america · first big whiff of party politics. or maybe the story is this: the party-politics bug...

AmericaAug. 27–Sept. 3, 2007 T H E N A T I O N A L C A T H O L I C W E E K L Y $2.75

Liturgy 40Years Afterthe Council

Godfried Danneels

Richard A. Blakeon Ingmar Bergman

as a religious thinkerWillard F. Jabusch

on Franz Jägerstätter

The Oneness ofthe ChurchRichard Gaillardetz

NE SUMMER in Maryland I vol-unteered to teach in a localHead Start program, but what Ineeded instead was a paying

job. So when my roommate dashed homewith the news that the DemocraticNational Committee was hiring over atthe Watergate building, we rushed backto the District to apply and interview.That night we landed jobs in the pressoffice. It was 1968, a few months beforeElection Day. And the Hubert Humphreyversus Richard Nixon presidential racewas entering its final critical leg.

This is the story of how a collegesophomore, too young to vote or drink,managed to become inebriated from herfirst big whiff of party politics. Or maybethe story is this: the party-politics bug bitour sophomore, inoculating her fordecades against the twin democraticdemons of political apathy and cynicism.I’m still working on the interpretation(and I’m still under the influence).

So, Ms. Smith goes to Washington.Ploppedserendipitouslyinto the pressoffice, the centerof the nationalcampaign, I was immediately aware of mypolitical ignorance. Many on the staff hadcome directly from the DemocraticNational Convention in Chicago, whichhad been marred by the violent treatmentof a group of antiwar protestors. I hadnot been present and did not understandwhat such violence, along with thenational fractiousness over the war, mightportend for November. I knew only that,like my parents, I was a Democrat whosupported the war on poverty, civil rightsfor blacks and equal rights for women.Unlike my parents, I was against the war,though my brother served in the Navy.

Now here I was in Washington, notexactly a Humphrey devotee, but eager tolearn on the job more about the issuesand the candidate. As I prepared newsreleases and press packets; typed, dupli-cated, and mailed out the vice president’sspeeches; and read through sacks of mailsent to the candidates care of the D.N.C.(some letters were intensely personal andheartfelt), I picked up what I could.

In all innocence, I expected the presi-dential candidate to inspire me. After all,he represented a democratic ideal Iadmired: the elected public servant. Bydefinition, this man or woman workslong and hard, for less pay than business

would offer, to craft and enforce laws thatfurther the common good of all Ameri-cans. Humphrey fit the bill. What Ididn’t expect was to be inspired by co-workers.

Yet I saw about me men and womenof varying ages, types and career levelswho embodied another democratic ideal:the politically active citizen as partyworker. These people toiled behind thescenes and within the system. Their hardwork, enthusiasm and dedication movedme; all of us worked nearly around theclock as the weeks sped by. And whilesenior staff members were surely sus-tained by the hope of the power, statusand financial reward victory would bring,they and many staff people at lower levelsseemed motivated primarily by noblercivic goals. How ironic that in an era ofprotest, I began to respect as well theparty system and those who worked with-in it.

The experience did not prompt me torun for office myself or to become a

careerstaffer, but itdid ignitemy lifelonginterest in

politics. I minored in government, joinedthe League of Women Voters, helpedfriends with their state and local cam-paigns, worked on many a voter registra-tion drive, edited two magazines thatcover politics and never failed to vote. Irelish the current campaign, too, eventhough much has changed since then totarnish the political system I cherish, suchas the overwhelming power of PACs.

Though the Democrats lost the 1968election, I continue to find surprising thedegree to which that single positive expe-rience has influenced my adult actionsand views. It didn’t have to be that way.Had I been more objective, perhaps, Imight have concluded that party politicsis ineffective, that it fails to produce thebest candidates. The winner thatNovember, Richard Nixon, eventuallyresigned the presidency amid impeach-ment proceedings, and his running mate,Spiro T. Agnew, resigned after beingcharged with tax evasion.

Why not be cynical? Why cling to thebelief that the people’s voice can best beheard through political parties? Becausethat is a goal worthy of effort and, Iwould add from experience, a view thatcan inspire the young.

Karen Sue Smith

AmericaPublished by Jesuits of the United States

Of Many Things

Cover art The domes of St. Peter'sBasilica, Rome, at sunset. (CNS photoby Nancy Wiechec)

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Articles

Liturgy 40 Years After the Council 13Godfried DanneelsHave the profound intentions of Vatican II’s liturgy document been realized?

The Church of Christ 17and the ChurchesRichard R. GaillardetzA theologian reflects on where the “meansof sanctification and truth” are to be found.

Good News From Brazil 21Francis ChamberlainA report on the Latin American bishops’ meeting

Current Comment 4

Editorial Restoring Worker Choice 5

Signs of the Times 6

Ethics Notebook 10Capitobesity John F. Kavanaugh

Faith in FocusTaking the Long View Mark Neilsen 25One Man’s Decision Willard F. Jabusch 27

FilmIngmar Bergman, Theologian? 29Richard A. Blake

Book Reviews 32Catholicism at the Crossroads; The Mystery of Death; Gertrude Bell

Letters 37

The Word 38Banquet Wisdom; The Cost of Discipleship Daniel J. Harrington

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www.americamagazine.org Vol. 197 No. 5, Whole No. 4783 Aug. 27–Sept. 3, 2007

long-range needs of an aging infrastructure. At a timewhen much public attention is focused on terrorist threatsfrom abroad, national and local leaders need to recognizethe dangers from within.

The Highway Trust Fund receives from each pennyincrease in the federal tax imposed on gasoline about a bil-lion dollars a year, which it provides to local governmentsfor the repair and replacement of local infrastructure.President Bush has resisted Congressional pressure toincrease the tax on gasoline so that more funds can beavailable for investment in the future of the nation’s high-ways and bridges. The cost of gasoline in the UnitedStates is held hostage, of course, to the unilateral decisionsof the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries onthe cost of a barrel of oil. The president would be betteradvised to resist the monopoly of OPEC by challenging itsviolations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, as Congress hasproposed. Increasing taxes on gasoline would provide thenecessary funds for a greater investment in the nation’sfuture.

The Truth Will OutIt has now been established legally by a court of inquest inKenya that the death of John Kaiser, then 67, on the nightof Aug. 24, 2000, on a road outside Nairobi was a murder.The Minnesota native was a member of the Mill HillMissionaries who had worked in Kenya for 36 years. Hewas an outspoken defender of human rights, even person-ally sheltering those caught up in violent tribal conflicts.His death was seen as a national tragedy.

Father Kaiser’s brother missionaries and his familyappealed to the late Senator Paul Wellstone for help indetermining the circumstances of his death. The U.S.Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted an investigationand proposed a theory of suicide, a finding that seemedinconsistent to those who knew Father Kaiser and werefamiliar with the circumstances of his death.

The Kenyan bishops were outraged and pressed for afull inquest, which went on for four years. During thatperiod, officials of the F.B.I. postponed or canceled theirscheduled appearances before the court at which theywould have been asked to explain how an arthritic 67-year-old could have shot himself in the back of the head with athree-foot-long gun. At the time of the hearing, the attor-ney for the bishops identified by name the F.B.I agents,who were unavailable because of unforeseen assignments.In finding that Father Kaiser was murdered, the Kenyanjudge named four suspects whom the police should investi-gate. Seven years too late, the Kenyan judicial system hasscored a victory for the truth and for its own integrity.

4 America August 27–September 3, 2007

The Limits of Color-CodingDuring the last two U.S. presidential elections, the mediadevised a catchy system for depicting the partisan divideamong the 50 states. Where a majority of the votes castwere Republican, the state was called red; whereDemocrat, blue. Maps of the nation required just a glanceto show where each party prevailed. The red and blue cat-egories proved helpful in discussions of the electoral col-lege, which decided the 2000 election for George W.Bush, although Al Gore won the popular vote. The redand blue labels worked because in most instances the win-ner of the popular election takes all (not a proportionatenumber) of each state’s electoral votes.

But the color-coding has limited usefulness. Complex-ity gets lost. In some states, voters choose a president fromone party and national legislators from another; are thesestates red or blue? Two colors cannot account for otherfactors—like gender, marital state, education and income,race and ethnicity, and urban, suburban or rural resi-dence—that must be considered when seriously discussingvoting patterns. And the two colors apply only to thosewho vote, leaving out the more than 40 percent of eligiblevoters who did not vote. Finally, the red and blue labelscannot adequately describe ideology, despite repeatedassertions that blue states are liberal, red states conserva-tive.

Note the possibility that in post-primary 2008,Rudolph Giuliani could be running for president againstHillary Clinton. One bright blue state would have pro-duced both the candidate representing the red states andthe candidate representing the blue states. Even the colorblind could see the need for nuance in the red/bluescheme then.

Of course, some might prefer a return to the gray daysof yore when people couldn’t tell any difference betweenthe major parties. Who would claim that now?

Investing in the FutureThe collapse during rush hour of a 40-year-old bridgelinking Minneapolis and St. Paul, the explosion of a steampipe next to New York City’s Grand Central Terminal andthe flooding of that city’s subway system a week laterraised national concern over the condition of the nation’sinfrastructure. How safe are the nation’s aging bridges andhighways? How reliable are underground systems of trans-portation and engineering?

Since bridges and tunnels do not have a noisy con-stituency promoting their interests in political campaigns,elected officials may feel no pressure to respond to the

Current Comment

marily through recognizing a union as legitimate if it hadbeen selected by workers who signed authorization cardsand by ruling on grievances that workers brought againstemployers. The mission of the N.L.R.B. was altered sig-nificantly, however, with the passage of the anti-unionTaft-Hartley or Labor-Management Relations Act of1947. Taft-Hartley permits employers to recognize aunion voluntarily after the presentation of signed cards,but it also allows employers to demand a secret ballot elec-tion that forces workers to vote for or against their earlierchoice. Accordingly, today the vast majority of employersrefuse to recognize the authorization cards in favor of amuch more time-consuming election that is supervised bythe N.L.R.B.

The trial-like N.L.R.B. hearings that precede a secretballot election afford the employer numerous opportuni-ties to discredit the workers’ choice as expressed throughtheir signed cards. Employers hire sophisticated andexpensive “union avoidance” firms that essentially put theworkers on trial by challenging the size and compositionof the bargaining unit, an individual’s status as an “employ-ee” under the N.L.R.A. and by engaging in other legalmaneuvers designed to discredit the union. It can takeyears before an election is ordered and even longer beforebargaining begins, since some employers reject the elec-tion and must be compelled to bargain by federal courts.

THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT would restore rights thatworkers have lost through the years. The Act wouldrequire the N.L.R.B. to certify a union as the exclusiverepresentative of the employees when “a majority of theemployees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signedvalid authorizations.” Since E.F.C.A. essentially recognizesthe signing of authorization cards as an election, there isno need for yet another election that is demanded byemployers. The act would also streamline contract negoti-ations by requiring that parties who cannot agree to a firstbargaining agreement within 120 days must submit thedisputed issues to arbitration.

The Employee Free Choice Act is the most importantpiece of labor legislation in the past 72 years. Both thespirit and the letter of this act strongly resonate withCatholic social teaching, from Rerum Novarum to LaboremExercens. It deserves to be made the law of the land.

Editorial

HE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT,

rightfully called the Magna Carta of work-ers’ rights in the United States, was enactedin 1935 to support “the practice and proce-dure of collective bargaining” for workers

in the United States. Known as the Wagner Act, this land-mark legislation protects “the exercise of workers of fullfreedom of association, self-organization and designation ofrepresentatives of their own choosing” in order to negoti-ate “the terms and conditions of their employment orother mutual aid or protection.”

On this Labor Day, union membership continues todecline. There are many reasons for this shrinkage: the re-structuring of the economy away from manufacturingtoward services, the advance of workers in past genera-tions into the middle class and union-busting tactics bycorporations and institutions. But as workers’ share ofnational income has declined over the last two decades, asthe middle class has shrunk and inequality has grown, whyhave unions not rebounded? One reason is the impedi-ments put in the way of union organizing by the regula-tions and judgments of the National Labor RelationsBoard. Chief among these is the requirement of secretballot elections, now so encumbered with legal obstaclesthat union-busting businesses have the upper hand overworkers seeking to organize.

To level the playing field, the House passed theEmployee Free Choice Act last March, which would per-mit unions to organize if the majority of workers gavetheir authorization by what is usually called a check-cardmethod, the procedure followed in most of the industrial-ized world. But in June a motion to close debate and moveto a vote in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to enda filibuster, failed 51 to 48.

The E.F.C.A. would restore the organizing procedurethat was established in the Wagner Act. The bill wouldalso provide workers with some countervailing power inthe form of mandatory injunctions against unfair laborpractices committed during organizing campaigns.Opponents maintain that restoring the older procedureswould eliminate government supervision, violate workerprivacy and expose workers to union coercion.

The N.L.R.B., an independent federal agency estab-lished in 1935, was created to “enforce” the N.L.R.A. pri-

T

August 27–September 3, 2007 America 5

Restoring Worker Choice

Signs of the Times

As Rosalie Dohm of Woodbridge, Va.,climbed the stairs to the nation’s firstCatholic cathedral Aug. 2, she thought itwas unusual that Cardinal William H.Keeler was personally greeting each ofthe visitors from her parish tour group.The 66-year-old parishioner of St.Elizabeth Ann Seton in Lake Ridge, Va.,then found herself in the spotlight whenCardinal Keeler handed her a packageand balloons and congratulated her forbeing the 100,000th visitor to the Basilicaof the National Shrine of the Assumptionof the Blessed Virgin Mary since it

priest is good enough.” After a nearlyfour-year-long inquest into the death ofJohn Kaiser, who belonged to the MillHill Missionaries, the presiding magis-trate, Maureen Odero, said in the rulingthat “there exists sufficient evidence toshow third-party involvement in thedeath of the deceased” and recommend-ed that the Kenyan police immediatelystart fresh investigations to determinewho killed Father Kaiser.

Lithuanian Bishops Objectto Some Medical TrainingLithuania’s bishops said they are “gravelyconcerned” over a Ministry of Healthdraft document that would oblige would-be obstetricians and gynecologists tolearn how to carry out sterilization and invitro fertilization procedures and how toperform abortions during the first 22weeks of pregnancy. Noting that thesedoctors are to welcome a “new life intothe world,” the Lithuanian bishops saidthey fear that making such practices obli-gatory “will make the practice of anobstetrician-gynecologist inaccessible tomany young [people] who would other-wise choose to serve the human life in itsmost sensitive prenatal period. Such acompulsion debases the practice of anobstetrician-gynecologist on the whole,”said the bishops in an Aug. 1 letter to theMinistry of Health. The bishopsexpressed concern that such a medicalnorm would contradict the principle of adoctor’s freedom of conscience, whichcurrently is protected by law.

Pope to Visit Marian Sitein AustriaDuring his visit to Austria, Pope BenedictXVI plans to stop at a Holocaust memo-rial in Vienna and to celebrate the 850thanniversary of Austria’s most importantMarian shrine, at Mariazell, according tothe official schedule of the pope’s Sept. 7-9 visit. It will be the seventh foreign tripof his pontificate.

After his arrival in Vienna, the popewill pray at a 17th-century monumentmarking a victory of the CatholicHabsburgs during the Thirty Years’ Warand stop at a Holocaust memorial atJudenplatz. He will meet the country’spresident and diplomats in the HofburgPalace. On Sept. 8, Pope Benedict willcelebrate Mass outside the basilica of theShrine of Our Lady of Mariazell, 80miles southwest of Vienna, and lunchwith Austria’s bishops. He will also holdan evening prayer service with priests,deacons and members of religious orders.

The pope will lead a procession inVienna Sept. 9 and celebrate Mass in thecity’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral, after which

Rosalie Dohm (left) of Woodbridge, Va., was the symbolic 100,000th visitor to the Basilica of theNational Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. She and Tom Vrtis(right), organizer of a tour from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Lake Ridge, Va., were greeted byCardinal William H. Keeler (center) of Baltimore.

reopened last November. “I’m dumb-founded,” said Dohm, who came on thetour with her parish’s Silver Foxes seniorcitizen group. “I was excited about seeingthis place, but wow. What a shock to betold you are the 100,000th visitor since itopened back up to the public.”

Cardinal Keeler said he was over-whelmed by the number of people whohave flocked to the cathedral since it wasrestored to the vision of its architect,Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the father ofAmerican architecture, who also designedthe U.S. Capitol.

A Kenyan bishop applauded an inquestcourt ruling that a U.S. priest who died inKenya in 2000 did not commit suicide, asthe U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigationhad claimed, but was murdered. BishopPeter Kairo of Nakuru, head of theKenyan bishops’ conference’s justice andpeace commission, described the ruling assuperb. “The fact that the inquest courthas managed to rule out the F.B.I. suicidetheory on the murder of the late Catholic

Baltimore Basilica Marks 100,000 Visitors

Kenyan Court Decides Missionary’s Death Was Murder


Cardinal Jean-MarieLustiger, theJewish-bornformer arch-bishop ofParis whodefended theright ofbelievers tohave a say inpublicdebates, diedon Aug. 5 in

Paris at the age of 80 after a long illness.He had been the voice of FrenchCatholics for nearly a quarter-century.He spoke out against anti-Semitism and


French Cardinal Lustiger Dies in Paris at 80

Jean-Marie Lustiger

Martino Laments Forgotten Wars of Africa

Children crowd a shelter in Gulu, Uganda, in December 2003. They leave their rural homes everynight and stay in the shelter to escape abduction by rebel military troops.

Warring thugs must stop forcing childrento fight for them, and the internationalcommunity must make more seriousefforts to fund programs to help formerchild soldiers rejoin civil society, said thepresident of the Pontifical Council forJustice and Peace.

The blood shed in the so-called for-gotten wars of Africa “is just as sacred inthe eyes of God as that which flowsbetween the Tigris and the Euphrates”rivers in Iraq, said Cardinal RenatoMartino of Italy during an Aug. 6 visit toGulu in northern Uganda, the scene ofmore than 20 years of clashes between

government troops and rebels of theLord’s Resistance Army.

Cardinal Martino also condemned therebels’ practice of kidnapping childrenand forcing them to join the rebels inbattle. He said an estimated 30,000 chil-dren had been kidnapped. The cardinalcalled on the international community tomake a greater commitment to support-ing negotiated settlements of all ongoingwars and to work to prevent other out-breaks of violence by controlling the salesof weapons, promoting social justice andensuring that foreign investments do notexacerbate economic inequalities.

Bertone to Work on Causefor McGivney SainthoodCardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the second-highest ranking official at the Vatican,told members of the Knights ofColumbus that he is taking a personalinterest in the beatification process forthe order’s founder, the Rev. MichaelMcGivney. “I hope this recognition [ofsanctity] will arrive soon, and I will per-sonally work on this, so that this day willcome soon,” Cardinal Bertone said dur-ing his homily, delivered in Italian, at theAug. 7 opening Mass of the Knights ofColumbus’s 125th annual national con-vention at the Gaylord Opryland Hotelin Nashville, Tenn. Cardinal Bertone’scomments on the sainthood cause of

he will recite the Angelus prayer in thesquare outside the cathedral. He will thenvisit the 12th-century Cistercian Abbeyof the Holy Cross outside Vienna andmeet with volunteers before returning toRome.

New Translation of Letterto Chinese CatholicsThe Diocese of Hong Kong has revisedthe Vatican’s Chinese translation of PopeBenedict XVI’s letter to Catholics inChina. Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun ofHong Kong told the Asian church newsagency UCA News that the originalChinese text contains many mistakes andthat the revision was to “help those[Chinese] who do not know foreign lan-guages understand the letter’s originalintentions.” The cardinal, who presidedover sessions at three parishes in mid-Julyto explain the papal letter’s content andcontext, spent a week revising theChinese translation with experts. Therevised text, which contains 20,086 char-acters including footnotes, was publishedin the July 15 issue of Kung Kao Po, thediocesan Chinese-language weekly. Inaddition, 30,000 booklets of the revisedtext in traditional Chinese characters andanother 30,000 in simplified characterswere printed for free distribution. TheVatican issued the papal letter June 30 inthe original Italian and in English,French and traditional and simplifiedChinese translations.

promoted Catholic dialogue with Jewsand with the nation’s growing Muslimcommunity. The funeral was held Aug.10 at Notre Dame Cathedral in theFrench capital.

Pope Benedict XVI called the cardinala “perceptive intellectual” and “passionatepastor” who “put his gifts at the service ofthe faith” in order to bring the Gospel toall aspects of life and society. In a tele-gram sent to Archbishop André Vingt-Trois of Paris, the pope said CardinalLustiger was a “great figure of the churchin France.” The late cardinal was “a manof faith and dialogue,” the pope said,praising his generous commitment to“fostering ever more fraternal relationsbetween Christians and Jews.”

Jean-Louis Tauran, who will becomehead of the Pontifical Council forInterreligious Dialogue Sept. 1, had criti-cized the U.S. government’s plan of pre-ventative war and said a unilateral waragainst Iraq would be a “crime againstpeace.” In a recent interview with theItalian magazine 30 Giorni, the cardinalsaid his early criticisms had been prophet-ic. “The facts speak for themselves.Alienating the international community[with the U.S. push for war] was a mis-take,” he said in the magazine’s Aug. 10issue.

A copy of the interview was released inadvance to journalists. He said an “unjustapproach” was used to unseat Saddamfrom power, resulting in the mountingchaos in Iraq today. “Power is in thehands of the strongest—the Shiites—andthe country is sinking into a sectarian civilwar [between Sunni and Shiite Muslims]in which not even Christians are spared,”he said.

Vatican Says No Changein Relations With JewsPope Benedict XVI’s brief encounterwith a Polish priest accused of anti-Semitism does not indicate any change inthe Vatican’s position concerningCatholic-Jewish relations, the Vaticansaid in a written statement. TadeuszRydzyk, the Redemptorist priest whoheads Poland’s largest Catholic broadcastagency and has been accused of makinganti-Semitic remarks, met with the popeAug. 5 at the papal summer residence atat Castel Gandolfo, after the pope’snoontime Sunday Angelus prayer, aVatican source told Catholic NewsService Aug. 8. The Vatican statement,released Aug. 9, said the fact that thepope met briefly with Father Rydzyk“does not indicate any change in theHoly See’s well-known position regard-ing relations between Catholics andJews.” The statement was issued afterJewish groups expressed concern over themeeting after photographs of the popewith Father Rydzyk and two other priestsappeared in the Polish media Aug. 7. TheVatican statement, written in Italian,described the Aug. 5 encounter as a bacia-mano, or brief handshake, not a privateaudience.

Father McGivney were met withapplause from the knights attending theMass.

“I was thrilled,” Bishop William E.Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., the supremechaplain of the Knights of Columbus,said of Cardinal Bertone’s comments. “Ithink he appreciates what it would meanfor parish priests in the United States andaround the world to have one of theirown canonized a saint,” Bishop Lori saidin an interview on the Eternal WordTelevision Network. Father McGivneyfounded the Knights of Columbus at St.Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn., in1882.

Religious RetirementNeeds Still GreatDespite steady support by AmericanCatholics for the national RetirementFund for Religious over the past 20 years,the unfunded liability for the care ofelderly U.S. men and women religiouscontinues to grow, according to a newreport. Annual national collections since1988 have raised more than $529 millionfor the needs of retired religious, andmore than $507 million have been dis-tributed to more than 500 religious con-

gregations, the June statistical report ofthe National Religious Retirement Officeshowed.

But a December 2006 survey of 527women’s institutes and 154 men’s insti-tutes showed that only 11 percent ofwomen’s congregations and 12 percent ofmen’s congregations reported being“adequately funded” for the retirementneeds of their members, based on desig-nated assets and the reported cost of care.By contrast, 26 percent of the women’sinstitutes and 19 percent of the men’ssaid their funding for retirement needscame to between 0 percent and 20 per-cent of the amount needed. At their June2006 meeting in Los Angeles, the U.S.bishops approved extending the yearlycollection until 2017. It had been due toexpire in 2007.

Cardinal: Iraqi ChristiansWere Safer Under Saddam Although Iraq has a democratic govern-ment, Iraqi Christians were safer and hadmore protection under former Iraqi dicta-tor Saddam Hussein, said the future headof the Vatican’s interreligious dialoguecouncil. During the buildup to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, French Cardinal


Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, right, greets Cardinal Roger Etchegaray ofFrance at the patriarch’s residence in Moscow on Aug. 7. During the visit, the cardinal presented the Russian Orthodox leader with a letter and gift from Pope Benedict XVI.

From CNS and other sources. CNS photos.

Chinese, not only for our clothes, elec-tronics and food, but for our economyitself. So unrestrained and unregulated inits newfound capitalism, China is market-ing low-cost, inferior goods from tooth-paste and toys to automobile tires. It isthreatening its own cultural heritage,waterways and skies. (The smog is so dan-gerous that athletes may not be able tocompete in some outdoor events at theOlympics next year.) Most ominously,China is developing an appetite for oil thatis as enormous as ours.

If you consider the depletion of laborretirement funds, the crisis in health care,the strains on the family, the teeter-totterof the stock market or the foreclosures onhomes, you will find capitalism gobblingup the resources of the poor and middleclass. Among the super-rich, at least thosewho have no moral or legal constraints ontheir desire for more, you will find hedgefund operators paying 15 percent tax rateson their hundred millions while doctors,teachers and other professionals pay twicethat rate. No wonder they love the presi-dent who decries taxes.

I know some readers will hate this col-umn. I know the arguments about envyingthe rich. I know the great benefits thatcapitalism and creative entrepreneurshipmake possible. I also know that the great-est victories for justice in this country havebeen won through restraints on capitalismand the supremacy of profit: overcomingchild labor, enfranchising manual work-ers, insuring product quality and job safe-ty.

If you think that only a person steepedin the workings of our economy andinvestment is worth listening to, perhapsWarren Buffett might move you. At afundraiser ($4,600 a seat) for SenatorHillary Clinton, he noted that the tax rateon his $46 million income was almost halfthe rate on his secretary’s income, whomade $60,000.

“The 400 of us,” he pointed out to hisaudience, “pay a lower part of our incomein taxes than our receptionists do, or ourcleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re inthe luckiest 1 percent of humanity, youowe it to the rest of humanity to thinkabout the other 99 percent.”

That calls for a diet. John F. Kavanaugh

CapitobesityA few million doesn’t go as far

as it used to.

Ethics Notebook


BESITY SEEMS the newestthing to worry about. Thereal problem, however, isnot our bodies. It’s ourbrains. Why is it that chil-

dren find any kind of food wrapped inMcDonald’s packaging “six-times tastier”than when it is plain-wrapped? A Stanfordresearch study found that childrenbetween three and five judged even milkand carrots tasted better when they wereposing as McDonald products.

It’s all in the mind. And increasingly,the minds of men and women, not only inthe United States but throughout theworld, are being colonized by the capital-ist imperatives to produce more, packagemore, sell more, consume more and ownmore.

We can now buy embryos, sperm, ova,breasts and chemically enhanced biceps.Wombs are rented. Internationally,human organs are bought and sold. Andfor those readers who might not knowwhat the word “trafficking” refers to: itmeans the selling of persons, usuallyyoung ones. It is not traffic; it’s business.

Buying and selling has not only colo-nized our bodies. It infects our imagina-tions. We seem to have a fixation on howcan we find bigger things to buy and fatterbank accounts to buy them. The duPontRegistry for “the ultra affluent” has offer-ings like a platinum cell phone for$30,000, a $1.2 million Patek Phillippewatch, a luxury sports car for $2 million, aprivate golf resort for $62 million and$300-million yachts.

The bigness syndrome, driven bynothing other than money, is found ineverything from Whoppers and Big Macsto a Super Bowl Sunday that runs a week

O‘

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and a multibillion dollar campaign for thepresidency mindlessly bloated to twoyears. One cable channel now has a polit-ical “super” Tuesday every Tuesday.

No matter how big one is or howmuch one has, one always feels small.Consider the comments from someSilicon Valley millionaires quoted in thethe New York Times: “A few milliondoesn’t go as far as it used to.... You’renobody here at $10 million.... I’d be richin Kansas City…but here I’m a dime adozen.” (He has $5 million to $10 millionin assets.) As Robert Frank reveals inRichistan: A Journey Through the AmericanWealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich,whether people are worth one cool mil-lion or 10, they usually estimate that tofeel secure and rich they need “twice theirnet worth.”

Our quest for bigness and profitinternationally endangers the nation’shealth as well as the health of the rest ofthe world. Aside from the questionwhether we would even be at war in Iraqif there were no oil there (a fact not unre-lated to our glut of consuming and spend-ing), the cost of the war in money termsalone has ballooned into projections neara trillion dollars. At the TreasuryDepartment on Aug. 8, the president toldhis economic advisors that he would vetoany tax hike, complaining that an increaseof $205 billion in discretionary spendingover the next five years would cost “about$112 million per day; $4.7 million perhour; $78,000 per minute.” There was atone of alarm in his voice. I wonder if herealized that those scary figures are onlyone-half of the daily costs to us for hiswar.

Alarming as well is the fact that Chinahas become such a powerful capitalistforce that it now has a dangerous moneyleverage over the United States. We areincreasingly dependent upon the

JOHN F. KAVANAUGH, S.J., is a professor ofphilosophy at St. Louis University in St.Louis, Mo.

OR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED IT for themselves, it must bedifficult to imagine just how much liturgical praxis has changed in less thanhalf a century. The evolution that has taken place in the last 30 years isbarely perceptible nowadays, since the new liturgical model is consideredevident practically everywhere. Such a situation is certainly gratifying, but

does it mean that the profound intentions of the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy”have thereby been realized? Perhaps now is the appropriate moment for an evaluation.


August 27–September 3, 2007 America Vol. 197 No. 5, Whole No. 4783

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FCARDINAL GODFRIED DANNEELS is archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium. This article is

an edited excerpt from this year’s Canisius Lecture, delivered on April 17 at BostonCollege. The full text can be found online at americamagazine.org.

High point or regression?

Liturgy 40 YearsAfter the Council

– BY GODFRIED DANNEELS –

Jessica Lacrete, 8, sings with the English youth choir of St. Jerome Parish in Brooklyn, N.Y.


collectively our fundamental orientation should be towardGod, an attitude of grateful reception, wonder, adorationand praise—in short, an attitude of prayer, of handing our-selves over to God and letting his will be done in us.

‘Understanding’ the LiturgyOne of the primary concerns of Vatican II and of the churchhas been and remains that the liturgy be understood by thecelebrating community. “Understand what you do” is abasic demand of everything that we do.

Certain realities pose obstacles to understanding. Theliturgy is almost entirely structured on the Bible, and the

Bible uses language andimages from a bygoneera. The nonbiblical textsin the liturgy are alsostrange: the Latin collectswith their succinct andmetrical structure areuntranslatable, not somuch because the wordscannot be transposed intoa modern language butbecause the mentality andculture from which they

stem have disappeared. A great many other texts, whendetached from their musical setting, end up seemingextremely archaic; imagine, for example, the Salve Regina,the Dies Irae or even the ordinary sung Gregorian introitsand Communion antiphons, leaving aside the images ofGod that such texts maintain (e.g., the God who sleeps, theGod of wrath). Certain secondary symbols also no longerseem to function: the drop of water in the chalice, thelavabo, mixing a particle of the host with the wine, thewashing of the feet. One frequently hears reproaches suchas “old-fashioned,” “passé,” “medieval” and “monastic.”

The remedy employed in most cases is limited to: Whatcan we drop? How can we abbreviate? What would func-tion better to express what is going on in our lives as indi-viduals and as a community? Certain terms are replacedwith other, more understandable terms. What do we do,however, with words like “resurrection,” “Easter,”“Eucharist,” “metanoia” and “sin”? They are part of a bib-lical and liturgical mother tongue that simply cannot bereplaced. It has to be learned.

Likewise, does the fact that we no longer see shepherdsand flocks every day mean that such images are no longercomprehensible? Is it because no one has ever met a seraphthat the metaphorical power of this angelic messenger nolonger speaks to us? Half of the poetry ever written makesuse of images and terms that are not part of the daily life andenvironment of the reader.

Active ParticipationFrom its very beginnings, the aim of the liturgical move-ment, which originated in Belgium in 1909, was to close thegap between the official liturgy of the priest and that of thepeople. “Active participation” was first promoted throughthe circulation of what were called people’s missals, whichcontained the Sunday liturgy. Before long, however, a desireemerged for more than just following along in the book.The Second Vatican Council satisfied this desire by intro-ducing the use of the vernacular, by simplifying liturgicalsymbolism to make it more transparent, by returning to thepraxis of the early church and dropping elements that hadlater come to overshadowthe essentials and by a cor-rect distribution of rolesin the service of the litur-gy. The result was a fargreater involvement of thepeople, even to the veryheart of the liturgy.

The active involve-ment of the people in theliturgy is, of course, anunparalleled gift from thecouncil to the people ofGod. As with every worthy reform, however, there is a shad-ow side. Active participation in the liturgy can lead imper-ceptibly to a sort of taking possession of the liturgy. Theliturgy is not only set free of its untouchable quality—initself not a bad thing; it also becomes in a sense the proper-ty of those who celebrate, a terrain given over to their “cre-ativity.” Those who serve the liturgy—both priests andlaity—become its “owners.” In some cases this can even leadto a sort of liturgical “coup,” by which the sacred is elimi-nated, the language trivialized and the cult turned into asocial event. The real subject of the liturgy is no longer theChrist, who through the Spirit worships the Father andsanctifies the people in a symbolic act, but the human per-son or the celebrating community.

The liturgy is God’s work on us before it is our work onGod. The celebrating community enters into it as into apre-established, divine and spiritual architecture. To a cer-tain degree this is determined by the historical location ofChrist and his sacred mysteries: the Eucharist involves themaking present of a particular meal, that of Christ with hisdisciples on the night before he suffered. This does notmean that we must exclude any kind of flexibility in ourliturgical style; far from being ruled out, creativity is actual-ly called for. But one cannot simply transform and re-arrange the whole thing. We are not creators of the liturgy;we are servants and guardians of its mysteries. We do notown them, nor did we author them. Both individually and

Profound realities onlygradually yield their fullsignificance. In these cases,understanding is a lengthyand progressive process.

If the liturgy is not simply a structuring of commonhuman religiosity, but rather the epiphany of God in humanhistory (from Abraham to Christ), then we cannot avoid theneed for catechesis and initiation. Because it is both procla-mation and the celebration of mysteries that have occurredin the history of Judaism and Christianity, liturgy demandsschooling.

Understanding ‘Understanding’Modern definitions also challenge us. Our contemporariesoften conceive of “understanding” as the ability to grasp atfirst hearing. Something is understandable if we can grasp itimmediately. Such an approach is valid for the ordinaryobjects of our knowledge, which can only be grasped at apurely cognitive level. But where the depths of human anddivine reality are concerned, this approach does not work.Love, death, joy, solidarity, knowledge of God can never begrasped at once or on first inspection. Profound realitiesonly gradually yield their full significance. In these cases,understanding is a lengthy and progressive process ofbecoming familiar with a particular reality.

Analysis, then, is out of place in liturgy; only a pro-longed listening and familiarization is appropriate. Ourapproach must be dialogical: allowing the liturgy time to saywhat it has to say; listening attentively to its overtones andallowing its deeper meaning to unfold; not looking for analternative but letting the liturgy speak for itself and exposeits own virtualities.

Though this might sound strange to many, our liturgi-cal celebrations are for the most part too short. They do notprovide enough time or space to enter into the event. It isnot enough that people have heard the liturgy or that it hasbeen spoken. Has it been proclaimed to them? Have theybeen given the opportunity to integrate it? The liturgyneeds time to deliver its riches.

A Tyranny of WordsA major factor in all of this is silence. The liturgy of VaticanII provides for periods of silence, but in practice silence isnot given much of a chance. The liturgy is turned into anunstoppable succession of words that leave no time for inte-riorization.

Without introducing rhetorical gesticulations andbuilding in theatricality, one can still argue that the tongueand the ear are frequently the only human organs in useduring the liturgy. How many celebrants consider thehomily to be the climax of the liturgy and the barometerof the celebration? How many have the feeling that thecelebration is more or less over after the Liturgy of theWord?

Too much attention is also given to the intellectualapproach to the liturgy. Imagination, affect, emotion and,

properly understood, aesthetics are not given enough room,and the liturgy thereby fails to reach many of those whoparticipate in it because they are either non-intellectualtypes or because they do not consider such things to benourishing for their lives.

Liturgy is neither the time nor the place for catechesis.Of course, it has excellent catechetical value, but it is notthere to replace the various catechetical moments in the lifeof the Christian. Such moments require their own time.Liturgy belongs to the order of the “playful.” The unique-ness of “play” is that one plays for the sake of playing.Liturgy’s end is in itself.

Nor should liturgy be used as a means for disseminatinginformation, no matter how essential that informationmight be. It should not be forced to serve as an easy way tonotify the participants about this, that and the other thing.One does not attend the liturgy on Mission Sunday in orderto learn something about this or that mission territory. Onecomes to the liturgy to reflect on and integrate one’s missionfrom Christ to “go out to all nations.” Liturgy ought not toserve as a warm-up for another activity, even a church activ-ity. While it can indeed happen that one departs from theliturgy with a greater sense of engagement, with faith andlove that inform and inspire one’s actions, liturgy is not ameeting but a celebration.

The church fathers, too, adhered to the principle thatmystagogical catechesis (in which the deepest core of thesacred mysteries was laid bare) should come only after thesacraments of initiation. Their pedagogical approach was“sensorial”: participate first and experience things at an exis-tential level in the heart of the community, and only thenexplain. Prior to baptism they limited themselves to moralinstruction and teaching on the Christian “way of life.”Immediately after baptism—during Easter week—theyspoke about the deep meaning of baptism, chrism andEucharist. Their entire method of instruction was struc-tured around a framework of questions and answers such as:“Did you notice that...?” “Well, what this means is.…”Celebrate first, then understand.

Perhaps we do not have to adhere to the letter of such apedagogical approach, but it certainly provides a hint in theright direction. No catechetical method will succeed if it isunable to depend on good, community celebrations of theliturgy. And those who desire to work with the liturgy andvary its themes will first have to listen attentively to thosethemes and participate in the celebration of the liturgy as itis. If they do not, then their entire liturgical endeavor willturn out to be nothing more than self-expression. Whatwould we think of a composer who refused to listen to hispredecessors or a painter who refused to visit a museum?The worthy liturgist listens first, meditates, prays and inte-riorizes. Only then can he or she “modulate.”


Engaging the Other SensesThe eye is the most active of the senses. In the liturgynowadays, however, it tends to be somewhat undervalued.There is a lot to hear but little to see. At one time the sit-uation was reversed; the verbal dimension was not under-stood, the visual dimension was pushed to the fore.Certain secondary liturgical gestures, such as the elevationof the bread and wine at the consecration, are a conse-quence of this fact. Even eucharistic worship outside ofMass has its roots here.

It is always best to let the great symbols function. Howcan baptism be understood as a water bath, if it turns outto be little more than a sprinkling with water? How can wespeak of “hearing the message,” if everyone is sitting withtheir heads bent reading the texts in their missalettes at themoment when they should be listening? Even the placefrom which the Scriptures are read has some significance.It is better not to read from the middle of the communitybecause the word comes to us from elsewhere. It is pro-claimed; it does not simply arise out of the community. Itis also best to read from a Book of the Gospels and froman ambo surrounded by symbols suggestive of respect(light, incense, altar servers).

It is of great importance that different text genresshould be respected: a reading is not a prayer, a hymn is

not a psalm, a song is not an admonition, nor is a homilya set of announcements. Each of these genres requires itsown oral treatment. Furthermore, it is clear that neitherrhetoric nor theatricality nor pathos has a part in the litur-gy. Reading is not acting; it is allowing oneself to be thehumble instrument of a word that comes from beyond.The exaggerated impact of the personal individuality ofthe man or woman who reads can kill the liturgy and elim-inate its harmonics.

The sense of touch finds its most profound expressionin the laying on of hands and in anointing. These areamong the most physical gestures of the liturgy, and theycan have an enormous impact on the human person. Thesignificance of praying in the presence of a sick persontakes on quite a different character if one places one’shands on or anoints the person.

Last, the sense of smell is almost completely unused inthe liturgy. It is not to our advantage that the use ofincense has been pushed aside into the domain of super-fluity and hindrance.

Liturgy and LifeIf, as Pope St. Leo the Great said, the Christian mysterieshave crossed over into the liturgy, then it is equally truethat liturgy must cross over into the moral and spiritual lifeof Christians. “Do in practice what you do in the liturgy”(“Imitamini quod tractatis...” ) admonishes the ancient textfrom the liturgy of ordination.

Some have endeavored to draw the conclusion fromthis axiom that the liturgy is not important when com-pared with our day-to-day lives or that it is a sort of prepa-ration or warm-up for life itself, an option for those whoneed it but redundant for those who do not. Others havesuggested that liturgy and life coincide and that true ser-vice to God takes place outside the church in one’s dailylife.

The life of the Christian is built on cultus and caritas.Liturgy does not coincide with life; rather, it has a dialecti-cal relationship with life. Sunday is not Monday, nor viceversa. What we do throughout the week in a varied anddiluted way we also do in the liturgy but in a more concen-trated and purified fashion: we live for God and for others.

Liturgy, however, is not only a representation of humanlife. Liturgy symbolizes and makes present, first, the mys-teries of salvation, the words and deeds of Christ, and alsoour deeds insofar as they are reflected, purified andredeemed in Christ. His mysteries—made present to us inthe liturgy—are our archetypes. This Christological deter-mination of our lives in the liturgy is of the essence.

The liturgy is not a feast we have laid out for ourselves,according to our own personal preferences. It is God’sfeast. We attend at God’s invitation.


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IRTUALLY ANY ACCOUNT of the Second VaticanCouncil’s most important teachings will includethe council’s positive attitude toward Christianecumenism. Most of them see the ecumenical

movement begun at Vatican II as a tremendous advance inthe Catholic Church’s rela-tionship with otherChristian traditions. Yet theteaching of the council wasnot without controversy, andover the last four decades alively academic debate hasensued over exactly what thecouncil intended to say. TheCongregation for theDoctrine of the Faith hasrecently published a state-ment that would appear tocall into question much ofthe contemporary consensusregarding what the counciltaught. The statement,Responses to Some QuestionsRegarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church, con-siders the extent to which other Christian traditions partic-ipate in the church of Christ and whether and to whatextent they can properly be called churches. The statementhas stirred concern among Protestant and Catholic ecu-menists alike, who wonder whether the Vatican is turningits back on ecumenism. To understand why the recentC.D.F. statement has caused such distress, we need to con-sider the genesis of the principal Vatican II text under dis-pute, the council’s “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,”

also known by its Latin opening words, Lumen Gentium.

The Development of a DoctrineIn the four centuries following the Reformation, Catholictheology tended to identify the church of Christ complete-

ly with the CatholicChurch. This helps explaininitial Catholic suspicion ofthe ecumenical movementas it emerged in the early20th century. In 1928 PopePius XI, in his encyclicalMortalium Animos (No. 10),wrote:

The union ofChristians cannot befostered otherwisethan by promotingthe return of the dis-sidents to the onetrue Church ofChrist, which in the

past they so unfortunately abandoned; return, wesay, to the one true Church of Christ which is plain-ly visible to all and which by the will of her Founderforever remains what he himself destined her to befor the common salvation of human beings.

Fifteen years later, Pius XII issued an encyclical on thechurch, Mystici Corporis, in which he identified the mysticalbody of Christ with the Catholic Church. Since a numberof Catholic theologians questioned this statement, hereturned to it in his encyclical Humani Generis, where heinsisted that the mystical body and the Catholic Church are“one and the same reality.”

The preparatory draft document on the church that thebishops were given at the opening session of Vatican II fol-lowed Pius XII in identifying the mystical body of Christ

RICHARD R. GAILLARDETZ is the Thomas and Margaret Murray

and James J. Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the

University of Toledo. This essay includes some material that

has been adapted from The Church in the Making (Paulist

Press, 2006; used with permission).


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Observers from other religious denominations at the Second VaticanCouncil in 1963. Around 60 representatives from most of the majorChristian denominations attended the council sessions.

with the Catholic Church. So many negative commentswere expressed about this draft that it was withdrawn, and anew draft was presented to the council in 1963. The newdraft still insisted that “the Church of Christ is the RomanCatholic Church,” but a clause was added, noting that“many elements of sanctification can be found outside itstotal structure,” elements that properly belong to thechurch of Christ.

A revised draft presented to the council in 1964 intro-duced the word subsistit into the Latin text. Instead of sayingthat the church of Christ is the Catholic Church, it now saidthat the church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church.The reason given for this change was “so that the expressionwould better agree with the affirmation about the ecclesialelements found elsewhere.” Unfortunately, the council bish-ops did not provide a precise definition of the term “sub-sists,” leaving it to later interpreters to derive its meaningfrom the term’s immediate context and from other conciliartexts. Not surprisingly, after the close of the council manycommentators thought the change from “is” to “subsists in”signaled a shift in Catholic ecclesiology that recognized thepresence of the body of Christ beyond the boundaries of theCatholic Church. Events would show, however, that not allagreed with this interpretation of subsistit.

Another significant change concerned the various spiri-tual gifts shared by Catholics and other Christians: LumenGentium acknowledged that non-Catholic Christiansreceive baptism and other sacraments “in their own church-es and ecclesiastical communities.” When critics objected tothis change on the grounds that only “elements of church”could be found elsewhere, the official response of the theo-logical commission was: “The elements which are men-tioned concern not only individuals but their communitiesas well; in this fact precisely is located the foundation of theecumenical movement.”

Debates Since the Council The first significant debate on these questions was provokedby Leonardo Boff in his book Church: Charism and Power.The Brazilian theologian suggested that the church ofChrist subsists not only in the Catholic Church but also inother churches. In 1985 the C.D.F. issued a notification thatrejected Boff’s interpretation, asserting that there could bebut one subsistence of Christ’s church, namely the CatholicChurch, outside of which there are “only elements of thechurch.” (Notice that the council never used the qualifier“only,” but spoke instead of “many” elements of the churchthat are present outside the boundaries of Catholicism.)

The C.D.F.’s 1985 response effectively denied that thecouncil had initiated a shift in church teaching. Many bish-ops and theologians closely involved in the formulation ofthe council’s teaching, including Cardinal Johannes

Willebrands of the Netherlands, who had served as the headof what was then the Secretariat for Promoting ChristianUnity, took issue with the C.D.F., insisting that its positionran counter to the intentions of the council.

In 1989 the American Jesuit Francis Sullivan argued thatsubsistere should be understood not in some metaphysicalsense but in its more ordinary sense, meaning “to continueto exist.” Sullivan concluded that in the mind of the coun-cil, it is in the Catholic Church alone that the church ofChrist continues to exist with the unity and the fullness ofthe means of grace that Christ gave to his church. This didnot preclude, however, the presence of the church of Christin other Christian communities.

In its declaration Dominus Iesus, published in 2000, theC.D.F. seemed to have been persuaded by Sullivan’s inter-pretation, for it explained: “With the expression subsistit in,the Second Vatican Council sought to harmonize two doc-trinal statements: on the one hand, that the church ofChrist, despite the divisions which exist among Christians,continues to exist fully only in the Catholic Church, and onthe other hand, that ‘outside her structure, many elementscan be found of sanctification and truth, that is, in thosechurches and ecclesial communities which are not yet in fullcommunion with the Catholic Church.’” This explanationof subsistit in would seem to support the interpretation ofconciliar teaching that held that the church of Christ con-tinues to exist, though less than fully, in other churches andecclesial communities. Indeed, in the same document theC.D.F. described the separated Eastern churches as “trueparticular churches.” At a minimum, this implied that thechurch of Christ continues to exist beyond the CatholicChurch.

In December 2005, Karl Josef Becker, a Jesuit theolo-gian teaching at the Gregorian University in Rome, pub-lished a major essay in L’Osservatore Romano, arguing thatthe council did not intend any modification in church teach-ing when it said that the church of Christ subsists in theCatholic Church. The essay was based on his research ofcouncil documentation, including the recently discoveredpapers of Sebastian Tromp, S. J., who served as secretary ofthe doctrinal commission at Vatican II, but who, as a con-tributor to Pius XII’s Mystici Corporis, was invested in theidentification of the Catholic Church with the church ofChrist. Becker’s careful argumentation received an equallynuanced rebuttal from Francis Sullivan in a 2006 essay pub-lished in Theological Studies. This brings us to the recentVatican statement.

The Recent C.D.F. StatementThe Vatican statement was published in order to correct an“erroneous interpretation” of the council’s teaching. TheC.D.F. insists, with Becker, that the council’s employment


of the subsistit passage did not represent any change inchurch teaching; rather, the council only “developed, deep-ened and more fully explained it.” Later it states that thecouncil used the term subsistit to indicate “the full identity ofthe Church of Christ with the Catholic Church.” Theseclaims challenge a solid theological consensus to the con-trary that has emerged over the last four decades, one vari-ously affirmed by such distinguished theologians and ecu-menists as the late Yves Congar, George Tavard, GuiseppeAlberigo, John Borelli, Joseph Komonchak and FrancisSullivan, among others.

The C.D.F.’s Responses must be taken seriously as anauthoritative document issued by a Roman dicastery; itsauthority, however, does not place it beyond respectful yetcritical analysis. The document and accompanying com-mentary contain inconsistencies. In response to QuestionTwo, the C.D.F. appears to affirm a more historical mean-ing of the subsistit passage, one which expresses the idea thatwhile the church of Christ has continued to exist fully in theCatholic Church, it has also been present in a “less full”manner in other Christian communities. Yet in the com-mentary it attributes a more metaphysical meaning to thesubsistit passage, suggesting that there is only one subsis-tence of the church of Christ—the Catholic Church.

What Has Been Left UnsaidMany have reacted negatively to certain terms that haveappeared throughout this debate, like “fullness” and“defect,” which suggest an enduring form of Catholic tri-umphalism. However, these terms apply only to one legiti-mate, but limited, perspective on the church: when thecouncil used terms like “fullness,” the bishops had in mindcertain objective elements present in the church. Thus thecouncil wrote of the “means of sanctification and truth”—the sacraments, the Scriptures, the Petrine ministry, etc.—that are fully present only in the Catholic Church. Thecouncil admitted that many of these ecclesial elements (theScriptures, baptism) are present in other Christian tradi-tions, but that non-Catholic communities lack certain otherelements (e.g., Petrine ministry). It is often overlooked thatthe council was content to confine its reflections to theobjective “institutional integrity” of the church.

No conciliar document, nor any postconciliar documentthat I am aware of, has attended to a somewhat differentperspective on ecclesial life, namely the more subjective“ecclesial vitality” of a particular Christian community. It ispossible, for example, that a particular Catholic communitymight fail to appropriate or activate the objective “means ofsanctification and truth” in its possession. In his book TheChurch We Believe In (pg. 26), Sullivan puts the matter well:

Of course it must be kept in mind that this is a ques-

tion of institutional integrity: of fullness of the meansof salvation. There is no question of denying that anon-Catholic community, perhaps lacking much inthe order of means, can achieve a higher degree ofcommunion in the life of Christ in faith, hope andlove than many a Catholic community.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, current president of thePontifical Council for Christian Unity, made a similar qual-ification in a report to the council in November 2001regarding the claim that the fullness of the church of Christresides in the Catholic Church. He contended that the useof the term “fullness” in this context:

does not refer to subjective holiness but to the sacra-mental and institutional means of salvation, thesacraments and the ministries. Only in this sacra-mental and institutional respect can the Council finda lack (defectus) in the churches and ecclesial commu-nities of the Reformation. Both Catholic fullness andthe defectus of the others are therefore sacramentaland institutional, and not existential or even moral innature; they are on the level of the signs and instru-ments of grace, not on the level of the res, the graceof salvation itself.

This insight has pastoral implications for the churchtoday that have not been sufficiently considered. If we mayclaim that in some sense other Christian communities areinstitutionally “defective,” can we also say that these com-munities may in some cases be more effective as vehicles ofgrace?

A Thought ExperimentConsider the following thought experiment. Imagine aneighborhood with two churches: Grace Lutheran and St.Bernadette Catholic parish. According to the council’steaching, the Lutheran congregation would be lacking somespecific “means of sanctification and truth” available, inprinciple, to St. Bernadette’s. Presumably, they do not haveaccess to a universal ministry of unity (the papacy), thesacrament of reconciliation or the full reality of theEucharist. Yet Grace Lutheran Church might be fostering acommunity that emphasizes Christian fellowship, hospitali-ty and the dignity of one’s baptismal calling. Church leadersmight stress the necessity of being biblically literate and liv-ing with fidelity and passion, a biblical vision of discipleship.

On the other hand, St. Bernadette’s might be a commu-nity where Christian hospitality is almost completely absentand genuine fellowship minimal, a community in whichbaptism is simply a christening ritual performed on infants,where the Scriptures are poorly proclaimed and the homi-


lies are filled with arcane, pious references and silly jokesbut say little about the concrete demands of discipleship indaily life. In this scenario we must grant the possibility thatGrace Lutheran Church, although technically lackingecclesial “fullness,” might in fact be fostering a form ofChristian communal life that more effectively brings theminto communion with Christ than does St. Bernadette’s.

The Danger of ChecklistsThere are real dangers in reducing an analysis of Christiancommunity to a kind of checklist. At certain points in thehistory of Christianity, communities flourished in spite ofhaving little if any access to certain “means of sanctificationand truth” that the Catholic Church now considers vital.Many churches of the first three centuries, for example,flourished with only minimal if any contact with the churchof Rome. For almost 1,000 years there was no access to any-thing like the sacrament of reconciliation (penance) as weknow it today. In Korea, Japan, the Hispanic AmericanSouthwest and among some North American native tribes,the faith was kept alive for decades and even centuriesdespite the absence of ordained clergy.

We must also question whether these “means of sancti-fication and truth” can be adequately grasped in the juridi-cal language of validity/invalidity. For example, the most

essential “elements” at stake in ecumenical debate includeapostolic succession, the Petrine ministry, ordained ministryand the Eucharist. But is it not possible that some of theseelements might be present in other Christian traditions,even though, from a Catholic perspective, they may lackcertain dimensions? Must the Eucharist be seen as eitherpresent or absent, valid or invalid, without a more complexrecognition that acknowledges disputed issues?

An adequate account of the true catholicity of thechurch must go beyond an objective list of the means of sal-vation that ought to be present in every church. We mustalso be willing to explore in more depth the lived experienceof Christian discipleship encountered in concrete commu-nities of believers. As many who have been involved in theecumenical movement will testify, the experience of sharedChristian discipleship often provides a fresh lens for consid-ering the issues that divide us. To pray with otherChristians, to celebrate a shared commitment to the Gospeland a common determination to give witness to Christ inour daily lives is to see Christian divisions in a new light.While there is much to overcome in the work of Christianecumenism, it is hard to imagine making any progress with-out the conviction that we already, in some real sense, shareecclesial communion in Christ with all who go by the nameChristian.


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Good News From BrazilA report on the Latin American bishops’ meetingB Y F R A N C I S C H A M B E R L A I N

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Author’s note: The following reflections were written in June, afew weeks after the Fifth General Conference of the Episcopate ofLatin America and the Caribbean was held (May 13-31) inAparecida, Brazil. The conference focused on what it means to bedisciples and missionaries of Christ today. I was in Aparecida, notas a delegate, but as an adviser on the outside to several Peruvianbishops. I wrote this article in the light of the fourth and last revi-sion of the bishops’ document, before the Vatican approved a finalversion in mid-July. In the light of that official text, known as theAparecida document, I have had to make only one minor changein what I had written. The official text, with only very minorchanges, has turned out to be what the bishops in Aparecida sentto Rome at the end of the conference.

Bishops from Latin America attend Mass with Pope Benedict XVI at the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil on May 13.

FRANCIS CHAMBERLAIN, S.J., is superior of the Jesuit commu-

nity in Ayacucho, Peru.

HAT DOES THE APARECIDA CONFERENCE

mean for the Latin American church? Thegathering is significant as an important reaf-firmation of the Latin American church’s

identity after the Second Vatican Council, an identity firstvigorously affirmed at the bishops’ conference in Medellínin 1968. The meeting also marks a new beginning for achurch conscious of important changes that have takenplace with regional effects, such as the impact of globaliza-tion; the growing disparities between the wealthy who ben-efit from the new economic reality and millions of the poorwho are excluded; the threat of ecological devastation; andthe significant presence of Pentecostal churches in manycountries. The Aparecida document tackles these and otherchallenges, and on the whole it deserves high marks.

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The inaugural address of Benedict XVI served as a bench-mark for the bishops’ work. The pope touched on themesthat for the last 40 years have been central to the Christianexperience in Latin America. He made a slip when he saidthat the Gospel was not “an imposition” on the Indian pop-ulations of the continent during the conquest and coloniza-tion. Certainly that great Dominican Bartolomé de lasCasas would have had a problem with such a statement.While the press and Hugo Chávez made hay with it, the slipcertainly ought not overshadow the basic thrust ofBenedict’s remarks. Upon his return to Rome, Benedictquickly clarified what he had really wanted to say in thatsentence.

The basic thrust of the address stems from the pope’saffirmation that “the preferential option for the poor isimplicit in the Christological faith in the God who becamepoor for us in order to enrich us with his poverty” (see 2 Cor8:9). Benedict’s affirmation explicitly confirms the thesisgrounding both experience and theological reflection inLatin America: that God’s love extends to all persons and ismost especially directed to the poor. The preferentialoption for the poor excludes no one; it declares the univer-sality of God’s love. Benedict’s words were also an implicitrejection of the idea that such an option, which is not“optional” for followers of Jesus, is based on sociological orideological premises. Instead, its ground is faith in Jesus.

The words quoted above do not come at the beginningof Benedict’s address, but throughout his talk, the pope dis-cussed themes that can be understood in light of the prefer-ential option for the poor [see sidebar]. He also raised con-cerns related to the internal life of the church—the need formore priestly vocations, religious life, the role of the laity,the urgent need for greater attention to adult formation inthe faith—and devoted whole sections to family and youth.None of these topics is new. As a friend said, “All the stuffin the speech is ‘old hat;’ he is saying the same thing we havebeen saying for many years.” That is precisely the point:Benedict put his seal of approval on a way of reflecting andliving out the Gospel that has its roots in Medellín and inthe succeeding episcopal conferences. The pope’s addressinvited the bishops to be faithful to their inheritance whenfacing up to the challenges of today’s world.

The Work of the ConferenceMore than 160 bishops and 35 to 45 delegates worked over-time for nine days (the time dedicated to writing a finaldraft) to produce a text that may guide the Latin Americanchurch for the next decade. Their document went throughfour revisions, and the one sent to Rome filled 120 legal sizepages of small print.

The bishops’ first order of business was deciding how tostructure the document. The Medellín and Puebla docu-

ments had been structured on the Christian social discern-ment process “see, judge, act.” The 1992 Santo Domingoconference rearranged that method. It put judging (i.e., the-ological reflection) before seeing (i.e., the assessment ofreality), reasoning at the time that Christian reflection andaction cannot be grounded on mere sociological considera-tions. A fallacy lay in their thinking that for a Christian “see-ing” reality is only a sociological task, when actually, from aChristian perspective, the effort to “see” is always made inthe light of the Gospel. Before the gathering at Aparecidaconvened, a great majority of national episcopal conferencesrequested that the see-judge-act structure of the bishops’document be reinstated. Despite attempts by a small minor-ity at the conference to stay with the Santo Domingomethod, the assembly overwhelmingly chose to return tothe structure initiated in Medellín. That decision may notappear to be significant, but it is. Since many bishops hadvoiced a hope that Aparecida would not be a rerun of SantoDomingo, which had been dominated by the Roman dele-gation, the decision on how to structure the document wascrucial. The outcome was not in any way a declaration ofindependence from Rome, but rather an affirmation ofLatin American Catholic identity. And Benedict’s openingaddress played a role in the bishops’ decision.

Several major themes laid out in the bishops’ documentwill, one hopes, serve the church and Latin American soci-ety well in the coming years. Four of them merit discussion.A glaring omission in the preparatory document leading upto the gathering in Aparecida was a virtual lack of referenceto the kingdom of God, a central focus of Jesus’ preachingand practice and a dominant theme in Latin American the-ology. The kingdom reminds us that what Jesus proposedand initiated was a transformation of humanity individuallyand collectively, according to God’s will. The church is theservant of the kingdom whose full realization extends to all.The kingdom cannot be reduced in the life of the church topreaching and catechetics, however important these activi-ties obviously are. Accepting the invitation to become disci-ples of Jesus includes a commitment to take part in oursmall, often fumbling ways in this transformation of thewhole of life, both personal and social, so desired by theLord. The Aparecida document (No. 384) reaffirms thecentrality of the kingdom for true Christian living:

As disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ so thatour peoples attain life in him, we are called evangel-ically and in the perspective of the kingdom toassume the urgent tasks that contribute to the digni-ty of every human being. [We are called] to workwith all citizens and institutions for the well-being ofevery human person.... Structures must be createdthat serve a social, economic and political order in


which inequalities are overcome and in whichopportunities are open for every person.

The preferential option for the poor is placed within theperspective of the kingdom, God’s will for a new humanity,especially for the poor. To emphasize this the documentcites a decisive Gospel text: “Everything that has to do withChrist has to do with the poor, and everything related to thepoor refers to Jesus Christ: ‘Whatsoever you did to any ofthese my least sisters and brothers, you did it to me’” (Matt25:40 at No. 393).

EcologyEcology is a major concern of the Latin American bishopstoday. Not only is South America one of the richest areas ofbiodiversity in the world, but it contains the Amazon rainforest, which alone produces close to 30 percent of the plan-et’s oxygen. The continent also has immense resources inwater, minerals, timber, oil and gas—all of which are endan-gered by unfettered economic exploitation. The conferencedocument forcefully expresses the bishops’ concern over thegrowing devastation and contamination of the continentand, in particular, concern for the campesinos and native pop-ulations whose livelihood is curtailed by such damage. Thestruggle to defend the natural world is a new way of livingout the preferential option for the poor. The document putsit this way (No. 473):

The natural resources of Latin America suffer todayan irrational exploitation, which leaves [in its path] amarch of destruction and even death throughout ourregion. The present economic model must assumean enormous responsibility. It privileges the exces-sive search for wealth, over and above the lives ofindividuals and peoples and the care of the naturalenvironment. The devastation of our forests and itsbiodiversity by selfish and depredatory practicesimplies a moral responsibility of those who so act. Itputs in danger the lives of millions of persons and,especially, the habitat of campesinos and Indians.

The Aparecida document declares that the present style ofglobalization has produced “new faces of the poor”—migrants, for example, and vast numbers of people withoutaccess to the new technologies. Globalization benefits aselect few, not a majority. The document proposes that thechurch join the struggle for a new form of globalization,which the bishops call the globalization of solidarity (No.406), which would entail working for the common good:

Work for the common global good must promote ajust regulation of the world’s economy, financial


From Pope Benedict’s Address to the Latin American Bishops

in Aparecida, Brazil

Human development: “In the effort to know the mes-sage of Christ and to make it the guide for one’slife, it must be remembered that evangelization hasalways been united to human development andauthentic Christian liberation.” Benedict thenquotes his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est: “Love ofGod and love of one’s neighbor are joined togeth-er: in the most humble person we encounter Jesusand in Jesus we encounter God.”

Populorum Progressio: Benedict quotes a decisivepassage of this groundbreaking 1967 encyclical ofPaul VI, which along with Gaudium et Spes, a doc-ument from the Second Vatican Council, served asan inspiration for the Medellín document. Benedictsaid: “This pontifical document makes clear thatauthentic development has to be integral, that is,oriented to the whole development of each andevery person (see No. 14), and it invites everyoneto overcome those grave social inequalities andenormous differences in the access to materialgoods.”

Globalization: “In today’s world the phenomenon ofglobalization is a complex set of relations on a plan-etary scale. Although certain aspects [of globaliza-tion] represent an achievement of the great humanfamily...nevertheless it also carries the risk of vastmonopolies and the conversion of economic gain asthe supreme value.... As in all areas of human activ-ity, globalization must be governed by ethics.”

Social structures: “Just structures are, as I have said,an indispensable condition for a just society, butthey do not arise or function without the moralconsent of society regarding fundamental valuesand the necessity of living out of these values withtheir necessary renunciations, even of personalbenefit.”

The Eucharist: “The encounter with Christ in theEucharist inspires a commitment to evangelizationand the impulse to solidarity. It awakens in theChristian a strong desire to proclaim the Gospeland give witness in society so that it may becomemore just and human.”

movements and commerce. It is urgent that externaldebt be cancelled to make investment in the socialsector viable. Regulations must be put in place toprevent and control capital speculation. Justice incommerce must be promoted along with the pro-gressive lowering of protectionist barriers by thepowerful. Just prices for the raw materials producedby poor countries are urgently needed. There mustbe norms created for attracting and regulating for-eign investment and other services.

The bishops also insist that the church in its work forthe common good give special attention to the politicalleaders of our countries, a majority of whom call themselvesChristian, but some of whom are frequently unfaithful tothe demands of the Gospel in their public lives and actions.

One of the most significant pastoral experiences in LatinAmerica over the last 40 years has been the growth of grass-roots Christian communities, which go by different namesin different countries. But whatever the name, these aresmall groups of men and women, especially among thepoor, who gather together each week to reflect on theGospel and its relevance for daily living. The base commu-nities have been accused of “Protestantizing” the Catholicfaith, because they invite a supposedly dangerous, free inter-pretation of Scripture. In fact, most of these communitiesare integrated into the pastoral plans of the local parish;they are not embryos of any parallel or competing church.The communities have served as a way for poor people tocome to know and practice the Gospel.

The Aparecida document (No. 178) puts its stamp ofapproval on the base-community movement in LatinAmerica:

In the experience of some Churches in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean the Ecclesial BaseCommunities have served as schools, which havehelped form Christians committed to their faith,missionaries and disciples of the Lord, as witnessedby the unselfish giving of so many of their memberseven to the shedding of their blood. They recoverthe experience of the first communities as describedin the Acts of the Apostles (2:42-47).

The document goes on to urge the bishops to be carefulthat the base communities do not identify the Gospel withany particular ideological or political movement. That mayhave been the case with a few communities, but it certainlydoes not reflect the experience of most base communitiesthroughout Latin America. That the document approvesthe pastoral experience of the base communities is goodnews indeed.

A Final WordThe Aparecida document is good news for Latin Americaand its church. It is not, however, a perfect document. Itcontains quasi-silences on topics that one would have hopedthe bishops would address more forthrightly, such as theplace of women in the church and in society and the criticalshortage of priests. Both concerns are treated in the text,but what is said is simply not enough. On these points, thedocument does not get a passing grade. But in fairness tothe bishops, it must be noted that these concerns touch onstructures present throughout the church; they are not justLatin American problems.

I have not been able to keep up with all the press reac-tions to the conference and its document. A minority of

those I have seen strike me as the type ofnit-picking criticism that sees a tree, butnot the forest. This is especially true inthe attention some gave to the Romandelegation, suspecting that there had tobe some kind of top-level conspiracyafoot. In fact, the Roman contingent wassurprisingly subdued. Benedict’s initialaddress had something to do with that.In no way was the Roman presence felt asit was in Santo Domingo.

At Aparecida, the bishops took theball that Benedict threw them andplayed their own game. One of thepriest delegates at the close of the con-ference put it this way, “The spirit ofMedellín is alive!” It is a spirit alive andwell and open to the new challenges ofour day.


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may have been flawed and his understand-ing of human development more so, hewas simply following the day’s standardpractice of steering conscientious altarboys toward the priesthood.

As much as I felt the weighty obliga-tion to listen to God’s call, I was also awilling seminarian with a fair share ofyouthful religious fervor. Besides, for a kidfrom the suburbs, the daily trek downtown(Quigley was a day school) provided manya wonderful adventure. Encountering theethnic Catholicism of Polish, Irish andItalian boys was mind-expanding, not tomention the pick-up basketball games,poker parties and learning to navigateChicago on my own.

haps to cut down on dating.The message was clear: with swollen

pre-Vatican II admissions, they could beselective, and only the few would be cho-sen. In those heady days, standards couldbe rigorous and still lead to abundant ordi-nations. In the past 16 years, by contrast,only one graduate of Quigley had made itall the way to ordination. Keeping theplace open, then, no longer made sense.

Is God Calling?I was there because a well-intentionedassistant pastor convinced me that if I didnot give the seminary a try, at age 13, Iwould be forever turning my back on apossible vocation. Though his theology

NEWS ITEM CAUGHT my eyenot long ago: the minor semi-nary in Chicago was closingafter 102 years, and all the

alumni had been invited to see the placeone last time before it was to be renovatedas a pastoral center. I had attendedQuigley Preparatory Seminary for onlyone year, my freshman year in 1962, andwas not invited to the reunion, but learn-ing about it pulled me into a nostalgicundertow.

‘Set Apart’Back then, the rector gathered us in anassembly on our first day. “Take a look atthe fellow sitting toyour right and the oneon your left,” he told us.“Neither one of themwill be here in fouryears.” Freshmen didnot live a life of privi-lege at Quigley, but itwas drummed into youfrom the first that tosurvive the cut meantyou were special, setapart and chosen byGod to do great thingsfor him and the church.If not, well, there mightbe other good things todo, but ours was clearlythe best of all vocationalworlds. Even the schoolschedule was special:Thursdays off andSaturday classes—per-


Faith in Focus

Taking the Long ViewThe year that made my lifeBY MARK NEILSEN

MARK NEILSEN is anassociate editor withCreative Communica-tions for the Parish inFenton, Mo.

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Members of the freshman class pray before the start of algebra class at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary HighSchool in Chicago Sept. 21, 2006. The 101-year-old school closed at the end of the academic year because of changingpatterns of vocation discernment, declining numbers of students and growing costs.

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But when the retreat master chal-lenged us at the end of the year (“If youare not happy here, then you don’t belonghere. If you still have doubts, you will doyourself and us a favor if you leave now”),I decided he was right. During the sum-mer I decided I would have to leave.

For years I regarded my freshman yearof high school as a terrible mistake, anembarrassing detour and a vocational fail-ure. I tried to put myself as far from theexperience as possible, which was easyenough to do since I lived 25 miles awayfrom the school. One day many monthsafter I had left, I was walking somewheredowntown, probably to the Chicago pub-lic library, when I came around a cornerand was face to face with JohnCunningham, one of my classmates atQuigley. John, every bit still the seminari-an in his sports coat and tie and carryinghis briefcase, looked up to recognize me atonce. “Bug off,” he said with a smirk, andkept on walking. I kept on walking, too—right out of the church.

A Defining ExperienceWhen I was ready to be drawn back someyears later, the ethos of that freshman yearwas something I would gradually tap into.The daily Mass and Rosary, as well as thelofty desire to give one’s life to Christ inservice to the church, proved to be ballastfor a lifetime. Though for many moreyears I regarded my experience in theseminary as a foolish miscue and a waste ofprecious adolescence, one day it dawnedon me that the whole experience hadserved me quite well in what had come todefine my life. I learned to live in theurban areas that have been home for all ofmy adult life, found a career in Christianpublishing and, most important, discov-ered the vocation of husband and father.The same stream that took me to QuigleyPreparatory Seminary 45 years ago, theCatholic faith, has never meant more tome than it does now.

Seminaries close in the face of theobvious truth that times have changed.The church cannot go back to those days,even if they might sometimes be prefer-able to the turgid present. Providencebeing what it is, we cannot regard thesedays either as simply another failure, a ter-rible waste in the life of the church. Someday it is bound to dawn on us that goodhas come out of it after all.

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their honeymoon they traveled by motor-cycle all the way down to Rome and back,a trip unheard of in rural Austria. Franzwas, as everyone said, a lustiger Mensch(“lively fellow”), who had found the per-fect partner.

He became quite devout himself.Neighbors said they could hear himsinging hymns as he worked the familyfarm. He became friends with the Rev.Josef Karobath, the pastor, who namedhim sacristan and put him in charge oftraining the altar servers, planning theholy day celebrations and caring for thechurch.

But some serious political changeswere taking place at the time. Franz wasthe only one in town who voted againstthe annexation of Austria by Germany.The German army entered the countryand was greeted with wild enthusiasm.Hitler made a triumphal entry into Viennaand was met by the Cardinal Archbishop.Franz was one Austrian who was notpleased.

An Unjust WarA year later Poland was invaded. Franzdecided he could not in conscience servein such an unjust war. Poland had notinvaded Germany; Germany had invadedPoland and, very soon, other countries.Many of his friends were enlisting; otherswaited to be drafted. Franz told his wife,his mother and his pastor that he wouldnot serve. Father Karobath was under-standing. In fact, soon he would beremoved from his parish for having deliv-ered a less than totally patriotic homily.But he reminded the younger man that hiswidowed mother, his wife and now histhree tiny daughters depended on him.Franz decided to seek advice from thebishop in Linz.

But the bishop simply lectured himabout the other young men who werefighting and dying in Russia in defense ofthe fatherland. He should do the same.

Franz’s determination would not beeroded. For a long time the inductionnotice did not come. The government

N BRAUNAU AM INN in upperAustria, some curious people stop togawk at the “Hitlerhaus” where theinfamous man was born and raised.

They would be wise to continue on a fewmore kilometers to the little village of St.Radegund, where a far different sort ofperson lived. The place is very small: onlya beer house, a few houses and a modestchurch. It is considered so insignificantthat the village does not even appear onsome detailed maps of Austria. But thismay change considerably in the nearfuture. St. Radegund’s most famous citi-zen, Franz Jägerstätter, was named anauthentic martyr by Pope Benedict XVI inJune 2007.

Does being a martyr make one, ipsofacto, a saint? Certainly the young Franzdid not appear very saintly. He was arowdy type, known for getting into brawlswith the other young men of the area. Itwould seem that he fathered a child out ofmarriage and then disappeared for a yearor so, going to another part of the countryto work in the mines. When tempers hadcooled he returned, fell in love with a localgirl and married her. The lovely Franziskawas just what this undisciplined youngman needed. She was lively and full of fun,but also mature and deeply devout. For


Faith in Focus

One Man’sDecision An Austrianfarmer said no to Hitler and became a martyr.WILLARD F. JABUSCH

THE REV. WILLARD F. JABUSCH is chaplainemeritus of the University of Chicago.

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oath of obedience to Hitler and was quick-ly put into jail in Linz. He was held therefor some time and sent some truly beauti-ful letters to his wife. Eventually he wassent to a dreaded prison in Berlin.

Franziska very much wanted to visithim. The new young priest who had takenthe place of Father Karobath said hewould accompany her. They set off bytrain although the Americans and theBritish were bombing the rail lines. At theprison they could see through a windowthat Franz was brought in a van, pulled outand knocked to the ground. Yet he was

allowed to visit with them. The priestrepeated some of the old arguments: therewas still time to change his mind; he couldstill be saved. But Franziska knew that toher strong-willed husband, saving hisbody was not as important as saving hissoul. For him it was a clear case of rightand wrong: the war was unjust; he couldnot serve.

Controversial Even in DeathHe was taken away, and the two visitorsmade the dangerous trip back to St.Radegund. Franz was beheaded by theprison guillotine. When the war ended,the prison chaplain, who knew where thebody had been buried, had the bones putin a box. A nun agreed to take them backto St. Radegund for burial. FatherKarobath had returned as pastor and heannounced that Franz would be given asolemn funeral and buried in a place ofhonor directly next to the church.

Many did not agree, however. Theirsons, brothers and husbands had foughtand died in Russia, Italy, France andGermany. They were the heroes, notFranz, a man who had refused to serve.When his name was carved with those ofother war dead into a village war memori-al, the name was defaced. But FatherKarobath would have none of it. Franzwas worthy of solemn burial. The monu-ment would be repaired and flowers plant-ed on his grave.

As the years have passed, the localpeople have taken a more positive view ofFranz Jägerstätter. A little museum hasbeen opened in the old farmhouse. Somephotos, a rosary and a prayerbook are ondisplay there and, of course, his motorcy-cle helmet. People have started to come aspilgrims. They pray in the church wherehe prayed and stop by his grave, which isin an honored place just outside.

There were, I think, two priests inGermany who were executed as conscien-tious objectors, but Franz seems to havebeen the only layman. It was a dangerousand risky business to say no to Hitler’sinsane war. Could he have done it withoutthe support of a strong and loving wife?Now, however, his three daughters knowthat their father was a martyr. And martyrsare saints.

The beatification ceremony for FranzJägerstätter will take place on Oct. 26,2007, in Linz, Austria.

needed farmers like Franz for the wareffort. But as the war took more and morelives, older men and even boys were beingsent to the front. The notice came in themail: Franz was needed in the army.There could be no such thing as a consci-entious objector.

Franziska remembers that she andFranz got up early in the morning whilethe grandmother and the three girls werestill asleep. Would she ever see him again?They said their farewells and he walked offinto the pre-dawn darkness toward theinduction center. He refused to take the


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Ingmar Bergman, Theologian?BY RICHARD A. BLAKE

single director, he established an uncon-testable niche for cinema as a true artform. After Bergman, intellectuals nolonger had to apologize for writing andthinking about films.

Bergman’s legacy staggers the imagi-nation. Looking over his filmography islike picking up a volume of Shakespeare’scomplete works. One wonders how a per-son could create so much in one lifetime,and most of it extraordinary. In addition tothe more than 50 films Bergman scriptedand directed, he wrote for the stage, forradio and television; he authored novelsand an autobiography; he taught theaterand staged performances of classic playsand operas all over the world. Ever true tohis own sense of the self, he remained inSweden, confident that if he had some-thing important enough to say, audienceswould make the effort to overcome lin-guistic and cultural barriers to listen. Henever needed Hollywood, the English lan-guage or international stars to ensure hissuccess, since he defined success on his

own terms, and these did not include hugebox-office returns.

In a flurry of obituary notices, he hasbeen universally praised as one of the greatartists of his time. I would like to add anote of appreciation for Bergman the the-ologian, or at least, Bergman the religiousthinker. No doubt he would reject bothterms. He uses images where theologiansuse words. He crafts dialogue where theyconstruct concepts. He exposes the messi-ness of the human condition, where theyseek clarity. He focuses on the struggling,solitary human figures reaching outward,where they begin their inquiry with a Godreaching down, revealing himself. Butlooking at the films, one sees a congruityin their tasks.

Bergman’s religious interests camenaturally. His father, Erik, was a Lutheranpastor of the old school. One of his associ-ates in Sweden described him to me as“dour.” Their relationship was less thancordial, but as a child Ingmar traveled withhis father to country parishes, where he

T AGE 89, ON JULY 30, 2007,

Ingmar Bergman left us.Tragically, he won’t be widelymourned by today’s movie audi-

ences. His unblinking, introspective exam-ination of the human condition placesheavy demands on his viewers. His lastfilm, “Saraband” (2002), was greetedrespectfully as a curiosity from an 82-year-old director; it received only limited distri-bution. Audiences today find his charac-ters narcissistic and his themes lugubrious.

The observation has some merit.Bergman rarely turned his lens on thecheerier side of the human condition, buthe never averted his eye from the truth ashe saw it. He created films for adults, espe-cially for adults who, he believed, were asserious as he was about making sense oftheir own humanity. More than any other


Film

RICHARD A. BLAKE, S.J., is professor of finearts and co-director of the film studies pro-gram at Boston College in Chestnut Hill,Mass.

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Left to right: Ingmar Bergman, Sven Nykvist, Erland Josephson and Liv Ullman gather at Bergman's combined home and studio at Faaroe, on the islandof Gotland, eastern Sweden, in this 1972 file photo.

his life to establish lasting relationshipswith the women he loved.

Bergman could not exorcise his reli-gious background, however. In the early1950s, while teaching theater at Malmö,he wrote a one-act play, “WoodPainting,” as an exercise for his actingclass. It was based on the images he saw asa boy in a country church: devils, flagel-lants atoning for their sins and Deathchopping down the tree of life. By 1955,this germ of an idea had blossomed into“The Seventh Seal,” the story of a knight,played by a very young and very blondMax Von Sydow, who returns from aCrusade, tormented by his loss of faith andawareness of his own mortality. The filmestablished Bergman’s reputation in arthouses and campuses around the world.

It also began a series of seven filmsthat explored the possibility of faith in apost-Holocaust, nuclear age. In “TheVirgin Spring” (1960), “Through a GlassDarkly” (1961), “Winter Light” (1962)and “The Silence” (1963), he poses tradi-tional faith questions in identifiably reli-gious language. The characters struggleself-consciously with their inability tobelieve in God and form relationships

with one another. In “Wild Strawberries”(1957) and “The Magician” (1958), theissues are veiled in layers of metaphor.The theological questions become appar-ent only by placing them in the context ofthe other films of the period. With “TheSilence” he concludes that God isunknowable, and the human person mustsimply continue life’s journey seekingunderstanding and happiness however onecan. At that point, God-questions dropout of his films altogether.

Or do they? For the next 25 years, hisself-centered and self-destructive heroessquirm in their own loneliness, unable tofind salvation in human terms throughtheir own efforts. In keeping with goodLutheran tradition, Bergman suppliesredemption from without, inevitably inthe form of a life-giving woman. He nevercoddles his audience with Hollywoodhappy endings, however. The hero canreject the woman’s advances as in “Scenesfrom a Marriage” (1981), or the God-sur-rogate can be destructive as in “AutumnSonata” (1978), when the God-Mother(Ingrid Bergman) lacerates her daughter(Liv Ullmann) for failing to meet herexpectations. The resolution can be com-

listened to the sermons and hymns andstudied the icons and architecture to passthe time during services that seemed inter-minable to a restless young boy. Hismother, Karin, was a difficult woman, andIngmar grew up as a somewhat lonelychild, who lost himself in his puppet the-ater and his primitive movie projector.

University life in Stockholm providedthe opportunity to react against his familyupbringing. He studied literature, but alsodevoted himself to an amateur theatergroup. During the war years, he remainedactive in the Stockholm theater communi-ty and began working at SvenskFilmindustri, the national film productioncompany. His first films reflect a sense oflate adolescent angst and rebellion againstthe older generation. The titles say it all.He wrote “Torment” (directed by AlfSjöberg, 1944), and then wrote and direct-ed “Crisis” (1945), “It Rains on Our Love”(1946), “Port of Call” (1948), “The Devil’sWanton” (1948), and “Thirst” (1949). Bythe early 1950s, after three failed (of five)marriages and several liaisons, his filmsbegan dealing with the mysteries of love,loneliness and commitment. The director,like his protagonists, struggled throughout


plicated by multiple relationships as in“Fanny and Alexander” (1982), or it can betherapeutic as in “Persona” (1966). Theselater films of relationships can legitimate-ly be read as a continuation in metaphori-cal terms of the theological questions heexplored in his seven “God films.” Inother words, I’m suggesting a unifiedrather than disjunctive reading of hiswork.

The inherent unity of Bergman’ssense of alienation from both God andhumanity appears most clearly in the dualnarrative strands in “Winter Light.” Onestory rests squarely on theology. ALutheran pastor in a remote rural areasenses that he is losing his faith. His con-gregations are dwindling, he has little tosay to those in need, and he finds the rit-uals “ridiculous.” The second story cen-ters around his inability to accept humanlove offered to him by a parishioner, whoremains devoted to him even after whatappears to be the end of their previousinvolvement. She is a redeemer for him,but he rejects the food she offers, just asthe congregations stop coming for theEucharist he provides. Each story standson its own, but each comments on the

other, providing a different optic forviewing the pastor’s essential alienation.He longs to find some form of love in hislife, but when it comes, he cannot recog-nize or accept it. In a terrifying final shot,he continues the Communion servicebefore an empty church, as thoughresigned to continuing his search formeaning in the sparse light of aScandinavian winter.

During his “God period” Bergmanworked endless variations on the firststory. After he had banished God in “TheSilence,” he turned his attention to thesecond. I’m suggesting something morethan parallel narratives or interlockingthemes in Bergman’s work—that is, acohesive unity in his divine and humanquests. The search for love in the later“post-God” works at the very leastreflects the strong influence of his earliertheological concerns. Ingmar Bergmanexpresses the human search according to areligious template. But I would dare to gofurther: these troubled human relation-ships also reflect in metaphorical andpoetic terms our contemporary, ongoingstruggle to discover an authentic relation-ship to God.


A

the practice of “consulting the faithful inmatters of doctrine,” as Newman put it, isthe sine qua non for the effective receptionof the teaching, not least for Catholicsfighting distractionamid the de-cen-tered, pluralist,materialist and secu-lar culture of theUnited States. Andwhile the bishop isalso called to “gov-ern” the ecclesialcommunity, govern-ing and administer-ing is not the samething, as anybureaucrat knows.The laity can andshould be consultedon governance andempowered to agreater degree onpersonnel and finan-cial matters.

Practices and attitudes vary from dio-cese to diocese and parish to parish, withstrong parish councils a sign of healthierecclesial communities. The national pic-ture, however, is grim. With the notableexceptions of the preparation of the pas-toral letters on war and peace (1983) andthe U.S. economy (1986)—eruptions oftop-to-bottom collegiality that today seemas distant as Bishop John England’sbicameral, lay-clergy diocesan congress inantebellum South Carolina—precious lit-tle consulting has occurred in the 39 yearssince the promulgation of Humanae Vitae,Pope Paul VI’s reassertion of the ban onartificial birth control. Faced with the hor-ror of the sexual abuse crisis, some bish-ops, rightly concerned that their teachinghas fallen on deaf ears, made precisely thewrong decision by suggesting that thoseears be cut off (“pruned”). The ear-restor-ing Lord would seem unlikely to endorsethis pastoral strategy.

Lakeland, not alone in offering a diag-nosis of dysfunction, finds the situationuntenable and unacceptable. He is mostcompelling when challenging the theolog-ical and ecclesial arguments bolstering thepreference of some younger clergy (a.k.a.the “John Paul II priests”) for a kind ofpreconciliar dualism that ends in elevatingand thus alienating the ordained from the(merely) baptized. Marked by a mode of

The Time toMove on Is Now!Catholicism at theCrossroadsHow the Laity Can Save the ChurchBy Paul LakelandContinuum. 164p $19.95 (paperback)ISBN 9780826428103

Without the laity, Cardinal Newman onceremarked to his fellow clergymen, wewould look quite foolish.

If the faithful and forthright theolo-gian Paul Lakeland is to be believed—andI confess that I do believe him—the clergyand hierarchy are not alone today in look-ing foolish. We lay Catholics also wear thedunce cap. How else to characterize thebest educated and most sophisticated gen-erational cohort of Catholics in the histo-ry of the United States, the apatheticmajority of whom continue to accept reli-gious “infantilization” within an ecclesialstructure that privileges hierarchy at theexpense of community, fosters clericalelitism and condescends to the laity inmatters theological, spiritual, ethical and(even) financial and administrative?

Catholicism at the Crossroads is a lesstechnical, more widely accessible versionof Lakeland’s recent, incisive treatise TheLiberation of the Laity. In both works, cler-icalism is judged to be the prevailing sin ofthe institutional church. The gross episco-pal mishandling of priestly sexual abuseand the nearly complete failure of the U.S.bishops to proclaim doctrine in a morallypersuasive way to the majority ofCatholics (who blithely “dissent” on mat-ters ranging from sexual morality, war andthe sanctity of life to the exclusion ofwomen from the priesthood) are bestunderstood as “presenting” symptoms ofour deeper ecclesial dysfunction. Theunderlying problem is structural—theabsolute lack of a formal voice for the laityin the teaching or the governance of thechurch.

The bishops, not the laity, are the offi-cial teachers of the church, of course, but

interaction among priests and betweenpriests and laity that arrogates religiousauthority and insight exclusively to theordained, the new clericalism is based on

the erroneous assump-tion that ordinationconfers upon the recip-ient an “ontologicalchange” that need notfind expression in anever more profoundopenness to the otherin mutuality and dia-logue.

For Lakeland, bycontrast, the “realchange” effected by thesacrament of holyorders is relational, notontological. “In ordi-nation,” he urges, “thepriest acquires a newordo, a new set of rela-tionships to the com-munity.” Thus, the dis-

tinctiveness of ordained ministry lies “inthe particular quality of the relation of thepriest to the rest of the community, not insome inner, magical change in his verybeing.” Any such “change in being” occurswhen a person first becomes a Christian,that is, when she is baptized into the deathof the Lord, inherits the mission of thechurch and eventually assumes one ormore of the numerous ministries prepar-ing the world to receive the Gospel.

In promoting a communal/horizontalecclesiology over a hierarchical/verticalmodel of the church, Lakeland drawseffectively on Trinitarian theology:

Just as the call to Christian disci-pleship should suggest to us a lifelived according to the values andchoices of Jesus of Nazareth, so

Book Reviews

The ReviewersR. Scott Appleby is professor of historyand director of the Kroc Institute forInternational Peace Studies at the Universityof Notre Dame.

Nancy Hawkins, I.H.M., associate profes-sor of systematic theology at St. Bernard’sSchool of Theology and Ministry, Rochester,N.Y., did her doctoral dissertation onDorothee Soelle’s theology of God.

Peter Heinegg is professor of English atUnion College, Schenectady, N.Y.


you would think that the churchof God would reflect what seemsto be the divine preference forrelationship. What would happenif we modeled the church on thelife of God instead of on the struc-tures of the Roman Empire or theFord Motor Company? Onewould think that it would be agood thing.... When Vatican IImade the hierarchical structure ofthe church secondary to under-standing the church as the Peopleof God, it took a giant step towardgrowing closer to God. Hierarchydoes not reflect the divine life;mutuality does.

With its occasional invocation of con-tested terms such as “the spirit of VaticanII” and hot-button issues such as thedehumanizing effects of global capitalism,Catholicism at the Crossroads will not con-vert (neo-) conservatives who insist thatthe way forward is not first and foremostthe “liberation” of anyone (the poor,women, the laity in general), but ratherthe restoration of a purified clergy—menwho embrace the “eternal priesthood ofJesus Christ” into which they have beeninitiated as into an ancient mystery cult.

So be it. Within Lakeland’sTrinitarian and critical-liberationistframework, the hot-button issues take onrenewed meaning. His presentation of“accountability,” for example, as an act ofmutual stock-taking and ethical boundary-setting that prevents individuals from slid-ing into morally dangerous self-absorp-tion, thickens that hackneyed term, givingit a resonance for spouses, parents andchildren—that is, for anyone who has everbeen a member of a family. And far fromarguing for ecclesial lay ministers toreplace the ordained, Lakeland affirms thedistinction between the ordained ministryto the church and the lay ministry to theworld, while rejecting the dualism thatoften accompanies it.

Nor does he blame individuals for thedysfunction, but targets unapostolic struc-tures, suggesting in a riveting passage that“the structural oppression at work in thechurch” oppressed even so great a soul asJohn Paul II.

Moreover, Lakeland’s audience is notreaders of the periodical First Things, butrather people like the energetic new

grandmother I met recently, who holds adegree in religious education, takes cours-es at the local Catholic university, is polit-ically active in her community, admiresher pastor and loves the church—andworries not a little that prodigious lay tal-ent is being squandered by inadequatestructures and unimaginative leadership,precisely at a moment in U.S. Catholichistory when we need all the creativedynamism we can muster.

Her worry is for the loss of her grand-daughter to the church she loves.

R. Scott Appleby

Her ‘MissingChapter’The Mystery of Death By Dorothee SoelleFortress Press. 146p $15ISBN 9780800638917

In 2003 the theological community andthe world lost one of its most prolific anddown-to-earth Christian scholars,Dorothee Soelle. Her work endured fivedecades and spanned the period from thebirth of political theology to our presentglobalistic cyber-age. Soelle’s voice wasnot silenced at her death. Instead, she leftus what she considered the “missing chap-ter” to her work The Silent Cry: Mysticismand Resistance. Thissmall, reflective bookon death is a highlypersonal chronicle ofSoelle’s final conversa-tion with her inevitablecompanion, “Mr.Death,” as Soelle callshim. As usual, Soellerefuses to give him thelast word. Instead shefaces the experience ofimpending death headon, and brings it intothe realm of mysticalreflection.

Throughout TheMystery of Death, thereader will continue tohear the strong themesof all Soelle’s theology.There are her ponderings on suffering,which cause her to ask why contemporarypeople are unable to embrace death

instead of sanitizing it. She accuses us oflosing and ignoring the skills we need tolive radically in an age of violence anddeath. Once again Soelle calls upon hermentor Meister Eckhart as she challengesus to “live without a why.” We are so con-cerned with success that we fail to seedeath’s lessons, which are all around us. Iwas delighted to see once again her cri-tique of the persistent classical image ofthe omnipotent, distant Father-God,whose stoic removal from human experi-ence makes it impossible for so many toembrace the words of Paul in Romans:“Nothing can separate us from the love ofGod.” Soelle reminds the reader of thepower of these words. They counter anytheology that denies God’s presence in themidst of our sufferings and fears.

Early on in her career, Soelle wrote abook entitled Death by Bread Alone. In herreflections on death Soelle returns to thecore theme of this earlier work—that whattruly causes the death of human beings is alack of relationships and connectedness toothers. We of the 21st century work andwork for possessions and loaves of bread,but these cannot sustain us as we die fromaloneness. We watch endless hours oftelevision and go on the Internet but lacksignificant, longstanding friendships.These are not words from an aging the-ologian who longs for a previous time.Rather, they are astute words of an active

woman who recog-nizes that our con-temporary culture val-ues the young, thestrong and the good-looking. Soelle chal-lenges the reader towork for the breadthat lasts forever: thebread of care andcommunity.

I found the weak-est section of TheMystery of Death to bethe author’s thoughtson women and death.Her words seemforced, and whileSoelle insists thatwomen “naturally”face death “better”

than men, she refers the reader to numer-ous examples of male mystics and scholarsto make her point. Her words ring truer


when she concludes that it is mysticalexperience and language that allow us toembrace death as a natural and necessarypart of the spiritual journey. As with allSoelle’s books, the reader is exposed tomany unique themes being worked outalmost simultaneously. As one who hasread almost everything Soelle wrote, I amused to this pattern in her writing. But ifthis book is the reader’s first exposure toSoelle, there may be moments of confu-sion. One has a strong sense that Soelle ismaking the most of the time given her towrite down the final thoughts of a lifetime.

This meaningful book allows thereader to see into the very heart of itsauthor. Soelle, who championed the con-cept of spiritual resistance, is no longerresisting the coming of death. She sees itsshadow and is willing to invite it in. It isespecially moving to hear Soelle reflect onthe death of her mother in 1990. If she hadany doubt that something amazing wouldmanifest itself at the time of death, itended in that room. Soelle comes tounderstand more and more that every-thing she ever worked for, stood for andhoped for will live on after her death. Inpoetry she offers humor as she tells us allshe will do for death is die.

We cannot help but be grateful toDorothee Soelle for leaving us this finalmanuscript. That thanks extends to herfamily, especially to her husband, whohonored the requests of so many to pub-lish this book. He says she was tired as shepondered death’s arrival. I beg to differ.She was and will always continue to bethat feisty, committed, radical Christianwho believed in a world where death canand should be conquered by human loveand faith. Nancy Hawkins

Hold theIncenseGertrude BellQueen of the Desert,Shaper of Nations By Georgina HowellAlfred A. Knopf. xix + 481p $27.50ISBN 9780374161620

Here are two incontrovertible truthsabout Gertrude Bell (1868-1926): she was


a brilliant, wise, fascinating woman; andshe played a significant role in the creationof modern Iraq. But “Queen of the Des-ert”? “Shaper ofNations”? (The orig-inal British editionhad a quieter title:Daughter of the Desert:The Remarkable Life ofGertrude Bell.) Geor-gina Howell, anexperienced journal-ist, is so smitten withher wonderful, hy-peractive subject thatshe does not mindvaulting beyond theknown facts intospeculative fantasies(might Henry Jameshave modeled Nan-da, the heroine of TheAwkward Age, onGertrude Bell?); ima-ginative reconstruc-tions (“Every day, in her head, she heardthe bombardment that was a prelude to aninfantry assault....”); and embellishmentsof Bell’s legend (she passes on with astraight face the wild adventures thatGertrude supposedly confided to KingFaisal and that he supposedly retold to areporter from the nondescriptEverybody’s Weekly, whence the block-buster article “Secrets of Great WhiteWoman of the Desert Which Were NotRevealed in Her Book”). Pace, Ms.Howell, we may greatly doubt thatGertrude ever journeyed and fought alonein the desert, disguised herself as a cameldriver or was arrested and nearly torturedby the Turks.

So much for the bad news. Despitesuch lapses, Howell tells a gripping storyand does full justice to the woman whomthe Arabs called simply Al Qatun, theLady, and whose talents won her a uniquethough not defining place in the annals ofthe Middle East. (How could any femalehave led the way in such male-dominatedcultures?) Born to a family of rich indus-trialists, she was the first woman to winfirst-class honors in history at Oxford(where she sped through in two years). Aglobe-trotting polyglot, she masteredPersian and Arabic, which she spoke farmore fluently than most of the men sheworked for, including T. E. Lawrence. In

her late 20’s she casually took up moun-tain climbing, and quickly acquired world-class skills as an Alpinist, in between trips

to Istanbul, Jeru-salem, Damascus,Beirut, Delhi andelsewhere. A vivid,impassioned writer(The Desert and theSown, and 10 otherbooks), she alsobecame a translatorof classical Iranianpoetry, a Red Crossadministrator, horti-culturalist, archaeol-ogist, photographerand mapper of thewilderness. Wasthere anything shecould not do?

Bell’s personallife was marked bytwo tragedies: herlove for Henry

Cadogan, the spirited secretary to theBritish legation in Teheran (her parentsquashed the engagement, owing to hispoverty; and soon afterward he died ofpneumonia after falling into an icy river)and for Dick Doughty-Wylie, an unhap-

pily married career diplomat, who solvedhis emotional dilemma when Gertruderefused adultery and demanded hedivorce his wife by walking unarmed intocertain death at Gallipoli in 1915. Thisheartbreak doubtless played a role in herown suicide by barbiturate overdose 11years later.

On the other hand, celibacy left Bellfree to do all sorts of amazing things: tobe elected the first woman fellow of theNational Geographical Society; to serveas a civil and military officer (the firstwoman again) at the Arab IntelligenceBureau in Cairo; to advise the viceroy inIndia; to arrange the visit of Ibn Saud toBasra; to be appointed oriental secretaryto the civil administration in Iraq; to bemade a commander of the British Empire;and to submit a notable paper to the ParisPeace Conference on the future of Meso-potamia—the list goes on.

The jacket-photo of Bell on a camel(she was an expert equestrienne from girl-hood) flanked by the similarly mountedWinston Churchill and Lawrence, withthe Sphinx and the pyramids in the back-ground, was more than just a predictablephoto-op from the 1921 CairoConference, which dealt with Iraq andPalestine. If not a mover-and-shaker, Bell


without guile

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Bound VolumesAMERICA PRESS INC. is looking to acquire a setof bound volumes of America for a digital scan-ning project. A complete set is preferred, but par-tial sets are also acceptable. In return for the vol-umes, America Press will provide a searchable CDor DVD set with the full contents of the magazinefrom 1909 until the present. For more informa-tion contact Tim Reidy at [email protected], or Ph: (212) 515-0111.

CardsNOTE CARDS for pastoral ministry. Free shippingto continental U.S.; www.smallsmallacts.com.

Parish MissionsINSPIRING, DYNAMIC PREACHING. Parish mis-sions, faculty in-service, retreats for religious.Web site: www.sabbathretreats.org.

PositionsASSOCIATE EDITOR, Creative Communicationsfor the Parish. Leading Catholic devotional andecumenical publisher seeks associate editor. Thesuccessful candidate can demonstrate ability tocollaborate and to take initiative, generate ideasfor new products and see projects through to finalprinting. Excellent writing, editing and proof-reading skills together with a knowledge ofCatholic faith and practice are essential, as is theability to work with a variety of word processingand page layout platforms. Please respond to:Editor, Creative Communications for the Parish,1564 Fencorp Drive, Fenton, MO 63026-2942.

DIOCESAN DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES.The Diocese of San Bernardino has an immediateopening for an experienced human resources pro-fessional to oversee the H.R. function for thisdiverse Catholic community. We require a mini-mum of 10 years of management-level experiencein all aspects of employment law, strategic plan-ning, training, recruitment, benefits managementand team development.

The qualified candidate will have strong ver-bal and written communication skills, good orga-nizational and analytical ability as well as provenleadership skills in a multiple location organiza-tion. Must be bilingual Spanish/English and apracticing Catholic in good standing.

This is an excellent opportunity for personaland professional growth in a dynamic, growingdiocese with a reputation for having a forward-thinking approach to contemporary church issues.

Qualified candidates, please send yourrésumé to: Diocese of San Bernardino , 1201 E.Highland Avenue, San Bernardino, CA 92404;Fax: (909) 475-5189; e-mail: [email protected].

DIRECTOR, Paul Bechtold Library at CatholicTheological Union, Chicago, Ill. CatholicTheological Union, seeks a Director for its PaulBechtold Library. C.T.U. is the largest Catholicgraduate school of theology and ministry in the

United States, with a diverse and internationalstudent body and a variety of academic and pas-toral programs at the master’s and doctoral(D.Min.) level. Its Bechtold Library housesapproximately 150,000 volumes, mainly in theol-ogy and related fields, and has a significant degreeof computerization. The library has active collab-orative relationships with the Association ofChicago Theological Schools libraries, theChicago Area Theological Library Association,the Chicago Library System and the College andResearch Libraries of Illinois, (formally ILSCO).The Director reports to the Vice President andAcademic Dean and is responsible for the overalladministration of the library and its staff. TheDirector works with the administration and facul-ty in the strategic development of the library's col-lection and maintains the library as an integralteaching component of the school and its curricu-lum. The director also represents the interests ofthe library and the school to its various publicsand collaborating institutions. The Director holdsfaculty status and works closely with other depart-ments and with the faculty.

Qualifications: holder of degree in library sci-ence and experience in library administration;comfortable in the environment of a Catholicgraduate school of theology; able to work collab-oratively with faculty and staff; conversant with allfacets of library information technology; able tothink strategically about the development of thelibrary and its services. Send résumé to: Office ofthe Vice President and Academic Dean, CatholicTheological Union, 5401 South Cornell Avenue,Chicago, IL 60615; e-mail: [email protected]ésumés will be reviewed beginning Sept. 1 andwill continue until the position is filled.

DIRECTOR OF SPIRITUAL PROGRAMMING.Mount Saint Joseph Conference and RetreatCenter, Maple Mount, Ky., is seeking person tofill full-time position. Responsibilities: spiritualprogram planning, giving retreats, doing spiritualdirection, working with parishes on spiritual pro-grams. Requirements: Bachelor’s degree oradvanced degree in spirituality and/or theology.Spiritual direction training required. Must havesome experience in giving retreats and spiritualprograms. Deadline: Sept. 15, 2007. Send résuméto: Mount Saint Joseph Center, 8001 CummingsRoad, Maple Mount, KY 42356; Fax: (270) 229-0279; e-mail: [email protected];www.msjcenter.org.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of Nativity Prep Academyof San Diego. Religious or lay leader to headCatholic college-prep middle school in southeastSan Diego. Sixty students with faculty of 10.Oversees academics, development and operations.Position starts in July 2008 with salary commen-surate with experience and credentials. Requestinformation from: Dr. Richard Kelly, 6222Cardeno Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037; e-mail:[email protected].

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, Archdiocese ofGalveston-Houston, Houston, Tex. The

was an invaluable, deeply respectedresource and, against all odds, “one of theboys.” As she had musingly written fromHaifa in 1904, “I am much entertained tofind that I am a Person in this country—they all think I am a Person!” Bell’syounger contemporary and passingacquaintance, Virginia Woolf, would haveunderstood.

Bell has been receiving a great deal ofattention lately (biographies by JanetWallach in 1996, H. V. F. Winstone in2004, and Liora Lukitz in 2006). Giventhe Anglo-American-sponsored catastro-phe in Iraq, it is hard not to be jolted bythe acuteness of her judgments, made longbefore the end of colonialism. Sheacknowledged that Western-style democ-racy meant next to nothing in the disjectamembra of the Ottoman Empire. She sup-ported the better-educated, more secularSunni minority over the majority tribalShiites (“Otherwise you will have a...theo-cratic state, which is the very devil”). Sheworried about the Kurds (still the largestethnic group in the world without theirown country), who could neither be givennor denied autonomy. And she continual-ly predicted that the Balfour Declarationwould wreak havoc among the Arabs. Ifshe could see the situation today, shecould only shake her head—and tear herhair.

One final paradoxical feature of Bell’scareer: she fought vigorously againstwoman suffrage (thinking that poorwomen would never find the time to learnabout political issues). But then she was ina number of ways bourgeois-convention-al: an obedient daughter, a fearless explor-er surrounded by servants and giganticpiles of luggage and a fashion plate whoinsisted on modest dress whether scram-bling up glaciers or trekking across sun-blasted sands. And she frequently voicedher contempt for the idle, decorativewives of her male colleagues. It is not easyto change the world with nary a rolemodel in sight.

If she had written about a less dynam-ic woman, Howell might have beenaccused of puffery. Not here: Bell standsout in Howell’s lively account as both apioneer from the heroic past and a haunt-ing figure for the present: imagine if shewere guiding our foreign policy throughthese parlous times. Hold the incense—asigh will do. Peter Heinegg


Classified

Much To Tell UsHaving been a lay missionary, I muchappreciated the article “The New, LayFace of Missionaries,” by VincentGragnani (7/30). I would certainlyencourage anyone who can to spendsome time doing mission work, either inthe United States or abroad. While we allhope and try to help the persons withwhom we work in the missions toimprove their lives both spiritually andphysically, it often seems that the onesmost to gain from the mission experienceare the missionaries themselves.

When we joined the IncarnateWord Missionaries, connected to theIncarnate Word Sisters (Texas), one ofthe things that attracted us was therequirement listed on their brochure: “awillingness to be evangelized by thepoor.” We found that the poor reallydid have much to teach us. We began tosee how other values, not materialthings, dominated their lives: family,faith, sharing, caring, conversation,appreciation of small things. When wearrived home, the first thing we noticedwas how much, how very much we allhad.

Another important aspect of our liv-ing in Latin America was the opportunityto see the United States through the eyesof Latinos. It was often not a pretty pic-ture, even though many persons in LatinAmerica would like to have some of theprivileges we had. We came home eagerto do what we could to change Americanattitudes toward those who live south ofus.

Lucy Fuchs Brandon, Fla.

Radical ChangeThank you for the article “Treatment,Not Prison,” (5/28) by Peter Ninemire.Peter is absolutely right. Our approach todrug and alcohol addiction is anothercase of a long overdue need for a radicalchange in direction. Thousands of livesare irreparably damaged and billions of

dollars are wasted each year by laws andpenal practices that are not sufficientlyrestorative.

Rudy Cypser Katonah, N.Y.

National InterestWhen politicians and diplomats speak ofour national interest in the Middle East,they avoid mentioning that this interest isdue to the fact that the life blood of ourcommerce and of almost everything thatmoves in our land—oil—flows mainlythere. Since fighting for oil does notevoke popular support, rather the reverse,a series of reasons is given for havingtroops there. Even though it is no secretthat terrorism is spawned by the presenceof “infidel” troops in Muslim lands, thistoo is not mentioned, lest policy beundermined.

Those like Bishop Ibrahim (“Signsof the Times,” 7/16), whose thinking isnot conditioned by our Mideast needs,can speak candidly and objectively. Iraqiimams agree with the bishop that it isour occupation that sets Sunnis andShiites against each other. SalmanFuraiji, a Shiite, said, “We shall contin-ue our demand for the withdrawal of theoccupation forces.” Sheik IbrahimNima, a Sunni, said, “It is the occupa-tion forces that are responsible for whathas happened and what is happening.”Sunnis and Shiites co-exist in otherMuslim countries, and though notfriends, they are not engaged in openlyhostile activity.

Instead of using the gun, we canassure our share of oil by friendly rela-tions, diplomacy and the dollar.Otherwise, we will live with hatred andterrorism permanently.

(Rev.) Connell J. MaguireRiviera Beach, Fla.

Tradition of Our CharismThe article “Bless Me, Father,” by JamesMartin, S.J., and the delightful musingsof George Wilson, S.J., (5/21) offer a

Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Tex., seeks aSuperintendent of Schools for its 62 schools. Thesuccessful candidate will have a master’s degree inschool administration or related fields, a doctoratepreferred; at least five to seven years’ experience inleadership positions at the Catholic school anddiocesan level. Texas administrative credential orequivalent is preferred; bilingual in Spanish a plus.An active and practicing Catholic in good stand-ing with the church and a visionary leader able toinspire co-workers, will support and implementthe Archdiocesan Strategic Plan, work well withstaff and collaborate with the school board andother diocesan officials. The successful candidatewill have knowledge and experience in curricu-lum, budgeting and personnel management, andwill provide leadership for the spiritual develop-ment of children. The new Superintendent willembrace ethnic and racial diversity, providingwelcoming and accepting leadership.Commitment to inner city and less affluentschools and the ability to direct state accreditationare essential.

Salary and benefits are commensurate witheducation and experience. Nov. 1, 2007, availabil-ity preferred; Jan. 1, 2008, will be considered.Interested and qualified candidates are asked tosubmit a letter of interest addressing the require-ments and skills listed above, a résumé and names,addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone num-bers of five professional references to:Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston SearchCommittee, Catholic School Management Inc.,P. O. Box 4071, Madison, CT 06443-4071 or bye-mail to: [email protected] of applications will begin Sept. 4, 2007,with interviews scheduled in late September.

ResourcesHOMILISTS, PREACHERS. Stories, images andresources to assist you in your ministry:www.connections-mediaworks.com.

RetreatsAGING...OUR PERSONAL JOURNEY TOJERUSALEM. Fall retreat at Bethany SpiritualityCenter, Highland Mills, N.Y., Nov. 11-15,Director: Ann Billard, O.L.M., Ph.D. For infor-mation, call (845) 460-3061; www.bethanyspiritu-alitycenter.org.

BETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, Ind.,offers private and individually directed silentretreats, including Ignatian 30 days, year-round ina prayerful home setting. Contact Joyce Diltz,P.H.J.C.: (219) 398-5047; [email protected]; www.bethanyretreathouse.org.

BETHANY SPIRITUALITY CENTER invites you tocome with us to celebrate St. Francis and St. Clarein Assisi, LaVerna, Florence, Siena and Rome:March 26-April 3, 2008. Bill Drobach, S.A., andPatricia Reid, O.S.F., will lead the pilgrimage.Liturgy will be celebrated daily at Franciscan sites.A special flier is available with details. Please call(845) 460-3061 or visit www.bethanyspirituality-center.org.


Letters

To send a letter to the editor we recommend using the link that appears at the bottom of articles onAmerica’s Web site, www.americamagazine.org. This allows us to consider your letter for publicationin both print and online versions of the magazine. Letters should be as brief as possible and includethe writer’s name, postal address and daytime phone number. Letters may also be sent to Ameri-ca’s editorial office (address on page 2) or by e-mail to: [email protected]. Letters maybe edited for length and clarity.

ANQUET SCENES are frequentin the Bible. Jesus used mealsshared with all kinds of personsas occasions to impart his wise

teachings and as symbols for life in thecoming kingdom of God. Banquets areespecially prominent in Luke’s Gospel,and most of Luke 14 presents Jesus’ teach-ings in the context of a meal at the houseof a leading Pharisee.

The two teachings in today’s readingbelong to the category of wisdom teach-ings about God’s kingdom. By all accountsJesus was a wisdom teacher. But his wis-dom can be properly appreciated onlywhen it is placed in the context of his cen-tral theme: the kingdom of God.

Jesus’ first wise teaching looks likeshrewd and even calculating behavior at awedding banquet. If you are only a distantrelative or friend of the bride or groom,you should not seat yourself at the headtable. The chances are that someone will

come by and inform you thatyou belong at the back of thehall. How embarrassing it willbe for you to have to move tothe back of the hall in front ofall the other guests! A wiserstrategy would be to seat yourself first atthe back. Then if by chance you are sum-

moned to the head table, all the otherguests will see you and conclude that youmust be very important indeed.

On the surface this advice may appearto be practical wisdom, something espe-cially significant in an honor-shame soci-ety. On the theological level, however, it is

Banquet WisdomTwenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (C), Sept. 2, 2007

Readings: Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Ps 68:4-7, 10-11; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24;Luke 14:1, 7-14

“Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame,the blind” (Luke 14:13)


The Word

BJesus’ reminder that the banquet in God’skingdom is not for the rich and powerfulonly. Rather, it is especially for the hum-ble, for those who recognize that in com-parison with God we all are poor andinsignificant. Jesus promises that such per-sons will be exalted.

Jesus’ second teaching is about whoshould be invited to your house for dinner.On the surface, it may not seem very wiseat all. Jesus tells his host (“a leadingPharisee”) to invite marginal persons (“thepoor, the crippled, the lame, the blind”) tohis house. Recall that the Pharisees werethe great Jewish proponents of the doc-trine of the general resurrection and ofrewards and punishments after death.Jesus agreed with the Pharisees on thesematters.

According to most practical humanwisdom, it would be wiser to invite to yourhouse those who might be able to benefityou in the future. This policy, of course, is A

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DANIEL J. HARRINGTON, S.J., is professor ofNew Testament at Weston Jesuit School ofTheology in Cambridge, Mass.

Praying With Scripture• Why are banquets often good occa-sions for sharing wisdom?

• Who might you imagine havingprominent places at the banquet inGod’s kingdom?

• Does your belief in resurrection everenter into your decisions about doinggood deeds?

timely framework for discussions aboutthe sacrament of reconciliation. Thesearticles contribute a thoughtful analysis asto why confession is a floating sacramentnowadays, and they give helpful pointersfor its renewed cate-chesis in our lives.Our experience hearing confessions hereat St. Francis of Assisi may shed somelight on this discussion.

We are located just steps fromPennsylvania Station in Manhattan. Thelower church serves as a chapel foreucharistic meditation as well as a recon-

ciliation chapel made up of four comfort-able and welcoming rooms. The generaleffect is an atmosphere of silent prayer, aplace of calm and peace.

The schedule of confessions is daily,generous and accommodating, with 14friars sharing this ministry. We havemonthly meetings that touch on howwell we are ministering to the people asconfessors. We share our understandingof the issues our people face and howbest to help them. Increasingly we takethe view that reconciliation is a healing

ministry. We are aware too how much the

grace of penitence invites the confessorto healing conversion in his own life.Sometimes we welcome a person to con-tact our counseling center or to considera 12-step or self-help group, of which wehost a large number. Our location andthe peace tradition of our charism helpdraw people from far and wide. Christ ishere in silent intimacy.

Kevin Tortorelli, O.F.M. New York, N.Y.


enlightened self-interest, and it seems tomake the world go around. By suggestingthat the leading Pharisee should invitethose who could not benefit him at all (atleast in this life), Jesus challenges thePharisee (and us) to examine why we dowhat we do and what we really believeabout life after death. Do we do gooddeeds to get a good reputation or to bene-fit materially or achieve some other imme-diate goal? Or do we believe enough in theresurrection and the divine judgment toleave the rewards for our good deeds tothe justice and mercy of God?

The Cost ofDiscipleshipTwenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (C),Sept. 9, 2007

Readings: Wis 9:13-18; Ps 90:3-6, 12-17;Phlm 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33

“Whoever does not carry his own crossand come after me cannot be my disci-ple” (Luke 14:27)

N THE LATE 1930s, DietrichBonhoeffer, then the most promis-ing Protestant theologian inGermany, wrote a book entitled in

English The Cost of Discipleship. Severalyears afterward he was arrested and exe-cuted for resisting Hitler and the Nazis.For Bonhoeffer discipleship—fidelity tothe Gospel and Christian principles—had

a very high cost. His experience has beenrepeated many times since, for example,by Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., and his compan-ions in El Salvador.

Today’s reading from Luke 14 con-cerns the high cost of discipleship and theneed to count that cost. It consists of three“hard” sayings and two parables. The firsthard saying places before the prospectivedisciple the choice between followingJesus and family ties.This was an evenmore difficult choicein Jesus’ culture thanit is for most peoplein 21st-centuryAmerica. The term“hate” in the saying,while an obviousexaggeration, un-derlines the overrid-ing importance ofGod’s kingdom andfollowing Jesus.

The secondhard saying asserts that following Jesus canand will involve suffering. Those whodecide to follow Jesus must be prepared totake up the cross, here understood as aninstrument of shame as well as of physicaltorment, and imitate Jesus’ example of suf-fering for the sake of God’s kingdom.

The hard sayings are interrupted bytwo parables about counting the cost ofdiscipleship. The first parable concerns aman who contemplates building a tower.Unless he carefully plans out the projectand calculates the cost, he will not be ableto finish it and so will appear as a foolbefore his neighbors. Similarly, a kingwho wants to go to war must take account

of the strength of his own army and whathe can expect from his enemies.Otherwise, he will have to beg for a peacetreaty and suffer shame before his oppo-nents and his own troops. The point ofthese parables is that we must take accountof the high cost that discipleship mayexact.

The third hard saying concernsrenouncing material possessions to follow

Jesus. This toowould have beenvery challengingin Jesus’ time. Insome circles hav-ing many posses-sions was inter-preted as a bless-ing from God anda sign of one’scleverness andg o o d n e s s .Moreover, therewas no welfarestate or social safe-

ty net (beyond the family) to provide thepoor with the basic necessities of humanlife. Again the extreme nature of the chal-lenge highlights the overriding impor-tance of God’s kingdom and followingJesus.

While following Jesus may have a highcost, what makes discipleship possible isthe grace of God. We are not alone as weaccompany Jesus and move toward thefullness of life in God’s kingdom. We candeal with the cost of discipleship, asBonhoeffer and Ellacuría did, only if weare convinced that God is with us, direct-ing and helping us along the way.

Daniel J. Harrington

I

Praying With Scripture• Can you think of recent examples ofpersons who have remained faithful totheir Christian principles despite thehigh cost of doing so?

• How do the “hard” sayings of Jesusbring out the overriding significance ofGod’s kingdom in his teaching?

• Has trying to be faithful to theGospel ever been costly for you per-sonally?

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Hear Ourselves ConfessingMany thanks to James Martin, S.J., forhis article, in the May 21 issue, on thesacrament of reconciliation, written withhis accustomed clarity and economy ofphrase.

Might I suggest another possiblereason for the decline in its usage sincethe Second Vatican Council? It mayhave been a carry over from a defectivesacramental theology that predominatedin the years before the council, in whichthe sacraments were viewed principally

as causes of grace, with little importanceattached to their sign value. In the sacra-mental economy established at theIncarnation we can see a certain patternin God’s dealings with us, whereby Godreaches us and we reach God throughhuman realities and gestures.

As Archbishop Donald W. Wuerlwas quoted as saying in the article, “It’sa human need to hear from the otherside.”

Yes! And we need to hear ourselvesconfessing our sins; “this is our gesture

of sorrow and repentance” as well ashearing God’s word of forgiveness spo-ken by the priest.

Thomas L. Sheridan, S.J. Jersey City, N.J.

america · first big whiff of party politics. or maybe the story is this: the party-politics bug...

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