RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY sept. 1-8, 2014 $3.50 Of Many Things Published by Jesuits of the United States he exercise is brief, but revealing. church and its good works across the 106 West 56th Street During the first session of globe, the universality of the Mass, the New York, NY 10019-3803 my parish’s adult Christian sense that they are part of something Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 T Subscriptions: 1-800-627-9533 initiation program, the leader challenges larger than themselves. And yet, in www.americamagazine.org the group: Draw what you think of the midst of our busy lives, it remains facebook.com/americamag when you hear the word church. The all too easy to forget about this larger twitter.com/americamag potential candidates and catechumens community, those who may live some furrow their brows and grab a marker. distance from us, but are just as much President and Editor in Chief Matt Malone, S.J. Most of them produce a skeletal picture a part of the body of Christ as the Executive Editors of a building—a square structure man or woman in the pew beside us. Robert C. Collins, S.J., Maurice Timothy Reidy Whether it is the Christians of South beneath a pointy roof with a cross on Managing Editor Kerry Weber Korea, recently visited by Pope Francis top, a few stained glass windows, a large Literary Editor Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. door. Sometimes there is an open Bible (pg. 28), or the unaccompanied minors Senior Editor and Chief Correspondent floating somewhere in the scene. crossing the U.S. border (pg. 11), we are Kevin Clarke These images, while not works of art, called to be in solidarity with this global Editor at Large James Martin, S.J. do feature a vital element of our lives community. Poetry Editor Joseph Hoover, S.J. as Catholics. But it is just one element. It is in this spirit of solidarity that Associate Editor and Vatican Correspondent Thankfully, the RCIA at my parish (full America presents the first fruits of our Gerard O’Connell disclosure: the director is Robert C. expanded national and international Associate Editor Ashley McKinless Assistant Editors Francis W. Turnbull, S.J., Olga Collins, S.J., executive editor of America) coverage. This issue includes the debut Segura, Joseph McAuley offers inquirers the chance to delve of the column Vatican Dispatch by Art Director Sonja Kodiak Wilder into the many dimensions of our faith. the distinguished journalist Gerard Columnists Helen Alvaré, John J. Conley, S.J., Through Scripture study and discussion, O’Connell, who joins our staff as Daniel P. Horan, O.F.M., James T. Keane, John W. an associate editor and Vatican Martens, Bill McGarvey, Angela Alaimo O’Don- through helpful handouts and honest nell, Margot Patterson correspondent, based in Rome. He feedback, by providing a faithful, familiar Correspondents place to ask questions about the great will offer weekly insights and updates John Carr (Washington), Jim McDermott, S.J. Church Tradition and the many church from there in the magazine and across (Los Angeles), Timothy Padgett (Miami), Steven Schwankert (Beijing), Judith Valente (Chicago) traditions, the rite guides candidates and America’s digital platforms. Moderator, Catholic Book Club catechumens as they grow in their love You’ll also notice a new page of Kevin Spinale, S.J. for the beautiful, messy, historic, justice- reporting in the Signs of the Times. Each Summer interns oriented, creative, global faith community week correspondents from around the Ronan McCoy, Allison Shapiro they are about to join. globe will provide a glimpse into pressing Editorial e-mail [email protected] Months later, following the Easter issues of the day. This week features a Vigil, the neophytes try their hand at report from Jim McDermott, S.J., a one- Publisher and Chief Financial Officer a second image of what church means. time associate editor here, who returns Edward Spallone

Some draw church structures once to our pages as America’s West Coast Deputy Publisher again, but this time populate the pews correspondent. His report from Murrieta Rosa Del Saz with stick figures—the members of the is brief but revealing. Future issues will Vice President/Advancement Daniel Pawlus body of Christ. Others draw a cross or a feature reporting by Judith Valente from Development Coordinator globe or a heart or fire or a dove. Many Chicago, Tim Padgett from Miami and Kerry Goleski arrived at the first session inspired by Steve Schwankert from Beijing, with Operations Staff our particular parish, but by the time the more correspondents to come. We hope Chris Keller, Glenda Castro, Judith Felix Easter Vigil arrives, they are prepared these reports will serve as a kind of faith Advertising contact to be part of our larger church. They education. Their variety of perspectives [email protected]; 212-515-0102 Subscription contact/Additional copies are looking for ways to continue their will, we hope, better enable our Christian [email protected]; growth in faith. And they understand community to learn from one another 1-800-627-9533 that the essence of the church can’t be as we strive to be men and women for © 2014 America Press, Inc. captured on paper, but must be drawn others. Through this international and with our lives. national reporting, we aim to draw a Cover: Parish representatives in Green Bay, Many Catholics, old and new, are fuller image of what church means today. Wis., present the names of catechumens to the diocesan bishop on the First Sunday of Lent. CNS drawn to the depth and breadth of the Kerry Weber photo/Sam Lucero, The Compass. Contents www.americamagazine.org Vol. 211 No. 5, Whole No. 5059 September 1-8, 2014

articles 14 Faithful Aspirations How can we make room for everybody in the church? Frank DeSiano 20 A More Authentic Way Can the RCIA meet the needs of modern-day spiritual seekers? Nick Wagner 25 hAppiness 101 Thomas Aquinas can help students understand the purpose of theology. Adam M. Green COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 14 4 Current Comment 5 Editorial Labor Lights 6 Reply All 8 Signs of the Times 12 Column Grace on the Greyhound James Martin 28 Vatican Dispatch Following Francis Gerard O’Connell 29 Faith in Focus Stumbling Onward Jeffrey Essmann House of Corrections Erin Elizabeth Clune 45 The Word Love’s Obligatons; His Humility 25 John W. Martens BOOKS & CULTURE 33 film “Boyhood” of other things Alone in a Crowd BOOKS All the Light We Cannot See; Hothouse; Warsaw 1944 poem Untitled

ON THE WEB Gerard O’Connell reports from Pope Francis’ visit to South Korea on In All Things. Plus, John Anderson reviews the film “Love Is Strange.” Full digital highlights on page 18 and at americamagazine.org/webfeatures. 33 CURRENT COMMENT

page executive summary before its public disclosure. But Into Africa Senator Dianne Feinstein, the committee chair, has rejected President Obama probably hoped that his unprecedented the redactions, which she claims “eliminate or obscure key summit with 50 African leaders, an effort to shore up facts that support the report’s findings and conclusions.” relations with emerging African states, could be put to good She has asked President Obama, who approved the C.I.A.’s public relations use, highlighting for a change some good initial cuts, to restore key information. Until a compromise news out of Africa. Indeed, there are positive developments is reached, Ms. Feinstein will not declassify the report. to report: Six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies On Aug. 1, the day the report was set to be released, the can be found in Africa; and by the summit’s close on Aug. 6, president stated candidly, “We tortured some folks.” That the heads of state were able to celebrate the announcement much we have known for years, even if we have tried to of $33 billion in new private investment. minimize the sting of moral failure by calling it something Unfortunately, reality kept intruding on the else. People familiar with the report indicate that the grandstanding at the summit. Sierra Leone, with a congressional investigation found the use of torture more per capita growth rate this year of 13.8 percent, could widespread, more brutal and less effective at gathering be lauded as an African tiger, but the Ebola crisis actionable intelligence than the C.I.A. had led the White overshadowed any good news from West Africa. Protesters House, its overseers and the public to believe. “We” might outside the summit properly reminded everyone that not have approved of this torture, but it was done in our corruption and despotism on the continent remain matters name and purportedly in our interest. It is therefore our right of urgency. The signing in late July of a cease-fire agreement and indeed our duty to know as much as can responsibly be between Seleka, which is mostly Muslim, and anti-balaka disclosed about this dark chapter in U.S. history. (mostly Christian) antagonists in the Central African Republic should have been another cause for celebration. (See “Allowed to Hope?” 6/9.) But hope that this awful Evangelizing Rural Catholics conflict could finally be drawing to a close was hit hard by In recent years, the church has placed great emphasis on the realities on the ground as fighting between the two sides new evangelization, seeking to renew belief and religious resumed even before the ink was dry on the truce. practice, especially among those who for whatever reason This first-ever African summit marks a laudable have drifted away from active or complete participation in recognition that this troubled part of the world is as filled church life. There is one segment, however, that has not with potential and youth as it is overburdened with poverty received much attention—rural Catholics. and problems. But Washington’s attention must remain It is hard to believe that in a prosperous country like ours, patient and persistent if it is to be a true friend to Africa there are still Catholics in poor rural communities in need and not just another power lining up to extract riches from of our pastoral care and concern. In a recent interview with these developing states and their rising peoples. Catholic News Service, Jim Ennis, head of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, spoke of the need to care for those Catholics in the United States who live in rural areas, Tortured History places that do not readily come to mind when discussing Torture is back in the news. In early August the executive pastoral needs. Rural dwellers make up less than 20 percent editor of The New York Times, Dean Baquet, announced of the U.S. population; but, as Mr. Ennis notes, people living the paper will use the word torture to describe practices beyond the cities and sprawling suburbs are still critical for like waterboarding, sleep deprivation and stress positions the life of the church, and if we neglect them, we do so “at our that the Times and other leading news outlets have in the peril.” past instead referred to as harsh or brutal interrogation Additionally, Mr. Ennis emphasized the need for the laity techniques. to become more involved in ministering to fellow Catholics The editorial about-face came, not incidentally, ahead in rural areas, for without attention from clergy and laity of the much-anticipated release of the Senate Intelligence alike, rural Catholics will feel like second-class citizens in Committee’s report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s their own church. Catholic Rural Life sponsors lay leadership detention and interrogation program in the years after the programs to help scarce clergy minister to an important part terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The C.I.A. was given an of the Catholic family; and thanks to efforts like these, an opportunity to apply its black marker liberally to the 500- important part of the church will not be left out.

4 America September 1-8, 2014 EDITORIAL Labor Lights

y noon the parade was over, and the revelers had fruitful to bargain collectively with gathered in a park on the Upper West Side of a multinational company than with BManhattan. They shared cigars, gave speeches and multiple franchise owners. drank from kegs of lager “mounted in every conceivable place.” “Ban the box.” Many public The occasion was the first Labor Day parade, held on Sept. 5, and private employers have 1882, and though police feared riots, the day passed without adopted a practice of requiring job incident. The lively crowd of union workers and supporters applicants to check a box if they represented a burgeoning force in American public life. were ever convicted of a crime; in many cases, this means This year, Labor Day festivities are likely to be immediate disqualification for the position. The ban-the-box more muted. Given its well-reported setbacks, the labor movement has challenged this screening practice in courts movement can seem hardly worth celebrating. In addition across the country. More important, it has persuaded many to a steady decrease in union membership, labor leaders face states and cities to adopt ban-the-box laws as good public formidable opponents in Congress and statehouses across policy. Leaders in both red and blue states are interested the country. In June the Supreme Court ruled that home in ensuring that ex-offenders have a practical opportunity health workers employed by the state did not have to pay for employment and rehabilitation. Employers are still union dues, a decision some worry will lead to nationalizing permitted to review criminal records later in the process, state-level “right to work” laws. Meanwhile, many people are but banning this initial screening practice gives many having difficulty finding full-time work as more employers applicants who made a mistake in their youth a fairer chance use part-time workers to reduce costs. at consideration. Still, the labor movement is far from moribund, and Minimum wage hikes. Though Congress failed to pass the past year saw signs of hope for the American worker. an increase in the minimum wage, 10 states passed increases These developments may not herald a new birth for unions, in the 2014 legislative session. Nearly half the states have now but they are evidence that the campaign for just economic implemented a minimum wage higher than the federal level and labor policy can bear fruit. of $7.25. Meanwhile, in February President Obama issued The economy. American businesses saw an increase of an executive order requiring federal contractors receiving 209,000 jobs in July. This marks the sixth straight month of taxpayer dollars to pay workers a minimum of $10.10 per job growth above 200,000. Meanwhile, the unemployment hour. Some economists point to an increase in the earned rate is at 6.2 percent, far below the 10 percent mark hit as a income tax credit as a better way to help lower income result of the Great Recession. The news is not all good: the families. We agree, and this increase should be pursued in average work week is less than 40 hours, and job rates among Congress. But minimum wage increases on the state level are young people are near historic lows. This is a critical long- a healthy sign that local governments are responding to the term problem. As the U.S. bishops write in their statement needs of working families in their communities. Meanwhile, for Labor Day 2014, “Meaningful and decent work is vital if some American businesses, like Gap, are raising their hourly young adults hope to form healthy and stable families.” wages in an effort to lure more qualified workers. Fast-food ruling. A one-sentence ruling by the In “Economic Justice for All” (1986), the U.S. bishops National Labor Relations Board in July could mark a major wrote about the challenges facing workers in a globalized breakthrough for labor organizers. Commenting on 43 economy: “In these difficult circumstances, guaranteeing labor suits filed against McDonald’s since 2012, the board’s the rights of U.S. workers calls for imaginative vision general counsel held that the chain was jointly responsible and creative new steps, not reactive or simply defensive for employment practices along with its franchise owners. strategies.” The positive developments outlined above are For years McDonald’s and other large retailers have sought the fruit of creative thinking on the part of national and to distance themselves from the labor practices of their local local labor leaders. Reliable, middle-class jobs may be hard operators. The long-term effects of the ruling are unclear, to come by, but new networks of solidarity are taking root. but they could help fast food workers who are seeking to A celebratory parade may not be necessary, but our support unionize. It will be more efficient and potentially more is. There is still work to be done.

September 1-8 , 2014 America 5 REPLY ALL people there all but impossible. the growing right-wing Israeli commu- And while Ms. Patterson be- nity. Not Exempt moans the fact that the Palestinians It is time for the world and the church Taking the advice of Matt Malone, “are too weak to induce Israel to make to insist that justice for Palestinians be S.J., I read “side-by-side” the two es- peace,” she conveniently forgets that the foundation of a peaceful order in says on Israel/Palestine, “For Israel,” by it was Israel who accepted President the Holy Land. John Conley, S.J., and “Gaza Again,” by Bill Clinton’s final status peace deal in Drew Christiansen, S.J. Margot Patterson (8/4). Father Conley 2000 and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Washington, D.C. disappointed. Olmert who offered an even more gen- Sr. Cora’s Care My disappointment, bordering on erous deal in 2008—only to be ignored Thank you for the article by Cora intellectual shock, is not because I side by the Palestinians. Marie Billings, R.S.M., “Saved by with those who so annoyed him with As people of faith, we have to stop Grace” (7/7). calls to “divest in and sanction Israel” taking sides in what has become a tru- In 1993-94, I was a newly ordained but because his rejoinder seems devoid ly tragic situation for both Israelis and priest of the Maryland Province of the of sound logic. He himself says his re- Palestinians. When we do this, we do Society of Jesus—the one that owned action was “simple.” His argument reads not act as peacemakers, we act as par- and sold slaves. Before my doctoral like something we might expect from a ticipants in the conflict. I wishAmerica studies, I asked to spend two years in teenager trying to justify some trans- would start printing articles that show parish ministry and was missioned gression: “Hey, everybody else is doing love and concern for both sides and to the Jesuit parish in south-side it, so what’s the big deal?” offer an honest and constructive way Richmond, Va. Part of my ministry in- Violations of human decency and out—instead of simplistically trying to volved assisting other parishes in the di- moral conduct, actions barely short of make one side look like the bad guy. ocese, including St. Elizabeth’s church, war crimes, must be condemned. So, James Loughran, S.A. New York, N.Y. where Sister Cora served as pastoral co- yes, condemn them all—loudly and ordinator. Reading her article called to clearly—including Israel. Of all the Justice for Peace mind my ministry as occasional “Mass countries “doing the same thing,” Israel Congratulations to Margot Patterson priest” for her parish and the many ways alone is the democratic country; Israel on her strong, honest commentary in in which Sister Cora contributed to my alone is a people whose history most “Gaza Again.” All the veils that mask priestly formation. graphically exposes the evil of one agent the continued Israeli deprivation of the I especially recall Holy Week 1994, raining down massacre on innocents Palestinian people need to be pulled when I served as presider and preacher among its enemies. There is not a shred down. The public must free itself from for her mostlyAfrican-American parish. of legal or moral defense for shooting the propaganda that has for too long Sister Cora wisely and graciously guid- one person through the heart with a held U.S. policy hostage. ed this Irish-American Jesuit through pass-through bullet to kill the enemy The Catholic community, even on all the Easter triduum liturgies. It is a standing behind. the 50th anniversary of “Nostra Aetate,” tribute to Sister Cora that since then it Israel may not be alone in deserving must openly distinguish between its has never been said of me that I am “as condemnation, but by no means ought abiding commitment to the Jewish peo- helpless as a Jesuit during Holy Week.” it to be protected against being con- ple, including a Jewish homeland, and Sister Cora’s life of ministry and com- demned. mitment continues to encourage and Rita Hessley acquiescence to the relentless Israeli Cincinnati, Ohio dispossession of the Palestinian people inspire me as a Catholic, a Jesuit and a from the last remaining vestiges of their priest. Taking Sides Francis X. McAloon, S.J. own home. Bronx, N.Y. Margot Patterson would have us be- Prime Minister Netanyahu has lieve that Israel launched its current war made it known—at a Hebrew-language More to the Story against Hamas simply out of animosity press conference—that he will never In “Saved By Grace” (7/7), Cora Marie for the Palestinians or for some sort of agree to a two-state solution. The al- Billings, R.S.M., told the sad story of revenge over the kidnapping and killing ternatives, then, are either apartheid, a her great-grandfather, a slave owned of the three Israeli settlers. She ignores word Israelis despise but that describes by the Jesuits, transporting the priests the fact that Hamas has been shooting the current and likely future reality, or to Visitation convent in Georgetown rockets into civilian neighborhoods in “transfer”—that is, expulsion or ethnic to celebrate Mass. Her article begged Israel since 2000, making life for the cleansing, which is much discussed in for some additional information about

6 America September 1-8, 2014 Jesuit slaveholding, and America pro- for moral leadership, not timid politi- While there have been sporadic at- vided it in a sidebar by Thomas Murphy, cal correctness, on such fundamentals tempts to integrate schools and univer- S.J., author of Jesuit Slaveholding in as religious liberty and the protection sities into the reform movement mean- Maryland, 1717-1838. of life from the moment of conception. ingfully, as recommended in the edito- Father Murphy’s book is well writ- Patrick Robinson rial, stronger involvement by academia ten, researched in depth and very in- Online Comment should be encouraged by our civic and structive. His sidebar within the Billings elected leaders. Dysfunctional Corrections article outlined in just a few paragraphs John Holl “Prisoners Dilemma” (Editorial, 8/4) the complicated web of circumstances Online Comment succinctly captures the sorry state of our that led the Jesuits to become slave- “correctional” system. Its dysfunction holders, to oppose abolition and to sell A More Effective Audit has been apparent for many years. Not off the final 272 slaves to Louisiana Having served as a diocesan director only does it woefully fail to “correct” the and how they rationalized it all. But he of safe environment for seven years, I conduct of prisoners, it succeeds in pro- did not mention that they also rejected read “How Effective Is Annual Audit?” ducing better-trained criminals upon gradual manumission and that they did (Signs of the Times, 8/4) with great their release. not teach their slaves to read and write. interest. During my tenure, the diocese Recently, some realistic hope for Nor did he repeat the inescapable and was audited three times for compliance reform has emerged. Conservative embarrassing conclusion in his own with the charter, so I have some expe- Republicans—many of whose policies Epilogue, that “the Jesuits contradicted rience with the process. As the article helped exacerbate the problem—are their own teaching about human dig- indicates, “The annual audits rely on now championing reforms. Gov. Rick nity through their possession of slaves.” self-reporting and record-keeping by Denis Woods Perry of Texas, former House speaker the dioceses themselves.” Although I Shepherdstown, W.Va. Newt Gingrich, Senator Rand Paul and had records to support the data I re- the anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist ported, no auditor ever asked to see A Worthy Defense have embraced ideas like repeal of man- them. Instead, they accepted the data at In “After Hobby Lobby” (Editorial, datory minimum sentences, increased face value. Certainly, allowing the audi- 7/21), the editors react to the recent rehabilitation programs and alternative tors access to source records, including Supreme Court decision, stating, sanctions for low-level drug offenses. clergy records used for self-reporting, “America has vigorously denounced Let’s hope the Congress, whose dys- and requiring them to verify the accura- government overstepping in this arena function and inability to agree on any cy of the reported data would be a first while at the same time expressing con- legislative reforms have been stagger- step in improving the audit process. cern that the church may have joined ingly depressing, can come together to Colleen E. Gudreau the public policy discussions in too pass some common sense reforms. Salt Lake City, Utah great detail.” Were the Jesuits in El Salvador, who OMG! were at the forefront of the battle against governmental oppression, which de- nied the poor’s basic Christian rights to religious liberty, food and housing, guilty of joining “the public policy dis- cussion in too great detail”? Aren’t re- ligious liberty and the right to life also rudimentary Catholic values worthy of our unwavering defense? If so, why the editorial critique of other Catholic in- stitutions, like the University of Notre Dame, to name one, for their “willing- ness to join the courtroom fray,” which the editorial board feels “risks dimin- ishing the church’s ability to engage in a mutually respectful dialogue with civil society”? We rightly look to our Jesuits written by jake martin, s.j. art by bob eckstein s.j. art written by jake martin,

September 1-8 , 2014 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

South Korea Pope Francis Sets Out Bold Vision Of Dialogue for Asian Bishops ope Francis opened new horizons for the Catholic Churches in Asia with a groundbreaking talk on Aug. 17 to 70 bishops from 36 countries of this Pvast continent, in which he encouraged them to engage in a dialogue that must not only be based on identity but also must be done with “empathy.” Near the end of his talk, the pope told the bishops he earnestly hopes those countries of Asia “with whom the Holy See does not yet enjoy a full relationship, may not hesitate to further a dialogue for the benefit of all.” Six Asian countries do not have diplomatic relations with the Holy See today: China, North Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Brunei. Francis explained that he wished to dialogue with them and made clear that “I am not only talking here of a political dialogue, but of a fraternal one.” The pope extended the hand of friendship to those countries when he spoke to his “brother bishops” in the crypt chapel of the Shrine of Martyrs at Haemi, about 80 miles south of Seoul. Afterward he had lunch with the bishops and later that day celebrated the closing Mass for the Asian Youth Day. The pope spent a busy five days in South Korea, where he also beatified 124 martyrs from the infancy period of the local church. Pope Francis began his talk to the bishops by telling them that in Asia, with its great variety of cultures, “the church is called to be versatile and creative in By putting emphasis on empathy as unspoken communication of their ex- her witness to the Gospel through di- well as identity, Pope Francis is bring- periences, their hopes and aspirations, alogue and openness to all.” ing in a whole new dimension to the their struggles and their deepest con- He reaffirmed the conclusion of the understanding of dialogue with other cerns.” Synod for Asia in 1998 that “dialogue cultures and other religions. It is a di- This kind of empathy, he said, “must is an essential part of the mission of mension that has been given little—if be the fruit of our spiritual insight and the church in Asia.” any—attention in recent decades in personal experience, which lead us to His immediate predecessors, John pontifical and Vatican documents. see others as brothers and sisters, and Paul II and Benedict XVI, had firm- Explaining this dual emphasis, to ‘hear,’ in and beyond their words ly insisted that the fundamental point Francis said: “A clear sense of one’s and actions, what their hearts wish to of reference for Catholics who engage own identity and a capacity for empa- communicate.” in dialogue with individuals and cul- thy are thus the point of departure for Gerard O’Connell tures must be their own identity as all dialogue. If we are to speak freely, Christians. openly and fruitfully with others, we In his talk on Aug. 17, Pope Francis must be clear about who we are, what Ferguson, Mo. also insisted on the crucial importance God has done for us, and what it is of identity: “We cannot engage in real that he asks of us. And if our com- Calls for Peace dialogue unless we are conscious of munication is not to be a monologue, our own identity.” But he significantly there has to be openness of heart and After Street added, “Nor can there be authentic di- mind to accepting individuals and cul- Unrest alogue unless we are capable of open- tures.” s groups across the coun- ing our minds and hearts, in empathy He explained that empathy in dia- try held vigils to remember and sincere receptivity, to those with logue “challenges us to listen not only AMichael Brown, a teenager whom we speak.” to the words others speak, but to the whose death on Aug. 9 has sparked a

8 America September 1-8, 2014 For many, the wounds haven’t Led by their pastor, the Rev. Robert GENERATION NEXT. Young people join Pope Francis at the closing Mass of the fully healed; the underlying Rosebrough, about 100 people gath- sixth Asian Youth Day at Haemi Castle in smoldering still exists. ered to pray the rosary at the parish’s Haemi, South Korea, on Aug. 17. “Systemic and personal Our Lady of Lourdes grotto. racism have taken on less overt “We don’t have the answers,” Father but no less sinister forms in Rosebrough said. “We just ask for his the past few decades,” Father presence and consolation; that’s what Cavitt continued. “None of people need.” our institutions are immune. In his column, Father Cavitt wrote It is found in government, in- that “our prayer should lead us to cluding law enforcement and sound investing in our young people. the criminal justice system; We must inspire them to maintain business and industry; and and build their relationship with God even in churches, regardless for a greater sense of self and their of denomination. These vi- role in this community and the larger olations of the human spirit world.” are being seen in the present On Aug. 14 President Obama ad- generation: reactionary, disre- dressed the nation, calling on the po- spectful, destructive behavior lice investigating the shooting to be within oneself, families and open and transparent. On the same community. Where do we go night vigils were held across the coun- from here? How are these in- try. From Maine to Michigan, Florida sipid cycles ever broken?” to New York, Vermont, Colorado and Father Cavitt is the execu- California, attendees wore red ribbons wave of unrest in his Missouri home- tive director of the St. Charles Lwanga to honor Brown, 18. Many shared town and raised questions about racial Center in St. Louis, which seeks to their stories of alleged police brutality, profiling and police militarization, foster spiritual formation and leader- and called for a new compact between religious leaders in the St. Louis area ship development within the African officers and civilians. called upon “all people to pray for calm American Catholic and peace and to be part of healing.” Community. PEACEMAKING. Father Robert Rosebrough of Blessed Teresa “We must examine the tragic events Two miles from of Calcutta Parish in Ferguson, taking place in the St. Louis area, seek the demonstrations, Mo., leads a prayer vigil for to understand ‘Why?’ and work to- members of Blessed peace on Aug. 11. ward dismantling systemic racism,” Teresa of Calcutta read a statement on Aug. 12 from the Parish in Ferguson Interfaith Partnership of St. Louis, responded in per- which was signed by Archbishop haps the only way Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis and the they could—they Rev. C. Jessel Strong of the African prayed. Methodist Episcopal Church. “Until “As a commu- the causes are addressed and rectified, nity, we needed to there will be no change.” come together in In a column in The St. Louis prayer,” said Cathy Review, the archdiocesan newspaper, Cunningham, a pa- the Rev. Arthur J. Cavitt compared rishioner. “We just the unrest in Ferguson to “those fate- have to put it in ful times in the 1960s and ’70s when Jesus’ hands, and he parts of our cities erupted in flames. will heal us.”

September 1-8 , 2014 America 9 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Pope Francis NEWS BRIEFS Condemns ISIS “Thousands of people, including many The death of Miguel Pajares, O.H., on Aug. Christians, driven from their homes 12 brought to six the number of caregivers at in a brutal manner; children dying of a Catholic-run hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, thirst and hunger in their flight; women who died of Ebola in August. • An official with kidnapped; people massacred; violence the Catholic Near East Welfare Association of every kind”—Pope Francis was clear said humanitarian agencies are “trying to pick in his condemnation of the actions of up the pieces” of Gaza’s badly destroyed in- Gaza’s rubble the militants of the Islamic State in frastructure, hoping that the declared truce Iraq and Syria in his remarks on Aug. between Israel and the militant Hamas will hold.• The Catholic- 10: “All this greatly offends God and Jewish dialogue, a partnership of the National Council of Synagogues humanity. Hatred is not to be carried and the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the in the name of God. War is not to be U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called on Aug. 14 for “effective waged in the name of God.” In a letter to measures” to end violent acts taking place against Christians and U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon Christians sites across the globe. • Representatives of 22 bishops’ con- on Aug. 9, Pope Francis appealed to the ferences in Latin America emerged from the First Latin American international community “to take action Congress of Family Pastoral Agents in Panama on Aug. 9 pledging to end the humanitarian tragedy now to strengthen the church’s work to promote the role of the family in underway.” He added, “The violent at- society. • “Religious are those whose lives only make sense in light of tacks that are sweeping across Northern our passion to live for God,” said John S. Edmunds, S.T., in his final Iraq cannot but awaken the consciences address as president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. of all men and women of goodwill to concrete acts of solidarity by protecting those affected or threatened by violence vestigation of the L.C.W.R. itself. In the December 2013 parliamentary vote and assuring the necessary and urgent 2012 the Vatican’s Congregation for to pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill assistance for the many displaced peo- the Doctrine of the Faith ordered the was illegal because of the below-quo- ple as well as their safe return to their nuns’ group to reform its statutes and rum attendance. The new law, hailed cities and their homes.” appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain by the Ugandan president as a defense of Seattle to oversee changes, including of African and family values, brought Johnson Honored by a rewriting of the group’s charter, and resounding criticism from political and to approve of all speakers at future as- religious leaders around the globe. In Women Religious semblies. Johnson stated that “the waste place of the originally intended death Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., a theology of time on this investigation is un- penalty, the law prescribed life im- professor at Fordham University, was conscionable,” while commending the prisonment for those found guilty of given the top award of the Leadership L.C.W.R. for its charitable response: “aggravated homosexuality” and up to Conference of Women Religious’ on “To a polarized church and a world three years for those who fail to report Aug. 15 during its national assembly in racked by violence, your willingness to offenders. Gay rights activists warn, Nashville, Tenn. During her acceptance stay at the table seeking reconciliation however, that homosexual acts are still speech, she strongly criticized the U.S. through truthful, courageous conversa- illegal in Uganda and that the repeal bishops for their formal critique of her tion has given powerful witness.” of this law on grounds of illegal voting book Quest for the Living God. “ To this practices may not postpone its revival day, no one, not myself or the theologi- Anti-Gay Law Struck for long. On Aug. 13 the attorney gen- cal community, the media or the general eral announced that the government public knows what doctrinal issue is at Down in Uganda has dropped plans to appeal the ruling, stake,” she told about 900 sisters, dele- Uganda’s gay rights supporters caught and President Museveni has made clear gates of 80 percent of the nation’s nuns. a glimpse of hope on Aug. 1 when the that the law is “not a priority.” Johnson also criticized the ongoing in- country’s constitutional court ruled that From CNS, RNS and other sources.

10 America September 1-8, 2014 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Dispatch From Los Angeles to solve the crisis going on in unprotect- ed borders.” Murrieta Revisited Even some immigration supporters here feel besieged by government poli- here’s something about the and Encanto lie small shops where you cy. The Murrieta processing center was sunlight in Southern Cali- can buy “local bread and honey,” cut fire- meant to house 40 people at a time; the Tfornia. It’s severe, unforgiving, wood, RVs and “a full line” of firearms. buses would have brought 140 every 72 as though a camera’s shutter has been The people of Murrieta are easy hours. The patrol agents’ union repre- left open too long; everything appears to talk to and quick to respond with sentative complained vigorously. overexposed. warmth. Yet some of them also wonder how One hour northeast of San Diego, Some of the community’s residents Jesus would respond. Enough! goes so in the area of California known as the even debate how many of the pro- far as to ask, “Jesus…what should I do?” Inland Empire, the town of Murrieta testers were from Murrieta. “When and in another entry she asks, “Why has recently found itself thrust into a I started my business here,” says an Lord? Why Murrieta?” Remarkably, similarly harsh light. On July 1­ hun- Ethiopian-American businessman, God answers back: “Why not Murrieta?” dreds of protesters in Murrieta prevent- Ryan Haggerty, 28, “people welcomed Movements of the spirit bring other ed three buses filled with Central things to light. Eileen, a friendly American migrants—mothers Catholic mother of four from with small children and often chil- The example of Christ Costa Rica, sits at the protest dren traveling alone, the “unaccom- looms large over some of site regularly. She says she has panied minors” who have collected shed tears over the plight of im- into a crisis at the border—from the debate here. migrant children and their fam- being processed at the Murrieta ilies. But when she prays to God Border Patrol Center. The event made me with open arms. Open arms. My for insight, the message she gets is that national news and incited similar siblings have gone to every school here, “it’s okay to stand for our Constitution demonstrations elsewhere. and their friends are a rainbow.” and to keep all illegals out, [as long as Since those first dramatic confron- The Rev. Jack Barker, pastor of St. it is] accompanied with processing how tations, border agents have stopped Martha Catholic Church in Murrieta, to help them in their country.” God using Murrieta, and the press has left, notes that the local community is over “knows what could happen if the mass- but orange plastic poles still dot the area 25 percent Latino, 15 percent Filipino es came over here,” she says, adding con- around the protest site, warning people and 10 percent black. Since the protests fidentially, “I’m talking about terrorists.” not to park there. Rotating teams of began, some parishioners—including When asked to name a favorite story protesters relax under a tent in canvas some not in favor of the government’s about Jesus, believer Diana Serafin—a chairs with sleeves for their drinks, immigration policies—have told him, candidate for Murrieta City Council chatting and checking their cellphones, “We’ll take one of the kids on the buses, who used her mailing list to help mo- their “Stop Obama’s Invasion” signs un- Father. Don’t send them to foster care. bilize the initial protests against the bus attended nearby. We’ll take them.” caravan—recalls the story of the loaves By most accounts, low-key amiabil- A white cross more than 70 feet tall and the fishes. ity is much more the character of this adorns one of the hills of Murrieta, It’s about sharing, she says. “Jesus community than the events of early painted there by a Christian landowner took care of the people. And then he July would suggest. While the town who felt its presence might encourage sent them back home.” has over 100,000 residents, it has re- passersby to think about the salvation When it’s pointed out to her that in peatedly been ranked by the F.B.I. as that Christ offers. fact that is not how that story ends, Ms. the second safest city in the United And the example of Christ looms Serafin chuckles like a kid caught with States. Alongside subdivisions with large over some of the debate here. Local her hand in the cookie jar, conceding fancy names like Provence, Montserrat bloggers with handles like “S.O.S.” and the point. Then she insists, as though “Enough!” write how the protest was she had been there, “But when it was Jim McDermott, S.J., a Los Angeles-based screenwriter, is America’s West Coast correspon- not about the children, but about “when over, the crowds did go home.” dent. this government would do something Jim McDermott

September 1-8 , 2014 America 11 James Martin Grace on the Greyhound f you want to meet the poor, In any event, after my afternoon talk, it last, anyway? take the bus.” That’s a saying a friendly S.S.J. dropped me off at the It lasted the entire trip. ‘II’ve heard many times from my Springfield bus station. The sisters had But in the midst of this seedy drama brother Jesuits. It refers not so much even packed me a nourishing dinner in was grace. Sitting beside me was a dark- to transportation within cities (though a brown bag: a ham sandwich, a ginger haired, middle-aged woman, wearing a it certainly could) as to long-distance ale, a bag of peanuts and a banana. I white nurse’s uniform, who read her travel. My own preference, especial- located a comfortable seat on the bus, Bible through the entire trip. She gave ly here in the Northeastern United took out the latest copy of The New no indication that the commotion from States, is traveling by train: in these Yorker from my backpack and looked behind us bothered her at all. parts Amtrak is quick, reliable and forward to an enjoyable and economical As the Dog raced on through the relatively inexpensive if you plan far drive back to New York on the Dog. night and the two continued their enough in advance. As for planes, well, But it was not to be. very public battle, my to be charitable, I’ll pass over that in Directly behind me were traveling companion silence. But generally speaking, those two people who, it soon In their calmly pored over her who are poor and need to travel from became clear, were a pros- dignity and Bible (Romans, I no- city to city take neither the plane nor titute and her pimp. (I’m ticed). Once again, I the train—but the bus. not sure if “pimp” is still in their was reminded that the So a few months ago, when I was the correct term: I’m not poor put up with such invited to speak at an event spon- up to date on prostitu- hard work, indignities all the time. sored by the Sisters of St. Joseph in tion slang.) From the mo- the poor can It filled me with admi- Springfield, Mass., I happily accept- ment the bus pulled out ration for the woman ed their suggestion to return to New of Springfield station, the be our seated next to me, and I York City by Greyhound bus, or “the two started arguing loudly. models. wondered if her serenity Dog,” as some of my friends call it. The woman was furious at might not be the result Before continuing this tale, which the man, who was also her of long experience. It takes some surprising turns, I would erstwhile boyfriend. She recounted in was probably not the first, or last, time like to say three things. First, I love the lavish detail his cheating on her. For she would endure something like this. Sisters of St. Joseph, no matter where a good hour she shouted, over and Talking about “the poor” is very of- they are—from Springfield, Mass., to over, “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” while ten misleading. They are, after all, indi- Chestnut Hill, Pa. Second, I admire hitting him. In response to her invec- viduals, as was the woman on the bus. women religious in general: they are tive and her punches, he unleashed his So it’s often inaccurate to generalize, my heroes. Third, on that particular own fusillade of foul-mouthed rage, and say, “The poor are like this.” On Sunday, there was only one convenient all the while dropping the “F-bomb” the other hand, many are the things way to travel from Springfield to New liberally. we can learn from people with person- York: the bus. The trains were not Since the bus driver seemed large- al experience of poverty. Many are the running at that time, and of course I ly unconcerned, I thought of saying experiences that they take for granted don’t own a car; so when a bus tick- something. At the time, I was in my that others would find intolerable. In et was offered, I eagerly accepted. In clerical collar, and so I thought per- their patience, in their fortitude, in short, none of what I’m about to re- haps a glance might effect some sort of their dignity and in their hard work, count was the “fault” of the generous change. But given that the two of them the poor can often be our models. And Sisters of St. Joseph. seemed as high as kites, I figured that so blessed are they. they might (a) have a gun, (b) freak out Women religious, then, aren’t the and punch me or (c) have a gun, freak only women who are my heroes. Now James Martin, S.J., is editor at large of America and author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage. out, punch me and then kill me. So I I have a new one: the woman who sat Twitter: @JamesMartinSJ. figured I’d wait it out. How long could beside me on the Dog.

12 America September 1-8, 2014

Faithful Aspirations How can we make room for everybody in the church? By Frank DeSiano

was stunned. I had asked a prominent leader in evan- evangelization ministry, or renewing the parish, will come to gelization, a priest, if he thought his parents were evan- a standstill. gelized. He shook his head “No” and explained that he did not think his parents were disciples in the sense in Looking at Assumptions Iwhich the church calls Catholics to be disciples today. I won- Sherry A. Weddell, in her influential bookForming dered: If they were not disciples, if generations of Catholics Intentional Disciples (2012), says that “in calling Catholics over centuries were not disciples, then have we developed to a deliberate discipleship and intentional faith, our goal is too high a definition of discipleship? not to create a community of spiritual elites. Rather it is to In his first apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel” create a spiritual culture that recognizes, openly talks about, (No. 3), Pope Francis sounds a very open note, one that and honors both the inward and outward dimensions of the should get our full attention: sacraments and the liturgy.” This is related to her argument that many Catholics receive sacraments externally without I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, the inner transformation and conversion that they imply. to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or “The majority of Catholics in the United States are sacra- at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I mentalized but not evangelized,” she writes. ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one Ms. Weddell believes conversion and discipleship can be should think that this invitation is not meant for him small: “If roughly 2 percent of your parishioners are inten- or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought tional disciples today, why not shoot for 4 percent five years by the Lord.” from now? If you think that roughly 5 percent are disciples right now, what could you do to help raise that percentage Something like this more inclusive approach might be a key to 10 percent?” At this rate it would take a parish five years ingredient to include in our thinking about and practice of to double its number of “intentional disciples”; obviously, in- evangelization. tentional discipleship, while offered to the many, is accepted A few years ago, it was popular to cite some words of only by the few. By that assumption, if it takes five years to Pope Benedict to the effect that the church had to become double the number of intentional disciples, discipleship is smaller, to shrink in order for committed Catholics to show not a mass movement. Just the opposite. themselves and support each other. This seemed to lead As we work our way through our vision of evangelization to an attitude in which some priests were somewhat will- and discipleship, we have to be attentive at every level to de- ing to see Catholics slip away because they were not “true” bug the presumptions and unintended consequences of our Catholics in the first place. approach to church involvement. If we keep raising the bar, I have often observed how that “smallness” happens do we not automatically at least marginalize, if not exclude, in parishes. A group of parishioners gets “more involved” more and more ordinary Catholics? Is it possible to use ideas through one or another process—perhaps a prayer group or of discipleship in a manner that can be in effect exclusive some parish program. This group then starts looking at the rather than, as Jesus seems to have done, use those ideas to rest of the parishioners as somehow “doing less” than they a more inclusive effect? Jesus reached out to tax collectors, should. As this smaller group starts to talk, they imply that prostitutes and those excluded by the interpretations of ho- the rest of the parishioners—who come to Mass and maybe liness of his day. The approach of Jesus and his followers is even serve in one or another ministry—are not really com- helpful to reflect on. mitted or are not really evangelized or are not really disci- No parable, I think, says more about life in the early church ples. Once this dynamic sets in, you can bet the process of than that of the sower and the seed. It is the opening parable in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. The seed that is not

Frank DeSiano, C.S.P., is president of Paulist Evangelization productive seems to be a rather straightforward description Ministries in Washington, D.C. of things that led followers away from their commitments

14 America September 1-8, 2014 to Christ: wealth, shallowness or fear of persecution. But of tossed around in our apostolic minds for quite some time. the seed that is productive, there clearly seems to be a sense Obviously the scribe belongs to a group that is, as Matthew of gradation. Not all the seed produces the same. As Mark says, “disputing” with Jesus. All the scribe does is recite back puts it, “It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a what Jesus said to him. Yet this seems to be enough for Jesus hundredfold.” And Mark wryly adds, “Whoever has ears to to recognize the scribe as somehow drawing close to the hear ought to hear” (Mk 4:8-9). Matthew varies the words kingdom of God. In other words, wherever insight comes, it slightly, making the same point: “But some seed fell on rich should be recognized and celebrated. soil and produced fruit Even more, a hundred or sixty or Matthew’s great pa- thirty fold. Whoever rable of the final has ears ought to hear” judgment (25:31 ff.) (Mt: 13:8). should give all believ- We note: It is the ers pause. In this im- good seed that produc- age, the king gathers es in varying quantities. all the nations of the We hear 30, 60, 100, world (the word nation but are we not also has special impact for encouraged by the par- Jewish listeners be- able to hear 10, 20, 40 cause it represents the or 70? In other words, gentiles and, therefore, the increased produc- presumably those who tivity of one range of are not chosen) and seeds does not exclude divides them as a shep- the lesser productivi- herd might, between ty of the other seeds. sheep and goats. When This indicates a wide Jesus explains why the acceptance, in the ear- sheep are entering the ly church, of different kingdom (because they levels of discipleship fed, clothed and vis- without an assump- ited him), the hearers tion that everyone had are shocked. “When to fulfill the highest did we see you hungry expectation—to pro- and feed you, or thirsty duce a hundredfold. and give you drink?” Surely there is a huge In other words, the difference between the righteous, the saved, seed that falls on bad are not even aware soil, yielding nothing, that they are doing the and the seed that is king’s will. They are productive. But that not even aware of their should not prevent us righteousness or even from noticing the different yields of the seeds that fall on of all the motives for righteousness. Of course, they fed, gave good ground. water, helped and visited. The accursed, the goats, did not do these things for Christ’s “least ones.” Can it be that peo- Not Far From the Kingdom ple are involved in God’s grace without even the dimmest In Mark 12, Jesus is approached by a scribe who overhears recognition of it? Can it be that God’s grace is far wider than how well Jesus is responding to those who were disputing those who are consciously followers and, even more, than with him. The scribe asks Jesus about the greatest com- those who are “intentionally” followers of Christ? mandment. When the scribe endorses the answer Jesus The story of the good thief should make us wonder what gave, Matthew tells us: “Jesus saw that [he] answered with and whom in Luke’s community this unexpectedly atten- understanding, [and] he said to him, ‘You are not far from tive criminal represents. What personal experience did he

Photo: shutterstock.com/Digital S torm Photo: shutterstock.com/Digital the kingdom of God’” (12:34). This phrase deserves to be have with Jesus? Were there early Christians who got only

September 1-8, 2014 America 15 a glimmer of Christ, but for whom that seems to have been But instead of setting up criteria and then judging one enough? And look at Paul’s tolerance for preachers who another according to those, can we just presume an ideal preached out of false motives—“as long in every way, wheth- and acknowledge that we all, even the most committed and er in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed” (Phil active disciples, inevitably fall short of that ideal and that 1:18). How does that standard hold up when it comes to as part of a continuum of discipleship, all Catholics may be strict orthodoxy? We Catholics in particu- exercising more or less involvement with lar need to recall how often in our eucha- their faith and faith community? Instead, ristic prayers we refer to those whose faith What we do as a for example, of thinking of our children God alone knows. church is who do not attend church as frequently as some older Catholics as if they were fall- A Discipleship of Inclusion continually call en-away cretins, maybe we could think of Of course we need to call all Catholics them as people to be invited to fuller dis- to the fullness of discipleship, expressed ourselves to cipleship, given the variations of their lives through their involvement with the word and experiences. Can we not think of these of God (conversion and relationship), produce more, people as being on a continuum with the prayer (private and communal through whoever we are, more active? liturgy), community (connectedness with In this more inclusive model of evan- other disciples in faith and life) and service as the fruit of gelization and discipleship I am trying to (reaching outward to those who are not sketch, we do not have “true” disciples and being served, helping all live a fullness of our baptism. “not disciples,” but a church in which, at life). We can never let up on this. Catholics different times, we produce fruit that may need to be continually called to more ex- range from 5 percent to 95 percent of the plicit commitment to Christ, which includes a more open ideal yield, to use the Gospel metaphors. What we do as a sharing with the world of the grace that comes from Jesus. church is continually call ourselves to produce more, who- Catholics need ongoing conversion as part of their being fol- ever we are, as the fruit of our baptism. What we see in lowers of Jesus. each other are the seeds of discipleship, some of which have

16 America September 1-8, 2014 September 1-8, 2014 America 17 sprung into plants while others still lie latent. What we ac- zation and discipleship are almost “elitist” might do some- knowledge about all of us is our ongoing need for greater thing worse than encourage lax discipleship; it might lead conversion, for reconciliation and the expression of God’s people to dismiss church, discipleship and evangelization grace in more explicit ways in our lives. altogether. Everyone remarks about the growing number of Are there stages of discipleship? We can certainly rec- young people who respond “none” to the question of their ognize phases of discipleship as we look back on our faith preferred faith. One feature of the growth of this group is lives. They may not necessarily follow those Sherry Weddell surely a pushing back at churches that seemed to be pushing outlines (trust, curiosity, openness, conversion, intention- against them, as the 2010 book American Grace, by Robert al discipleship) in any strict order. At varying times in our D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, shows. lives as disciples we have experienced deepening trust or Of course it is premature to generalize about the ministry been drawn along by curiosity about one or another aspect of Pope Francis. But one thing is clear: He is not interest- of faith or powerfully experienced Jesus’ presence or, perhaps, ed in exclusive or exclusivizing notions of faith. “Open up have powerfully experienced something like God’s absence the doors,” he says. Let’s get away from our small-minded (our own “dark nights of the soul”) or have been clear in the approaches. He mentions the unmarried pregnant woman direction of our vocations or have been confused. Catholic who comes to get her baby baptized—how, in place of some mystics have taught us well about phases of discipleship. The of our approaches, we should celebrate this woman and founder of the Paulist Fathers, Servant of God Isaac Hecker, warmly welcome her and her child. He washes the feet of experienced years of what seemed like internal confusion as Muslim women. He prays with evangelical pastors. He plac- part of his journey in faith but came to see this as the work of es in the same category as ordinary evangelizing ministry the Spirit. The Spirit, Hecker would say, can work through caring both for Catholics who go to Mass every Sunday and all—and many different—phases of our spiritual lives. for Catholics who have a strong attachment to the church but do not go to Mass (“The Joy of the Gospel,” No. 14). It ‘Open the Doors’ is as if Francis is pointing out a vast ocean of divine love and Might a more inclusive attitude end up enabling lax disci- grace and inviting us all to swim in it, letting as many into pleship? Perhaps. But giving the impression that evangeli- that ocean as possible. A

digital highlights from our blogs: Vatican Conference Seeks to Combat Human Trafficking Nicholas D. Sawicki the national catholic review Poetry, Loss and Inspiration: An Web only article Interview with Rigoberto González “Can We Trust Tehran?” Ronald Powaski updates Olga Segura readers on nuclear negotiations with Iran. Catholicism and Baseball: Questions for MLB Umpire Mark Wegner, Sean Salai, S.J.

What you are reading at film americamagazine.org John Anderson reviews John Lithgow and Alfred Order Restored, Thomas Worcester, S.J. Molina in Ira Sach’s “Love is Strange.” Questions for Father C. John McCloskey, Sean Salai, S.J. ‘Summa’ 2.0, Holly Taylor Coolman

radio An Interview with Bishop Frank Robert McCreanor talks about the immigration Caggiano, Sean Salai, S.J. crisis on the “America This Week,” September 10 Author Q&A with Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Sean Salai, S.J.

What you’re talking about: More and more these days I do not like to identify myself as a “liberal,” but rather as a “Catholic.” -- Beth Cioffoletti on Obsession Disorders Wednesdays at 1 p.m. on The Catholic Channel 129

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A More Authentic Way Can the RCIA meet the needs of modern-day spiritual seekers? By Nick Wagner n his new book, Becoming Catholic, the sociologist Finally, Full Implementation David Yamane tells the story of Deacon Zeke, the coor- To paraphrase G. K. Chesterton, the Christian initiation dinator of adult religious education for a parish in the process for adults has not been tried and found wanting— Midwest. Professor Yamane sat in on several of Deacon but it has been found hard and, too often, has not been tried. IZeke’s classes for people participating Mr. Yamane reports that more than in the Rite of Christian Initiation of 80 percent of U.S. parishes are using Adults and notes that for 90 percent What Is the RCIA? “some version of the RCIA process.” of the time, Zeke lectures from a di- Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. This While that might sound as though the ocesan-approved “comprehensive cat- is the English title of the book whose rite has been widely and successful- Latin title is Ordo Initiationis Christianae echesis for the RCIA.” When he does Adultorum (“Order of Christian Initiation ly implemented, the qualifier—”some ask an occasional question, Zeke does of Adults”). version”—is telling. Many parishes are not seem to expect a response from the This book contains the scripts for more engaged largely in a membership trans- participants. “He fills in the dead spac- than a dozen liturgical ceremonies—that fer process that helps already baptized es himself with more lecturing,” says is, the prayers, Scripture readings and members of other Christian commu- Mr. Yamane. The participants, as one the rubrics specifying how each ritual nities to understand the differences might expect, “are not visibly respon- should be carried out. between the faith tradition of their sive: no acknowledgement of what he It also contains general introductory childhoods and the requirements of the is saying with facial expressions, nods material describing the goals and in a faith tradition of their Catholic spouses of the head, or audible confirmations.” general way the methods recommended or fiancées. While this is not insignifi- for the entire intiation process. The Federation of Diocesan cant, the process of joining the Catholic Liturgical Commissions will meet in There are also introductions to the Church too often is for them a rather individual rites that spell out at what October to discuss the current prac- point in the initiation process they are to bland process, not a spiritual journey tice of the Rite of Christian Initiation be used and what criteria are to be used by which they, having heard “the mys- of Adults in the United States and to to determine when the catechumens tery Christ proclaimed, seek the living offer consultation to the U.S. bishops and candidates are ready to celebrate God and enter the way of faith and con- on a possible revision of the “National them. version” (RCIA, No. 1). Conversion, as Statutes on the Catechumenate,” the The “National Statutes on the David Snow and Richard Machalek guidelines for implementing the cat- Catechumenate” are also included, define it in an article in the Annual which were drawn up by the U.S. bishops echumenate in the United States. If as guidelines for implementing and Review of Sociology (1984), is a “com- instructional sessions like Zeke’s are adapting the initiation process for the plete disruption” and a “radical discon- any indication, this meeting arrives not United States. tinuity in a person’s life.” Less extreme a moment too soon. This event also is All of these elements—ritual texts, changes are identified as “alternation” timely given that a retranslation of the introductory materials and the national or “consolidation”—“actions that com- ritual texts may be on the way, now statutes—are often referred to globally bine two prior but contradictory world that the Roman Missal project is com- as “the Rite of Christian Initiation views or identities.” plete. This moment in the history of of Adults” or simply “the RCIA.” Certainly, elements of the RCIA can the editors adult Christian initiation in the United be helpful for those who are moving to- States can have a major impact on the ward full communion with the church. way seekers are initiated into the faith The U.S. bishops say as much in the in coming decades. It offers both hope and challenges. “National Statutes”: “Those who have been baptized but have received relatively little Christian upbringing may participate in elements of catechumenal formation so far as necessary Nick Wagner is the founder and president of TeamRCIA.com, a free and appropriate....” However, they “should not take part in online resource for parishes that want to form Christians for life. rites intended for the unbaptized catechumens” (No. 31).

20 America September 1-8, 2014 THE RITE STUFF. Ennio Mastroianni, center, helps lead a group of catechumens with Patrick Rogers, S.J., and Minerva San Juan in a chapel at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Feb. 20. CNS p hoto/ A shleigh B uyers

However, consider as an example a faithful Christian dropped by approximately half since 2000. whose father was an ordained Methodist minister, who The reason baptisms are declining certainly is not be- went to a Methodist college with the intent of perhaps seek- cause we have accomplished the mission and there is no one ing ordination himself, who can quote copious amounts of left who needs to hear the good news. The Pew Research Scripture from memory, who has an active prayer life and Group reports that “the number of Americans who do not who has assisted his Catholic wife in preparing their three identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. children for first Communion. He now seeks to become One-fifth of the U.S. public—and a third of adults under Catholic. When we put him “in the RCIA,” we not only fail 30—are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentag- to recognize properly the dignity of his baptism; we also do es ever in Pew Research Center polling.” The reason for this not fully honor the “radical discontinuity” of the conversion growing lack of affiliation is not completely clear. The Pew process of other participants, seekers who were truly lost study suggests that young adults, in particular, are steering and are now found. If we view the catechumenate process clear of organized religion because of political backlash, as simply a membership-switching mechanism, we diminish broad social disengagement, secularization of American the normative vision of the Rite of Christian Initiation of society and the fact that many are delaying marriage, a life Adults as a process of radical conversion. event that traditionally brought couples back to the church. It might seem odd to say it, but this moment of crisis Renewed Interest in Evangelization can also be a moment of hope—a moment of grace. We I once suggested to a pastor that he stop receiving cate- Catholics always have been a little shy about sharing our chized, baptized Christians into full communion at the faith. Now, we have no choice. If we are going to grow as a Easter Vigil, though this is a valid option according to the church and, more important, if we are going to continue to “National Statutes” (No. 33). His face turned pale, and he spread the Gospel, we will have to learn (or relearn) how to said, “If we did that, we wouldn’t have anyone to do the live our faith out loud. rites with at the Vigil!” Years later, I heard someone give a response that I wished I had thought of at the time: “If no Replacing Stories With Teachings one died in our parish this year, would we press someone One fear I have is that in the wake of the coming discussions into service as a pseudo-corpse just so we could celebrate the and the eventual retranslation of the ritual texts, instead of funeral rites?” If we have no catechumens at our Easter Vigil, going out into the world and sharing the stories of our faith what does that say about our parish as an evangelizing com- journeys with those who may need to hear them, we will be- munity? This is not an idle question. According to statistics come like Deacon Zeke and read doctrinal texts to the few from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at seekers who manage to find their way to us. Indeed, if you Georgetown University, the number of adult baptisms has Google “new evangelization” or “RCIA,” you will find count-

September 1-8, 2014 America 21 less study programs, video series, PowerPoint presentations, Instead, the aim of initiatory catechesis “consists in precisely lecture notes and syllabi. It sometimes seems as though re- this: to encourage a living, explicit and fruitful profession of ligious educators got together and decided that the reason faith” (No. 66). The RCIA tells us that catechesis at this lev- people are no longer interested in becoming Catholic is that el includes an explanation of church teaching, but it “also en- they have not yet had a proper systematic classroom presen- lightens faith, directs the heart towards God, fosters partici- tation on salvation history. I am all for systematic classroom pation in the liturgy, inspires apostolic activity, and nurtures teaching. I am a successful product of it. But we cannot put a life completely in accord with the spirit of Christ” (No. the cart before the horse. 78). This is the way the first disciples proclaimed the good The General Directory for Catechesis (1997) reminds us news. They had no classrooms and no syllabi. They came to- there are three levels of catechesis. We too often start at the gether in faith, broke bread and shared the cup and showed third level, which the directory calls ongoing or postbaptis- generosity of heart to all people. The result of this simple mal catechesis. The first level of catechesis is evangelization, initiatory catechesis was that “day by day the Lord added to or primary proclamation, which is addressed to those living their number those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). This in religious indifference (No. 61). As I noted, we Catholics approach might speak to those who, although unaffiliated, can be hesitant to evangelize others. We are very fond of cit- are not religiously indifferent. According to the Pew study, ing the line attributed to St. Francis that we should always two-thirds of this group believe in God and “the majority proclaim the Gospel and, if necessary, use words. It is now describe themselves either as a religious person (18 percent) necessary to use words. or as spiritual but not religious (37 percent).” For many of the religiously unaffiliated, the best way we The Christian initiation process for adults should not be can share the story of our faith is at the level the directory accompanied by mandatory syllabi, suggested or required calls initiatory catechesis. This is classically the catechesis textbooks, or a set number of hours that seekers will need called for in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which to be in the classroom. All of this violates the core principle is also the model for all other forms of catechesis (No. 59). that the way of faith is a spiritual journey that “varies ac- When we hear the word catechesis, however, many of us cording to the many forms of God’s grace” and that “nothing, immediately think of catechism and a Deacon Zeke-style therefore, can be settled a priori” (Nos. 5 and 76). classroom experience. The directory does not tell us that. I used to teach like Deacon Zeke. I did so because I was afraid I did not know enough and that my own faith sto- ry was not strong enough or holy enough to lead seekers to Christ. Often, I am still afraid. When I meet a new seeker, when I hear the often wrenching story of his or her struggle to find peace and hope, I wonder what could possibly qualify me to be any kind of guide for this person. My faith is weak, and I have repeatedly failed to live up to what I will be call- ing this person before me to do. Wouldn’t it be easier to do a “read along” with a diocesan-approved text? Easier, for sure. But ineffective for most. Catechists are not teachers in the usual sense of class- room instructors. Pope Francis, in his homily at a Mass for catechists, said:

Catechists are people who keep the memory of God alive; they keep it alive in themselves and they are able to revive it in others.... This is not easy! It engages our entire existence!... Dear catechists, I ask you: Are we in fact the memory of God?

The upcoming meeting of the F.D.L.C. and a new trans- lation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults will not, by themselves, help us become the memory of God. But they will give us an opportunity to think more deliberately about whether or not we are working toward this goal and, if we are not, to ask ourselves what we are going to do about it. A

22 America September 1-8, 2014 September 1-8, 2014 America 23 24 America September 1-8, 2014 Happiness 101 Thomas Aquinas can help students understand the purpose of theology. By Adam M. Green

ne would expect a class on happiness to be fair- It seems their negative experiences of theology stem from ly popular among high school students. In one two opposite poles. For many, religious education has been way or other, every Catholic high school offers on the one hand too nebulous and vague or, on the other just this type of class—only we call it theology. hand, overly authoritative. When nebulous, religious educa- OSt. Thomas Aquinas held that happiness is one of the foun- tion is described as having the extremely vague goal of sim- dational characteristics of the mind’s assent to God, and in ply “growing closer to God.” Under this approach, theology this light theology is a discipline in which we seek not only becomes the “easy-A” course in grade school and parish edu- to understand but ultimately to attain happiness. cation programs, where general statements like “Jesus is love” Yet it is often difficult to get students engaged in theology, or “God is good” suffice for outstanding work. While state- much less excited about it. I have been teaching theology in a ments like these are not wrong, failing to dig deeper into formal setting for only three years. But in that time I have come them with follow-up questions like “Why is God good?” to realize that many students have an overwhelmingly negative “How is God good?” or “What does ‘good’ mean?” does a view of religion class. I teach freshmen who have come primar- gross injustice to their richness and depth. ily from Catholic grade schools and parish religion programs. On the other end of the spectrum, religious education In our conversations there is nearly universal agreement that often has been justified with arguments from authority and when religion class is reduced to religious information, it has tradition. At this extreme, religious educators hammer home 1) made them feel worse about themselves rather than bet- to students that they must study theology “because that is ter, 2) made them feel farther from God rather than closer what a religious school does” or that they “need to know this and 3) caused them to think that faith is foolish and anti- to fit in at church.” These demands for obedience and con- reason, rather than thought-provoking and life-giving. formity manifest themselves in a religious education that is not much more than mechanical memorization of dog- mas and doctrines, which may ultimately result in a robotic Adam M. Green is a theology teacher at Walsh Jesuit High School, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He received a master’s degree in theological studies pseudo-relationship between the student and God. What is from the School of Theology and Ministry of Boston College. even more unfortunate is that many times these seemingly Photo: shutterstock.com/ O llyy

September 1-8, 2014 America 25 contradictory poles of intellectual laxity and blind obedience is primarily because pleasure is dependent on the senses. coexist in one school or classroom. Good food is pleasurable because of the sense of taste, beau- But these justifications for and experiences of religious tiful possessions are pleasurable because of the sense of sight education could not be farther from the actual goal of the- and sexual gratification is pleasurable because of the sense ology, particularly as articulated by Aquinas. The Thomistic of touch. As such, these pleasures are neither supreme nor commentator Thomas O’Meara, O.P., writes in his book eternal. Put positively, in order to be pleased by something Thomas Aquinas: Theologian that “the life of knowing, faith, that is beautiful or tastes good you must have good eyesight and love has for its specifying goal not religious obedience and functioning taste buds. If you are blind or do not have but happiness.” While this statement is true, leaving it at that proper olfactory functions, less happiness will be found in runs the risk of falling into the these things. So while these are aforementioned pious impre- things that often give pleasure, cision. If religious education is I tell students that ultimately they cannot be equated with to be a positive and meaningful happiness. experience for today’s students, the point of learning theology Next, Aquinas points out we must rearticulate why the- is to be happy. that happiness is not contained ology is taught. To do this, in honors because honor (or we must wrestle with the im- “reputation”) is given to a per- portant question Father O’Meara’s statement raises, which son as a result of some achievement or personal quality he succinctly formulates a few lines later: “But what is real (I.II.2.2). Thus, the achievement or quality is primary be- happiness?” cause it precipitates the honor, in the same way that an ob- ject obtained through wealth is primary to the wealth itself. Many False Paths Likewise, Aquinas concludes that neither fame (I.II.2.3) Consciously or not, all adolescents (and adults, for that mat- nor power (I.II.2.4) contain happiness. This is because both ter) wrestle with this question every day. When it comes to fame and power are temporary and neither is self-sufficient. how they spend their free time, why they study and what Likewise, it is very rare for a person who has power to retain they envision for their life beyond the classroom, students that power ad infinitum. A teacher can simply show students are trying to pursue happiness. Too often, however, this wres- a newspaper or magazine from a decade ago, or even a few tling does not go far enough. Hampered by the simple an- months ago, to illustrate this point: From professional ath- swers promoted in popular culture and the media, students letes to pop culture icons to politicians, there seems to be no can be misled about what will bring them lasting happiness. shortage of people who reach great heights of honor, fame It is not surprising to find that St. Thomas Aquinas, with and power only to come crashing down into infamy or ob- his deep understanding of human nature, speaks clearly to scurity. adolescents in the 21st century, although he wrote over 500 As he concludes his section on what happiness is not, years ago. The First Part of the Second Part of hisSumma Aquinas states that happiness cannot exist in any created Theologiaeremains a masterful guide for all who seek to trav- good, because the ultimate object of our longings is supreme el far along the path to happiness in this life and the next. and eternal goodness and truth, which belong to the Creator Aquinas first goes to great lengths to point out what alone: “For happiness is the perfect good, which lulls the ap- happiness is not: it is not wealth, pleasure, fame, honors or petite altogether; else it would not be the last end, if some- power. Not only are these things not in themselves happi- thing yet remained to be desired” (I.II.2.8). ness, they often become obstacles to true happiness because they entrap the seeker with enjoyments that are ultimately An Imperfect Pursuit fleeting and unsatisfying. Aquinas explains that wealth can- This is admittedly a lengthy explanation of what happiness not contain happiness because the true value of wealth is is not. The purpose was not to evade the original question. that it can be used to buy other things (I.II.2.1). For exam- In fact, it seems the largest impediment to happiness for ple, a teenager may desire wealth in order to buy fashion- high school students is that they believe they have already able clothes. Now because the goal of the wealth is precisely found it in the aforementioned categories; their quest to something else—in this case, clothes—the objects wealth understand happiness ceases because they begin searching buys are more desirable than the wealth itself. Because for things they think will bring happiness. Having removed wealth itself is not the final step in the pursuit of happiness, these false leads, however, we can now direct our attention we cannot say that wealth is happiness. more positively to what happiness is. Aquinas says that there On a related but different level, Aquinas points out that are ultimately two kinds of happiness, imperfect happiness pleasure also cannot of itself be happiness (I.II.2.6). This and perfect happiness (I.II.4.5). We can obtain imperfect

26 America September 1-8, 2014 happiness (felicitas) in this life by growing in our knowledge steps to bring this rearticulation full circle. First, I tell stu- of God through the “operation of the intellect.” Perfect hap- dents that ultimately the point of learning theology is to be piness (beatitudo) is the “vision of God” (I.II.4.5), which, happy, and I discuss how we might see this in the content Aquinas argues, is not dependent on a body. This vision of a given course. How might understanding the Bible, its does not mean sight in the literal sense, since that would genres, nuances, literary devices and message add to a stu- make it dependent on the eyes; rather it is a perception that dent’s happiness? How might understanding the growth, transcends the senses. This logically makes perfect happi- development and sometimes regression of the church over ness supreme because it is not dependent on anything other the course of history increase a student’s identification with than God. We could lose everything we know, even our own his or her own faith? How might understanding ethics tran- bodies, and the happiness of being with God still remains. scend merely “following the rules” and become an avenue Moving one step further, since happiness is full percep- for living a fulfilled life? Next, I explain how many common tion of God, and theology is about studying God, theolo- conceptions of happiness may “make us happy,” in the sense gy contributes to happiness in the same way that learning of pleasing us, but that happiness is about something much about a friend or partner allows your intimacy with them deeper, less dependent, more lasting—and rooted in God. to expand and deepen. Theology, when taught and under- Finally, while I primarily help students entertain ques- stood properly, should contribute both to imperfect hap- tions about happiness at a concrete level—using situations piness—through the operation of the intellect—as well as and examples from their own experiences—from that foun- ideally and eventually to perfect happiness at the end of a dation, I encourage personal reflection and contemplation person’s earthly life. These are ambitious goals, to say the to propel the conceptual knowledge into the realm of prayer, least. Additionally, simply stating these goals at the outset because, as Father O’Meara says, “Ultimately God instructs of a theology course will not necessarily change the subject not through epiphany but through presence.” When stu- matter itself. However, rearticulating these goals explicit- dents realize theology class is not about “giving answers” but ly and directly for students will hopefully at the very least rather about “learning how to seek them,” I find they come correct their orientation and at the very most increase their to class more willing to engage openly and thoughtfully with interest and efforts—not to mention those of their teacher. the Catholic faith and tradition. And that is enough to make In my own classroom, I have tried to take three concrete any theology teacher happy. A

September 1-8, 2014 America 27 vatican dispatch Following Francis rancis, the first Jesuit pope in This approach is particularly im- nied full religious freedom. history, is a missionary. Like his portant in Asia, where over 60 percent As pope, Francis is visiting Asia’s Ffellow Jesuits Francis Xavier of the world’s Muslims live, as do the Catholic Church with its 140 million and Matteo Ricci before him, he pas- overwhelming majority of Hindus and faithful, a mere 3.3 percent of the pop- sionately desires to share “the joy of Buddhists, many followers of other reli- ulation (only 1.3 percent without the the Gospel” with the peoples of Asia, a gions and millions who profess no faith. Philippines). He wants to embrace continent with a rich diversity of peo- Francis’ advocacy of the culture of en- and encourage this tiny flock because ples, religions and cultures, where 60 counter resonates well here, where cul- he is convinced that, like the mustard percent of the world’s population lives, tural and religious diversity sometimes seed, it has potential for great growth among them a tiny Christian minority. sparks animosity and conflict between and could bring a new springtime for He has just been to South Korea, peoples. It could also open the door to a the church. where he met some 100 Asian bish- dialogue of friendship with The Federation ops and thousands of young Catholics China’s leadership, like that of Asian Bishops’ from 30 Asian countries and beatified of Ricci in the late 1500s— Conferences also believes 124 martyrs. He will visit Sri Lanka something Francis greatly Asia’s this and, in its evangeliz- and the Philippines in January. desires. Catholic ing mission, has com- Francis is the third pope to visit The first pope from the mitted its churches to a Asia. Paul VI went twice, in 1964 and Southern Hemisphere un- Church has triple dialogue: with the 1970; John Paul II made seven trips derstands that the setting great poor, with the religions between 1981 and 1999. for evangelization in Asia and with the cultures Bergoglio was attracted to Asia is complex. Conscious of potential of Asia. Its former sec- long before he became pope. After Rome’s past mistakes there, for growth. retary general, Cardinal meeting Pedro Arrupe, the newly he wishes to open a new Orlando Quevedo of elected general superior of the Jesuits, chapter by empowering the the Philippines, told me in Argentina in 1965, he wrote to him local churches and encour- the bishops hope Francis asking to be sent as a missionary to aging them to explore new ways. will endorse and give new impetus to Japan. His request was declined for Pope Francis knows that Asia, with this dialogue. health reasons, but the dream lived its different political systems, is emerg- A great many Asians already have a on. As the Jesuit provincial superior of ing as the world’s dominant economic positive image of Pope Francis, thanks Argentina (1973-79), he sent young powerhouse and is spawning what Paul to the media. They are impressed by his men to Japan as missionaries; he later VI described as “flagrant inequalities humility, simple lifestyle, the coherence visited them in 1987. not merely in the enjoyment of posses- between his words and actions, and the Now, as pope, he is reaching out sions, but even more in the exercise of way he embraces the poor, the disabled, to the peoples of Asia, particularly power.” Over half the world’s 900 mil- the sick and the outcasts. its 720 million young people (ages 15 lion absolutely poor people live here, “He’s struck a chord immediately to 24) and those on the peripheries, surviving on less than $1.25 a day. among Asians with his consistent con- seeking to share with them the good The pope is concerned over this cern for the poor, the marginalized, and news of Jesus by promoting a culture poverty, economies that exclude, the by telling the church to be for the poor,” of encounter and by his own personal threats to peace emerging from Asia’s Cardinal Oswald Gracias of India told witness to God’s love and mercy. increasing militarization and its ongo- me recently. “Francis has sparked an ing pollution of the environment. atmosphere of joy, enthusiasm and ex- Gerard O’Connell, America’s Rome cor- He is concerned too that in Asia citement,” he added; “There’s life, vital- respondent, traveled with Pope Francis on his women experience a low level of gen- ity and enthusiasm for the church now. recent visit to South Korea. America’s Vatican coverage is sponsored in part by the Jesuit com- der equality, the right to life is widely People say this is the church that I like munities of the United States. disregarded, and a great many are de- to belong to.” Gerard O’Connell

28 America September 1-8, 2014 FAITH IN FOCUS Stumbling Onward Learning from my third graders By Jeffrey Essmann have come to trust my stumbles. time, I wasn’t quite sure why. I told my- the apostles had to watch out for di- Philosophically, I believe stum- self I was just excited. But there was a nosaurs. Ibling to be the natural human gait deeper tug to the excitement, and on This same immediacy means that and that humanity’s steady march of some level, I think I knew that my life they can carom wildly between inten- progress has, indeed, gener- sity and distraction, passion and ally been a matter of tripping, disinterest. But it also creates a bumping into walls and clip- dizzying openness in which there ping corners. As for my own can be a sudden upsurge of the march of progress, such as it Spirit that carries us somewhere is, it’s the times when I have beyond the day’s lesson and closer assumed the most confident to the God we know without fol- stride that often have proved lowing any lesson plan at all. (Once the most delusional and disap- we were talking about doing nice pointing. On the other hand, things for people, and a girl told there has been an ontologi- us about visiting her aunt when cal honesty to my stumbles, she was sick in the hospital. “We an odd sense of direction be- brought her a candy bar,” she said, neath their unsure footing, “but she still died.”) and they’ve usually landed me They live by a simple code: in places I need to be, places Things should be fun. And if some- confidence never would have thing is fun, it should be repeated brought me. and, if possible, be even more fun I stumbled into catechesis. the next time. They love Aesop’s Last summer I was looking for fables. I used them to introduce a a way to become more involved unit on parables and they were a big at my church when I noticed hit, so now we start each class with on the parish website a call for a couple of them. This is where catechists for the upcoming third graders are terrific. They love year. So I shot an email to the it that the fables are animal stories, director of religious education but they also love the moral discus- telling her that I had taught young was about to change. sion afterwards, which I’ve come to call children, had done confirmation The most profound change was in “Baptizing Aesop,” since more often preparation with teenagers and was my experience of time, and I could feel than not the kids totally Christianize looking to get more involved—what it almost immediately. Having very lit- the moral. (“The donkey should have did she think? She wrote back within tle past and so much future that it is forgiven the rooster.”) minutes saying yes, I should definitely hardly real, third graders exist almost They love reading about the saints, do this, and attached a list of available entirely in the present. Large blocks of though at first they thought martyr- positions. It hardly felt like a stumble time are absurdities to them; history dom was stupid. I realized I had to at all. Yet right after I hit “send” on the is a mix-and-match book of fantastic teach about Martin Luther King Jr. email message agreeing to be the cate- characters and far-off lands, and when first and then backpedal to St. Agnes. chist for the third-grade students that I told them the church was over 2,000 (They also love Moses, and I’ve fielded fall, my heart started pounding. At the years old, they thought that Jesus and several requests to return briefly to the d an salami a art:

September 1-8 , 2014 America 29 Old Testament.) service should be kind of spooky, and has changed my own sense of time as They love to ask questions: I think they are probably right. One well. I have a past with this faith com- “What’s a pagan?” week we did an entirely silent service. munity, and I very much have a pres- “What’s a convent?” I had been teaching them the Apostles’ ent, but now I even have a future. Part “Why is Mary stepping on a snake?” Creed in American Sign Language, of me, I hope, will live on in this parish, And they love fire. Their favorite and we decided to do the part we knew in these children, in their faith; part of part of our in-class prayer service is for the prayer service. And as my eyes me—the best part—I hope will live on the lighting of the candle. By third- adjusted to the light after the candle in the church. In the meantime I shall grade logic, if you’re going to light a was lit, I saw them at their desks in the stumble onward, because the good candle, the rest of the room should be shadows at the soft periphery of the thing about stumbling is that some- as dark as possible. First, they wanted candlelight, their arms moving slowly times you stumble right into the arms the lights out; the next week they de- in the gestures of the Creed. of God. cided the shades should also be drawn. I have come to believe that it is the (The lights-putter-outer, shades-draw- graced immediacy of children that Jeffrey Essmann, a writer whose work er and candle-lighter are now highly made Jesus say they were close to the has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post as well as numerous literary coveted nonordained ministries.) I Kingdom of God, and spending an journals and magazines, is a catechist at St. realized that they thought a prayer hour a week so close to the Kingdom Francis Xavier Parish in New York. House of Corrections Lessons from behind bars By Erin Elizabeth Clune

stayed on the phone with my job. Tom, an old friend of mine husband as I drove up to the from graduate school, had called Iprison, its jagged stone facade me up one day quite out of the stretching outward from a large, blue and said his prison college pointed, central turret. If it had program was looking for an in- not been nestled within the beau- structor, and he had thought of tiful, rolling landscape of the low- me. It was run, Tom said, by a er Catskill mountains, I thought, highly reputable organization this building would look much called the Bard Prison Initiative. more ominous. I had taught plen- In the absence of public fund- ty of college classes before—but ing, the program enabled incar- never inside a maximum security cerated men and women to take prison. This semester, my stu- college courses and get college dents would be incarcerated men, degrees. Teaching in a prison some of them presumably doing might take some getting used time for violent crimes. During to, Tom admitted. But they re- the hefty two-hour commute ally needed someone. And, he from my apartment in New York promised, it would be extremely City, I had plenty of time to con- rewarding. jure up some worst-case scenari- Once I was inside the facil- os. Would the students be tough, ity and simply focused on the I wondered, or intimidating? Was people around me, my appre- it really safe for women to work hension started to fade. While in this environment? “See you to- I waited for my paperwork to night,” I said to my husband, nervous- When I agreed to work at the pris- be processed, a few employees en-

ly signing off. “Wish me luck.” on, I had not even been looking for a tered through the main doors, passed sean quirk art:

30 America September 1-8, 2014 through the security scanners in the pose. There were only seven or eight lobby and chatted with the front desk students there at any given time—one officers. These folks obviously knew typing quietly at a computer, another each other well; they shared stories talking to the program director, anoth- about their children, their holidays, er sorting through books in the tiny their health. Eventually, two young side room they called the library. But men dressed in sweatshirts and pris- their small number contributed to my on-issued khaki pants came to clean impression that they had come togeth- the front hallway floors. They worked er to do more than just study or learn. steadily, quietly, occasionally exchang- It felt like they were gathered there, ing a few words. To me, they looked inside that small intellectual oasis, to tired and depleted. Worse, I thought, drive the bleakness away. they barely looked old enough to be The course I was there to teach teenagers. was a weekly seminar that focused After almost an hour, a corrections on one 768-page book: W. E. B. Du officer took me back to the prison’s Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America school. Every few minutes we stopped 1860–1880. Initially, I had worried at a security gate and waited for a guard that the material might be too difficult to buzz us through to the next check- or the focus too intensive. But in fact, point. Maybe it was because I was be- the students demonstrated a degree of ing led around, somewhat blindly, in engagement that I had rarely encoun- an unfamiliar place; but each of these tered in a traditional college class. And gates served as a sobering reminder to far from being intimidating or tough, me that I was now in someone else’s they were helpful and respectful. As protective custody, locked away, several I approached the small desk at the times over, from everyone I loved. front of the musty classroom, one stu- Still, it was not the physical isolation dent brought me a chair and asked if of prison that struck me most. It was I wanted some coffee. As we talked, I the spiritual bleakness. Being put away understood why this program was so from the rest of humanity is just the important. It was designed partly to re- beginning. For a number of years—or habilitate inmates through education. in the case of one man I met, possibly Ideally, it empowered them to manage the rest of his life—the prisoner now life on the outside. But regardless of has roughly four places to go: the yard, their sentence or ultimate chance for the cafeteria, the job site, the cell. He parole, it also offered them a chance goes every day, whether he wants to for intellectual—and spiritual—trans- or not. He can express individuality formation. It was one restorative place, within that framework of control. He deep within that warehouse of human can sit and read a book, for example, in deprivation, where men had the free- his cell. But he may well have to read it dom to think. In that sense, it really amid a constant din of yelling, clang- was an oasis—and not only for those ing, chaos and commotion. The worst living on the inside. prisons subject people to physical cru- When Tom called me, I was strug- elty. But within the normal bounds of gling with a new life transition. After captivity, it seemed to me, prison de- spending eight years in a doctoral prives people of even their freedom to program, one year in a postdoctoral rest, be restored and think. fellowship and another year as a new When we finally got to the prison assistant professor, I had become preg- school, the atmosphere changed. In nant—happily, fortunately, but unex- contrast to other parts of the build- pectedly. Because my husband could ing that I passed through, the prison not find a new job—and because I school seemed alive with hope and pur- really didn’t feel we could raise a child

September 1-8 , 2014 America 31 in a household dictated by two intense ually, so did my professional angst. and to appease the moral sense of civ- and demanding full-time careers—I Regardless of my traditional career ilization.” It is a beautiful and power- quit my job. prospects, I realized, I could still make ful book. In the prison, however, these Frequently in academia, biological a valuable contribution. I could still words took on even broader relevance clocks and tenure clocks conspire to do rewarding, meaningful work. That than they had before. Talking about knock women off their predicted ca- simple fact made me feel peaceful and freedom with people who had lost reer paths, and I had known this. But restored. it—but who were so diligently and my professional detour was rather During my short tenure as an in- painstakingly striving to make their sudden and severe. I didn’t regret my structor at the prison—and later, as way back to it—was a profound ex- choice, but I regretted having had to a thesis advisor for one of the stu- perience. Getting to know these men make it, and I missed my career. I also dents—I talked with people about the as individuals gave me personal in- found new motherhood more chal- job. I talked about its bleakness and sight into the meaning of mercy that lenging—and isolating—than I had its transformative rewards. But, more my religious education had not given imagined. Raising a toddler full time privately, I knew the job was also trans- me. It reminded me that compassion requires you to be present and engaged forming me. Growing up Catholic, I can have unexpected rewards, in the for 12 to 14 hours a day with someone had learned about the concept of mer- smallest of ways and the unlikeliest of whose own attention span is roughly cy. Or as a less religious person might places. 15 seconds. I spent a lot of time feeling call it, compassion. My Catholic in- Not long ago, I got a letter from suspended, unfulfilled and unresolved. structors taught about mercy in terms one of my students. He had been one As my world narrowed into a life that of specific acts: feed the hungry, for ex- of the most engaged students in the centered on my daughter’s immediate ample, or give drink to the thirsty. And course, and the following year, I had needs, I waited for a time when I’d feel most of them made intuitive sense to served as the primary advisor for his ready to leave her in someone else’s me. But I never really understood why senior thesis. When my family moved care and go back to working full time. visiting the imprisoned was considered away from New York, I had missed his But somehow that readiness never ma- an act of mercy on a par with tending graduation by just a few days. But be- terialized. to basic human needs. Were prisoners fore I left, I had driven up to the pris- I decided I could manage the pris- really so needy? Did mercy really reject on one last time for his thesis defense. on course because it didn’t require me a distinction between supposedly de- The faculty committee who sat with us to make a huge time commitment. I serving and undeserving souls? roundly praised his work. It was one of found it exhilarating to teach again. When I experienced life inside a the proudest and most rewarding mo- This was not a career-track job like the prison first-hand, it became abun- ments of my professional life. one I’d left. But it was an opportunity dantly clear to me why prisoners are In his letter, he thanked me pro- to share ideas with students—people on that list. Black Reconstruction al- fusely, again, for working with him. I who clearly appreciated my efforts. ways has been one of my favorite his- would never know how much it meant, As we made our way through weighty torical texts. “Easily the most dramatic he wrote, that I had come all that way topics like land redistribution, slavery episode in American history,” Du Bois to teach at the prison when I could and emancipation, their thoughtful- writes at the outset, “was the sudden have just stayed home with my own ness inspired me. The fact that I was move to free four million black slaves children. sitting in a prison completely receded in an effort to stop a great civil war, to I wrote back, yes, my children were into the back of my mind. And grad- end forty years of bitter controversy, very important to me. At times, the teaching and driving schedule had been difficult for me and my fami- From In All Things ly. But I had gained so much from it. Working at the prison school—for Do we owe it to ourselves, if not to the dead, to try to such a worthy program and with such understand how it happened? Doing so won’t change deserving students—had been more the past; it may change us. rewarding than I could ever have ex- pected. So, I said, let’s just agree to be “The Humbling History of World War I,” Margot Patterson mutually grateful.

americamagazine.org/things Erin Elizabeth Clune is a writer in Madison, Wis.

32 America September 1-8, 2014 Books & Culture

period it covers, can it? “Boyhood” is as film | John Anderson immersive as it is observational, and at the same time inescapably self-reflec- Life Itself tive. In terms of manipulating the re- lationship between viewer and screen, Richard Linklater’s journey through ‘Boyhood’ there is nothing quite like it. But while Linklater’s novel ap- here is perhaps no better ex- how it was made suggests that this proach to character study, a.k.a. the ample of the motion picture close-to-three-hour drama is all about gimmick, should not be overstressed, Tas an act of faith than Richard the gimmick. It’s not. Watching the it can hardly be ignored. Nor should it Linklater’s Boyhood. The best-re- principal boy in the ’hood, Mason be. That the viewer knows what he/she viewed film of 2014 thus far, it was (Ellar Coltrane) progress from kin- knows about the making of the film— shot in a little over a month of days dergartner to college, clumsily nego- the years spent, the actual boyhood in- spread over a time span of 12 years, tiating the obstacle course of modern truded upon—adds to one’s emotional with the same actors playing the same American childhood, is an exhilarat- investment and elation. The aspira- roles, aging as their characters aged, ing, melancholic and spiritually up- tions of an artist may not save a failed changing as their characters changed. lifting thing. Linklater, through music, work, but when something works this What could possibly have gone wrong, décor and attitudes, creates a kind of well, the sense of daring behind it can other than everything? time trip that cinema never has un- be an intoxicant. Because it is impossible to address dertaken before—a movie cannot be Linklater has always had an ap- “Boyhood” without first explaining a “period piece” if it is shot during the petite for the unorthodox. He rode

GROWING UP. Ellar Coltrane in “Boyhood.” cns p hoto: ifc films

September 1-8 , 2014 America 33 out of Texas with “Slacker,” his un- happened to progress from appealing ries? Bill (Marco Perella) becomes in- conventionally plotted—as in un- kid to attractive man. Coltrane does not creasingly loathsome as he descends plotted—indie-festival fave of 1991. carry the movie as much as he is car- into secret drinking and overt violence. The shaggy, druggy “Dazed and ried along by its story, which Linklater “Boyhood” could not feel as true as it Confused” (1993) brought him a cult reportedly developed from one year of does about life among the 99 percent in following. The animated navel-gazer shooting to the next and which touch- the United States without being bitter- “Waking Life” (2001) bestowed on es on aspects of contemporary life (as sweet bordering on dour. Religion plays him a degree of intellectual heft, and in 2002-13) that might, in another era, no more part in Mason’s family life than have been the basis for dra- politics. The family may live in Texas, mas all their own. Divorce. but there is very little about them that You fold this sweater the way a moth Marriage. Domestic abuse. conforms to what the rest of the coun- Drunkeness. Unemployment. try perceives Texas to be. Not only do builds halls from the darkness it needs And the ever popular coming these people lack any interest in values to go on living—safe inside this closet of age. Mason never “comes and virtues beyond the four walls of of age,” whatever that means. their home, they lack the time for de- a family is gathering for dinner, cashmere Life is a river, and “Boyhood” votion to them. Mason’s mother is con- is merely a sizable chunk of stantly busy making ends meet or fur- with oil, some garlic, a little salt, lit waterfront. thering her career; Dad, driving his un- and wings warmed by mealtime stories It is also an immigrant dad-like GTO, is occupied with being story, in a very particular and a metaphor for the eternal rootlessness peculiar sense, the immigrant of Americans. Mom’s third husband about flying at night into small fires being Mason’s mother, Olivia Ted (Steven Prince), an Iraq vet who grazing on the somewhere that became (Patricia Arquette). She is becomes a corrections officer—great the out-of-tune hum older than falling a refugee in a new world, choice, by the way—is symbolic of the where women have not only anger and frustration evident among a been given rights but have certain constituency of white American —you close the drawer and slowly also been saddled with most males for whom the world has refused your eyes shut—with both hands of the responsibilities. Olivia to conform to expectations. responds like an ambitious So, in a kind of sidelong way, make a sign in the air as if death matters. arriviste: She rids herself of Linklater does comment on current af- Mason Sr., father of Mason fairs, while keeping Mason at the center Simon Perchik and Samantha (played by of his concerns, with a boy’s point of Linklater’s daughter, Lorelei), view informed by both the narcissism Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have goes to college, marries her of childhood and the myopia of the eye appeared in Partisan Review, The Nation, Poetry, The professor, becomes a pro- witness. One would not trust Mason to New Yorker and elsewhere. His most recent collection is fessor, makes a home, raises report on the proceedings in “Boyhood,” Almost Rain, published by River Otter Press (2013). her kids and does it without any more than one would trust a civil- much help from the men in ian in a war zone to give an evenhanded her life, who are either angry account of the conflict. But Linklater, the “Before” movies of 1995-2013 or aimless. One of the more poignant reporting from the front, seizes our (“Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and moments occurs during a Houston confidence from the start. “Before Midnight”) somehow made Astros game (Roger Clemens, blast him synonymous with the realpolitik from the past, is pitching) when Mason John Anderson is a film critic for The Wall Street Journal, Indiewire and Newsday and a of romance, and romance itself. Meh. turns to Dad and asks him if he has a regular contributor to the Arts & Leisure section This reviewer prefers “School of Rock” job. That college professor Mom mar- of The New York Times. (2003) and “Bernie” (2011), deftly hi- larious and pretension-free comedies. From In All Things But “Boyhood” is in some other Even if he couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, he clearly never stopped league. Alongside a couple of his regu- fighting to find a way to get there. lars (Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette) “Not a Hollywood Ending: Robin Williams, RIP,” Jim McDermott, S.J. he cast young Coltrane, who, to Linklater’s unending good fortune, americamagazine.org/things

34 America September 1-8, 2014 September 1-8 , 2014 America 35 of other things | Michael Rossmann Alone in a Crowd

’m not exactly an imposing guy. when people do not acknowledge my ers, might not be helpful. They might I don’t pump much iron. I guess existence. in fact make us much less happy. II can wear a lot of dark clothing, As I passed crowds of people and In a Chicago Tribune article de- but that’s usually accompanied by a felt a mission to connect with others scribing the results, Epley writes, clerical collar. And the Iowa niceness on the sidewalk, I found myself think- “People have strong beliefs about what I grew up around comes across pretty ing, “Don’t you know I want to say hi will make them happy. Sometimes quickly. to you? Please look at me!” I was sur- those beliefs are systematically wrong.” Recently, however, during the course rounded by people in the heart of the Additionally, while we may hold re- of many long walks in a bustling urban city but still felt lonely. lationships with family members and neighborhood, people seemed afraid to I thought being in a place where I close friends to be far more important look at me. I tried to smile at others as could walk without than encounters like I walked, but most were too busy look- being bothered would I can pass these with strangers, ing at their phones, or their dogs, or a be refreshing, but now some studies indicate crack in the sidewalk—anything but that I have returned to thousands of that the more social the person passing them—so that they a place where I blend in people interactions we have— did not have to make uncomfortable and can walk without even with the person eye contact with a stranger. drawing attention, I without who tells you your Even a woman wearing a shirt that can’t help but feel that shoe is untied, or the said, “It takes a smile” didn’t, well, take I have lost something anyone sneezing stranger to my smile and return it. She was too instead. saying a word whom you say, “God busy looking down to notice me. Recent research bless you”—the happi- I don’t think this experience is seems to support to me. er we tend to be. unique to this city or because of my my own experience. When I think of (not exactly) threatening appearance. Nicholas Epley and my day, I might not These passersby were simply following Juliana Schroeder, even remember all the “the rules” when it comes to walking behavioral scientists spontaneous, short en- through most large American cities. at the University of counters with strang- I spent the past two years in East Chicago, asked a group ers or recognize their Africa unable to go anywhere in pub- of experiment partici- importance. At the lic without people staring at me, call- pants to keep to them- same time, if I have ing out to me from across the street or selves and “enjoy their solitude” while extra pep in my step for seemingly no striking up a conversation. It was never commuting on a train. They asked an- reason, it’s often because of seeing the boring. At times, however, especially other group to initiate a conversation goodness of humanity in the kindness after a long day, I often yearned for with a fellow passenger. of a stranger. a little more peace and quiet and the Before the experiment, participants During my recent attempts to get ability to go somewhere without being expected to prefer the solitary ride, but people to notice my smile or say hi on noticed. afterward those who spoke reported the sidewalk, many of the people who Now, back in the States, I can pass a more pleasant commute than those said something to me were paid to thousands of people without anyone told to savor their solitude. Those who do it. They were working for a bar or saying a single word to me. It might talked to someone were often sur- restaurant and were trying to get peo- feel more comfortable not to be inter- prised by just how enjoyable it was. ple to come inside. While such brief rupted, but it’s not exactly comforting Often, when I am tired or stressed, greetings—“How’s it going? We have I think that what I need is some “me” some great specials today...”—are not Michael Rossmann, S.J., after teaching time. Perhaps, however, I actually need very profound encounters, they at least at Loyola High School in Dar es Salaam, more “we” time. make us feel that we’re noticed, that Tanzania, is now a student at the School of Theology and Ministry of Boston College. The rules for keeping to ourselves in we’re human, that we’re not alone. Twitter: @RossmannSJ. a city, instead of reaching out to strang- And isn’t that what we really want?

36 America September 1-8, 2014 “The Church needs you, counts on you and continues to turn to you with confidence, particularly to reach the geographical and spiritual places where others do not reach or find it difficult to reach.”

Pope Benedict XVI, address to the Society of Jesus, General Congregation 35, February 21, 2008

The Society of Jesus in the United States

Responding to the Call of Christ.

Everyone has a great calling. Let us help you discern yours. www.Jesuit.org

September 1-8 , 2014 America 37 tall building in Saint-Malo with her uncle, Étienne, who, having endured books | Kelly Cherry World War I, remains frozen with ter- ror until the need to care for his niece Lost Youth causes him to recover his courage. We have also met Werner Pfennig, All the Light counter in war. a very small youngster with ears that We Cannot See Nevertheless, for the first 18 pag- stick out and white hair, who is intel- By Anthony Doerr es I fretted. The writing seemed a lectually gifted and dreams of escaping Scribner. 531p $27 bit unsteady, as if the author were work in the mines, the normal occupa- standing on a chair to do it. Images tion for poor boys in his town (his fa- Anthony Doerr has previously pub- came and went rather too quickly, as ther died in a mine accident). He longs lished four books—one nonfiction, Dorothy said soon after she arrived in to study math, physics and mechanical one novel and two story collections. engineering. Bright as he is, he learns a His collection Memory Wall in par- good deal about these matters on his ticular helped him stand out from own. He and his younger sister, Jutta, the crowds of writers; it was strange, listen to radio broadcasts on the re- magical and bold. He has won a num- ceivers he has been able to acquire and ber of awards, which is always partly a fix up. Later, having been conscripted matter of luck, but he deserved them. into the Hitler Youth and then the His newest book, another novel, takes Nazi Army, he will be assigned to track place primarily during World War II, down and destroy illicit radio sets in the main characters a German boy and various countries. Jutta will also play a blind French girl who spend less than an important part before the book a day together. Its title, All the Light We ends. Cannot See, may suggest that we are These children are marvelously de- all largely or often blind, or that light scribed. They come immediately to surrounds us even as we are unaware, life, and we share their dreams, disap- or that somewhere else there is more pointments and struggles to survive light and we may yet see that promis- and thrive. By the time some of them ing more. are remembering their youth, we are For long sections, chapters about remembering it with them, in vivid the boy (Werner) and the girl (Marie- detail that can be both pleasurable and Laure) take turns, which brought to excruciating. That the young grow old my mind Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, in Munchkinland: “My! People come and is both a joy and a sadness, we all know, which chapters are divided between a go so quickly here!” but when we can, through a book, ex- young lady and a young man. In 1Q84 But on page 19 we meet Marie- perience that journey, similar to yet that arrangement allowed the book to Laure’s father, controller of all the keys profoundly different from our own, we accumulate enormous suspense. But to the National Museum of Natural have enlarged our world. it fizzled at the end, when the reader History (as many as 12,000 of them), But it is war, and not everyone learned that all the obstacles that kept and take a headlong dive into the sto- gets to grow old. At the school at the two apart were merely an instance ry, which is mysterious, complex, rich Schulpforta, for example... of true love not running smoothly. One with diverse and full characters and thousand pages were thereby trivialized. written with what must be love. Daniel one hundred and nineteen The same device in Doerr’s novel, LeBlanc’s fearless love and affection for twelve- and thirteen-years-olds however, works, both because he does his daughter are utterly convincing, and wait in a queue behind a truck not hold to it so rigidly and because there must be other readers who wish to be handed thirty-pound an- the novel is historical fiction. The ob- they’d had him for their dad, as did I. ti-tank landmines, boys who, stacles Marie-Laure and Werner face Alas, he is taken off a train to parts un- in almost exactly one year, ma- are not mere fantasies of the author; known, perhaps a work camp, perhaps rooned amid the Russian ad- they are the kinds of loss, confusion a concentration camp. Marie-Laure is vance, the entire school cut off and horror that real people really en- now living in a fabulously narrow and like an island, will be given a box

38 America September 1-8, 2014 September 1-8 , 2014 America 39 of the Reich’s last bitter choc- called the Sea of Flames, tracks Marie- many books, but they were always olate and Wehrmacht helmets Laure to Étienne’s house; Werner reviewed in The New York Times. salvaged from dead soldiers, and and his devoted friend Volkheimer Authors like Susan Sontag, Joan then this final harvest of the na- are trapped in the cellar of the Hotel Didion and Philip Roth brought to tion’s youth will rush out with of Bees without food, water or light; the house a literary value that helped the chocolate melting in their drunken, madly victorious Russian lure other well-respected writers. Tom guts and overlarge helmets bob- troops rampage and rape; a sweet, Wolfe and Scott Turow were top sell- bing on their shorn heads and bird-watching boy, with whom Werner ers, helping keep the house afloat in sixty Panzerfaust rocket launch- bunked at a military school, becomes lean years. Today’s crop of talent in- ers in their hands in a last spasm one of many ill-fated, heartrending cludes Jonathan Franzen and Jeffrey of futility to defend a bridge that casualties. I shamelessly cried through Eugenides, as well as Alice McDermott no longer requires defending. scenes of pitiable devastation and feel and Paul Elie, two Catholic authors I would do so again if I were to reread who, one can assume, take pride in There are many charged moments All the Light We Cannot See. writing for a house that once published here: The cancer-stricken but threat- Merton and O’Connor. ening German, Sergeant Major von Kelly Cherry’s new book, A Kind of Elie has a special connection with Rumpel, who seeks a “cursed” diamond Dream, is a collection of interlinked stories. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. A graduate of Fordham University, he worked at FSG for many years and published Maurice Timothy Reidy two books with them, including The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Inside Story an epic study of four mid-century Catholic writers. That three of those writers—Merton, O’Connor and Hothouse iness on the dowdy world of publishing. Walker Percy—found a home at FSG The Art of Survival and the And in Roger W. Straus Jr., cofounder is no coincidence. In later years, Elie Survival of Art at America’s Most of the respected publishing house and was FSG’s liaison to Robert Giroux, Celebrated Publishing House son of Gladys Guggenheim, he has his the final addition to FSG’s eponymous By Boris Kachka Don Draper, a debonair triumvirate. Simon and Schuster. 433p $28 entrepreneur who flirts A native of New with female staff, holds Jersey who attended the To review a book about a publishing court at the Union Jesuit-run Regis High house seems a rather dreary assign- Square Café and lunch- School in Manhattan, ment. Who but the most ardent bib- es with Seamus Heaney Giroux was confi- liophiles care about print runs and and Derek Wolcott. dant and editor to T. author advances? Does it really matter Known for his outsized S. Eliot and Thomas what appeared in the fall catalogue personality and color- Merton, among others. of 1963? But when the publishing ful cravats, Straus held He helped bring Seven house is home to Nobel Prize-winners a decades-long literary Storey Mountain to fru- and Pulitzer darlings and run by a salon that stretched ition and was among Guggenheim, well, then things get from FSG’s offices in the first to readCatcher a little more interesting. Add to the Union Square to his in the Rye, a book his mix a brilliant, Jesuit-educated editor home in Purchase, N.Y., boss at Harcourt, who worked with Thomas Merton to his sojourns to the Brace turned down. and Flannery O’Connor, and for the Frankfurt Book Fair ev- While at Harcourt, he Catholic reader, the story may be ery fall. published Jack Kerouac’s first book, worth a look after all. FSG did not have the financial re- though he didn’t know what to make Hothouse is the story of Farrar, sources of, say, a Random House, but of a second novel the mercurial writer Straus & Giroux, or FSG in the argot Straus was more interested in prestige delivered to his offices on a single roll of the publishing world. Boris Kachka, anyway, an elusive asset that he set out of paper. When Giroux told him they a writer for New York magazine, at- to accumulate in a surprisingly shrewd would need separate pages for editing, tempts to confer a “Mad Men” style sex- way. FSG’s authors did not always sell Kerouac reacted with indignation and

40 America September 1-8, 2014 stormed off.On The Road was pub- Mark J. Davis lished by Viking six years later. Giroux joined FSG in 1955 and Acts of Resistance stayed for the rest of his career. Unfortunately, he fails to come alive in Warsaw 1944 Nazi regime was rapidly crumbling. these pages, not surprising given the ink Hitler, Himmler and the Warsaw By August 1944, Warsaw had en- devoted to his more extroverted part- Uprising dured the German occupation for ner, Straus. Yet Giroux was obviously a By Alexandra Richie nearly five years. Unlike most of occu- “damned good editor,” in Straus’ words, Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 752p $40 pied Europe, the Poles refused to col- and helped bring in some of FSG’s laborate with the Nazis and organized most notable writers, including Robert In August Poland commemorated the a large resistance army. Hitler hated Lowell, Bernard Malamud and John 70th anniversary of its uprising against Warsaw, with its huge Jewish popula- Berryman. “The most sobering of all the Nazi occupation. The heroic but tion and its implacable hostility to the publishing lessons,” he once said, is that hopeless 63-day struggle of the poor- occupation, perhaps more than any “a great book is often ahead of its time, ly armed Polish underground Home city in the world. After the Nazis liq- and the trick is how to keep it afloat Army against the S.S. troops devas- uidated the Jewish ghetto in 1942 and until the times catch up with it.” In the tated Warsaw, killed thousands and 1943, Warsaw’s pre-war population of case of Flannery O’Connor, Giroux did fulfilled, at least temporarily, Hitler’s 1.3 million had shrunk to 900,000. just that, helping to drawing attention wish to erase the Polish capital from The Poles decided as soon as the to a writer who died before receiving the face of the earth. Attempting to occupation began that they would rise the recognition she deserved. correct Soviet lies about the uprising up against the Nazis when the timing Giroux’s letters are now at Loyola and the Poles’ uncritical celebration of was right. With the German army un- University in New Orleans, a deal its fighters, Alexandra Richie has writ- raveling in the face of the Russian of- made possible through Patrick ten an absorbing ac- fensive in the summer Samway, S.J., a biographer of Walker count of this barely re- of 1944, the timing Percy and former literary editor of membered footnote to seemed right. But, as America. Samway was a close friend the war on the Eastern Richie explains, the of Giroux, and probably could shine a Front. Polish Home Army brighter light on the legacy of this bril- In September tragically miscalculat- liant and complicated man, who was 1939 Germany and ed. briefly married but spent most of his the Soviet Union Richie, the life living next door to a male friend carved up and invaded Canadian-born author he knew since childhood. Readers will Poland. In June 1941, of Faust’s Metropolis: have to wait for a more sensitive por- however, Germany A History of Berlin, trait to emerge. attacked Russia and lives in Warsaw and Meanwhile, we have the story of quickly occupied all of writes sympatheti- a plucky publishing house that still Poland. Although the cally of the plight of cares a good deal about discovering Russians suffered stag- the Poles: “The Poles the next great book. FSG may no lon- gering losses in popu- were in an impossible ger be independent (they were sold to lation and territory, the situation in August a German publishing powerhouse in tide of battle began to turn after they 1944, caught between two of the most 1994), but they still cultivate a con- defeated the Germans at Stalingrad brutal and murderous regimes in his- trarian spirit under the editorship of in early 1943. In June 1944, the same tory.” The Home Army thought that Jonathan Galassi. How they will fare month the Western Allies launched if it did nothing to liberate Warsaw, in the age of Amazon is anyone’s guess. the D-Day invasion of France, Russia it would lack a legitimate claim to But if you care about good books, and began an offensive in Byelorussia that self-government. The Home Army the ideas they bring to the public con- within weeks unexpectedly destroyed knew that it could expect no help from versation, then this is a story we can all over one million German troops and the Russians. Stalin wanted to anni- hope will not end anytime soon. brought the Russians to the gates of hilate the Home Army and install a Warsaw. In July 1944, Hitler narrow- Soviet satellite in Poland. Stalin had, Maurice Timothy Reidy is an executive ly escaped an assassination attempt, after all, ordered the murder of 4,410 editor of America. which suggested to the Poles that the Polish officers in the Katyn Forest and

September 1-8 , 2014 America 41 customed to variety of musical styles. Experience Company. Visit http://rosary-beads.co. CLASSIFIED leading parish liturgical ministries, knowledge of church documents required. St. Patrick Catholic Books Church, Colorado Springs, CO 80918; Ph: (719) Want your ad here? 598-3595, ext. 115; email: bgaughan@stpatscs. Religion & Civility (faith & reason) Together; www. Visit americamagazine.org. org; http://stpatscs.org/home-old/22412-direc- wordunlimited.com. Email: [email protected]. tor-of-liturgy-music. Call 212-515-0102. Positions Ten-word minimum. Rates are per word per issue. 1-5 Director of Liturgy and Music. Full- Rosaries times: $1.50; 6-11 times: $1.28; 12-23 times: $1.23; time Director of Liturgy and Music for vibrant, Rosaries. Beautiful hand-crafted and Italian 24-41 times: $1.17; 42 times or more: $1.12. The flat multi-generational 2,200-household parish ac- rosaries are available at The Rosary Beads rate for a Web-only classified ad is $150 for 30 days. GENERATION FAITH

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42 America September 1-8, 2014 the arrest of Home Army soldiers who describes Warsaw between the wars as which occurred after August 1944. fought with the Red Army in eastern a vibrant and tolerant cultural mecca, While President Franklin D. Roosevelt Poland. glossing over the right-wing govern- and Prime Minister Winston Churchill Richie, however, criticizes the Home ment’s antipathy toward Jews, who were could have assessed the risks to the alli- Army command for the timing of the excluded from certain professions and ance of aiding the Poles differently, they uprising. The uprising was a political had quotas imposed on their universi- cannot be faulted for opting to have the rather than a military action, but the ty attendance. She also fails to analyze Russians continue to absorb the prima- Home Army ignored military realities. possible explanations for the Western ry burden of finishing off the German Recently reinforced by battle-hardened Allies’ reluctance to jeopardize their al- army. divisions from Italy, the German army liance with the Soviets. Total Russian launched a counter-offensive that not army war casualties approached 30 Mark J. Davis is a retired attorney in Santa only stopped the Russian advance but million, approximately five million of Fe, N.M. gave Stalin an excuse to avoid assisting the Poles. Richie also explains that the Home Army knew in advance that the Western Allies, who considered Poland part of the Soviet sphere and the Poles little more than a nuisance, would not provide assistance to the uprising. To mount an uprising under these cir- cumstances, according to the respected Polish General Wladyslaw Anders, was “wishful thinking beyond reason.” The Poles were not alone in making irrational decisions about the upris- ing. Hitler and Himmler ordered that Warsaw’s civilians, including women and children, be murdered and that the city be reduced to rubble. S.S. offi- cers, who had perfected the art of mass murder in Byelorussia, were happy to oblige. At a time when the German army needed every available resource for the battle against the Russians, the decision to liquidate Warsaw was, in Richie’s view, “sheer madness on every level.” Drawing on the archives of her fa- ther-in-law, a Polish historian, Richie provides testimonials from residents who witnessed the fighting and mas- sacres. These first-hand accounts allow Richie to describe in exhaustive detail the battle in each of the city’s neighbor- hoods. While this evidence graphically shows the human cost of the uprising, its cumulative effect is numbing. As Stalin infamously remarked, “a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” Additional weaknesses stem from Richie’s polonocentric perspective. She

September 1-8 , 2014 America 43 44 America September 1-8, 2014 THE WORD

up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Love’s Obligations But the word translated “summed Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), Sept. 7, 2014 up” (plêroô) should really be translat- Readings: Ez 33:7–9; Ps 95:1–9; Rom 13:8–10; Mt 18:15–20 ed “fulfilled.” To fulfill the law, accord- ing to Paul, does not mean to make a “Love does no evil to the neighbor” (Rom 13:10) summary statement of the command- hat does it mean to love “If you are not listened to, take one or ments. Rather, he is making the pro- your neighbor? Paul says two others along with you, so that ev- found claim that those in Christ “ful- that “love does no evil ery word may be confirmed by the ev- fil” the law through their lives by faith W working through love, guided by the to the neighbor” and that “love is the idence of two or three witnesses.” The fulfillment of the law.” How do these path is hard because it hurts to shine a Spirit. The law is not reduced in scope, two statements coalesce to produce a light on sin. as “summed up” might suggest; “fulfill- practical Christian ethic of behavior? The path is also hard ment” indicates its diffusion into One is stated negatively—love does because of mixed mo- every action and area of our no evil—while the other is stated pos- tivations. We prob- lives, allowing love of neigh- itively—love fulfills the law. But how ably all know cases bor to guide us even where do we know when we are enacting where people have there is no specific legal these demands? been condemned prescription. To do no evil seems an amorphous by brothers and sis- It should also be noted requirement, calling us to ponder the ters on the basis of that Paul claims both here ways our lives affect our neighbors, hearsay and rumors, questioning how love might be made leading to broken manifest in any given situation. Jesus relationships and es- PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE asks us to consider that one of the trangement from the church. ways love of neighbor is realized is by Part of the Christian reality today is How can you express your love of neighbor more fully? calling our brothers and sisters to turn that we might not know our neigh-

from sin. There is perhaps no harder bors in church well enough to know d a. unne ta art: path to walk than that of correcting how they are living. To love someone a “neighbor,” whether that is a family enough to correct them requires genu- and in Gal 5:14 that the law is summa- member or friend, though when done ine intimacy. The start of doing no evil rized by Lv 19:18, “Love your neigh- with genuine compassion, there is no to our neighbor is learning who they are bor as yourself,” but does not mention greater act of love. and taking time to build relationships. in either place the verses Jesus joins When friends or family call us to ac- We begin to know people by mak- to that verse, Dt 6:4–5, the Shema, count, anger is often the first response; ing certain that our treatment of our which proclaims the heart of Jewish we are often not interested, at least not neighbors, regardless of our person- belief: the love of the one, true God. initially, in hearing our faults. But Jesus al relationship with them, is always Why is that? Paul might simply take encourages us, because it is an act of grounded in the love that emerges for granted the presence of the love of love. “If another member of the church from the teaching of the church and God, but he might also have a deeper sins against you,” he says, “go and point the commandments. Paul says that purpose. While it is easy to claim that out the fault when the two of you are this is what we owe our neighbor, “to you “love the Lord your God with all alone. If the member listens to you, love one another.” In fact Paul claims your heart, and with all your soul, and you have regained that one.” Yet Jesus that when we love one another we have with all your might” (Dt 6:5), it can be also knows the risk of initial rejection: “fulfilled the law.” All of the command- a lot messier and complex to love our ments, he says, “’You shall not commit neighbor this way. Paul understood adultery; You shall not murder; You that the way to fulfill the law and to John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and do no evil to our neighbor is to make Paul, Minn. Twitter: @BibleJunkies. any other commandment, are summed tangible the love of God.

September 1-8 , 2014 America 45 THE WORD His Humility Exaltation of the Holy Cross (A), Sept. 14, 2014 Readings: Nm 21:4–9; Ps 78:1–38; Phil 2:6–11; Jn 3:13–17 “Because of this, God greatly exalted him” (Phil 2:9) e are called to travel many the serpent in the wilderness, so must not regard equality with God as some- paths, some that challenge the Son of Man be lifted up, that who- thing to be exploited, but emptied him- us, others that inspire us. ever believes in him may have eternal self, taking the form of a slave, being W life.” The Son of Man will be lifted up born in human likeness.” To trust in God is to trust that what- ever path we are now on is the one that because “God so loved the world that We share neither Jesus’ divinity will ultimately bring us to the Promised he gave his only Son, so that everyone nor his sinlessness, but his emptying Land. who believes in him may not perish but of himself by taking on human form This is easy to say, especially when may have eternal life.” As the bronze and then obediently taking up the one’s path is not meandering through serpent raised high saved the Israelites’ cross offers us a guide along our own war zones or famine, caught up in the lives, so the Messiah raised high on the paths that Jesus did not have. We know horrors of this world, and it is import- cross will lead to eternal life. that his act of humble sacrifice led to ant not to dismiss the journey itself as But the lifting up of the Son of Man his exaltation. We have the example of insignificant. It is the locus of our life was not the same as raising an inani- the reward for the one who remained and salvation. mate object; it required the humility faithful even to death on the cross, who The Israelites on the path to the of the Son to follow willingly a path was raised up and ascended to God, Promised Land are a microcosm of strewn with pain, to become “obedient to the point of death—even death humanity as they grumble about their PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE travelling conditions. Their complaints on a cross.” Some wonder what sort of obedience this was, given that are not trivial. They asked Moses: “Why Think of Jesus’ humility and exaltation: how have you brought us up out of Egypt Jesus is God incarnate. Would not does Jesus’ example inspire you on your to die in the wilderness? For there is Jesus know that God’s response to own path? no food and no water, and we detest this obedience would result in him this miserable food.” While the ques- being “highly exalted” and given “the tions are ordinary and understandable, name that is above every name, so that who will be acknowledged by every they are judged for them because “the at the name of Jesus every knee should tongue as Lord. We ought then to trust people spoke against God and against bend, in heaven and on earth and un- that when we walk humbly along our Moses.” They had lost faith in the one der the earth, and every tongue should paths, we have the promise before us who had brought them out of slavery confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the that “everyone who believes in him may to walk on a new path home. Poisonous glory of God the Father”? not perish but may have eternal life.” snakes were sent to punish them, but While theologians are divided about The humility of the only Son ought to they are saved from these snakes by a what Jesus’ divinity meant in practical inspire us to walk our own paths with strange action directed by God. Moses terms during his incarnate existence, humility because we know that we have “made a serpent of bronze, and put it it is important to insist that Jesus be- been promised the glory of life everlast- upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit came truly human, a person like us but ing. Humility does not mean never ask- someone, that person would look at the without sin. This means his obedience ing questions of God or accepting all serpent of bronze and live.” to God’s path was a genuinely human suffering along our paths silently, but In the Gospel of John, Jesus explains choice, not part of an act put on for it does mean trusting that God has as this event as a prefigurement of his our benefit. Paul understood that Jesus our final goal eternal life with the exalt- death to come: “Just as Moses lifted up willingly humbled himself, for he “did ed Son. John W. Martens

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