult place for reasons I can’t trials are constantly returning. of my youth group they joked that I even remember now, my youth minis- But look here...what have you to was the only person they knew to be ter told me the word suffer comes from fear? Are you afraid of the divine sassed by Jesus. But the question has the same root as “to allow.” Of course, Craftsman who wants to per- remained in my thoughts ever since. this does not mean that we cannot be fect his masterpiece in this way? For the first time, I considered the no- upset when terrible things happen that Would you like to come from tion that Jesus did not relish the idea of cause us or others to suffer. But if we the hands of such a magnificent being put to death. He was reluctant, look at suffering in this way, we can “al- Artist as a mere sketch and no even afraid, to die in such an excruci- low” it because it strengthens us, just as more? ating way. It struck me, thinking about a training athlete allows his or her body this, that even God incarnate was not to work to the point of pain, knowing What does this tell me? It tells me immune to pain. He knows what it is that the end result will be worth it be- that I am a work in progress and that like to suffer—and so when we suffer, cause he or she will be made stronger. God is making a masterpiece out of me. our suffering has the potential to bring And this brings me back to my And it tells me that in order to become us closer to God. friend Padre Pio. Here is a man who what I am created to be, I will have to “The problem of suffering,” as it has knew suffering. He dealt with various suffer. But I have learned not to run been called, is a tricky one, and I know physical illnesses throughout his life. away from suffering. I will not pretend there are a lot of people who turn away He was afflicted by terrible spiritual that I enjoy it or that I never complain from belief in God because of it. They attacks, the kind that sound like they about the crosses I have to carry. But over these past eight or so years of my life, I have learned to look past the pain of my own personal Good Fridays and see the joy that is in store for me when I will finally become more like God. While I was home for Christmas re- cently, my mother came into my room to put some blankets away in my clos- et, and in her search for a place to put them she found on the very top shelf the old portrait of Padre Pio that used to hang above my parents’ bed. We had not seen it in years. I figured it was still around the house somewhere, but I had no idea how near to me it had been all along. And what does this tell me? It tells me that even in the most difficult times in our life, when it seems that God and even our loved ones are inaccessible, they are never as far from us as we may think. In fact, we may find out later that they were there with us, guiding us through our suffering the whole time, helping us become the saints we are called to be. A

30 America March 30, 2015 PHILOSOPHER’S NOTEBOOK Ionesco Again y life with Eugene Ionesco Assembly in Paris. As we stood in the other animals. “I’m sick of moral stan- has been an odd one. drizzle, I noticed a paunchy, balding, dards! Morality is against Nature! The M I saw my first Ionesco diminutive man across from me in a law of the jungle suits me just fine!” play as a high school student. “The large raincoat. It was Ionesco. He brief- The hyperlogical Dudard is a relativist. Bald Soprano” featured utter lin- ly took the microphone and said words “Morality is a matter of opinion. Who guistic confusion as two couples, the to the effect that this is what we’ve can say where the normal stops and Smiths and the Martins, traded non come to, that we shouldn’t be silent the abnormal begins?” Berenger’s girl- sequiturs in the Smiths’ prim living and that the only causes worth fighting friend, “Daisy,” is a social conformist. room. Miraculously, the director had for are the lost ones. He handed the The majority determines what is right. squared the confusion by casting two microphone back, pulled up his coat “We must be sensible. We must adapt pairs of identical twins as the leads. collar and sauntered out into the rain. ourselves and try to get along with the As the curtain fell, I had no idea what When I returned to the Bibliothèque rhinoceroses. They look happy.” Before I had just seen. I only knew that this Nationale, I discovered each of these characters was different from the usual Arthur “The Inalienable Right to turns into a rhinoceros, Miller staged at our local community Life,” Ionesco’s 1975 essay I always each had already made theaters. lambasting the growing a theoretical surrender When I was studying theology in European movement to ex- remember of his or her humani- Paris, I directed a school production empt the incurably ill and the farce as ty. The human soul had of “Vacation,” a short Ionesco play the unborn child from the disappeared long before about provincial tourists loose on the legal ban on homicide. tinged with the bellowing trans- Right Bank. They quickly fall into the I encountered Ionesco tragedy. mutation. sewers, plunge out of a window in the again this spring when At the play’s conclu- Louvre and take a wrong turn at Notre Loyola Maryland’s dramat- sion, Berenger stands Dame, ending up 480 miles south in ics society staged a produc- alone. “I’m the last man Marseilles. I always remember the tion of his 1959 play “Rhinoceros.” left. I’m staying that way until the end. farce as tinged with tragedy. The three The plot is simplicity itself. In a small I’m not capitulating!” Ionesco never actors in the cast all fell seriously ill French provincial town, the residents hid the fact that Berenger, the decrepit afterward; one actress unexpectedly are turning into rhinoceroses, one by anti-hero who haunts his later plays, died on the operating table. one. By the end of the play, one man, was an autobiographical mask. And then I met Ionesco in per- Berenger, refuses to join the rampag- Berenger/Ionesco seems to have son. In 1981 the new Socialist gov- ing herd. At its original opening, left- walked off the pages of Henri de ernment of France announced that it wing critics claimed that the play was Lubac’s Drama of Atheist Humanism. would fund abortion under the na- a critique of fascism; right-wing critics He cannot explain why we must resist tional health care plan. Abortion had argued that it condemned commu- the growing loss of our humanity. He been legal in France since 1975, but nism. Suspicious of all political uto- cannot appeal to God as the source the previous government had treated pias, Ionesco rejected the efforts at a and end of the soul. He can only shout it as an evil tolerated in cases of dis- partisan recuperation of the drama. that we must resist. In the rain with a tress, not as a right or an entitlement. With the Cold War behind us, the gaggle of dispirited demonstrators, he Laissez-les-vivre, France’s leading pro- philosophical steel of “Rhinoceros” can only urge us to refuse the allure of life organization, had organized a pro- seems clearer. The alcoholic anti-hero our new culture of death. It is a moral test demonstration near the National Berenger confronts a series of modern imperative, not the prospect of polit- creeds that have destroyed the dignity ical victory, that galvanizes the long of the human person. His friend Jean resistance. The absurd has become the JOHN J. CONLEY, S.J., holds the Knott Chair in Philosophy and Theology at Loyola is a thoroughgoing naturalist. There pellucid. University Maryland in Baltimore, Md. is no difference between humans and JOHN J. CONLEY

March 30, 2015 America 31 Books & Culture

counterpart of Jennifer Worth, upon TELEVISION | PAUL JOHNSTON whose bestselling memoir the series is based. WHAT LOVE CAN OVERCOME Nonnatus House functions as a small community within a larger com- Life and loss in ‘Call the Midwife’ munity. The viewer comes to know the , nurses and the people of Poplar urfing through today’s popu- women with other women, around through the stories of the area’s many lar television series—“Game of dining tables, in a prenatal clinic, at expectant mothers. Each episode pres- SThrones,” “Boardwalk Empire,” prayer and at dances. And, most cru- ents a host of challenges—poverty, sin- “The Walking Dead,” “Sons of cial to this series, around beds where gle motherhood, breech births, birth Anarchy”—one is met with a litany of women give birth. defects, infant and maternal mortali- ridiculously masculine men. It is as if “Call the Midwife” centers on ty, large families with many children, the goal of every critically acclaimed Nonnatus House, a community of strained marriages, spousal abuse, series is to make Ernest Hemingway Anglican nuns who serve the women venereal disease, prostitution—often and Norman Mailer look like wimps. of Poplar—a working-class neigh- evoking richer meanings through their Call the Midwife is a welcome devia- borhood of London’s East End in juxtaposition. Pregnancy and child- tion from this trend. Now in its fourth the 1950s—as nurses and midwives. birth are not glamorized but dealt with season on PBS, “Call the Midwife” is Assisting them are four young women in realistic, often clinical detail. The first and foremost a series about wom- who are not religious but who are in gritty depiction of pain sets “Midwife” en. The majority of its scenes are of residency, including Jenny, the fictional apart from many of today’s often bru-

ON CALL. Sister Evangelina (Pam Ferris), Patsy (Emerald Fennell) and Sister Winifred (Victoria Yeates) PHOTOS: COURTESY OF LAURENCE CENDROWICZ/© NEAL STREET PRODUCTIONS PHOTOS: COURTESY

32 America March 30, 2015 tal entertainments, which for all their as the scenes of delivery—a pregnant faith,” he replies. “It’s at times like this violence rarely portray physical pain woman on her back, two women tend- I wish I had one.” The responds, realistically. ing to her—but the instruments and “It’s at times like this I wish it made a The range of roles for women in the intent are so different, destroying difference.” “Call the Midwife” is also noteworthy. life rather than enabling it, that the What the secular and religious Not only are the female characters visceral horror of the scene goes even worlds share, though, is love. “We must represented by women of all ages, but deeper than the physical suffering vis- see what love can do,” Sister Julienne they represent a variety of personalities, ited upon the desperate woman. The tells Jenny in the face of a case that ap- physiques and emotional or pears hopeless. Episode moral makeups. And each after episode, “Call the of these characters is ac- Midwife” is a study of corded dignity, even those what love can overcome who are essentially comic and achieve. The series it- figures. self seems a labor of love, Like the nurses, the nuns from the detail of the sets combine the serious and and costumes to the obvi- the comic and are present- ous care that goes into the ed with care and warmth. sharp writing. The acting Religious life is presented is uniformly superb, and seriously and humbly, not the cinematography al- as an elite calling but as a Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann), Collette Wimbish (Olivia ways excellent, becoming different, beautiful way of Llewellyn) and Shelagh (Laura Main) near-miraculous in the living out God’s love in the delivery scenes, where the world. The nuns are shown emergence of the new- in prayer, sometimes with the unbeliev- husband of the woman undergoing the borns is so convincingly rendered that ing Jenny looking on, in such a way that abortion had counseled against it, and the viewer cannot help but wonder how the viewer, like Jenny, wishes to be with the care of their children falls to him it is done. them. In a scene of grief, when one of when the abortion is botched. In fact, the thoughtful images of Jenny’s fellow nurses holds in her arms When in another episode a baby boy “Call the Midwife” carry the series’ the dead baby of a distraught mother is born with deformities, it is the mother richest meanings. At the opening of the and bitter father, not knowing what to who turns her back on the child, while first season’s Christmas special, Jenny is say or do, Sister Julienne steps forward the father looks for some way to pro- briefly shown washing the figurine of to say a prayer that brings, if not conso- vide for him. And the three recurring the baby Jesus that is to be part of the lation, then at least a temporary haven. males in the series are positive charac- Nonnatus House crèche. The figurine But the presentation of the nuns is ters: a bobby who represents the benign is life-size, evoking not just the infant never unrealistically benign. There are face of the law and is a suitor of one of Christ but all the babies we see Jenny tensions and animosities—what one the nurses; the convent’s handyman, a and her associates bring forth from the nurse calls the “war of wimples”—just comic character who nevertheless lends wombs of their mothers. A more sus- as there are in any community of hu- support to the work of the house; and tained image—repeated in every epi- man beings. a world-weary, cigarette-smoking doc- sode so as to become the central image Even less idyllic is the larger com- tor who attends to medical emergencies of the series—is that of the midwives, munity of Poplar. Pettiness, meanness, beyond the training of the nuns and heads cocked, listening at one end of a prejudice—all can be found among the nurses and who advocates to the pow- wooden pinard horn to the heartbeat of women who come to the prenatal clin- ers that be on behalf of the Poplar poor. the babies in the womb. The other end ic. Many women face domestic abuse. Enabling life in even the most diffi- of the device is pressed to the mothers’ Fathers are sometimes loving, but not cult circumstances is the central theme swollen bellies. The pinard is the visible always. Though in some episodes men of “Midwife.” The circumstances of connection between the baby and the are the villains, “Call the Midwife” does Poplar are dire, and the outcomes are midwife, revealing the new life within not go out of its way to make this so. not always happy. As Dr. Turner ag- that yearns to come out. Contrast creates dismay in one epi- onizes over the paperwork for a crib sode that features a woman on an abor- death, one of the nuns asks him if PAUL JOHNSTON teaches literature at the State tionist’s table. The tableau is the same there is anything she can get him. “Your University of New York at Plattsburgh.

March 30, 2015 America 33 BOOKS ON THE BIBLE | JOHN C. ENDRES, S.J., AND JEAN-FRANÇOIS RACINE MANY VOICES, ONE SPIRIT

We have selected books which repre- research and the assistance of trauma reflections on Scriptures inspired by sent emerging approaches in biblical studies, with contemporary studies the author’s experience with migrants studies, including the use of models like the effects of post-traumatic stress and with the phenomenon of migra- from trauma studies, diaspora stud- disorder, to plumb the depths of our tion. Cornell’s reflections allow mi- ies and migration studies. One thing life crises and our Scriptures, as they gration stories that abound in biblical leading to another, attention to trauma commune with each other. narratives to surface: Adam and Eve and to migration raises issues of social Juliana M. Claassens’s Mourner, emigrating from Eden, Abraham leav- justice and poverty. Since in many so- Mother, Midwife (Westminster John ing his native town, Joseph’s forced mi- cieties, women often suffer from dis- Knox) is a reflection on diverse meta- gration to Egypt, the Exodus, the exile crimination and poverty, we have also phors for God in the Old Testament to Babylon, the traveling included books that give space to the Scriptures. Critical of the domi- to Bethlehem and to Egypt, the spread perspectives of female interpreters, nant paradigm of a liberator-warrior of Christianity in Acts accomplished that speak of women in biblical times God full of violence and bloodshed, through migratory movements. and in the contemporary world, that Claassens strives to uncover marginal, These episodes provide interpretive pay attention to the issues of social alternative divine imagery in the Old frameworks when telling about sto- justice, poverty and the use of wealth. Testament. She chooses three images ries of contemporary migrants whom David M. Carr’s Holy Resilience: located in three different text clusters, Cornell and her husband encountered. The Bible’s Traumatic Origins ( Yale Jeremiah, Deutero-Isaiah and Psalms: Cornell’s texts also flesh out biblical University Press) offers an intriguing God as mourner, mother and midwife. stories by giving them a contemporary reading of the Bible as the product The central argument of the book fo- human face. of reflection on a series of disastrous cuses on questions of the authority of This is a book that can appeal to experiences in the life of the people of divine tears as a paradoxical hope, the most North Americans, who were Israel and Judea and then early Jewish presence of a mother as compassion migrants themselves at some point of and Christian communities. Carr and the acting of the midwife as a con- their family history or who have dealt shows us how the Bible as we know tinuous protest for life. The interest of with migrants. Not only does it tell of it derives from traditions born in the uncovering these images is located in contemporary stories of migrants from wake of a never-ending series of trau- the question of the relevance of divine Latin America, but it also reflects on mas, and then reread, reshaped and imagery in the survival of trauma in stories of migration in the 19th and reinterpreted in the shadow of the exile, in Auschwitz, in the aftermath of 20th centuries from territories like Babylonian exile, the Hellenistic crisis Sept. 11, 2001. , and Eastern Europe. and the . The discourse pays special attention It also includes major figures whose Carr examines ways that trauma in- to questions of healing and possibili- lives were touched by migration and/ fluences memory and the ability to re- ties of hope in situations of profound or migrants: Pierre Toussaint, John tell a story by drawing on personal ex- pain. In this discourse the creative Neumann, Frances Cabrini, Dorothy periences of physical catastrophe and argument in the biblical elaboration Day, Cesar Chavez and Teresa of contemporary studies on the impact of includes references to medical argu- Calcutta. trauma on life. His retelling of Israel’s ments from people like Rachel Naomi What difference does it make to history moves quickly and engages the Remen or, in its pedagogical expertise, take seriously that Paul was a Jew reader, who is taught to wonder how Paulo Freire. Claasssens’s book is an from the Diaspora? Ronald Charles, and why the biblical writers articulated important one for any person interest- in Paul and the Politics of Diaspora the journey as they did. Accustomed ed in reflecting on God imagery from (Fortress), argues that it makes a huge to reading many Old Testament texts a female perspective and/or from the difference. Paul’s identity as a Diaspora from the perspective of the Babylonian perspective of people who experience Jew would have been a central element exiles, with Carr’s coaxing we imagine deep suffering and pain, since it ties of his life, mission, social relationships how the traditions about Abraham current political, educational and re- and interpretation of Christ. The book and Moses proved so therapeutic to ligious questions to biblical reflection. explores how Jews from the Diaspora the generation of the exile. This book Deirdre Cornell’s Jesus Was a negotiated their identity. For this pur- brings together new modes of biblical Migrant (Orbis) is a collection of 16 pose, Charles uses other Jewish texts,

34 America March 30, 2015 including the Letter of Aristeas and Text to Life”) provides wise counsel on Flavius Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities, ways of engaging, appropriating and to gather data and feed his reflection. sharing the fruits of these Scriptures in He also uses Homi K. Bhabha’s work on hybridity as an interpretive lense. Next, Charles focuses on three issues found in Paul’s letters to explore how Paul’s identity as a Diaspora Jew would have played out, namely, the conflict at Antioch in Galatians, his dealings with the Galatians and his collection project for the church of Jerusalem. Charles’s study is thought-provoking. It forces us to rethink some issues that are of- ten conceptualized solely in theological terms, without attention to cultural dimensions. In a global church, where many members navigate several cultures and move among various cultural worlds, this book is relevant by showing an early example of a major figure of early Christianity negotiating cultural identities. Seek Justice That You May Live: Reflections and Resources on The Bible and Social Justice (Paulist), by John R. Donahue, S.J., offers to the public the crowning work of a 40-year pas- sion for the biblical heritage as it can engage the practice of social justice. Author of many articles on social justice and the Bible and biblical consultant for the U.S. Catholic bishops’ committee that prepared the 1986 pastoral letter, “Economic Justice for All,” Father Donahue has brought to- gether all these previous studies in a learned but accessible volume on nine biblical themes (creation and exodus; covenant and law; prophetic voices; psalms; wisdom and apoca- lyptic justice; Jesus, prophet of God’s reign; Matthew and James; Luke-Acts; Pauline writings; Johannine writings). For each of them he provides back- ground in biblical studies, significant aspects for social justice and excellent bibliographies for further study and reading. A concluding chapter (“From

March 30, 2015 America 35 preaching and all aspects of the life of Catholic Biblical Association of Lamentations, Song of Songs and the church. This book provides rich America. Kathleen O’Connor’s pres- iconographic representations); and material for continuing study and re- idential address at the 2009 annual (4) ambivalent role models: women in flection on Scripture in this era of meeting of this society introduced the narrative texts (especially Ruth, Esther Pope Francis, who bids us to attend concept of hermeneutics of hunger, and Susanna). These essays greatly ex- unceasingly to the actual lives and situ- which fed the reflection of these bib- pand the range of questions raised by ations of the poor in our world. lical scholars. As a whole, the volume women and feminist scholars about Gary A. Anderson’s Charity: The aims to help contemporary first-world the Writings and late Wisdom books, Place of the Poor in the Biblical readers see and hear, in biblical texts and the volume could prove an excel- Tradition (Yale University Press) offers and in the present world, those who lent supplement in a course on these readers a biblical follow-up to his 2009 hunger either physically or spiritually. books of the Bible. study of Sin: A History. As in the earli- These 10 essays, written by both sea- Samuel L. Adams’s Social and er work, he brings together incisive and soned and younger biblical scholars, Economic Life in Second Temple fresh exegetical practice with examples touch on the books of Genesis, Isaiah, Judea (Westminster John Knox) ex- of the historical reception of a biblical Jeremiah, Lamentations, Sirach, Mark, plores a neglected field of study while notion, all in a writing that is ac- Luke and Thomas; 1 Corinthians and making a subtle yet powerful argument cessible and occasionally conversation- 2 Thessalonians. In some cases, they that we cannot easily separate the eco- al. This examination of the Jewish and began as a communal exegesis done by nomic from the religious aspects of Christian practice of almsgiving distin- the members of the group. All these the biblical text. No previous study guishes itself by its theological orien- essays keep an eye on the socioeco- has focused attention on the economic tation, i.e., what does it say about the nomic contexts of those who hunger and social conditions of the people of identity of God and those who worship in biblical texts and in present situa- Judea during the era that extends from God, and charity itself as an act with “a tions. By Bread Alone does not argue the end of the Babylonian exile to the deeply sacramental character”? that only food is sufficient for biblical destruction of the Second Temple by At the same time, Anderson has an understanding of . Rather, it the Romans in 68 C.E. In five chap- uncanny ability to uncover a deeper corrects some distortions of the bib- ters Adams explores important topics: significance in seldom-studied topics lical message that claim that the poor family life and marriage; the status of like giving loans, providing guarantees need only the Gospel but no bread for women and children; work and finan- for the poor and fasting for petition the journey. cial exchanges; taxation and the role of rather than contrition. He brings the The Writings and Later Wisdom the state; and the ethics of wealth and teaching of the books of Tobit and Books (SBL Press), an important poverty. Sirach on almsgiving to the fore in collection of essays in the series The This book offers rich documenta- a book that also probes deeply into Bible and Women, of the Society of tion about the roles and status of wom- many of the theological differences Biblical Literature, has just appeared, en and children, wives and widows, between Catholic and edited by Christl M. Maier and Nuria marriage and family during this era, theology on issues like almsgiving and Calduch-Benages. It brings to our at- which ended with the Jesus movement. purgatory. Through a host of exam- tention the work of 13 women and one Adams argues that we cannot rely on ples, Anderson demonstrates how the male scholar, many of them not widely knowledge about these matters from treatment of the poor manifests what known on the North American scene. the time of Israel before the Exile; he a community believes about God, it- All the essays appear in English, divid- accomplishes this by examination of self as a worshiping body, other hu- ed into four categories: (1) the living numerous later written sources (bib- man beings and the kingdom of God. conditions of women (lives of wom- lical, post-biblical, apocryphal, etc) This book is as challenging as it is sat- en in postexilic era; gender perspec- and also the information about this isfying. tives and names in Chronicles); (2) era yielded by archaeological excava- Sheila McGinn, Lai Ling Elizabeth images of women (“good” and “bad”) tions. On the last page of the book he Ngan and Ahida Calderón Pilarski in Israel’s Wisdom tradition (person- asserts that “God stands on the side of have edited a collection of essays en- ified wisdom, good and evil women the most vulnerable members of the titled By Bread Alone: The Bible in Proverbs and Job, valorization of society, even becoming their advocate.” through the Eyes of the Hungry women in Qoheleth and good and What he asserts he has amply demon- (Fortress). This collaborative work bad wives in Ben Sira); (3) women’s strated in this excellent book. originates from the Feminist Biblical voices and female metaphors in po- As Katherine Bain’s Women’s Hermeneutics Task Force of the etic texts (Psalms, Psalms of Lament, Socioeconomic Status and Religious

36 America March 30, 2015 Leadership in Asia Minor: In the finds that if certain sources advocate for ideological, economic, political and First Two Centuries C.E. (Fortress) women a married condition and subor- military. While the book comments reminds us, the writing of history tends dination to a male leader (e.g., Ignatius on each section of Mark and is solidly to articulate and to legitimate present of Antioch’s letters), other sources (e.g,. rooted in the text of the Gospel, it in- situations. The socioeconomic condi- inscriptions) indicate that women, terweaves that text with a description tions of women is one of these situa- wealthy and freed, could exercise lead- of situations the author encountered tions: Around the world, women ex- ership roles in virtue of their socioeco- in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the perience socioeconomic discrimination nomic means, by which they exercised United States. Several of these situa- based on their gender, to which one patronage of religious organizations. tions portray women, who often end should add racial, class, age, religion, Laurel K. Cobb, Mark and Empire: up being the weakest and the most sexual preference and ethnicity. Her Feminist Reflections (Orbis, with a powerless, along with children. Cobb’s historical inquiry focuses on religious foreword by Ched Meyers). Trained commentary therefore allows the so- women (either pagan, Jew or Christian) in social work, public administration cial agenda of Mark to resonate more in western Turkey (Asia Minor) during and theology, Cobb has served as a strongly as it brings it closer to us. the first two centuries of the common social worker and as a public health/ Leif E. Vaage’s Borderline Exegesis era. She considers wealthy women, social welfare specialist in 35 countries (Pennsylvania State Univ. Press) con- either married or widows, slaves and for 30 years. This experience nourish- sists of four core essays that take their freedwomen. Her study is original in es her commentary on the Gospel of impetus from the author’s time in two regards: first, it examines iconog- Mark, which opens with three chap- Lima, Peru, as an instructor of biblical raphy and inscriptions in addition to ters that describe the social conditions studies. Each essay deals with a book texts (e.g., Paul’s Letter to the Romans, of first-century Palestine within the of the Bible—Job, Matthew, James and Ignatius of Antioch’s letters, the Acts framework of the Roman Empire and Revelation—from an approach called of Thecla, Xenophon’sEconomics ); sec- the social conditions faced by those “borderline exegesis,” which explores ond, it considers gender as a fluid cate- who live in today’s global American neglected details or under-explored gory constructed by her various sources empire. These chapters clearly describe facts. Vaage’s work is exegetical. It uses in relation with wealth, ethnicity and the various types of power exercised by conventional methods of modern aca- marital and legal status. Hence, she imperial regimes through the centuries: demic historical criticism, which can

THE PAINTINGS OF ROUAULT

O Holy Spirit hooded, cloaked, and there we learned of human we did not know upon the road dawns, how strong you are or standing by a city doorway for there was our expression, in our dull age drawn in heavy blackened brush there were mysteries, until we saw your colors against the Holy skies the Kingdom come apple reds, transparent greens, below refulgent light. to Modern poverty, blue of truth, returning spirit, laid upon the figurines O blush of Love, deeper colors, deep embossed in halos, there never was a pink coming to redeem Gospel figures, like that on Pierette humanity.

WEBSTER YOUNG

Webster Young has been a writer on music for the National Catholic Register, the Catholic Herald and Newsday. He is a published neo- classical composer and lyricist. Website: WebsterYoungLinks.com.

March 30, 2015 America 37 remind us that biblical texts display CLASSIFIED the traces of earlier lives and aspira- tions that produced them. Not always rent issues in spirituality/theology and will have Positions an easy read, the book takes the reader America Media is looking for an editorial assistant a robust network of academic as well as other to assist the managing editor with weekly produc- professional colleagues and prospective lecturers. to an elevation point from which to see tion duties. This includes processing incoming Qualified candidates should submit a résumé interpretive possibilities that can make to: Director of Human Resources, Saint Mary’s manuscripts, communicating with authors about a real difference in our vision of the submissions and processing stipends. The editori- College, Facilities Building, Notre Dame, IN al assistant would also assist with certain digital 46556, or send electronically to hr@saintmarys. world. It is especially effective at weav- work, including sending out weekly email newslet- edu. Saint Mary’s College is an Equal Opportunity ing together biblical exegesis and con- ters and uploading content to the web and other Employer. In keeping with the College’s mission, Saint Mary’s is committed to increasing racial temporary social issues with a touch digital distribution platforms. There will be op- of poetry. It is highly creative, taking a portunities to copyedit as well as write for print or and ethnic diversity at all levels—students, facul- online platforms and assist with the production of ty and staff—and seeks applications from candi- different approach to each of the bib- video and multimedia content. Applicants should dates who share this commitment. lical books under examination: social have an interest in and knowledge of Catholic perceptions when dealing with Job, Church. This is a full time, entry-level position Sabbatical with full benefits. Please send cover letter, résumé SUMMER SABBATICAL AT S.A.T. Come for economy when dealing with Matthew, and writing sample to [email protected]. a month or a week to the San Francisco Bay area. self-control and wisdom when dealing Requirements: Bachelor’s degree • Strong The Summer Sabbatical program at the School of with James and utopia when it comes writing skills • Familiarity with Adobe products Applied Theology runs from May 30 to June 25. and content management system technology • Topics include “The Liberated Heart: Becoming to Revelation. Excellent organization and communication skills Who We Truly Are,” with Joyce Rupp; “Praying We end this tour with Mark D. • Proficiency in Macintosh and Microsoft Office With Beauty,” with Br. Mickey O’Neill McGrath; Mathews’s Riches, Poverty, and the About America Media: America is a smart, “The Path of Desire: Adventures in Spirituality,” Faithful: Perspectives on Wealth in Catholic take on faith and culture, the leading pro- with Lisa Fullam; and “Mysticism and the Future vider of editorial content for thinking Catholics of Christianity,” with Michael Crosby, O.F.M.Cap. the Second Temple Period and the and those who want to know what Catholics are For more information go to www.satgtu.org/sum- Apocalypse of John (Cambridge Univ. thinking. America leads the conversation about mer2015, or contact Celeste Crine, O.S.F., associ- Press), which focuses on the last book faith and culture by producing excellent, unique, ate director, at (510) 652-1651. relevant and accessible content across multiple of the Christian , i.e., platforms. Our contributors are the principal fig- Revelation. While volumes on wealth ures in the American Catholic Church today, the Seeking Support and poverty in the New Testament decision-makers and opinion leaders who drive AMERICAN COLLEGE ALUMNI the ecclesial and civic debate about religion, so- abound, there have been up to now ASSOCIATION seeks ALUMNI AND ciety, politics and the arts. Our weekly magazine, no full-scale treatments of this top- FRIENDS to support those who live and study America, has been published continuously since in the St. Damien Community at the newly ren- ic in Revelation, in spite of a signifi- 1909, making it one of the oldest periodicals in the ovated American College in Leuven, : cant section on wealth and poverty in United States today. Provide scholarships for theology, philosophy and Revelation 2-3; 4-6. Mathews’s schol- canon law students • Foster ongoing theological DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SPIRITUALITY. reflection for ministry • Advocate for the pastoral arly monograph corrects this lacuna. It Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind., seeks a needs of leaders in the church. Learn more about puts Revelation in conversation with dynamic and creative Director for its Center for programs of study: https://theo.kuleuven.be/ Spirituality, an internationally recognized center. Jewish apocalyptic texts of the same en/prospective_students/StDamienCommunity. Now in its 30th year, the Center fosters an aca- Alumni are invited to join the association: www. period (like the Epistle of Enoch) demic climate for the study of spirituality, devel- acaalouvain.org. on issues of wealth and poverty. This ops and facilitates programs, activities and proj- ects that engage the College and civic community comparison allows the author to per- in fruitful dialogue and in theologically grounded ceive that Revelation shares the views, praxis. Grounded in the tradition of the Sisters WANT YOUR AD HERE? if not the traditions, of these docu- of the Holy Cross, the Center fosters engagement Visit americamagazine.org. ments. Revelation views the pursuit with the multifaceted nature of spirituality and Email: [email protected]. cross-disciplinary inquiry, reminding the College of wealth as a quest for false security Call 212-515-0102. and others that the life of the mind and the life of in a time of tribulation, when the only the spirit are intimately connected and mutually Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. enduring acquisition is the mark of enriching. 1-5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 12-23 times: Candidates will be with a $1.23; 24-41 times: $1.17; 42 times or more: $1.12. Satan. By contrast, those who remain doctoral degree in theology/spirituality or re- For an additional $30, your print ad will be posted on loyal to the Lamb may at first be poor, lated fields, will have demonstrated excellence America’s Web site for one week. The flat rate for a but will receive riches of gold and jew- Web-only classified ad is $150 for 30 days. in academic leadership and familiarity with cur- els in the new Jerusalem.

America (ISSN 000-7049) is published weekly (except for 13 combined issues: Jan. 5-12, 19-26, April 13-20, May 25-June 1, June 8-15, 22-29, July 6-13, 20-27, Aug. 3-10, 17-24, Aug. 31-Sept. 7, Dec. 7-14, 21-28) by America Press, Inc., 106 West JOHN C. ENDRES, S.J., and JEAN-FRANÇOIS 56th Street, New York, NY 10019. Periodical postage is paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Circulation: RACINE are professors at the Jesuit School of (800) 627-9533. Subscription: United States $69 per year; add U.S. $30 postage and GST (#131870719) for Canada; or add U.S. $69 per year for international priority airmail. Postmaster: Send address changes to: America, P.O. Box 293159, Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, Kettering, OH 45429. Calif.

38 America March 30, 2015 THE WORD

the other disciple. The two of them run to the tomb; “Then the other disciple An Empty Tomb also went in, the one who had arrived EASTER (B), APRIL 5, 2015 at the tomb first, and he saw and be- Readings: Acts 10:34–43; Ps 118:1–23; 1 Cor 5:6–8; Jn 20:1–9 lieved. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from For as yet they did not understand the Scripture (Jn 20:9) the dead.” ll the Gospels recall that on first day of the week, Mary of Magdala The juxtaposition here captures the the second morning after Jesus came to the tomb early in the morning, initial confusion of the empty tomb. was laid in the tomb, Mary while it was still dark, The other disciple, also known as the A beloved disciple, “saw Magdalene and other women were the and saw the stone re- first to arrive at the tomb to care for moved from the tomb. and believed,” while Jesus’ body, but his body was not in the So she ran and went to Peter and Mary “did tomb. It would be a strange account Simon Peter and to the not understand the to concoct. Why? James Dunn says in other disciple whom Scripture, that he had to Jesus Remembered, “As is well known, Jesus loved, and told rise from the dead.” in Middle Eastern society of the time them, ‘They have tak- The beloved disciple women were not regarded as reliable en the Lord from the alone initially recognizes witnesses: a woman’s testimony in court tomb, and we don’t know the spiritual meaning of was heavily discounted. And any re- where they put him.’ So the empty tomb, but his port that Mary had formerly been de- Peter and the other dis- understanding will soon mon-possessed (Luke 8.2) would hard- ciple went out and came be the foundation of the ly add credibility to any story attributed to the tomb.” to her in particular. Why then attribute The absence of the body does PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE such testimony to women—unless that not necessarily mean that Jesus was Run to Jesus’ tomb with Mary Magdalene. was what was remembered as being the raised. There are more ordinary ex- What do you think when you find the tomb case?” planations that come to mind: the empty? The account of Mary Magdalene as disciples went to the wrong tomb and A. DUNNE TAD ART: the first witness of the empty tomb was the body was somewhere else; they born of a powerful, consistent oral tra- lied about the missing body; or some- whole church, spurred by later encoun- dition among the earliest disciples. This one stole the body and hid it. ters with the risen Lord. The resurrec- is not the oral tradition of rote memo- Yet if Jesus’ body had been available, tion of Jesus became the central mes- rization, the sort that memorizes para- it makes sense that those who opposed sage of the new community of disciples. bles, prayers, teachings and laws, which the teaching of Jesus’ resurrection would The early Christians knew that “they was also part of first-century Judaism. have found it, or produced it had they put him to death by hanging him on a This is autobiographical memory, in stolen it, to the derision and embarrass- tree” and they knew where Jesus’ dead which stories of personal experience are ment of the disciples. If the body had body was laid. When Mary Magdalene passed on, often colored by the emo- indeed been taken by Jesus’ disciples or and the other disciples encountered the tional interpretation of those who ex- they had gone to the wrong tomb, the empty tomb, it became the first piece of perienced the events, which shapes the reality of Jesus’ body itself would have evidence that “God raised him on the details recalled in the passing on of the come to light and the location of his third day and allowed him to appear, accounts. All of those present remem- dead body would have put an end to the not to all the people but to us who were ber and recount that Mary was there claims of resurrection. Indeed, his tomb chosen by God as witnesses.” Later, first. might have become a pilgrimage site, a these witnesses would eat and drink According to John’s Gospel, “On the place of veneration of a great teacher “with him after he rose from the dead.” and prophet killed by the Roman au- Only one last task remained: to bear thorities. witness that the empty tomb, the end of JOHN W. MARTENS is an associate professor Jesus’ story, was just the beginning. of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. In John’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene JOHN W. MARTENS Paul, Minn. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. reports the empty tomb to Peter and

March 30, 2015 America 39