Proceedings of the New York Encounter 2018 An “Impossible” Unity An “Impossible” Transcriptions by Karen Kaffenberger Copyediting and layout by Deep River Media, LLC Human Adventure Books An "Impossible" Unity Proceedings of New York Encounter 2018 Crossroads Cultural Center This edition © 2018 Human Adventure Books An “Impossible” Unity We naturally yearn for unity and long to be part of a real community: life blossoms when it is shared. And yet, we live in an age of fragmentation. At the social level, we suffer profound divisions among peoples and religions, and our country is ever more polarized along ideological lines, corroding our unity. At the personal level, we are often estranged from our communities, family members, and friends. When we discover that someone doesn’t think the way we do, we feel an embarrassing distance, if not open hostility, that casts a shadow on the relationship. As a result, either we become angry or we avoid controversial issues altogether, and retreat into safe territories with like-minded people. But the disunity we see around us often begins within ourselves. We are bombarded by images of what we are “supposed” to be, but they generally do not correspond to who we really are. In fact, our truest self seems to escape us. The full scope of our humanity, with all its vast and profound needs and desires, may suddenly emerge, elicited by memories, thoughts or events, but usually quickly fades, without lasting joy or real change. And unless our relationships are rooted in the common experience of such humanity, we don’t even have real dialogue; we just chat, gossip, text or argue. In the end, the unity we long for seems impossible. But what if it is possible? How can it happen? “You know it well: you can’t manage a thing; you’re tired; you can’t go on. And all at once you meet the gaze of someone in the crowd—a human gaze—and it’s as if you had drawn near to a hidden divine presence. And everything suddenly becomes simpler.” –Andrei Tarkovsky [ 7 ] CONTENTS The Gift of an Impossible Unity Conor McDonald and John Bartlett .................................................... 11 The Fundamental Economic Resource: the Human Person Christpher Barrett, Sarah Sievers, Arch. Silvano Tomasi, and Holly Peterson ...................................................................................... 21 The Father: Who is He? Dominic Aquila, Camil Martinez, Paul Vitz, and Steven Brown ......... 47 An "Impossible" Beauty John Waters and Etsuro Sotoo ............................................................. 67 "...Drawn Near to a Hidden Divine Presence..." (Tarkovsky) Dr. Michael Brescia and Dr. Molly Poole ............................................. 81 Out of Many, One: Really? Amitai Etzioni, Mark Lilla, and Anujeet Sareen .................................. 99 A Human Gaze, a History Fr. Julián Carrón, Fr. Pigi Bernareggi, Pier Alberto Bertazzi, Shodo Habukawa, Rose Busynge, Jonathan Fields, and Alberto Savorana ... 119 On Pilgrimage Toward Unity Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Tom Cornell, Margaret Laracy, and Paige Sanchez .............................................................................................. 147 Abraham and the Birth of the "I" Joseph Weiler, Sayyid Mohammad Baqir al-Kashmiri, Arch. Christophe Pierre, and John McCarthy .................................... 165 [ 9 ] [ 10 ] The Gift of an Impossible Unity The Encounter opens with music and a conversation with Sergeant Conor McDonald, NYPD, Patrol Service Bureau, son of the late NYPD Detective Patrick McDonald, and John Bartlett, retired NYFD fireman Introduction “The need for unity lies at the root of the whole expression of man's life; it belongs to the definition of his ‘I.’ Every great human revolution has had universalism as its supreme ideal—to make the whole of humanity one. The supreme ideal of every philosophy, too, has been the unity of mankind, a unity in which each one can be himself and yet be one with others. But no philosophy has ever been able to imagine it in a precise way and no revolution has managed to bring it about. In the end, despair destroys the revolutionary ideal because it turns out to be impossible to achieve. The more man tries to realize his original aspiration to unity, the more this unity reveals itself to be impossible, beyond the reach of his powers. Not even the unity between man and woman, between parents and children, appears possible; one is tempted to say that this, above all, is impossible. How can we come to love others? How can we come to have compassion for others? How can we come to an experience of unity in which our need for companionship is satisfied? This need for companionship is unavoidable since it belongs to the essence of the self. So there is nothing more deceptive than the will to stay on one's own or to be alone. For in solitude man is badly off, he refuses himself. Only if the presence of another is a dimension of life, then, even though it may not be more fulfilled, at least one lives life, one accepts it. Companionship belongs to the essence of what is, to the Mystery of which all things are made...How can one say ‘you,’ and therefore say ‘I’? How is it possible to Friday, January 12, 2018 [ 11 ] The Gift of an Impossible Unity become one with others?” Luigi Giussani, Generating Traces in the History of the World, McGill, 2010 John Bartlett: Good evening everyone, and welcome to the New York Encounter. Joining me is Sergeant Conor McDonald, the son of Steven and Patty McDonald. Conor grew up on Long Island, where he attended and graduated from Chaminade High School, and then went on to Boston College. Upon graduating from Boston College, he volunteered with the Vincentians out in Denver for about a year. Right after that, he joined the New York City Police Department. In January 2016, he was promoted to detective, and in September he was promoted to sergeant. I met Conor right around the Thanksgiving holiday. My dear friend, Angelo Sala, asked me to accompany him, so we met with Conor and then we met again. After leaving that night, I felt that I had made a new friend—a lasting friendship, I hope. Last Thursday night we met again for the anniversary, a memorial Mass for his father out in Rockville Centre. It was a beautiful Mass; I had come from Staten Island and when I got there, there were so many people. I could not believe the amount of people that had come, and I was stunned by the extent of affection that they had for this man. That’s really about it. I’d like to turn it over to Conor because he has a very dramatic and powerful story to tell us all. Conor McDonald: Thank you, John; and thanks to everyone for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight, especially John and Angelo. Around this time last year, my father was supposed to speak; unfortunately, as some of you may know, he passed on due to complications from being injured so long ago, in 1986. Angelo and John contacted me and asked if I would speak tonight. I thought it would be pretty good for me to spread my dad’s story, especially around the one-year anniversary of his passing. I want to thank you all very much for giving me this opportunity. I’m extremely humbled to be here and I will do my best to spread my father's amazing story. It’s a different story from a lot of stories out there, and I think it’s a story that, no matter where you come from and what you believe, and [ 12 ] The Gift of an Impossible Unity how you feel about things—I think it’s good for all of us to know it and be inspired by it. I also want to thank my family for being here: my dad’s partner, Detective Andy Serenny; my mother, the Mayor of Malvern Long Island, Patti Ann McDonald; and the love of my life, my fiancée, Katie Sullivan. I see a lot of guys in uniform, my blue family. Thank you very much for coming and supporting my father and my family. My story starts about six months before I was born. My father was a veteran of the Navy—a Navy corpsman. The slang term for them was “Docs” because they were the medics for the Marines. He was a Navy corpsman from 1976 to 1980. He believed in service, he believed in helping other human beings; and he followed my great-grandfather, my grandfather, and my great-uncle into what I believe is the greatest police department in the world: the New York City Police Department. During that time, he met my mother and courted her for a couple years, and they were married in November of 1985. My dad had joined the police department the previous July. When July 12th of 1986 rolled around, it was just a normal, rainy mid-afternoon. I know we can picture the New York of today and it’s a beautiful place. You’re not really worried about walking down the street or into neighborhoods and getting mugged or fearing for your life. People believe they have a right to roam around Central Park without fear of being robbed or sexually assaulted. Unfortunately, back in 1986, there was a lot of heinous crime going on. The particular crime my father was trying to prevent was gunpoint robberies of bikes: young teenage kids robbing other young kids at gunpoint. There were probably about fifteen such robberies each month back in 1986, in parts of the park where now people can roam free and not worry about guns. This particular type of crime was happening on the east side near Harlem, 108th Street and Fifth Avenue. My father knew exactly where the individuals were going to be that day by reading complaints made in the days before.