Torture and the Rule of Law - America Magazine | The ...€¦ · Yosemite National Park. I had begun hiking along the Tuolomne River, where I have had some vivid prayer experiences

A U G U S T 3 – 1 0 , 2 0 0 9 $ 2 . 7 5

Torture and the Rule of LawWILLIAM MICHAEL TREANOR • DAVID COLE • MARY ELLEN O’CONNELL

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

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES

ig cats—lions, tigers, leopardsand jaguars—are admired fortheir strength, their speed, their

agility. They figure prominently in her-aldry, in folk tales and in children’s sto-ries. They inhabit our imaginations allthe more because they are elusive. Wesee signs but not the cats. We catch aglimpse, and then they are gone. Theirelusiveness sometimes makes themstand-ins for the divine presence.

Peter Matthiesen spun an unforget-table tale of the mysterious snow leop-ard in his travelogue of the same name.As he trekked with the naturalistGeorge Schaller in the NepaleseHimalayas, the story of spotting asnow leopard at high altitude becameintertwined with Matthiesen’s searchfor a legendary lama and ultimately theBuddha himself. He met the lama, butmistook him for the monastery care-taker. At the end of the trip, he won-dered whether his Sherpa guide mighthave been the Buddha; but like thesnow leopard, the man had vanishedfrom sight.

In June, New York’s Central ParkZoo announced its latest guests: threesnow leopards—born and bred in cap-tivity. Most snow leopards now livingwere bred in captivity. The survival ofthe species depends on it. The day Iwent to meet our new neighbors, the12-year-old was not to be seen and a 3-year-old twice came close to the glasspartition only to disappear in the blinkof an eye.

In the western United States I havehad a couple of encounters with moun-tain lions. On a hike in Point ReyesNational Seashore, we spotted onerunning across the trail below us. Justas we crested a small rise, it dashedinto the underbrush.

When we had descended a little, Isuggested to the group that we stop,quietly turn around and see whetherwe could spot the cat. Sure enough,there it was looking out at us fromunderneath the manzanita. We stared

back at one another for several minutesas it twice moved its lookout along theridge. Finally, another group of hikerscame along and the cat fled deeper intothe woods.

Some years later I was doing myannual backpacking retreat near GlenAulin in the northern region ofYosemite National Park. I had begunhiking along the Tuolomne River,where I have had some vivid prayerexperiences in past years. Before I hadgone very far I was forced back by thethreat of thunderstorms. I turnedaround and my eye fell on a peak thattowered over the valley. On a promon-tory, I saw the silhouette of a largemountain lion. I looked a long time tobe sure of what I was seeing. The longtail was the giveaway.

The sighting stretched out to 15 or20 minutes, and I was filled with anenormous sense of grace. Theencounter was so unusual I took it as ablessing.

A couple of months later I used thestory in a retreat homily to illustratethe elusiveness of our experience ofGod. One of the retreatants, JimWeber, a rugged outdoorsman, waswearing a T-shirt with a mountain lionsilhouetted in black on the chest.When I told my story, Jim wept. Jim’swife, Marjorie, had died some monthsbefore. As it turned out, she had cho-sen the mountain lion as her owntotem; and her sister had made the T-shirt as a remembrance of her.

The elusiveness of the big catsmakes their appearance a special reve-lation. My own encounters make melong for the wild lands where the elu-sive appearance of the big cats comes asa joyful surprise, filling one with asense of unity in creation and blessed-ness before God. As George Schallerwrote, “When the last snow leopardhas stalked among the crags...a spark oflife will have gone, turning the moun-tains into stones of silence.”

DREW CHRISTIANSEN, S.J.

BOF MANY THINGS

Cover: A protester dressed to repre-sent a detainee of the U.S. govern-ment demonstrates against tortureoutside the White House, November2005. Reuters/Jason Reed

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www.americamagazine.org VOL. 201 NO. 3, WHOLE NO. 4862 AUGUST 3–10, 2009

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CONTENTS

A R T I C L E S

11 A FORUM ON TORTURE AND THE RULE OF LAWIntroduction

LEGAL OBLIGATIONSThe proper role of White House lawyers

William Michael Treanor

TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCESThe case for a commission on torture

David Cole

NO EXCUSESOur obligation to prosecute human rights violations

Mary Ellen O’Connell

C O L U M N S & D E P A R T M E N T S

4 Editorials A Shabby Welcome; The Stakeholder Society

6 Signs of the Times

9 Column Filling the Gaps Maryann Cusimano Love

19 Faith in Focus The Eyes of a Child Stephen Martin

28 Letters

30 The Word Nourishing Word; Food for Life

Barbara E. Reid

B O O K S & C U LT U R E

21 FILM Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” BOOKINGS The Faith of

Abraham Lincoln

11

19

Jon M. Sweeney reviews the art of James Ensor (right),and William Michael Treanor discusses torture andaccountability on our podcast. Plus, from the archives,the editors on Pope Paul VI's view of capitalism, and alook at the perils of translating encyclicals. All at americamagazine.org.

O N T H E W E B

s U.S. troops are preparing to return to the UnitedStates, millions of Iraqis continue to endure hard-ship both as displaced persons within Iraq and as

refugees in surrounding countries. But even Iraqi refugeesin the United States face harsh pitfalls. Since the war’s massdisplacements began in February 2006, barely 30,000 Iraqishave been admitted to the United States, and few of thesewere admitted prior to August 2008. Now, because of thesharp economic downturn, nonprofit resettlement agenciesare finding it increasingly difficult to help them find jobs.Many face eviction and homelessness.

The title of a recent report by the InternationalRescue Committee tells the grim story: In Dire Straits. Thereport focuses on two cities, Atlanta, Ga., and Phoenix,Ariz., which were chosen by the I.R.C. because the relative-ly high numbers of Iraqi cases in those cities, as an I.R.C.spokesperson told America, have been significantly affectedby the economic crisis. The I.R.C. plans to settle approxi-mately 230 Iraqi refugees in Atlanta in 2009 and an equiv-alent number in Phoenix. But resettlement has becomeincreasingly difficult, because all refugees are expected tofind employment within a few months of their arrival in acity.

The State Department’s Bureau of Population,Refugees and Migration provides a reception grant of $900per refugee upon arrival at their destination—an amountmeant to cover immediate necessities like security depositson rental housing, food and other immediate needs for thefirst month. But this falls far short of actual needs, especial-ly with housing costs varying widely by city and state. In astrange reversal of roles, better-off relatives in Iraq some-times send assistance to loved ones in the United States.

Individual states in which the refugees resettle providesome public assistance, but the amount varies widely fromstate to state—an inequity in itself. The average for a fami-ly of four nationwide is $575 per month, but in some statesthe amount can be as low as $309—which adds to the pre-cariousness of the refugees’ lives. Medicaid, which is gener-ally included, is crucial because many arrive in poor physi-cal and mental health. But Medicaid does not cover all med-ical needs, such as those of trauma victims. The trauma canmake it more difficult for them to begin work in their newcountry. In addition, a number have serious medical prob-lems or physical disabilities that can undermine their imme-diate employability.

Widows face especially harshstruggles. Most are from traditionalbackgrounds in which the wife ormother was not expected to be the pri-mary breadwinner in their families.But the requirement to find employ-ment quickly applies to them as well as to men. Male rela-tives attempting to join them face additional security checksand therefore longer delays in being reunited. And yet fam-ily reunification is one of the strongest indicators of reset-tlement success. The I.R.C. report tells the story of a widowliving alone in Phoenix. Like others who have received evic-tion notices, she has nowhere to go, and homeless sheltersare full. The waiting list for subsidized housing is two years.

The most immediate need is for increased federalassistance in the form of cash and better access to medicaltreatment. Also needed is a leveling of the widely disparateamounts individual states offer for refugee resettlement.The I.R.C. urges that Congress provide $97 million in sup-plemental funds for the Office of Refugee Resettlement inthe Department of Health and Human Services to coveremergency rent payments for refugees at risk of eviction.This past spring the State Department released $5 millionin emergency rent stipends to assist those facing eviction,but such modest steps are mere stopgaps. The entirerefugee resettlement program needs to be reinvented.

The United States has agreed to admit 17,000 Iraqisin fiscal year 2009 (October 2008 to September 2009), ashamefully small number, given that many Iraqis haveeven risked their lives working for the U.S. military andgovernment and for American companies in variouscapacities—for example, as interpreters. Whether thatnumber will be reached remains to be seen, although so farthe U.S. government is on track and resettlement groupsare optimistic. As of June 30, 2009, 13,537 had beenreceived. Roughly a third are Christians, still a targetedgroup in Iraq. Some four million refugees in all have fledtheir homes because of a war for which the United Statesbears primary responsibility.

The least we can do is to better share the load withIraq’s neighbors and provide adequately for those Iraqiswho manage to arrive here as traumatized refugees. Thevoluntary resettlement agencies that care for them areincreasingly overburdened as the recession continues andunemployment climbs.

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EDITORIAL

4 America August 3–10, 2009

A Shabby Welcome

ratuity” is a genteel term for a tip for services ren-dered by a waiter, taxi driver or bellhop. Ofcourse, it also refers fundamentally to any gra-

cious act that is not strictly expected. In times past itreferred to the beneficence of kings. In its most exaltedsense, it denotes the transcendent goodness of God to us.Perhaps the most remarkable proposition in Pope BenedictXVI’s encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate, therefore, is thecontroversial assertion that gratuity—or as the officialEnglish translation frequently reads, “gratuitousness”—isessential to economic life. Can a gesture of politeness or asupernatural relationship have anything to do with every-day commerce? What has Jerusalem to do with Wall Street?Is it not true, as the late philosopher-theologian PaulRicoeur wrote about the Gospel, that “the logic of generos-ity clashes head on with the logic of equivalence whichorders our everyday exchanges, our commerce and ourpenal law”?

Over the centuries, the reduction of economics topure commercial exchange has resulted in the fraying of thesocial bonds that both made the real economy run and com-pensated for its worse excesses. Now, in a flat, globalizedworld with egalitarian aspirations for material successeverywhere, the system is gravely troubled. Economics,moreover, as the pope points out, has come to dominate allother sectors of life—the state, the economy and civil soci-ety—so that few people are any longer concerned about thewell-being of others; and, in practice, most people presumethey need be concerned exclusively with pursuing their pri-vate accumulation of wealth.

The metaphor underlying the term “gratuity” is thatof gift-giving; and Pope Benedict believes the neglect of gra-tuity, of a generous readiness to give for the good of others,is a root cause of the current world economic crisis.“Marked by grave deviations and failures,” he writes,“today’s international economic scene requires a profoundlynew way of understanding business enterprise.” He elabo-rates: “The great challenge before us” in the unfolding ofglobalization and in the current economic crisis is not onlythe need for “the principles of social ethics, like transparen-cy, honesty and responsibility,” but also the need “that incommercial relationships the principle of gratuitousnessand the logic of gift as the expression of fraternity can andmust find their place within normal economic activity.”

This generosity has a public dimension; it is by no

means a private virtue. Rather, it is akinto what the ancients called magnanimi-ty, a greatness of soul that acts in theunderstanding that one’s deeds—in thiscase one’s business transactions—affectthe whole of society. Thus, the primarymeaning of the economy of gratuity for business seems to bethat businesses function within a “stakeholder society.”“Business management,” the pope writes, “cannot concernitself only with the interest of proprietors, but must alsoassume responsibility for all the other stakeholders whocontribute to the life of the business: the workers, theclients, the suppliers...the community of reference.” Thenotion of a “stakeholder society” is already a familiar one tobusiness ethicists, management consultants and politicalphilosophers. It is an idea whose day, the pope believes, willcome.

Aware that critics may regard this ethic as utopian,Benedict points to businesses that already follow thismodel. “Alongside profit-oriented private enterprises, theremust be room for commercial entities based on mutualistprinciples and pursuing social ends....” He expresses thehope that from the interplay of such groups with tradition-al commercial sectors, new hybrid forms of commercialbehavior will continue to emerge and serve to “civilize” theeconomy. Following the publication of the encyclical, theCatholic lay movement Focolare reminded its friends thatChiara Lubich, its foundress, had promoted this kind ofenterprise. Today the movement sponsors more than 700such for-profit companies based on an ethic of gratuity andcommunion.

For Benedict, however, it is not enough that there bea special socio-economic sector operating on this model. Allbusinesses must conduct themselves as members of thestakeholder society. Only 30 years ago the principle thatbusiness has moral ties to the wider society was made pop-ular by the investor responsibility movement, and it was fora time affirmed by many corporations. Unfortunately, thatrealization was eclipsed in the last generation by an AynRand-style of individualism and the prominence of highfinance, the branch of business most abstracted from realpeople and fundamental human interests, as a leading sec-tor of the economy. In the wake of the global financial crisis,the relevance of the stakeholder conception of businessshould be clearer than ever.

‘G

EDITORIAL

August 3–10, 2009 America 5

The Stakeholder Society


dent asked the pope to pray for hisfamily and expressed his appreciationfor the role Cardinal Óscar RodríguezMaradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras,was playing in trying to resolve thepolitical crisis in his country in thewake of the June coup that oustedPresident Manuel Zelaya.

In addition to the encyclical andVatican bioethics document, PopeBenedict gave Mr. Obama a mosaicshowing St. Peter’s Basilica and Piazzaand a medal marking the fifth year ofhis pontificate. The president in turngave the pope a liturgical stole that hadadorned the body of St. John Neumannof Philadelphia, the first male U.S. citi-zen to be proclaimed a saint.

President Obama also delivered aprivate letter to the pope from SenatorEdward M. Kennedy, Democrat ofMassachusetts. Senator Kennedy hasbeen battling brain cancer for the pastyear.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

the value of tolerance was highlighted,”the Vatican said.

Pope Benedict and the presidentdiscussed other issues that represent “agreat challenge for the future of everynation and for the true progress ofpeoples, such as the defense and pro-motion of life and the right to abide byone’s conscience,” according to theVatican. During their time together,the pope gave Mr. Obama a signedcopy of his encyclical Caritas in Veritate(Charity in Truth), as well as a copy ofthe recent Vatican document onbiomedical ethics, Dignitas Personae(The Dignity of a Person). “Oh, whatwe discussed earlier,” said Mr. Obama,referring to their talks, “I will havesome reading to do on the plane.”According to Msgr. Georg Gänswein,papal secretary, the president was giventhe instruction to help him betterunderstand the church’s position onbioethics.

The Vatican spokesman, FedericoLombardi, S.J., told reporters after the

he church’s positions on bioethical issues and matters of globalsocial justice received marked attention during Pope BenedictXVI’s meeting with President Barack Obama on July 10 in

Rome. Mr. Obama had traveled to Rome for the Group of 8 summit,an annual meeting of the world’s wealthiest industrialized countries,which had concluded that morning in L’Aquila, Italy. The G-8 summithad focused on the global economic crisis, climate change and global ten-sions.

The pope and Mr. Obama touched on each of these topics in their 35-minute closed-door meeting, as well as immigration and the issue of reunit-ing families, the Vatican said following the session. The two men alsotouched on international politics, such as the peace process in the MiddleEast, “on which there was general agreement,” the Vatican added.“Dialogue between cultures and religions, the global economic crisis and itsethical implications, food security, development aid—especially for Africaand Latin America—and the problem of drug trafficking” were all dis-cussed. “Finally, the importance of educating young people everywhere in

audience that “great serenity and greatcordiality” characterized the meeting.Father Lombardi said he spoke withthe pope after the meeting and that thepope “seemed extremely satisfied withhow the meeting went.” He said thepope found the president to be “atten-tive and ready to listen,” adding, “Thepresident explicitly expressed his com-mitment to reducing the numbers ofabortions and to listen to the church’sconcerns on moral issues.”

Denis McDonough, U.S. deputynational security adviser, later spoke toreporters about many of the points inthe Vatican statement, adding that thetwo men also discussed Cuba,Honduras and outreach to Muslimcommunities. “I think the presidentwas eager to listen to the Holy Father,[and] was obviously eager to learnmore about his views” on issues suchas abortion and stem cell research, hesaid. McDonough reported the presi-

Mr. Obama arrives at the Apostolic Palace

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T H E V A T I C A N

President, Pope Discuss G-8 Commitments, Bioethics

he recent disclosure that theU.S. Central IntelligenceAgency was developing a pro-

gram to track down and kill individualAl Qaeda leaders has re-awakenedlegal and ethical questions aboutassassination as a tool of national poli-cy. The program had been kept hiddenfrom Congress until this spring, whenit was uncovered and cancelled by thecurrent C.I.A. director, Leon Panetta.In a succession of executive orders,Presidents Ford, Carter and Reaganhad proscribed assassination as a poli-cy of the U.S. government.

President George W. Bush, in “anintelligence finding,” without formallyrescinding the earlier prohibitions,


S O C I A L E T H I C S

Is AssassinationEver Justified?

authorized “lethal covert actions”against Osama bin Laden and al-Qaedaoperatives. Previously, the governmenthad been using pilotless aircraft to tar-get terrorist camps. The new planinvolved deploying teams of assassins tokill individual senior terrorists, requir-ing the assassins to strike “at two feetinstead of 10,000 feet,” according to anintelligence official quoted by TheWashington Post. The anticipated ben-efit of assassination over drone attacksis a potential decrease in “collateral”civilian casualties.

The new program, according tosome analysts, violated the spirit, ifnot the letter, of executive ordersissued by previous presidents. Thoseexecutive orders came in the wake of aseries of government reports on U.S.intelligence activities in the 1970s thatdetailed abuses of power. Among thematters investigated were attempts toassassinate foreign leaders, includ-ing Fidel Castro of Cuba and thebrothers Ngo Dinh Diem andNgo Dinh Nhu of Vietnam.

Just War Analysis. The newdisclosures have prompted adebate about how government-sponsored assassination should beviewed in light of the Catholicmoral tradition on just war theory.Traditional just war theory wasinclined to prohibit assassinationof political and military leaders ontwo grounds. The first was that to“decapitate” the enemy mightmake negotiation of peace more diffi-cult and lead to protracted fighting asa result of chaos or competition forcommand in the enemy ranks. Theother was that civilian political leaderswere technically “innocents”—that is,they were not bearing arms and direct-ly threatening the other side. Armedpersonnel were permitted to attackonly other armed personnel.

The emergence of global terror net-works intent on mass terror raised newquestions. Are terrorists, who are notmembers of a national army, but arecarrying out lethal attacks often undercivilian cover, open to direct attack asif they were armed military? Is thefight against terrorism best carried outas “a war against terror” or as an inter-national police action?

David L. Perry, a former ethics pro-fessor at the Army War College inCarlisle, Pa., addressed the matter in a1995 issue of The Journal of ConflictStudies: “Just as it is not a crime to killthe enemy during wartime, so tooshould it not be regarded as a crime ora morally reprehensible act when anation, acting in concert with its obli-gation to protect its own citizens fromharm, seeks out and destroys terror-ists outside its borders who have com-mitted, or are planning to commit

atrocities on its territory or against itscitizens.” Yet “the assassin in effectacts as prosecutor, judge, jury and exe-cutioner combined; the target is pre-cluded from being represented bycounsel before an impartial court,”added Perry.

Gerard F. Powers of the KrocInstitute for International PeaceStudies at the University of Notre

CIA director Leon Panetta

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Aid Official DescribesStarvation in EritreaA Catholic aid official who justreturned from Eritrea described chil-dren too weak to walk and orphanagestaffers overwhelmed by the number ofchildren being dropped off becausetheir families cannot feed them.“Unless you’ve been there and seen it,you cannot understand the gravity ofthe situation,” says Gabriel Delmonacoof the Catholic Near East WelfareAssociation. “We are trying to save onelife at a time.” Nearly half of Eritrea’spopulation is undernourished, andmore than 85,000 children are mal-nourished as a result of widespreadfamine, according to AmnestyInternational. Eritrea’s 2002 droughtresulted in severe water shortages andan almost complete failure of that year’sharvest. Since then, rainfall has beeninadequate, and last year’s droughtmade conditions significantly worse.

Dame, in Indiana, distinguishedamong targets of assassination. “You'renot talking about killing political lead-ers. You're talking about killing AlQaeda leaders. You're talking aboutkilling terrorists,” he said. “If terrorismis treated primarily as a crime, then thetargeted killings would probably beproblematic, unless they occurred inthe effort to arrest. And all the normalrules of police work apply,” Powersadded.

“But to the extent that terrorismcan be seen as an act of war, then thetargeted killings of known terroristswho are actively engaged in terrorism,or actively planning terrorist acts, thenthe terrorist becomes more like a com-batant in war,” he explained. “And thesame criteria that would apply to warwould apply to the killings of terror-ists.” In the case of Al Qaeda, Powerssaid, there “are elements akin to war”and “others more akin to crime. That'swhere the issues become blurred.”

Honduran CardinalAddresses Coup CrisisCardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiagaof Tegucigalpa has endorsed aHonduran bishops’ conference state-ment saying that deposed HonduranPresident Manuel Zelaya engendered“class hatred.” The cardinal denied thatthe church supported the coup d’état,saying that those who accuse thechurch of siding with Honduras’s elite“are not listening.” Cardinal Rodríguezsaid he has seen an unwelcome changein the politics of Honduras, which heattributes to Zelaya’s alliance withVenezuela’s President Hugo Chávez.“Recently, I have observed somethingthat did not previously exist inHonduras: class hatred,” the cardinalsaid. “Zelaya had advisers inVenezuela, and stirring up class hatredwas the strategy.”

Security has been tightened around churches andChristian towns in Iraq following a series ofattacks in recent weeks that have targetedChristians, according to The Washington Post. •Church officials in Zimbabwe said that thechurch there “is well-positioned to reach peopleand bring them into the process” of drafting thenew constitution. As part of a power-sharingagreement, Zimbabwe is to draft a constitutionthat will go before voters for approval in 2010. • Catholic bishops inwestern Mexico called for three days of prayer for the end to a waveof revenge-driven, drug-cartel violence that has engulfed the State ofMichoacan. • Eddie Panlilio, a Catholic priest who serves as gover-nor of the Philippine province of Pampanga, has written the bishoprequesting a dispensation from his priestly responsibilities so that hemay run for president in 2010.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

N E W S B R I E F S

Eddie Panlilio

Conditions ‘Improve’for Russian CatholicsAn official of the Russian bishops’ con-ference said the Catholic Church’sworking conditions in Russia haveimproved, and that he is hopeful thatthis would lead to better relationsbetween church and state. “Ourchurch’s ties with state and society herehave significantly improved recently,and we hope this process will nowdevelop further,” said the Rev. IgorKovalevsky, the secretary-general of theRussian Catholic bishops’ conference.“A full relationship will clearly facilitatelinks at a time when both the Holy Seeand Russian Federation share commonviews on many international questions,”said Father Kovalevsky.

The Interfax news agency reportedearlier in July that ArchbishopAntonio Mennini, the Vatican’s repre-sentative in Moscow, said that talks ondiplomatic relations between theVatican and Russia had covered “a lotof ground.” From CNS and other sources.

States, existing and new internationalinstitutions, civil society partnerships,more ethically oriented businesses,churches and individuals—all have arole, and no one is off the hook.

Media controversy focused on No.67, “the urgent need of a true worldpolitical authority…universally recog-nized and vested with the effectivepower to ensure security for all, regardfor justice, and respect for rights.”

Few noted No. 41, which urges us“to promote a dispersedpolitical authority,effective on differentlevels,” and No. 57,which notes that “thegovernance of global-ization must be markedby subsidiarity, articu-lated into several layersand involving differentlevels that can worktogether. Globalizationcertainly requires

authority, insofar as it poses the prob-lem of a global common good thatneeds to be pursued. This authority,however, must be organized in a sub-sidiary and stratified way.” PopeBenedict calls for effective interna-tional institutions, as did his prede-cessors, but he also calls for updatingand making all our institutions moreethical and effective.

The pope calls for neither oneworld government nor untrammeledsovereign autonomy, but for effectiveglobal governance. Institutional plural-ism carries costs, including overlap-ping jurisdictions and coordinationdifficulties. But these institutionsalready exist, and so can be morequickly reformed to serve better theneeds of the world’s most vulnerable.

he world has a governanceproblem. We need more ofit—at a time when we have

less of it. Globalization has createdgaps between the problems we faceand our ability to respond. The prob-lems move quickly, but our institutionsdo not. Problems like the meltdown ofthe global financial system and globalclimate change cross borders andrequire urgent and coordinated actionacross countries. But governance stopsat the borders of our primary institu-tions, sovereign states.

New forms of governance areemerging to fill the gaps, especially inthe private sector, sometimes in pub-lic-private partnerships, sometimesalone. Civil society combines intransnational networks to change cor-porate and government behavior onissues from debt relief to land mines.Nongovernmental organizations andprivate companies provide servicespreviously deemed the purview ofstates—from building roads to provid-ing security. Civil society and compa-nies develop and hold businessesaccountable to corporate socialresponsibility codes. A private regula-tory body governs the Internet, to theextent that anyone does that.

The public sector also attempts toincrease capacity and collaborationacross borders. We create new interna-tional institutions (the World TradeOrganization) and adapt old ones(NATO and the United Nations).Religious actors are part of the mix aswell.

But all these efforts are still notenough. People are dying, but statescannot save them. The United Statesand other strong states cannot solvethese problems alone; their institutionsare not wired for it. Nearly a third of thepeople on earth live in the weakest statesin the system, as described in detail inThe Failed State Index, a new report bythe Fund for Peace. Their citizens arethe most vulnerable, yet these states arethe least able to respond to the chal-lenges of globalization andsome deny their people theability to participate in orhold their governmentsaccountable for the activitiesundertaken in their name.The worst of these states arepredatory, deliberatelykilling the very citizens theyare supposed to protect.

Sovereignty—the ideasthat governance aligns withterritory and that those out-side the geographic boundaries have noauthority to meddle in internal affairs—is problematic for most of the people onthe planet. But most leaders and schol-ars ignore the problem of sovereignty inworld politics, focusing on governmentaction even as states are less able toresolve global problems alone.

I am not a neutral observer of theseissues. I had recently finished the fourthedition of my book on globalization,Beyond Sovereignty: Issues for a GlobalAgenda, when Pope Benedict XVIreleased his encyclical Caritas inVeritate. The pope reveals himself to bean institutional pragmatist. When thechallenges are as urgent as they now are,we have to use all available tools andwork through, reform, strengthen,expand and improve many institutions.

Filling the Gaps

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The popecalls for

internationalinstitutions

to serve the most

vulnerable.


MARYANN CUSIMANO LOVE

MARYANN CUSIMANO LOVE, professor ofinternational relations at The CatholicUniversity of America in Washington, D.C., isthe author of Beyond Sovereignty: Issuesfor a Global Agenda.

orture, detention without trial, secret

surveillance of citizens, power to strip

citizens’ rights on suspicion of terror-

ism—the list of alleged misdeeds by the Bush

administration in its so-called war on terror is

highly troubling, reminiscent of the abuses for

which the American colonies declared indepen-

dence from Britain. For months debate has

stirred on how the nation should address these

violations of civil liberties and discipline the offi-

cials responsible for them. America has asked

three distinguished lawyers to make the case for

one of three alternatives: taking preventive

action, convoking a blue-ribbon committee of

inquiry or bringing criminal charges.

Please send us your comments on the current issue page of the

America Web site: americamagazine.org.


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Torture and theRule of Law

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n opinion issued on Aug. 1, 2002, byAssistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee ofthe Department of Justice’s Office of LegalCounsel held that the federal statute that

makes it a crime to commit torture outside the UnitedStates should not be read to “apply to the President’sdetention and interrogation of enemy combatants pur-suant to his Commander-in-Chief authority.” The opin-ion further concluded that if the statute did criminalizeinterrogations ordered by the president, it was unconsti-tutional.

The memorandum, which has become known as the“torture memo,” figures prominently in the ongoing publicdebate about whether there should be prosecutions ofDepartment of Justice officials or a truth commission toinvestigate the treatment of detainees by U.S. officials. Butas important as the memorandum is to any considerationof the past, it is at least as relevant to any consideration ofhow to ensure that in the future, the Department of Justiceand the executive branch as a whole honor the rule of lawand the U.S. Constitution.

Since its inception, the Office of Legal Counsel, theoffice that issued the torture memo, has played a criticalrole in ensuring that the executive branch follows the law.Operating as a kind of court within the executive branch,the office rules on the legality of potential executive branchactions. In both Democratic and Republican administra-tions, the office has understood its mission as makingdecisions that reflect the best view of the law, withoutregard for politics. “It is not our function to prepare anadvocate’s brief or simply to find support for what we orour clients might like the law to be,” Ted Olson, who head-ed the O.L.C. during the Reagan administration, hasobserved. Rather, the O.L.C.’s duty is to make “the cleareststatement of what we believe the law provides and how thecourts would resolve the matter.”

The torture memo, as well as other importantDepartment of Justice memoranda approving counterter-rorism activities, reflected a very different approach.Former Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, who


rescinded the torture memo in 2004, has written that thetorture memo and other opinions were “deeply flawed:sloppily reasoned, overbroad, and incautious in assertingextraordinary constitutional authorities on behalf of thePresident.”

Underlying the torture memo and other memorandawas a stunningly broad theory of executive power. “Inwartime,” the memo states, “it is for the President alone todecide what methods to use to best prevail against theenemy.” The memo reflects an approach under which thepresident even has the power to disregard statutes govern-ing the military or the conduct of war.

This conception of presidential power is at odds withthe Constitution. While the drafters of the Constitutionmade the president the commander in chief of the armedforces, they also gave Congress great powers in military andforeign affairs, including the power to declare war. Thisconstitutional framework is one of shared authority, andgoverning judicial precedent reflects that understanding.The torture memo ignored all this as its authors single-mindedly pressed an expansive view of presidential power.

What made the torture memo and similar memosauthorizing war-related actions by agents of the executivebranch even more of a threat to the constitutional orderand the rule of law is that they were secret. Congress hadno way of knowing that the executive branch was disre-garding U.S. law. There are three crucial steps needed toprotect the rule of law.

First, as former O.L.C. head Walter Dellinger has sug-gested, the executive branch needs to adopt and make pub-lic a careful statement setting forth its conception of theproper role of the different branches of government withregard to war powers and foreign affairs. Unlike the tor-ture memo, that statement should reflect the balance ofcongressional and executive power embodied in theConstitution’s text, structure and history, as well as judi-cial precedent. Such a statement would establish a frame-work for future decision-making. It would help avoid theresult-oriented and crisis-driven reasoning reflected in thetorture memo, and, by being made public, it would facili-tate a needed public debate by allowing Congress theopportunity to respond to the executive branch’s concep-tion of its role.

Legal Obligations

WILLIAM MICHAEL TREANOR is dean of Fordham University Schoolof Law in New York.

The proper role of White House lawyersBY WILLIAM MICHAEL TREANOR

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has introduced legislation embracing this approach.Third, the O.L.C. must return to its traditional role. Its

opinions must reflect straightforward analysis of the law,not advocacy, even when that legal analysiswould keep the executive branch frompursuing policies it wants to pursue. TheConstitution states, “the President shalltake Care that the Laws be faithfully exe-cuted.” Honest O.L.C. opinions are critical

if the president is to satisfy that constitutional obligation.Our constitutional framework is a wise one. It provides

for a strong national defense while it protects individualliberties and the rule of law. The lessons of the past willhelp us ensure that that framework is honored.

Second, there is a need for greater transparency. Whileconcerns about the protection of classified information areimportant, Congress cannot defend its powers if it isunaware of what the executive branch isdoing. A mechanism for informingCongress while protecting classifiedinformation must be established. DawnJohnsen, President Obama’s pick tohead the Office of Legal Counsel, hasargued passionately during the past few years for theO.L.C. to return to its traditional role, and she has urgedpassage of a statute that would require the administrationto notify Congress whenever it is not enforcing a lawbecause of constitutional concerns. Senator Russ Feingold


Truth and Consequenceshy are so many so afraid of the truth?The proposal of Senator Patrick J.Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, for anonpartisan truth commission to

investigate possible crimes committed in connectionwith the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogationof detainees has sparked resistance from PresidentObama and a wide range of Republicans, all of whomurge us to look forward, not backward. But in the faceof credible evidence that high-level Bush administra-tion officials authorized torture, a crime againsthumanity, the least we should do is undertake a seri-ous, independent investigation. Accountability is thetouchstone of the rule of law. We owe it to the victims,the world and ourselves to hold the wrongdoersaccountable. Moreover, without an official acknowl-edgment of wrongdoing, we risk repetition of theabuses of the past.

We know already that U.S. officials up to andincluding Vice President Dick Cheney authorizedwaterboarding. We also know that lawyers in the JusticeDepartment’s Office of Legal Counsel, including Jay Bybee,John Yoo, Daniel Levin and Stephen Bradbury, wrote mem-oranda that gave a green light to the practice by arguing thatwaterboarding does not constitute torture, or even cruel,

inhuman or degrading treatment. President Obama,Attorney General Eric Holder, and C.I.A. Director LeonPanetta have all since conceded what the world alreadyknew—that waterboarding is in fact torture.

As a legal matter, the United States is compelled by theU.N. Convention Against Torture, a binding treaty that weratified in 1988, to “submit the case to competent authori-ties for the purpose of prosecution.” Those authorities “shalltake their decision in the same manner as in the case of any

DAVID COLE is a professor at Georgetown University Law School. Hisbook, The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable, will bepublished by the New Press in September 2009.

ON THE WEBWilliam Michael Treanor on torture

and accountability.

americamagazine.org/podcast

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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on April 23, 2009.

The case for a commission on torture BY DAVID COLE

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ordinary offence of a serious nature.” At a minimum, then,Attorney General Holder must investigate and make a deci-sion as to whether to prosecute.

Vague Standards Defining TortureA prosecution of Vice President Cheney or, for that matter,the Justice Department lawyers would be deeply divisive,but that is no justification for declining to prosecute. Theattorney general could decide, however, that a prosecution isnot warranted on the grounds that there is not proofbeyond a reasonable doubt that anyone knowingly autho-rized torture. The cabinet officials who gave the go-ahead,and the C.I.A. agents who carried out the interrogationswill claim that they relied on opinions from the JusticeDepartment and concluded that these tactics did not rise tothe level of torture. And the lawyers will argue that theysought only to identify the line between torture and abuseshort of torture. Given the vague standards used to definetorture, this was no simple task. My own view is that whenthe Justice Department memos are read carefully, they showthat the lawyers contorted the law to facilitate brutality,instead of requiring the C.I.A. to conform its practices tothe law. But without more evidence, a prosecutor might rea-sonably conclude that such a case cannot be proven beyonda reasonable doubt, as the criminal law requires.

A criminal prosecution, however, is not the only way toachieve accountability. It took more than 40 years to do so,but in 1988 Congress officially apologized for the wrong ofinterning 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans duringWorld War II, and paid reparations to the survivors. Aftera Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, was rendered to Syria for

torture by U.S. authorities acting on information providedby Canada, Canada conducted an official inquiry, resultingin a 1,100-page report that exonerated Arar and castigatedCanadian authorities. Canada’s Parliament unanimouslyapologized to Arar, and the government paid him $8.7 mil-lion in damages. These forms of accountability, while notcriminal, nonetheless help create a bulwark against repeti-tion of the wrongs.

Whether or not a criminal case proceeds, as a country wehave a moral obligation to investigate and acknowledge ille-gal abuses committed in our name. That process would bebest advanced by a blue-ribbon commission that could riseabove partisan politics, assemble all the facts and issue anofficial report addressing the question of whether the prac-tices employed by the C.I.A. were not only a bad idea, butillegal as well.

Some complain that a truth commission is not enough.Crimes require criminal prosecutions, but empaneling a com-mission does not foreclose that possibility. Depending onwhat the evidence shows, prosecution may be the appropriateresponse in the long run. For the moment, however, that con-clusion is not yet obvious. It may have been wrong, but notcriminally wrong, to rely on flawed legal advice from theJustice Department that waterboarding was not torture. Thelegal advice itself may have been morally repugnant and pro-fessionally incompetent without necessarily being criminal.Only further investigation can tell whether criminal prosecu-tion is warranted. But a truth commission would be animportant first step toward both restoring the rule of law inthe United States and restoring the United States to its placeas a law-abiding member of the community of nations.


No ExcusesOur obligation to prosecute human rights violations BY MARY ELLEN O ’CONN ELL

e Americans have a clear and definite legalduty to investigate and prosecute the crimeof torture. Under the 1949 GenevaConventions, each party is “under the obli-

gation to search for persons alleged to have committed or tohave ordered to be committed, such grave breaches [of theduty not to torture], and shall bring such persons, regardlessof their nationality, before its own courts.”

Similarly, the 1984 Convention Against Torture requireseach party to “ensure that its competent authorities proceedto a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is

reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has beencommitted in any territory under its jurisdiction.”

Our nation is a party to these and other treaties pro-hibiting torture and mandating investigation and prosecu-tion.

We know that high officials in the Bush administrationviolated these treaties. We have unimpeachable documentsconfirming that individuals taken into custody since Sept.11, 2001, were waterboarded and worse. The controversyover whether waterboarding is torture is entirely specious.In fact, the United States has prosecuted Japanese military

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reliance on legal advice may be immune from prosecution.The advice in the memos, however, is anything but reason-able. The memos are full of basic errors. They do not focuson what the law requires of interrogators but rather on howto avoid prosecution; as such, judges are unlikely to permitthe memos as evidence at trial. The lawyers who preparedthe memos cannot credibly contend that they acted in goodfaith in their preparation. Nor do the memos address whatshould be our greatest concern: the liability of superiorswho authorized the use of torture or failed to prevent it.

Former officials insist that “harsh interrogation” pro-duced essential intelligence, but such advocacy cannotchange the fact that torture is morally and legally wrong.When judges and jurors see the techniques at issue demon-strated, they will recognize them for what they are. No pres-ident can change these facts.

Finally, some argue that even if the use of torture iswrong, interrogators may rely on an affirmative defense of“necessity.” The Geneva Conventions and the ConventionAgainst Torture, however, reject necessity as a defense fortorture.

America’s obligation to investigate and prosecute isclear. Other countries are obligated to prosecute if oursdoes not. Some cases are already under way. But this isfundamentally our nation’s duty. If we Americans do notprosecute our own perpetrators, in addition to compound-ing our wrongdoing, we weaken our right to demand thatothers end a practice that our church rightly teaches isintrinsically evil.

personnel at the end of World WarII, American soldiers during thePhilippine Insurrection, (1902–13)and others for waterboarding.

Investigating and prosecutingsuch crimes is obligatory; it is not a“witch hunt,” as some charge. Nor isit something optional—a matter of“prosecutorial discretion”—that thepresident may choose to forgo.

The only issue is whether theObama administration will followthe violations of the Bush adminis-tration by a violation of its own.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy,Democrat of Vermont, proposes atruth commission to look into thescandal. We should praise him forhis courage. But a truth commissionwill not meet our obligations as anation, which are to hold violatorsjudicially accountable.

Some think that recent domesticlegislation prevents the United States from fulfilling its obli-gations in the aftermath of torture. The presence or absenceof specific domestic legislation is, however, irrelevant to ournation’s duty. After World War II, during the trials inNuremberg and Tokyo, the United States prosecuted indi-viduals for what the United States judged to be wrong, evenif arguably authorized by German or Japanese law.

We also hear that torture committed since 2001 by U.S.personnel is not illegal because it violates “only” internation-al law. Treaty obligations are, however, part of the law of theUnited States. The Constitution specifically provides thattreaties are the “supreme” law of the land. International lawprohibitions on torture are the law of the United States.Moreover, the prohibition on torture is a peremptory normof international law—a higher norm that cannot be changedby merely changing a treaty. The concept of peremptorynorms owes much to Catholic natural law scholars, includ-ing St. Thomas Aquinas.

Government lawyers produced thousands of pages oflegal memoranda on the subject of torture and internation-al law, ironically demonstrating how serious these interna-tional law obligations are. Some now—incredibly—con-tend that prosecution is not possible because of the exis-tence of these same memos.

In fact, officials who act in reasonable and good faith


MARY ELLEN O’CONNELL holds the Robert and Marion Short Chairin Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution—Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame. She is the author of ThePower and Purpose of International Law (2008).

Protestors dressed as Guantánamo Bay prisoners in front of the White House

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As our country teeters on the brink

of a deepening military quagmire in

Afghanistan, Pax Christi USA lifts up the

impassioned cry of Pope John Paul II:

“No, never again war, which destroys the lives of innocent people, teaches how to kill, throws into upheaval even the lives of those who do the killing and leaves behind a trail of resentment and hatred, thus making

solution to the very problems which provoked the war.”The “trail of resentment and hatred”

in Afghanistan has deep roots—a tragic

history of foreign occupation, proxy wars

and the support of extremist

elements—the consequences of

which contributed to the rise of

the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The U.S.

“war on terror” has not proven

ensuring security nor reducing

terrorism. Instead, this reliance

on military strategies has fueled

the spiral of violence and further

destabilized the region. . . .

We fear that a “surge” will

region, putting at greater risk U.S.

and Afghan lives, without building

the deeper foundations for a long-

term peace. . . .

A January 2009 public opinion

poll showed that only 32% of

Afghan citizens believe that the

U.S. strategy has worked well, a

drop from 68% in 2005; only 18%

want more U.S. troops in their

country.

A separate survey of Afghan

civil society leaders warned that

one result of a troop surge would

be to create greater recruitment

opportunities for the Taliban; the

leaders stressed that the United

States needs to shift its approach,

emphasizing diplomacy and development.

As opposed to the United States’ exclusive

focus on attacking the Taliban and building

the Afghan central government, these

leaders emphasized that strengthening civil

society is the key to holding government

leaders accountable and ensuring long-

term stability.

History has shown that there is no

military solution in Afghanistan. . . .

Before risking even more lives, we call

on our nation’s leaders to:

1. Immediately halt air strikes

and the use of drones on targets in

Afghanistan and Pakistan. . . .

2. Lead with diplomacy, which

includes: a) robust engagement with

stakeholders in the region toward

a regional peace process backed by

the UN; b) greater support internally

for civil society and civilian rule of

law in Afghanistan; c) reconciliation

processes and negotiations with

elements of the Taliban; d) ensuring

the participation of women.

3. Employ multilateral approaches

to protect the people and strengthen

institutions, including support for

local law enforcement, government

and judicial reform, as well as non-U.S.

peace-keeping forces if necessary.

4. Promote a surge in development

aid. Afghanistan will not begin to

needs rise to the top of the

U.S. agenda there. Reform

the delivery of humanitarian

aid: a) prioritize Afghan

organizations over foreign

contractors; b) discontinue the

use of the military-led Provincial

Reconstruction Teams which

have militarized the aid process;

and c) support long-term

sustainable development.

5. Promote a robust public

debate on our country’s approach

toward Afghanistan. . . .

As a faith community, we call

on our church leaders to:

1. Elevate a moral voice and

reject a military escalation in

Afghanistan. . . .

2. Ensure that U.S. tactics are

in accordance with proscriptions

against harming civilians,

including the immediate harm

caused by aerial bombardment

and the lingering harm caused

by the use of cluster munitions.

interreligious dialogue at both

the international and local levels

to build greater understanding

challenges and aspirations. . . .

Let this be the moment when our

nation experiences a “metanoia”—a

conversion—when we turn around, change

direction and chart a new course. As

church, as people of faith and good will,

we must raise our voices and create the

public groundswell that makes real change

possible—here, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in

Palestine/Israel and everywhere.

IT IS TIME TO END THE TRAIL

A Pax Christi USA Statement on Afghanistan

It is clear to us that reducing the U.S. military footprint would be one of the most

effective measures to weaken the armed opposition. A shift in U.S. policy in support of a multilateral diplomatic and development surge has far

greater potential for achieving long-term peace and stability

in Afghanistan. . . .

Photograph courtesy of Linda Panetta, www.OpticalRealities.org

Pax Christi USA is the National Catholic Peace and Justice Movement. Visit us at www.paxchristiusa.org.

[email protected] - 814.453.4955 - Pax Christi USA-DC Office: 1225 Otis Street NE; Washington, DC 20017

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You know how in the movies,before something bad happens, anactor will sometimes yell,“Nooooooooooooo!!!” in slowmotion; and the word emerges not somuch like language but as a desper-ate, terrified, primordial roar? I recallsounding something like that as Iswatted my son’s hand away from thefire alarm. But it was too late. Thered plastic handle was halfway down.Frantically, I shoved it back into itsoriginal position. Two seconds ofsilence followed. I started to tell mywife, “Maybe it’s….”

And then came the impossiblyshrill, irrevocable shriek of the siren.If your son or daughter has neverpulled a fire alarm in a highly publicplace, try to imagine your reaction ifit happened. Having trouble? Here’show I felt: sick. Followed by: cow-ardly.

It’s bad enough to be responsiblefor getting a fire truck called to your

church, but things were worse thanthat. A twice yearly sale of handmadegoods from our sister parish in Peruwas under way in the fellowship hallnext door. Scores of addled parish-ioners, who until moments earlier hadbeen inspecting sweaters from themountain village of Manazo, camestreaming out onto the sidewalkclutching their ears. Overwhelmed bythe sudden crush and the relentlesswail of the alarm, my first instinct wasto run. Very fast. And very far. Theonly one who knew the truth wasBrandon’s grandmother, and she couldhardly go around pointing fingers atanyone else’s kid.

round 10 a.m. one Sunday,my wife and I wrapped upour quarterly shift supervis-

ing the church nursery. For the previ-ous hour, we had chided, coddled andconsoled 15 kids (including our owntwo) ranging in age from 1 to 5, all ina space about the size of a modest liv-ing room. We careened through themorning in a whirl of tipping chairs,airborne Legos, broken crayons andsmelly diapers I had no intention ofchanging. Given the circumstances,the morning had passed reasonablywell. It was about to go badly awry,but I did not know that yet.

In my experience, successfullymanaging the church nursery hingeson two key principles: keepinginjuries to a minimum and lookingat your watch as infrequently as pos-sible. Jaw clenched for the duration,I violated Principle No. 2 only fiveor six times. As for Principle No. 1,the good news is no bandages werenecessary.

When it was all over and we hadassured the last parents their little boyhad behaved spectacularly the wholetime, we headed for the door. Therewe ran into a rather notorious child ofthe parish—let’s call him Brandon—whose grandmother was attempting todrop him off in the nursery so shecould enjoy a quiet cup of coffee in theadjoining fellowship hall. I couldn’tblame her. I had seen Brandon inaction before. He was twitchy, bratty

The Eyes of a Child

ABY STEPHEN MARTIN

STEPHEN MARTIN has written for America,Commonweal and U.S. News & WorldReport. He lives in Greensboro, N.C. A

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and loud, even by the standards of 6-year-old boys. “Sorry,” I told her rathersmugly, “nursery’s closed.” I nearlyadded, “Why don’t you teach that kida thing or two about manners?”

Were these charitable thoughts fora Sunday morning? Of course not. DidI deserve what happened next? You bethe judge.

Out of the corner of my eye, I sawmy 3-year-old son reach up to grabsomething on the wall. That was notunusual: he has never met a lightswitch he didn’t love. But this time itwas not the light switch he was goingfor. It was not art work or a rogue fly.It was the fire alarm.

FAITH IN FOCUS


Buchner. Most people, including Jesus’own Apostles, were not really ready tosee the humble son of a lowly family asa savior. They looked at Jesus, and theysaw what they were trained to see: aneccentric teacher, a rebellious self-pro-moter, an insidious threat to authority.

Jesus told them precisely how tolook at him and the kingdom of heav-en: with the eyes of a child. It turns outthat’s not easy. If I could see with theeyes of a child, I would have noticed ared box with a large, inviting red plas-tic handle just a few feet up a wall, andI would have done something about itlong before it was too late. It makes mewonder: What else am I not seeing?What miracles and mysteries do I lookright past each day?

There is a sign hanging in ourchurch nursery now that’s hard foreven me to miss. “Fire alarm out oforder. Call 911 in case of emergency.”It is a wicked reminder of just howmuch I have yet to see and hear andunderstand.

I had never even noticed the alarm wasthere.

Not long after that shamefulSunday morning, I happened to rereada passage from Matthew 13: “This iswhy I speak to them in parables,” Jesustells his disciples, “because seeing theydo not see, and hearing they do nothear, nor do they understand.” Thewords took on a whole new meaning.With the hindsight of 2,000 years, it’seasy enough in studying the Gospelsto shake our heads in befuddlement atthe legions of poor men and womenwho simply could not see what theymost needed to see, the things thatJesus tried his best to put right in frontof their noses. You read about onestunning miracle after another andthink, “He was raising people from thedead, turning water into wine and cur-ing the impossibly ill—and people stilldidn’t get it!”

But what you see depends on howand where you look, to borrow aphrase from the design guru Dan

It was my wife, a convert toCatholicism (perhaps made moreupstanding by her Presbyterianupbringing), who rose to the occasion.Seizing my son by the hand, shemarched into the church to take theblame and to find someone who couldturn off the blasted alarm before theentire fire department arrived. As Icowered outside with my infantdaughter, fittingly enough in thechurch’s new columbarium, shetracked down Someone in Authorityand made my son apologize to her.Meanwhile, I started assigning blame.(Be assured I wasn’t pointing tomyself.) “What kind of pea-brain,” Iwondered, “would install a fire alarmfour feet from the floor in a nursery ofany kind?! And if you’re going to dothat, don’t you at least encase the han-dle in glass?! Where was the stinkingglass?!” Clearly, I should have com-plained about this disaster-in-waitingbefore. But here’s the truth: Up untilthe moment my son’s hand touched it,

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More than Al Capone and JesseJames, Dillinger stands at the pinnacleof the pantheon of mythologizedAmerican criminals. A loner, defying allauthority to protect his peculiar under-standing of personal integrity, Dillingerplayed by his own rules. That’s whyJackie Reilly wanted to imitate him. Yetsociety destroys people like Dillinger inorder to survive.

Defiance and self-induced destruc-tion provide the stuff of tragedy. Thecombination has given dramatists alibrary of complex characters over thecenturies. In one culture after another,we return to the brave hero who wouldrather sacrifice himself than compro-

y childhood friend JackieReilly spent more time inthe principal’s office than

the principal did. Or so he would haveus believe. Whenever we chose upsides for a game of “guns,” our postwarversion of “cops and robbers,” heplayed John Dillinger. Typecasting.For obvious reasons, no one wanted toplay Baby Face Nelson or Pretty BoyFloyd, equally famous characters in

our comic books. Anyone Jackiepicked for his side became simplyanother gang member. It made littledifference, since J. Edgar Hoover andhis G-men would always chase theminto Pudgy Donohue’s backyard andshoot them with Tommy guns. Jackiedied spectacularly every Saturdaymorning, spinning backward andtwitching on the lawn as he breathedhis last.


BOOKS & CULTURE

M

F I L M | RICHARD A . BLAKE

COPS AND ROBBERSMichael Mann’s ‘Public Enemies’

Johnny Depp in “Public Enemies”

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mise. We weep at the destruction of theman of singular valor, yet we gloat whensociety makes him pay for his ambi-tions. By placing our own arrogance orsinfulness in this perversely admirablefigure and then sacrificing him, we tryto purge ourselves of evil. This heldtrue for our band of nine-year-olds.When World War II ended, we kids nolonger dug foxholes in an empty lotfrom which to shoot foreign invaders.Looking for a worthy enemy, we turnedfrom Nazis to Dillinger, a criminal whohad been dead for over a decade.

“Public Enemies” resurrects theperennial tragic hero for one more rit-ual slaughter. To what purpose thistime? The question holds the key tounderstanding the film, since gangsterfilms tell us more about the culturethat produces them than they doabout the characters they present orthe historical period they ostensiblyanalyze. This film recreates theDepression-era events, but uses themto comment on the tragedies we have

fashioned for ourselves in 21st-centu-ry America. Whether the directorMichael Mann, who co-authored thescript with Ronan Bennett and AnnBiderman, had such a purpose clearlyin mind does not alter what he put onthe screen. Directors and screenwrit-ers claim to be storytellers, but thebest of them, like fiction writers, domore than tell a story. Melville’s Moby-Dick, for example, offers readers morethan the chronicle of a fishing tripwith a crazed sea captain.

“Public Enemies” presents a goodstory, but nothing surprising: Dillingerwent on a crime spree and the F.B.I.killed him as he came out of a Chicagomovie house in July 1934. The filmgains interest with spectacular actionsequences. Mann offers enough bankrobberies and shootouts to keep even arestless 12-year-old boy in his seat forthe full two hours and 15 minutes. Yetthe story lacks sparkle. And the char-acters, even Dillinger himself, fadeinto the narrative without demanding

much emotional investment. Onesenses a conscious strategy here.Johnny Depp, as the protagonist, andChristian Bale, playing his nemesisAgent Melvin Purvis, stand at a dis-tance from their characters, appearingcontent to accompany them as theywander from one action sequence tothe next. Their motivation remains inthe background. Does Dillinger needthe money, or does he want to humili-ate law enforcement agencies? Or doeshe merely enjoy living on the edge?Purvis becomes obsessed with his job,but does he seek personal satisfactionor a leading role in the new F.B.I.? Orhas he allowed himself to become aHoover sycophant?

Gangsters reach the screen as menfor their own season, not all seasons.James Cagney in “Public Enemy”(1931), Paul Muni in “Scarface, Shameof a Nation” (1931) and Edward G.Robinson in “Little Caesar” (1932)created the template for gangsters ofthe Depression era. They rose to thetop of the mob, yet despite their inge-nuity they overreached. They steppedout of the crowd and became captivat-ed by their own ruthless success.Society had to crush them for theirpretensions. In the Depression, societycrushed everyone, regardless of theirhard work and single-mindedness. In“White Heat” (1949) Cagney’s CodyJarrett became a psychopathic killer,who blows himself to pieces ratherthan surrender. During the cold warthis insane strategy, when applied bythe two nuclear powers, was calledMutual Assured Destruction. In“Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) we sawimages of the loveable flower childrenof the 1960s, who defied social cus-toms in their search for freedom on theopen road. In the “Godfather” series ofthe mid-1970s, Francis Ford Coppolapresented a highly moral critique of theworld’s descent into amorality. Amongthe Corleones, good and evil have noclear margins; it’s “only business.” In“Bugsy” (1991) Warren Beatty flashed


that broad goofy smile and made BugsySiegel into a used-car salesman aboutto make his fortune in the dot.comboom.

Now Mann has given us a Dillingerfor the bailout generation. The actionsequences make him an old-time gang-ster, whose Tommy gun rains death onlawmen and bystanders without dis-crimination. Yet Dillinger remainsopaque, in the image of today’s but-toned-down gangsters. Today’s mob-sters do not rob banks; they loot themwith credit-default swaps. Faceless andall but anonymous in their stripedsuits, they no longer race their blacksedans down country roads to evadethe sirens of their tormentors. Today,gangsters ride their corporate jets andstretch limos to board meetings andSenate committee hearings. Theydon’t brandish machine guns; theysend e-mails from their laptops. Theydon’t have sworn enemies in lawenforcement; they have well-paidlawyers who find the loopholes tomake their activities appear legal. Andwhat of their motives when they havemore millions than they could possiblyspend in a lifetime? Ego? Proving tothemselves that they are above the law?The thrill of the chase? They are ruth-less, but dull. Mann’s John Dillingerwould fit right in. But would JackieReilly insist on being Bernie Madoffduring our Saturday game of Ponzischeme?

As a narrative device, Hoover’sF.B.I. functions as antagonist, but the-matically the organization isDillinger’s henchman. Of course. Thescreenplay grew not from a novel butfrom Bryan Burrough’s historicalstudy, Public Enemies: America’sGreatest Crime Wave and the Birth ofthe F.B.I., 1933-34. Note the plural inthe title. Could it include the F.B.I.itself as an enemy of the people? J.Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) needs ahighly publicized arrest to securefunding for his new organization andincrease his personal power. He enlists

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B O O K I N G S | THOMAS MURPHY

THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM

lawmen, little more than hired thugsactually, from Texas to provide muscleto back up his band of “scientific inves-tigators.” He authorizes wire-taps, hasthe Immigration and NaturalizationService threaten to deport an uncoop-erative witness and even urges“enhanced interrogation techniques” to encourageDillinger’s girlfriendBillie (MarionCotillard) to revealhis whereabouts.Hoover and Purvisare odious. We don’t want them tosucceed, but we have little emotionalconnection to Dillinger. Events justplay themselves out for these equallyruthless thugs.

The script, too long by a quarterhour, presents a fragmented story. Liketoday’s headlines, it forces us to fill inseveral gaps. Frank Nitti and theChicago mob turn against Dillingerbecause, as a celebrity criminal, he hasswayed public opinion and Congressto allow the F.B.I. jurisdiction overinterstate crimes, thus endangering theMafia’s nationwide syndicate. Howthey reach this conclusion and whatthey do about it remains shadowy.Other characters are equally nebulous.The madam who turns Dillinger over

to the F.B.I. appears from nowhere,and his relationship to her or one ofher workers pops up too suddenly tobe convincing. The script never givesBillie, Dillinger’s real girlfriend,enough context either. MarionCotillard, an Academy-Award win-ning actor, has too little to work with

in her role as theobligatory “girl”brought on tohumanize the gang-ster. An F.B.I. agentwho has previously

had only two lines at a staff meetingdraws the crucial dramatic task ofreporting Dillinger’s final words to herin what could have been a climacticcoda to the story—who is he?

For action and entertainment,“Public Enemies” stands out amongthis year’s summer films. Depp’sDillinger fits into the pattern of today’ssuper criminals. He’s not a fascinatingsociopath, like Cagney’s TommyPowers. He’s just doing business likeMichael Corleone. I don’t think JackieReilly would be interested in playinghim either.

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

Andrew Delbanco’s splendid antholo-gy of Lincoln’s public and private writ-ings.

The second was the Lincoln admin-istration’s interaction during the CivilWar with New York’s archbishop JohnHughes, in which the president soughtCatholic opinion on the preservationof the Union and the emancipation ofslaves. Hughes advised the secretary ofwar that Catholics would fight only forthe Union, but he also undertook aninformal diplomatic mission to Parisand Rome to explain Lincoln’s policiesto the French and the Vatican. Hughesalso helped Lincoln by working toquell the draft riots of 1863 in NewYork City. Later, Lincoln would lobbythe Vatican to appoint as Hughes’ssuccessor John McCloskey, who waselevated to the rank of cardinal 10years after the president’s death.

Faith Struggles, Social Choices

These relatively few contacts shouldnot obscure the fact that Catholicthought can shed light on Lincoln’sown thinking, and that Lincoln’sexample can inspire fresh Catholicthought. As Thomas Keneally demon-strates in Abraham Lincoln: A Life(Penguin), Lincoln’s faith struggleswere rooted in grave doubt about theCalvinistic teaching of predestination.Lincoln spent much time wrestlingwith this “doctrine of necessity,” mov-ing from a firm belief in it during hisyouth to a modified version of it dur-ing the Civil War. The SecondInaugural Address, in 1865, was thelast expression of his religious think-ing. Allen C. Guelzo, the author ofAbraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas(Southern Ilinois Univ. Press),believes that by then Lincoln’s fatalismhad taken a more optimistic tone,assuming that necessity would compelNorth and South to work for reconcil-iation “with malice toward none andcharity for all” whether they wished toor not.

As Guelzo also notes, however,

In this bicentennial year of AbrahamLincoln’s birth, a spate of recently pub-lished books has added to his reputa-tion as one of the most written aboutfigures in American history. In consid-ering some of these books, a newapproach emerges—the possibility ofdeveloping a Roman Catholic perspec-tive on Lincoln’s politics. It is alsointriguing to ask whether Lincoln theman can reveal anything about spiritu-al discernment to anyone interested in

how human beings come to experienceGod and act morally.

Lincoln figured in AmericanCatholic history in at least threeinstances. The first was a famous pre-presidential letter he wrote to hisfriend Joshua Speed in 1855 con-demning the Know-Nothing Party’santi-Catholicism as a hypocritical con-tradiction of American ideals. Thisletter is reproduced in The PortableAbraham Lincoln (Penguin Classics),

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americamagazine.org/culture


directing the Civil War according tohis own purposes. And White’s biog-raphy, by tracing Lincoln’s life throughhis written words, both public and pri-vate, reveals a soul formed by manythings—e.g., the soil, Scripture,Shakespeare, the law and humor.

Lincoln may not have had a spiritu-al director in our modern understand-ing of that term, but he did have a spir-

itual mentor of sorts duringhis presidency in the personof Eliza Gurney, a Quakeractivist whom he met in thefall of 1862. She came to hisoffice to encourage him andto pray with him for divineguidance, and they subse-quently corresponded.White emphasizes thatwhile Lincoln met with agreat many religious leadersduring the Civil War,Gurney was the one towhom he opened himself.Unfortunately, not all theirletters have survived, butwhat we do have indicatesthat Lincoln developed histheology about God’sgreater purpose in directingthe war partially throughexchanging opinions withGurney. Lincoln’s sense ofambiguity may have been

fostered by pondering the distancebetween the Quaker tradition of paci-fism and his own desire to find a moraljustification for the war against theseceded states.

Another ambiguity that Lincolnsought to clarify was the tensionbetween the Constitution and theDeclaration of Independence. Many ofhis contemporaries believed that therecould be no true reconciliationbetween the ordered liberty protectedfor some in the Constitution and theequality for all celebrated by the decla-ration. Guelzo demonstrates, however,that by adapting a phrase from theBook of Proverbs, Lincoln presented

Lincoln’s embrace of the Whig plat-form on American internal improve-ments—canals, bridges, highways—sprang from a desire to help poorAmericans create wealth.

Ambiguities

Lincoln was that most challenging ofsubjects for spiritual direction—thesoul focused on ambiguity. Ronald C.

White Jr., the author of A. Lincoln: ALife (Random House), understandsthis characteristic, illustrating it witha quotation: “I am almost ready to saythis is probably true.” He reconstructsa means by which to trace the growthof Lincoln’s mind. Lincoln did notkeep a formal diary, but preservedhundreds of fragmentary notes tohimself over the years. An immenseadvantage of the Delbanco anthologyis that it reproduces many of thesemusings—one example is a“Meditation on the Divine Will” fromearly September 1862, which fore-shadows the Second InauguralAddress’s theme of the Almighty

there are theories that Calvinism wasnot the only force that motivatedLincoln and other 19th-centuryAmericans. The historian ThomasHaskell argued in the 1980s that therise of market capitalism created asense of human empowerment thatbecame a direct cause of the abolition-ist movement. There was a renewedemphasis on the human choice toshape social life and do good.In Keneally’s book, we aretold that a key incident inLincoln’s young life was thefirst time he was paid withcash rather than a commodi-ty. This, Keneally says, madeLincoln realize that he couldchoose a lifestyle other thanthe manual, physical labor ofthe cashless frontier andpursue his dream of makinga living with his mind.When we compare the per-spectives of Guelzo andKeneally, we may affirm thatLincoln could have been tornbetween a sense of fatalismand a yearning for freedom.Did this make himquintessentially American?While there is no evidencethat Lincoln himself wasactually influenced by theCatholic teaching that faithand freely chosen good works are bothcritical parts of the moral person, sucha perspective can form a useful com-parison against which to measureLincoln’s complex efforts to distin-guish between what was fated andwhat was ours to decide.

Some commentators have criticizedCatholic social teaching for notaddressing adequately the possible roleof wealth creation in establishing a justsocial order. This is another reasonthat Guelzo’s reference to a possibleconnection between the market econo-my and abolitionism can provoke help-ful reflection among Catholics whostudy Lincoln. Keneally believes thatA

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the Constitution anew to the nation asa picture of silver, designed to preserve,frame and exhibit the Declaration, anapple of gold. He had no desire to dis-card the Constitution because itallowed slavery. Instead, he sought tomake the nation’s plan of governmentmore reflective of the Declaration.This reasoning explains why he beganthe Gettysburg Address by groundingthe nation in the proposition that allmen were created equal. It also point-ed the way to the three greatReconstruction Amendments to theConstitution, which abolished slavery,inspired the civil rights movement thatwould revive in the mid-20th century,and granted African-Americans theright to vote.

In one chapter, Guelzo praisesLincoln’s prudence and recommends itto today’s Americans. Lincoln was ableto avoid hasty decisions because herealized that while we must accept thewill of God, it is often difficult to fig-ure out. He sought to balance theintegrity of means and ends, accepteda need to work through imperfectionsrather than rush to absolute resolu-tions and was willing to wait for prov-idence to reveal its hand. Those whoare puzzled by Lincoln’s progression

from personally abhorring slavery todemanding actively its abolition willfind this chapter illuminating. It is alsoa chapter that may foster thoughtabout whether Americans of any polit-ical persuasion are inclined to makedecisions too hastily and too absolute-ly in our own day.

A Lasting Legacy

Since Lincoln was himself such a dis-cerning person, it is appropriate thatthe nation has devoted so much timesince his death to reflecting on hislegacy to the United States. Thissearch for a legacy is detailed inLooking for Lincoln: The Making ofan American Icon (Knopf ), a collec-tion of photographs and othermementos from the first six decadesfollowing Lincoln’s presidency. Unlikethe other books I have cited, this onebegins on the day of Lincoln’s death.The three editors are all members ofthe Kunhardt family (Philip III, Peterand Peter Jr.), a clan that has been col-lecting Lincoln memorabilia for fivegenerations. The material presentedhere extends to the death of Lincoln’slast remaining son, Robert, in 1926. Italso includes a useful scholarlyappendix on every Lincoln photograph

known to exist. It is a sequel to theirLincoln, a pictorial biography pub-lished in 1992.

Those who want to read reflectionson Lincoln’s life from beyond the circleof his acquaintances should still turnto Merrill Peterson’s Lincoln inAmerican Memory (1994), whichtraces interpretations of Lincoln intothe late 20th century. Among its otheradvantages, Peterson’s book tells howthe civil rights movement of the 1960saltered the way Lincoln is remem-bered.

The Kunhardt book stresses twoimportant points. The first is that theAfrican-American community keptthe memory of Lincoln alive at a timewhen white Americans preferred toremember him only as savior of theUnion. The second is that RobertLincoln, who could be both ambiva-lent and negative about his father’slegacy, nonetheless did the nation aservice by preserving the Lincolnpapers in the Library of Congress. Hedid so despite the tragic aftereffectsthat the Lincoln presidency had on thefamily, including the death of Lincoln’syoungest son, Tad, and the madness ofhis widow, Mary.

Taken together, these books chal-lenge the tendency to view Lincoln’swork as complete at the time of hisdeath. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt,who also died at a moment of victoryin war, Lincoln is celebrated as a figureof accomplishment. If these books donothing else, however, they reveal thatthe inquisitive-minded Lincoln con-stantly re-examined policy. We simplycannot know how such a mind wouldhave responded to the day-to-dayevents of the Reconstruction period. Itis ironic that a mind as active and keenas Lincoln’s should have been stilled byan assassin’s bullet to the head, leavinghim brain-dead for hours before hisdeath.

Lincoln has become a symbol ofglobal freedom, the Kunhardts note inthe preface to their book. It is unfortu-

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lences to Mrs. Lincoln after the assassi-nation. Keneally does not bring upthese associations, but there is an echoof his Australian perspective on econo-my in his account of the incident whenLincoln’s discovery of cash first offeredhim a way out of the prison of the fron-tier barter economy.

Our nation’s 16th presidentemerges from these books as a soulwho sought God, wanted to help hisneighbors and found a way to do sothrough politics. That he did so

thoughtfully and wisely was his greattriumph and the reason why the booksreviewed here are all worth examining.Despite his melancholy and his per-sonal tragedy, Abraham Lincoln is ahopeful symbol for the United States.He demonstrates that it is possible foridealism to exist and for the will ofGod to be fulfilled through humanaction.

THOMAS MURPHY, S.J., is associate profes-sor of history at Seattle University.


nate, then, that these books do not domore to situate him in the internation-al context of his era. Keneally, forexample, is Australian, and it wouldhave been interesting had he said moreabout how Lincoln appears in the con-text of the Australian struggle to over-come their colonial penal system.Transportation of convicts to Australiawas abolished just three years afterLincoln pushed the ThirteenthAmendment through Congress, andthe city council of Sydney sent condo-

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Dominic of Caldwell, N.J., seeks a visionary Head

of School able to plan and implement a long-range

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Founded in 1878, Saint Dominic Academy is one

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offers an excellent academic program, including an

international baccalaureate diploma and enrolls

450 students in a school community rich in diver-

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young women. An advanced degree and experience

in a diverse school community are strongly desired.

The successful applicant will have proven success

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Catholic secondary education for young women,

based on their personal experiences, to: Saint

Dominic Academy, Head of School Search,

Catholic School Management Inc., Attn.: Jennifer

C. Kensel, at [email protected].

Review of applications will begin immediately and

continue until the position is filled. Position is

available Sept. 1, 2009.

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In Saecula Saeculorum

Re the article by Thomas G. Casey,S.J., suggesting we replace Latin withEnglish as the official language of thechurch (“Ave atque Vale,” 6/8): WhileI may be biased as a student of theclassics, I think that Latin holds a sig-nificant place in the Catholic Churchand should continue to do so. Thechurch uses Latin in official docu-ments precisely because it does notchange. In other words, what the popewrites today will be interpreted orunderstood in a similar manner,dependent on the original Latin text,perhaps even in 100 years.

Because English, as Casey states,“never stops venturing into new terri-tory,” there is the possibility for errorand confusion later on. Eternal truthsshould be communicated in eternalwords.

BEN EMMEL

South Orange, N.J.

Words of Wisdom

I hope Julie Irwin Zimmerman’s“Science and the Path to Parenthood”(7/6) will be circulated widely aroundthe world. The response of the churchto reproductive technology is oftenclouded, and as the article states,Catholics know what is forbidden butknow little about what is allowed orpossible.

Are children and young peoplegiven enough correct information evento know about the church’s stance onreproductive technologies, even whenwe now have so much more informa-tion than ever?

ROSEMARY KEENAN

Perth, Australia

Parish or Perish

When I read “Why Race StillMatters,” by Gerald J. Beyer (5/18), Iwas reminded of Gibson Winter’sbook from 1962, The SuburbanCaptivity of the Churches. This bookargued that Protestant churches

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unwittingly but powerfully acceptedour nation’s racism by accepting as theboundaries of their faith communitiesAmerica’s racially structured neigh-borhoods. Then as now, I see this as aprofound problem with our Catholiccommunities in their determination ofparish boundaries.

Perhaps in addition to episcopalteaching on racism, we might see preach-ing in action by creative experiments inboundary-crossing parish structures.Our faith structures could then struggleto unite what our social structures divideand alienate. That combination of word-teaching and deed-preaching aboutracism would surely shed light and breedhope.

JACK GLASER

Santa Ana, Calif.

Forgotten Partners

While I appreciated Gerald J. Beyer’scomments in “Why Race StillMatters,” I would like to make anaddendum. In order for a dialogueabout race to continue amongCatholics in the United States andamong African-American Catholicsin particular, we need the continuedpresence of black Catholic parishes.These parishes are today experienc-ing more unfair and unjust situationsthan ever before, and their existenceis threatened to a far greater degreethan that of their suburban sisterparishes.

It is good to remember that theAmerican bishops called racism a sinin 1979. African-American parishesneed to be lifted up, encouraged andsupported if there is to be a Catholicdialogue about race that is meaningfuland holy.

Even though African-AmericanCatholics are encouraged by BarackObama’s election, the ordinary dailylife of African-Americans remains thesame. American Catholics need toknow that black parish life has notbecome any easier these days, but ismore stressful and much more prob-lematic, as the bishops downplay or

neglect the main focus of offices forblack ministry, euphemistically renam-ing them offices of cultural affairs oroffices of diversity.

Black parishes need to exist in thisdialogue on race and in all aspects thatmake the church truly Catholic.

(REV.) THEODORE K. PARKER

Detroit, Mich

War No More

Thank you for the reflections by MattMalone, S.J., on the hope for peace (OfMany Things, 7/20). Keep sayingwhat you’re saying. It is awful what weare doing to our own soldiers and ourcountry, to say nothing of the horribledamage we are inflicting on the rest ofthe world.

BRUCE BYROLLY

Cambridge, Mass.

Atomic Omission

You published an article on energychoice (“The Ethics of Energy Choice,”by William H. Rauckhorst, 7/6) withno mention of the word “nuclear.”Future historians will get quite a chuck-le when they read this.

MORRIE PONGRATZ

Los Alamos, N.M.

Get Over It

Re your editorial, “For the CommonGood” (7/20): How can “single-payerhealthcare” be considered by aChristian intellectual? Have we notseen the consequences of governmentmonopolies anywhere?

I must confess that I was shocked inmy youth to find I did not have a rightto free sheets and towels when I firstoccupied a dorm room. I got over it.The American people, with the help(not hindrance) of the church, mustget over it. Only a capitalist system hasworked to create wealth. If we want a

entire church, that conversation needsto take place among those with theeducation to examine the texts andevidence in the original languages. Itwill also require a firm grasp of howthe disciplines surrounding holyorders have historically differed in theEast and West. In a popular magazinelike America, it is a serious oversightto suggest a “full and open conversa-tion” without being clear that such aconversation will need to be conductedlargely by specialists.

CECILIA LOPEZ

Sioux City, Iowa

Considerations

Re “Married and Ordained,” byWilliam T. Ditewig: Mere mention ofthe restoration of the female diaconatein the Latin church can raise hystericalhackles across the board and divert thediscussion from the needs of thechurch to some imagined line that can-not be crossed. Those opposed as well

as those in favor of the restoration ofwomen to the order of deacon need toconsider several points.

First, whether or not women weresacramentally ordained in the past isnot determinative of the current needsof and possibilities for today’s church.Second, the diaconate is a creation ofthe church (Acts 6:1-6), and as such isnot bound by the argument fromauthority (that Christ chose only maleapostles) regarding priesthood. Third,while there is a modern instructionfrom Rome telling bishops not to trainwomen for the diaconate, there are nohigher authoritative statements on thematter other than those conciliar andpapal documents from the earlychurch that state at what age andunder what conditions a woman is tobe ordained to the diaconate.

Let the conversation continue, incharity.

PHYLLIS ZAGANO

Hempstead, N.Y.

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.


quality health care system, it must har-ness the attention of all of us.

CHRIS MULCAHY

Fort Myers Beach, Fla.

On the Other Hand…

“For the Common Good” (Editorial,7/20) should be required reading for allcitizens of the United States and ourrepresentatives. If there is no commontruth, then both parties can hide underthe cover of postmodern philosophicalgibberish. Dueling ideological carica-tures are no substitute for the good ofthe whole society. As a nation thatclaims a religious core, we must ask:“Where is the consideration of a lovingGod in this modern mess?”

RAY MOSTER

Port St. Lucie, Fla.

What Witness?

Thank you for your clear presentationin “It’s Not All About Eve” (ChristineSchenk, C.S.J., 7/6) of how I oftenfeel as a woman in the CatholicChurch. Like Schenk, I too worryabout the witness we are giving to ourdaughters and sons. I remember hear-ing one notable Catholic theologiantell the story of his daughter who wasdenied the opportunity to be an altarserver because she was a girl. Herresponse was, “Then why do webelong to this church?”

Thank you to Christine Schenk forher faithful, prophetic witness; may herefforts help to enlighten minds and soft-en hardened hearts.

SUSAN MCCARTHY, R.D.C.

White Plains, N.Y.

Expert Opinion

In “Married and Ordained” (7/20),William T. Ditewig writes that histo-rians like Gary Macy and PhyllisZagano must be considered vis-à-visthe ordination of women as deacons,and that women have been ordained todiaconal ministry in the past and theycould be again.

While a “full and open conversa-tion” about the ordination of womento the diaconate might well benefit the

WITHOUT GUILE

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ON

the bread of life, the emphasis is onbread as a nourishing word. In the

second half, which we will hearnext Sunday, the emphasis is oneucharistic nourishment.

The source of this nourishingword is a point of contention.

The people think they knowJesus’ origins and family; ishe not one just like them?

Another stumblingblock is his unusualmanner of teaching.

instructs him to anoint kings overAram and Israel and to anoint Elishaas prophet to take his place. Thislast part of the narrative isnot included in today’sreading. Whenread as a whole,however, the storypoints us to theways in which Godcan tame the fierce-ness in us, when, likeElijah, our passion forjustice can find us inbloody battles withopponents. We emergevictorious, but at whatcost?

In the desert Elijah learns of God’snonviolent ways. He does not find theHoly One in the violent wind or theearthquake or the fire, but in thesilence that instructs him to anointothers: an act of consecration and alsoof healing.

In the Gospel, there is murmuringin the desert by the people surround-ing Jesus, just as the Israelites didwith Moses. In the latter instance,the complaint was about not havingfood, to which God responded bysending manna and quail. In theGospel, the problem is with thesource of the spiritual nourishmentbeing offered. Jesus claims to be the“bread that came down from heaven,”echoing God’s promise in Is 55:10-11 of the nourishing and effectiveword that comes “down from heaven.”In this first part of the discourse on

ometimes things are so horriblewe say we just want to die. Mostof the time we intend that

metaphorically. Elijah, in today’s firstreading, seems to mean it literally. Heis fleeing for his life, as Jezebel is deter-mined to kill him because he van-quished the prophets of Baal and putthem to death. Parking himself undera broom tree a day’s journey into thedesert, he prays, “This is enough, OLord! Take my life, for I am no betterthan my fathers.”

It is not clear whether Elijah is fedup with the difficulty of his ministry,or whether he is lamenting his ownactions, having just killed theprophets of Baal. Perhaps it is both. Inany case, the frailty of God’s fieryprophet is most visible. When Elijahis at his lowest, God’s messengercomes with food and water, urginghim to continue onward. Obediently,he gets up and takes nourishment,continuing his sojourn in the desertfor 40 more days, a trek that is remi-niscent of the Israelite desert wander-ing of 40 years. Elijah’s quest will cul-minate at Mount Horeb (also calledSinai in the J and P strands of thePentateuchal narrative). There, likeMoses, he encounters God.

But the Holy One is not in thefierce wind or the earthquake or thefire, but in the voice that emerges outof sheer silence. The divine voice


S

PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE

• Find a very still, quiet place. Wait for

God’s voice. What do you hear?

• Ask God to draw you to the One who is

Bread of Life. What nourishing word is

being offered to you?

• Pray with the image of Jesus as mother

who feeds us with his body and blood.

• Ask Christ to draw you into his abiding

love, letting go questions of “how.”

AR

T: T

AD

DU

NN

E

THE WORD

BARBARA E. REID, O.P., is a professor of NewTestament studies at Catholic TheologicalUnion in Chicago, Ill.

Nourishing Word; Food for LifeNINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), AUG. 9, 2009

Readings: 1 Kgs 19:4-8; Ps 34:2-9; Eph 4:30–5:2; Jn 6:41-51

“Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (Jn 6:51)

He does not preach in Elijah’s fieryway but waits for God to draw openhearts to himself, letting themselves betaught, through listening and learning,while not seeing entirely, and finallyresponding with belief. This is “livingbread,” a nourishing word that leadsone to cherish all life, to choose lifeand, ultimately, to relinquish one’sown life for the life of the world,believing that this is the way to lifeeternal.

but our precious mother, Jesus, canfeed us with himself. He does so mostcourteously and most tenderly, withthe Blessed Sacrament, which is theprecious food of true life.” (See thetranslation of Julian’s Revelations ofDivine Love, by M. L. Del Mastro,New York: Doubleday, 1977, portionsof which are available online atwww.gloriana.nu/mother.htm.) Ourresponse to the one who gives his fleshand blood for our life and that of theworld is not only intellectual assent.Jesus gives his “flesh and blood,” anexpression that connotes the wholeperson. So we entrust our whole selvesto him, body, mind and spirit,expressed in our physical partaking ofthe eucharistic body and blood. Thereis no adequate answer on an intellectu-al level to the question, “How can thisman give us his flesh to eat?” Ratherthan trying to explain the “how,” hesimply invites us into the depths of the“who.” BARBARA E. REID


TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY

TIME (B), AUG. 16, 2009

Readings: Prv 9:1-6; Ps 34:2–7; Eph

5:15-20; Jn 6:51-58

“Whoever eats my flesh and

drinks my blood has eternal life”

(Jn 6:54)

ow can this man give us hisflesh to eat?” One’s sympa-thies easily go with the peo-

ple who ask this question in today’sGospel, struggling to understand whatJesus meant by offering as “bread” his“flesh for the life of the world.” The pre-vious part of the discourse, heard lastSunday, which focused on “bread” asinstruction, asking for a response ofbelief, was difficult enough. The shiftthis Sunday to “eating his flesh” strains tothe limit our ability to comprehend andrespond. Elsewhere in Scripture thisexpression carries a very negative conno-tation. “Devouring flesh” is the action ofevildoers from which the psalmist praysto be delivered (Ps 27:2). Drinkingblood is forbidden because the life is inthe blood, over which only God haspower (Gn 9:4; Dt 12:23; Acts 15:20).

Coupled with the first reading, wecan see in John’s Gospel clear parallelsbetween Jesus and Woman Wisdom.She prepares her meat and wine andsets her table and calls out to all to comeand partake. She offers instruction tothe simple and understanding that leadsto life. Likewise, in the Prologue (1:1-18) there are other unmistakable paral-lels between the Logos and Wisdom,who existed with God from the begin-ning (Prv 8:27, Wis 9:9, Jn 1:1),“pitched her tent” among humankind(Sir 24:4, 8; Jn 1:14), lights the path forthem (Bar 4:2, Jn 1:4-5), and yet suffersrejection (Prv 1:25, 29-31; Jn 1:11).

It is in this likeness to a woman thatwe may find one way to understandJesus’ words in Jn 6:51-58. Just as amother gives her very flesh and blood tonurture a new life carried within her,and then continues to feed the child

from her own body after it is born, soJesus nourishes with his very self all whoare birthed to new life through him ( Jn3:3). Similar to the union of mother andchild while the latter dwells in thewomb, so Jesus promises, “Those whoeat my flesh and drink my blood abidein me and I in them” ( Jn 6:56). The lifethat results is eternal (6:54, 58) and forthe whole world (6:51). The mystery ofhow this life will last forever is alsoexpressed by the Fourth Evangelist in abirthing metaphor when at the LastSupper Jesus likens his coming passionto the pangs of a woman in labor ( Jn16:21). The death of his earthly body isthe birth to new life for all.

Some of the medieval mystics alsofound the image of motherhood a helpfor understanding the mystery of Jesusgiving us his flesh to eat and his bloodto drink. Blessed Julian of Norwichspoke of “God-all wisdom” as “our nat-ural mother” and elaborated on how “amother can give her child milk to suck,

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Torture and the Rule of Law - America Magazine | The ...€¦ · Yosemite National Park. I had begun hiking along the Tuolomne River, where I have had some vivid prayer experiences