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Understanding the Psalmist’s AnguishDDaanniieell FF.. PPoolliisshh

Theology Since Vatican IILessons From an Extraordinary EraRRooggeerr HHaaiigghhtt

Theological EducationAmerica

March 17, 2008 T H E N A T I O N A L C A T H O L I C W E E K L Y $2.75

NTICIPATION of Pope BenedictXVI’s visit to the UnitedStates, from April 15 to 20, hasquickened among those who

will report on the visit and attempt toassess its significance for U.S. Catholicsand the wider public. Preparations forthe journey have been many months inthe making, including undoubtedly aspirited discussion on what cities thepope would visit. The final choice waspresumably dictated by the location ofthe headquarters of the U.S. Conferenceof Catholic Bishops in Washington,D.C., and the U.N. General Assemblyin New York City.

In both cities, the pope will presideover outdoor Masses, with tens of thou-sands expected to attend. Tickets are lim-ited and come with security restrictions.A call has gone out for priests to assistwith Communion at these outdoorMasses and seminarians to serve as ush-ers. Cassocks will be required, however,which has occasioned a search in closetsand trunks forlong-neglecteditems of clericalclothing.

During histime in Washington, Benedict XVI willnot only meet with the U.S. Catholicbishops but will also address a gatheringof U.S. Catholic educational leaders atThe Catholic University of America onApril 17. There may be even more specu-lation, at least in certain quarters, aboutthe content of the pope’s message on thisoccasion than about his address to theUnited Nations, where Benedict is likelyto repudiate the use of violence in thename of religion.

The Vatican has presumably soughtand received suggestions from people onthis side of the Atlantic about whatBenedict might say to his various U.S.audiences. I once had the opportunity tolisten to Pope John Paul II address lead-ers of Catholic higher education in NewOrleans in 1995 and noted significantchanges from the proposed text that theAssociation of Catholic Colleges andUniversities had sent to the Vatican.Dialogue within the church can take vari-ous forms.

The personal style of Benedict XVI isvery different, of course, from that of hispredecessor. When Karol Wojtylabecame Pope John Paul II in 1978, theworld knew very little about this Polishcardinal. I remember standing in St.

Peter’s Square that October evening in1978 when the announcement was made,“Habemus papam...Carolum CardinalemWojtyla.” The unfamiliar name prompt-ed a seminarian in the crowd to declare,“It’s the Japanese cardinal.” But then,after a quick perusal of the issue ofL’Osservatore Romano with pictures ofall the cardinals in the conclave, he real-ized, “There is no Japanese cardinal!”

Over his long tenure (1978-2005),Pope John Paul II became a very familiarfigure to the large crowds that greetedhim on his visits to over 100 countriesaround the globe, but he was very muchan unknown figure when he began hispontificate. In contrast, when CardinalJoseph Ratzinger became Pope BenedictXVI three years ago, he was, if anything,too well known and his image as a disci-plinarian, after a long tenure as head ofthe Congregation for the Doctrine of theFaith, was sharply defined in the popularimagination. But it has proven since tohave been something of a caricature.

Duringthe threeyears of hispontificate,Benedict

XVI has returned to his lifelong vocationas a theologian and teacher. His twoencyclicals have addressed the fundamen-tal Christian virtues of love and hopewith a generosity of spirit and depth ofmeaning that have enriched the under-standing of Catholics and commandedthe respect of others. The publication inSeptember 2006 of Jesus of Nazareth, thefirst part of his projected life of Jesus, hasbeen welcomed by believers across thespectrum of theological opinion as a sum-mons to a renewed personal faith in thecentral figure of the New Testament.

On his first, and perhaps only, visitto the United States, Benedict XVI willnot attempt to emulate the personalstyle of his charismatic predecessor.Joseph Ratzinger began his pontificateat a different stage of his life than KarolWojtyla, who was 58 at the start of his.The fundamental Petrine ministry, ofcourse, is to symbolize and support theunity of the church and the communionof the churches. But different popeshave different styles, and I suspect thatin the years remaining to him, Benedictwill exercise that ministry in the style ofthe teacher and theologian he hasalways been.

Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J.

AmericaPublished by Jesuits of the United States

Of Many Things

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Articles

Lessons From an Extraordinary Era 11Roger HaightThe expanded territory covered by the theologians of our era bears comparison to the transition from the monastery to the university in the High Middle Ages.

Shadows in Prayer 19James MartinDarkness, dryness, doubt, disbelief, depression, desolation and despair often go together in the spiritual life—but not always.

Current Comment 4

Editorial Lost Sheep 5

Signs of the Times 6

Reflection Place 8The Road to Emmaus Margaret Silf

Poem 24Lignum Vitae Bernard Fyles

Faith in Focus 27God’s Awesome Silence Daniel F. Polish

Book Reviews 33A Theological Journey; Keeping the Covenant; The Deportees

Letters 43

The Word 46The Women at the Tomb Daniel J. Harrington

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www.americamagazine.org Vol. 198 No. 9, Whole No. 4808 March 17, 2008

An audio interview with Roger Haight, S.J., and a discussion of Patrick Symmes’s“The Boys From Dolores: Fidel Castro’s Classmates From Revolution to Exile.”Plus, from the archives, “A Meditation on Death and Life,” by William Barry, S.J.

This week @ America Connects

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the editors of the New York Post,” and they remindedBuckley of “an old, old conservative adage: Qui mange dupape, en meurt” (roughly: “He who takes a bite out of thepope dies of it.”) Barbs flew back and forth over severalmonths, during which time one subscriber wrote in toAmerica to say: “Cancellation, sí! Refund, sí!”

In a personal letter to the editor of America, Buckleydefended his position but added: “I take no objection toyour denouncing the flippancy as having been in imperfecttaste. I am quite prepared to subject myself to the criticismof my elders on such matters.” He also identified the realauthor of the Latin quip as a “Catholic scholar inVirginia.” Who was that? A former Jesuit, who had left theorder four years earlier: Garry Wills.

Name That Child “What name do you give your child?” With this question tothe parents, the priest begins the Catholic rite of baptism.Years ago, one expected in response the name of a saint, likeMary or John. Today, the name may well reflect an enter-tainer or sports hero, like Jayden, Britney, Reagan, Ashley,Angelina and Kyle. The television show “Grey’s Anatomy”has helped make the names Addison, Isabelle, Bailey andCallie more popular. There seems to be a new spirit of cre-ativity in giving names and, indeed, in spelling them. Oneperson found 34 ways to spell Callie—or is it Kallee?

In 2007 the most popular names given for boys wereJacob, Aidan, Ethan, Matthew, Nicholas and Joshua; forgirls, Emily, Emma, Madison, Hannah and Hailey. JohnnyCash once sang of a “A Boy Named Sue”; now we hearfrom Tiger Woods of a girl named Sam—his daughter,Sam Alexis—because Tiger’s dad called him Sam.

True, according to canon law, a baptismal name neednot be that of a saint. The only guideline is: “Parents,sponsors and the pastor are to take care that a name for-eign to Christian sensibililty is not given” (No. 855). Howdifferent from many African traditions, in which thegrandparents, not the parents, give the name. Names inAfrica are very religious too, some with meanings like“love of God” or “gift of God.” In many African cultures,the day of the week on which you were born becomes partof your name. Elsewhere families choose a baby’s namefrom among the names of parents, grandparents, uncles oraunts. Connections with religious, cultural and family tra-ditions definitely are becoming weaker. Different valuesare clearly at work in the choice of children’s names. If theLatin tag Nomen est omen (“A name is an omen”) is true,what future awaits?

Pictures at a RevolutionOne pauses before assigning too much significance to thevoting patterns of the Academy of Motion Picture Artsand Sciences. After all, this is the estimable organizationthat deemed “Doctor Doolittle” worthy of a Best Picturenomination in 1967. Yet sometimes the academy’s choicesreflect the national mood in a unique way. Take 1967, ayear in which the academy also nominated “TheGraduate,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Guess Who’s Comingto Dinner” and “In the Heat of the Night,” which tookhome the prize. Watch those films—the subject of MarkHarris’s recent book, Pictures at a Revolution—and you willget a good sense of the sexual and racial politics ofAmerican society at the time.

Now take a look at 2007. The Best Picture nomineesincluded a morality tale about the awakening of con-science of a corporate lawyer (“Michael Clayton”), anexploration of the American drive to wealth and its devas-tating consequences (“There Will Be Blood”) and a para-ble about the persistence of evil (the eventual winner, “NoCountry for Old Men”). “Juno”—the story of a pregnantteen—was decidedly lighter fare, but succeeded in skewer-ing both pro-life and pro-choice sentiment. So what putfilmmakers in such a somber, contrarian mood? Perhaps itwas demoralization brought on by the lengthy war in Iraq.Or maybe it was the poisonous rhetoric of the culturewars, which has left a younger generation of artists tired ofthe same old bromides. It is too early to say, of course.Only with time will the tremors that roil us now emergeas cracks and fissures that we can examine clearly.

Erudite and ExuberantWilliam F. Buckley Jr.’s death in late February deprivedthe nation and American Catholics of an erudite, exuber-ant and often truculent pontificator on American politicaland religious life. Obituaries detailed the more famous ofhis many contretemps over the decades, but one of hislesser-known verbal battles involved this magazine.Criticizing John XXIII’s 1961 encyclical on economicdevelopment, Mater et Magistra, Buckley riffed on a popu-lar anti-Castro slogan of the time in the pages of NationalReview: “Going the rounds in Catholic circles: ‘Mater sí,Magistra, no!’”

“To some of us,” America’s editors responded, “it hasalways been extremely difficult to tell just what Mr.Buckley’s conservatism was trying to conserve…lines spo-ken to the Pope just shouldn’t sound like lines pitched at

Current Comment

4 March 17, 2008 America

March 17, 2008 America 5

Editorial

Lost SheepRELIGIOUS SEEKER who found her home inthe Catholic Church, Flannery O’Connoronce noted that “stories are considered notquite as satisfying as statements, and state-ments not quite as satisfying as statistics; but

in the long run, a people is known, not by its statements orits statistics, but by the stories it tells.”

For American Catholics these days, the stories told bythe statistics often can be troubling. A recent and much-publicized study by the respected Pew Forum on Religion& Public Life, titled U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, hasreported that fully one-third of native-born AmericanCatholics have left the church of their baptism. While thepercentage of Catholics in the United States has remainedsteady in recent decades at close to 25 percent (and thetotal number of Catholics has soared from 45.6 million in1965 to 64.4 million in 2007), these numbers have beenbuttressed by continuing immigration from LatinAmerican and other Catholic populations. For example,Latinos now represent 45 percent of all U.S. Catholicsaged 18 to 29 years. Ten percent of Americans are formerCatholics, a population that by itself could make up one ofthe largest religious denominations in the United States.The church continues to receive new members, long asource of intellectual ferment and cultural vitality, butthose raised in another denomination or religion numberonly 2.6 percent of current Catholics. For reasons notalways clear, the church in the United States is suffering anexodus of the faithful unprecedented in its history.

Though much of the mainstream media coverage ofthe report focused on Catholic losses, the Pew surveyreported similarly shocking statistics for Protestantdenominations, particularly for the mainline Protestantchurches once dominant in American religious life. If oneincludes switching among different Protestant denomina-tions, around 44 percent of adult Americans now belong toa church different from the one in which they were raised.Half of all Protestants in the United States now identifythemselves as evangelical.

In one sense, this religious mobility is a typical expres-sion of our nation’s religious culture; Americans, particu-larly Protestants, have always been more accepting of flu-idity among Christian denominations than other, morereligiously homogenous nations. In the case of current andformer Catholics, this phenomenon also has much to do

with the continuing entrance of Catholics into theAmerican cultural and economic mainstream. The heirs ofan immigrant church have moved in the past half-centuryout of insular cultural enclaves and achieved financial andcultural acceptance in American society. This trend hasbeen noted by pollsters and cultural critics for years, withits ultimate ramifications unclear but still significant.Suddenly Catholicism in the United States finds itselfassailed not by the bigotries of ages past but by the indif-ference of our current milieu. Have we reached the pointwhere American Catholics are just like everybody else,where Catholicism is nothing more than a “high church”option in a broad spectrum of Christian religious choices?

While many former Catholics have since found ahome in another denomination or religion, around halfnow describe themselves as unaffiliated, which suggeststhe troubling thought that a primary reason for theirexodus might not have been anger at the institutionalchurch or the oft-cited desire for a more personal oremotional experience of faith, but simple apathy. (Mostunaffiliated respondents chose not to describe themselvesas atheists or agnostics, but said their religious affiliationwas “nothing in particular.”) A number of Catholics, itseems, have left not because they do not believe, butbecause they don’t care.

IF WE BELIEVE THAT STATISTICS do not define Christian life,but stories do, what is to be done? It will be difficult if notimpossible to find consensus on the proper steps needed toconfront these losses, but at a minimum it is clear thatmethods of catechesis need to be rethought. The dismay-ing evidence that one out of three Catholics no longerparticipates in the sacramental life of the church is proofenough of catechetical failure in the past two generations.Church leaders should also re-evaluate programs for adultfaith formation, heeding the call of John Paul II for a newevangelization of formerly Christian but increasingly secu-larized cultures. When one out of every four Americansbetween 18 and 29 says he or she has no religious affilia-tion at all, it is clear that the de-Christianization so visiblein recent decades in Western Europe is also quietly takingplace in the United States. These troubling numbers alsosuggest that the church in the United States needs to focusless on internecine squabbles over Catholic identity andmore on outreach and concern for the many who havesimply walked away. “Which one of you,” Jesus asks in Lk15:4, “having 100 sheep, and having lost one of them, doesnot leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lostone until he finds it?”

A

Chaldean ArchbishopKidnapped in Mosul

Analyst Criticizes U.S. Role in Middle East A Catholic political analyst, WadieAbunasser, said the current U.S. adminis-tration is part of the problem in theMiddle East, not the solution.“Unfortunately [President George W.]Bush’s administration is a failure inthe...Middle East, starting in Afghanistan,stretching through to Iraq and movingon to Lebanon and Israel-Palestine,” saidAbunasser, an Arab who is the director ofthe International Center forConsultations in Haifa, Israel. “There is alack of good American understanding ofthe reality and mentality of the region.”Abunasser added that the situation con-tinues to deteriorate because of a lack ofsufficient international intervention,specifically by the United States. Despitethe numerous visits to the region bymembers of the U.S. administration,including U.S. Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice, who arrived inRamallah, West Bank, March 4, Arabs ingeneral and Palestinians in particular donot feel they have benefited, he said.People were not optimistic about Rice’svisit, Abunasser added.

Implementation of ‘GreatContinental Mission’The idea of a “great continental mission,”which proved elusive when the bishops ofLatin America and the Caribbean met inAparecida, Brazil, last year, is slowly tak-ing shape, said the prelate responsible forits implementation. Archbishop HectorCabrejos Vidarte of Trujillo, who headsthe Peruvian bishops’ conference andserves as coordinator of mission and spir-ituality for the Latin American bishops’council, or Celam, sees the mission as anongoing effort that signifies a shift in theway parishes reach out to the faithful.“The idea is that the mission not have abeginning and an end, but that it involvepreparation and intensive action overtime, along with evaluation,” he said. Thearchbishop foresees a long-term effortspanning at least 10 or 15 years. “Theidea is that it be a permanent mission,”he said. Referring to Celam, the LatinAmerican Bishop’s Conference, he

explained, “All of Celam’s pastoral pro-grams are oriented toward the continen-tal mission.” At the Fifth GeneralConference of the Bishops of LatinAmerica and the Caribbean last May,leaders expressed concern that Catholicswere drifting away from the church.According to a survey by the Chileanpolling firm Latino-barometro in 2005,while three-quarters of the people sur-veyed in the region said they consideredthemselves Catholic, only 40 percent saidthey practiced their faith. What did notemerge from Aparecida, however, was aclear plan for addressing the problem,although the final document mentionsthe need for renewal of church structuresand a greater emphasis on community.

Chávez Supporters StormArchdiocesan OfficesAbout 15 hooded supporters ofVenezuelan President Hugo Chávezinvaded the offices of the Archdiocese ofCaracas, Venezuela, and held a news con-ference criticizing government oppo-nents, including the church. Theprotesters entered the offices in centralCaracas just before 9 a.m. Feb. 27,demanding that the media publish astatement of their views on the churchand other issues. They threw pamphletsout the building’s windows, madeannouncements with a loudspeaker anddid not permit employees to leave thebuilding, Auxiliary Bishop Jesús Gonzálezde Zarate Salas of Caracas told CatholicNews Service in a telephone interview.Bishop González said the protesters werenot armed or violent and did not threatenemployees or damage property. “We justlet time run, so that whatever happened,happened,” he said.

Bill Targeting Church inMaryland WithdrawnA Maryland lawmaker has withdrawn abill that would have lifted the statute oflimitations on civil cases involving sexualabuse of children. Catholic leaders fearedthat had it become law, the financial tollof such cases would have devastatedparishes, schools and ministries. The bill,

6 America March 17, 2008

Signs of the Times

Kidnappers abducted Chaldean CatholicArchbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul,Iraq on Feb. 29, and killed the three peo-ple who were traveling with him.Chaldean Bishop Rabban al Qas of Arbiltold the Rome-based missionary news ser-vice AsiaNews that Mosul’s archbishopwas kidnapped after he finished leadingthe Way of the Cross. Archbishop Rahhohad just left the Church of the Holy Spiritin Mosul and was in his car with threeother men when the kidnappers attacked.“The bishop is in the hands of terrorists,”Bishop Qas told AsiaNews. “But we don’tknow what physical condition [the arch-bishop is in]; the three men who werewith him in the car, including his driver,were killed,” he explained. “It’s a terribletime for our church; pray for us,” he said.The kidnappers have reportedly commu-nicated their demands, which were notmade public.

A woman holds a photograph of a slain body-guard during a funeral in Mosul, Iraq, March 1.The guard was among three men killed in theFeb. 29 abduction of Mosul's ChaldeanCatholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho.

From CNS and other sources. CNS photos.

sponsored by Eric Bromwell, aDemocrat, would have created a one-yearwindow during which individuals claim-ing they were sexually abused as childrencould file civil suits against the perpetra-tor and private institutions such as dioce-ses, parishes and schools regardless ofhow long ago the alleged abuse occurred.Richard J. Dowling, executive director ofthe Maryland Catholic Conference, saidhe was “very gratified” by Bromwell’sdecision. The conference is the publicpolicy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops.“Eric Bromwell is one of those delegateswho really cares about what his con-stituents think,” said Dowling. “Here, asubstantial number of his Catholic con-stituents made clear their belief that hislegislation targeted the Catholic Churchin an unfair way and did nothing to pro-tect children from abuse.”

Vatican Clarifies Formula for BaptismsA baptism administered “in the name ofthe Creator, and of the Redeemer and ofthe Sanctifier” is not a baptism at all, saidthe Vatican’s Congregation for theDoctrine of the Faith. Asked whether abaptism performed with that formula—or a similar one referring to the“Creator, Liberator and Sustainer”—would be valid, the congregationanswered “Negative.” Asked whetherpeople who were initiated with a riteusing these formulas would now need tobe baptized “in the name of the Father,and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”the congregation answered“Affirmative.” The congregation saidPope Benedict XVI “approved theseresponses” and ordered their publication.If either formula—initiated in NorthAmerica to avoid referring to the Trinitywith masculine names—was used, theperson is not yet formally a Christianand any subsequent sacraments the per-son received also are invalid, saidCardinal Urbano Navarrete in a com-mentary commissioned by the doctrinalcongregation. The congregation’s state-ment was published Feb. 29 as a briefresponse to questions regarding thevalidity of baptisms using that formula.


Signs of the Times

Moral Medical IssuesAround DyingMany Catholics still need to learn aboutthe church’s teachings on end-of-lifeissues, such as when it might be morallyacceptable to reject or terminate life-pro-longing treatments, said some partici-pants at a Vatican-sponsored congress.The church teaches that while euthanasiaand assisted suicide are always wrong, insome situations the terminally ill or dyingcan withdraw or refuse treatment and stillbe in line with church teaching. To helppeople make informed and ethical deci-sions, “much work needs to be done inelaborating on the church’s tradition ofreasoning about forgoing life-prolongingtreatments to make it practical for healthcare providers and persons who aredying,” said William Sullivan, M.D.,director of the Toronto-basedInternational Association of CatholicBioethicists. Sullivan was one of hun-dreds of scholars, theologians, religiousand health care professionals who turnedout for the international congress of thePontifical Academy for Life on Feb. 25-26, which looked at the scientific andethical aspects of caring for the terminal-ly ill and dying.

Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio, center, attends the exhumation of the body of St. Padre Pioin San Giovanni Rotondo, southern Italy, March 2. The body of the saint is to be conserved andput in a new glass coffin and will be displayed for public viewing beginning April 24.

Priest Shortage in IrelandNew figures on vocations published inthe 2008 Irish Catholic Directory indi-cate how quickly the country is headedtoward a major shortage of priests.According to the directory, the countrylost 160 priests last year—mostlybecause of death in old age—and hadonly nine new ordinations. Currentlythere are about 4,750 priests in Ireland;but if current trends continue, by 2028Ireland will have fewer than 1,500priests. “It’s a trend that priests wouldhave known about for some time,” saidthe Rev. Eamonn Bourke, Dublindiocesan vocations director. “But manylaypeople are only beginning to becomeaware of the implications and the dra-matic effect that the fall in vocationswill have. It will mean parish amalgama-tions; it will mean some parishes nothaving daily Masses; and it will proba-bly mean some parishes not having aMass every Sunday,” he told CatholicNews Service. “Couples will not be ableto get married on their own—it’s morelikely that they will make their weddingvows with at least another couple shar-ing the ceremony. The same will applyto funeral Masses.”

work and tram rides. Every silver lininghas a cloud, and the cloud that hung overus at that time was my father’s alcoholaddiction. Memories like those ofChristmas Eve are like slivers of goldstreaking through a rather dark and bewil-dering forest with not many paths. Webecame familiar with the coping strategiesthat families of alcoholics learn; and lifecontinued, between job losses andtightrope walks among creditors. Andnow, as I look back, I realize that thesewere the roots and the reasons for mybeing here in Sheffield on this rainy day in2008. Because we could so easily havebecome homeless ourselves, part of myheart has continued to dwell here, in thisparticular city, alongside the men andwomen who travel a path similar to myfather’s. I am here today to celebrate theopening of a homeless center that I havebeen helping to support.

But not just a homeless center. This isan Emmaus house. The Emmaus move-ment was started by Abbé Pierre inFrance, who opened his home to belea-guered casualties of the Second WorldWar. It seeks to create homes where thosein despair can “find a bed and a reason toget out of it.” The reason to get out of it isthat all the companions, as they are called,are expected to contribute in whateverway they can, through their own effortsand talents, and they are required to comeoff state benefits and form a self-support-ing community. They do this mainly byrestoring old furniture, mending aban-doned electrical equipment and recyclingunwanted books, clothes and other goods.The profit keeps them going, and theygive any surplus to people who are in evenworse situations than themselves. Most ofthe companions eventually go on to leadindependent lives in the mainstream com-munity. Although it is a secular charity, it

is not called Emmaus for nothing. It isabout “companions” walking a stony roadof despair and disillusionment, and experi-encing the presence of one alongside themwho reveals that the miracle is real, andthat God truly is constantly striving to“make all things new.” The Sheffieldhouse has itself been restored from aderelict steelworks—my father wouldhave known it.

Starting conversations with strangersdoes not come easily to me, but I foundmyself sharing lunch with a woman whohad no such inhibitions. In no time wewere deep in conversation. SometimesGod’s synchronicity leaves me speechless.Here was a woman who had grown up inthe same city, and even had the same nameas mine. We were both supporting thesame project. We exchanged stories, and itwas like discovering the mirror image ofourselves. She had attended a no-hopeprimary school at the “wrong” end oftown, and had therefore had no chance atall of moving on to a college prep school,which might have opened the door tohigher education, as it did for me. She hadbeen repeatedly told that she was uselessand would do nothing with her life. I hadbeen consistently encouraged to achievethe best I could. She had gone through thesame pattern of job losses and addiction asmy father. And then, by a stroke of grace,she had been invited to help out at a hos-tel for homeless alcoholics. It was likemeeting another incarnation of myself as Imight have been, in a parallel universe.

This other Margaret is now running arehab center in the city, and she shineswith the presence of God, even though shewouldn’t see it herself. She told me aboutsome of the ways in which she tries to helppeople break free from their old destruc-tive lifestyles, and she expressed her phi-losophy to me like this: “If you alwaysthink what you always thought, you willalways do what you always did and you willalways get what you always got.” I thoughtof Einstein’s wisdom, which says the samething: “You will never solve a problemwith the same mindset that created it.” Welaughed at the way her mind and Einstein’shad reached the same conclusion.

God’s wisdom comes quietly alongsideus where we least expect it, and every roadis a road to Emmaus. Margaret Silf

The Road to EmmausGod’s wisdom comes quietly

alongside us, where we least expect it.

Reflection Place


E COULD ENTER thisstory anywhere, and itwould still lead us in itsown directions. Verymuch like life, really.

But because one has to start somewhere, Iwill begin in the middle.

The rain is horizontal, and myumbrella is determined to turn itself insideout. I fight to prevent it from reachingescape velocity, and stumble blindly onamong the crowds thronging the mainshopping street in Sheffield, the city inEngland’s East Midlands where I wasborn and raised. In spite of wind andweather, memories still bubble to the sur-face of my consciousness, especially as Icross Fitzalan Square. Unlike almost allthe rest of the city, this square still looksmuch as it did when I was a child. For amoment I am back here with my father,and it’s Christmas Eve. For two days hehas been freed from work—a mundaneand frustrating daily chore that takes himevery morning to the East End of the cityand the desolate steel mills and dustyoffices, euphemistically known asBrightside! (Why do we do that, I wonder,calling our most derelict slums by theprettiest names?) But today he comeshome early and we take the tram down toFitzalan Square to choose our Christmastree from the market there.

That was decades ago. He is long deadnow, and yet he walks with me todayacross this rain-driven square as if we werestill in search of a spruce. And that’s agood place to enter a story....

It wasn’t all spruce trees andChristmas lights, and it wasn’t all daily

W

‘MARGARET SILF lives in Staffordshire,England. Her latest books are Companionsof Christ: Ignatian Spirituality for EverydayLiving and The Gift of Prayer.

‘

ATHOLICS SHOULD BE AMAZED by how theology has developed overthe past 40 years. From Karl Rahner to Jon Sobrino, from EdwardSchillebeeckx to Elizabeth Johnson, the expanded territory covered bythe theologians of our era bears comparison to the transition from themonastery to the university in the High Middle Ages.


ROGER HAIGHT, S.J., is visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

He has recently completed a three-volume work on ecclesiology,

Christian Community in History (Continuum).

Catholic theology since Vatican II

Lessons From anExtraordinary Era

– BY ROGER HAIGHT –

March 17, 2008 America Vol. 198 No. 9, Whole No. 4808

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Different theologians would tell the story differently, ofcourse, but the version that follows is not completelyidiosyncratic. I present the plot in seven stages (stage threehas two parts). At each stage I name theologians whoembody the development described and present a lesson ortwo learned at that stage. I tell this story in an abbreviatedform, skipping over much, for the point does not lie in thedetails but in what has happened cumulatively during this

brief period in the history of Catholic theology. I concludewith two urgent matters for Catholic theologians toaddress.

Theological progress differs from development intechnology, where one way of doing things supplantsanother—the computer making the typewriter obsolete.Instead, in theology one stage takes the former into itself,slowly widening its horizon and deepening perceptions,allowing a complexification of issues that leads to greaterunderstanding.

Our story begins at the end of the Second VaticanCouncil in 1965. Certainly progressive theology existedbefore then, most significantly in the “new theology,” whichlay under a cloud of suspicion and was implicitly con-demned in the silencing of its practitioners in the early1950s. (Two of them, Henri de Lubac and Yves Congar,were later made cardinals.) The prevailing theology at thattime was taught in seminaries from standardized manuals.The distance covered since is best exemplified by the workof Karl Rahner, the most prominent theologian to reactagainst the manuals.

Stage 1: Karl Rahner The Turn to ExperienceRahner’s turn to the human person and experience repre-sents a monumental achievement for Catholic theology.Deep parallels and analogies exist between Rahner’s theolo-gy and the Protestant shift at the beginning of the 19th cen-tury and the experiential method employed by such RomanCatholic modernists as Maurice Blondel and LucienLaberthonnière. But while these thinkers failed to gain ahearing in the Catholic Church, Rahner became a 20th-

century church father. His method of theology appealed toa universal structure of human experience, and it becamethe most significant successor to neoscholasticism.

Lesson 1: The house of Christian meaning lies in the experi-ence of the Christian subject. Many generalizations could bemade based on Rahner’s intricate theological method andhuge corpus, but I single out an implication of the turn tohuman experience as the clearinghouse of Christian mean-

ing. The method redirects the focus of theol-ogy to the significance that revelation fromGod bears for our lives in the world today.This may always have been the case, butRahner’s theology draws out the relevance ofrevelation for the real questions people areasking.

Stage 2: Schillebeeckx, Metz, Tracy Historical and Political TheologyThese three theologians turn to history andintellectual culture in a way that Rahner did

not. In 1965 Edward Schillebeeckx, at 51, was an estab-lished neoscholastic theologian, 10 years younger thanRahner. Influenced by Vatican II’s embrace of the modernworld, Schillebeeckx read secularization theory, hermeneu-tics and neo-Marxian social theory over several years andreinvented himself as a deeply historically conscious theolo-gian. He wrote comprehensive works on Jesus of Nazareth,on Jesus as savior and the Christ, and on the developmentof the church. In each case he interpreted past teaching byreading it in terms of today’s cultural experience and ques-tions.

Johannes B. Metz, born in 1928, was Rahner’s studentand is famous for opening up the social-political dimensionof human consciousness and drawing out its implicationsfor theology. With his fellow political theologians, JürgenMoltmann and Dorothee Sölle, both of whom grew tomaturity in the shadow of the Holocaust, Metz urgedChristian theology to take account of the tragic side ofsocial history and to assume responsibility for the directionhistory takes. Christian theology, these thinkers argued,must take into account the history of suffering so as to min-imize suffering in the future.

David Tracy’s attention to method in theology and hisfar-ranging eclecticism demonstrates the breadth of theCatholic analogical imagination. His ability to conversewith virtually the whole range of Western humanistic intel-lectual culture has preserved the Catholic intellectual tradi-tion in the secular academy as few others have.

The study of these three theologians expands the pre-suppositions of theology in many ways, but two are worthnoting here:

Lesson 2. Human knowledge, classic formulations included, is


The expanded territory coveredby the theologians of our era bearscomparison to the transition fromthe monastery to the university inthe High Middle Ages.

historically conditioned and thus particular. The universal rele-vance of any given idea or value cannot be presupposed. Itssource and provenance differ from our own. One needs tointerpret in order to draw out the relevance of authoritativewitnesses from the past for the present and future.

Lesson 3. Human knowledge represents group interests andbias. This Marxian maxim is presupposed by almost every-one in the West today, whether or not they are educated,and sometimes in a most cynical way. Still, the point is clear:to bear witness to truth, theology too must explain itself.Theology cannot presuppose its own authority; rather,explanation must prove its authenticity by a matchingbehavior. For this reason Metz recasts fundamental theolo-gy as an ultimately practical discipline.

Stage 3: Gutiérrez, Segundo, Sobrino, EllacuríaLatin American Liberation Theology Two fundamental elements reflect the essential logic of lib-eration theology. The first is negative experience, whichleads to an awareness of the dehumanized condition of largenumbers of people. The experience has three dimensions: asituation is wrong; we know it could and should be differ-ent; the contrast fuels an urge to right the wrong. Whatdoes Christian theology say to this situation?

The second fundamental element of liberation theologyseeks to answer that question. The response appears embry-onically in Luke’s parable of the Good Samaritan, which can

be read as dramatizing the principle that love of God is dis-played as love of neighbor. The truth of the principle is con-veyed with climactic force by the shocking fact that only theSamaritan had internalized it. Modernity adds a convictionthat beyond tying up the victim’s wounds, true love will makethe road to Jericho safe for all. With this addendum libera-tion theology rewrites the parable for the whole world.

Lesson 4. Social practice is an intrinsic dimension of Christianfaith from which one cannot prescind. One of the deepest prin-ciples liberation theology presents to the Christian commu-nity is that action and practice are not just the consequencesof faith, but the intrinsic testimonial of its authenticity. AsIgnatius of Loyola postulated in his Spiritual Exercises, “Loveought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words” (No.230). For this love to be effective and authentic, it must bedirected against the causes of human suffering.

Lesson 5. Social-ethical considerations are intrinsic to theolog-ical understanding. Catholic theology has come to a new real-ization of the social ethical implications of Christian faith.After a period of separation between theology and ethics,theology has recognized the necessity of accountability. In1971 the essential link between faith and justice was writteninto magisterial teaching when the World Synod of Bishopswrote that “action on behalf of justice and participation inthe transformation of the world fully appear to us as a con-stitutive dimension of the preaching of the gospel” (Justicein the World, Nov. 30, 1971).


Developing Stage 3: Johnson, Copeland, Aquino, Espin, PhanRather than chart the rise of the many liberation theologiesthat have followed the path of Latin American theology, Iallude to the work of five figures. In North America, the sin-gle most important development in theology, beginning inthe late 1960s, has been the flourishing of an extraordinarybody of feminist or womanist liberation theology. ElizabethJohnson’s work has been translated and read around theworld. Shawn Copeland is perhaps the deepest interpreterof Catholic womanist theology; the relevance of her worktranscends the limits of black women’s experience.

Maria Pilar Aquino and Orlando Espin are two repre-sentatives of many who bridge the exigencies of working foran immigrant community and meeting the standards of theacademy. Hispanic theology, like the Asian-American theol-ogy of Peter Phan, is paradoxically truly American in beinga theology of an immigrant population.

Lesson 6. Theology is and is recognized to be a pluralistic dis-cipline. The lesson of pluralism was learned much earlier ina theoretical way, but these “constituency” theologies,which are more explicitly distinctive and different from oth-ers (which can conceal their bias under a cloak of objectivi-ty), demonstrate the fact of pluralism—that is, differenceswithin a common field. They are relevant to all in a com-munity of solidarity in faith.

Lesson 7. Theology is a democratized discipline practiced by alarge corps of theologians. The liberation theologies drivehome two other facts about Catholic theology, especially inNorth America. First, from being an almost exclusivelyclerical discipline, theology has become laicized. A largemajority of Catholic theologians consists or will shortlyconsist of laypeople. Second, the discipline has been takenout of the mouths of an aristocracy of the elite and becomedemocratically diffused among a large corps of well-trainedtheologians. There are no more standard texts, but exten-sive bibliographies on everything—a healthy sign.

Stage 4: Catholic Bilateral DialoguesCatholic Ecumenical TheologiansIn the 40 years since the Catholic Church joined the ecu-menical movement, ecumenical dialogues have accumulateda massive body of data and literature. The results of the dia-logues have remained largely unknown to the faithful atlarge, and these theologians go unheralded. Althoughchurch officials have done little with the data commensuratewith the effort put into gathering it, the literature stillremains a latent source for theology. Estimates of thedegree to which Catholic officials are truly committed tothe ecumenical movement vary according to the diverseexpectations of the appraisers.

Lesson 8. The expanded horizon of the ecumenical movement


underscores the principle of a hierarchy of truths. This principle,taught at Vatican II, states that truths vary in their relation-ship to the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Yet thefences defining the boundaries and identities of the church-es are set up in different places. This will always be a subjectof debate inside and outside particular churches; but theprinciple is still valuable and must consistently be invoked.Appreciation of it requires measured language and concen-tration on the heart of Christian faith in God as revealed inJesus Christ. This in turn urges the recognition that manydivisions among the churches are based on mistakes aboutwhich issues are divisive and which are not.

Stage 5: Nyamiti, Amaladoss, PierisInculturation in Africa and AsiaDecolonialization began in Latin America in the 19th centu-ry, but a sense of cultural identity and nationalism intensifiedafter World War II. This process has generated a strongsense among non-Western Christians that faith and practicemust be reinterpreted using the symbols of the local cultureso that Christianity can cease appearing as a foreign and insome measure alienating religion. Around the world incul-turation theology has never been so self-consciously pursuedas today; it is producing concepts with multiple applications:for example, the idea of “hybridity” as distinct from “syn-cretism.” Analyses of the multiple relationships that consti-

tute persons and groups show that there are no pure, stableidentities in history. This softens the almost exclusively neg-ative connotations of religious syncretism. The long-termeffects of inculturation can be only dimly reckoned.

As Christians in the Anglican Communion will testify,inculturation is necessary, difficult and dangerous. Yetnowhere is Catholic theology more creative and vital thanin projects like Charles Nyamiti’s effort to create an “ances-tor christology,” or Aloysius Pieris’s appropriation of liber-ation theology’s option for the poor for Asia and his simul-taneous engagement with Buddhism, or MichaelAmaladoss’s dialogue with Indian culture and religion andits application to Christology.

Lesson 9. Catholic theology has transcended the West andbecome culturally polycentric. This lesson is only partiallyinternalized within the Catholic Church. A billion-memberorganization produces a wide global consciousness; today’slarge corps of Catholic theologians spans continents. Theprevalence of shared languages, like English and Spanish,allows theologians to read each other across cultures. Suchcross-fertilization of concerns and insights holds enormouspromise for theology.

Stage 6: Dulles, Knitter, ClooneyComparative Theology Comparative theology explicitly recognizes pluralism in its


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effort to understand a subject. It is an analogous term thatallows for many different fields of application and method-ological strategies, but the essential insight remains thesame: theological understanding must be conscious of differ-ence and able to integrate it into any given understanding.

This foundational insight can be seen in the work oftheologians as different from one another as Avery Dulles,with his identification of multiple models of theologicalthemes, like church and revelation; ecumenical theologians,usually working in commissions, who compare and contrastin seeking commonality; Paul Knitter, whose theology ofreligion compares Christian theological approaches to reli-gious pluralism; and Francis X. Clooney, who practicesChristian theology through a comparative dialogue withtexts of other religions on a common theme.

Lesson 10. The expanded horizon of the religions opens upnew sources for Christian insight. Everything appears differ-ently once we realize that we are united by a common reli-gious quest for meaning, which cannot be reduced to a sin-gle philosophical or theological framework. Rahner’santhropocentrism takes on new meaning against a back-ground of a new hope for human reconciliation, where reli-gion might help unite rather than divide people. Can reli-gion cease being competitive and become reconciling?

Stage 7: Toolan, Haught, EdwardsCosmologically Sensitive Theology Educated people worldwide realize that the mid-20th cen-tury understanding of the cosmos is hopelessly out of date.In its place is a narrative of how the universe began that canbe dated with precision. This story is awesome and reli-giously evocative. The mathematics of the size and age ofour universe defies the human imagination.

A new understanding of ourselves as part of this universehas significant implications for theology, as great as the shiftfrom a Jewish understanding of God and salvation to aGreek interpretation of both. David S. Toolan has exploredthe impact of the new scientific world on our Christian spir-itual identity; John Haught interrogates the connectionsbetween the methods of science and theology; DenisEdwards places the doctrines within this new context ofinterpretation. It will take some time and much discussionbefore these new interpretations can be proffered, criticizedand digested by the community at large. It is not too early,however, to draw at least one lesson from the beginnings ofsuch a new Christian self-understanding.

Lesson 11. A new cosmic expansion of consciousness produces anew theocentrism. The size and complexity of the universesuggest something so massive, both on a macro level ofastronomy and a micro level of subatomic reality, that theimagination seems spontaneously drawn into ideas of infi-nite creative intelligence and power. Where are we as a

human race in all of this? Anthropocentrism seems so inher-ent in human thinking that it cannot be escaped. Theanthropic principle notwithstanding, the space-time coordi-nates of human thinking have been so expanded that italmost seems intrinsically wrong to see ourselves as at thecenter. Gradually this new framework is moving toward anew theocentrism for Christians. This is one of the new,growing frontiers in Christian theology.

The Future of Catholic Theology Many conclusions can be drawn from the story of the devel-opment of Catholic theology over the last 40 years. Twoareas of concern have special urgency for the CatholicChurch; without special attention to them the church’shealth will be affected.

The first involves the doctrines of the Christian faith asformulated in the Roman Catholic communion, oftenreferred to as articles of the Creed. Not enough creativeeffort is going into the theological interpretation of thesedoctrines so that they will make sense to people in thedeveloped societies of the West. The Western world needsinculturation in its theology, too. Meanwhile, the new corpsof Catholic theologians is occupied with questions of lesserimportance in the hierarchy of truths, like: Can we even getalong in a pluralistic community? The result is a kind oftheological illiteracy among the laity and the clergy regard-ing the work of the academy. Even otherwise well-educatedCatholics cannot find answers to their questions, and manyare drifting away.

A second exigency lies in a need for a critically con-scious piety or spirituality. Can Catholic spirituality find aplace in a global human conversation that spans manyreligious traditions? Can it accommodate a picture of theuniverse that contemporary children take for granted? Ordoes religious piety require a more narrowly defined andenclosed self-understanding? Does a movement toward amore open and diffuse conception of the God-humanrelationship automatically result in a loss of religiousdevotion?

Theologians need to explore more fully the ways inwhich an open theology grounds a strong religious identityand a vital Christian spirituality. A critical understanding ofhow Christianity can be universally relevant and at the sametime open to other religious experiences confirms ratherthan threatens one’s Christian identity. Our professed faithin precisely the God of Jesus should convince us that open-ness to other churches and other religions is a properChristian spiritual attitude. New times and new theologiescall for new forms of spirituality.


An audio interview with Roger Haight, S.J.,

at americamagazine.org.

A

NE CHAL-

LENGE forreaders ofMother Teresa:

Come Be My Light, thecollection of BlessedTeresa of Calcutta’s letterspublished last fall, is todistinguish among theterms darkness, dryness,desolation, doubt, disbe-lief, depression anddespair—the “seven D’s.”On a popular level, somejournalists, media analystsand bloggers conflatedMother Teresa’s “dark-ness” with “disbelief.”Christopher Hitchens,the atheist author of GodIs Not Great, was not theonly one who asked, afterreading selections fromthe book, whether the“saint of the gutters” wasa closet atheist. Evendevout Catholics had dif-ficulties grasping howMother Teresa, consid-ered a paragon of faith,could have suffered froma feeling of abandonmentby God. While some Catholics saw her example as one ofremarkable fidelity, others were disturbed to read such linesas, “I have no faith.” One woman asked me, “How can Iexpect to pray at all, when even she couldn’t believe?”

Such reactions show how easy it is for the media and thepublic to be addled sometimes by the complexities of the

spiritual life and, also,how confused terminolo-gy can become, evenamong those familiarwith prayer.

The “seven D’s,”however, are distinct, andChristian spiritual mas-ters have long used spe-cific terms to refer to dis-tinct experiences. Onemay experience drynesswithout depression (forexample, during a retreatwhen one suspects thatthe period of dryness inprayer is temporary).One may encounter dark-ness without disbelief (asdid St. Thérèse ofLisieux, who continuedto believe despite spiritu-al aridity near the end ofher life). Experiences canoverlap, too. Darknesscan lead to occasionaldoubt, as in the case ofMother Teresa. Anddepression can lead, aseven atheists and agnos-tics know, to despair.

Darkness VisibleDarkness has been an important theme in Christian spiritu-ality since St. Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century.Perhaps the most often quoted source on the topic is St.John of the Cross, a Spanish mystic. Ironically, he may bethe most misquoted as well, as illustrated by frequent refer-ences to the “dark night of the soul.” His original 16th-cen-tury poem is called simply Noche Oscura, “Dark Night.”

“Dark night,” however, is only one way of describing aparticular state of feeling isolated from God. Around the

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Life’s Big Questions.


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PROGRAMS:Master of DivinityGTU Common Master of ArtsMaster of Theological StudiesMaster of TheologyBachelor of Sacred TheologyLicentiate in Sacred TheologyDoctorate in Sacred TheologyNew Directions SabbaticalInstituto Hispano

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you abandoned me?” What follows is a brief overview of the seven D’s, begin-

ning with some simple definitions, followed by commentsfrom past and present spiritual masters.

Definitions andDescriptions1. Darkness is a feelingof God’s absence afterhaving developed apersonal relationshipwith God. For St.John of the Cross,there were two types

of “dark nights.” The “dark night of the senses” is an expe-rience of one’s own limitations and the removal of attach-ments to the consolation felt in prayer. It is “an inflowing ofGod into the soul whereby he purges it of its habitual igno-rances and imperfections,” wrote St. John. At a later stage,some experience the “dark night of the spirit,” which is amore profound challenge to faith. But both are steps towarddeeper union with God.

Janet Ruffing, R.S.M., professor of spirituality and spir-itual direction at Fordham University, describes St. John’sdark night as a “mystical experience of God that over-whelms our normal way of apprehending God, and leads

same time St. John was writing, St. Ignatius Loyola wrote of“desolation” in his Spiritual Exercises. So even the most edu-cated Christian can be forgiven for wondering: Are the twosaints talking about two phenomena that are the same, orsimilar or different?

To add to the confusion,where one spiritual directoruses “darkness,” anothermight use “dryness” todescribe the same experi-ence. “And sometimes direc-tors can be presumptuous,too,” says Jane Ferdon, O.P.,who has trained spiritualdirectors in California for 20 years. “People may say thatthey are in darkness, and we spiritual directors assume weknow what they’re talking about!”

Perhaps confusion stems not only from an imprecise,overlapping and shifting use of terms but also from a failureto recognize that everyone who prays will at some pointencounter many of these states.

What are these states? How do they affect our relation-ships with God? Lent is a good time to reflect on these cat-egories, not only as a way of taking stock of our spiritual lifebut also as an invitation to meditate on Jesus’ own expres-sion of isolation on the cross, “My God, my God, why have

Darkness, dryness, doubt, disbelief, depression, desolationand despair often go together —but not always.

not only to an increase in faith, hope and love, but alsoeventually into a place of light.” She believes that whilealmost everyone who prays seriously will encounter thedark night of the senses, relatively few will experience thedark night of the spirit.

An experience of darkness can be a gateway to findingGod in the nada, or nothingness, and an entry into the vianegativa, the negative way. Ruth Burrows, a Carmelite nun,writes in her book Essence of Prayer that God “wants us totrust him enough to live with him unafraid, totally defense-less in his presence. We can truly say that John of the Cross’steaching has as its sole aim to bring us to this inner pover-ty.”

A person in darkness feels isolated from God. Yet withpatience (whether or not one can identify which “darknight” one is experiencing), one can let go of the need tofeel God’s presence constantly and gradually move throughthe darkness to discover greater intimacy with God.

2. Dryness is a limited period of feeling emptiness inprayer. “Dryness is more temporary than darkness,” saysWilliam A. Barry, S.J., author of God and You: Prayer as aPersonal Relationship. Anyone who prays will at times feeldryness in prayer, when nothing seems to be happening.“There is little in the way of sensible consolation,” FatherBarry said in an interview.

These natural parts of the spiritual life can increase our

appreciation for richer moments. One never knows whatkind of inner change occurs during “dry” times, and beingwith the living God in prayer is always transformative. As aJesuit novice, I once confessed to my spiritual director thatnothing was happening during my prayer. It seemed a wasteof time. “Being in the presence of God is a waste of time?”he asked.

Much as even a close friendship goes through some quietor dull times, so our relationship with God may go throughdry patches. But being with a friend in such times is neces-sary if the friendship is to be sustained and grow in intimacy.

3. Desolation is feeling God’s absence coupled with asense of hopelessness. St. Ignatius Loyola describes it as “anobtuseness of soul, turmoil within it, an impulsive motiontoward low and earthly things, or a disquiet from variousagitations and temptations.” It is more than feeling deject-ed or sad. “Desolation is often confused with simply feelingbad,” says Barry. “But it’s more accurate to say it is a feelingof estrangement from God.”

Margaret Silf, a columnist for America and author ofInner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality, notesthat desolation has a quality of isolation. “Those in desola-tion are turned away from the light of God’s presence,” shetold me, “and more focused on the shadows.” Father Barryagrees. “In desolation it’s more about the person than it isabout God,” he says. “Ultimately this leads to despair.”


Desolation is distinct from St. John’s dark night. In des-olation, writes St. Ignatius, one is moved toward a “lack offaith” and is left “without hope and love.” In the dark nightthe opposite is happening, as one moves toward completeabandonment to God. “For the one experiencing this, itmay be easier to see this in retrospect,” says Janet Ruffing.“But in the Ignatian worldview, the dark night is actuallyconsolation.”

The desolation Ignatius describes may seem farremoved from the lives of average Christians. But it is acommon, painful state experienced by many people, cou-pled as it is with feelings of “gnawing anxiety,” as Ignatiusputs it. He counsels that in these times one should, amongother things, redouble one’s efforts in prayer, remembertimes when God seemed more present or remind oneselfthat it will eventually pass. He also reminds us that all thefruits of prayer are really gifts from God, which we cannotcontrol.

4. Doubt is an intellectual indecision about God’s exis-tence. Many believers face doubt at some point in theirlives. “Most people are relieved to be able to talk aboutdoubt in spiritual direction,” says Ruffing. “But no onereaches adult faith without doubt. And frequently peopleencounter doubt and then move toward a faith that is morecomplex, paradoxical and, ultimately, more adult.”

Doubt is a supremely human experience, shared bynearly every Christian since St. Thomas the Apostle.Recently, in John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winningplay, “Doubt,” a priest (who faces his own doubts and thedoubts of his parishioners about his background) points tothis universality in a homily: “When you are lost, you arenot alone.”

5. Disbelief is an intellectual state of not accepting theexistence of God. Some commentators concluded thatbecause Mother Teresa suffered darkness, she did notbelieve in God. Once, in her letters, she bluntly wrote, “Ihave no faith.” But, as Father Barry explains, “She was stillpraying and writing letters to God.”

Sometimes disbelief is a way of discarding old images ofGod that no longer work for an adult believer. Margaret Silfreflects on her own experience: “I’ve been through timeswhen all the old props have fallen away, and have felt that Ijust couldn’t go on believing. So what to do? Bolster this oldsystem, or let things be and see what happens? For me, thisfinally enabled me to break through to a deeper level offaith, which I would call trust.” Disbelief is a serious chal-lenge in the spiritual life. If the journey ends at that point,there will be little space for God. The key is to continueseeking, even in the midst of disbelief.

6. Depression is a profound form of sadness. In the med-ical and psychological community, it has a more technicaldefinition. “It’s a clinical category that is often able to be


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treated medically,” says Barry, who is also a psychologist.“We don’t want to spiritualize primarily psychologicalproblems,” says Jane Ferdon. “But today,” she adds, “we canalso psychologize spiritual issues. So it’s very important todiscern the root causes of depression.”

In “The Dark Night and Depression,” an essay in KeithJ. Egan’s book Carmelite Prayer, Kevin Culligan, aCarmelite priest, writes that in the dark night there is anacute awareness of one’s own incompleteness. However, inthis darkness one seldom “utters morbid statements of guilt,self-loathing, worthlessness, and suicidal ideation,” as onedoes during a period of clinical depression.

So one can be in darkness but not be depressed. Whatabout the other way around? Father Barry responds,“Rarely is the clinically depressed person able to experienceconsolation in prayer.”

Therese Borchard, who writes a blog on depression,“Beyond Blue,” for the spirituality Web site Beliefnet, hassuffered from depression herself. She understands it fromboth a theoretical and a personal point of view and agreeswith Barry. “When you’re depressed you feel so angry atGod,” she told me. “For some people it can lead you closerto God, as you struggle to express your anger and also clingto God as a last hope. For others it can distance you and leadto turning away from God. In general, though, depressionusually leads to darkness and dryness in prayer.” Clinicaldepression needs to be treated by medical professionals aswell as to be addressed in a spiritual setting.

How do spiritual directors and counselors distinguishbetween darkness and depression? “When I’m withdepressed people, I feel swallowed up by their depression,”says Janet Ruffing. “It’s the opposite with people goingthrough the dark night. Once, I accompanied one of our sis-ters, who was dying, through an experience like this, and inher presence I felt God’s luminosity—though she couldn’ttouch it at all.”

Sadness is different from depression. As Barry notes,“Sadness over a painful reality in your life can be a sign thatyou are in touch with God.” Jane Ferdon says, “These aresome of the people who are the most alive, since they arefeeling deeply.”

7. Despair is a feeling that all is, and will remain, hope-less. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton defined despair inhis book New Seeds of Contemplation as “the ultimate devel-opment of a pride so great and so stiff-necked that it acceptsthe absolute misery of eternal damnation rather than acceptthat God is above us and that we are not capable of fulfill-ing our destinies by ourselves.” The form of despair Mertondescribes implies that we know better than God does, andwhat we “know” is that things can never get any better. Suchpride leads to a spiritual dead end: despair.

This may sound harsh. For those living in grinding


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poverty, facing a life-threatening illness or confronted withsome other tragedy, despair may seem a rational response. Itcan also stem from depression. “When you are depressedyou are often without hope,” says Therese Borchard, “andthis can lead to despair.”

Jane Ferdon thinks that sometimes despair is not aspiritual dead end, but appropriate. She remembers onewoman describing her painful circumstances by saying, “Ifeel like I’m walking among the living dead.” Ferdonalways asks people if they can find God in this state. “Also,it’s important to know if the despair is a reflection of some-thing else, say, aloneness or depression, and what happenswhen the person brings that despair to prayer. Sometimesthe person doesn’t want to pray about it, and if not, whynot? That may be where Thomas Merton’s notion of pridecomes in.”

Ferdon respectfully disagrees with Merton in definitive-ly identifying despair with pride. “It may be that pride isactually the opposite of what is happening. Despair can bean experience of letting go of our need to control every-thing, and it can lead to change, revitalization and even con-solation.” So while a despair that says, “Nothing canchange” is perilous in the spiritual life, a despair that says, “Ican’t do it by myself” could lead to growth.

Distinctions and Deliverance One need not be a scholar of Christian spirituality, a spiri-tual director or a person under spiritual direction to see thatdisentangling these spiritual strands can be encouraging,clarifying, consoling and freeing. Understanding that mostof these experiences are common can encourage us byreducing anxiety. “These are stages in everyone’s spirituallife,” says Janet Ruffing. Knowing that these stages are notidentical can be clarifying and help us discern the correctresponses to different events in our spiritual lives. (St.Ignatius, for example, prescribes definite steps to take whenone is in desolation.) Being able to bring such experiencesto prayer can be consoling, since it can deepen our relation-ship with God, in the same way that speaking about athorny problem with a friend can strengthen a friendshipand lead to greater intimacy.

Finally, knowing that all these experiences can lead us toGod can free us from fear, which can cripple our spirituallives. For the God by whom Jesus felt abandoned on thecross is the same God who delivered Jesus from death, givinghim new life. “My God, my God, why have you abandonedme?” is the beginning of Psalm 22. A few lines later, though,the psalmist sings another song. “For he did not hide his facefrom me, but heard me when I cried to him.”


From the archives, "A Meditation on Death and Life,"

by William A. Barry, S.J., at americamagazine.org.

Lignum VitaeWhat wood is this?

Olive or oak, cedar or pine?Unsuited for the cabinet maker’s art.Unfit for turning, inlay, elegance,too warped for any honest use,door frame or ladder or carrier’s cart.

What wood is this?

Sold cheap to minimise the grower’s loss.Too many knots, too twisted, no good except for firewood or a cross.

What wood is this?

Rough joints, rope lashingshold it together for the task aheadand the carpenter’s handsthat might have shaped itas they shaped the worldare made to drag it through the streets instead.

What wood is this?

It is the wood of death,the wood of life.

Bernard Fyles

BERNARD FYLES, a graduate of Cambridge University,

worked for 35 years as a teacher and headmaster in

English Catholic schools.

Poem

A

We encounter this spirit in manypsalms:

Why, O Lord, do you stand aloof?Why hide in times of distress?

Ps 10:1

Awake! Why are you asleep, O Lord? Arise! Cast us not off forever!

Why do you hide your face,forgetting our woe and our oppression?

For our souls are bowed down to thedust,our bodies are pressed to the earth.

Arise, help us!Redeem us for your kindness’sake.

Ps 44:24-27

I sing to God my rock:“Why do you forget me?

Why must I go about in mourning, with the enemy oppressing me?”

It crushes my bones that my foes mock me,

as they say to me day after day,“Where is your God?”

Ps 42:10-11

“Where is your God?” indeed. Thereligious spirit of these ancient textsseems far removed from the attitude ofreverence and obedience we expect tofind in religious texts. The dominanttone is not God’s nearness and accessibil-ity, but God’s distance and absence. It isnot the comforting, protecting God of

O BOOK OF THE HebrewScriptures is more belovedthan the Psalms. ManyChristians carry with them a

book containing the four Gospels and theBook of Psalms. But no book of theHebrew Bible is regularly bound by itself,except the Psalms. The psalter is trea-sured. Pious Jews often carry a small vol-ume of Tehillim (Psalms) or keep a copyon their nightstands (in Israel today manyhave substituted there a microfiche cardof the entire book). Other books of theBible might be studied, but the psalmsare recited with a special devotion. Wemay assume that a book that inspires suchreligious devotion must express a pro-found sense of God’s nearness and con-cern. And many psalms do exactly that(“Though I walk through the valley ofthe shadow of death, I will fear no evil,for you are with me”). Yet many othersexpress the precise opposite perspective:a gnawing sense of God’s distance oreven absence.


Faith in Focus

God’sAwesomeSilenceUnderstandingthe psalmist’sanguish BY DANIEL F. POLISH

RABBI DANIEL F. POLISH, former director ofthe Commission on Social Action of ReformJudaism, is now spiritual leader ofCongregation Shir Chadash of the HudsonValley in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He is theauthor of Bringing the Psalms to Life andKeeping Faith With the Psalms (JewishLights).

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the nearest equivalent to a Shakespeare ora Rembrandt that the cinema has pro-duced”). Bergman was the son of aLutheran pastor. While on occasion hisfilms were humorous or light, Bergman’smost powerful creations were meditationson life and death, the difficulties of estab-lishing true human relationships and aprofound theological question: the silenceof God. One subset of his oeuvre isreferred to as the “Silence of God” trilogy.

Bergman is emblematic of the manypeople who encounter experiences likethose described by the psalmist—the

silence of God—and understand it to sig-nify God’s complete absence. We do nothear from God, they would maintain,because there is no God. For them, theinescapable conclusion of encounter withthe awesome silence is atheism.

Is it possible that the Book of Psalmscould be an atheist tract smuggled ontothe nightstands and into the pews of thepious? Is an acute sensitivity to the deafen-ing silence of God a royal road to denial ofGod? Or is it something else entirely? Forcertainly there is a very different way tounderstand a profound sensitivity to thesilence of God.

That question was thrust upon thepublic consciousness with the publicationof Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light(Doubleday). We learned that MotherTeresa was overcome for decades with apowerful sense of loneliness, even aban-donment. God was not close to her, butunutterably remote, silent, unavailable.Ultimately, she found herself unable topray. She wrote her confessor:

As for me, the silence and theemptiness is so great, that I lookand do not see,—Listen and donot hear—the tongue moves [inprayer] but does not speak.... Iwant you to pray for me—that Ilet Him have [a] free hand.

Many expressed shock that so publiclypious a woman would experience such asense of distance from her God. Othersaccused her of hypocrisy, of masquerad-ing as a woman of faith while secretly hav-ing none. Some assumed that MotherTeresa was an atheist, understanding thesilence of God—and her own reciprocalsilence—in the same way as IngmarBergman.

Yet the difference between MotherTeresa and Ingmar Bergman is profoundand telling. There is another sense inwhich we can understand the silence thatMother Teresa “heard” and which somany of us hear as well. It is a very dif-ferent path opened for us by the Book ofPsalms. For even the most pained of thepsalms does not imagine that God is not.Rather, the anguish is an agonizedexpression of a keen awareness of God’sreality, but God’s distance from us. Godmost certainly “is.” But God is not closeto us.

Psalm 23 we encounter, but a God whohas virtually departed from the scene. Ifwe were to describe the religio-emotion-al state of the author, it would not be interms of “quiet confidence” in God, orcertitude and trust. Rather we woulddescribe the author’s spiritual frame ofmind as anxious, perhaps distraught.

The Painful Silence of GodIngmar Bergman, who died in 2007, waswidely regarded as a great master of thecinema (his biographer, film historian andcritic Peter Cowie, called him “probably


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Recognizing the gap that separatesGod and us can arouse emotions analo-gous to the lovesickness that, in a secularsetting, lovers experience when separatedfrom the object of their love. It is not at alla denial of the beloved, God, but a pro-found affirmation of God—and even ofour relation with God—attested to by oursense of separation.

A Loving Connection In the Hindu tradition such lovesicknessfor God is one of the seven bhavas (formsof love) by which human beings can relateto the deity, all derived from the veryhuman experiences we encounter in thejourney of our lives. We can love God as achild loves a parent, or as a parent loves achild. We can love God with the emotionspouses feel for one another. And we canlove God with the same emotions as thoseof a lover who longs to be reunited with anabsent loved one.

This conjunction of anguish at separa-tion and, at the same time, the affirmationof the unbrokenness of the underlyingconnection finds expression in many ofthe psalms. The God of Psalm 13, forexample, is far off, but not dead to thepsalmist. Instead, the psalmist cries out tothe beloved God to pay heed and be pre-sent in a way that God has not been. It is aprofound sense of God’s being and God’sability to heed and help that provide theemotional energy of this psalm. Indeed,the anguish we hear in the first versesstands as a powerful statement of faith inGod and devotion to God.

It is this same kind of affirmationthrough anguish that we hear in one of themost familiar of the psalms, Psalm 22. Weknow well the searing pain of the openingwords, “My God, My God, why have youforsaken me?” Christians recognize the cryas one of the seven last words of Christ, asrecorded in Mt 27:46 and Mk 15:34. Onecan easily imagine a learned Jew of thattime quoting these words of the psalm andevoking the emotions associated withthem. So the words have become symbolicof an anguished sense of distance from (aperhaps uncaring) God.

One can imagine a casual reader (in afantasy movie reel playing in my mind,that casual reader is Ingmar Bergman)coming upon these words and misconstru-ing them as the pathetic lament of some-one who has lost faith. But the rest of the

psalm makes such a glib assumptionimpossible. Instead of treating the non-being of God, or the disappearance ofGod, it grounds the pain on a powerfulaffirmation of God’s presence in the worldand God’s ability to be present to human-ity. The pain of the opening verses, then,is a deep recognition that God can helpbut has not. It is belief of the most pro-found, if painful, kind.

Such anguish can easily be miscon-strued as the opposite of faith. In reality itis a tortured expression of profound faith,perhaps what the 16th-century Spanish

mystic St. John of the Cross called the“dark night” of the soul.

‘What Does That Matter?’The Hasidic master Menachem Mendleof Kotzk—called the Kotzker Rov—(d.1859) spent the last years of his life inself-imposed isolation. Some maintainedthat he had withdrawn to spend all histime in communion with God. Othersrecognize that he withdrew from humancontact in response to the way he feltGod had withdrawn from him. Hisanguish became an expression of the


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depths of his faith. His silence—andGod’s—became the hallmark of his ownpained piety. Martin Buber recounts anepisode from the years before theKotzker Rov removed himself from theworld. A disciple came to him:

“Rabbi,” he complained, “I keepbrooding and brooding, and don’tseem able to stop.”

“What do you brood about?”asked the rabbi.

“I keep brooding aboutwhether there really is a judgmentand a Judge.”

“What does it matter to you?”“Rabbi! If there is no judg-

ment and no Judge, then whatdoes all creation mean!”

“What does that matter toyou?”

“Rabbi! If there is no judg-ment and no Judge, then what doall the words of the Torahmean!”

“What does that matter toyou?”

“Rabbi! ‘What does it matter


to me?’ What does the rabbithink? What else could matter tome?”

“Well, if it matters to you asmuch as all that,” said the rabbi ofKotzk, “then you are a good Jewafter all….”

If it matters to you as much as all that,then you are a person of faith after all.That seems to be the sense in which theBook of Psalms takes our anguish at theawesome silence of God. It seems the spir-it in which we can understand the agony ofothers, even those who, like MotherTeresa, once had a profound experience ofGod before a long period of God’s silenceand the distance it represents.

If it matters to you as much as all that,then you are a person of faith after all: thatis the spirit in which each of us can dealwith our own encounter with God’ssilence. When it descends, may we wrestlewith it, struggle to move beyond it andrecognize our own anguish for what it is: amark of the most profound kind of con-nection to, and love for, God—even whenGod is silent.

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think, the influence Lafont feels moststrongly). In the book’s first part, a surveyof the history of Christian theology,Aquinas appears as the culmination ofancient and medieval theology, workingout the implications of Christian revela-tion in terms of a stable, harmoniousworld, but at somecost to human free-dom and the historicaldimension of salva-tion. Modernity,which Lafont datesfrom the early 14thcentury, shifts thefocus from timelesstruth to human auton-omy and history.Initially, modernitysaw humanity as both“triumphant” and“wretched”—“tr i-umphant” inEnlightenment phi-losophy that celebrat-ed human advances inscience, technology,the arts and statecraft, but “wretched” asProtestant thought emphasized the use-lessness of our works and awareness grewof the great evils that human freedombrought about. Catholic thought, mean-while, lacked creativity and did not somuch respond theologically to the ques-tions of modernity as erect “a monumentof doctrine” against them.

It was Hegel, at once theologian andphilosopher, who integrated the triumphand the wretchedness. His dialectic, inwhich each thing finds its identity onlythrough its negation and the consequent“emergence of a new state of affairs thatboth addresses and transforms the oldstate of affairs,” made possible the recov-ery of “the negative element in Christianrevelation—the cross of Christ.”Subsequent Christian theology, Lafontbelieves, has been dominated by the imageof the cross, considered as the “kenosis orself-emptying” of God. “Dialecticalmodernity,” however, tends (in Hegel’sAbsolute Spirit and Marx’s classless soci-ety) toward an equilibrium in which histo-ry is no longer “open to new possibilities.”Hence it is perceived by its successor,“critical modernity” (what others call“postmodernity”), as “death-dealing.”

In the second part of the book, titled

The God WhoCan Save UsA Theological JourneyChristian Faith and HumanSalvationBy Ghislain Lafont, O.S.B.Translated by John J. Burkhard, O.F.M.Conv.Liturgical Press. 151p $15.95 (paperback)ISBN 9780814652138

Ghislain Lafont is a Benedictine monk ofla Pierre-qui-Vire in France and formerlyprofessor of theology at the Ateneo Sant’Anselmo in Rome. Born in 1928, he hashad a long theological career in Europebut has received little attention in theUnited States. A Theological Journey(Promenade en Théologie) is only the thirdof his 10 books to appear in English trans-lation. Described by its author as a “short,synthetic initiation,” the book has a decep-tively simple appearance. Although prome-nade in French suggests a leisurely stroll,and the presence early in the book of def-initions of such basic terms as “council”and “heresy” reinforces that impression,the book is more like a strenuous hike ona mountain trail, and the reader receivesno help when it comes to “onto-theology”and “constitutive rupture.”

A Theological Journey begins fromMartin Heidegger’s saying, “Only a godcan save us.” Christian faith responds tothe perennial human need for salvation—how to escape or transcend “all-embracingevil” by finding meaning in suffering. Itanswers that the god who can save us is“the God who saved Jesus Christ from thedead.” Contemporary theologians havetended to start from either the question orthe answer, with the liberal tradition (e.g.,Paul Tillich) beginning from human expe-rience while the neo-orthodox (e.g., KarlBarth) and the post-liberals (most recentlyRobert Barron) start with Christian reve-lation. Lafont begins with both the humansearch for salvation and the death and res-urrection of Christ, holding the two start-ing points in a creative tension.

Sometimes it is helpful in reading adifficult book to start with its index. Herethe author cited most often is ThomasAquinas, and the modern author citedmost often is G. W. F. Hegel (who is, I

“Theology in Outline,” Lafont proposes away forward that both affirms freedomand offers hope in the face of “the suffo-cating power of evil that...neither Luther

nor Hegel were ableto exorcise from theworld.” Central tohis approach is a dis-tinction between“tragedy” (tragédie)and “drama” (drame).For Lafont, tragédie isthe inevitable suffer-ing that results whenfreedom must limititself in order toenter into relation-ship and community.Drame refers tohuman failure—therefusal to enter intocommunion, theaffirmation of the selfat the expense of theother—and the con-

sequences of that failure. This resists ren-dering in English, in which tragedy is akind of drama, not something to be con-trasted with drama. In French, however, ledrame can refer to a genre that is distinctfrom both tragedy and comedy and ischaracterized by suspense and calamity.

The translator, John J. Burkhard,expresses Lafont’s contrast as between“tragedy” and “tragic misfortune,” but thelatter is misleading. “Misfortune” happensto us, while drame is of our own making.(A French speaker whom I consulted sentme to a Web site in French on the drameof Lindsay Lohan’s life. In English, too,

Book Reviews

The ReviewersWilliam J. Collinge is the Knott Professorof Theology at Mount Saint Mary’s University,Emmitsburg, Md., and the author of The A toZ of Catholicism.

The Rev. Patrick J. Brennan, formerdirector of the Office for Evangelization of theArchdiocese of Chicago, is the pastor of HolyFamily Parish in Inverness, Ill. His mostrecent book is The Mission Driven Parish(Orbis Books, 2007).

Tom Deignan, the author of IrishAmericans: Coming to America, is a colum-nist for The Irish Voice and Irish Americamagazine.


ly the story of reason acting without love,and this causes the “drama” of sin. Thecross of Christ reveals that the meaning ofdeath is “the self-less invocation of God byhumanity,” and the resurrection is “thepure invocation of humanity by God.”“Drama” is transformed into the tragedyof love.

History read in the light of Christreveals that “God is love”: God can onlybe God in the complete giving of self.This giving is internal to God—the eter-nal self-giving that constitutes the “imma-nent Trinity” (the Trinity as it is in itself)—but revealed in the Incarnation ofChrist and the gift of the Holy Spirit (the“Trinity of the economy of salvation”).Admonishing caution in the use of lan-guage about God, Lafont is leery of thetendency to transpose language about theself-emptying and suffering of Christ intotalk about the suffering of God (Lafontmentions no living theologians by name,but Jürgen Moltmann comes to mind). InGod, Lafont says, there is neither thetragedy of finitude nor the “drama” of sin.

Against the current of postmoderntheology, Lafont holds that there is a placefor theological speculation on God and

creation—the more static approach that ischaracteristic of ancient and medievalthought—although it “must be inscribedat the center of reflection on time andcovenant.” “God does not exist apart fromor before the gift,” but even so we maysay—as postmodern theologians are oftenunwilling to say—that God “is.” And whatGod imparts in creation is a “true thoughlimited participation” in God’s self-gift. Ifit were not thought of in terms of creation,finitude would be something evil.Metaphysical theology, then, “far fromobscuring the meaning of history, pro-vide[s] the criteria for reflecting on it andliving it.”

In the preceding paragraphs, I havesurveyed Lafont’s trail as if from the air,overlooking the mountainside life thatgives the hike much of its interest. I havepassed over the trail spurs that lead intoecclesiology, liturgy, ethics and globaliza-tion. There is much in this short book thatrewards reading and re-reading. My hopeis that the publication of A TheologicalJourney will stimulate American theolo-gians to engage with this challenging andtoo-little-known European thinker.

William J. Collinge

From Good toGreatKeeping the Covenant Taking Parish to the Next LevelBy Thomas P. Sweetser, S.J.Crossroad. 288p $19.95ISBN 9780824524661

Thomas P. Sweetser, S.J., has written areadable, helpful follow-up to his TheParish as Covenant. Keeping the Covenant:Taking Parish to the Next Level builds onhis foundational theology and spiritualityof parish as articulated in the previousbook, but adds to that vision many new,practical steps that can be used by pastorsand parish leaders for improving parishlife.

Sweetser, director of the ParishEvaluation Project in Milwaukee, Wis.,begins by reminding us of what a covenantis: a bond of love that exists between Godand God’s people. Then he speaks of theparish as a covenant, or an experience of

we would call it “drama,” and we wouldregard it as a result not of some misfortunebut of Lohan’s own choices and actions.)So I am going to render drame as “drama.”

Lafont’s outline of theology is con-tained in two chapters, corresponding tothe two “languages,” or thought-frame-works, of history on the one hand and ofcreation and being on the other. Contraryto Hegel, Lafont believes these cannot beintegrated into a single system. As in thephysics of light, we have to set particle-language and wave-language side by sidewithout synthesis, so in general, “Thehuman spirit cannot in any domain arriveat discourse that is both true and exclu-sively one.”

In keeping with modern thought, andwith biblical thought as well, he beginswith history, the meaning of which isrevealed in the death and resurrection ofChrist. Finite human freedom, Lafontsays, cannot coexist with other freedom,either human or divine, without the“tragedy” of renouncing itself, dying toitself, in order to allow the other to be.The encounter of freedoms generates aconflict that is beneficial, in that it opens aspace for love. But human history is equal-


Poetry ContestPoems are being accepted for the 2008

Foley Poetry AwardEach entrant is asked to submit only one typed, unpublished poem of30 lines or fewer that is not under consideration elsewhere. Includecontact information on the same page as the poem. Poems will not bereturned. Please do not submit poems by e-mail or fax. Submissionsmust be postmarked between Jan. 1 and March 31.

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the covenant that exists between God andus. There is an implicit critique of the highindividualism and isolationism in bothAmerican spirituality and culture in gener-al. The author focuses on the crisis ofAmerican Catholicism today, with thenumber of Catholicsattending church onweekends now lowerthan the Protestantaverage. Yet despitethe church’s crisissituation, Sweetserspeaks of the new lifethat can emerge andhow necessary theorganism of theparish is for us togrow in this covenantwith our fellowbelievers and God.

Much attentionis devoted to theimportance of aparish discovering itsmission and beingable to articulate thatmission in clear, simple ways. The authorsuggests practical steps for a parish to fol-low in order to formulate its mission state-ment—a process that should involve asmany people as possible. Sweetser recom-mends that once articulated, a missionstatement must be celebrated and usedregularly to remind the parish of wherethe covenantal community should begoing.

In his last book, with its forwardthinking on the subject, Sweetser stressedthat the pastor can no longer be the solefocus of authority, that pastoral authoritymust be shared with one or two other peo-ple. (Such has been my own experience inpastoring for the last 13 years, workingwith a staff of ministry directors.)

The second section of Keeping theCovenant contains valuable information onstructuring for more effective staff meet-ings. The author offers insightful guide-lines about parish governance, dividingparish ministries into commissions, andguiding those commissions for decision-making, evaluation and planning on acommon leadership night held monthly.One exceptionally good way to bringmore people into leadership, Sweetsersuggests, is to move toward a nominationweekend, in which parishioners are


encouraged to nominate people for newleadership roles on various commissions aspositions open.

At my parish, for example, there areeight leadership groups (we call themleadership communities). All of our min-

istry groups have beenre-named ministeringcommunities, toreflect—on a smallerscale—the experience ofsmall Christian com-munities whenever anyparish body meets.Sweetser suggests that astaff person be assignedto each of the commis-sions—serving as anagent of empowerment,rather than control, forthe various areas ofministry within a givencommission.

Sweetser alsospeaks of the pastoralcouncil as the glue thatholds the parish togeth-

er, with the pastor truly sharing authorityand responsibility with all its members andnot diminishing the role of parish leadersto that of mere “advisors.” He also reiter-ates an idea from his previous book: thaton leadership nightboth pastoral counciland leadership com-missions can meet in atwo-and-a-half-hourperiod. (Some parishes,however, might findsuch a gatheringunwieldy and perhapsunproductive.)

In terms of pas-toral planning,Sweetser emphasizes,“asking the folks” isthe first step. Parishesneed to listen to theirpeople—their needs,their wants, theirdesires, their experi-ences of their parish.He views parish lead-ership as both art and science: the artdimension being development of bothintuition and imagination, the sciencedimension dealing with the culture ofdiscipline that is needed in any organiza-

tion if it is going to be effective. Space precludes commenting on every

area covered in this important book—e.g.,adjusting to change, holistic stewardship,parish clustering, sharing time and talent,transition of a pastor and multiculturalparishes. What underlies every area, how-ever, are the twin themes of partnershipand ownership. Such is the hallmark of atruly covenantal parish.

I strongly recommend Keeping theCovenant to pastors, staffs, leadershipgroups and pastoral councils. This bookwill help move parishes that are stuck,enabling them to grow and flourish.

Patrick J. Brennan

In Dublin’s Fair CityThe Deportees And Other StoriesBy Roddy DoyleViking. 256p $24.95ISBN 9780670018451

In his 2007 book, Ireland Now: Tales ofChange From the Global Island (Univ. ofNotre Dame Press), William Flanagan

described the disori-entation experi-enced by an Irish-American tourist inwestern Ireland.Everywhere hestopped, Pakistanisor Indians were run-ning the shops andhotels. There werepeople with EasternEuropean accents.Eventually, thebefuddled touristasks, “What’sbecome of Ireland?”

With TheDeportees, his firstcollection of stories,Roddy Doyle setsout to answer this

question in a raucous, if at times superfi-cial, manner.

For two decades now, Doyle has beensending out fictional dispatches about thestate of Ireland—or at least Dublin. He

The stories in The Deportees firstappeared in Metro Eireann, a weekly Irishnewspaper edited by Nigerian journalists.

The first thing readers need to know isthat Doyle’s stories follow strict conven-tions. They unfold in 800-word chapters,each with a Dickensian, cliff-hanger end-ing. This is fairly restrictive, so readersshould not pick up this book expecting thetype of raw complexity Doyle exhibited inhis Barrytown Trilogy (The Commitments,The Van, The Snapper), or his more recentforays into historical fiction (A Star CalledHenry and Oh, Play That Thing).

Yes, the stories are plotted very tight-ly, and some characters (particularly sever-al of the noble new immigrants to Ireland)seem shallow or stereotypical. Still, thereis much to praise in The Deportees. Thestories often have the feel of a sharp sit-com or short film screenplay.

Doyle’s humor, meanwhile, is in topform, even in the opening story, “GuessWho’s Coming to Dinner.” The plot ishardly inventive—it basically updates theHepburn-Tracy movie—but the execu-tion, coupled with the spectacle of thestory’s traditional Dublin Da being har-ried by his reflexively progressive daugh-ters, more than makes up for the short-comings.

The title story, meanwhile, revisits themain character of The Commitments,Jimmy Rabbitte. He is more or less happi-ly married now, yet is suddenly itching toround up a band again. This time, though,it will not be a bunch of working-classDubs but instead a multicultural groupmeant to reflect the New Irish. The storyends with a scene of global music ecstasy,seemingly meant to drown out a menacingracist who has been threatening Jimmy.Again, the specific devices Doyle uses toexecute the story could be stronger, butthe effect is powerful. As with many storiesin this collection, the whole of TheDeportees generally is stronger than thesum of its parts.

Bear in mind, as with much of Doyle’swork, American readers should be pre-pared to slog through a good manyDublinisms, from “howyeha” to “hoor” to“cop on.”

One of the book’s stronger stories,which transcends Doyle’s stated interest inthe new Irish melting pot, is “New Boy,”which unfolds in the reliably compellingsetting of the classroom and schoolyard.On his first day in class, the young blackimmigrant Joseph is harassed by a class-mate (named Christian, no less). The bullygoes so far as to call the boy “Live-Aid,” areference to the African relief concertorganized by Irishman Bob Geldof.Efforts by the teacher to shield youngJoseph naturally only make things worse.But by the end, for better or worse, boyswill be boys. Christian and Joseph realizethat rather than attack each other (like theboys in Lord of the Flies), they can insteadfocus their collective energy on the bum-bling woman in the front of the room. In

was thrust into prominence in 1986 withThe Commitments, later made into ascruffy, well-received movie by the direc-tor Alan Parker.

One of the more memorable linesfrom the book had one character, “a work-ing class Dublin musician performing in asoul band,” calling the Irish the “niggersof Europe.” In a short but useful forewordto The Deportees, Doyle says that givenIreland’s profound economic, ethnic andracial changes, he would not even think touse that line today. “The line,” Doyleadmits, “would make no sense.”


this sense, the differences arising fromnational origin seem less significant whencompared to the much more profoundsense of alienation that springs from thehuman condition—even when you are ameek (or snotty) 11-year-old boy.

As Doyle and by now countless otherobservers have noted, Ireland has under-gone a radical transformation in the past20 years. It will take decades to assess theramifications authoritatively. This “mostdistressful country” is peaceful and pros-perous. This once devoutly Catholicnation is increasingly secular. This land ofcead mile failte (“a thousand welcomes”),which has sent its children abroad for cen-turies, is now asking indelicate questionsabout foreigners.

The new Ireland will certainly sooninspire Joycean works of epic fiction. Untilthen, you can turn to Roddy Doyle forhilarious, acidic observations about 21st-century Ireland. Tom Deignan


Margaret E. Crahan and Nelson

P. Valdes discuss “The Boys from

Dolores,” at americamagazine.org.


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

PositionsASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITYMINISTRY. Creighton University, a Jesuit,Catholic university in Omaha, Neb., is seeking acandidate for the position of Associate VicePresident for University Ministry. The division ofUniversity Ministry at Creighton is one of sevendivisions of the University. The Associate VicePresident will report directly to the VicePresident for University Ministry and will havedirect responsibility for serving five departmentsof the division: Campus Ministry, the CreightonCenter for Service and Justice, the DeglmanCenter for Ignatian Spirituality, the Institute forLatin American Concern and the CreightonUniversity Retreat Center. Under the supervisionof the Vice President, the Associate VicePresident will coordinate the administration ofeach department, including staffing and policies,as well as the development, presentation and man-agement of their annual operating budget.

The Associate Vice President will also workclosely with the Vice President and the division’sCollaborative Ministry Office and its online min-istries in promoting the Jesuit, Catholic missionand identity of the University.

The Associate Vice President must be aRoman Catholic, with a minimum of a master’sdegree in a related field, such as theology, divini-ty, ministry or counseling. He or she should havesignificant experience with administration in min-istry, preferably in a Catholic college or universi-ty, especially having expertise in planning, pro-gram development and staff supervision. Servicein Jesuit higher education and experience ofIgnatian spirituality is strongly preferred. Anappreciation of Catholic social teaching and acommitment to the service of the poor is neces-sary. A demonstrated facility for serving in a cross-cultural, multi-faith environment is preferred.

To apply for this position, please completethe online application, attaching a cover letterwith an extended description of any experience inJesuit higher education or of Ignatian spiritualityat: http://careers.creighton.edu. The position isopen until filled.

CAMPUS MINISTER. The College of St.Scholastica, a four-year Catholic BenedictineCollege, invites applications for the position ofCampus Minister for its Duluth campus. Willassist the Coordinator of Campus Ministry in pro-viding opportunities for students’ spiritual growthand education. Will nurture faith development in

Classified

liturgical, spiritual, outreach and social activities.Responsibilities include promoting social justicethrough the student service program, alternativespring break trips, and social justice education.Bachelor’s degree with two years’ ministry experi-ence required; master’s degree in theology orministry preferred. Successful candidate should beable to demonstrate good interpersonal, organiza-tional and communication skills along with dedi-cation to their own personal, spiritual growth.Ten-month/year position to start Aug. 15. Formore information and to apply, visitwww.csshrjobs.com. All applicants must be autho-rized to work in the United States at the time ofan offer of employment. AA/EOE.

COORDINATOR OF YOUTH MINISTRY to developand direct shared high school/junior high pro-grams for two active parishes in the Clevelandarea. Applicant should be committed to the eightgoals of comprehensive youth ministry, possesspastoral and organizational skills, a background intheology and catechesis, and previous youth min-istry experience. $40,000 to $50,000 with benefits.Job description is available at www.divineword-kirtland.org. Résumé can be submitted by April30, 2008, to: Rev. George Smiga, St. NoelChurch, 35200 Chardon Road, Willoughby Hills,OH 44094.

DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF ASIAN MINISTRY.The Diocese of Richmond seeks a full-timeDirector for the new Office of Asian Ministry.The selected candidate will collaborate withparishes and diocesan offices in the evangeliza-tion, formation and training of Asians. TheDirector will also collaborate with the Office forBlack Catholics and the Office of the HispanicApostolate in order to assess and meet the needsof the community. Additional information is avail-able on the diocesan Web site, http://www.rich-monddiocese.org. Interested applicants shouldsubmit a letter of interest and diocesan applicationto [email protected] or by mail to:P. Barkster, H.R. Administration Coordinator,Catholic Diocese of Richmond, 7800 CarouselLane, Richmond, VA 23294-4201.

PRESIDENT. The Haitian Project, a CatholicN.G.O. that owns, supports and operates atuition-free, Catholic co-educational secondaryboarding school for economically underprivi-leged, gifted Haitian children is seeking aPresident.

This is a truly exciting opportunity for a tal-ented individual with strong natural leadershipabilities and a passion to do missionary work. Theposition offers the potential to positively influencethe lives of many children and the developingcountry of Haiti.

Qualifications: Catholic, strong administra-tive and financial leadership skills, interest in edu-cation and proven success with fund development.Candidates must have the ability to travel exten-sively and to spend considerable time each year atthe school in Haiti.

For more information visit www.haitianpro-


For five days this summer,� learn from nationally-recognized experts in

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www.bc.edu/bcjobs

The Director, Admissions and Recruitment reports to the Associate Dean, Academic Affairs and holds primary responsibility for the rolling (year-round) admissions and recruitment for all School of Theology and Ministry (STM) academic programs. This position sets admissions targets and goals in collaboration with the Dean, School of Theology and Ministry and the Associate Dean, Academic Affairs.

The success of the new STM depends in great part on the number, quality, and demographics of the students that we enroll and the reputation of the STM in the academic world as a top-quality international center for theological education for ministry. Experience shows that programs that get specific attention in terms of recruitment are the most successful, especially in terms of longevity. Constituencies served by this position include potential students and applicants to the School of Theology and Ministry (STM) as well as the faculty and current students of the STM.

This position works closely with the Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, the Assistant Director, Financial Aid and Academic Services, and the Director, Continuing Education on strategic planning for recruitment, admissions, and financial aid. He/she also works with the University’s Office of Student Services and admissions officers at other graduate schools across the University. The Director also works closely with

the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry faculties on admissions decisions and outreaches to the local, national, and international communities in order to recruit for STM programs, including religious communities, university recruitment fairs, and conferences of national ministry organizations. He/she meets with potential students considering application to STM programs and serves the primary contact with all prospective students.

Requires a minimum of Master’s degree in Theology, Ministry, Education or related field. Three to five years of experience in admissions and recruitment or a related field in higher education, preferably at a school of theology or a graduate professional school. Travel is required in this position.

Please apply online at www.bc.edu/bcjobs and reference job number 7131.

Boston College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. In concert with our Jesuit, Catholic mission, Boston College is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment and strongly encourages applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabilities and covered veterans.

Boston College is a leading national Jesuit, Catholic University, enrolling 9,000 undergraduates and over 4,600 graduate and professional students. Located six miles from downtown Boston, the University has approximately 680 full-time faculty, 2,300 employees, an operating budget of $667 million and an endowment of $1.7 billion.

Director of Admissions and Recruitment

will be an experienced and inspirational educatorcommitted to Catholic and Jesuit education. Heor she will have the demonstrated capacity to pro-vide successful educational, religious and adminis-trative leadership to the entire school communityand to forge effective working relationships withthe parish community, neighborhood and otherschools in the D.C. metropolitan area. He or shewill have superb communication and interperson-al skills; substantial experience in faculty and staffhiring, evaluation and professional development;and a deep understanding of individual learningstyles and curriculum theory and development forearly childhood through middle school. He or shewill demonstrate unquestionable personal integri-ty and a deep respect and appreciation for chil-dren.

If you are qualified and interested in this posi-tion, please consult the Web site of theArchdiocese of Washington (www.adw.org/employment) for the required application materi-als and send by March 30, 2008, the completedapplication and references to: Director ofProfessional Development Programs, Archdioceseof Washington, P.O. Box 29260, Washington, DC20017; e-mail: [email protected]; Ph: (301) 853-4552; Fax: (301) 853-7670.

REGIONAL MINISTER of Christian Formation forSmall Parishes. The Catholic Diocese ofRichmond seeks a Minister of ChristianFormation for the Appalachian area of the diocese.The selected individual will support the local vol-

unteer catechetical leaders in the 18 small parish-es of Region 10 through consultation, resourcingand implementing the diocesan catecheticalnorms, and Pathways, the diocesan catechist cer-tification process. The regional minister will alsopromote adult faith formation in the region andoversee the Region 10 resource library. Theselected individual will have a master’s degree inreligious education, theology or pastoral ministryand have at least three years’ experience as a cate-chetical leader, preferably with small and/or ruralparishes. For a position description and addition-al information regarding this position, contactDennis Beeman, (804) 359-5661, ext. 113; [email protected].

ST. ALOYSIUS SCHOOL (www.staloysiusschool.org), a highly successful inner-city Jesuit parishgrammar school of the Archdiocese of New York,located on two campuses in Central Harlem, seeksapplications for the position of PRINCIPAL, start-ing on July 1, 2008. The school, with total enroll-ment of 300, includes separate boys’ and girls’ mid-dle schools (grades 6-8) in the Nativity model(www.nativitymiguelschools.org), grades 1-5, andPre-K and Kindergarten. The school has a strongand lively concentration in the arts, with classes andactivities in music, art, oratory and dance. We areaccredited by Middle States and our students havethe highest test scores in our district.

Basic qualifications include: practicing RomanCatholic with commitment to the church’s educa-tion and social justice mission, five years’ teaching

ject.org. Send cover letter, résumé and referencesto: Brian Vogrinc, Vogrinc & Short, 429 S.Phelps Ave., Rockford, IL 61107; Ph: (815) 394-1001; Fax: (815)-394-1046; send information bye-mail to [email protected].

PRINCIPAL. Holy Trinity School, a coeducationalRoman Catholic elementary school rooted in theJesuit educational tradition, seeks a principal com-mencing in the 2008-9 school year. Holy TrinityParish, located in historic Georgetown inWashington, D.C., and administered by theJesuits since 1794, has a long history of service tothe Washington metropolitan community.Founded in 1818, Holy Trinity School currentlyenrolls 330 students—from diverse ethnic, racial,cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds—inNursery through Grade 8. The school’s facultyand staff, distinguished by their professional expe-rience and enduring commitment to HolyTrinity, are dedicated to the spiritual, intellectual,emotional and physical development of everyHoly Trinity School student.

Minimum qualifications: practicing Catholic;master’s degree from an accredited institution ineducational administration or related field orequivalent; five years’ teaching experience, includ-ing at least three years of experience in a Catholicschool; the capacity, enthusiasm, intelligence andpatience to inspire the multifaceted and diverseschool community: students, faculty, staff, par-ents, board and clergy.

Other qualifications: The successful candidate

experience and three years as assistant principal.Additional qualifications preferred include:

knowledge/experience in school finance anddevelopment activities; strong communicationskills to work well with advisory board and pastor;understanding and support of multi-cultural andinclusive education. Salary is negotiable, based onexperience and degree.

Persons wishing to apply for the positionshould submit a written expression of interest,accompanied by a résumé, official transcripts andthree letters of recommendation, directly to theSearch Committee. Materials should be receivedby Monday, March 31, 2008.

Please direct all correspondence to: SearchCommittee, St. Aloysius Church, 219 West 132Street, New York, NY 10027.

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

ST. LEONHARD’S INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH-SPEAKING ROMAN CATHOLIC PARISH,Frankfurt, and St. Mary’s Parish of English-Speaking Catholics, Liederbach am Taunus,Germany, in accordance with the Diocese ofLimburg, seeks a PASTOR to lead our diversecommunities starting in mid-2008. Combinedmembership across the metropolitan area isabout 1,000 parishioners from several dozennationalities; in addition, St. Leonhard’s, locat-ed in Frankfurt’s historic city center, provides aspiritual home to Catholic tourists and businesstravelers. Both parishes boast teams of volun-teers to assist at Mass as lay ministers or orga-nize outside activities, such as retreats and socialevents. The preferred candidate will be experi-enced and blessed with an open attitude, ashappy providing spiritual counsel to individualsand guidance to groups as he is celebratingSunday and holy day Masses. Parish Web sitesare www.stleonhards.org and www.st-marys.de.For further information, please contact TomLavell and Corby Sturges at [email protected].


June 30 – July 11The Mystery of God and Human ExperienceRalph Del Colle

June 30 – July 18The Prophets - Joan Cook

Catechesis and Re-CatechesisDaniel Sheerin

July 21 – August 1History of Christian SpiritualityPhyllis Zagano

July 21 – August 8Pauline Letters and TheologyWilfrid Harrington, O.P.

The Eucharist - Susan Roll

Foundations of Moral TheologyPhilip Keane

Women’s Voices in the BibleFinola Cunnane

S T U D Y I NV E R M O N TJUNE 30 – AUGUST 8, 2008

Saint Michael’s CollegeG R A D U AT E T H E O L O G Y A N D P A S T O R A L M I N I S T R Y

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Graduate Theology and Pastoral MinistryOne Winooski Park, Box 252Colchester, Vermont 05439

“Spirituality: Ever Ancient, Ever New”with

Martin Pable, O.F.M., C.A.P.July 21 – July 25

RETREAT

Further QuestionsThank you for Gerard F. Powers’s “OurMoral Duty in Iraq” (2/18). It would beworthwhile for leaders of our countryand our military first to reconcile withthose people whose loved ones we violat-ed. This would, I hope, lead to some realdiscussion about Iraqi autonomy over itsresources and government. Powers asks“what policies and strategies best servethe interests of the Iraqi people,” but notwhat Iraqis (including the leaders) actual-ly want. To do what we think would begood for Iraqis without asking what theywant the United States to do for themmay lead only to more negative feelingstoward our country.

Rob Gularte Gonzales, Calif.

Future BurdensIn “Church Teaching and My Father’sChoice” (1/21), John J. Hardt makes itclear that he does not like theCongregation for the Doctrine of theFaith’s response regarding artificial nutri-tion and hydration and that he must obeythe pre-emptive decision of his father,who has concluded—while in perfecthealth—that he could never endure theterrible burden of a feeding tube, careful-ly inserted into his side by a medical pro-fessional.

Perhaps Hardt should sit down withhis father and suggest to him that such ananxious approach to death may not reallybe, as he apparently thinks, “the fulfill-ment of a promise sealed in his baptism.”Christ gave us the example. He did notabandon the will of his Father in heaven,even though he knew that his side wassoon to be pierced in a way far more“burdensome” than any of us will everhave the misfortune to endure.

(Dr.) Edward J. FurtonEthicist and Director of Publications

The National Catholic Bioethics CenterPhiladelphia, Pa.

Lesser of Two EvilsThank you for the excellent articles byThomas A. Shannon (“At the End ofLife,” 2/18) and John J. Hardt (“ChurchTeaching and My Father’s Choice,”1/21).

These pieces reflect an unavoidable


Letters

To send a letter to the editor werecommend using the link thatappears below articles on America’s Web site,www.americamagazine.org.This allows us to consider yourletter for publication in bothprint and online versions of themagazine. Letters may also be sent to America’s editorial office (addresson page 2) or by e-mail to: [email protected]. They shouldbe brief and include the writer’s name, postal address and daytime phonenumber. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

challenge implicit in the story of modern,high-technology medicine. We arerequired to use medical interventions toreach wanted effects even as we recognizethe risks of other, unwanted, harmfuleffects. We must constantly weigh theprobabilities of beneficial and harmfuloutcomes of medical interventions, so weseek a humane, not reckless, proportionof help and harms.

Managing our dying has becomeinevitable in our era of effective technol-ogy-based medicine—not, of course, byinflicting death (deliberately starting anew lethal process—euthanasia) but cer-tainly by managing pain and discomfortwith potentially lethal medicines (whichwe take for granted as morally permittedin palliative care of the dying). More andmore often, we must manage our dyingby allowing one rather than anotherlethal process to “win the race” and pro-duce the death that is inevitable—soonerrather than later.

James F. Bresnahan, S.J.Boston, Mass.

Image of GodThank you for Karen Sue Smith’s “ArtfulContemplation” (3/3). I returned homethis afternoon from teaching a classwhere we had discussed art and moralityin the context of Leo Tolstoy’s essay “OnArt.” I had struggled to articulate howone can enter into the experience of theartist and come to a greater awareness ofself, others, the world and God throughfine artwork. In the mail was the currentissue of America with Ms. Smith’s arti-cle. I was delighted by her suggestionthat art images abound as fertile groundfor reflection and prayer. In her descrip-tion of first seeing van Gogh’s paintingsfrom Arles, she nicely captured theessence of what I wanted to say. We havelong become used to turning to spiritualreading as a source of prayer, but it isrefreshing to think of a visit to theCloisters, or any art museum for thatmatter, as a source of contemplation.

Donald Casey Mahwah, N.J.

Invisible FootprintsI agree with Lori Erickson (“The


Letters

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AFRICAN AND BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGIES: CRITICAL READINGSIN AFRICAN DIASPORIC POSTCOLONIAL THEOLOGY - Ms. Anna Kasafi Perkins, Ph.D.

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Mysteries of Lourdes,” 2/25) that placesof pilgrimage can be truly inspiring. AtLourdes the faith in God, the hope ofcures or blessings and the true charitytoward other seekers are all quite palpa-ble. There are many other places wherepeople’s faith and love seem to live onand permeate the entire site. Assisi is oneof them; the spirit of Francis can still befelt there. I also find this in many oldchurches because of all the prayers, love,fears and sorrows that have been broughtthere through the years.

I experienced something different butequally impressive at Dachau. The painand suffering, the anger and agony are sostrong there that the very stones seem tomoan.

Human beings seem to leave invisiblefootprints wherever they go. But, likeLori Erickson, one has to go with anopen mind and an open heart to makecontact with them.

Lucy FuchsBrandon, Fla.

Soldiers of ChristWhile appreciating the position ofPatricia McCarthy, C.N.D., againstaccepting ads recruiting military chap-lains (Letters, “War Profits,” 2/11), Imust disagree. I have been opposed toour invasion of Iraq and many aspects ofthe prosecution of that war, but I believethat Catholic priests are needed to minis-ter to the men and women who serve inour armed forces. I also supportAmerica’s acceptance of money for adsfor priests to minister to our military. Itwould be irresponsible not to providethem with ministry.

There have been warriors in whomGod has worked and does work. In ourquest for peace, we are still called to loveand minister even to those with whom wedisagree.

Mary Frost, S.D.S.Oregon, Wis.


Letters

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

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Theology Digest

OR CHRISTIANS, EASTER

Sunday is the most important dayon the calendar. We believe thatthe resurrection of Jesus has

changed everything. The special Easterword is “Hallelujah” (from two Hebrewwords that mean “Praise the Lord”), and itexpresses the joy and happiness we shouldfeel (even if we are unsure of its etymolo-gy and exact meaning). But the first Easteras it is described by Matthew (and theother Evangelists) did not start out thatway.

Imagine yourself walking beside MaryMagdalene and “the other Mary” early onEaster Sunday. They were going to thetomb (a burial cave cut out of the lime-stone surrounding Jerusalem) where theysupposed that Jesus’ corpse was laid out ona niche or platform. They wanted to com-plete the preparations of his body accord-ing to the Jewish burial ritual of the time.The reason for the “spices” was to keepdown the smell. They assumed that Jesus’body would decompose over a year’s time;then they would gather his bones andplace them in a stone box called anossuary.

The two Marys were surely confusedand discouraged that morning. Theirteacher and friend Jesus of Nazareth,renowned for his wisdom and compas-sionate healing, had been executed as acriminal by crucifixion, one of the cruelestpunishments known, one reserved forrebels and slaves. The two women hadhoped that Jesus would win over theirpeople by his wisdom and goodness. Theyhad hoped that he would bring about thekingdom of God on earth, but now he was

dead. These women had stayed atthe site of his crucifixion. They saw himsuffer; they saw him die; they saw wherehe was buried. Now all that remained forthem was to go to the burial cave provid-ed by Joseph of Arimathea and help giveJesus a proper burial. Their lives, once fullof hope, had been thrown into chaos andconfusion.

But to their astonishment, they foundthe tomb both opened and empty. Noneof the rational explanations—that thewomen went to the wrong tomb, thatJesus had not really died and somehowhad revived and walked away or thatsomeone had stolen his body—made senseof all the facts. An angel at the site toldthem, “Do not be afraid. He is not here,for he has been raised just as he said.” Theamazing, spectacular and miraculousexplanation was that God had raised Jesusfrom the dead. With the greeting “Do notbe afraid,” the angel echoed the words ofanother angel to Joseph in his confusionover the conception of Jesus at the begin-ning of Matthew’s Gospel, as well as Jesus’own reassurances to his confused disciplesand the crowds during his public ministry.

Yet Matthew’s account does not endwith the empty tomb. Rather he recountsthat on their way to tell the other disciplesabout what they saw at the tomb, thewomen encountered the risen Jesus and“did him homage”—a verb especiallyprominent in the story of the Magi inMatthew 2 and one that recurs in theaccount of the risen Jesus’ appearance tohis male disciples in Galilee. The risenJesus greets the two Marys with the wordsthat the angel used, “Do not be afraid.”Matthew’s Gospel begins and ends withthis hopeful and comforting message.

These words did not dispel entirelythe women’s confusion. The risen Jesus

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

The Women at the TombEaster Sunday (A), March 23, 2008

Readings: Acts 10:34, 37-43; Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Col 3:1-4; Mt28:1-10 (or Jn 20:1-9)

“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid’” (Mt 28:10)


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Edid not lay out a clear and secure path fortheir immediate future. The women didnot know then how the story of Easter wasgoing to turn out, as we do some 2,000years later. Still, the words “Do not beafraid” gave them hope and comfort. Thewords inspired them to remain faithful totheir beliefs and hopes about Jesus and hismovement, to move forward in their ownlives and to help spread the good newsabout Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.By fulfilling the risen Jesus’ commission totell the male disciples to go to Galilee,Mary Magdalene has come to be known as“the Apostle to the Apostles.”

On this Easter day, the risen Jesusoffers us the same message of hope andcomfort, “Do not be afraid.” The prob-lems in our personal lives, our church, ourcountry and our world will not be solvedovernight and disappear. Because of them,we may well remain confused and discour-aged amid what may seem like chaos to us.But the promise of Easter is that in the endlife triumphs over death, good conquersevil and hope overcomes despair. Themessage of the risen Jesus this Easter, ason the first Easter, is one of hope andcomfort. As the risen Jesus said to thewomen on their way from the tomb, so hesays to us: “Do not be afraid.”

Daniel J. Harrington

Praying With Scripture• How is your life this Easter? Whathas you confused and discouraged?

• In what sense is Mary Magdalenethe Apostle to the Apostles?

• What is your response to the words,“Do not be afraid”?

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