Running With the Money - America Magazine€¦ · Running With the Money ... more than American Jesuits will have with theirs). They ... its history, railed against similar bigotry

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Running With the MoneyFundraising and the Presidential Campaigns

Costas Panagopoulos

AmericaFeb. 11, 2008 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

T IS NOT OFTEN that popes cancelscheduled addresses, but afterprotests by professors and graduatestudents at Rome’s La Sapienza

University, the Vatican canceled a lectureby Pope Benedict XVI scheduled for theopening of the university’s academic yearon Jan. 18. In the end, the controversyunderscored how prejudiced and ill-informed the scientific community cansometimes be. It also showed how diffi-cult a task Pope Benedict has set himselfin attempting to dialogue with today’ssecular European culture.

La Sapienza was founded in 1303 byPope Boniface VIII. In 1870, with the fallof the Papal States, it was re-opened asthe public university of the city of Rome.Today it is the largest public university inEurope, with 138,000 students. TheVatican cancellation came after 67 facultymembers signed a protest against PopeBenedict’s giving the concluding speechof the convocation on grounds that thepope is hostile to science. As evidence,the critics cited a1990 address inwhich the then-CardinalRatzinger quot-ed the Austrian philosopher PaulFeyerabend, who argued that Galileo waswrong in believing he had discovered inempirical observation a rationalistmethod for the attainment of all truth. Inmost academic circles today, scholarsacknowledge that different fields employdifferent methods and that these changeover time. Even within a single field,investigators in one sub-field find the lit-erature in others unintelligible. Theseobservations hardly merit an anti-papalcampaign.

The protesting scientists, however,approached the philosophy of science theway many outsiders approach fields inwhich they are not proficient, reacting tosymbols (like the mere mention ofGalileo), applying amateurish litmus testsand fanning into flames burnt-out ideo-logical fires. Pope Benedict’s citation wasnot an endorsement. He citedFeyerabend as an example of the rela-tivism of post-modern thought and char-acterized the philosopher’s judgment as“drastic” overreaching. Nonetheless, for achurchman, especially the former prefectof the Congregation for the Doctrine ofthe Faith to make a passing, critical men-tion of Galileo was a red flag to Italianacademics.

The Vatican later released the pope’sintended text. Had the protesters both-ered to read it, they would have foundthat Pope Benedict had endorsed aca-demic freedom. He observed that todayLa Sapienza is “a public university withthat autonomy...which must be boundexclusively to the authority of the truth.”“Surely,” he added, the pope “must notimpose the truth on others in an authori-tarian way.” He also offered soothingadmissions of cognitive humility, admit-ting, for example, that “things handeddown in practice by ecclesial authoritieshave been shown by history to be false,and today they confuse us.” At the sametime, he affirmed his unflagging commit-ment to fulfill “his duty to keep the sensi-tivity to truth alive.”

I must confess that when PopeBenedict speaks abstractly about reasonand truth rather than the Gospel, I get alittle nervous myself. I am apprehensivethat the Christ of faith is being displacedby the God of the philosophers. I fear as

well that Iam beingpresentedwith whatthe pope

himself once called premature judgmentscloaked in the mantle of reasonableness. Irealize, however, that I am put on myguard not by the pope’s own measuredphrases and pastoral discretion but by thebullying way that the pope’s self-anointedpartisans abuse his authority with know-it-all sneering and snobbery.

The La Sapienza speech was aneffort to articulate the pope’s relation touniversity life. How he envisages therole of the church and the pope in con-tributing to keeping alive sensitivity totruth reveals a thoroughly pastoralgrasp of his mission. Faith should havea place at the symposium of reason, heargues, because “over the course of gen-erations” the Christian way of life hasyielded proof of “its reasonableness andits enduring significance.” “The historyof the saints, the history of the human-ism that grew up on the basis of theChristian faith,” he writes, “demon-strate the truth of this faith in its essen-tial nucleus, thereby making it an exam-ple for public reason.” It is by this col-lective witness, he writes, that thechurch provides “a purifying force” forthe interest-driven thinking that domi-nates postmodern secular society.

Drew Christiansen, S.J.

AmericaPublished by Jesuits of the United States

Of Many Things

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ArticlesRunning With the Money 11Costas PanagopoulosCampaign financing and the race for the presidency

‘An Ordinary Mystic’ 15Maurice Timothy ReidyThe faith and art of Alfonse Borysewicz

Pilgrimages for Peace 19George M. AndersonBob Maat on postwar Cambodia

The Witness of Courage 22and Forgiveness Camille D’Arienzo

28

www.americamagazine.org Vol. 198 No. 4, Whole No. 4803 February 11, 2008

Alfonse Borysewicz narrates an audio slide show of his art work, and Sidney Callahan talks about her new book, Created for Joy: A Christian View of Suffering.Plus, James T. Keane, S.J., reviews the Bob Dylan biopic, “I'm Not There.”

This week @ America Connects

Current Comment 4

Editorial Responding to Recession 5

Signs of the Times 8

Ethics Notebook 10Hope and Change John F. Kavanaugh

Faith in Focus 24Our Broken Parish A ParishionerFilm 26What Might Have Been Richard A. Blake

Bookings 28A Slow, Sure Spiritual Journey Emilie Griffin

Book Reviews 31A Jesuit Off-Broadway; Forces for Good

Letters 37

The Word 39Looking Backward and Forward Daniel J. Harrington

19

a cultural context requiring far more interreligious dia-logue than their American brothers. Many will have livedand studied at Western educational institutions, so theywill have some familiarity with U.S. religious culture (farmore than American Jesuits will have with theirs). Theywill also be less tied to the Irish-American hierarchies thathave dominated the ranks of American priests and reli-gious. They will also face serious challenges, because for-eign priests are often not privy to our own nationalinternecine struggles and concerns, particularly aroundhot-button issues like the role of women and the laity inthe contemporary church. American Jesuits will havemuch to learn from their Indian brothers, but also muchto offer them about the American cultural experience ofCatholicism.

Big Pharma and the PoorThe pharmaceutical industry is failing to make key medica-tions available to millions of people in developing countries,according to a recent report from Oxfam International,Investing for Life. The study examined the practices of theworld’s 12 biggest pharmaceutical companies—practices thatinclude putting protection of intellectual property rightsahead of the critical health needs of people in the world’spoorest countries. The companies mount fierce resistance tocheaper generic drugs, which they see as unacceptable com-petition. And yet generic competition, the report observes,“is the most effective...method to reduce drug prices.”

Oxfam’s executive director has said the industry shouldrecognize that smothering generic competition and fight-ing for stricter patent laws amount to a “moral outrage.”Currently, over 85 percent of world consumers are eitherunderserved or have no access at all to essential medica-tions the companies produce. Poor people therefore con-tinue to face diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, cancer andH.I.V./AIDS without affordable medicines. The reportalso faults the industry for neglecting research and devel-opment into diseases that disproportionately affect peoplein developing countries. Between 1999 and 2004, it says,there were only three new drugs targeted at diseasesaffecting the developing world, out of 163 brought to themarket. The author of the Oxfam report, Helena Vines-Fiestas, points out that even for people suffering fromtuberculosis—which kills nearly two million people ayear—the most recent medicine is 30 years old. Thereport’s executive summary calls for the pharmaceuticalcompanies to incorporate “a social equity bottom line intotheir thinking” when it comes to pricing. That bottom linehas yet to be put in place.

Current Comment

The Finger of Suspicion“I just don’t believe that people in this country are goingto choose their candidate based on which church he or shegoes to,” former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romneysaid in a recent Republican primary debate in Florida. Theproblem for Mr. Romney’s presidential hopes is that atleast some voters have already voted against him usingprecisely that criterion, according to polling data. And arecent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll indicated that44 percent of Americans believe that a Mormon presidentwould have a difficult time uniting the country.

We have seen this before. This magazine, for much ofits history, railed against similar bigotry directed againstCatholic politicians. Its name, America, was chosen inpart to evoke a seminal ideal at the heart of the Americanfounding: no religious test is permitted or ought to beexpected of any candidate for public office.

Forty-eight years ago, then-Senator John F. Kennedy,responding to Americans’ unease with his candidacy, said:“While this year it may be a Catholic against whom thefinger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been,and may someday be again, a Jew—or a Quaker—or aUnitarian—or a Baptist.… Today I may be the victim—buttomorrow it may be you.”

This year the finger of suspicion is pointed at aMormon. There may be good reasons not to vote for Mr.Romney, but his faith is not one of them. The anti-Mormonwhispers and, in some quarters, the outright bigotry direct-ed against him are unfair, un-American and un-Christian.

New WineskinsThe news coming from Rome during the Jesuits’ 35thGeneral Congregation includes startling information onhow dramatically the Society of Jesus has changed inrecent decades. Once dominated by Europeans andAmericans, the Jesuits now have more members of Indianbackground than any other grouping. As the order contin-ues to shrink in Europe and America, the IndianAssistancy, with more than 4,000 Jesuits, is becomingincreasingly prominent in the Society’s governance andapostolic priorities. The days of the West sending mission-aries to the East are over, replaced by a phenomenonalready visible in many parishes—South Asian priests andreligious coming to the West.

How will this affect Jesuit apostolic work in the UnitedStates? In their own country, Indian Jesuits are part of atiny religious minority (Christians make up less than 3percent of the population in India) and are accustomed to

4 America February 11, 2008

HERE IS GENERAL CONSENSUS amongeconomists and business leaders that theUnited States is entering a recession. Theindicators look bad, including a decline inconsumer spending and confidence, the

collapse of the housing industry, the credit crunch andincreases in unemployment.

What went wrong? The immediate cause of the reces-sion was the crisis in the subprime credit market. Banksmade loans for home purchases to people with poor creditratings. Often the loans had low down payments and ini-tially low interest rates that would later jump to higherlevels. Many of these borrowers did not understand thecontracts they were signing. Banks then packaged theseloans as securities and sold them to investors.

Why would mortgage companies, banks and investorsmake loans to risky borrowers who were likely to defaulton their loans? The answer is simple. With housing pricesgoing up, if borrowers could not meet their payments,banks and investors would hold an asset that was worthmore than it was when the loan was first made. The housecould then be sold to another unwary buyer. But whenhousing prices fell, investors were left with assets that didnot cover the amount of the loans.

The financial institutions that made these predatoryloans and marketed them to investors deserve no sympa-thy. They are simply being punished by the market forgambling that housing prices would not fall. Investors whowere fully informed and understood the risks also deservelittle sympathy.

But the question remains, were investors fullyinformed? Wall Street’s enthusiasm for deregulation hascome home to haunt it. If government regulations forfinancial institutions had required more transparency andclearer disclosure to borrowers as well as investors, wewould not be in this crisis today. It is ironic that those whosang the praises of an unregulated free market as long asthey were making money are now rushing to Washingtonfor help. One important lesson of this recession is that notall government regulations are bad for business.

The subprime credit crisis has caused a crisis in theentire credit system. It will take time for the system todigest billions of dollars in losses. Meanwhile, investors andlenders have lost confidence in the system itself. In the shortrun, there is little the government can do. Providing fiscal

Responding to Recession

February 11, 2008 America 5

Tstimulus and reducing interest rates will not do much torestore confidence. In the long run, requiring more trans-parency by banks and marketers of securities is needed.

Even without the subprime crisis, this recession wasinevitable. The U.S. government and consumers havebeen spending beyond their means for years. Credit carddebt is too high; our balance of payments has been out ofwhack for decades; and for the first time in history, we arewaging a war without raising taxes. As a result, we havebecome dependent on the equivalent of loans from Chinaand the oil producing countries.

NOW THAT WE ARE IN AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN, what willWashington do? Surprisingly, a bipartisan consensus hasdeveloped in favor of a fiscal stimulus that is timely, tem-porary and targeted. This consensus has more to do withthe coming election than with agreement about eco-nomics.

Timely. The stimulus is needed as soon as possible if itis going to help at all. One problem is that for technicalreasons, the I.R.S. probably cannot send out refund checksbefore the third week in June. Food stamp payments couldbe increased more quickly. Extending unemploymentinsurance payments would also have an immediate effect,but public works programs would take too long to activate.

Temporary. Any tax cuts or spending that increases thedeficit permanently will not deal with our long-term eco-nomic problems. In fact, such measures could be counter-productive. Unfortunately, President Bush reiterated in hisState of the Union address his desire to see the tax cuts ofhis first term made permanent.

Targeted. President Bush and House leaders haveagreed to an income tax rebate. The working poor, whopay Social Security taxes but not income taxes, will alsoreceive a check. Studies of earlier rebates show that thepoor first use their rebates to pay down their credit carddebt, but within a couple of months they stimulate theeconomy by increasing their spending.

A $150-billion stimulus package will have a limitedimpact on our $14-trillion economy. But if $100 billion ofit is spent in one quarter, it could increase growth by 3percent, which might be just enough to move the econo-my from negative to positive numbers. Will this encourageus to face our long-term economic issues, or will we againput our heads in the sand and go about business as usual?

Editorial

Kamau knew his attackers because heused to pay their children’s school feeswhen he was a parish priest in theDiocese of Eldoret.

The news comes as other reportsindicate that public mortuaries inNakuru have received at least 51 bodies,and police are still collecting more fromaround the town. The violence appearsto be revenge against members of theKalenjin, Luo and Luhyia communitiesfollowing the recent killing of membersof the Kikuyu community in the RiftValley. The death of Father Kamaucomes in the wake of threats to KikuyuCatholic personnel working in the RiftValley Province. In Eldoret, two priestsbased at Moi University escaped deathnarrowly last week when armed menattacked their house at night.

Rector of Seminary Murdered

A Catholic priest of the Diocese ofNakuru, Kenya, was killed on Jan. 26 asvicious interethnic violence claimedmore lives in the Rift Valley. The Rev.Michael Kamau Ithondeka, 41, waskilled at an illegal roadblock set up byarmed youths on the Nakuru–EldamaRavine Road. He was vice rector at St.Mathias Mulumba Senior Seminary inTindinyo.

According to the Rev. SimonGithara, parish priest of EldamaRavine, Father Kamau was accosted byyouths who claimed they were on arevenge mission after one of their ownwas killed in Nakuru. His pleas formercy fell on deaf ears as the youthsdescended on him with crude weapons,killing him on the spot. The Rev. JohnMbaraka, a local priest, said Father

Turkish Officials Silent onSt. Paul Anniversary A church official in Turkey said thecountry’s authorities are failing to consulthim about plans for the 2,000th anniver-sary year of St. Paul’s birth in the south-ern city of Tarsus. “Although govern-ment representatives from Ankara havebeen here, they haven’t spoken to me,”said Bishop Luigi Padovese of Anatolia,Turkey. “Our own preparations are welladvanced, so they need to know aboutour plans. But they haven’t announcedany decisions, so everything still looksuncertain.” Bishop Padovese toldCatholic News Service in a telephoneinterview on Jan. 25 that he had askedthe mayor of Tarsus to provide facilitiesfor pilgrims and rooms for priests to pre-pare for services. “But I said we need achurch above all, since people will becoming here not just as tourists, but alsoto pray,” the bishop said. The city’s 12th-century St. Paul Church currently is astate-owned museum. “I think the centralTurkish government is well disposedtoward us. But we must know whatthey’re doing,” he said. Pope BenedictXVI designated 2008-9 a special Paulineyear and said the celebrations shouldhave a special ecumenical character.

Catholic-Mennonite Peace ProposalsA convocation of the Pontifical Councilfor Promoting Christian Unity and theMennonite World Conference have sub-mitted a joint proposal to the WorldCouncil of Churches for consideration inplanning the concluding internationalecumenical peace convocation of theW.C.C.’s Decade to Overcome Violencein 2011. The text presents a brief sharedtheology of peace, treating creation,Christology, ecclesiology and discipleship.The discipleship section stresses nonvio-lence, forgiveness, truthfulness, prayerand active peacemaking. The statementsees the ecumenical movement itself as acontribution to peace and recommendsfurther healing of memories to advancecommon Christian witness for peace.

The statement affirms that “nonvio-lence is normative for Christians” but


Signs of the Times

A group of displaced Luo people aboard a van points sticks and clubs at ethnic Kikuyus duringclashes Jan. 29 in Naivasha, outside the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Zimbabwe Elections Under a CloudChurch officials said it is unlikelyZimbabwe will hold a free and fair presi-dential election this year, sinceZimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabehas refused demands for a new constitu-tion to be implemented before the poll.“Mugabe knows he can play games andget away with it,” said Bishop KevinDowling of Rustenburg, South Africa.The 83-year-old president of Zimbabwe“has the security forces on his side, andhis opposition has no protection underthe law, so he doesn’t need to make anyconcessions,” Bishop Dowling told

Catholic News Service. Mugabe hasrejected the opposition’s requests that theelection, scheduled for March, be post-poned until June to allow for a new con-stitution to be put in place.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwesince its independence from GreatBritain in 1980, “is untrustworthy anddoes not intend to make significantchanges to bring stability to the country,”said the bishop, noting that until a newconstitution that protects human rights isin place “there can be no free and fairelections.”

Isaac Thomas Hecker was “a real-lifesaint like you and me,” Cardinal EdwardM. Egan of New York said Jan. 27,describing the founder of the MissionarySociety of St. Paul, known as the PaulistFathers. “He was a person who suffered,who made his way through life bearingcrosses and who taught that sanctity canbe captured in many different ways,” thecardinal added. He made the commentsduring a Mass that marked the openingof the cause for Father Hecker’s canon-ization and the 150th anniversary of theChurch of St. Paul the Apostle, theparish he established on ColumbusAvenue in New York City. More than1,000 people attended the bilingual Mass,concelebrated by several priests. Beforethe Mass began, Cardinal Egan blessedthe tomb of Father Hecker, which isinside the church at the northeast corner.In his homily, Cardinal Egan traced the“troubles and tribulations” that ledFather Hecker to found the Paulists topursue a distinctly “American approachto announcing the Gospel.”

acknowledges a range of Christian atti-tudes toward serious conflict—from justwar to active nonviolence and pacifism. Iturges the convocation to “work towardthe goal of achieving an ecumenical con-sensus on ways Christians might advocatetogether to replace violence as a means toresolve serious conflict in society.” It sug-gests exploring ways to build consensusaround conscientious objection, selectiveconscientious objection, the responsibilityto protect (more commonly called inter-national humanitarian intervention) andjust policing as an alternative to just war.

The statement is an outgrowth of theInternational Mennonite-CatholicDialogue, which concluded in 2003, andit drew on the dialogue’s five-year reportCalled Together to Be Peacemakers. Thecommunication was prepared by the con-sultation at the Centro pro Unione heldin Rome from Oct. 23 to 25, 2007. TheMennonite team was headed by LarryMiller, general secretary of theMennonite World Conference. Msgr.John Radano of the pontifical council ledthe Catholic participants.


Signs of the Times

From CNS and other sources. CNS photos.

created by this massive influx of natural-ization applications,” said a Jan. 16 state-ment from Clinic, “many members ofCongress and...presidential candidateshave supported the denial of citizen-ship—which is guaranteed by the 14thAmendment—to children born in theUnited States to parents without legalstatus.”

Catholic Schools and State SupportWhile officials in Illinois hailed a victorythat will allow Catholic schools there touse state funds for health and safetyimprovements, others in Maryland andNew York decried decisions by their gov-ernors that would reduce the assistanceavailable to Catholic schools and theirstudents. The Illinois measure, includedin the budget implementation bill signedby Gov. Rod Blagojevich in earlyJanuary, allows nonpublic schools tospend their share of the $75 millionEducational Improvement and SchoolSafety Block Grant on mandated teacherbackground checks, fire safety, automaticdefibrillators and other items designed toprotect the well-being of students. “Thisvictory is huge,” said ZacharyWichmann, associate director for educa-tion at the Catholic Conference ofIllinois. In Maryland, meanwhile,Catholic school leaders criticized Gov.Martin J. O’Malley’s decision to cut$400,000 from a state program providingnonreligious textbooks and technology tononpublic school students. In New York,an official of the state CatholicConference expressed disappointmentthat Gov. Eliot Spitzer failed to followthrough on a public pledge made lastOctober to include a tax deduction fortuition expenses at independent and reli-gious schools in his budget proposal,which was released Jan. 22.

More ProductiveDiscussion on ImmigrationThe Catholic Legal ImmigrationNetwork called on presidential candidatesand elected officials to have a more pro-ductive discussion of immigration. It alsodecried delays that it said will keep manynew citizens from voting this year. In the2007 fiscal year, 1.4 million peopleapplied for U.S. citizenship, double theprevious year’s applications, said DonKerwin, director of the U.S. CatholicChurch’s umbrella organization forimmigration services, known by itsacronym, Clinic. It now takes 18 monthsto process a naturalization application, upfrom seven months before the latestsurge, said Emilio Gonzalez, director ofU.S. Citizenship and ImmigrationServices, at a Jan. 17 hearing before theHouse Judiciary Committee. That meansmany people who filed for citizenshipbefore the cost went up last year have lit-tle chance of being able to vote this year,Kerwin told Catholic News Service.“Instead of building on the momentum

Paulist Fathers Donald Campbell, right, andLawrence McDonnell in procession near thetomb of Father Isaac Hecker, C.S.P.

Sainthood Cause Opened for Paulist Isaac Hecker

Visit our new blog, In AllThings, for daily coverage ofthe presidential primaries fromMatt Malone, S.J., andMichael Sean Winters atamericamagazine.org.

those very words, if you could smear themin inkblots, are little more than a politicalRorschach test.

When I look at the blot of hope Iimagine a world less hostile, a nation lessarrogant and a politics less calcified intoideology. I hope at least for reasoned con-versation based on evidence rather thanname-calling and screeds. I hope for acommunity of nations, the majority ofwhich do not regard my country as themajor threat to peace in the world.

And change? I would like a change onthe life issues. Although I think the genet-ic evidence dictates that human life beginsat fertilization, I think we could reach con-sensus that, once you have a unifiedorganism with a beating heart, you’ve gota human being; and that only when thatorganism has shut down, do you havedeath. This would modify all our discus-sions on abortion and euthanasia. I thinkwe could find a consensus concerninghuman dignity: not a dictate of the state,not “legality” as an immigrant, not inno-cence of crime, not being an American,but the fact that one is a member of thehuman family. This would modify all ourdiscussions on capital punishment, univer-sal health care, “illegal immigration” andthe sea of humans dying in poverty.

The range of my hopes for change hasnewly engaged me in the present presi-dential campaign. These days, I am tempt-ed to hope for true change.

But where, how, who?If I were a Democrat, I would bemoan

the fact that Biden, Dodd and Richardsonwere eliminated so early. They probablyhad the most experience, but maybe thatwas their problem. People do not want theold way of doing things. This is HillaryClinton’s problem, the shackles of a

dynasty and the rigidity of a party lineanchoring her in the past. John Edwards,although a trial lawyer and former senator,at least has a populist message; but he isharsh and divisive.

That leaves Obama. He is, in someways, as Bill Clinton’s sly innuendo putsit, “a roll of the dice.” But Obama doesoffer real change and real hope. Hewants to change the habit of our rela-tionships with each other and our rela-tions with other nations. He ignites thehope that we might deal with our prob-lems and differences in more civil, rea-sonable and virtuous ways.

If I were a Republican, Romney wouldappeal to me as a person grounded in hisidentity. His family is telling evidence ofwho he is, and his Mormonism is an asset.(Have you ever met a Mormon you didnot respect and admire?) But he does notexhibit the moral vision I hope for.

Huckabee does. His Christian human-ism, his take on the penal system (despitehis support for capital punishment), hisconcern for illegal immigrants and theplight of the poor draw me as much to himas they repel some conservatives like RushLimbaugh, Fred Barnes and the editors ofNational Review. These issues, by theway, are the same that infuriate some con-servatives in the case of John McCain.

McCain elicits my greatest trustamong the Republican candidates. He isable to enter into coalition with opponents—even Ted Kennedy on the burning issueof immigration. He is willing to lose anelection on principle. He listens to thepeople: “They want us to secure the bor-ders before we give access to guest workerprograms and citizenship.” And he is will-ing to take a stand. Disagreeing with himon the Iraq war, I am with him on torture.So where am I?

The election might easily be overtak-en by events. Disaster in Iraq or mad ter-rorist acts could swing the vote to McCainor Giuliani. An economic collapse mightpromote Edwards or Romney.

But right now, if I were left to choosebetween Obama and McCain, I couldvote for either of th1em. Could you? Ifyou are a Democrat, is there anyRepublican you could vote for? If youare a Republican, is there any Democrat?

John F. Kavanaugh

Hope and ChangeI imagine a world less hostile, a

nation less arrogant and a politics lesscalcified into ideology.

Ethics Notebook


’M NOT MAKING THIS UP,folks.” That’s Bill Clinton, theman who somehow could say hewas “against the Iraq war fromthe beginning,” making up a story

about a himself as if he really had beenagainst the war from the beginning. I amtired of politicians making things up withstories, usually prefaced by the now uglyword “frankly.” That’s why I am sorelieved that we will have only one moreyear of a president who promised a com-passionate conservatism with a humbleforeign policy. The last two times I votedfor a party nominee were for JimmyCarter and Bob Dole. All the rest weredisgruntled write-ins, born of frustration,boredom or anger.

Well, I am no longer frustrated orbored, although I am still a little angry.

That has something to do with myown hopes for change in the United Statesof America. Although I have no doubtsthat our country is remarkably blest in itscommitment to give everyone a voice, inits economic, health, educational andmedia achievements, and in its great victo-ries won for religious liberty, women,blacks, labor folks and the poor, I havedeep-seated worries about the path set bythe last few administrations. Power, prop-erty and popularity have driven many ofour communal and political decisions, butthese goals are essentially divisive withinour country and alienate us from most ofthe world’s nations.

It is not surprising, then, that thethemes of change and hope stir in me thedream of another way of doing things. But

I

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

‘

ALPH WALDO EMERSON once asked, “Can anyone remember when timeswere not hard and money not scarce?” The answer to the latter mightturn out to be the 2008 presidential election, which may prove to be themost expensive political campaign in U.S. history. After only nine monthsof fund-raising in 2007 (the last period for which complete figures are

available at press time), candidates had raised over $420 million—more than half of the$674 million raised in the complete 2004 election cycle and more than the $352 milliontotal raised in 2000. Before the votes are counted this November, the money chase couldbring in more than $1 billion.


COSTAS PANAGOPOULOS is assistant professor of political science and director of the

Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy at Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y.

Campaign financing and the race for the presidency

Running With the Money– BY COSTAS PANAGOPOULOS–

February 11, 2008 America Vol. 198 No. 4, Whole No. 4803P

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Who Got What?To a great extent, the fund-raising dynamics of an electioncycle are a function of the larger political dynamics. Withwide-open contests for both parties’ nominations, noincumbents at the top of the ballot, a slew of animated andhigh-profile candidates and an evenly divided electorate,voter enthusiasm is high on both sides of the aisle. ButDemocrats may have more reason to be excited. A shakyeconomy, record-low anddeclining approval ratingsfor the RepublicanPresident Bush, an unpopu-lar war in Iraq and a seem-ingly imminent recessionmay make 2008 an especial-ly difficult year forRepublicans. Political scien-tists have shown that dollarsraised are related toprospects for victory, whichhelps to explain whyDemocrats running forpresident across the boardhave been raking in thedough and helping to dis-mantle the fund-raisingadvantage Republicans havehistorically enjoyed. At theend of the third quarter of 2007, Democratic presidentialcontenders had raised more funds than Republicans by a1.5-to-1 margin ($244 million to $175 million respectively).

The two leading Democrats, New York Senator HillaryClinton—the first candidate ever to announce she wouldeschew public funds for both the primary and general elec-tion campaigns—and Illinois Senator Barack Obama, haveraised unprecedented sums. Clinton had collected nearly$91 million at the end of the third quarter, while Obamabrought in over $80 million. The other Democrats alsoraised impressive amounts. Despite the uphill battleRepublicans may be facing in 2008, Republican contendersalso attracted considerable sums from donors (see tables).

Where Does the Money Come From? Donors contribute to political campaigns for many reasons.Some contributions are purposefully aimed to advance orsupport a policy agenda, while other donors enjoy the socialbenefits associated with giving: networking, name recogni-tion and more.

Material motives—quid pro quo expectations to getsomething in return—induce at least some donors to give,but campaign finance laws are designed to prevent suchimpropriety. This is one reason why the Bipartisan Campaign

Reform Act of 2002 outlawed so-called soft money. Whilethe Watergate-era Federal Election Campaign Act placedstrict limits and disclosure requirements on individual contri-butions (the maximum was $1,000 for the primary electionand $1,000 for the general), a loophole in the law allowed thepolitical parties, rather than the candidates, to raise softmoney in virtually unlimited amounts for certain “party-building” activities, which frequently indirectly helped indi-

vidual candidates. Duringseveral previous presiden-tial campaigns, theamount of soft moneyskyrocketed. In 2000, forexample, the DemocraticNational Committeeraised $136.6 million insoft money contributions;the Republican NationalCommittee raised $166.2million in soft money inthe same cycle. TheB.C.R.A. was supposed toend the era of soft money,double individual contri-bution limits and indexthem to inflation.

Before long, however,new loopholes were

found and exploited. The 2004 election included intensespending and activities by so-called 527 organizations(named after the applicable section of the I.R.S. tax code).These are groups created primarily to influence the nomi-nation, election, appointment or defeat of candidates forpublic office. In the 2004 election, 527s raised and spentover $600 million. Typically, these groups spend most heav-ily during the general election campaign; and it is expectedthat barring any legislative or regulatory intervention, 527swill be active again in 2008.

Besides organized interest groups, individuals are findingways within the constraints of the law to remain valuable totheir candidates of choice. One of the more contentiousissues surrounding the 2008 fund-raising cycle is the practicecalled bundling. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2007that bundling, by which a single fund-raiser gathers up con-tributions for a candidate from employees, clients andacquaintances, has become the latest way for campaigns toraise big money. Ample evidence points to a bundling boom.Based on data through September 2007, a Wall StreetJournal analysis concludes that there are nearly twice as manybundlers in the current election as there were in the 2004cycle, a nearly tenfold increase since 2000. Bundled donationsin 2007 accounted for 28.3 percent of total candidate intake,


The DemocratsPresidential Candidate Fundraising (through third quarter 2007)

Candidate Total Raised Total Spent

Clinton, Hillary $90,935,788 $40,472,775

Obama, Barack $80,256,427 $44,169,236

Edwards, John $30,329,152 $17,932,103

Richardson, Bill $18,699,937 $12,878,349

Dodd, Chris $13,598,152 $9,723,278

Biden, Joe $8,215,739 $6,329,324

Kucinich, Dennis $2,130,200 $1,803,576

Gravel, Mike $238,745 $207,604

Source: Center for Responsive Politics

(over $1,000). And for the most part, campaign organiza-tions appear to be finding ways to overcome the soft moneyban. B.C.R.A. has actually done little to improve the systemof presidential campaign finance.

The B.C.R.A. did not address the system of public financ-ing for presidential campaigns that has been in place since1976—a system that is essentially defunct and may even be onthe verge of collapse. Federal law enables eligible presidential

candidates to accept publicfunding for their campaignsprovided they adhere tostrict state-by-state spend-ing limits. Given the inordi-nate importance of low-population, early-conteststates like Iowa and NewHampshire, candidates arereluctant to restrict theirspending in these states,especially if their opponentsare not doing so. In the2000 election, George W.Bush announced he wouldforgo public funding inorder to be exempted fromstate spending caps. By2004, three main candi-dates—Bush, Kerry and

Dean—rejected public financing for the same reasons, and inthis election most candidates have also rejected public funds.In a historic and unprecedented announcement, HillaryClinton declared she would even reject public financing in thegeneral election campaign in order to be free of spendingconstraints.

Michael Malbin, director of the nonpartisan CampaignFinance Institute, has argued forcefully that this system isobsolete and is desperately in need of reform. An institutetask force has proposed a number of reforms to preserve thepublic financing system, including raising the spendinglimit in nomination cycles, creating an “escape hatch” forpublic financing candidates who run against opponents whoreject public money, changing the matching fund formulaand raising the voluntary income tax checkoff to financesome of these changes. In its current form, the publicfinancing system, originally intended to level the playingfield in presidential elections, is not achieving this purpose.This fuels fears that the nominations, and even the election,will go to the highest bidder.

The Good NewsYet there is always a silver lining. Regarding the impact ofcontributions on governing, political scientists have found

compared with 18.2 percent in 2004 and 7.7 percent in 2000.Nearly every major 2008 candidate has a bundling program.

Candidates are also relying much more on professionalfund-raisers to fill their campaign coffers. An analysis by theCenter for Responsive Politics reveals considerable growth inthe outsourcing of campaign fund-raising. Campaign organi-zations hired about 800 fund-raising consultants to bring in$31 million in the first three quarters of 2007, up from about260 such firms (and $12.3million) for the same periodin 2003. Republicans haveout-outsourced Democratsby a wide margin, with MittRomney, the biggest out-sourcer, tapping fund-rais-ing consultants to bring in$3.1 million in the firstthree quarters of 2007. Bycontrast, Barack Obamaand Hillary Clinton haveoutsourced $600,000 and$500,000 respectively in thesame period.

Increased reliance onbundlers and outsourcingfund-raising may be legal,but they are not withoutrisk, because donors are fur-ther removed from the campaigns and may not be properlyvetted. Hillary Clinton, for example, was forced to returnover $850,000 in cash to Norman Hsu, one of her majorbundlers, when it became known that Hsu, a New Yorkapparel giant, may have been involved in an illegal investmentscheme.

On the plus side, B.C.R.A. changes as well as technologi-cal developments seem to be bringing more small donors(those who give less than $200) into the fray. The CampaignFinance Institute estimates that 21 percent of all contributionsthrough the third quarter in 2007 came from small donors—many of them making their contributions online—up from 18percent over the corresponding period in 2003. Small donorsaccounted for one-quarter or more of total intake (throughthe third quarter of 2007) for Obama, Edwards, Thompson,Paul, Huckabee, Tancredo, Kucinich, Hunter and Gravel.Over the complete period of the 2004 cycle, 31 percent oftotal Bush contributions came from small donors, 32 percentof Kerry’s contributions and 61 percent of Dean’s.

Has the System Changed?Though the number of small donors has risen, presidentialcandidates continue to draw the lion’s share (two-thirds) oftheir individual contributions from donors of large amounts

The RepublicansPresidential Candidate Fundraising (through third quarter 2007)Candidate Total Raised Total Spent

Romney, Mitt $62,829,069 $53,612,552

Giuliani, Rudy $47,253,521 $30,603,695

McCain, John $32,124,785 $28,636,157

Thompson, Fred $12,828,111 $5,706,367

Paul, Ron $8,268,453 $2,824,786

Brownback, Sam $4,235,333 $4,140,660

Tancredo, Tom $3,538,244 $3,458,130

Huckabee, Mike $2,345,798 $1,694,497

Hunter, Duncan $1,890,873 $1,758,132

Source: Center for Responsive Politics


little evidence of a true quid pro quo in which politiciansdeliver in return for donations. Elected representatives areconstrained by vigorous ethics laws, and other factors (likeconstituency preferences, partisanship and ideology) arelikely to be far more influential in a leader’s decision-mak-ing caculations. Money may buy access to a politician, but itrarely guarantees outcomes.

There are also limits on how much success money canbuy a candidate on the campaign trail. Consider the victoryof Huckabee in Iowa despite the fact that his campaign wasrun on a shoestring budget. Experience from the 2004 cyclealso suggests caution. Dean failed to capture the nomina-tion despite being the year-end money leader.

As the eminent political scientist V. O. Key noteddecades ago, voters are not fools. They realize that moneyis necessary to sustain a national dialogue about ideas andpolicy proposals. The one thing money buys for sure is anational conversation, a debate over candidates and policies,that is essential to the democratic process. The big bucksfilling the 2008 presidential campaign coffers show that atleast we have that.


Accept the challenge. Join a team of men and women ministers who carry on the rich tra-dition of serving as rectors of residence halls at the University of Notre Dame.

Founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross, Notre Dame is one of the premier Catholic universities in the United States.Approximately 80 percent of the University’s 8,800 under-graduates choose to live on-campus in 27 single-sex halls.The University prizes residential life for the unique opportunities it offers students to develop the commitment to serve and sense of responsibility essential for leadership beyond college.Under the direction of the rector, each hall is a community of faith and learn-ing, where students are encouraged to integrate the intellectual, spiritual, and social dimensions of their education.The Office of Student Affairs is now accepting applications for the position of rector for the 2008–09 academic year. This is a full-time, nine-month

Rector Position for -

position. Living alongside students in the residence hall and accompanying them on their journey of faith, the rector counsels and advises, provides critical support, and, when necessary, calls them to accountability. The rector oversees a staff that includes graduate student assistant rectors and se-nior students who serve as resident assistants. Collaboration with a wide array of University departments responsible for student welfare and University facilities is an essential feature

of the rector position.The successful candidate will possess a

master’s degree and a minimum of three years’ experience in a related field, such as pastoral ministry, education, student personnel, or counseling. There is some possibility of additional part-time teach-ing or administrative responsibilities at the University, if desired. For further information and application materials,visit our website at:osa.nd.edu.The University of Notre Dame is an EEO/AA employer

The author reviews presidential fundraising statistics for the fourth quarter of 2007, at americamagazine.org.

Introducing America’s new podcastFeaturing weekly interviews with the magazine’s editors and writers Hosted by Online Editor Tim Reidy

Subscribe or listen online at americamagazine.podbean.com.

A

HE RELATIONSHIP between the art world and theCatholic Church in recent years has been, to saythe least, strained. To pick two prominent exam-ples, Andres Serrano’s photograph “Piss Christ”

was condemned by Catholic leaders when it was first shownin 1989, as was Chris Ofili’s elephant-dung-coveredMadonna, “The Holy Virgin Mary,” when it was unveiled atthe Brooklyn Museum 10 years later. While these workshave their Catholic defenders, the controversies that erupt-ed around them are a sign of a wide gap that has opened upbetween art—specifically the visual arts—and religion.

Once the foremost patron of the arts, the church is nowmore circumspect about contemporary painting. The artworld, meanwhile, seems glad to be rid of the church’s influ-ence, exercising its own kind of censorship on material itdeems tainted by sentimental piety.

Trying to bridge the gap between these two spheres isnot for the faint of heart, and one is hard-pressed to findmany artists who have the courage to try. One painter whois both a committed Catholic and a serious artist is AlfonseBorysewicz (pronounced Bor-uh-CHEV-itz), a Brooklyn-based former seminarian whose work has been shown bothin Chelsea and in a Catholic church in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Gregory Wolfe, an editor at Image, a quarterly reviewMAURICE TIMOTHY REIDY is the online editor of America.


‘An Ordinary Mystic’The faith and art of Alfonse BorysewiczB Y M A U R I C E T I M O T H Y R E I D Y

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TAlfonse Borysewicz standing in front of “Cor Unum” in the private chapel of the Oratory Church of St. Boniface, Brooklyn, N.Y.

of arts and religion, calls Borysewicz one of the most impor-tant religious artists since the French Catholic GeorgesRouault. When first encountering Borysewicz’s work,Wolfe felt “he was in the presence of something sacred.” Hesensed that the art was “almost being offered up, instead ofsaying ‘Look at me.’”

Yet despite his strongdesire to exhibit his work in“sacred spaces,” Borysewiczhas received little attentionfrom the church. His work iscurrently on display at theOratory Church of St.Boniface in Brooklyn and hasappeared in a few liturgicalart magazines, but he hasfailed to break through to thenext level. His difficulties as aCatholic trying to make it inthe art world—and an artisttrying to make in theCatholic world—say muchabout the state of religion andart in our era.

‘Separated’ FromNew York

Borysewicz is an avid reader oftheology. He likes to sprinklehis conversation with quotesfrom Karl Rahner (“Every acthas eternal consequences”) orRené Girard (a historian whohas written on violence and religion), and recently he hasbeen working his way through the writings of BernardLonergan. While he does not claim to understand it all,Borysewicz hopes that certain parts seep into his conscious-ness and find their way into his paintings. In the past he hasfound inspiration in homilies. In one, his pastor comparedthe outstretched arms of Jesus to an open embrace. That ideais reflected in his three-panel painting “Cross I & II andBlessing,” which shows the two outstretched arms of Jesus, aswell as a hand held in a gesture of blessing (see p. 17).

Borysewicz lives in Bay Ridge, a traditionally Italian sec-tion of Brooklyn, with his wife and two children, ages 20and 14. A tall man approaching 50 who still favors theclothes of a Brooklyn hipster, Borysewicz paints in a walk-up studio apartment in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge,in a neighborhood known as Dumbo. Down the street is thestoried River Café, and in the distance the skyline of LowerManhattan. When he was young, Borysewicz enjoyed suc-cess across the river, where his work was exhibited in gal-

leries in Chelsea.Borysewicz now considers himself “separated” from the

New York art scene. He sees theology and art as “one con-tinuum,” but as of late, he says, he has been forced to choosebetween the two. Asked to pinpoint the moment when hisfortunes changed, he recalls a show in the late 1990s. (It is a

sign of Borysewicz’s liturgi-cal-mindedness that the showwas meant to mark the lastAdvent of the millennium.)The centerpiece of the exhib-it was “Your Own Soul,” asmall chapel he constructedfrom paintings and collages.The title, taken fromSimeon’s words to Mary inLuke’s Gospel (“a sword willpierce your own soul”) wassuggested by Michael PaulGallagher, S.J., a professor atthe Gregorian University inRome, who first metBorysewicz in 1993.

“It took the form of afour-sided small chapel,”Gallagher recalled in an e-mail interview, “with symbolsof tears on the outside, andone had to enter the interioron one’s knees. Inside youfirst saw a large, dark figuresuggesting a dead body, andas the eyes became used to the

dim light, one discovered smaller gold hints of resurrec-tion.”

As a Catholic, Borysewicz had always been interested inreligious themes, but in early paintings, like “River Rougeand Grace” (1993-96) or in his “Strata” series (1992), theimagery was more abstract. In such works as “Your OwnSoul,” his art became more representational, which, he says,was “the beginning of my undoing.” Curators and collectorswere “comfortable with [his faith] in the abstract, but not inthe flesh.” That may seem like a broad indictment, butWolfe thinks it is particularly difficult for a religious painterto make his way in the contemporary art world. “Of all thedifferent art forms, the one that is the most hostile, the mosthermetically sealed against religion in any kind of dimen-sion…is the visual arts,” he says.

In 1995 at least one critic recognized the spiritualdimension of Borysewicz’s painting. “One look around thegallery tells you that Alfonse Borysewicz is a person oftremendous spiritual intensity,” Pepe Karmel wrote in a


“Your Own Soul,” 1998

1995 review in The New York Times. “The problem is get-ting this intensity onto canvas in a convincing way.”Borysewicz, not surprisingly, disagrees with Karmel’simplied criticism—where else could the critic sense theintensity except from the canvas?—but tries to take adetached approach to criticism. What is most important tohim now, he says, is “not so much how I changed paintingbut how painting changed me.” His goal is no longer tomount a show in New York, but to present his art in church-es and to help younger artists to do so as well.

“Sacred spaces have to inspire again,” he told me dur-ing an interview at his studio. “So many churches rest onwhat they’ve been given. There’s a younger generation outthere who want to authentically give their voice to it.”

Finding a Vocation and a HomeBorysewicz was raised in a working-class neighborhood inDetroit when the city was undergoing tumultuous change.As a boy, he learned about the importance of faith from hisparents, who were still mourning the loss of his older sister,who had died two years before he was born. Every week thefamily would go to the graveyard, and his parents oftenspoke about her. That experience gave him a sense that “youwere always breaking bread with your past, that the past waspresent…and the vehicle for that was faith,” he says.

Borysewicz attended college for two years before enter-ing the seminary, where he met Bishop Kenneth Untener ofSaginaw, Mich., who encouraged him to paint. In 1981, heleft the seminary and moved to Boston, where he taught ina Catholic high school while taking art classes at night.

He describes his work from that period as “Otto Dixmeets Marc Chagall.” In a few years he was showing hispaintings in New York and Boston. The twin tragedies of hisfather’s death in 1983 and the outbreak of theAIDS pandemic, which took the lives of manyfriends and colleagues, gave him a sense that suf-fering and death were very much a part of life.

In his essay in Image (No. 32), Borysewiczwrote that he was also struggling with “guiltover my choice of vocation.” He wrote:

Given my family’s working-class ethic,what I was doing seemed strange. Attimes it was construed as lazy, arrogant

or sissy, but the charge that hurt me the most, andstill does, was that what I was doing was indulging inartifice. People make that accusation because theydon’t see art as part of the real world, which they seeas made up of bread-and-butter issues like building asolid career; they do not see how the struggle of faithand its representations connects with all of our lives.

Borysewicz has found an artistic home at the OratoryChurch of St. Boniface. He was encouraged to paint for thechurch when the parish moved from its former home a fewmiles away to its current site in downtown Brooklyn. TheRev. Mark Lane, the pastor, coordinated the redesign of theold church of St. Boniface with the goal of bringing togeth-er “the old and the new.” He recruited Borysewicz, a parish-ioner, to contribute to the project.

Two of Borysewicz’s paintings are displayed behind stat-ues in the church’s vestibule. Borysewicz would prefer theart to stand on its own, rather than behind more traditionalworks of art, but Lane gave serious thought to the decision.He believes the older statues—like one of St. Philip Neri—will help lead the worshipers to the more modern, chal-lenging work.

“We’ve never had any negative comments from any-one,” says Lane. “Although sometimes you hear, ‘I don’tunderstand what it means’—the sort of standard response tocontemporary modern art.”

The most challenging piece of art at St. Boniface is notin the sanctuary, but in the priests’ private chapel. Known as“Cor Unum,” Borysewicz’s four-paneled canvas covers anentire wall of the room. The center panel depicts a bee hiveof activity; the right panel shows Jesus peering from behinda honeycomb. The images are scattered about, some diffi-

cut to discern. It is difficult to imagine “CorUnum” displayed on the wall of your localparish, but unlike many pieces of conventionalliturgical art, it provokes contemplation. Whenshowing off the piece, Lane pointed to the hon-eycomb motif, which he interprets as a symbolof how, in John’s Gospel, the early churchviewed life through the lens of the community.

“It’s actually quite accurate, theologically,”Lane says.

Borysewicz finds it frustrating that he can-


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“Cross I & II and Blessing,” 2006

not place his art in more churches. Too many churches areunimaginative, he says, adding that while parishes haveexperimented with modern music, architecture, evendance, they seem less willing to embrace modern visualart.

Why? “A cautious piety seems safer,” says FatherGallagher. “I suppose there is a fear that people will find[modern art] too strange, difficult or different. Caravaggiogot something of the same reaction in his day. One ofAlfonse’s favorite theologians, Bernard Lonergan, oncequipped that the church always arrives on the scene a littlebreathless and a little late.”

A Difficult ChoiceMaking the choice to be a painter has been a difficult one forBorysewicz. He has struggled financially and has done teach-ing on the side to provide for his family. “I feel like I’ve takena vow with painting,” he says. At a conference for young evan-gelicals in New York in March, Borysewicz told the crowd thathe is often approached by people who say they intend todevote their lives to painting when they retire. “No youwon’t,” he tells them. “This life is not a dress rehearsal.”

“Alfonse is very down to earth,” says Gallagher, “oftensurprising audiences with his emphasis on art as hard work[and] daily waiting.” He tells them it is “not as romantic as

people imagine.”Gregory Wolfe, a fan and friend,

suggested that Borysewicz has sufferedsome “emotional fallout” as a result ofseparating himself from the contempo-rary art scene. In our conversations,Borysewicz also suggested that he wasemerging from a dark time. Whenpressed, he noted enigmatically, “I’vetaken hostages on this journey—my kidsand my wife.”

After meeting with Borysewicz sev-eral times, I was struck by the ways hedescribes himself. He often identifieshimself as an “ordinary mystic”—anallusion to Rahner’s comment that allmodern believers are in some ways mys-tics. In professional circles he has takento calling himself an “icon painter,”although more traditional icon paintersmight take exception to that descrip-tion. It is obvious that he sees himself aspart of an artistic religious tradition thatstretches back centuries.

Identifying himself so clearly as areligious painter has had its conse-quences, but Borysewicz does not seemto regret his choice. He likes to say thatthe purpose of the religious image istwofold: to “tell us what happened andto remind us what was promised.”Finding new ways to present the Gospelstory may be a rare artistic endeavortoday, but Borysewicz’s work is areminder that it is still fertile soil forthose willing to till it.


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Alfonse Borysewicz narrates anaudio slide show of his art work,at americamagazine.org.

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BOB MAAT, a former Jesuit brother, spent the past 27 years inCambodia working as a physician’s assistant in refugee camps andthen as a co-founder of the Coalition for Peace and Reconciliation.He came to the United States in 2007 for a year to visit peacecommunities throughout the country and returned to Cambodialast October. The interviewer, GEORGE M. ANDERSON, S.J., is anassociate editor of America.

OW DID YOU HAPPEN TO GO TO CAMBODIA?

I left the United States in 1979 to work as aphysician’s assistant with Jesuit RefugeeServices in camps on the Thailand-Cambodia

border; it was the time of the Khmer Rouge slaughter ofCambodians, the so-called killing fields.Initially I was to stay only three to sixmonths, but I ended up staying in thecamps for nine years.

I took a year off (in 1988-89) to workas an ordinary rice farmer, living with myadoptive Cambodian family. Soon after, Ihelped found the Coalition for Peace andReconciliation, a group of like-mindedpeople focusing on issues of peace andwar, which is still functioning. One of ourfirst undertakings was to attend the peacetalks in Jakarta, in Indonesia, where wemet the Cambodian Buddhist monk MahaGhosananda. He asked, “Why do youhelp just one group of my people,refugees, when all Cambodians wantpeace?”

After the peace accords were signed,we accompanied Ghosananda on footwith 100 refugees from the Thai border’scamps to Phnom Penh. That was in 1992,the first of many peace walks he began.The walk, or pilgrimage, is called theDhammayietra in Cambodian; it goes backto Buddha himself, who walked with hismonks and nuns into areas of conflict over2,500 years ago to witness for peace. Mahaused a peace prayer every day: “The suf-fering of Cambodia has been deep; fromthis suffering comes great compassion;

great compassion makes a peaceful heart; a peaceful heartmakes a peaceful person.” The prayer continues withwords like family, community, nation and world.

Has your spirituality changed through your close contactwith Maha Ghosananda?My spirituality arises from the pilgrimages. There havebeen 17 walks now. You almost automatically enter intoprayer and meditation as you walk. In a small country likeCambodia, I walk almost everywhere. If somebody offersme a ride, I take it, but otherwise I just walk. I look at life asa long walk, somewhat in the same way that Dorothy Daysaw life as a long loneliness, the title of her autobiography.


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Pilgrimages for PeaceBob Maat on postwar Cambodia

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Buddhist monks, participating in a human rights march, pour water to bless villagers as they arrivein Siem Reap, about 186 miles (300 km) northwest of Phnom Penh, March 14, 2007.

Sometimes the walk is easy; but sometimes, in the cold andthe heat, it’s hard.

Mostly I just see myself as a person who tries to listeninwardly. I get up at 3 or 4 a.m. to sit in silence, often writ-ing as I sit, as a form of meditation. In addition to Maha,who died in March 2007, Gandhi has also been a big influ-ence in my life.

Maha used to say that we must leave the safety of ourtemples and churches and enter the temple of human expe-rience, filled with human suffering. If we really listen to theBuddha, Christ or Gandhi, we can do nothing else but be inrefugee camps, prisons,ghettos and battlefields,Maha would say. Thesehave to be our temples. Hespeaks of this in his book,Step by Step.

What did you do when thewar in Cambodia ended?Many people were sufferingand dying from AIDS, so webegan a program inCambodia’s northwest tohelp them. We also worked in the prisons. The justice sys-tem in Cambodia is itself a source of suffering. No one withmoney is in prison, because you can pay your way out.Although some Cambodians are behind bars because of vio-lent crimes, most are in prison because of what might becalled crimes arising from poverty, like stealing. The longestsentence is 15 years; Cambodia has no death penalty.

The basic unmet needs of prisoners are for clean water,adequate food and exercise and family visits. One prison weworked in was built on land without an adequate clean watersource. Plus, the sewage system didn’t function properly. Asfor food, only 25 cents a day was allotted for that. The guards’pay is minimal, so when visitors come, often after a long jour-ney, they have to give the guards money or be turned away.

That low-pay situation prevails across the board forgovernment workers. A teacher might deliberately teachvery fast and say to a student who couldn’t follow, comeback at 5 p.m., and I will give you that same lesson for 500riel (12 cents). Doctors, too, might put in an hour at thepublic hospital and then go off to their private practice.Everyone has to find a way to survive. They’re often drivento take advantage of one another.

AIDS is an especially difficult situation in prisonsbecause without money to pay the medic, it is not easy to betested. As a result, prisoners don’t know they are infecteduntil symptoms appear. In prison, once you’re found to beinfected, by law you should get free care. But because theprison medics are paid so little, you have to pay them to

receive care. Ultimately, the really sick ones are taken to thehospital, where they’re finally given the proper anti-retrovi-ral medications.

My prison work began when I was a translator for theInternational Committee of the Red Cross. We also starteda peacemakers program as part of the Coalition for Peaceand Reconciliation: some of the local youth would go intothe prisons as volunteers to teach basic literacy skills. You’dhave these young people, with all the usual prejudices againstprisoners, going into a huge cell with 120 men, about a thirdof whom couldn’t read or write. In Cambodia, you respect

your teachers. So the pris-oners who wanted to studywould take their studentteachers to a corner andthe whole cell would stayquiet. The prisoners real-ized that the young peoplewere volunteers, not paidand not part of a non-governmental group,which made their respectfor them go even higher.

Are landmines still a serious problem there?A big problem. It is estimated that as many as 10 millionwere laid during the war years. But mines don’t know whena war is over, so people are still being injured and killed. Themine removal process has helped, but two years ago therewas a big jump in the number of injuries and deaths. Wefound that because China had raised the price of metal,poor farmers would look for unexploded ordnance to getthe metal parts they could sell. It was a matter of poor peo-ple just trying to survive, but blowing themselves up in theprocess.

Part of the problem has to do with the land.Increasingly, wealthy people are pushing poor people offtheir land, so poor people have to move farther out to areasnot yet cleared of mines. The growing gap between rich andpoor is one of the seeds for a possible future war. You get asense of the gap when you hear about tourists going toAngkor Wat, Cambodia’s most famous temple. They can flyin from cities around the world, stay at a five-star hotelnearby, then be driven out to the temple complex on newroads. They never realize that on bumpy country roadswithin a few miles of the temple, people barely have enoughto survive.

Are there still signs of the war in Cambodia?A student there once said to me, “You Americans makegreat fish ponds.” He meant the craters left by U.S. bombs,which then filled with water. He was too young to know


A Cambodian student oncesaid to me, ‘You Americansmake great fish ponds.’ Hemeant the craters left byU.S. bombs, which thenfilled with water.

those days himself, but he heard about them from his par-ents, who remembered the time when the United Statesbombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia in an effort toend the Vietnam War. The Cambodian peace accords weresigned in the early 1990s, but peace didn’t take hold foranother decade. Cambodians my age, in their 50s, carry thesuffering of the Khmer Rouge period. An organizer of thepeace walks once pointed to a man selling bananas in themarket and said, “He killed about 20 people in my village in1977.” We bought fruit from him and joked about the price.People carry the war within them.

When Cambodians realize you’ve been there a longtime, they just start talking about thewar years and the suffering theyendured. Once a young man stoppedme and said: “Do you remember me?You fed me ice cream when I was a babyin 1979. I know because my mother sawyou walking by, and she told me aboutthe refugee camp where you wereworking.” I initially worked in an inten-sive feeding ward, when starving peoplewere escaping from Cambodia intoThailand in 1979. Still another time, aman on a motorcycle stopped me andoffered me a ride. Same question:“Remember me? You gave me soapwhen I was a prisoner in 1994.” “Was itfour bars of Lux?” “Yes,” he said. Thatwas when I was working as a translatorfor the International Committee of theRed Cross—distributing supplies likesoap was part of the job.

Before I came back to the UnitedStates last fall for a year of visitingpeace communities and discerningwhether to go back to Cambodia, threeyoung people from our peacemakersprogram wanted to go back to the siteof the refugee camp where they hadbeen born. On Christmas Day 1984,that camp was attacked. One of theyoung women visiting her birthplace inthe camp remembered being picked upas a five-year-old by the back of theneck and flung onto the back of amotorcycle when shelling began. Myown memory of that time as a physi-cian’s assistant was of seeing peoplearound me dying. That same ChristmasDay, in the midst of the bombing, Idelivered a baby.

What will you do if you decide to remain in the UnitedStates?I would hope to use the many years of war experiencein Thailand and Cambodia to emphasize what war doesto people. That is part of my past experience, and it’spart of me now. I sometimes wonder whether there willbe war again in Cambodia. At times, there seem to bemore seeds of war being sown than seeds of peace.Maha Ghosananda used to speak of what he calledlandmines of the heart: greed, hatred and ignorance.These have to be “de-mined” if there is to be lastingpeace.


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CAMILLE D’ARIENZO, R.S.M., is thefounder of the Cherish Life Circle.

REPARATIONS FOR THE 10TH

Annual Service for Families andFriends of Murder Victims lastOctober turned out to be both

fatiguing and exhilarating. Members ofthe Cherish Life Circle, which sponsoredthe service, know what it is like for mourn-ers to come, some year after year and oth-ers for the first time. They bring heartsbroken but also grateful to a gatheringthat provides understanding and comfort.Many first learn of the gatherings throughSafe Horizon, a private, nonprofit organi-zation that offers a broad scope of servicesto crime victims in New York City.

The naked suffering of the survivorsproduces weariness in those who plan theevent, extend the welcome and providethe service. Gratitude comes from owningthe privilege of comforting these pro-foundly afflicted victims of violence.

The procedures are pretty well inplace now, although three years ago wealmost forgot the candles for the candle-light service. After each year’s gathering,we evaluate the service in the hope ofimproving it the next year. We havelearned to insist that attendees preregisterwith Safe Horizon; we have recognizedthe value of speakers who have themselves

lost a loved one through murder; we havedecided to use a Spanish interpreter and toset out juice cups for the children. Overtime we have moved from parish churchesto a 150-year-old convent of the Sisters ofMercy, where it is easier to control theenvironment.

The First ServiceThe original incentive for the annual ser-vice came from a news segment shown onCBS’s “Sunday Morning” a dozen yearsago, when the late Charles Kuralt was theprogram’s host. The Rev. Michael Doyle,pastor of Sacred Heart Church in

Camden, N.J., was a featuredspeaker. Situated in a devastatedsection of Camden, the parish isa center of strong pastoral lead-ership that reaches out to thearea’s abandoned poor. FatherDoyle described an Advent Massthat included some two dozenparticipants who were mourningmurdered loved ones. Over theirhearts they wore the names ofthe dead, whose memory heinvoked from the altar. Amidcandles and hymns, a deep senseof reverence for the dead filledthe church.

The Cherish Life Circleadopted some of Father Doyle’ssymbols and procedures, butdecided not to celebrate Mass,since most of our attendees arenot Catholic. We held our firstservice on March 16, 1997, inBrooklyn’s majestic Queen ofAll Saints Church.

If Father Doyle had provid-ed our original inspiration, a 10-year-old boy in brown shoeswho attended that first servicesealed our commitment. He


The Witness of Courage and ForgivenessB Y C A M I L L E D ’ A R I E N Z O

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raced up the steps just minutes before theservice started, dressed in suit and tie, andwithout the sneakers kids usually wear.

“Son, what are you doing here?” Iasked.

“My mama sent me.”“Do you know what this is?” I pressed.“Uh-huh. My mama couldn’t come,

so she sent me.”“Was someone in your family mur-

dered?”“Uh-huh. My brother. He was 15.”I added his brother’s name to the list,

made out a name card for the child to wearand put him in a pew with mothers. Whenhis brother’s name was called, he rose,stepped into the aisle and squared hisshoulders, which then crumpled as hebroke down sobbing. Mothers quicklyrose from the pews, embraced him and ledhim to the others in the sanctuary.

When the service ended, I searchedfor the child, but he was nowhere to befound—not in the gathering space, not onthe sidewalk. I had no address and knewonly that he had taken two subway trainsto reach this unfamiliar place of worship.The boy in the brown shoes lives on as akind of guardian angel of the group. Hehad come upon a peaceful place of com-passionate welcome and prayer, an impor-tant experience for a child wounded byviolence.

How Real Is the NeedA few years later a stunning, well-dressedwhite woman arrived with her 24-year-oldson for a service in Our Lady of RefugeChurch. Within minutes, she showed mea photo of her older son, handsome in atuxedo; he had been murdered six monthsearlier. She was distraught. Eventually sheand her son took their seats, and I turnedto greet an equally stunning African-American woman, who showed me aphoto of her 20-something son, handsomein his tuxedo. He, too, had been murdereda few months earlier. “Please come withme,” I said; “there’s someone who knowswhat you’re going through.”

Another year, we met a gentlemanwho stood stoically during the social gath-ering that precedes the annual service. Hiswife sat expressionless with a pre-adoles-cent boy beside her. “The man who killedmy son killed my whole family,” the mansaid. The older of his sons had been shotto death on a Brooklyn street five years


earlier. Determined to track down thekiller, he scoured the neighborhood nightafter night. As weeks went by, his youngerson set out on his own to find the culprit.One night he didn’t come home. Heremains missing.

One day a woman with a young boyappeared at the man’s door. Not knowingany better, she asked for the murderedson. She had come from the South withthe child the dead man had secretlyfathered. Instead of welcoming thewoman and his newly discovered grand-son, the grief-stricken man sent them bothaway. A few months later, though, thechild returned with a stranger; the boy’smother had been murdered on a Brooklynstreet. It was this young boy who now satbehind his grandmother, the man’s wife.

“The man who killed my son killedmy whole family,” he repeated. “We don’tcelebrate anything—not Christmas, notbirthdays, nothing.”

“What about this young boy?” thegreeter asked.

The speaker that day described Jesus’instruction to roll away the stone entomb-ing Lazarus. She spoke of the importanceof removing from our hearts stones thatimpede the flow of love to the living.Later, the man, who thought he had losthis whole family, said he’d understoodthose words and was ready for help. Weintroduced him to a Safe Horizon coun-selor.

In September 2007 the Office ofPrison Ministry in the Diocese ofRockville Centre, N.Y., invited represen-tatives of the Cherish Life Circle to helpthem start a similar service on LongIsland. So did the Prisoner and VictimEmpowerment Committee of St.Gabriel’s Parish in the Bronx. Both groupsshare the Cherish Life Circle’s concernfor incarcerated people. All agree on theneed for outreach to relatives and friendsof murder victims.

Our experience has persuaded us thatvictims of violence have a need, some-times not recognized, for the blessing ofpeace that such services can bring. Inreturn, their gift to us has been the wit-ness of their courage and forgiveness.Asked what should be done to her daugh-ter’s killer, a woman replied, “He shouldbe punished, but not killed. I would neverwant another mother to undergo the sor-row I have known.” A

Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers....Trust in the Lord, and do good.

—Psalm 37:1, 3

HILE WE CATHOLICS

profess universality, thefact is that Catholicparishes can differ radi-

cally. I do not just mean culturally, in theway that a parish on the island of Guam isdifferent from a parish in the city ofStuttgart, but in the way a parish in onepart of Los Angeles, say, can be quite dif-ferent from one in another part of thatcity. Or in Boston. Or Atlanta. OrChicago. Parishes vary in music, in min-istry, in outreach, in liturgy, in attitude, inteaching style.

In big cities Catholics can parish-shop, looking for a Catholic communitythat is a good fit for them. Living in asmall town, however, can be a difficultproposition for a Catholic. In our town,newcomers can church-shop among the

Christian houses of worship, of whichthere are many. But Catholics have onlyone choice: our parish.

When my husband and I moved hereover 20 years ago, that fact made us a bitnervous. We had come from a metropoli-tan area, where there was a Catholicchurch every few miles and where weparish-shopped. When we really liked thehomilies of a priest who worked at theparish in the next suburb over, we got per-mission to switch our affiliation to thatparish, which was a 10-minute drive ratherthan a two-minute drive from our house.In our new small-town life, the next clos-est Catholic parish was 50 miles away. Sowe were relieved when our local pastorturned out to be an intelligent, affableolder priest with an open mind and aninterest in establishing new ministries andservices within the parish. He was adelight, and we felt accepted and chal-lenged at our new parish—a healthy com-bination. We felt lucky. We felt blessed.

Eventually that priest retired and thenpassed away. He had baptized our twoyoungest children and had made us feellike an integral part of our faith communi-ty. Now, two decades and a couple of pas-

tors later, we are still here. Our Catholicroots are deeply, emphatically here. Thisis the church where all of our childrenhave come of spiritual age, receiving theirfirst Communion and the sacrament ofconfirmation, and where friends havebeen married and buried. But like neverbefore, we are now contemplating makingthat 50-mile-each-way weekly commuteto another parish.

Why? Our parish has become for us aplace of anger and artifice, of division anddysfunction. A 50-mile trip does not seemtoo great a sacrifice to make, if by stayingwhere we are we become resentful, non-practicing Catholics. But the 50 miles doespresent burdens. At that distance, how canmy husband and I both be involved social-ly and in ministry beyond Sunday Mass,the way we want to be? How does ourteenager feel about attending a youthgroup full of strangers? We are reluctantto commit ourselves to a parish so far fromhome.

A New PastorThe origin of our crisis may be obvious bynow: we have a new pastor. The new pas-tor has brought new priorities with which


Faith in Focus

Our Broken ParishWhen respect for the laity is lostBY A PARISHIONER

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THE AUTHOR is not identified here to protectboth the staff and pastor of the parishdescribed.

we do not agree. He also believes that theparishioners are the sheep and he is theshepherd, which translates to: My way orthe highway. He enjoys all the power,without the intuition or skill of leadership.

Since his arrival, the parish staff hasexperienced a 100 percent turnover(including this writer), and three deaconshave requested assignments elsewhere.That’s right: at parishes 50 miles away.The parish office, as well as the financecouncil, is currently staffed by goodCatholics who believe that enduring theego and wrath of their boss is simply anopportunity to turn some exquisite suffer-ing over to God. For the greater glory ofGod and the Catholic Church, these suf-fering servants put up with impossibleworking conditions. For those of us whoused to work there, the conditions wereaffecting our health, our families, our min-istries—indeed, our faith—in unaccept-able ways. One by one, through variouscombinations of prayer, counseling andsleepless nights, we came to the painfulconclusion that the only sane option, theonly way to relieve our cognitive disso-nance, was to give notice.

It is hard to describe the parish situa-tion without appearing to cast stones.Every priest is unique in his gifts and hisshortcomings, and living in and contribut-ing to an authentic faith community isnever simple or easy. Of course there willbe differences of opinion, and differingcommitments and callings, among parish-ioners. But the Gospel is the Gospel. Tobe a dwelling place for the Gospel, ahealthy parish requires cooperation, com-passion, listening, honesty, respect, trustand shared goals, just for starters. Butwhen all of those things go missing, thecommunity has no foundation on which torest as it weathers storms. The storms takeover. The structure is lost.

Broken, Isolated, AdriftWe are, I believe, a broken parish. Wedo not really know what to do, otherthan pray. The priest shortage is partlyto blame, as is our own surrender to frus-tration. Our pastor has accused some ofus of a conspiracy to bring him down,but really, we are just broken in our ownlittle ways, isolated and adrift. Some ofus who can afford the gas commute toother parishes. Some of us skip Mass.Some of us have begun to give our offer-

if, besides, no one seems to miss them? If Jesus himself, disguised as a

layperson, visited some of our parishes, ifhe sat somewhere in the middle and didnot sing very loudly and forgot his enve-lope, would he feel welcomed, loved andnecessary?

I may be disillusioned and discour-aged, but I am also stubborn. Much as Imourn our current state of affairs, I tellmyself that I refuse to leave. Not only amI a Catholic, I tell myself; I am also alocal Catholic. Our parish may be bro-ken, but our faith is not dead, not as longas we find ways to see Christ in othersand as long as we try to be the face andhands of Christ for others. We are calledto live as Christ’s followers, a call wemust honor and answer, even when weare tired and tapped out, and even whenour parish gets in the way.

All the same, each week, I edge a littlecloser to that long commute. I know thatthrough the centuries the church has sur-vived and grown despite bad pastors, mis-guided bishops and inept popes. But prob-ably not without some serious parish-shopping on the part of the laity.


ings to other charities, where our dollarswill be put to responsible and life-affirm-ing use. We realize, when we are beratedfor the dwindling collection plate, thatwe have perhaps hit upon the only votethat counts: our money. This makes useven sadder.

We are Catholics in search of aparish, wanting to practice the corporalworks of mercy, but wanting also to betreated as adult persons of faith. Weunderstand the shepherd imagery, butwe are not actually sheep. We arethoughtful, functional, searching, caringgrownups of good will. We require hon-esty, a well-formed conscience and a bitof humility in a pastor, because, like it ornot, the pastor makes or breaks a parish.I have lately wondered how many otherCatholics, in other parts of the world,have decided to sit out parish life becauseof a heedless hierarchy addicted to trap-pings and power. How many laypeoplefind that their gifts and talents gounused, that their leaders are not inter-ested in what they have to say or to offer,that although they are believers, they justdo not need the grief of parish life? And

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with the artist who uses imagination andlanguage to create worlds that never exist-ed. His creation invariably leads to conse-quences he cannot control. He may takesatisfaction in the pleasure and illuminationhe has given his readers, but at the sametime he must atone for deceiving them.

The artist at the center of the story,

embodying all artists and per-haps especially McEwan himself,is 12-year-old Briony Tallis,played by Saoirse Ronan. Surelythe allusion to the early Englishcomposer Thomas Tallis (1505-85) suggests that Briony’s role isconsiderably more than that of aprecocious child, growing up ina life of privilege in the yearsleading up to the Second WorldWar. In the opening scene shelabors over her first play, “TheTrials of Arabella,” completewith a prelude in rhyming cou-plets. The clacking of her type-writer sets the cadence for intro-duction of the ponderous, intru-sive score of Dario Marianelli.Literature and music fuse in thesoundtrack.

Although she is a gifted childand will become a successfulnovelist, her vision is quiteflawed. After all, she is only achild and cannot be expected tounderstand events beyond herexperience. When she fails toput the pieces together, like anyartist, she allows her imaginationto supply the connections.Looking through a window,which both separates her fromthe action and distorts hervision, Briony watches her oldersister Cecilia (Keira Knightley)and her handsome companion

Robbie (James McAvoy) lounging on therim of a fountain in the garden. For noapparent reason, Cecilia suddenly slips outof her blouse and skirt and jumps into thewater. She emerges with her wet under-clothes clinging to her body, dresses with-out embarrassment in front of Robbie,and walks quickly back to the house.

OVELISTS ARE

LIARS. So arefilmmakers. Intheir search for

the truth artists find mun-dane reality quite unsuitedto their purposes. The onlysolution lies in creating analternative universe, whereevents and personalities leadto desired conclusions. In“Burnt Norton” T. S. Eliotobserved, “Human kindcannot bear very much real-ity.” Artists don’t have to.They make their own reali-ty. Artists conflate, in Eliot’swords, “what might havebeen and what has been.”

Until the final pages ofIan McEwan’s stunningnovel Atonement (2002), anduntil the final monologue inthe film, the narrative pre-sents a plausible sequence ofevents that demonstrates thetheme that our misdeedsspiral outward with unstop-pable force, working theirdestructive consequences onothers. Apologies won’tundo the damage, and wordsof forgiveness never come.No act of expiation can easethe pain. As the story drawsto its terrifying climax, how-ever, McEwan admits thatall that has come before, the fiction withinthe fiction, is mere empty artifice, a fabrica-tion. The burden of atonement actually lies


Film

What Might Have BeenFew films disappoint on such a high level.BY RICHARD A. BLAKE

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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Keira Knightley stars in a scene from the movie "Atonement."

The next scene of this nonlinear scriptby Christopher Hampton repeats thescene from the point of view of Cecilia andRobbie. Cecilia had come to the fountainto fill a vase. In an awkward attempt tohelp her, Robbie broke a piece off the lip,and in a rage at his nonchalance about theaccident, Cecilia impulsively dove in toretrieve the missing piece. The event wasinnocent but mysterious, and Briony’simagination supplied an explanation.

Robbie himself takes to his typewriter,not to write a novel or a play, but a note ofapology for the misunderstanding of theafternoon. He is the son of domestics onthe estate, but Mr. Tallis recognized histalent and paid his way through Oxford.Robbie may be educated, but he is work-ing class and owes everything to thelargesse of the Tallises. He also knows thatevery condescending gesture of accep-tance by the family is pure pretense. A let-ter must be very carefully drafted. He triesover and over, his typewriter also settingthe cadence for the soundtrack. In desper-ation, and perhaps in an attempt to diffusehis frustration, he crafts a lewd proposal asa private joke, and in one of those series ofmad accidents typical of McEwan’s fic-tion, this version finds its way to Cecilia,and Briony. The younger Tallis is shockedat the crude language; the elder feigns out-rage, but its bluntness rouses passion aswell. Robbie has become Mellors to herLady Chatterly. They meet, they embracepassionately, and at that moment, Brionyenters the room. Not understanding theways of adult relationships, Briony oncemore links these events in her imagina-tion. When an actual sexual attack doestake place on the estate, Briony leads thepolice to the man she knows must beresponsible.

Five years later, Robbie has beenreleased from prison to serve with thearmy now retreating around Dunkirk.Cecilia has become a nurse serving the warwounded in London. When she reachesthe proper age, Briony (now played byRomola Garai) also tends the wounded,but she and Cecilia have not spoken sincethe night of the attack. While Cecilia seesher role as joining the war effort untilRobbie returns from the front, Brionyattends the maimed and mutilated asthough her compassion can atone for thelie that led to the destruction of two younglives. Fiction demands more lies, leading

tures the beauty of the English country-side, but perhaps the style has grown toofamiliar through countless episodes of“Masterpiece Theater.” (The same couldbe said of the elegant sons and daughtersof the rich, who dress for dinner, cluelessof the horror soon to come.) The battlescenes feature the washed-out color thatClint Eastwood used in “Letters FromIwo Jima.” On the positive side, the cast isuniformly superb. Keira Knightley is bothbeautiful and obnoxious, chilling and pas-sionate. It works. The three Brionys areimprobably different, but they match per-fectly the stages of the character’s life:from innocent and thoughtless, to chas-tened and despairing, to wise and honest,brutally honest.

Atonement, the novel, surely createdunrealistic expectations for me. The film isa fine, competent adaptation of a greatnovel, but I expected so much more, per-haps foolishly. Few films can disappointon such a high level, and for that I amgrateful.


to a resolution, either a happy ending or atragedy. McEwan obliges, until that finalscene, when Briony (Vanessa Redgrave),now a renowned author in the final phas-es of her life, uses a television interview tosort out the truth from the lies she hasconcocted in her autobiographical novel.Her art and her life have become one. Themonologue, shot with her face filling thescreen and allowing no visual distraction,is certainly the most powerful confession Ican ever recall seeing on the screen.

With all its virtues, I wanted to likeAtonement much more than I actuallydid, but great novels generally prove diffi-cult to transform into great films.McEwan wrestles with subtle, complexideas and challenges his readers to stopand reflect. Film allows no such luxury. Itrolls on nonstop at 24 frames per second.The viewer gets distracted by the narra-tive, as though nothing more were at stakethan a girl’s comeuppance for shatteringthe lives of those around her. VanessaRedgrave’s final scene, brilliant as it is,takes us too much by surprise, as though itwere part of another film.

Without being able to provide time tograsp the significance of the action, thedirector, Joe Wright, falls back on stan-dard film technique to underline theimportance of the message. I had the senseof the film’s crying out: “Look, Mummy!See how clever I am.” The soundtrack isnot the only offender.

When Robbie and his surviving com-panions finally link up with the armyawaiting evacuation, the scene suggests aHieronymus Bosch rendering ofDisneyland. The long tracking shot,enhanced with computer imaging, showsthe army jammed into a ruined amusementpark, with a Ferris wheel turning majesti-cally in the background. The defeated sol-diers, perhaps on the edge of madnessbecause of their ordeal, squeal in delight onthe rides they have managed to salvage. Atboth Dunkirk and the hospital, I felt theheavy shadow of the famous crane shots ofAtlanta in “Gone With the Wind.” Robbiemay be losing his sanity. He comesthrough a clearing where the bodies of per-haps 20 young girls lie dead, each with abullet in her forehead. Is this Robbie’s hal-lucination? Or is it an overly obviousimage of war’s indiscriminate brutality?

In the opening sequences SeamusMcGarvey’s lush cinematography cap-

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James T. Keane, S.J., reviewsthe Bob Dylan biopic “I’m NotThere,” at americamagazine.org.

to follow him into the wilderness. Wewant to follow him to the cross.

For me, good reading is often the wayin. I am not speaking here of lectio divina, asLawrence Cunningham did in these pagesso well last year. Instead, the phrase thatcomes to mind is festina lente, a wise Latinsaying best rendered in English as “Makehaste slowly.” (Apparently Suetoniusattributed it to Augustus Caesar, but reallyit is one of those bits of popular wisdomthat needs no author at all.)

If Lent is to be transformational, evenmodestly so, we should turn away fromthe haste and noise and slow down. Andwe should choose books that slow usdown, even when we read them in smallincrements. Lenten books are not to begrasped in outlines, digests or executivesummaries. Even though short (in numberof pages), good Lenten books are long on

HAVE SOMETIMES DESCRIBED

Lent as a plunge into a thicket, anintentional wilderness journey inthe company of Jesus Christ.

Metaphors like these are rich and some-what romantic. Yet the plain fact is thatmost of us must “do Lent” right where weare, smack in the middle of things.However we mark off the days by makingsome gift of self, through Lenten prac-tices, attending Mass more frequently orworks of mercy, Lent remains mostly aninterior movement, a deliberate choosingto spend 40 days with the Lord. We want


Bookings

A Slow, Sure Spiritual Journey BY EMILIE GRIFFIN

EMILIE GRIFFIN writes about the spirituallife. Her latest book of 47 daily meditationsfor Lent, the Easter triduum and EasterSunday is Small Surrenders: A LentenJourney (Paraclete Press). She lives inAlexandria, La.

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wisdom and depth. Here are a few I wouldrecommend.

Joyce Rupp’s book on prayer is enti-tled simply Prayer (Orbis and RCLBenziger, 2007, 128p, paperback, $10).This is the first in a projected series—Robert Morneau’s Reconciliation is the sec-ond—entitled “Catholic Spirituality forAdults.” Orbis will make the books avail-able in bookstores and libraries, and RCLBenziger will distribute them throughparish education centers. Central themesof the spiritual life will be explored,among them holiness, diversity of voca-tions, the primacy of charity, community,incarnation and Eucharist. ProminentCatholic authors are writing them,authors who command a large followingand are already known as trusted spiritualguides.

Joyce Rupp (fondly remembered for

praying the psalms we tend to use theBibles we already know, the textsapproved by the church for the Liturgy ofthe Hours, or possibly a favorite psalmtext we have learned “by heart.” Once,years ago, I memorized Psalm 139 accord-ing to the Jerusalem Bible, and now it isembedded in my soul. But Alter’s newtranslation startles and refreshes me. I can

never fully anticipatewhat he will do next.Just when I think he isall 21st century, hewill use a word like“foes,” which calls upS h a k e s p e a r e a nechoes. Much of whatattracts me is thesheer size and daringof what he is attempt-ing, for he wants us tohear the Hebrewthrough the Englishtext. Are the psalms

prayer for him? I’m not exactly sure. Butin his hands the word of God is living andtrue and razor-sharp.

Jeremy Langford’s new treatment ofthe ancient ways is entitled Seeds of Faith:Practices to Grow a Healthy Spiritual Life(Paraclete Press, 2008, 176p, paperback,$15.95). Langford, who in many ways hasspoken for and to his own generation ofCatholic believers, is now, in my view,speaking to all of us in this wide-rangingexploration of lived faith and spiritual for-mation. He raises a battery of questions:Who am I? Why believe? What do I real-ly want? Then he thoughtfully answerswith a coherent, nuanced and authorita-tive treatment of the spiritual life, explor-ing meditation, prayer, solitude, friend-ship, thinking, spiritual direction, disciple-ship and more.

I was especially taken with his chapter“Living Fully in the Moment,” which pro-ceeds from some words of Thich NhatHanh about mindfulness. This is not thefirst spiritual reflection I have read onwashing dishes or laundry. This one, how-ever, was riveting; Langford’s acuity andperception took me entirely by surprise.Once again I was blindsided by the simpletruth of living in the present moment witha deeper sense of the presence of God inevery atom, every detail. The whole bookis crammed with similar insights.

What will bring us into the wilderness

mercy, he cites St. Thérèse of Lisieux andquotes Portia from Shakespeare’s“Merchant of Venice”: “the quality ofmercy is not strained/ it droppeth as thegentle rain from heaven….” When dis-cussing the human person, BishopMorneau draws on sources as poetic asGerard Manley Hopkins and as theologi-cal as Karl Rahner and Pope John Paul II.

The “Questions and Answers” chapter isespecially practical, and he closes with asheaf of his own poems. I especially likedthe one subtitled “On Re-Reading C. S.Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters.” Better thanany instruction, it shows, in a light vein,how examination of conscience should bedone.

I plan to spend time this Lent withRobert Alter’s The Book of Psalms: ATranslation with Commentary (W. W.Norton, 2007, cloth, 518p, $35). Alter isprofessor of Hebrew and comparative reli-gion at the University of California,Berkeley, and the translator of severalworks from the Hebrew Scriptures,including The Five Books of Moses and TheDavid Story (1 and 2 Samuel). Alter’sapproach and much of his commentary isfocused on how to render the psalms faith-fully and attentively from ancient Hebrewinto modern English. His lengthy prefacereminds me of Ronald Knox’s Trials of aTranslator in that he wants to persuade usthat what he is doing is rather difficult butthat somehow he is doing it anyway. Butmy focus is on drawing closer to thepsalms themselves and gaining the illusionthat Alter—by his learning and literarygifts—puts me near to the prayerbookJesus used.

What is the value—the spiritual quo-tient—of a new translation like Alter’s? Itis not so much a text for prayer, since in

her pilgrimage book, Walk in a RelaxedManner) begins her exploration of prayerby noting how many good books arealready published on this theme. “Whywould I want to write another one?” Butimmediately she recognizes her ownhunger for such books. “I continually readbooks related to spiritual growth eventhough I feel at home with God most ofthe time.” Is it, sheasks, because we cannever fully get ourarms around the expe-rience of the holy?“The longer we pray,the more we realizeprayer is bigger thanwe are, more expan-sive and deeper.When we least expectit, our prayer brings usinto further clarityabout who we are andhow we are to be withGod and the world.” And prayer, she sug-gests, is always a project in motion. “Weleave the finished product of prayer to theOne who understands the desires of theheart.” Other striking aspects of Rupp’sdiscussion are reflected in her provocativechapter titles: “Entering Into aRelationship,” “The Tidal Patterns ofPrayer,” “Keeping the Vigil of Mystery”and “Turning Prayer Inside Out.” Herapproach to prayer is creative and imagi-native. She enlightens and leads us. Sheproves to us once again that each person’sprayer is unique and refreshing and canenrich the whole community’s life.

Robert Morneau’s Reconciliation(Orbis and RCL Benziger, 2007, 141p,paperback, $10) is also a real encourage-ment, not only because the author invitesus to the sacrament itself, but also becausehe deepens our appreciation of what it isto be reconciled. Robert Morneau is theauxiliary bishop and vicar general of theDiocese of Green Bay, Wis. He writes andspeaks often on the spiritual life.Morneau’s theology is simple and familiar:“When we name and take responsibilityfor those attitudes and behaviors that sep-arate us from God and our brothers andsisters, we become disposed to the influxof God’s forgiveness.” And he draws illus-trations from his own wide reading andlove of literature as well as theology.Writing about the mystery of God’s


If Lent is to be transformational,even modestly so, we should turnaway from the haste and the noiseand slow down.

with Christ and help us walk with himright to the end? I remember C. S. Lewis’scounsel on the importance of reading oldbooks, the classics through which he felt“the clean sea breeze of the centuries.”Lewis advised his readers to read two oldbooks for every new one. Fortunately,today’s publishers oblige us by makingancient wisdom easy to come by. Twodevotional classics come to mind: GabrielBunge, O.S.B., Earthen Vessels: The Practiceof Personal Prayer According to the PatristicTradition, Michael J. Miller, trans.,(Ignatius Press, 2002, 222p, paperback,$14.95). Gabriel Bunge is a Benedictinemonk in Switzerland who has been livingthe eremitical life since 1980. Deeplyplunged into the patristic tradition, hedraws on it habitually and invites us totaste this holy wisdom as well. With thisbook it is truly important to slow down,because every explanation or definitionmay serve as a call to prayer. Even whenBunge is lamenting the random and con-fused use of the term “spirituality” inmodern life, he is at the same time callingus back to an authentic definition drawnfrom Scripture and from patristic writing:“For here the word ‘spiritual’ refers unam-biguously to the Person of the HolySpirit.” Another modern classic is HappyAre You Poor: The Simple Life and SpiritualFreedom, by Thomas Dubay, S.M.(Ignatius Press, 2003, 177p, paperback,$15.95). This is a thorough and effectivetreatment of Gospel poverty as it can belived by those in all walks of life. In a chap-ter called “Emptiness and RadicalReadiness,” Dubay writes: “I should nowlike to say this in biblical terms.Detachment is one half of this readiness.Humility is the other. Poverty is related toboth.”

Again, this is a book to be savored,with pauses for reflection. Consider thefollowing passage. “Sensible people do notchoose emptiness for the sake of empti-ness. Of itself negation has no value….Reality is made to be and to be full. Silencehas no value in itself. The value of nega-tive things derives, must derive, fromsomething positive, something they makepossible.” Dubay is conveying ancientChristian wisdom when he opens us up tothe freedom of simplicity.

This Lent, may you dwell deeply inand with Christ, walking with slow, suresteps the path to eternal life.


A

Dramatic FaithA Jesuit Off-BroadwayCenter Stage With Jesus, Judas,and Life’s Big QuestionsBy James Martin, S.J.Loyola Press. 272p $22.95ISBN 9780829425826

In late October 2004, James Martin, S.J., anassociate editor of America, got a surprisephone call from the actor Sam Rockwell.Sam was developing his role as Judas for anOff-Broadway production of a new play,“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” byStephen Adly Guirgis. Because Sam waswithout religious training, he wanted asketch of Christianity, the ministry of Jesusand anything else that would be useful forgetting inside Judas’s skin.

In this fascinating memoir of his sixmonths with the play, Martin notes:

Each answer I gave to one ofSam’s questions prompted adigression that led to yet anotherquestion. We jumped from thebook of Genesis to CharltonHeston’s performance in “TheTen Commandments,” from theorigin of the phrase doubtingThomas to Martin Luther and theReformation, from the rosary toSaint Peter’s betrayal of Jesus,from the work of a Jesuit priest toChristian fundamentalism, fromMary Magdalene to Mel Gibson’sfilm “The Passion of the Christ,”from the Eastern OrthodoxChurch to the contradictoryaccounts of the Resurrection inthe Gospels.

Soon after that Martin was contactedby Stephen Adly Guirgis himself as he wasstill finishing his play. Author of suchworks as “Our Lady of 121st Street” and“Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train,” he seemedto Martin religious by nature.“Underneath many of his foul-mouthedcharacters were men and women, usuallypoor and unlucky, who had nonethelessnot given up searching for meaning, foranswers, and for a modicum of faith.”

And so it was with many of the 15actors for whom “Father Jim” was not justa theological adviser but, in the words of

already so meaningful in my own life.” The play’s director was Philip

Seymour Hoffman, who had just complet-ed his starring role in the film “Capote,”for which he would receive an AcademyAward. Celebrated writer and monologistEric Bogosian would play Satan, and thecast was rounded out by those co-stars andwalk-ons whose faces are vaguely familiarbut whose names are not. Cuban-born YulVázquez, for example, had been a recur-ring character on “Seinfeld,” John Ortiz,who played Jesus, would soon land parts in“Miami Vice” and “American Gangster,”and in the next year Callie Thorne wouldbe juggling roles in “Rescue Me,” “TheWire” and “ER.” Each of them becamefriends to Martin, and he deftly interlaceshis memoir with intriguing backgroundon the cast, focusing not only on theirfaith in God but also their often conflictedfeelings about organized religion.

Woven in, too, are smart commen-taries on the Gospels, the SpiritualExercises of St. Ignatius, the paucity ofinformation on Judas, the benefits ofcelibacy, the Jesus of history, the problemof despair and other topics that theincreasingly inquisitive cast and play-wright brought to him.

The first joint readings of the playcommenced in January 2005 at the PublicTheater, and as the actors began to “getup” to play their parts, Martin felt hisChristological and scriptural insights werebecoming extraneous. “But as therehearsals continued,” he writes, “and theactors began to confess some of their wor-ries and struggles, as well as their joys andexcitements, I found that my role shiftedfrom theological adviser to chaplain. Thatwas a role I was happier to play.”

“The Last Days of Judas Iscariot”opened on March 2, 2005, and the review-ers called it either “extraordinary” or“woeful.” There seemed to be no middleground. The overtly religious nature of

Book Reviews

The ReviewersRon Hansen is a professor of English atSanta Clara University, Calif. His novel Exileswill be published in May.

Cecilio Morales covers workforce develop-ment and work support programs as execu-tive editor of Employment and TrainingReporter, of Washington, D.C.


the playwright in the book’s foreword, “acheerleader, a rabbi, and a friend.” “Whenthey first contacted me,” Martin writes, “Ihad expected a few meetings and a coupleof hours flipping through some old theol-ogy books, with perhaps a handful of freetickets thrown in for my efforts.” But hesoon found himself caring about theLAByrinth Theater Company’s produc-tion, not just because of the evangelizinggood that could come from it, but because“I was having fun.... For the first time, Iwas seeing how satisfying teaching couldbe, especially when the material was

intelligent writer whose candid portraitsof his life in the Society of Jesus and thesecular world may one day rival the jour-nals of Thomas Merton.

Ron Hansen

#5: Help YourCompetitorsForces for GoodThe Six Practices of High-ImpactNonprofits By Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeodGrantJossey-Bass. 313p $29.95ISBN 9780787989124

After traveling through the United Statesin 1831-32, Alexis de Tocqueville famous-ly marveled at the American phenomenonthat gave rise to what we now know as thesocial or independent nonprofit sector.

“Americans group together to holdfêtes, found seminaries, build inns, con-struct churches, distribute books, dispatchmissionaries to the antipodes,” wroteTocqueville in Democracy in America.“They establish hospitals, prisons, schoolsby the same method. Finally, if they wishto highlight a truth or develop an opinionby the encouragement of a great example,they form an association.”

The French essayist would probablynot be surprised to learn that today 1.5million nonprofit organizations accountfor a combined $1 trillion in annual rev-enue, growing faster than the U.S. econo-my for the last 15 years and becoming thethird largest U.S. industry, behind retailand wholesale trade, but ahead of con-struction, banking and telecommunica-tions. These groups have emerged fromthe unprecedented wealth of corporatefoundations, the retrenchment of govern-ment and a heightened awareness of socialproblems that are often of global scale.

It is surprising, therefore, that LeslieCrutchfield and Heather McLeod Grantcame to their subject by chance. WhenCrutchfield, managing director of the non-profit organization Ashoka, was preparingfor a meeting of the “change-makers” hergroup seeks to inspire, she found there wasno single source in which time-tested prac-tices to make a difference could be found.

the play, combined with its nearly four-hour length and the profanity in the script,met with some critical resistance, thoughnot from the Catholic priests and nunswho were Martin’s guests and loved it.

The four-week run ended on April 3,and with it came Martin’s own misgivingsover his loss of so many nights. But heconcludes that he had been trying to dowhat Jesuits are supposed to do: encounterpeople in all sorts of settings, especiallyunusual ones. “There are a number ofways of expressing this goal: helping souls,being on the margins,” he writes.


My favorite definition of our workcomes from the theologian JohnCourtney Murray who said thatJesuits should explain the churchto the world, and the world to thechurch. And maybe standing onan Off-Broadway stage after mid-night talking about forgivenesswasn’t such a bad way of aimingfor that goal.

A Jesuit Off-Broadway is a charmingand enthralling memoir, the ninth bookin eight years by a skillful, likeable and

Joining forces with Grant, a businessadministration specialist, she learned thatsuccess defies traditional management andaccounting measures.

“Being an extraordinary nonprofitisn’t about building an organization andscaling it up. It’s not about perfect man-agement or outstanding marketing or hav-ing a large budget,” they concluded.“Rather, it’s about finding ways to lever-age other sectors to create extraordinaryimpact. Great nonprofits are catalysts;they transform the system around them toachieve greater good.”

In Forces for Good the authors distill themethod in the groups’ madness into a spe-cific half-dozen practices that dynamicallyand cumulatively have become part of aninstitutional “virtuous cycle.”

The organizations “bridge the dividebetween service and advocacy,” inspireword-of-mouth promoters, adapt to theirexternal environment, work with the pri-vate sector, help their competitors and areled by power sharers. These groups’ lead-ers, rather than potentates or politicians,are “social entrepreneurs,” a group of indi-viduals defined as “highly adaptive, innova-tive leaders who see new ways to solve oldproblems and who find points of leverageto create large-scale systemic change.” Theroster ranges from the $1 billion Habitatfor Humanity, renowned for wrestling withpoor housing and homelessness by buildinghomes for a million people, to the $18 mil-lion Youthbuild USA, which encouragesinner-city youths to develop careersthrough experiences in construction.

The authors also categorize the groupsby the way they have adapted to change.

They dub Self-Help, a Durham,N.C.-based group focused on asset devel-opment among low-income populationsand a leading force in promoting anti-predatory loan legislation, as one of the“free spirits.” These are groups whosestaffers are “impatient with anything thatsmacks of bureaucracy” and “pride them-selves on being ‘doers’ not ‘planners.’”

At the opposite end of the range lie“the MBAs,” such as Teach for America,the New York City-based educationreform group they describe as havingmade teaching in public schools “cool.”T.F.A.’s management “tracks data as iftheir lives depended on it,” noteCrutchfield and Grant.

The authors make some missteps,


however, in their quest to avoid easy cate-gorization.Their choice of the HeritageFoundation, which they credit with lead-ing a “conservative revolution in Congressin the 1990s,” ignores the conservatives’seizure of the Republican Party and theWhite House in 1980. Heritage hasremained merely one phalanx of themovement, and it sorely lacks the servicecomponent the authors tout. One mightalso question the authors with regard tothe true transformative effects of thewonky and liberal Center for Budget andPolicy Priorities.

Why, also, did they choose theNational Council of La Raza, admittedlythe leading Hispanic think tank inWashington, but entirely omit suchAfrican-American organizations asOpportunities Industrialization Centersor the Urban League?

Nevertheless, for the high-mindedreader interested in discovering methodsthat have helped others combine idealswith the practical toughness and organiza-tional savvy that yield lasting change,Forces for Good seems to be the book toread. Cecilio Morales

Our futuredepends onyou.

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PilgrimagesTWO PILGRIMAGES exploring the Celtic tradition.Scotland: April 13-24, 2008; or Ireland: June 26-July 6, 2008. Contact: Jane Comerford, Ph: (509)868-1683; e-mail: [email protected].

PositionsADAM CARDINAL MAIDA CHAIR IN SACREDSCRIPTURE. Sacred Heart Major Seminary issearching for a senior scholar to fill the AdamCardinal Maida Chair in Sacred Scripture. Thechair has been established to train priests, deacons

and lay ecclesial ministers in the historical andtheological significance of Sacred Scripture and topass on that knowledge in pastoral settings. Thecandidate must have an ecclesiastical doctorate(S.T.D.) or at least a licentiate in sacred theology(S.T.L.) with a Ph.D. from a Catholic university.The candidate must have excellent teaching skillsand a significant publishing record that demon-strates a high level of competence in SacredScripture. The deadline for application is March15, 2008. Send letter of application, C.V. withprofessional references, and copies of transcriptsto: Dr. Daniel Keating, Sacred Heart MajorSeminary, 2701 Chicago Blvd., Detroit, MI 48206([email protected]). For further jobdescription go to www.shms.edu.

CAMPUS MINISTRY, ST. EDWARDS UNIVERSITY,Austin,Tex. There are two positions open at thisCatholic liberal arts university founded by theCongregation of Holy Cross: ASSOCIATEDIRECTOR, whose primary responsibility is tolead Initiative with Student Affairs on CatholicCharacter and Holy Cross Tradition; and ASSIS-TANT DIRECTOR, whose primary responsibil-ity is to coordinate multiple alternative springbreaks and international immersions. For moredetails go to: www.stedwards.edu/hr/jobs.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE. Catholic Charities of theDiocese of Jackson, Miss., seeks an ExecutiveDirector to lead staff of almost 200 and annualbudget approaching $10 million. The Agencyprovides assistance in domestic violence, rape cri-sis, addiction recovery, adoption, children’s men-tal health, immigration, runaway teens, refugees,family ministry and legislative advocacy.Qualifications: practicing Catholic grounded inCatholic social teaching, master’s in social work,five years of management experience in social ser-vices, experience managing a culturally diversestaff and client population, fund raising andfinance experience, outstanding communicationand interpersonal skills. To apply: send résumé byMarch 10 to: E. Barber, Search CommitteeCatholic Charities, 200 N. Congress, Jackson, MS39201; e-mail: [email protected].

PRINCIPAL, St. Ignatius College Preparatory, SanFrancisco, Calif. The president of St. IgnatiusCollege Prep, San Francisco, is seeking applica-tions for the position of principal for the fall term2008. Both religious and lay persons are encour-aged to apply. St. Ignatius is a co-educationalJesuit Catholic college preparatory with an enroll-ment of 1,420. Founded in 1855, S.I. serves a col-lege-bound student body with a faculty and pro-fessional staff of 115, 10 of whom are Jesuits. Theprincipal supervises all aspects of the educationaloperations (academic, co-curricular and spiritual)and is responsible to the president.

St. Ignatius is fully accredited by the WesternAssociation of Schools and Colleges. The educa-tion program promotes the spiritual, intellectual,social, creative and physical growth of the wholeperson. The faith and spiritual dimensions of the

Bound VolumesAMERICA PRESS INC. is compiling a set of boundvolumes of America for a digital scanning project.We are currently in need of Vol. 1 and Vols. 13-71. America will provide a digital copy of thescanned material in return for the volumes.Contact Tim Reidy at [email protected] or (212) 515-0111.

JournalsA SEEKER’S JOURNAL FOR GROWING IN THELOVE OF GOD. Themed on the examen;


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school are highly prized and have abundantresources. The school has a very talented faculty,extraordinary campus facilities, substantialendowment, a large applicant pool, extensive hon-ors and A.P. programs, and a highly committedBoard.

Minimum Qualifications: 1. Demonstratedknowledge of the goals of Jesuit education andIgnatian spirituality; 2. At least five years’ experi-ence in teaching and/or administration in aCatholic high school; 3. California teaching cre-dential or equivalent; 4. Master’s degree or equiv-alent.

Preferable Qualifications: 1. At least five years’administrative experience in a Jesuit educationalsetting; 2. Master’s degree in educational admin-istration or equivalent.

Salary and Benefits: 1. Salary competitive andcommensurate with experience; 2. Medical, dentaland retirement benefits included.

Application Process: Preferential considerationwill be given to applications received by Friday,Feb. 29, 2008. Apply online at www.siprep.org/-about/jobs. Please upload a letter of interest alongwith résumé/curriculum vitae with your onlineapplication.

St. Ignatius College Preparatory is an equalopportunity employer and does not discriminateagainst any applicant on the basis of sex, age, dis-ability, race or national and/or ethnic origin.

ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA, Catholic StudentCenter, Des Moines, Iowa, is seeking full-timeDIRECTOR OF MUSIC AND LITURGY toserve on our campus ministry team. St. Catherineis a faith community of students and nonstudents,with a strong tradition dedicated to prayerfulliturgical celebrations. Applicant should have edu-cation and experience in Catholic liturgical theol-ogy. We seek a candidate with a background inmusic, music ministry and choral direction withorganizational skills, strong spirituality and will-ingness to work in a collaborative setting on cam-pus ministry team. Requirements: PracticingCatholic, bachelor’s degree in religious studies,liturgy or equivalent. Knowledge and experiencewith Catholic liturgy and music and good com-munication and organizational skills. Preferred:Master’s degree in liturgy; practicing musician,either piano or guitar; experience in campus min-istry. Send letter of interest, résumé and namesand addresses of three references to: SearchCommittee, St. Catherine of Siena, 1150 28th St.,Des Moines, IA 50311. Applications accepteduntil the position is filled.

YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULT MINISTRY DIRECTORsought by the Catholic Diocese of Erie. TheDirector’s primary responsibility is to support theevangelization and catechesis of youth and youngadults in the Diocese. The Director collaborateswith a team of other trained professional ministersin religious education and the Catholic schools ofthe Diocese. The Director reports to the Vicar forEducation and enjoys significant interaction withand support from the Bishop. Review of applica-tions will begin immediately. For best considera-

tion, interested applicants should apply beforeFeb. 15, 2008. For a detailed job description andapplication procedures, please go to www.erier-cd.org/youth.asp.

RetreatsBETHANY SPIRITUALITY CENTER, N.Y.,announces the following retreats: “Aging WithGrace,” with Barbara Metz, S.N.D., and JohnBurchill, O.P., April 20-25; “Justice Through theWindow of God’s Word,” with Mark Hallinan,S.J., June 5-8; “Forgiving Love: In the Word, inthe World,” with Janice Farnham, R.J.M., andRosemary Mangan, R.J.M., June 8-14; “Twelve

Steps to Inner Freedom; Humility Revisited” (J.Chittister’s book), with Carolyn Gorny-Kopkowski, O.S.B., June 16-22; Directed Retreat,July 1-9, 12-20 and 23-31; Vipassana Retreat, withKevin Culligan, O.C.D., and Mary Jo Meadows,O.C.D.S., Aug. 15-24. Please visitwww.bethanyspiritualitycenter.org or call (845)460-3061.

VocationsDESIRE PRIESTHOOD? Religious life? Lay min-istries? Enriching sabbatical? Vocation discern-ment retreat? Ph: (907)339-2486. Web:www.gonzaga.edu/ministryinstitute.


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JOAN B. KROC SCHOOL OF PEACE STUDIESUNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGOThe Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, the first U.S. school created in this field, was inaugurated in fall 2007

and welcomes applications for its first two full-time faculty positions to begin September 2008. The University

of San Diego is a Roman Catholic institution committed to advancing academic excellence, expanding liberal and

professional knowledge, creating a diverse and inclusive community, and preparing leaders dedicated to ethical

conduct and compassionate service. The Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies (KSPS) offers a master’s degree

in Peace and Justice Studies educating and training students for professional leadership in peacemaking and

peacebuilding activities in governmental, intergovernmental and nongovernmental agencies. The Trans-Border

Institute and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice are part of the KSPS and there are opportunities for

collaboration between the Institutes and the faculty.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION THEORY AND SKILL-BUILDING. This is a full-time position at the rank of Assistant

or Associate Professor. Applicants should have a firm grounding in either negotiation and mediation or conflict

resolution (or preferably both), as well as experience intervening in conflicts. Preference will be given to candidates

with international experience who also have an interest in applying this experience domestically. Teaching will be

in the Masters program in Peace and Justice Studies and will include one or more core courses such as conflict

analysis and resolution, negotiation and mediation, and intervention methodology.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION. This is a full-time position for a senior scholar and/

or practitioner at the rank of Associate or Full Professor. Applicants should be recognized experts in human

rights and have an established record of research in one or more of the following: international humanitarian

law, restorative justice, human rights monitoring, and/or transitional justice mechanisms. Preference will go

to candidates with policy relevant experience. Teaching will be in the Masters program in Peace and Justice

Studies and will include one or more core courses in human rights, religious and ethical perspectives, or research

methods. Other courses may be developed in the candidate’s area of expertise.

In addition to a commitment to teaching, successful candidates will be expected to have a well-articulated

research agenda, advise students and assist in placing them in internship positions, conduct workshops and

seminars, and serve as part of a small team developing the new School. Preference will be given to candidates

with significant international experience. Desirable experience includes work in the developing world and/or

program and curriculum development. Successful candidates will have a Ph.D. in hand at the time of appointment

in a discipline such as international peace/conflict studies, anthropology, economics, law, political science,

psychology, or sociology and scholarly publications and experience appropriate to the rank of appointment.

We will begin reviewing applications on March 1, 2008, but will continue to accept applications until the position

is filled. Applicants should send a cover letter explaining their teaching and research interests, a curriculum vita,

recent teaching evaluations, sample course syllabi, two writing samples, and three to five letters of reference to:

Chair, Faculty Search CommitteeJoan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies

University of San Diego5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110

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clear difference between allowing some-one to die naturally and euthanasia.

A few years ago, when my motherwas in the terminal stage of Alzheimer’safter a long decline, she was unconsciousand could no longer be fed. My motherhad much the same religious outlookJohn Hardt’s father has. When I wasasked about a feeding tube, I said no,because I thought that was an “extraordi-nary” means at that stage. Would thatdecision now be deemed inappropriate?

John Hrastar Silver Spring, Md.

Good News, Bad NewsI found “The Conversion of Tony Blair,”by Austen Ivereigh, (1/7) disappointing.In general, the article did a good jobdescribing Blair’s background, interests inCatholicism and the complexities of hisbecoming a Catholic as the British primeminister and, now, a former one.

But the problem was the use of theword “convert” as a noun and a verbabout Tony Blair and others who arereceived into full communion. This wordcarries ominous overtones of triumphal-ism and communicates the notion that weare the “one, true church” and thoseother churches are “less” than we are.The author never intended such tri-

War ProfitsI have read numerous articles in Americaon the war in Iraq. These articles havebeen well written and based on fact andCatholic teachings. None supported thewar. In the Dec. 24 issue, an article byJohn F. Kavanaugh, S.J., continued thefine journalistic tradition of the maga-zine. Three pages later I found a full-page ad to recruit military chaplains.

Such magazine advertisements serveas more than notices to priests. They saysomething about the validity of war. Theissue of military chaplains is a complicat-ed one that would be a good topic forAmerica to investigate and report.

I doubt if the ad in America changesthe opinion of any editor of the maga-zine, but it gives a mixed message to itsreaders. Accepting money from specialinterest groups, in this case the military,carries a message beyond the ad. I hopeAmerica will reconsider its policy ofaccepting money through advertisingfrom any branch of the U.S. military.

Patricia McCarthy, C.N.D.Wilton, Conn.

Mirror ImageThe interview with Klaus Dietz, S.J.,“Christ and Secular Sweden” (12/24), byJim McDermott, S.J., made me check themap, thinking for sure we must be inSweden! Youngsters leaving the church,immigrants arriving but later buying intoanother Gospel (here we call it theAmerican dream)—we have it all here inthe States. Individualism there, as here,must be countered one heart at a time.

(Rev.) Fred CloseWashington, D.C.

Further QuestionsIn “Church Teaching and My Father’sChoice,” (1/21), John J. Hardt invites usto ask big questions. By using his fatheras an example, he puts a face on the ques-tions, but he also makes it difficult tocriticize his argument without seemingheartless.

But his article seems to steer usrhetorically toward answers that bring usanother step closer to what John Paul IIcalled a culture of death. Perhaps infuture articles he can ask questions that


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invite us to build up the culture of life.They could be questions inviting us tocourage in the face of possible future fail-ing of mind and body, encouraginganswers in which unconditional love ofparents takes for granted ensuring theircare even in the face of personalheartache or recognizing that part of par-ents’ responsibility to God in their twi-light years is to teach their children tolive such love by letting them practice iton their parents.

(Rev.) Thomas SchliessmannEdinburgh, Ind.

Simple but ElegantI found it somewhat unsettling that JohnJ. Hardt’s “Church Teaching and MyFather’s Choice” (1/21) needed to bewritten at all. It seems that these end-of-life issues are becoming more complexwhen they need not be. Do we all needto become moral theologians to makefamily decisions such as these?

My Catholic education took place inthe 1940s and 50s, when the rather sim-ple but elegant guide was that “extraordi-nary” means did not have to be used toprolong life. Ordinary people like me canunderstand and make these distinctions.The church need not worry, becausepeople like me can also understand the

without guile

“Research suggests it’s caused by an extra gene.”

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in economic affairs to the saying that “theend justifies the means!”

Joe TrevorsHercules, Calif.

Justices for AllDaniel J. Morrissey writes in “AmericanCatholics in the New Gilded Age” (1/7)that the Bush administration has onlythese tangible achievements: “its taxreductions and deregulatory schemes.” Idisagree. Two tangible and significantachievements of this administration arethe appointments of Justice Roberts andJustice Alito. The expectation that GeorgeW. Bush would get to appoint one ormore justices to the Supreme Court wasthe main reason I voted for him.

Mary Moritz Jacksonville, Fla.

A Prophetic VoiceArchbishop George Niederauer’s“Flannery O’Connor’s Religious Vision”(12/24) was a wonderful gift to sub-scribers. It was encouraging to read hisreminder that even though O’Connordied during the Second Vatican Council,she already knew what the council wouldproclaim: that the church is the body ofChrist, the people of God; that laypeopleare its flesh and blood; and that the cler-gy and its religious orders are its servant-leaders. So many of us ordinary Catholicslong to hear our spiritual leaders expressthe spirit and vision of the SecondVatican Council.

I also wish that Flannery O’Connorwere alive today to write of Jesus’ savingaction among us now, as people of faithtry so desperately to counter corporategreed, high-level political corruption andincreasing poverty and injustice. ButFlannery O’Connor left us with morethan enough evidence to believe that aswe make Jesus present in the world, weshall overcome.

Jim Crosson Fair Lawn, N.J.

umphalism, yet the word remains.Moreover, the U.S. Bishops’

National Statutes for the Catechumenate(No. 2) reads: “The term ‘convert’ shouldbe reserved strictly for those convertedfrom unbelief to Christian belief andnever used of those baptized Christianswho are received into the full commu-nion of the Catholic Church.”

Personally, I find the word to be anoxymoron, for I fail to grasp howChristians can “convert” to somethingthey already constitute—the body ofChrist.

While the word “convert” may seemlike a minor point, it treats our brothersand sisters in Christ as at best inferior tous Catholics. At worst, it scorns their


Letters

baptism. Yet I find great hope in the factthat we do not rebaptize and that we cel-ebrate this commonality.

Jay Freel LandrySouth Bend, Ind.

The Almighty Dollar“American Catholics in the New GildedAge,” by Daniel J. Morrissey, (1/7) is agreat commentary on the state of the cul-ture in the United States these days. Itshows an epidemic of lying and dishon-esty in the areas of economics, banking,Wall Street and the mortgage industry toboost housing values artificially so thatinvestors can make greater profits. Greedand materialism are being exalted to newlevels. It seems there are new meanings

To send a letter to the editor we recommend using the link that appears below articles on America’s Web site, www.americamagazine.org. This allows us to consider your letter for publi-cation in both print and online versions of the magazine. Letters may also be sent to America’seditorial office (address on page 2) or by e-mail to: [email protected]. They shouldbe brief and include the writer’s name, postal address and daytime phone number. Letters maybe edited for length and clarity.

America (ISSN 0002-7049) is published weekly (except for 11 com-bined issues: Jan. 7-14, 21-28, March 31-April 7, May 26-June 2,June 9-16, 23-30, July 7-14, 21-28, Aug. 4-11, 18-25, Dec. 22-29)by America Press, Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019.Periodicals postage is paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailingoffices. Business Manager: Lisa Pope; Circulation: Judith Palmer,(212) 581-4640. Subscriptions: United States, $48 per year; addU.S. $22 postage and GST (#131870719) for Canada; or add U.S.$32 per year for overseas surface postage. For overseas airmaildelivery, please call for rates. Postmaster: Send address changes to:America, 106 West 56th St. New York, NY 10019. Printed in theU.S.A.

Poetry ContestPoems are being accepted for the 2008

Foley Poetry AwardEach entrant is asked to submitonly one typed, unpublishedpoem of 30 lines or fewer that isnot under consideration else-where. Include contact informa-tion on the same page as thepoem. Poems will not bereturned. Please do not submitpoems by e-mail or fax.Submissions must be postmarkedbetween Jan. 1 and March 31.

Poems received outside the designated period will be treated as regular poetry submissions, and are not eligible for the prize.

The winning poem will be published in the June 9-16 issue of America.Three runner-up poems will be published in subsequent issues.

Cash prize: $1,000.

Send poems to: Foley Poetry ContestAmerica, 106 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019


ACH YEAR on the SecondSunday of Lent, the Gospelreading concerns the transfigu-ration of Jesus. With the pres-

ence of Moses and Elijah, the transfigura-tion narrative reminds us that what wecommemorate during Lent is part of thehistory of our salvation. The transfigura-tion also anticipates or previews the gloryand splendor of Jesus at Easter andbeyond, as well as our own hopes for holi-ness and eternal life. Thus it leads us tolook backward and forward.

In the Bible the history of our salva-tion begins with the call of Abraham(Genesis 12). After Adam’s sin, Cain’smurder of Abel, the flood and the Towerof Babel, the call of Abraham marks a freshstart and the birth of the people of God.Speaking directly to Abraham, Godpromises to form him into a great nation,to make his name great and to bless himand his descendants.

The transfiguration narrative intro-duces two more great figures in salvationhistory, Moses and Elijah. Moses led hispeople out of slavery in Egypt, receivedthe Torah on Mount Sinai and broughtGod’s people to the edge of the promisedland. Elijah, the great prophet in northernIsrael during the ninth century B.C., per-formed healings and other miracles andstood up to Israel’s external enemies andthe wicked within Israel. Their presencein Matthew’s transfiguration accountemphasizes Jesus’ continuity with the Law(Moses) and the prophets (Elijah) in salva-tion history.

The word “transfiguration” refers to achange of form or shape. The Greek wordfor this is “metamorphosis.” At the end of

Matthew’s account Jesusdescribes the event as a“vision.” On a mountainsomewhere in Galilee the dis-ciples experience the transfig-uration, or metamorphosis, ofJesus. His face dazzles like thesun; his clothes become radiant with light.The disciples are given a preview of theglorious figure Jesus will soon become atEaster and beyond. Their experiencereaches its climax with an interpretationgiven by a voice from a cloud (a symbol ofthe divine presence): “This is my belovedSon, with whom I am well pleased. Listento him.” These are the same words used toidentify Jesus after his baptism by John.They mark him as God’s son and servant,as well as the authoritative teacher.

Reading about Jesus’ transfigurationearly in Lent reminds us that Lent movesinexorably toward Easter and the resur-rection of Jesus. In order to observe Lentproperly we need to remember that thecentral mysteries of Jesus’ death and resur-rection give Lent its meaning and direc-tion. The transfiguration reminds us thatthe way of the cross leads to resurrectionand eternal life, and that the purpose ofLent is to help us better to enter into thosemysteries.

The significance of the transfigurationin our lives is captured very well by today’sselection from 2 Timothy. The Paulinewriter prefaces what was very likely anearly summary of Christian faith with acall to “bear your share of hardship for theGospel.” He goes on to recall that Godhas “saved us and called us to a holylife…in Christ Jesus.” The theologicalword for this is sanctification.

In the biblical context holiness is pri-marily an attribute or property of God;God is the holy one par excellence.Persons and things are holy by virtue oftheir relationship or contact with God. All

holiness is a reflection and extension ofGod’s holiness. One of the titles applied toJesus in the New Testament is “the HolyOne of God.” This theme is present in thetransfiguration story, which highlights thebrilliance of Jesus and identifies him asGod’s beloved Son. As the Holy One ofGod, Jesus makes manifest the holiness ofGod the Holy One.

This way of talking about Jesus is pre-sent in the early Christian profession offaith quoted in 2 Timothy. In Christ Jesusour savior, the grace of God has beenmade manifest, and he is the one who has“brought life and immortality to light.”We can become holy by listening to himas the voice from the cloud recommends.We listen to Jesus when we take seriouslyand act upon his wise teachings, when wefollow his example in bringing healing andcompassion to those in need and when wetry to remain faithful in the face of the suf-ferings that may come into our lives. Thetransfiguration of Jesus makes us lookbackward over the sweep of salvation his-tory and forward to our own resurrectionand eternal life with God.

Daniel J. Harrington

Praying With Scripture• How do Abraham, Moses and Elijahpoint forward to Jesus?

• Imagine yourself among the disci-ples at Jesus’ transfiguration. Whatdo you see? What do you hear? Howdo you react?

• What does the call to holinessmean for you?

Looking Backwardand ForwardSecond Sunday of Lent (A), Feb. 17, 2008

Readings: Gn 12:1-4; Ps 33:4-5, 18-20, 22; 2 Tm 1:8-10; Mt 17:1-9

“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him”(Mt 17:5)

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

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