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salemwitchtrials

C R E I G H TON U N I V E RS I T Y ■ FA L L 19 9 8C R E I G H TON U N I V E RS I T Y ■ FA L L 19 9 8

And the story of Philip and Mary English

salemwitchtrialsAnd the story of Philip and Mary English

Volume 15/Number 1 ■ Creighton University ■ Fall 1998

Core purpose of sportsThank you for the timely article on

the importance of sportsmanship(Summer ‘98). With two young adoles-cent children playing competitive sports,this issue is important to our family.Fortunately, our children’s coaches exem-plify the qualities outlined in the article.During their season, I have seen theproblems Dr. Feezell outlined in his article. Most children will not grow up to be collegiate or professional athletes. All of them, however, can develop character, which will transcend theirsports career. Thank you, Dr. Feezell, forreinforcing this core purpose of the athletic experience.

Robert Sandstrom, Ph.D., P.T.Creighton Department of Physical

Therapy

Good sports hard to findI found Dr. Feezell’s article on sports-

manship very timely and insightful. As aparent of four children who are deeplyinvolved in sports, it has become moreand more difficult to find examples ofgood sportsmanship at the level thatthey play and on the collegiate and pro-fessional levels. His “10 Ways to Raise aGood Sport” are right on the mark. Wehave been following a set of guidelinessimilar to these with our children.Unfortunately, not many parents do.Games have become so stressful for us asparents that they are no longer fun.Sitting at a game, listening to the lan-guage and watching the behavior, itreminds us that our society in generalhas become less kind, more belligerent,more win at all costs, winning is everything. We have forgotten how tohave fun.

We have been fortunate so far becauseour children have had coaches who feelthe same as we do. My youngest sonbegins youth football tomorrow. I plan to

2 Creighton University WINDOW

WINDOW Magazine may edit Lettersto the Editor, primarily to conform tospace limitations. Personally signedletters are given preference for publi-

cation. Our FAX telephone number is:(402) 280-2549. E-mail to:window@creighton.edu

LETTERS

Publisher: Creighton University; Rev. Michael G. Morrison, S.J., President; Michael E. Leighton, Vice President forUniversity Relations. WINDOW staff: Stephen T. Kline, Executive Editor; Rick Davis, Editor; Pamela A. Vaughn, AssociateEditor. Editorial Advisors: Rev. Donald A. Doll, S.J.; Charles J. Dougherty, Ph.D.; Richard L. O’Brien, M.D., Allen B.Schlesinger, Ph.D, and David G. Schultenover, S.J.

Creighton University WINDOW (USPS728-070) is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by CreightonUniversity, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178-0001. Periodicals postage paid at Omaha, Nebraska, and additionalentry points. Address all mail to Public Relations and Information, Omaha, NE 68178. Postmaster: Send change of address toCreighton University WINDOW, P.O. Box 3266, Omaha, NE 68103-0078.

COPYRIGHT © 1998 BY CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY

Pursuant to our educational obligation to search for truth and to expand knowledge, WINDOW Magazine promotes the dis-cussion of a variety of issues. Although published by a Catholic, Jesuit university, the opinions expressed in WINDOW arenot intended to be construed as the official teaching or position of Creighton University or of the Catholic Church.

The Hunted Dr. Bryan Le Beau, chair of the Department of History, isthe author of a new book on the Salem witch trials (pictured

at right). Inside this issue, Dr. Le Beau chronicles theordeal of two of the accused. See Page 4.

Dancing with Steel A sculpture by Creighton’s Littleton Alston,titled the “Tree of Life,” takes root in Chicago.Read more about how the artist brought it to life,

beginning on Page 12.

Theology in the Pit of the StomachRoger Bergman, director of the Justice and Peace StudiesProgram, joined a group of Arts and Sciencesstudents in the Dominican Republic this past

spring as part of Creighton’s SemestreDominicano. What did they discover? Findout, starting on Page 16.

Strength Training Over 50 Dr. Thomas Baechle, chair of Creighton’sExercise Science Department, has a messagefor aging baby boomers: If you want to enjoyan active retirement, start strength trainingnow. See story on Page 22.

On the cover:

“Examination of a Witch,” oil on canvas by T.H. Matteson,1853. Courtesy, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.

Alumnews ...............................................................................Pages 26-27

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hand out Dr. Feezell’s “10 Ways to Raisea Good Sport.” I think it is an excellentway to begin the season. Thank you, Dr.Feezell. As a gift, each of my children’scoaches will receive your book.

Deb Roscoe Traub, BSN’78Albuquerque, N.M.

Cover story disappointsI have enjoyed reading the issues of

WINDOW but was really disappointed inthe cover and the story “WhateverHappened to Sportsmanship?”

I think Dr. Feezell’s article wouldhave been much more effective if hewould have written about and shownpictures of those athletes who exemplifygood sportsmanship. There were sixawful pictures of disgraceful athletes.Why honor them with pictures when youcould have honored so many other goodathletes? I’m sure Creighton has many ofthem right there. Kansas State had a nicecover and story about its tight end JarrettGrosdidier this fall. What an honor tohim, his family and friends! How doesone make the news and get on TV?Commit a crime? There are a lot of goodpeople in the world (e.g., Fr. Portz). Let’shear more about them.

Sr. Mary Grosdidier, OSB, MA’60Atchison, Kan.

Editor’s note: The pictures and coverart were chosen by the editor.Unfortunately, the precepts of goodsportsmanship — respect, humility, hon-or — are difficult to illustrate. Alsounfortunately, acts of poor sportsman-ship in contemporary sports abound (asthe pictures illustrate and the articlestates), and we felt this fact could not be ignored.

‘Ostrich in the sand’Dr. John Dunn’s letter (Summer ‘98)

complaining about an alleged bias inMary Heng’s article on labor really takesthe cake. It might help if Dunn wouldread some of Studs Turkel’s work so thathe might better appreciate the positiveworks the labor movement has broughtthis country.

His letter seems to ignore the incredi-ble problems in his own area that threat-en to bankrupt the country. Inflationrates for the medical field fairly consis-

tently tripled the inflation rate of the restof the economy as doctors, hospitals andinsurance companies (all with incestuousrelationships) fought for more and morewith little to stop them. Right now muchmore of our population is left uncoveredfor medical benefits than at the time theClinton health bill was attempted.Almost any person can be pretty wellbankrupted at any time by medical costs.

As far as socialism is concerned, a sin-gle-payer, government-run medical pro-gram would be much cheaper and effi-cient than what we now have. All thehorror stories of such a program are com-ing true anyway with the HMO mess,but with little of the advantages.

Dr. Dunn’s letter reminds me of thesupposed “ostrich in the sand concept.”

Stephen P. Horn, BS’61, MS’71Blair, Neb.

Contemplative gentlenessI finished reading the engaging article

about Fr. Bernard Portz, S.J. (Summer‘98). I met Fr. Portz when I was a parish-ioner at St. John’s Church on theCreighton campus. I spent eight years inOmaha completing my graduate degreein public administration and doctorate inpublic policy. Reading the words in thearticle reminded me of the man I encoun-tered during parish liturgy planningmeetings, conducting a BaccalaureateMass choir rehearsal, walking in theJesuit Gardens, or praying near the frontof St. John’s close to the east door.Contemplative gentleness best describesFr. Portz. This is what I hope to exudeduring my time on this planet — just likeFr. Portz. I am grateful that he showedme another aspect of my personality. Iwish Fr. Portz a very happy retirement.

Gregory Fant, Ph.D.Kansas City, Mo.

Portz article strikes chordThank you for the piece on Fr. Portz.

One of my happier memories ofCreighton was being in the chorus for ayear. Fr. Portz’s love of music and peoplewas obvious if you were his pupil. Evenif your talent (as mine was) lacked a littlesomething, he treated you the same ashis more talented students. His love ofmusic made everyone work hard in asubject one might have considered an

easy credit. And it helped lead me to aninterest in musical theater that still sur-vives to this day. I’m sure I am among hismany ex-students wishing Fr. Portz hap-piness in his retirement.

Jerry Wilson, BA’75York, Neb.

Rare books knownIt was a pleasure to read of the anti-

quarian volumes in the article “RareBooks” (Summer ‘98). I am pleased to seethat new state-of-the-art preservationtechniques have been provided for thesescarce volumes in the Klutznick LawLibrary. However, it would be erroneousto conclude that the present library staffwas the first to recognize the value of thiscollection.

Former Dean Steven P. Frankino toldme about the valuable old books in 1973,when they were housed in the JesuitAttic. The law library, at the time, waslocated in what is now the HitchcockBuilding. When the library was moved tothe present Ahmanson Law Center in1975, Frankino advised the law librarystaff to provide for the rare books in theTePoel Rare Book Room of the KlutznickLaw Library. In 1976, the rare book col-lection was moved from the Jesuit Atticto its new home, which Frankino referredto as the “jewel case” of the KlutznickLaw Library.

Many library staff members havesince contributed to the cataloging, con-servation and preservation of these vol-umes. The “rare books” were identifiedin the card catalog and in the shelf list ofthe Klutznick Law Library. This allowedthe public to access the material andalerted staff to a book’s rarity to preventaccidental withdrawals from the collec-tion. In addition, each volume wasentered in the accession records of thelibrary.

To preserve the works, the volumeswere dusted and oil was applied to thebindings annually.

With these few notes to fill in the gapsof the history of the Klutznick LawLibrary, I bow in respect to our manypredecessors who cared lovingly for thebibliographic treasures.

Robert Q. Kelly,Former director, Klutznick Law Library

(1973-1990)

3Fall Issue 1998

Creighton University WINDOW4

By Bryan Le Beau, Ph.D.

The Ordeal of Philip and Mary English

Editor’s note: Le Beau, chair of the Department of History, coordinator of Creighton’s American Studies Program and a Massachusetts native, has always had an interest in the Salemwitch trials. But it wasn’t until he discovered that his wife, Chris,was a descendant of two of the accused that he started studying the lives of Philip and Mary English. At the time, very little had

been written about the Englishes. Le Beau found the couple uniqueamong the accused for their prominence and wealth. The Englishesescaped the gallows. (They were among only a handful of thoseaccused to actually flee Salem.) But they could not escape thespecter of the witch trials, which continued to haunt them untiltheir deaths.

as he lay dying, Philip English did his Christianduty. He forgave those who had trespassed againsthim. Still he could not resist adding in reference to

his neighbor, Judge John Hathorne: “[But] if I get well, I’llbe damned if I forgive him!” The year was 1736, andPhilip English was a broken man. But just what didHathorne have to do with it? The story begins more than40 years earlier with one of the most dramatic and tragicevents in early American history. Philip English had beenamong the accused at the Salem witch trials. Hathornehad been one of his judges.

Between June 10 and Sept. 22, 1692, 19 people werehanged for witchcraft in Salem, Mass. One man was

pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea (rocks werepiled on his chest), and more than 150 others from 24towns and villages were jailed, where an additional fouradults and one infant died. The Salem witch trials wereonly a small part of the Great European Witch Hunt thatlasted from the middle of the 15th century until late in the17th century, resulting in the deaths of thousands of individuals. What happened in Salem was only “a smallincident in the history of a great super-stition,” one historian has written,but it was nevertheless the largestoutbreak of its kind in theBritish colonies of North America, and it has never lost its grip on the popularimagination.

Signs of the devil firstappeared in Massachusettsduring the winter of1691/1692. Salem winters werelong, and typically the childrenof Puritan minister Samuel Parriswere confined to their housefor what must have seemed aneternity. They had little else tooccupy their time but theirchores and listening to Parris’slave, Tituba, reminisce about

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The Salem witch trials were only asmall part of the

Great European WitchHunt, which was an amalgam of hundreds ofseparate hunts occurringthroughout Europe andthe Americas. Mostinvolved only a handful ofindividuals; a few num-bered in the hundreds.

What characterized the largest episodes was the naming ofnames, or attempts on the part of those charged to escapethe gallows or stake (they hanged witches in England andNew England; they burned them elsewhere) by accusingothers of the same crime. In Trier (France), for example, 300witches accused another 1,500 individuals. Large hunts alsowere characterized by hysteria. In the area around Eichstätt(Germany), 274 witches were executed in one year. InQuedlinburg (Germany), 133 went to the gallows in one day! More about the Great European Witch Hunt appears inthe gray boxes throughout this story. While the statistics for theGreat European Witch Hunt are much disputed, the numbersthat follow are generally agreed upon.

Samuel Parris...his 9-year-old daughter was one of the

“afflicted.” She accused others of witchcraft.

SALEM & THE GREAT EUROPEAN WITCH HUNTTTT

Photo from the Massachusetts Historical Society

her Caribbean home. We do not know exactly what wenton in the parsonage, but the Rev. John Hale of nearbyBeverly later reported: “One of the afflicted persons (Iwas credibly informed) tried with an egg and glass to findher future husband’s calling, till there came up a coffin,that is, a specter or likeness of a coffin. And she was after-ward followed with diabolical molestation to her death.”Suspending an egg white in water to divine the futureseems harmless enough, but at the time it was fraughtwith danger for the young and impressionable girls ofSalem village (then part of Salem town, now Danvers).They had been warned that such dabbling could opentheir souls to the devil!

At first, the circle Tituba entertained may have includ-ed only Betty, Parris’ 9-year-old daughter, and Abigail, his11-year-old niece — an orphan, her parents having beenkilled in an Indian attack. It soon widened, however, toencompass several other equally curious and boredyoung single women ranging in age from 11 to 20.

The “evil hand” upon themIn January the pressure became too great for the

youngest of the group, Betty Parris, and she began torespond in a manner that deeply disturbed even thosewell acquainted with the most devastating maladies ofthe day. Betty became uncharacteristically absentminded.Often while supposed to be engaged in prayer, sheappeared preoccupied, silently staring into space. Shebegan to lapse into periods of weeping, and, finally, shesuccumbed to uncontrollable bouts of incomprehensiblebabbling, choking and writhing in pain as if being physi-cally tormented by some mysterious invisible being. Abigail soon matched Betty’s actions.

Samuel Parris and other adults resorted, alternatively,to words of comfort and reprimand, but neither servedtheir purpose. When prayers were offered, the two girls

responded even more violently. Betty sobbed and, at onepoint, hurled a Bible across the room; Abigail covered herears, stamped her feet and roared at the top of her lungs.Parris summoned Dr. William Griggs, the town’s physi-cian, and he confirmed Parris’ worst fears. The “evilhand” was upon them.

“Who torments you?” Parris and the other ministersasked of each girl, but neither responded. Suspecting foulplay, Parris provided the names of those who had beensuspected of practicing witchcraft in the past. Still therewas no response. Some of the village women baked a“witch cake,” consisting of rye meal and the afflicted chil-dren’s urine. They fed it to a dog and interpreted itsresponse as indicating affliction. Parris flew into a rage.

All of this was simply too much for the girls. Betty Par-ris was the first to crack. She named Tituba. Abigail andother girls named Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Thegirls had chosen three of the most likely suspects the com-munity had to offer. Tituba, with her exotic Caribbean

6

Women were theprime targets, butnot uniformly so.

Women averaged about 75percent of all those indictedduring the Great EuropeanWitch Hunt, but in whatwas to become Germany,England, Hungary, Franceand New England the percentage exceeded 75percent. In Spain the per-

centage dropped to 57 percent, in Finland to 51 percent, inEstonia to 40 percent, and in Russia to 32 percent.

salemwitchtrialsMMMMORE ABOUT THE GREAT EUROPEAN WITCH HUNT

background and well-known knowledge of the suspectedarts, as well as her proximity to the afflicted, was analmost certain victim. Sarah Good would later bedescribed as “a proper hag of a witch if Salem village hadever seen one,” and Sarah Osborne’s behavior had longbeen the scandal of Salem.

Landless, eccentric, melancholic, distracted and, per-haps worse for a woman of the times, outspoken, SarahGood roamed the village with her husband seeking daylabor and begging handouts. Osborne, upon the death ofher first husband, had chosen to live out-of-wedlock witha much younger Irish indentured servant, had beenaccused of attempting to deny her sons from her firstmarriage their rightful inheritance, stopped attendingchurch, and constantly quarreled with other townspeople.

On Feb. 29 (it was leap year), arrest warrants wereissued against Tituba, Good and Osborne. The womenwere taken into custody and, on March 1, brought beforetown magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin for

a preliminary hearing. The law was clear: “Thou shalt notsuffer a witch to live.” But determining whether theaccused were actually witches was more complicated.

About half of allwitchcraft trialsoccurred in the

German speaking area ofEurope. About 15,000 trialstook place in Poland, 10,000in France, 10,000 in Switzer-land, 2,500 in Scotland, 2,000in England, and 250 in NewEngland.

salemwitchtrialsMORE ABOUT THE GREAT EUROPEAN WITCH HUNTTT

Creighton University WINDOW

Fortunately for the judges,there was a long history ofwitch trials, not only in Britainand on the European continent,but also in New England, to

guide them, and, quite unexpectedly, Tituba made theirtask easy.

The trials beginThe magistrates called Sarah Good first, and upon her

entrance into court the young girls fell into seeminglyuncontrollable fits and swoons. Good denied the chargesand insisted that she neither had entered into a “contract

The total number ofaccused isunknown, but

likely was in the hundredsof thousands.

salemwitchtrials

Causes of theGreat European

Witch HuntIt has been the quest of all scholars of the Great

European Witch Hunt — of which the Salem witchtrials were only a small part — to find a cause orcauses for what happened. Unfortunately, scholarshave reached no consensus. Their explanations vary,and often they rely on multiple causes. Here is just ashort and incomplete list of some of the most popu-lar explanations:

• The beliefs of the times. The people in questionbelieved in witches. Some of the accused were actu-ally practicing, or thought they were practicing,witchcraft.

• The economy. The rise of the modern state andcapitalist economy severely disrupted the West, pit-ting neighbor against neighbor; they needed some-one to blame for their many misfortunes, andwitches were a prime target.

• Misogyny. The witch hunters hated women,especially women who did not conform to their tra-ditional roles. They feared women, whose powersover life and death and sexuality seemed beyondthe control of men. Yet, they believed that womenwere “weaker vessels” and therefore more subjectthan men to the seductive powers of the devil.

• Religion. The witch hunts were an extension ofProtestant and Catholic religious wars following theReformation. They resulted from religious (Protes-tant and Catholic) zeal in crushing the last remnantsof pre-Christian pagan religious beliefs, whichChristians attributed to the devil. In addition, theywere provoked by the desperate attempts of clergyto arrest their own declining influence in society asthe West entered the Age of Enlightenment.

• Medical ignorance. Physicians attributed thecauses of medical maladies they did not understandto the “evil hand” of the devil. Sometimes, thesymptoms, attributed to possession, were really dueto the intentional or unintentional consumption ofhallucinogenic substances.

• The courts. The premodern legal system failedto protect the rights of the accused.

The document below was written by Mary Esty and SarahCloys in 1692. The two sisters were accused of witchcraft.

MMMMORE ABOUT THE GREAT EUROPEAN WITCH HUNT

Fall Issue 1998

with the devil” nor afflicted the children. “I scorn it,” sheresponded when asked whether she hurt the young girls.Sarah Osborne took much the same approach, though lessargumentatively than Good. Both entered pleas of inno-cent, but, then, Tituba was summoned.

Tituba confessed and, in the process, named Good andOsborne! She admitted to having “signed the devil’sbook,” but claimed she signed it only after having beenthreatened and bribed by her two co-defendants. Forthree days, Tituba told the awed residents of Salem vil-lage everything they feared, yet expected to hear. Evenher young accusers fell silent. She spoke of having met atall man from Boston, who wore black clothes and pro-claimed he was God, and of having attended religiousservices that were presided over by the man in black,which involved real flesh and blood and included dozensof people she had not recognized.

Tituba would later recant her confession, saying thatParris had beaten her until she succumbed to his pres-sures, but, for the moment, the dye had been cast. Themagistrates ordered all three held for trial, but only Goodand Osborne were ever tried. They were found guilty andhanged. Tituba was held for the duration of the trials forfurther testimony, a lesson that was quickly learned bysome 50 others, who, upon their being accused, namedstill others and escaped the gallows.

Despite Tituba’s testimony of having witnessed otherindividuals at the devil’s services, many in Salem villagebelieved that with the condemnation and execution ofGood and Osborne, peace would return to the communi-ty. This had been the case for the nearly 100 trials that hadpreceded those at Salem in 17th century New England.The girls’ afflictions, however, did not subside, and thecircle of tormented widened. Others soon were namedand New England faced its first, and only, full-blownwitch hunt.

On April 21, 1692, a warrant was issued for the arrestof Mary English of Salem town, the wife of one of thewealthiest men in New England. Whereas in nearly everyother case in New England’s history only poor to averagepeople stood accused, the charges at Salem climbed thesocioeconomic scale, eventually to include even the gov-ernor’s wife! Mary English, born Mary Hollingsworth,could trace her ancestry to the founding of the Mas-sachusetts Bay Colony and to the founder of a consider-able shipping business. In 1675, she married PhilipEnglish.

The Englishes: “haughty,” wealthy, “kind to the poor”On the one hand, Mary English was a professor of the

faith. She regularly attended the Salem town church andwas admitted to full communion in 1681. On the otherhand, she developed a reputation for exhibiting an aristo-cratic bearing toward those she considered beneath her.Moreover, Mary’s mother, Eleanor Hollingsworth, once

had been accused of witchcraft,though the charges were dis-missed.

The warrant of April 21ordered Mary English arrested“for high suspicion of sundryacts of witchcraft done or com-mitted ... upon the bodies” of several of the young wom-en. According to a granddaughter, the Salem town sheriffand his deputies arrived with their arrest warrant at MaryEnglish’s house at about 11 p.m., by which time Mary andPhilip had retired for the evening. When the arrestingofficers entered the chamber and ordered Mary to accom-pany them to jail, she refused, insisting that they return inthe morning. The sheriff, according to the account, reluc-tantly agreed, but left his men to guard the house. Whenhe returned in the morning, Mary went with him, butonly after having joined her family at breakfast, bidfarewell to her servants, and instructed Philip on the edu-cation of their children.

There is no way to know how much of this account istrue. Moreover, the records of Mary’s examination beforethe Salem magistrates have been lost. But she wasordered held for trial and eight days later a warrant wasissued for Philip English’s arrest. About 75 percent ofthose charged with witchcraft in the Salem trials werewomen; most of the men were related to those women —

salemwitchtrialsMORE ABOUT THE GREAT EUROPEAN WITCH HUNTTTT

The total number of those actuallyindicted was at

least 110,000.

as husbands, children, etc.Philip’s warrant chargedhim with afflicting the samegirls.

Philip English — hisname an Anglicization of theFrench L’Anglais — was

born on the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel. The dateand circumstances of his arrival in Salem are unclear, butby the time he married, he had become a successful ship-master with business connections throughout the Britishcolonies and in Europe. His marriage to Mary added tohis fortune, and by 1692 he was believed to be the richestman “on the coast.” He and Mary lived in what was com-monly called the Englishes’ “great house,” the largest andmost opulent house in Salem, staffed by 15 to 20 servants.

If Mary was called “haughty,” Philip received mixedreviews as a person. He was variously described as “attimes choleric” but “not ungenerous” and “not overlyconciliatory to his peers” but “kind to the poor.” Perhapshis three most irritating characteristics, however, as far ashis neighbors were concerned, were that he was litigious,having taken business associates 17 times to court by1692; of French extraction, at a time when the English,including their colonies, were constantly at war with theFrench; and an Anglican, living among Puritan dissenters.Despite these “shortcomings,” only two months beforehis wife’s arrest, Philip English had managed to gatherenough support from the men of commerce in Salemtown to be elected town selectman, but that only con-firmed the suspicions of the town’s majority farming pop-ulation that the likes of Philip English were poised todestroy the town’s very soul.

On the run: Escape to New YorkPhilip fled arrest to Boston, where he had influential

friends, but on May 30 he was apprehended and broughtbefore the Salem magistrates. Philip was ordered to joinhis wife in jail to await trial, but, the jails of Salem andsurrounding towns being filled, they and others wereshipped off to Boston for detention.

Due to their high station, Philip and Mary Englishwere given certain privileges not offered those less fortu-nate, including permission to leave jail upon occasion forspecific purposes, including attending church. One Sun-day, on the eve of their return to Salem for trial, theEnglishes attended a service at Boston’s First Church, ledby the Rev. Joshua Moody. Moody, one of a growing num-ber of critics of the Salem witch trials, chose as his textMatthew 10:23: “When they persecute you in one town,flee to another.”

Following the service, Moody and his associate SamuelWillard, also opposed to the trials, visited the Englishes inprison to impress upon them the meaning of Moody’s ser-mon. According to the Englishes’ granddaughter, PhilipEnglish resisted their entreaties, but his wife did not. Sheis said to have told him: “Do you not think the [other] suf-ferers innocent? Why may not we suffer also?” All thosewho had been tried thus far had been found guilty. More-over, Mary had contracted tuberculosis during her ordeal,and Philip feared for her life if they continued to be incar-cerated. When Moody and Willard urged him to escapefor her sake, Philip finally agreed.

Legend has it that Philip and Mary English were assist-ed in their escape by Moody and Willard, as well as byGovs. Phips of Massachusetts and Fletcher of New York.There is no proof of such collusion, but the Englishes didflee to New York City, where they were joined by otherescapees. Massachusetts officials made no attempt toextradite any of them.

The Englishes stayed out of Massachusetts for theduration of the trials. One unconfirmed legend notes thatat one point the Englishes sent a ship with 100 barrels offlour or corn to Salem to feed those who were starvingbecause of the disruption the witch trials had caused inplanting and harvesting.

In October 1692, in the face of growing opposition,Massachusetts Gov. Phips dismissed the Court of Oyerand Terminer, specifically appointed by the governor tohear the witchcraft cases. He sent the remainingwitchcraft cases to the standing Superior Court of Judica-ture, which altered the use of evidence in the trials, and,thereafter, found nearly everyone innocent. Phips issuedpardons for the few found guilty, as well as those left injail, and ordered the jails emptied — once the incarceratedpaid for their lodgings therein.

Bitter to the endThe trials had ended, but much bitterness and many

Creighton University WINDOW

salemwitchtrials

The average execu-tion rate of thosebrought to trial

was about 50 percent,but local rates variedfrom 90 percent in someareas of France andGerman speakinglands, to about 15 per-cent in Finland, Eng-land and New England.

MMMMORE ABOUT THE GREAT EUROPEAN WITCH HUNT

MORE ABOUT THE GREAT EUROPEAN WITCH HUNT

The peak years were1580-1650. The num-ber of executions was

at least 60,000.

recriminations remained. Critical postmortems began toappear, prepared by some of the most prominent men ofMassachusetts, including some who had at first support-ed the trials. Many confessed that they had been wrong intheir actions taken against the condemned — includingthe jury of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, some of theyoung girls who had originally brought the charges, andeven the Rev. Parris. The confessed were no doubt sincere,but it is interesting to note that in most cases, they insist-ed that they too had been deluded by the devil into theirerring ways.

Finally, there was the matter of settling up. The con-demned had been pardoned, but their convictionsremained on the books, and most had lost sizableamounts of their earthly possessions, mostly through con-fiscations upon their arrest. Law suits ensued, as did peti-tions to the Massachusetts General Court (the coloniallegislature).

Philip English was among those who sought redress.He wished to have his and Mary’s “good names restored”as well as compensation for nearly £1,200 (about $60,000in current U.S. dollars) worth of goods Sheriff GeorgeCorwin had seized. His claim was the largest of all of thedefendants. Moreover, he was deeply embittered by thedeath of his wife soon after their return to Salem, whichhe attributed to her ordeal of imprisonment and flightfrom almost certain execution. When Sheriff Corwin died,in 1697, English seized his body, holding it until a debt ofsome £60 (about $3,000) was paid.

It took several years, but in 1710 the General Courtfinally agreed with the petitioners that they had beenunfairly treated and began the process, which in some

cases took several more years, of reversing convictionsand providing just compensation. One case was not set-tled until 1957! Following protracted negotiations, theGeneral Court offered English £200, (about $10,000) whichhe refused and which remained unpaid until his death,when the legislature awarded the amount to his estate.

English lived out the rest of his years angry andincreasingly deranged. In 1722, Salem town ministerNicholas Noyes sued English for having called him amurderer, in reference to his role in the Salem witch trials.And, as already noted, on his death bed, he continued tocondemn Magistrate John Hathorne.

English could not know, however, as he refusedHathorne his forgiveness, that two of English’s grand-daughters would marry grandsons of John Hathorne, andthat one of those unions would initiate the lineage ofEnglish’s and Hathorne’s great-great-grandson,Nathaniel, who added a “w” to his name, changing it toHawthorne, and made his ancestors’ quarrel the subject ofhis writing. W

Fall Issue 1998

Dr. Bryan Le Beau currently servesas chair of the Department ofHistory and coordinator of the

American Studies Program. He is thefirst to hold the John C. Kenefick Chairin the Humanities, with an installationceremony set for Nov. 10.

Le Beau earned his Ph.D. in history ofAmerican civilization from New YorkUniversity before joining the faculty atCreighton in 1983. His research andteaching interests are in pre-Civil WarUnited States cultural, especially reli-gious, history.

As a historian and Massachusettsnative, Le Beau’s interest in the Salemwitch trials is longstanding. He hastaught courses on the subject atCreighton, and his latest book, pub-

lished this past spring by Prentice Hall,is titled The Story of the Salem Witch Tri-als.

In addition to teaching and research,Le Beau hosts a national, weekly radioprogram, called Talking History. It canbe heard Mondays at 10 a.m. in Omahaon KIOS-FM 91.5. (The Oct. 26 show,incidentally, will discuss the Salemwitch trials.) Talking History becameavailable to public radio stations nation-wide by satellite last month. Check yourlocal listings for times and availability.

For more on the Salem witch trials,Le Beau recommends his The Story of the Salem Witch Trials, Prentice Hall,1998, and Brian P. Levack’s The WitchHunt in Early Modern Europe, 2nd ed.Longman, 1995.

The Great Euro-pean WitchHunt began in

the mid-15th centuryand ended by the mid-17th century, thoughsome episodesoccurred after thatdate — including theSalem witch trials.

MORE ABOUT THE GREAT EUROPEAN WITCH HUNTTTT

salemwitchtrials

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12

“Chicago is such a sculpturalcity,” Littleton Alston told methis summer as we stood in the

buffet line at a Thai place a few blocksoff campus. The day was scorchinghot, but Littleton retained his goodhumor and enthusiasm. “(Chicago)was created with steel, financed bysteel, it even glimmers like steel froma distance.” So began our conversationabout sculpture, Creighton, Chicago,steel – and the Creighton sculptor’slove for each.

Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago”immortalized the “City of the BigShoulders” and captured the “Stormy,husky, brawling” town like no other.

And, although “brawling” Chicagobrings us “‘da Bears,” Oprah, FerrisBueller, Michael (Jordan), and evenDennis Rodman, more than anythingelse, it brings us sculpture. Glorioussculpture! Picasso. Miro. RichardHunt. Henry Moore. And that’s whereLittleton Alston and Creighton comein: This May through October, Chica-go’s Navy Pier hosted major sculp-tural work by Creighton’s Alston and170 other internationally prominentsculptors. At more than a mile long,the “Pier Walk” is the world’s largest

DANCESWITH

S T E E L

DANCESWITH

S T E E LLittleton Alston’s

‘Tree of Life’Sprouts on

Chicago’s Navy PierBy Brian Kokensparger

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outdoor sculpture exhibition andattracts more than 6 million visitorseach year.

The InvitationJanuary 1998. Alston was preparing

to start another semester at Creighton,teaching a full load of art courses,advising a group of energetic sculp-ture students on special projects andloading his calendar with as much ser-vice work as possible. Though he hadcrammed as much studio time into hisday as he thought feasible, it was stillshort of what he knew he could be –should be – doing. Then the invitationcame. Could he design, build anddeliver a major work of art to Chicagoby early May? “May of 1999?” hewondered. No. May of 1998.

Four months. Alston had fourmonths to design a large-scale piece,purchase the materials, cut,bend, weld, shape, and rein-force the steel, buff it, assem-ble it and ship it 500 miles. Itseemed impossible, especial-ly with all of his regularduties as a professor in abusy fine arts program. “Ihad to sit back and think,”Alston said. “I knew I couldgive myself to this piececompletely. But was thatgoing to be enough?”

It became clear that timewas not his greatest ally andwould not become one in theforeseeable future. Neitherwould money. A major workof art would require as muchsteel as is normally used tooutfit an armored car. Hewould be forced to rely onhis own resources, not onlyto buy the steel and othersupplies, but also to load and ship the piece when itwas finished.

Alston said “yes” to themassive project. His was a“yes” to his students, whowere at first perplexed andthen inspired by Alston’s singleness ofpurpose. And he said “yes” to him-self, and to that vision of a shining,slowly spinning sculpture that com-manded a personal audience in both

his waking and sleeping hours. Allother things could be addressed indue time – this special sculpture atthis special time for this special exhibi-tion demanded his full attention.

The work beginsUp at 5 a.m. To the studio. Work

until lunch. After a short lunch, toteaching. After teaching, a short bite ofdinner and then back to the studio.Home again – sometimes after mid-night. “A sculpture reveals itself allthe time. I’d stand there,” Alston said,“bent over at 3 or 4 in the morning,staring at the piece. I understood atthat point that I had to be there — atthat time — for the piece to revealitself to me. You have to be readywhen it happens.” Day after day, hislife took on a surprising rhythm ofcalm resolution, one of true abandon

to the creative process. Never did thequestion, “Is this worth it?” enter hismind.

Some days Alston’s work hummedalong, and he knew if all his dayswere as good, he would finish ontime. But he is not so naive to thinkthat all days can be – or even should

be – good days. Even on hisbad days he moved ahead, alittle at a time. Some dayswere spent just trying tosolve one problem, to get onelittle piece to fit. Some dayswere spent cutting cardboardtemplates and fitting them towhat had been done before.

Alston’s trips to the steelsupplier were an adventure.“I sometimes had to cut thepieces to fit in the car, only toweld them back togetherwhen I got back to the stu-dio!” He arrived with a laun-dry list of dimensions andgauges. A sheet or two ofthree-eighths-inch steel. Acouple more of quarter-inchthickness. One-inch steelplate cut to size. He and thesales rep loaded Alston’s oldNissan Stanza station wagonuntil the tires rubbed thefender. Then they weighed itall and computed the price.Too much. He did not haveenough money for what heneeded. Let’s take this sheetout, and this piece. Now how

much? Still too much. Let’s take thisone out. That should do it. Now howmuch? Good. Not good, but workable.Once again he must rearrange hisplans to match the materials he could

Fall Issue 1998 13

FACING PAGE: “The Tree of Life”seems to shelter the Chicago skyline,from this Navy Pier view.ABOVE AND TOP RIGHT: Alstonapplies some of the “great criticaleffort” that makes steel move.

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afford that week. Payday was comingup in a week and a half. He would be back.

It would have been good if Alston’sfinancial resources hadn’t had to dic-tate so much of the unfolding project.But his respect for and love of steeland his diligence for daily workwould not have come to the fore hadhe all the money he had needed all thetime. In a short description he wrotefor the exhibition guide, Alston said,“Interpreting free flowing forms out ofa rigid material such as steel gives mea great sense of accomplishmentbecause steel will not move withoutgreat critical effort.” Indeed. Neitherdoes it move without great financialeffort.

Dancing with steelWorking in steel is not the most

comfortable or economical way for asculptor like Alston to make art, butfor him it is the most honest andstraightforward. Were he interested incomfort he would have chosen woodor aluminum or some other cheapermaterial that is faster to form and easi-er to work. Alston seems to be afterpermanence, after the strength andclarity and purity that sculpting insteel has to offer. Instead of choosingthe easy way, Alston opted for the

more difficult and satisfying path, andhad faith in the help of others to makeup the difference.

And make a difference they did.Alston is quick to point out the manypeople who played vital roles in get-ting the project off the ground, fin-ished and delivered on time. Manystudents pitched in – some duringexam week when they needed to ham-mer on something for awhile. Despitethe busy weeks of the spring semester,the Fine and Performing Arts Depart-ment helped, too. Ray Madej fromCreighton’s Physical Plant offered theuse of his larger-than-usual forkliftwhen no other one would work. Thelocal Friends of Art group appearedand toured – and bought some of hiswork – when his financial well hadrun dry and hewas not surewhere to look tobuy his next ship-ment of steel. TheNebraska ArtsCouncil providedhim with a grantto defray trans-portation costs.Political scienceprofessor PhilipMeeks kept himawake on thelong road toChicago and back again.

Hour aftersweat-soakedhour, Alstonmarked, mea-sured, welded,bent and twistedpieces of flat steelinto an organicwhole – rigidsteel graduallybecame fluid with life.

Alston oncedescribed makinga sculpture as a“dance with steel,a give and takethat changes youas permanentlyand as absolutely

as you change it.” In his short bio-graphical description for the exhibi-tion guide, Alston further writes: ”Mywork is about form and its relation-ship and effect on the spaces it occu-pies. Creating my work is similar tothe creative process found in playingand creating jazz music. First, I createa series of lines, shapes and free flow-ing forms in drawings; these ideasabout form-relationships are translat-ed and expanded further in the sculp-tures. I seek spontaneous line andgesture which has presence and char-acter. It is as though I am drawing inspace in three dimensions with steel.”

A vision realizedBecause “The Tree of Life” was cre-

ated in three distinct pieces, Alstondid not see it assembled and upright

Creighton University WINDOW14

Alston’s many hours spent designingand creating the sculpture included afew inside it.

“The Tree of Life” is finally set down on the pier, marking the end of Alston’s four-month odyssey and his transition tointernational prominence as an artist.

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until it was standing in place on thepier. He had imagined how it wouldlook – “imagine” is not the right word– he sensed how it would look,dreamed it. It invaded his sleep, spin-ning slowly in his dreams. When thegiant crane finally unloaded it at thepier – stood it up on the back of thetruck and lifted “The Tree of Life”with a slow spin into the air – it wasthe realization of a vision Alston hadseen many times.

Indeed, he had envisioned thewhole work from every angle beforeputting his welding torch to one mil-limeter of it. It is a type of foresightthat true artists have – call it creativeimagination – but they know howtheir creation should look, and theystrive to meet that vision as honestlyand completely as possible.

On May 6, Alston joined otherartists and dignitaries at the openingreception for the exhibit, attended byIllinois Gov. James Edgar, ChicagoMayor Richard M. Daley, and SearsCEO Arthur Martinez. There he andtwo other Omaha sculptors, CatherineFerguson and Les Bruning, took their

places “on the pier.” The list ofexhibitors for Pier Walk 1998 is a veri-table Who’s Who of sculptors withinternational reputations working inall kinds of materials.

Alston is finished with “The Tree of Life,” but there are many more projects waiting their turn for hisattention.

Asked what he did the day after hereturned from Chicago, Alston quicklyreplied, “I did some work in my stu-dio. I have a new piece that I’m work-ing on. It’s . . .”

Like the “Stormy, husky, brawling”city, if it’s a new day Alston is alreadyhard at work on it.

Fall Issue 1998 15

Littleton Alston’s Reflection on ‘The Tree of Life’“‘The Tree of Life’ moves from the geometric to the organic. It begins with a pyramidal shape and folds out like origa-

mi. Each branch folds out into leaflets. There is a merging of the hard angle with the soft curve. When that happens youbegin to see the growth of the piece. It’s reached its potential to become a purely organic shape.

“The work is constructed as a progression from mild steel to stainless steel. Mild steel is the steel of the 19th and 20thcenturies. It’s the steel of boats, and bridges, and the steel thatmade the United States an international power in the 20th century.In ‘The Tree of Life,’ that steel is married to stainless steel. Stain-less is the steel of the future, the ‘new’ steel, the steel that doesn’ttarnish or rust. The steel of the past transforms into the steel of thefuture.

“‘The Tree of Life’ moves from measure (or meter) to rapture. Inthe geometric base there is incredible harmony, a familiarity, a pre-dictability that can nonetheless be complex. We know that eachline will form a shape. That known is the expected. In the realm ofthis understanding lies a greater sense of the unknown. Beyondthe base it becomes less measured. You’re entering a relationshipjust recently discovered – the realm of chaos. Within this chaos liesan extreme harmony where the organic resonates.

“All these things are about a progression, a journey of life — wehave to know when these opposites marry. We need to knowwhen this marriage, this transformation, is about to occur. Noteverything is attained by the path that is first shown.” W

Maquettes (on the right) await their turn to inspire full-sized sculptures.

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Creighton University WINDOW16

It’s Good Friday in Port-au-Prince, Haiti — easilythe most undeveloped,

most miserable nation in theWestern Hemisphere.

Fr. Ron Voss, an Ameri-can priest who has joined hislot to that of the Haitian peo-ple, is leading a group ofCreighton students and pro-fessors through the crowd-ed, trash-ridden streets ofthis capital city for a unique-ly powerful version of thetraditional Catholic devo-tional practice, the Stationsof the Cross.

Our first stop is St. JohnBosco Church, where aprophetic young “priest ofthe poor,” Fr. Jean BertrandAristide — later PresidentAristide — had made a rep-utation in the 1980s byspeaking out against thehuman rights abuses of successive Haitian governments.

On Sept. 11, 1988, Fr. Roninforms us, before Sunday morningMass was to begin, Fr. Aristide waswarned that government thugs wereon their way to the church. After con-

sulting with worshipperswho had already arrived, Fr.Aristide went ahead withthe celebration of theEucharist. The gang arrived,scaled the walls around thechurch, and attacked thecongregation with machetes,firearms — and fire. Thir-teen people were killed,many others wounded, andthe building itself wastorched. Now roofless, gut-ted and weed-infested, St.John Bosco Church stands asa solemn monument to thecourage and faith — andsuffering — of the Haitianpeople.

After taking in this story,we head back to our van tomake our way to the next“station,” and I casuallyremark, “That sure gets the-ology down out of theclouds.” One of the studentsresponds, without missing abeat, “Yeah, right into the pitof your stomach.”

Long journeyIt had taken us 12 hours to negoti-

ate the 250 roundabout miles (and theborder crossing) from Santiago, in the

THEOLOGY IN THEPIT OF THE STOMACH

Pursuing Creighton’s Educational Mission in the Dominican Republic

By Roger Bergman, DirectorJustice and Peace Studies Program

St. John Bosco Church in Port-au-Prince,Haiti, as it appeared in September of 1988after armed government thugs had set itablaze and attacked the congregation,killing 13 people.

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Dominican Republic (DR), to Port-au-Prince. In another sense, it had takenour group three months to reach thisdestination. We were engaged in theCollege of Arts and Sciences’ semesterabroad program, housed at La Misión,a permanent Creighton facility justoutside the city of Santiago. Since ourintroduction in mid-January to thereality of the developing world in theDR, we had been working up to thistrip to Haiti.

Semestre Dominicano, as the pro-gram is called, combines academics,community service, cultural immer-sion, spirituality and otherdimensions. The goal is notonly critical knowledge ofthe world but also personalgrowth and even moraltransformation. Our HolyWeek trip to Haiti embod-ied much of what makes theprogram, for many stu-dents, “my best semester.”

Worse than this?As Creighton professor

of Latin American historyRichard Super aptly puts it,the contrast between the DRand Haiti can seem as greatas that between the UnitedStates and the DR. As acommunity service, two ofour students had beenspending one day and nighteach week in a Haitian batey(agricultural workers’ com-munity) outside of Santia-go. All of us had visited thebatey at least once. Condi-tions there were so poor —for example, six latrines foras many as 900 people —we couldn’t imagine howthey could be attractiveenough to draw Haitiansfrom the other side of theisland.

On Good Friday, in Port-au-Prince, we found out.

Context is everythingTo a professor who fears that theol-

ogy may mean little more to studentsthan a course to be endured on the

way to a degree and a career, the “pitof the stomach” rejoinder was revela-tion. The insight was at least twofold.While formal theological study maybe for the privileged few (such asCreighton professors and their cap-tive-audience students), it ought to beundertaken with a view to its real-world ramifications, such as dying forone’s faith.

Second, in education, especially aneducation inspired by a commitmentto “the promotion of justice”(Creighton Mission Statement), con-text is everything. As one of the stu-

dents remarked in a final paper, “Ican’t imagine taking this course [JesusChrist: Yesterday and Today] in Oma-ha. It just wouldn’t have been thesame. It wouldn’t have meant somuch.” Another student explainedwhy. On Good Friday, she said, wehad encountered Christ himself in thecrucified people of Haiti.

Just what is this pedagogical con-text that makes such a difference?

What is Semestre Dominicano?Many Creighton alumni and

friends are familiar with the universi-ty’s long involvement in the Domini-

can Republic through theInstitute for Latin AmericanConcern (ILAC). Originally asummer program of healthclinics in remote mountain vil-lages (campos) staffed by vol-unteer professionals, andprofessional and preprofes-sional students, ILAC hasgrown to include year-roundprograms to improve thehealth of the poor throughoutthe region. A relatively recentinnovation, Semestre Domini-cano (SD), is the first of theILAC-affiliated programs toadd academic study to thecommitment to service in thedeveloping world. The Collegeof Arts and Sciences’ springprogram just completed itsseventh year; the College ofBusiness Administration’s fallprogram is two years younger.One hundred nineteen stu-dents have participated inCreighton’s SD programs. Stu-dents interview and are chosenbased on their commitment toservice, openness to new expe-riences and grade-point aver-age. Most are sophomores andjuniors and have had at least asemester of Spanish.

AcademicsThe Arts and Sciences

semester includes 15 credit hours for1) a course in sociology of theCaribbean taught by a Dominican pro-fessor, 2) several levels of Spanish also

Fall Issue 1998 17

Today, St. John Bosco Church (although no longer used for services)stands as a solemn monument to thecourage and faith — and suffering — of the Haitian people.

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taught by local instructors, 3) a coursein community service organized andtaught by the director of the programwith assistance from an intern, usuallya “graduate” of SD, and 4 & 5) twocourses taught by the accompanyingCreighton professor. My wife, Dr.Wendy M. Wright, professor of theolo-gy, and I were the first faculty coupleto participate in the program. We eachtaught courses emphasizing LatinAmerican perspectives. The beautifulILAC Center includes two classrooms,a library/study area, and a computerfacility. All the courses except Spanishare taught in English.

ImmersionAlthough SD is not less than a full

academic program, it is also muchmore. It is a cross-cultural immersionexperience. Few of the staff at theILAC Center and even fewer Domini-cans in general speak English. If youneed a roll of toilet paper, you’ve gotto ask for it in Spanish. TraditionalDominican cuisine, with few excep-tions, is served three times a day. Eachstudent was placed with a local familyfor an evening and overnight stayonce a week. We spent a total of aweek with coffee-growing campesinofamilies high in the verdant andcloud-haunted Dominican mountains.We took trips many weekends, one,for example, to the ruins of Columbus’

first house and another to the infa-mous and monumental lighthousebuilt to commemorate the 500thanniversary of his “discovery” of theAmericas. We visited zonas francas(free trade zones) and their clothingand electronics assembly plants,which lure campesinos to the city withwages the equivalent of one U.S. dol-lar an hour, and we visited the con-

gested and polluted barrios (squattercommunities) where these workers tryto make a life for their families.

Service and SpiritualityEach student’s service site also pro-

vided immersion into the Dominicanreality as well as the opportunity towork with and on behalf of some ofthose most in need: poor children inbarrio or campo schools with theslimmest of resources, public hospitalsstruggling to provide even minimalhealth care to the poor, a preschool forthe children of zona workers, a Haitianbatey, a support center for the city’subiquitous shoeshine boys, and abare-bones orphanage for handi-capped, autistic and retarded children.

These service sites often provokedbreak-your-heart experiences. Two ofthe students volunteered two morn-ings a week at Hogar Luby, the orphan-age. My family joined them onemorning a week. After our first visit,many of us found ourselves in tears,so moved were we by the plight ofsuch children living in suchdeplorable conditions. Four monthslater, we again left in tears, this timebecause we were saying goodbye to

Creighton University WINDOW18

Creighton senior Katie Sullivan poses with some of her kindergarten students outside a school in the Dominican Republic. Sullivan taught English twice a weekat San Juan de La Cruz School, instructing both junior high and kindergarten students.

The mural above depicts the “stations” of a uniquely powerful version of the Stations of the Cross in Haiti.

Jorgito, Gary, Maria, Daniel — chil-dren we had taken care of and intoour hearts. Those two leavings are, forme, symbolic “bookends” on ourexperience not just at the orphanagebut in the DR as a whole. We movedfrom apprehension of and shock at theconditions of poverty, to friendship,solidarity and even intimacy with thepoor themselves. Such a movement isfundamental to any “promotion of justice,” especially in Christian perspective.

In this and other ways, SemestreDominicano has a strong spiritualdimension. Weekly reflection sessionsand two weekend retreats serve as for-mal structure to what might bethought of as a four-month retreat — atime away from normal life and con-cerns to reflect anew on one’s life andcalling in the world. Informal reflec-tion seemed to go on nonstop. TheILAC Center has a lovely chapel,where Masses are held in both Spanishand English.

Pre- and post-semester weekendretreats also are held to prepare stu-dents for the experience and to helpthem translate its impact into actionupon return.

Outward Bound According to the Book of Job, God

speaks out of the whirlwind. PerhapsGod also speaks out of the waterfall.Only three days into our semester, wefound ourselves climbing seven cas-cadas, aided by the derring-do of twoyouthful Dominican guides. Thesemester, we discovered, was all aboutrisk. We were then invited to slide andjump down those same sevencataracts. Sometimes God — or atleast the director of the program —calls us beyond our comfort zones. SDhas about it, in addition to academics,immersion, service and retreat, an ele-ment of “outward bound.” Even nego-tiating public transportation aroundSantiago was not for the faint of heart!

CommunityNor was living in community. We

did almost everything together, inchallenging and foreign situations, forfour months. Students lived four to aroom, almost all meals were takentogether, all but the Spanish classescontained the same 16 faces, all thetrips jammed as many as 24 travelers,luggage and a picnic meal into a vanand a small car — and once, for several trying hours, into the van only.We survived, bones and friendships mainly intact.

And as community, we confrontedmore substantive issues of livingtogether. For example, how do werespond to Hector, a neighborhoodshoeshine boy for whom our groupand the Center represented moreattention, more beauty and promisethan he would otherwise experience?But Hector could overstay his wel-come, interfere with study time, andannoy staff by being underfoot. Wemet, we talked, we brainstormed, weproposed, we implemented. Welearned something about how neces-

Fall Issue 1998 19

Students helped paint a community center (pictured at right) at a Haitian batey. Service is a big part of the Semestre Dominicano program — immersing students in the Dominican reality and providing them with an opportunity to work withand on behalf of some of those most in need.

sary it is to translate youthful idealisminto real-world solutions. We learnedthat integrating the good of the indi-vidual with the common good is fun-damental for human flourishing. Welearned that educational context — inthis case, communal living — is every-thing.

VacationBut the secret is out. We also

learned that the Dominican Republichas beautiful beaches and affordabletourist hotels. That it is possible toscramble up a tropically forestedmountainside where there is only thetrace of a trail. That whales in the Bayof Samana are bigger and faster thanwhale-watching boats. And that thebest pizza in Santiago is to be foundat…(well, you’ll just have to find outfor yourself).

Academic program? Foreign-lan-guage study in a foreign country?Cross-cultural immersion experience?Overseas volunteer opportunity? Out-ward bound-style challenge? Extend-ed retreat? Caribbean vacation? Or allof the above?

ConscientizationIndeed, Semestre Dominicano is even

more than the sum of its parts, asenticing a package as that is (and atbargain prices: in addition to regulartuition and board-and-room costs, stu-dents pay only for roundtrip airfare,about $700 — plus, of course, Satur-day night pizza). At the heart of SDand indeed its very purpose for exist-ing, is the goal of “conscientization,” ahybrid of consciousness-raising andconscience-formation that is the indis-pensable foundation to a credible andsustainable commitment to justice.What makes SD a rare program evenamong Jesuit universities is this focuson critical awareness and personalresponsibility through an academicprogram in a developing country.

With the support of a College ofArts and Sciences Faculty Develop-ment Grant, I am working on a projectto document, describe and analyzethis conscientization and moral devel-opment of the students. Fourteen ofthe 16 agreed to 1) meet with me three

times over the semester in smallgroups to discuss their experience, 2)keep a weekly journal of reflections onconsoling and disconsoling moments(an Ignatian-inspired assignment!),and 3) take a pre- and post-test ofmoral reasoning widely used in moraldevelopment research.

Good IntentionsOur first interviews were conduct-

ed early in the semester. I character-ized the euphoria of this time as “thehoneymoon phase.” Paul Burson, thedirector, thinks of it as “the NationalGeographic stage.” We tended to beenchanted by the charm of the simplewooden houses, the bump and bustleof a crowded guagua (public van), thewarmth and hospitality of theDominican people. Then someonementioned that the average annualincome in the DR was $1,000 in U.S.money — precisely the amount wehad been advised to bring as spending

money for just four months. Jawsdropped and hearts squirmed at thisnews. The phrase “reality check” cameinto our common vocabulary.

In this contradictory context, afamous speech by social critic IvanIllich titled “To Hell with Good Inten-tions,” read for the community servicecourse, knocked the students uncere-moniously out of the honeymoonphase. By the time of the second inter-view near midway in the semester, wehad seen past the warmth and charmto the exploitation and deprivation,and had been forced to acknowledgethat the good — even magnificent —intentions of 20-year-old North Amer-ican undergraduates were only that. Aresearch colleague had advised me tobe on the lookout for “moral distress.”What I heard and saw — tears flowedcopiously down darkened faces —was better described as “moralanguish.” The cute little waif in theads for this or that overseas reliefagency now had become Julio orMarisa, and Julio and Marisa hadbecome one of us: bright, energeticand full of promise, but they seemeddoomed to mere survival for lack ofthe educational, cultural, athletic andemployment opportunities that mostof us take for granted.

Open Your EyesBy the middle of the semester, we

had learned that, in only four months,about the only thing good intentionscan be usefully translated into is“down time.” We learned that sittingwith the poor, not doing for the poor,but getting to know them and theirstories, sharing their frustrations andtheir dreams, may not change theirprospects, but it may change us. Welearned a little solidarity by letting goof our false sense of power, by con-fronting our own privilege (only oneout of 100 people in the world todayhas a college education), and bybeginning to see the world from theperspective of those at the bottom.

The Big Question in the last part ofthe semester was this: What are wegoing to do — or do differently —when we get back home? (Although,

Creighton University WINDOW20

Senior Jaimee Trobough plays withthree children at an orphanage in Haiti.

at this point, it was painful to think ofreturning.) Now that we’d beenchanged and had our eyes opened(the returned-student organization oncampus is known as Abre Los Ojos,Open Your Eyes), how can we re-enterthe life we lived in the States beforethis trip? By the time of the final inter-views shortly before departure, stu-

dents were eager to try out their newidentities and world views in old con-texts. Context, we had learned in somany ways, is everything.

What the eye doesn’t see, doesn’tmove the heart. (Haitian proverb)Christian educator Russell Butkus

has described the key to conscientiza-tion succinctly and insightfully. “Anyhope of sponsoring people to criticalconsciousness and social action isdirectly related to their capacity toreflect on experiences and situationsthat deeply touch their lives.” (Myemphasis.) The process of conscienti-zation in a faith context depends on 1)personal encounter with the poor, 2)analysis of their situation and itsstructural causes, 3) theological reflec-tion (Where is God to be found, andwhat does God call us to do?), and 4) acommitment to intelligent and respon-sible action. All of this happens best ina community of support. SemestreDominicano provides all of these ingre-dients through its various compo-nents.

I have been involved in justice edu-

cation full time for 17 years. I know ofno program that does it better thanCreighton University’s SemestreDominicano. I know of few programsthat do it so well. The extendedCreighton community can take con-siderable pride in this effort.

Just ask this year’s 16 students ifthey thought the semester achieved itspurposes. But only if you’ve got sometime on your hands. “And this pictureshows me with my campo mom anddad and their kids. They were poor,but they gave me so much food it wasincredible! And here we are at thebatey. We helped paint their communi-ty building. It was awesome!” W

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Sixteen students from Creighton’s College of Arts and Sciences took part in the university’s Semestre Dominicano program thispast spring. Bergman and his wife, Dr. Wendy M. Wright, professor of theology, were the first faculty couple to participate in theprogram. (They are pictured at the front of the van, just left of the passenger side door.) Their two children, a student intern andprogram director Paul Burson (far right) also are in the picture.

Juniors Jennie Pick and Emily Krusehold two children at Hogar Luby, aDominican orphanage for handicapped,autistic and retarded children.

End Note: Creighton’s presence in theDominican Republic expands beyondSemestre Dominicano and the healthcare focus of ILAC, through the Mon-tesinos Center for the Study of theDominican Republic. The campus-based center, established in 1996, facili-tates research on the DR so we maycome to a better understanding of thecountry and its people.

Creighton University WINDOW22

When myasthenia gravis struck Dr. Allen Schlesinger last year,it left the longtime Creighton

biology professor so weak that hecouldn’t lift a two-pound weight.

Following medical treatment and with approval of his physician,Schlesinger sought help from a nationally recognized expert in strengthtraining for people over 50: Dr. ThomasBaechle, chair of Creighton’s ExerciseScience Department, author of nine

books on fitness. Baechle analyzed Schlesinger’s prob-

lems and, along with Charlie Oborny,Creighton’s head strength training andconditioning coach, created a strengthtraining program for the Creighton professor and monitored his progress.

Today, Schlesinger, 74, shoots basketswith his grandsons with the ease of ayoung person. When his lawn mowerneeded repairing, he was able to lift itinto his car. When the elevator to his

fifth floor office broke one day, heclimbed the steps without puffing. His posture is that of a much youngerperson.

Schlesinger said he looks forward tohis three weekly workouts at the KiewitFitness Center. “You get addicted toexercise,” he said.

Thelma Stenlund, 83, turned tostrength training to ease the effects ofosteoporosis, muscle spasms and a bro-ken shoulder. “My (broken) shoulderwas pulled down so much that I couldnot keep my necklaces from sliding toone side,” she said. Stenlund workedwith Creighton Physical Therapist JudyGale. Through resistance exercises,using a large elastic band, Stenlund wasable to build strength and endurance inthe muscles supporting her shoulderand her spine.

Gale said building muscle strength,through strength training and otherweight-bearing exercise, not only canhelp ward off the effects of approachingosteoporosis, but can help reverse thetoll the disease takes.

Stenlund, an Omaha piano teacherwho plans “to live to 103,” said shehopes to live the rest of her life withsome relief from chronic pain.

Strength Training BenefitsThere’s a message for aging baby

boomers in the Schlesinger and Sten-lund cases, said Baechle. If they want toenjoy an active retirement, they shouldget addicted to strength training NOW.

Strength training is synonymouswith weight training and involves theuse of barbells, dumbbells, machinesand other equipment to improvestrength, overall fitness, appearanceand/or sports performance. The basicpremise of strength training is to useweights and resistance to make muscleswork harder than they are accustomedto working. Concerns that strengthtraining causes “muscle boundness” orreduces speed or flexibility are myths,Baechle said.

Instead, 30 minutes of strength train-ing twice a week from midlife on canmake the difference between indepen-dence and inability to function 30 yearsfrom now, he said.

“Physical planning for retirement isjust as important as fiscal planning,”Baechle added, especially because

Going StrongAfter 50

By Eileen Wirth

Creighton Professor Dr. AllenSchlesinger works out under thewatchful eye of Dr. Baechle.Schlesinger, 74, said he has noticed adifference in his physical health sincestarting a strength training program.

Editor’s note: Dr. Thomas Baechle, chair ofCreighton’s Exercise Science Department,recently received the Lifetime AchievementAward from the National Strength and Conditioning Association for his 20 years of leadership of the organization.

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Americans are living longer than everbefore.

Baechle’s advice is making a nationalimpact. His book, Strength Training Past50, (co-authored with Wayne Westcott ofMassachusetts) has sold more than10,000 copies since its publication thisspring. It is available at major book-stores nationwide. A follow-up book,Strength Training Seniors: A Guide forInstructors, is due out this month.

According to Baechle, people whodon’t exercise lose five to seven poundsof muscle tissue every decade of adult life.

“Because muscles are the engines ofthe body, this muscle loss is similar todropping from an eight-cylinder car to asix-cylinder car, to a four-cylinder car, toa motor scooter,” he said. Capacity tofunction is reduced and a slowermetabolic rate means that eating thesame amount of food results in a gain of body fat.

And, he said, people must maintainmuscle mass in order to do commontasks that everyone takes for granted.Women, who have less muscle massthan men to begin with, are at greaterrisk of losing muscle. They can benefitas much from strength training as men.(Women afraid of “bulking up,” neednot fear. Baechle said women don’t havethe hormonal disposition to gain inmuscle size as men do.)

Elderly women often end up in care

settings because they’ve lost so muchmuscle mass that they can’t performsimple tasks, such as lifting grocerybags or moving common householditems, he said. Some have trouble evengetting out of chairs or bed.

The Baechle solution: Start strengthtraining at midlife to help prevent andreverse muscle loss, making an active,independent old age far more likely.

Studies have shown that strengthtraining also reduces the risk of obesity,

Fall Issue 1998 23

Why strength training?While walking and jogging (and other aerobic exercises) are great for cardiovas-cular fitness, those exercises cannot shape your body like strength training.Strength training offers the best program for quickly improving muscularstrength, endurance and body composition (ratio of muscle and fat to total bodyweight). From Fitness Weight Training, 1995, Thomas Baechle and Roger Earle.

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Strength Training Aerobics Walking

Pumping Up Your Heart

Strength training can help keep heart patients frombecoming “cardiac cripples,” according to Dr. MarkWilliams, director of cardiovascular prevention and

rehabilitation at the Creighton Cardiac Center.Williams said that the Cardiac Center has been using

strength training since the 1980s and finds it has numerousmental and physical benefits, including:

• Assisting heart patients in carrying out normal dailyactivities

• Improving their self-confidence that they can do thingssafely

• Increasing the confidence of spouses and children that their family member can resume normal life.

Williams said the Cardiac Center encourages heartpatients to do 15 to 20 minutes of strength training at the end of their normal exercise routines two

or three times a week.Gabe Parks, 77, a retired editor at the Omaha

World-Herald, is an enthusiastic supporter of the Cardiac Center program.

Parks, who recently published a book on Nebraska trivia, had double bypass surgery 12 years ago and began a strength training program created by Dr. Thomas Baechleas part of his rehabilitation.

He and several other people still meet at 6 a.m. severaltimes a week to work out at the Cardiac Center. The time permits patients to work out before going to work. Parks continued with the group after his retirement because heenjoys the people.

Parks said that if it were not for strength training, hedoubts he would still be playing tennis regularly. However,he said, there are limits to the benefits.

“It’s toned up my muscles, but it hasn’t helped my backhand much.”

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osteoporosis, diabetes, colon cancer,high blood pressure, unfavorable bloodcholesterol, low back pain and arthriticdiscomfort, he said.

In raising metabolic rates, strengthtraining allows people to eat more with-out gaining weight. (Unlike dieting,which decreases the number of caloriesa person eats each day, strength trainingincreases the number of calories a per-son uses per day.) It increases bone min-eral density, helping preventosteoporosis. Stronger back and abdom-inal muscles provide better support forthe spine, thus combatting the epidemicof back problems.

And results of strength training showup rapidly, Baechle said, noting theprogress of 1,132 out-of-shape adults hetracked in a strength training researchprogram.

“On the average, after just twomonths of training, they added 2.4pounds of muscle, lost 4.6 pounds of fatand increased strength by 43 percent.They also lowered resting blood pres-sure by 4 percent and increased jointflexibility by 16 percent.”

Mental ObstaclesAccording to Baechle, mental atti-

tudes are often an obstacle to gettingstarted with strength training, especially

for women over 50.Traditionally, American society has

scorned strength in women. Those atti-tudes have deep roots which continue toaffect today’s baby boomers.

For centuries, women wore constric-

tive clothing which hindered even ordi-nary movement and fitness. Even an1890 book on physical training wasenlightened enough to cite corsets as anobstacle to female fitness.

“A corset that supports the back,that keeps the back from supportingitself, is antagonizing the first principleof physical development — the perfectmuscular possession of the body,” theauthor admonished.

While women of the 1950s and 1960sno longer wore corsets, they wererequired to wear dresses to schoolwhich made active play difficult, Baech-le said. There were few competitivesports for high school girls and evenlegal restrictions against some sports,such as girls’ basketball, in some states.Even Iowa, the pioneer state for girls’basketball, restricted girls to half-courtplay. Women athletes often were consid-ered unfeminine.

In order to attract women into exer-cise classes, physical education coursestended to stress appearance as a reasonto exercise, he said, recalling the course,“Figure Fitness for Women,” which hetaught at Briar Cliff College in the late1960s.

Such mental conditioning againstathletics and especially against athletics

Creighton University WINDOW24

10 reasons to strength train,especially for those over 50

1 Maintain your muscle and add muscle tissue. Research has shown that you’re never too old to replace

muscle tissue.

2 Maintain or increase your metabolism. Muscles usecalories. As you increase your muscle mass, your

metabolic rate increases, thus giving you the added benefitof burning more calories each day.

3 Reduce body fat. Strength training has been shown to be more effective at reducing body fat than walking

or cycling.

4 Increase bone mineral density. Numerous studies have found that strength training, done properly, helps

maintain bone strength.

5 Improve glucose metabolism. Your ability to use glu-cose is closely related to your risk of adult onset dia-

betes. Recent studies have shown that strength training canincrease glucose metabolism, although more research in thisarea is needed.

6 Speed up food transit. The slower food travels throughthe gastrointestinal system, the greater your risk of

colon cancer. A recent study at the University of Marylandfound strength training to increase gastrointestinal transitby more than 50 percent.

7 Lower blood pressure. In Baechle and Westcott’s studyof more than 250 men and women over age 50, partici-

pants showed a 4 percent reduction in resting blood pres-sure after eight weeks of standard strength and enduranceexercises.

8 Improve blood lipids. Some studies have shownstrength training to favorably influence cholesterol

levels.

9 Maintain or improve low back health. Studies haveshown well-conditioned muscles provide better back

support.

10 Reduce arthritic pain. Some research suggestsstronger muscles may be helpful for improving joint

function and easing arthritic comfort, although the exactmechanisms are not fully understood.From Strength Training Past 50 by Thomas Baechle and WayneWestcott.

Baechle’s book Strength Training Past50 was listed in USA Today as one ofthe top-10 fitness books for 1998, aschosen by the American Council onExercise.

involving strength makes it hard formany middle-aged women even to con-sider starting strength training, he said.

Even male athletes of the 1950s and1960s seldom lifted weights, so manymale boomers are ill at ease withstrength training, too, he said.

How did these biases crumble?Strength training began transformingoverall athletic training when Europeantrack and field competitors demonstrat-ed its effectiveness in the late 1960s andearly 1970s. Soon after, the strengthtraining movement spread from fieldevents such as shot-putting to footballand other sports played by masses ofAmerican men.

The invention of the Nautilus andsimilar machines helped further popu-larize strength training, Baechle said.Workouts in attractive settings with theeasy-to-use machines helped change theimage of strength training.

Baechle said that people began torealize that you could be strong withoutbeing “muscle bound,” and women dis-covered that weight training producedfaster muscle toning results than aerobicexercise.

Getting StartedEven people who are persuaded of

the benefits of strength training may bereluctant to start because they don’tknow how to, or fear they will lookridiculous in a weight room surroundedby fit young people, Baechle said. Butgetting started is a matter of just a fewsteps.

The first is medical clearance. Thenext is to find a qualified consultant orpersonal trainer, Baechle said. He or shewill assess an individual’s condition,prepare a personalized fitness plan,teach the exercises and ensure that thetrainee knows how to use properly anymachines required.

Creighton’s Exercise Science Depart-ment provides such services for a fee,Baechle said.

People should not avoid gettingstarted with a trainer because they areembarrassed by being overweight or outof shape, Baechle stressed. After all, thegoal of trainers is to help people get intoshape. Everyone has to start some-where.

Creighton alumni can join the Kiewit Fitness Center, with its greatly

expanded weight room or sign on witha training consultant at a local YMCA,hospital, corporate or community fitnesscenter or health club, he said.

“Check to see if your consultant isnationally certified by an organizationsuch as the National Strength and Con-ditioning Association,” Baechle said.“People are often more concerned aboutwho works on their cars than on theirbodies.”

He also urged people starting astrength training routine to:

• Set a regular time for training• Find someone to train with.Both establishing a regular time

and training with a partner heighten the chances of enjoying workouts and decrease the likelihood of miss-ing them, he said. Although more than 40 million Americans are in-volved in weightlifting or strength training, far more start but don’t follow through.

“You need to build a time for this into your life,” he said. “If it isimportant enough, you’ll do it. Likefinancial planning, this is an invest-ment in your future.” W

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Strength Trainingfor Athletes

Even elementary school athletes canbenefit from strength training aslong as they avoid heavy lifting,

overhead exercises without supervisionand competitive lifting, according toCharlie Oborny, Creighton’s headstrength training and conditioning coach.

Oborny said that children can startstrength training “as long as they are oldenough to understand instructions.” Hesuggested starting with broomsticks, fivepound weights, soup cans, or milk jugs.The broomsticks teach youngsters thephysical skills involved in weightliftingwhile keeping loads light.

By the time they reach high school,most athletes are lifting weights regular-ly, Oborny said. It’s increasingly com-mon for Division I recruits to have theirown personal trainers.

At Creighton, all varsity athletes arerequired to lift weights three or four

times a week with workouts tailored to theneeds of each sport. Varsity athletes havetheir own workout room in the Old Gymand are carefully supervised by certifiedstrength and conditioning coaches toensure proper technique and maximumbenefit. Proper technique helps preventinjury.

Sessions range from 30-45 minutes dur-ing an athlete’s season to 45-90 minutesduring the off-season, Oborny said. Exer-cises are tailored to build the muscles mostvital to individual sports. For example, volleyball players stress both upper bodystrength (for blocking and serving) andlower body strength (for jumping) whilesoccer players include a greater emphasison cardiovascular conditioning to copewith longer bursts of running.

Oborny, a 1992 exercise science gradu-ate of Creighton, has an M.A. in ExerciseScience from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In addition to working withvarsity athletes, he teaches weight trainingand works as a personal trainer throughCreighton’s Human Performance Laboratory.

Oborny works with Creightonstudent-athlete Dan Vrbancic, ajunior on the Bluejays’ baseballteam. All Creighton varsity ath-letes are required to lift weightsthree or four times a week.

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120 GREAT THINGS ABOUT CREIGHTON

What has set Creighton apart over the past 120 years? We asked our stu-dents, parents, alumni, administrators, staff and the Omaha community.

Here’s what they said:

Cura personalis • the Jesuits • inspiring • Fr. Morrison • life-long learning• Soup with Substance • campus speakers • Homecoming Week • Wel-come Week • Creighton’s clinics • endowed chairs • service trips • IrmaTrumbauer • Magis Ambassadors • the Lied Education Center for the Arts• Spring Fling • ILAC • Alpha Sigma Nu • Alumni Picnic • internationalprograms • the debate team • Fr. Doll • community workshops • gener-ous benefactors • dedicated employees • men and women for others •technology • the Christian Spirituality Program • Summer Preview •youth camps & clinics • Fr. Cahill • philosophy • caring alumni • Shad-ows • Dr. Ross Horning • Fr. Rigge • mission focused • Ignatian heritage• sense of spirituality • quest for excellence • variety of programs • Fr.Renard • Fr. Markoe • value-centered • students come first • terrific value• Greeks • Dr. Beth Furlong • leadership • family • career planning • St.John’s Church • individual attention • Mass of the Holy Spirit • qualitylibraries • Founders Week • Baccalaureate Mass • Jesuit Gardens • guid-ance • school spirit • friendships • Dick Shugrue • Dr. Bob Heaney • athletics • candlelight Masses • Senior Week • the Skutt Student Center •CU soccer • intramural sports • pioneering research • outstanding faculty• the Health Sciences schools • location • caring environment • “For theGreater Glory of God” • alumni network • reputation • diversity • lastingmemories • the labs • the arts • achievement oriented • friendly • oppor-tunities for growth • the Montesinos Center • Dr. Henry Lynch • theology• Hog-Wild Week • sunny days on the mall • Catholic • inclusive • theresidence halls • feeling of community • Dr. Al Schlesinger • open doors •fun times • compassion • identity • dedication • reflection • scholarships• open to change • opinions matter • Jebbies • the facilities • the seasons • always questioning • love • extracurricular activities • justice • faith • challenging • commitment • a place for sharing • beautiful grounds • creative • tradition • centers of excellence • committed to discoveries •sense of belonging.

Celebrating 120 years of service: 1878-1998.

®

Anchored in ethics. Centered on service. Pledged to excellence.