A Rediscovered ManuscriptTHE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY NOV. 9, 2009 $3.50 The Spiritual Kandinsky LEO J. O’DONOVAN A Rediscovered Manuscript DOROTHY DAY

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 N O V . 9 , 2 0 0 9 $ 3 . 5 0

The Spiritual KandinskyLEO J. O’DONOVAN

A Rediscovered ManuscriptDOROTHY DAY

s a retiree, my mother finallyhas the time to indulge hercontemplative streak. While I

was growing up, she would rise at 5a.m. to sit alone with her coffee, enjoythe quiet and browse the newspaper.After we bought a piano, she wouldplay one unbroken improvised song, aprogression of chords, for half an houror more. To me it sounded like prayer,like Mary pondering all those things inher heart. I’d lie in bed and wonder atthe songs my mom kept inside somedeep interior well, there in the Arizonadesert.

Externally, my mother led a busysuburban life, working full time andraising a family. Whenever she wouldfinally join us kids of an evening towatch television, she’d fall asleep inminutes.

In her 60s my mother retired. Nextthing I knew, she was taking paintinglessons. The class painted exclusivelyfrom photos, so she was free to chooseany subject that interested her. Shemade small renderings of birds, hugescenes of the Southwest, even a Lord’sSupper image. Obviously she had tal-ent, but it was her enthusiasm wefound so touching. I thought, finallyshe has time for herself. Then the giftsstarted coming. Over the years mymother would present to each familymember and close friend a framedpainting of a subject she had carefullyselected, not for herself but for them.On she went, until she painted herselfout.

My mother became a caretakeragain, of her parents. They could nolonger care for themselves in Ohio, sothey joined their two daughters, wholive a mile apart, in Phoenix until theydied at 89 and 93. Then my motherand aunt lost their two brothers, leavingonly the two of them. My mother cameto terms with death. On a visit to myparents’ home, I noticed new objectsfrom my mother’s family—a glass bowl,a knick-knack and several quilts.

My mother took up quilting, rightwhere her own mother and grandmoth-er had left off. To their hand-sewnpiecework tops, she added batting andbacking and “quilted” it all with a run-ning stitch. She handed down threequilts, one to each child, a labor acrossthree generations. Each quilt is a vividexample of patient love turned stitch bytiny stitch into a strong protective cov-erlet, practical enough to warm a familyfor decades, artful enough to decorate aroom.

Two years ago my mother turned 80,wearing red at the party. But since thena series of falls, a broken bone andarthritis have put a crimp in her activelifestyle. She still drives, shops, goesonline, consumes the news and sports,dances (with a cane handy) and keeps aneat house. She and my dad are main-stays at their local church, which spe-cializes in ministry to seniors. But mymom nurtures her contemplative streaknow.

Like an intrepid explorer, she setsout every morning to observe the uni-verse from her patio. She looks at thesky and inspects her territory. Once shewatched a hummingbird build a nest,which later fell to the ground. Sheexamined every layer of it—bits of pen-cil plant used for the foundation, leavesof an artificial plant to line the nest—then she put it back. I stood on a ladderand found a tiny egg inside. “Thatexplains it,” she said. “One parent fliesover it every day.”

Limitations try to catch my mother,but she’s too attentive to get caught.What fascinates her are the littlethings—the birds, beetles and roses shenever had time for. And she seems tobe so keenly aware of her own mortalitythat she chooses to be ever affirming, asif to hand on to others her positive takeon the world. In her wisdom, my moth-er is aging wakefully, demonstratingwith her contemplative gaze just howit’s done.

KAREN SUE SMITH

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES

AOF MANY THINGS

Cover: “Moscow I,” by VasilyKandinsky (1916). Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum.

EDITOR IN CHIEFDrew Christiansen, S.J.

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www.americamagazine.org VOL. 201 NO. 13, WHOLE NO. 4872 NOVEMBER 9, 2009

35

O N T H E W E B

19

O N T H E W E B

CONTENTS

A R T I C L E S

11 IRREPLACEABLE DIALOGUEHonest discussion is key to Catholic-Jewish relations

Theodore E. McCarrick

14 OUR BROTHERS, THE JEWSA lost manuscript published for the first time

Dorothy Day, with an introduction by Charles Gallagher

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

4 Current Comment

5 Editorial Help Wanted

6 Signs of the Times

9 Column The Five M’s for Catholic Schools

John J. DiIulio Jr.

28 Letters

31 The Word Stardust Made Flesh

Barbara E. Reid

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

19 ART Kandinsky’s Creations BOOKS New Women of the Old Faith;

Beyond the Miracle Worker

11

14

Robert Ellsberg discusses the diaries and letters of DorothyDay, and from the archives, Avery Dulles, S.J., on “TheChurch and the Shoah.” Plus, Maurice Timothy Reidyreviews the film “Bright Star.” All at americamagazine.org.

O N T H E W E B

4 America November 9, 2009

CURRENT COMMENT

Morality in the MarketplaceWhere did all that TARP money go? Some of it was wellspent, fending off, as most economists now agree, a whole-sale collapse of the U.S. economy. Without the bailoutmoney given to some of the largest banks, credit wouldhave been even more difficult to extend to companies andindividuals, consumer confidence would have plummetedfurther, and the country could have seen a feared “run onthe banks.” So part of TARP made sense.

But not all of TARP made sense. Thanks to the safetynet provided by public funding, some of the profits result-ing from TARP are being used to line the pockets of thechief executive officers of those same banks, which are nowreporting profits and planning for bonus payments.Goldman Sachs, for example, set aside $16.7 billion dol-lars for bonuses for 2009. During a panel discussion inLondon recently, Lord Brian Griffiths, a Goldman execu-tive, explained, apparently with a straight face, why bonus-es are necessary: “We have to tolerate the inequality as away to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”

Even in the face of popular ire, the U.S. governmentmay have little say over bank bonuses, despite the laudableefforts of Kenneth Feinberg, President Obama’s “compen-sation czar.” Most bank C.E.O.’s and top-level executiveswill probably not be cowed by the government. Apparentlythey are happy to “tolerate the inequality” for some timelonger, even when their gains are the result of public fund-ing and a large percentage of that public is still unem-ployed.

Welcoming AnglicansThe move announced by Cardinal William Levada, prefectof the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on Oct.20 caught everyone by surprise. The C.D.F. has dramati-cally streamlined the canonical procedures for full recep-tion of whole Anglican parishes and dioceses into theCatholic Church. But even with plans for “personal ordi-nariates,” for the retention of what the cardinal called theAnglican “liturgical patrimony” and for the reception ofmarried priests, questions remain. We might consider afew that pertain to the United States.

To begin with, what is the canonical status of a personalordinariate? Will its bishop be a full member of an episco-pal conference, like the U.S. Conference of CatholicBishops? Likewise, what will be the place of marriedpriests within the church? It is easy to imagine a youngCatholic man who wishes to marry and be ordained simply

entering an Anglican seminary. Other questions concernthe reception of individual Anglicans. For over twodecades, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults has beenthe mandated way in the United States to prepare mem-bers of other Christian communities for reception into thefull communion of the Catholic Church. But with thewholesale admission of dioceses and parishes, will the “newCatholics” know much about their new faith? If not, willconfusion be sown among the faithful?

Finally, is this a political move? If not, then why has theVatican lowered the canonical bar for entrance for anothertraditionalist group (as with the Society of St. Pius X)while at the same time raising more hurdles for progres-sives (as with women religious in this country) who havespent their entire lives working for the Catholic Churchand have accepted Vatican discipline on controverted mat-ters? The Vatican also needs to avoid conveying theimpression that we are opportunistically welcomingAnglicans simply because some of them oppose womenpriests and openly gay clergy. We hope answers will befound in the forthcoming apostolic constitution.

Genocide Trial for KaradzicThe Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, whose trialwas scheduled to begin in the Hague, Netherlands, onOct. 26, has refused to attend, claiming the need for fur-ther time to prepare his defense. He faces two counts ofethnic-based genocide for Serb atrocities against BosnianMuslim and Bosnian Croat civilians during the 1992-95Bosnian war. The war crimes include the shelling ofSarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a four-year siege that cost the lives of some 10,000 civilians, andthe slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys ofSrebrenica in 1995.

Karadzic evaded arrest for a dozen years before his cap-ture in July 2008. Disguised by a bushy white beard andthick glasses, he worked in a private clinic in Belgrade as apractitioner of alternative medicine. In an unsuccessfuleffort to avoid prosecution, Karadzic claimed that then-U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke had promised him immu-nity in 1996 in exchange for leaving politics. Holbrookehas denied any such agreement. The genocides underscorethe importance of the doctrine of the responsibility to pro-tect, with its emphasis not only on a sovereign state’sresponsibility to protect its citizens, but also the responsi-bility of the international community to intervene when astate fails to do so. The doctrine exists precisely because ofmass atrocities like those in the former Yugoslavia.

ising unemployment and the stalled creation ofnew jobs are dampening morale on Main Streetand threatening the nation’s economic recovery.

More than 15 million Americans who want to work are nowout of a job, nearly one in 10. According to the Departmentof Labor, the number of job seekers is six times the numberof job openings, a situation much more dire than during the2001 recession, when this ratio was two to one.

Two proposals now being debated in Congress wouldaddress these twin problems, and both proposals ought to bepassed quickly. One bill already passed in the House wouldextend by 13 weeks the unemployment insurance paymentsscheduled to run out at year’s end, but only in states whereunemployment is 8.5 percent or higher. A similar bill in theSenate (that would extend four weeks of payments to allAmericans receiving unemployment and 12 weeks where therate is 8.5 or higher) has stalled while lawmakers debate howto finance it. Either extension could assist more than a mil-lion jobless people whose benefits are expiring.

The second proposal would offer tax credits to busi-nesses that either create new jobs or extend existing jobsfrom part time to full time. Substantial tax credits like thiscould help small businesses, which for the last 15 years havecreated some 80 percent of the nation’s new jobs. Quick pas-sage of such a bill would overcome another possible hurdle:that businesses might postpone hiring now, when new jobsare critically needed, and instead wait for a future credit toemerge from Congress.

Much more must be done. During this recession, thecountry’s job market has contracted by nearly 6 percent. Ahigher percentage of jobs have been lost this year than in anyyear since 1939. Nor does the double-digit unemploymentrate projected for next year tell the whole story, for itexcludes persons working part time who would prefer a full-time job and those who have stopped looking for work. Jobcreation lags behind the early signs of a recovery becausebusinesses must stabilize their operations before launchingnew rounds of job-generating investment.

Speedy action is critical. This year more than five mil-lion Americans have been out of work for six months orlonger. Many have used up their savings, are living on cred-it and can no longer afford health insurance. Prolonged job-lessness is pernicious. It not only increases credit carddefaults and home foreclosures but also forces millions ofchildren to grow up in poverty and weakens family ties as a

consequence of alcoholism, addictionand domestic violence.

What else can be done withoutincreasing the deficit? Some ideas: Thefederal government should immediate-ly ratchet up pressure on banks, partic-ularly those that accepted TARP monies, to extend morecommercial credit to credit-worthy small businesses. Thenit should work with Congress to pass new legislation (likethe Glass-Steagall Act of 1933) that would restrict com-mercial banks to making loans and trading securities onlyfor their customers. The goal is to make legal the distinctionbetween investment banks and commercial banks and breakup the giant holding companies.

The government should follow the infrastructure andenvironmental start-up monies it distributed to states withthe stimulus and urge them to use more of this money forjob creation during 2010. Lawmakers had expected such jobcreation to take time because these projects (bridges, roads,public transportation, alternative energy systems) are largeand complex. But nearly a year has passed, and more pro-jects—selected for their shovel-readiness—should movetoward hiring.

Lawmakers should also direct the labor force in waysthat will lead to long-term gains. That includes allocatingmoney to states for job creation and job preparation.Community colleges, for example, are currently bulgingwith students—those who cannot find jobs, laid-off work-ers seeking new skills and returning veterans. Each of thesecategories includes thousands of people eager for the oppor-tunities that increased stimulus funding would provide.Programs that teach English as a second language or pre-pare students for high school equivalency diplomas will alsoprepare workers who might otherwise be unable to competewhen jobs return. Regarding health care, governmentsshould find incentives now to increase the number of grad-uates in nursing, primary care medicine and gerontology,areas of medicine with critical shortages.

With recent projections showing that a full recoverymay be several years away, the current job picture is dis-couraging. It will be costly to turn around, but delay or half-measures now will only prolong the pain. Better to employall the tools at our disposal—monetary and fiscal policy,political leadership and ingenuity—to match the serious-ness of the current unemployment crisis.

Help Wanted

R

November 9, 2009 America 5

EDITORIAL


of them, Cardinal Bernard F. Law andCardinal J. Francis Stafford, reside inRome, while the third, Cardinal JustinRigali, is the archbishop of Philadel-phia. While congregation members giveparticular attention to appointments intheir native countries, more often thannot they are looking beyond their homeborders: In 2007, for example, of the179 bishops’ appointments handled bythe congregation, only 13 were in theUnited States.

W A S H I N G T O N , D . C .

Hurdles RemainOn Health Care

he push is on to get a healthreform bill through Congress,and some longtime Catholic

supporters of a more accessible andaffordable American health system are

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

life” and “anti-family” legislation. Inmid-October, he celebrated a pontifi-cal high Mass in St. Peter’s Basilicausing the 1962 Roman Missal, com-monly called the Tridentine rite—thefirst time that has been done at St.Peter’s in almost 40 years.

Archbishop Burke will join about30 other cardinal and bishop membersof the Congregation for Bishops,which meets regularly every twoweeks. The meetings last all morning,and typically bishops’ appointmentsfor four dioceses are reviewed at eachsession. Before the meeting, congrega-tion members are sent abundant docu-mentation on the candidates for eachdiocese, information collected by theapostolic nuncio in the country wherethe diocese is located. A large part ofthe packet consists of written evalua-tions prepared on request by some 30to 40 people who know the candidate.

At the congregation’s meeting, onemember acts as the ponente, or presen-

ope Benedict XVI named U.S. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke to theCongregation for Bishops on Oct. 19, a significant appointment that couldhave an impact on the wider church for many years to come. The congrega-

tion’s members review candidates for vacant dioceses and make their recommenda-tions to the pope. The Congregation for Bishops is considered to be one of the mostimportant Roman Curial agencies.

Membership on the congregation is a five-year appointment, which can berenewed until a prelate’s 80th birthday. Archbishop Burke, 61, will help shape theepiscopate not only in the United States but also around the world. Formerly arch-bishop of St. Louis, Archbishop Burke was named in 2008 as head of the Vatican’shighest tribunal, known as the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature. At thetime, pundits wondered whether the appointment would in effect sideline the manwho had been one of the most outspoken U.S. bishops on moral and political issues.

Archbishop Burke has been anything but silent, however. Since his Vaticanappointment, he has insisted that holy Communion be refused to Catholic politi-cians who actively support legal abortion. He also said the Democratic Party in theUnited States “risks transforming itself definitively into a ‘party of death’” andargued that nothing can justify casting a ballot for a candidate who supports “anti-

ter, who reviews the information andmakes his own recommendation onthe terna, or list of three candidates.Each member, in order of seniority, isthen asked to give his views—in effect,offering a judgment on whether thecandidates are worthy and suitable,and in what order they should be rec-ommended. The congregation’s overallrecommendations—along with anydoubts, questions or minority opin-ions—then go to the pope. He usuallyapproves the congregation’s decisionbut may choose to send it back for fur-ther discussion and evaluation.

Insiders say the preparation work foreach meeting takes many hours. “It’s avery serious procedure because a bishophas a heavy responsibility in the church.It’s an exercise in prudential judgment,and the weight of it is felt by everyoneinvolved,” said one Vatican official.

Archbishop Burke joins three otherU.S. members of the congregation. Two

Archbishop Burke, center

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Burke Named to CongregationFor Bishops

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hoping they are not going to have topush back. In both the House andSenate, members and staffers areworking to combine multiple commit-tee-passed versions of health reformlegislation—two in the Senate, threein the House—into bills that could betaken to the floor.

Officials of the U.S. Conference ofCatholic Bishops are working behindthe scenes to improve the bills to putthem in line with the vision ofAmerican health care that the bishopshave been encouraging for decades.“We continue to have concerns aboutthe treatment of the poor and immi-grants” in the bills, RichardDoerflinger, associate director of theU.S.C.C.B.’s Secretariat for Pro-LifeActivities, said on Oct. 21. “But theabortion issue is the one that is mostintractable to us.”

The bishops’ message on abortion

and conscience rights in health carehas been clear, despite some claimsthat they have changed their positionor do not really understand currentlaw. “Our position has been very con-sistent,” Doerflinger said. “It’s alwaysbeen that [the final health reform] billmust maintain the status quo on abor-tion and conscience rights. It shouldnot be used as a vehicle for expandingor changing federal policies.”

He dismissed recent comments byWhite House press secretary RobertGibbs that the bishops’ opposition tocurrent health reform legislation isbased on a misunderstanding of theHyde amendment, which prohibitsfederal funding of abortion in mostcases. “I have not heard that messagefrom anyone who’s actually workingon the bills; the people at the WhiteHouse know that isn’t true,”Doerflinger said. “It’s a very disap-pointing thing that Mr. Gibbs is justtrying to blow smoke.”

Asked on Oct. 21 at a roundtablewith representatives of faith-basedmedia whether the bishops’ concernson abortion were being met, SenatorDebbie Stabenow, Democrat ofMichigan, said: “We don’t have moneyfor abortion in this bill. We do not. Wedo not. We do not provide public fund-ing for abortion services in this bill.”

Despite President Barack Obama’sstatement in his address to both hous-es of Congress on Sept. 9 that “underour plan no federal dollars will be usedto fund abortions,” current versions ofthe legislation create what Doerflingercalled a “bookkeeping exercise” byrequiring abortion coverage in mostplans and stipulating that a $1-per-month add-on premium would beused to pay for it. “If you’re forcingeveryone to pay it, whether you call it apremium or a tax is secondary.Everyone must pay for abortions,” said

Doerflinger.An amendment proposed in com-

mittee this summer by Rep. BartStupak, Democrat of Michigan, andRepresentative Joe Pitts, Republicanof Pennsylvania, states: “No fundsauthorized under this act...may beused to pay for any abortion or tocover any part of the costs of anyhealth plan that includes coverage ofabortion,” except in cases of rape,incest or risk to the mother’s life. Atleast 30 House Democrats have comeout in favor of the amendment,Doerflinger said, but it might not evenbe allowed a floor vote if House mem-bers invoke a rule blocking it.

U.S. Cardinal QuestionsIsrael’s Security BarrierWhile Israel has a right to protect itscitizens, the security barrier separatingIsrael from the Palestinian territoriesraises human rights concerns, said aU.S. cardinal. “The most tragic thing Ihave seen is the miles-long wall thatseparates Jerusalem from Bethlehemand separates families and keeps farm-ers from the land that has been in theirfamilies for generations. It is humiliat-ing and distressing,” Cardinal John P.Foley, grand master of the Knights ofthe Holy Sepulcher, told participants at

Supporters of health care reform inPhoenix on Aug. 17


awareness of the service that the churchwas asking of them, to bring the Biblecloser to the people of God and toaddress in an appropriate manner thechallenges that modern times bring tothe new evangelization. Pope Benedicthopes that the sacred Scriptures willbecome in this secular world not onlythe soul of theology but the font of spir-ituality and invigorate the faith of allwho believe in Christ.

Pregnancy SupportCenters Harassed A proposal requiring Baltimore preg-nancy support centers to post a dis-claimer telling clients they do not pro-vide abortion or contraceptive servicesis harassment of the pro-life centers,say Catholic leaders. Baltimore’sArchbishop Edwin F. O’Brien saidabortion clinics are not being similarly

the 11th international conference of theHoly Land Christian EcumenicalFoundation on Oct. 24. “I appreciatethe Israeli government’s concern forsecurity” and respect it, he said. “Butmany of these measures raise serioushuman rights issues that they refuse toacknowledge and address.” The securitybarrier is a series of barbed-wire fences,security roads and looming cementslabs that if completed as planned,would stretch 400 miles through theWest Bank and restrict the movementof 38 percent of its residents.

Biblicum Marks 100Years of ServiceOn Oct. 26th Pope Benedict XVIgranted an audience to the professors,students and personnel of the PontificalBiblical Institute on the occasion of itscentenary. He recalled how his prede-cessor Pope Pius X established theinstitute to have in Rome a center dedi-cated to specialized studies in the sacredScriptures and related disciplines. PopeBenedict also thanked the Society ofJesus for its notable commitment bothin money and personnel and for its sig-nificant contribution to the biblicalrenewal in the church through its teach-ing, scientific research and scholarlypublications, in the spirit of the SecondVatican Council’s “Constitution onDivine Revelation.” Well-knownchurchmen like Cardinal Augustin Bea,rector from 1930 to 1949, have trainedmore than 7,000 professors and leadersof biblical studies groups. In variousministries these experts now serve thechurch throughout the world.

The Biblicum, as the institute isoften called, has also been open to dia-logue with other disciplines and withdifferent cultures and religions. Thepope urged his audience to move for-ward with renewed dedication and

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Penha, an importanttourist attraction in Rio de Janeiro, is being used bydrug traffickers to monitor police actions in theregion, Archbishop Orani Tempesta of Rio deJaneiro said on Oct. 25. • Bishop Donald W.Trautman of Erie, Pa., former chairman of the U.S.bishops’ liturgy committee, sharply criticized what hecalled the “slavishly literal” translation into Englishof the new Roman Missal from the original Latinduring a lecture on Oct. 22 at The CatholicUniversity of America in Washington. • On Oct. 21 CaritasInternationalis launched an appeal for $3.4 million in aid to feed35,000 Sudanese people who have suffered through violent conflictand years of drought. • Michael Sinnott, 79, a Colomban priest,continues to be held by unknown kidnappers in the Lanao del NorteProvince of the Philippines, an area where armed Muslim separatistgroups are active. • A German court has fined the traditionalist bish-op Richard Williamson 12,000 euros ($17,860) for incitement forhaving publicly denied the Holocaust.

N E W S B R I E F S

required to list all the services they donot provide, such as infant clothes,formula and parenting classes. Thepresident of the Baltimore CityCouncil, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake,and 10 other members are sponsoringthe bill, which if passed would levy afine of $500 per day on centers that donot comply with the requirement. In aletter to Rawlings-Blake on Oct. 16,Archbishop O’Brien said the bill tar-gets nonprofit organizations whosemission is to help women carry preg-nancies to term. He said it is “wellknown” that pregnancy support cen-ters are focused on assisting women intheir choice for childbirth and do notprovide abortions or contraception.“To fine a center $500 for not postinga sign that states as much is nothingshort of harassment,” ArchbishopO’Brien said.

From CNS and other sources.

Donald W.Trautman

politically improbable, but there is pri-vate money aplenty for Catholicschools. Since 1965, many Catholiccolleges and universities have soared(bigger endowments, better buildings)just blocks from where many Catholicgrade schools have sunk. The Catholichigher education sector needs to“adopt” and raise funds for Catholicelementary and secondary schools.Wealthy and well-positioned Catholics

need to make theschools a philanthropicpriority, and the bishopsneed to start looking towealthy non-Catholicslike those who supportindependent Catholicschools.

Millennial. Look tothe Catholic quarter ofthe college-age cohortborn in 1982 or later.Through programs like

the amazing Alliance for CatholicEducation, which is anchored at theUniversity of Notre Dame, they areready by the thousands to become thegreatest-ever generation of Catholicschool teachers and principals. Theaforementioned Time story referred tothe ACE as “a sort of Catholic version ofTeach for America.” Actually, ACE ismuch better than T.F.A. I estimate thatACE yields five to 10 times as muchurban teaching for every dollar invested.

Miracle. On Jan. 5, 2010, the 150thanniversary of St. John Neumann’sdeath, pray for him to intercede inexpanding ACE and resurrectingCatholic schools in Philadelphia andnationally: “Obtain for us that completededication in the service of the needy,the weak, the afflicted and the aban-doned which so characterized your life.”

n Jan. 5, 1860, a miracle-worker lay dead in the snowon a Philadelphia street. Born

in Bohemia, Bishop John Neumannhad built from scratch America’s firstunified system of Catholic schools. Bythe 1960s, the city’s CardinalDougherty High School alone servedabout 6,000 students, and its MostBlessed Sacrament elementary schoolserved about 3,800.

But as the baby boomers reachedadulthood and moved to the suburbs,Philadelphia Catholic school enroll-ments plummeted. The religiousorders that staffed the old schoolsreceded, parishes folded, and per-pupilcosts skyrocketed. Most BlessedSacrament elementary school closed in1994. Cardinal Dougherty high schoolis to be closed in 2010.

Sadly, this Philadelphia Catholicschool story is America’s story. TodayCatholic schools serve about 2.2 millionstudents, roughly half the 1965 peak-year total. There are still nearly 7,250Catholic schools, but since 1990 over1,300 have closed and some 300,000pupils have been displaced. The declineis concentrated in urban communitiesthat now are home mainly to low-income, non-Catholic, minority families.

Non-Catholics care about thedecline because it means more spend-ing and crowding in public schools,and because Catholic schools generallyget better educational results thanpublic schools, especially with low-income minority children. Every sooften these concerns stir momentary

media interest. A recent example isTime magazine’s story on Oct. 12,“Looking for Solutions to theCatholic-School Crisis.”

The decades-old “crisis” is neitherdemographic destiny nor divine will.Catholic schools in Philadelphia andother cities can be saved, made solventand strengthened managerially, andsome long-closed schools might evenbe reopened. The five M’s for revivingCatholic schools are: mis-sion, market, money, mil-lennial and miracle.

Mission. In his address atCatholic University onApril 17, 2008, PopeBenedict XVI calledCatholic schools “an aposto-late of hope” that must be“accessible to people of allsocial and economic strata.”The pope called for arenewed “commitment toschools, especially those in poorerareas.” For the mission to be sacred, thelocal children whose minds are fed byCatholic schools need not be Catholicany more than the overseas childrenwhose bodies are fed by Catholic mis-sionaries need be Catholic.

Market. Based on estimates I derivefrom data on a private scholarship pro-gram for low-income children, thelatent demand for Catholic schoolingin Philadelphia is huge. If partialtuition relief were available, some50,000 more local parents would sendtheir children to Catholic schools.Estimates of untapped markets inother cities are similar, and that iswithout even adding the large latentdemand for Catholic schooling amongLatino immigrant families.

Money. Government vouchers are

The Five M’s

O

The Catholicschools ‘crisis’

is neitherdemographicdestiny nordivine will.


JOHN J. DIIULIO JR. is the author of GodlyRepublic: A Centrist Blueprint forAmerica’s Faith-Based Future (Univ. ofCalifornia Press, 2007).

JOHN J . D I IUL IO JR .


Left to right: Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Rabbi Arthur Schneierand Xu Kuang Di, mayor of Shanghai, in 1998

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: RE

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OLD

IrreplaceableDialogue

BY THEOD ORE E . MCCARRICK

ur world is filled with dialogue. The word itself is usedand misused in multiple ways. Its range stretches from thehighly orchestrated dialogue of international affairs toinformal conversations between husbands and wives.Indeed, on the highest level of all is our dialogue with

God in prayer and in meditation. Somewhere, between dialogue on thelevel of the world political scene and the personal reflections of a marriedcouple, we find a genre called interreligious dialogue, which has becomemore and more important in the cultural context of our times.

Many of us have been part of interreligious dialogue. Clergy and laityof almost every faith community have engaged in it, sometimes withunexpected success, as clarity and charity put an end to old misunder-standings. Bishops like me have had the opportunity to engage in ecu-menical and interreligious dialogue with many Christian churches andecclesial communities, as well as with leaders of other religious bodies,but perhaps the most important of these is the dialogue that takes placewith ever greater frequency with members of the Jewish faith. I have seenthe desire for such conversations reflected in the goodness of people onboth sides and in their desire to move from the problems of the past to agreater understanding of one family under God in the years ahead.

Besides almost innumerable contacts with Jewish communities in ourown country, I have been privileged to participate in dialogue with Jewishreligious leaders in Israel, in Eastern Europe and even in China. I oncehad this described to me as the unavoidable dialogue, and I believe this istrue for several reasons.

What We ShareFirst, we share an essential sacred book, the Bible, the compilation ofthose remarkable books of divine revelation that begin with the Torah,

O

WHY CHRISTIANS AND JEWS

MUST CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION


CARDINAL THEODORE E. MCCARRICK is emeritus archbishop of Washington.

which we acknowledge as the Hebrew Scriptures. Eventhough Christians revere the Gospels and the epistles aspart of our doctrinal foundation, and even though togetherwith the sacred books of the Bible, our Jewish brothers andsisters are guided by the commentaries in the Talmud, theMishnah and the Gemarah, yet the sacred books of the his-tory of the people of Israel have always formed the founda-tion of our mutual heritage. The Bible is prayed in Christianchurches as well as in synagogues throughout the world. Itis read and meditated on and commented on, analyzed anddiscussed by both families of faith. Its books are plumbedfor their wonderful insights, their beautiful expressions ofadoration and petition;they make, indeed, awonderful foundationfor a dialogue that natu-rally emerges from con-versations concerningthem.

Second, we share a sacred history. For most of our his-tories we have been spiritually one. Christianity cameupon the scene less than 2,000 years ago, but the history ofthe people of Israel, the chosen people of God—a historyChristians share and without which we would be aimlessand empty—goes back even to Ur of the Chaldees and, ina special way, to the man we Christians refer to asAbraham, our father in faith. Indeed, in that most essen-tial part of Christian history, the years of the first centuryafter the birth of Christ, we speak of men and women whobelong to the family of Abraham in the physical sense offlesh and blood. Not only Jesus, his mother and his fami-ly, but all his apostles and disciples in those early momentswere Jewish. So it is impossible to separate our histories,especially at that moment when for Christians all thingsbegan anew.

Third, we share almost indescribable sorrows. Theearly centuries of the Christian era saw those who followedChrist persecuted brutally by the Romans and by othersthroughout the known world. The very earliest days ofChristianity found that even in the Jewish communitiesbrother turned against brother and family against familyas some accepted the Gospel teachings and others foundtheir fidelity in a faithful adhesion to the covenant ofIsrael.

Throughout their history, the people of Israel sufferedhardships and persecutions in the times of the judges, in thetimes of the kings and, we must admit with great sorrow, inthe times of the Christians as well. The pogroms, which areso dark a blot on the history of Christianity— in which ourbrothers and sisters of the first covenant were persecuted,often killed, and driven from one place to another—are signsof the sorrow that faced the people of Israel in the Middle

Ages and indeed up to the Shoah itself. The indescribablesorrow of the Shoah, the attempt to eliminate and eradicatethe Jewish people from the face of the earth, which left mil-lions and millions dead and other millions traumatized bothin body and spirit by the inhumanity of their neighbors,many of whom called themselves Christian, is a moment ofgreat sorrow for us all. In the times of Communism andFascism, many Christians also felt the lash of persecutionand, as is the case of our brothers and sisters of Israel, oftenbecause of their faith and trust in the living God. And so itis the sharing of indescribable sorrows that calls us to dia-logue and common prayer to the one God above.

On the other hand, inthe midst of the suffer-ing, we both share inde-structible confidence.My fourth point is thatboth our traditionsaffirm God’s fidelity to

the covenant made long ago with Abraham, a covenant thathas been renewed many times in sacred history. The peopleof Israel continue to hold powerfully to that glorious her-itage, and we Catholics believe that they continue to livewithin the truth of the covenant made through Abrahamand that God continues to be faithful to them. Indeed, asthe Second Vatican Council teaches, “This people remainsmost dear to God, for God does not repent of the gifts hemakes nor of the calls he issues.”

For our part, Christians have confidence in a living faiththat the Lord Jesus will be with us until the end of time andthat his church, founded on St. Peter, will endure until hecomes again. It is such strong and unshakable confidence,characteristic of us both, that calls us to dialogue and tomutual appreciation.

A fifth point is that we share a tradition of saints andholy people. The prophets and the judges, the holy men andwomen of Israel, are holy men and women of our family,too. We will never forget their history and never cease to betouched by their courage and their wisdom. As we read thesacred books of the Hebrew Scriptures, we continue to beinspired by their example and urged to imitate their deeds.In the times after the coming of Christ, we Christiansrejoice in so many martyrs and saints, even until our owntime. We acknowledge as well the many multitudes of saint-ly and heroic Jews whose deep faith and whose devotion tothe Law of Moses is nothing less than a manifestation ofgreat personal holiness and love of God and neighbor. Ourtradition also has given rise to enormous acts of charity andgenerosity as we have watched in awe the magnificent shar-ing of wealth among our Jewish brothers and sisters. I hopewe have learned to mirror it in the almsgiving that is part ofthe Christian life.

The prophets and the judges, the holy

men and women of Israel, are holy

men and women of our family, too.


bor to which both our faiths are so dramatically and perpet-ually called.

Broadening the DialogueThere are many other ways in which we find reasons for thisunavoidable dialogue. I will end with a comment on theword “unavoidable.” This dialogue is not just unavoidablebut most useful, important and necessary. It is not that weare forced to talk to each other but that by the very natureof our existence we are called to share so many points of

light and of life that our dialogue is notonly unavoidable but irreplaceable.

I thank God that in so many areas thedialogue has become a wonderful success.This is true in the United States, where agroup of religious leaders, all from the

family of Abraham, work together in harmony for the peaceof Jerusalem.

Finally, I hope that we might see in this a call for anoth-er important dialogue, and that is the dialogue with thefamily of Islam. They, too, are children of Abraham andthey, too, accept the oneness of the God who loves us. Withthem we too must learn to share and work together here, inthis shrinking world, as we are all called to make it a placeof peace and harmony where we will realize that we are allbrothers and sisters in God’s one human family.

Sixth, we share many common values. The TenCommandments are the basis of the teachings on morali-ty of both our families. The Golden Rule is a standard forChristian and Jew alike and has been for 20 centuries.The love of God and love of neighbor, which is taught inthe Hebrew Scriptures and again so powerfully in theGospel and the writings of the Apostles, has called ourpeoples to make sacrifices of love for the neighbor, far andnear, often without any consideration for faith or nation-ality, but just because we understand the common humandignity of every human being as a crea-ture of a loving God and as one who hasreceived this gift of life from the veryhands of the Creator.

Finally, we share the same world. Weshare the same communities. We shop atthe same stores, often go to the same schools, read the samenewspapers and strive to exercise the virtues of patriotismand loyalty for the countries in which we live. We share thisworld intimately, and this intimate sharing is most noted inthe lands where our forefathers lived and still live today, inthe Middle East, in the Holy Land in a special way and inthe crowded cities of the Western world as well. We cannotshare this rapidly shrinking earth without feeling a need totalk to one another, since our lives are so entwined in allthese points I have listed and in the common love of neigh-


“My dear loved ones, the hour draws ever nearer when I shall give my soul back to God . . . ”

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ON THE WEBAvery Dulles, S.J., on

“The Church and the Shoah.”

americamagazine.org/pages

A

Unlike any other Catholic writer at the time, Dorothy Day sawAdolf Hitler’s emerging policy toward the Jews as a moral prob-lem for Catholics. She saw this while Hitler was still only thechancellor in a multiparty cabinet—two years before he com-bined the office of chancellor and president to become Führerand almost four years before Germany adopted the NuremburgLaws that stripped German Jews of their citizenship andhuman rights. Day’s views are expressed in this previouslyunknown essay, which lay undetected in a correspondence file inthe Dorothy Day-Catholic Worker Collection at MarquetteUniversity.

The manuscript was submitted for publication in Americain November 1933, more than five years before Day’s views onJewish matters became widely known. The content is notewor-thy precisely because of Day’s early conclusion that Hitler repre-sented the foremost religious problem for the Jews.

From Day’s perspective, local events in New York, charged byanti-Semitism on the part of Catholics, were directly related toHitler’s rise to power in Germany. She was appalled by“Catholics speaking over in Brooklyn,” to “cheering crowds,” that“the great danger was the Jew.” She keenly foresaw the dynamicthat five years later would lead to the rise of Brooklyn’s powerfulChristian Front movement and its quasi-terrorist anti-Semiticplot, which was scuppered only by a spectacular set of arrests inearly 1940 by J. Edgar Hoover’s Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Day’s warning about how Catholics ought to deal withHitler rested on two of the main pillars of her faith—scrip-tural reflection and concern for social justice. Her deep beliefsrested on an apostolic zeal that held out the possibility for allmen and women to be fully integrated into the mystical bodyof Christ.

America’s editor in chief, Wilfrid Parsons, S.J., rejectedDay’s article, offering her consolation, advice and furtherencouragement. Other forces may also have been at play.Parsons might have been put off by Day’s opening paragraph,which spoke approvingly of a worker extolling the sunny side ofCommunism. Father Parsons later would become known as oneof the country’s foremost anti-Communists. In 1931 Pope PiusXI released the encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, which arguedfor the rights of workers and labelled Communism a threat todivine law. In addition, American Catholics were becomingmore isolationist in the 1930s. Of course, one might suspectmasked anti-Semitism on the part of Father Parsons. But thereis no evidence to suggest Parsons was in any way anti-Semitic.On the contrary, Father Parsons was a founding member of theNational Conference of Christians and Jews and remained aleader in Christian-Jewish relations through the 1940s.

CHARLES GALLAGHER, S.J., a visiting fellow at the Geneva School ofDiplomacy and International Relations, discovered this manuscript atMarquette University. The text here has been lightly edited.

Our Brothers, the JewsA lost manuscript, a continued call for solidarityBY D OROTHY DAY, with an introduction by CHARLES GALLAGHER


Jew came into the office of The CatholicWorker the other day and sat around andread for a while. He nosed through Cahill’sChristian State and condemned it for itsanti-Semitism. Then he looked at a missal

for a while and hummed through some of the Gregorianplain chant.

“I cannot,” he said, “be a Communist because I believe inGod.” And he said it sadly because he believed that theCommunists were nearer to social justice in their efforts tobring about a proletarian state than were the believers inGod.

When he left he took with him the apocryphal books of

the Old Testament and the autobiography of St. Teresa ofAvila.

People have been calling the office of The CatholicWorker and asking us if we had anything to do with thestreet meetings which were going on over at Long IslandStation in Brooklyn. Our paper was being distributed overthere, after rabid anti-Jew speeches. The men who spoke tous over the telephone said that they could find no raceantipathies in The Catholic Worker, but they wanted toknow what right Jew-baiters had to take over our paper asliterature to distribute.

There were three Catholics speaking over in Brooklynand by appealing to the baser instincts in their audiencethey were getting a huge crowd, a cheering crowd, whichstood around for three hours listening to speakers whopointed out how red-blooded and 100 percent American

SERVANT OF GOD DOROTHY DAY (1897-1980) was the cofounderwith Peter Maurin of the Catholic Worker movement in 1933.

A


they were, how filled with intestinal integrity, and how somescum parasites of Europe had come over here and taken overthe country. The great danger was the Jew. All evils camefrom the Jew. Jewish materialism was the cause of all our ills.It was the Jew who brought about the revolution in Russia.It was Jews who ruined Germany. Hitler was merely tryingto restore law and order.

We have consistently tried to avoid discussion ofEuropean questions in the paper we are getting out. We feelthat we can’t take up the subject of Spain, Italy, Germany,Mexico, let alone China. (One time on a bitter cold nightlast winter I was walking down Eighth Street and there wasa cheering Communist parade coming around the corner.On all sides there was hunger and evictions, strikes andlockouts. Millions, fifteen or seventeen millions of men outof work. Forty-five millions dependent upon relief of somekind or another. But the Communists in their world-widealtruistic frenzy were not at that moment engaged inprotesting present and near-at-home evils. Their bannersbore the slogans, Down with Chiang Kai Chek!)

I repeat, we the editors of The Catholic Worker haddecided not to venture on world affairs. But when Catholicsget up on New York streets and arouse race hatred in theirCatholic listeners, then it is time for us to take a stand.

We believe that Hitler owes his success to the fact that itis easier to arouse a people against something concrete likea race than against an idea. It is not just the idea of materi-alism that the German people are fighting. They have madethe Jew as a race the scapegoat. They have fastened on it theills of present-day society. They have blamed Jews for defeatduring the war, for the inflation after the war, for the presentills of the capitalist system. And even though individuals ofthe race, even though large masses of the race are guilty ofthe sins with which they are charged, the animus arousedagainst them is singular in that it is not an animus againstthe evils attendant on their actions, but against the Jewsthemselves.

To criticize the Jews for the protest which Jews haveorganized in this country and to say, as I heard them say atLong Island Station, “Are the Jews a sacred race that this P

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enormous protest should have been organized?” is to bemanifestly unfair. If no protests were organized on accountof the persecution in Mexico or Spain, it is the fault of theCatholics themselves in that they are not naturally vocifer-ous. Why didn’t all the Knights of Columbus, all the St.Vincent de Paul men, all the Holy Name men, all organiza-tions in fact, hire Madison Square Garden themselves, forma parade that would block traffic for some ten hours andbroadcast a huge protest against what was and is going on inMexico?

Another thing, horrible as the persecution of theCatholics is, it is not a persecution of a race or people. It isall Catholics, of whatever nationality, thatare having to put up a struggle for a posi-tion. The Times tried to point this outwhen they said that in Spain it was ex-Catholic against Catholic. What theyshould have said is that it was Spaniardagainst Spaniard. The persecution in Germany is actually apersecution of the Jews as a race. A stiff-necked generation.Not because they are Communists especially. Not becausethey are materialists. Many of them are not Communistsand some of the most religious-minded men are Jews. But itis all Jews who are being fought and excoriated. It is the oldpogrom spirit being revived. It is comparable only to thepersecution of the Negro because of his race. It seems to be

easy to arouse people to a concrete hatred of race. It is easyfor children to fall into contemptuous attitudes because ofrace differences. And I believe that Hitler could never havegotten the following he has if he had not given to his fellowGermans someone, not something, to hate. It is a hatredprimitive, fundamental, base.

For Catholics—or for anyone—to stand up in the publicsquares and center their hatred against Jews is to sidestepthe issue before the public today. It is easier to fight the Jewthan it is to fight for social justice—that is what it comesdown to. One can be sure of applause. One can find a brightglow of superiority very warming on a cold night. If those

same men were to fight for Catholic prin-ciples of social justice they would be shiedaway from by Catholics as radicals; theywould be heckled by Communists asauthors of confusion; they would be hurtby the uncomprehending indifference of

the mass of people. God made us all. We are all members or potential mem-

bers of the mystical body of Christ. We don’t want to extir-pate people; we want to go after ideas. As St. Paul said, “weare not fighting flesh and blood but principalities and pow-ers.”

In addition to getting out a paper, the editors of TheCatholic Worker are engaging in a fight against theUnemployed Councils of the Communist Party. To combatthem they are doing the same thing the Communists aredoing, helping the unemployed to get relief, clothing, foodand shelter. But we are cooperating with the Home Reliefinstead of obstructing them. Two or three times a week wehave eviction cases. When a desperate man or womancomes in asking for help, we have to call the Home Relief tofind out about getting a rent check. Then we have to find alandlord who will accept the voucher. Usually they won’t.There is only one landlord in our entire block who will takethem. Over on Avenue B there is an Irish landlord willing tocooperate. On 17th Street there is a Jew. He is a Godsendbecause he has three houses.

After we have found an apartment, we have to comman-deer a truck and men to do the moving. The sixteen-year-old boys in our neighborhood have been most helpful. Thenthere are always unemployed men coming into the officewho are eager to help.

The other day we had a German Protestant livery stableman, giving us the use of a horse and wagon to move aJewish family, and five Catholic unemployed men assistingtheir brother the Jew in getting transferred.

It is a situation which typifies the point I wish to make,that we are all creatures of God and members or potentialmembers of the Mystical Body. This is something whichthose Catholics who bait the Jews lose sight of.


Our futuredepends on you.

Please remember Americain your will.

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ON THE WEBRobert Ellsberg on the diaries

and letters of Dorothy Day.

americamagazine.org/podcast


A N N U A L F A L L M C G I N L E Y L E C T U R E

AmenFaith and the Possibility of

Jewish–Christian–Muslim TrialogueINAUGURAL LECTURE DELIVERED BY

The Reverend Patrick J. Ryan, S.J.Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society

Fordham University

R E S P O N D E N T S

Rabbi Daniel Polish, Ph.D.

Congregation Shir ChadashPoughkeepsie, New York

Professor Amir Hussain, Ph.D.Loyola Marymount University

Los Angeles, California

T W O L O C A T I O N S

Wednesday, 18 November 2009, 6 p.m.

12th-floor Lounge | Lincoln Center Campus113 W. 60th Street | New York City

Thursday, 19 November 2009, 8 p.m.Keating First Auditorium

Rose Hill Campus | Bronx, New York

THE LECTURE IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. A reception will follow.

For more information, please contact (718) 817-4746 or e-mail [email protected].

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Kandinsky believed, and so they hadbegun to seek “inner knowledge.”

Sound familiar? The diagnosiscomes from Kandinsky’s book On theSpiritual in Art, written in 1911 intones at once prophetic and poetic.“Literature, music and art are the mostsensitive spheres in which this spiritu-al revolution makes itself felt,” hewrote, envisioning spiritual regenera-tion through the arts.

For the first 30 years of Kandinsky’slife, these views would have seemed


BOOKS & CULTURE

A R T | LEO J . O ’DONOVAN

KANDINSKY’S CREATIONSNotes on a spiritual revolution

improbable to his family and friends.Born in Moscow into a prosperousfamily, Kandinsky enrolled at 19 in theUniversity of Moscow to study law,economics and statistics. In 1892 hemarried his cousin Anja, graduatedfrom the university and began doctoralwork in economics, but abandoned ittwo years later. Two major experiencesin 1896 affected him deeply: seeing oneof the paintings in Monet’s “Haystacks”series and hearing a performance ofWagner’s “Lohengrin.” For the rest ofhis life Kandinsky pursued the goal of apictorial art that would resemblemusic, which he considered the great-est and most abstract of the arts—“thebest teacher,” he called it.

“Every work of art is a child of its

he Russian-born artist VasilyKandinsky believed his timewas one of spiritual crisis.

“The nightmare of materialism…[has]turned life into an evil, senselessgame,” he wrote, and Western culture“awakening after years of materialism[is] infected with the despair born ofunbelief, of lack of purpose and aim.”With religion, science and moralityunmoored, an increasing number ofpeople distrusted the adequacy of sci-ence to answer deeper questions,

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time,” Kandinsky wrote. And of itsplace as well, he might have added.The splendid “Kandinsky” exhibitionnow at the Solomon R. GuggenheimMuseum in New York (through Jan.13), which includes several extraordi-nary loans, highlights theplaces where the artistlived.

Kandinsky moved withAnja to Munich in 1896to study painting. Withinfive years he helped toestablish the Phalanxartists’ association. Whileteaching there, he becameclose to one of his youngstudents, GabrieleMünter, for whom he lefthis wife in 1904. The ear-liest pictures shown hereare quick plein-air sketch-es documenting his travelswith Münter throughEurope and Tunisia. Theysettled for a year in Paris,where his work culminat-ed in “Colorful Life”(1907), a nostalgic recre-ation of medieval Russia.The painting’s stippled brush strokesand brilliant colors recall the Neo-Impressionist and Fauve artistsKandinsky had seen in Paris.

Returning to Munich in 1908,Kandinsky and Münter took an apart-ment in Schwabing and discovered thevillage of Murnau in the foothills ofthe Bavarian Alps. Kandinsky’sMurnau scenes, generally realistic butincreasingly abstract, show a childlike,lyrical freedom with color and compo-sition. Billowing white clouds overrolling hills in “Landscape NearMurnau With a Locomotive” (1909)would be cartoonish if they did notsing so. And the Guggenheim’s famous“Blue Mountain” (1908-9) melodicallycombines the chivalry of its three rid-ers on horseback—Kandinsky’s recur-rent symbol for artistic courage andinnovation—with a canticle to nature

that burns with gemlike color.Gradually Kandinsky’s style

became less representational and fellinto three categories that he distin-guished by their association withmusic: “impressions,” based on real-life

subjects; “improvisations,” drawn onspontaneous and unconscious imagesfrom his inner life; and “compositions,”based on multiple previous studies. Ashis work became more visionary, darkhints of cataclysmic and even apoca-lyptic eventsemerged.

When you comeupon “PictureWith a Circle”(1911) from theGeorgian National Museum in Tbilisiand exhibited for the first time in theUnited States, the round forms delin-eated only by color, with black lineswhiplashing through neighboringmists of rainbow tones, simplyastound—like a vision of creation.(“The creation of the work of art is thecreation of the world,” the artist wrotein his Reminiscences of 1913.) Still

more powerful is the “Painting With aBlack Arch” (1912) in which an initi-ate may see the arc as recalling part ofa horse’s harness, though anyone canrevel in the harmony of form and color.

The climax of this fertile period inthe artist’s life, and forme the high point ofthe entire exhibition,is the set of four pan-els commissioned byEdwin R. Campbellfor the foyer of hisPark Avenue apart-ment in New York.Sometimes interpret-ed as a four-seasonssuite, the canvases arebetter read as pureabstraction, miracu-lously combining bal-ance and movement, ariotous range of colorwith each tone retain-ing its value, formsdefying definition andlines springing as iffrom nowhere andending as suddenly. Asense of upward

movement prevails: Might not thisweightless world float at any minuteinto the sky? There is no illusionist orperspectival space, but there is a senseof depth, as cool colors recede andwarm ones move toward you.

Symphonic is not toogreat a word for thismarvelous wall.

With the outbreakof World War I,Kandinsky left

Germany and made his way throughSwitzerland back to Moscow.Uprooted, and his relationship withMünter unraveling, he found it diffi-cult to paint and so worked mostly onpaper. In 1917, he married NinaAndreevskaya. After the OctoberRevolution, the state expropriated theapartment building Kandinsky hadinherited, and the family often went


ON THE WEBMaurice Timothy Reidy

reviews the film “Bright Star.”

americamagazine.org/culture“B

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echoes the apocalyptic hints ofMunich and the severity of Moscow.For Kandinsky the circle suggested thefourth dimension, and its many float-ing appearances in “Composition 8”prolong the painting’s resonance.

The critical view has been widelyheld that Kandinsky’s work declinedafter 1914, and certainly after 1921.This is especially true of his final yearsin Paris, for which he and Nina,appalled by the advance of NationalSocialism, abandoned Germany in1933. Still there are wonderful paint-ings here, playful surprises as well as avision of hope in a desperate time.“Reciprocal Accord” (1942), his lastlarge-format painting, combines play-fulness and gravity. It was fittingly dis-played on an easel next to his coffinwhen he died in 1944 at 78. I hope vis-itors to the Guggenheim will make uptheir own minds.

Was Kandinsky deceived that artcould regenerate the times? Of course.And it is difficult even to say what hemeant by “spiritual.” His psychologywas rudimentary, affirming the unity

of body and soul but suggesting onlybarely what “external” and “internal”mean. The “inner necessity” on whichhe insisted—the artist’s ineluctablecall to express the spirit of the age, inservice to “the cause of art” enduringbeyond time and space—calls for, butfails to provide, the concrete distinc-tions that would justify the terms“temporal” and “eternal.” The highlyinformative catalogue gives only glanc-ing clues as to how Kandinsky mighthave been influenced by RussianOrthodoxy. His commitment to “thespiritual,” though, is likely to resonatewidely. In this way he poses a questionfor the many churches that are reach-ing many members to only pallideffect. On reaching the top ramp of theGuggenheim, museumgoers can askthemselves if their own processionbefore this great artist’s work was not alittle like prayer—in which we loseourselves in wonder. To whom elseshall we go?

LEO J. O’DONOVAN, S.J., is emeritus presi-dent of Georgetown University.

hungry and cold. Their only son diedat the age of 2. The work of two artiststhen dominant in Russia made thespiritual, intuitive Kandinsky increas-ingly uncomfortable: the strictgeometrism of Kazimir Malevich’sSuprematism and the mechanical utili-tarianism of Vladimir Tatlin’sConstructivism. But Kandinsky stillmanaged to create memorable canvaseslike “Moscow I” of (1916), a small, cel-ebratory and surprisingly representa-tional depiction of the city he hadalways called home [see cover], and“Overcast” (1917), a turbulent collisionof intensely colored forms, large andsmall, with a typical contrast of threat-ening darkness and promising light.

Shortly after Kandinsky and Ninamoved to Berlin in 1921, the architectWalter Gropius invited him toWeimar to teach at the Bauhaus. Thenext 11 years were happier and moreproductive for him, even though theschool’s geometric and rationalistfunctionalism also tended to constrainhis expressive nature. Teaching, orga-nizing exhibitions and writing, theartist enjoyed the collegial atmosphereand especially his reunion with his oldfriend Paul Klee. (In the superb collec-tion of 60 works on paper that accom-panies the exhibition, the first wall hasa series of Kandinsky watercolors thatmight well have been by Klee.)

When Solomon R. Guggenheimand his wife, Irene, accompanied by hisart advisor Hilla Rebay, visitedKandinsky in 1930 at the Bauhaus’snew location in Dessau, he boughtfour works from the artist, including“Composition 8” (1923) [see p. 19].(Ultimately, Guggenheim would buyover 1,500 of the painter’s works.)Standing before the painting today,you can almost sense the triumphKandinsky must have felt on complet-ing this cosmic vision. Here geometryhas become musical, playing across thecanvas from lower left to upper right,from bottom to top. A black, eclipse-like circle in the upper left corner


B O O K S | NANCY HAWKINS

OUR FOUNDING MOTHERS

NEW WOMEN OF THE OLD

FAITHGender and American

Catholicism in the

Progressive Era

By Kathleen Sprows CummingsUniv. of North Carolina Press. 288p $45

ISBN 9780807832493

When I opened this fascinating bookby Kathleen Sprows Cummings, I wasnot sure what to expect. The covershows two women at the turn of the20th century, one in a religious habit,the other dressed as a materially com-fortable woman. What could thesetwo women possibly have in common?The answer is: much more than you

would imagine. New Women of the Old Faith

explores a piece of American Catholichistory that is often overlooked.Cummings chronicles the lives andwork of four American Catholicwomen who, while being faithfulmembers of the pre-Vatican IICatholic Church, were powerful advo-cates for Catholic women trying tobreak into American society and findtheir own voice alongside the “NewWoman” movement. The four womenchronicled are Margaret BuchananSullivan (d. 1903), an ardent Irishnationalist and prolific Catholic writ-er; Sister Julia McGroarty, S.N.D. (d.1901), American provincial superior

of the Sisters of Notre Dame deNamur and founder of Trinity Collegefor Catholic Women; Sister AssisiumMcEvoy, S.S.J. (d. 1939), aPhiladelphia educator who figuredgreatly in the expansion and consoli-dation of the Catholic education sys-tem locally and nationally; andKatherine Eleanor Conway (d. 1927),a Boston journalist, editor and publicfigure. Each of these women is note-worthy in her own right, and each wasdedicated to improving the lives ofCatholic women while encouragingthem to resist the promises of thenewly emerging secular women’s orga-nizations.

As explained by Cummings, HenryJames coined the phrase “NewWoman” to describe wealthy widowsliving abroad. The movement came torepresent women who felt trapped andconstricted by Victorian society andwho desired to break from traditionaldomestic rules. This secular move-ment greatly alarmed Catholics who

saw it as a threat to single Catholicwomen, who were expected to play apart in their church community and befaithful to the roles assigned them by“Mother Church.”There was also the factthat the “New Woman”movement was signifi-cantly Protestant. Atthis time in U.S.Catholic history theAmerican Protestantwas the enemy. All fourof the featured womenin this book believedthat American Catholicwomen at the turn ofthe century would truly“liberate” themselves ifthey found women to emulate fromtheir own faith tradition, such as St.Catherine of Siena, St. Jane Frances deChantal and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.It would be Catholic teaching, asopposed to the suffragette movement,that would show Catholic women the

way to live their lives. And of course, itwould be through education thatCatholic women would truly achievefull personhood.

This book will be ofspecial interest to any-one who has spenttime in the field ofCatholic education,especially in Catholichigher education. AsCummings explains,the story of the found-ing of Trinity Collegein Washington, D.C.,is a marvelous exampleof how “U.S. Catholicwomen enlarged theirlives during the

Progressive Era.” One cannot help butbe impressed by the tenacity andvision of Sister Julia McGroarty, who“dared” to found a college without apreparatory academy already in placeand also without any assurance ofmonetary backing. The stories of thePhiladelphia S.S.J.’s and I.H.M.’s onlyadds to the truth that women religiousduring the Progressive Era let nothingcome between them and their desire tobuild a Catholic school system inAmerica.

Their efforts were supported bywomen like Margaret Sullivan andKatherine Conway, who believedwholeheartedly in church-sponsorededucation for women. These two lay-women had an impact on the lives oftheir Catholic “sisters” in a manner dif-ferent from that of women religious.Their writing and journalistic abilities,along with their personal friendshipswith members of the hierarchy,opened doors for them that wouldalways remain closed to the sisters.While they did not support the “NewWoman” movement, they understoodthat Catholic women needed a strongfaith life and a somewhat independentspirit.

There is a noticeable tension in thebook between the fact that American


This event is free and open to the public.To learn more, visit LUC.edu/hank

9 am–5 pm Klarchek Information Commons

Fordham University

The Ann Ida Gannon, BVM

Loyola University Chicago

The Joan and Bill Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritagepresents

with assistance from

Womenof the WordA CO L LO Q U I U M O F C AT H O L I C W O M E N P O E T S

Reading & discussion by

ence others today. I wonder whetherthe fact that certain influentialCatholic women of the early 20th cen-tury resisted secular social movementshas impeded post-Vatican II Catholicwomen from responding energeticallyto the women’s rights movement,racial issues and other social prob-lems.

New Women of the Old Faith willassuredly appeal to anyone interestedin the story of American Catholicismand the growth of the American immi-grant church. It offers a fresh perspec-tive on the struggles Catholic womenfaced as they tried to become good cit-izens of these United States while alsobeing good daughters of the CatholicChurch. The struggle was not alwayseasy, and still is not today. But asCummings points out, Catholicwomen are creative, dedicated, brightand visionary people. These qualitiesserved us well in the past and will doso in the future.

NANCY HAWKINS, I.H.M., is associate profes-sor of systematic theology at St. Bernard’sSchool of Theology and Ministry in Rochester,N.Y.

who was completely undisciplined.After an epic struggle between twostrong-willed personalities, Annie suc-ceeds in her innovative teaching meth-ods. She initiates Helen into the mira-cle of language. In the process anunbreakable lifelong bond of love andaffection is forged.

Sullivan and Keller’s amazingachievement was immediately publi-cized. Helen and her teacher becamenationally and internationally celebrat-ed. Philanthropists and rich patrons,like Alexander Graham Bell, ensuredHelen’s future education. WithAnnie’s help she went on to graduatefrom Radcliffe College and became aprolific author and lecturer. As adultwomen Helen and Annie were able toearn their living by writing, speakingand even performing on the stage invaudeville. The two women traveledwidely and met everyone worth know-ing—from presidents to literary lionslike Mark Twain to Hollywood starslike Charlie Chaplin. To the end oftheir lives Helen and Annie also gar-nered financial support from sponsorsand through their positions at theAmerican Foundation of the Blind.

While they were at Radcliffe, ayoung Harvard intellectual, JohnAlbert Macy, joined in their collabora-tive work. He became a close friend ofboth women and eventually the

beloved husband of AnneSullivan. Since Anniewould never desertHelen, a joint householdwas formed in which themarried couple andHelen lived and workedamiably. John was a radi-cal socialist reformer aswell as a literary criticand initiated Helen intoprogressive movements.She became a pacifist, afeminist, a suffragist, a

socialist, an advocate of labor andeven joined the Industrial Workers ofthe World. Her lifelong struggles

women at the start of the 20th centurydid not have rights owed them as fullyhuman beings, such as the right tovote, and a Catholic vision of what itmeant to be a truly liberated Americanwoman. The two laywomen featuredin this book only grudgingly acceptedthe 19th Amendment, which gavewomen the right to vote. I wantedCummings to spend more time ana-lyzing whether the refusal of theCatholic Church and specific womenin the church to support more secularreform movements served to alienateCatholic women from social reformactivities in the middle of the centuryand up to our day.

Cummings refers to the journalistAnna Quindlen and to Helen Prejean,C.S.J., as examples of dedicatedCatholic women who are moderncounterparts to the four women fea-tured in this book. But she labels thefirst as one with outspoken views onissues like abortion and the second asone who does not wear the more tra-ditional habit. They are portrayed aswomen “on the fringe” rather thanCatholic women who genuinely influ-


S IDNEY CALLAHAN

SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS

BEYOND THE MIRACLE

WORKERThe Remarkable Life of Anne

Sullivan Macy and Her

Extraordinary Friendship With

Helen Keller

By Kim E. NielsenBeacon. 320p $28.95

ISBN 9780807050460

Cultural icons are often more complexthan they appear. Kim Nielsen’s engag-ing and excellently researched newbiography of Anne Sullivan Macy andher relationship with Helen Kellerreveals unknown shadows and contra-

dictory facets of theirlives. Annie is, of course,firmly embedded in ourcollective consciousnessas the 21-year-old teach-er of the deaf and blindmute Helen Keller. Sheis “The Miracle Worker”depicted on stage andscreen. As a feisty butinexperienced star grad-uate of the PerkinsInstitute for the Blind,she bravely ventured to the alien terri-tory of post-Civil-War Alabama totutor a 7-year-old deaf and blind pupil

against American wars and socialinequality are often overlooked inpopular history.

Annie, too, was sympathetic to thestruggle for the poor and oppressedbut was less politically active thanHelen and less religious. Sullivanrenounced her immigrant identity as abaptized Roman Catholic during heryouth, but her allegiance to her Irishheritage remained strong. For her,being Irish meant championing thedowntrodden.

Because Anne Sullivan possessed acontradictory nature, she could beintensely optimistic and high spiritedbut also deeply pessimistic anddepressed. This mercurial tempera-ment combined with the bull-headeddetermination that overcame obstaclescould make her difficult to live with.These qualities may be what causedJohn and Annie’s marriage to foundereventually. Was it her independence?Her commitment to Helen? Hisdrinking? Their childlessness or sepa-rate career obligations? Little can begleaned from the public record.

Marital failure was one moregrievous suffering in Anne Macy’s life.Over the years her worsening eyesight,painful eye operations and chronic ill-nesses often made her miserable.Nielsen makes the case that in adult-hood Annie’s increasing debility grad-ually reversed the roles of Helen andAnnie as caretaker and dependent.Helen was the star, the author, theactivist—and the breadwinner. Shebecame the head of the household. ButHelen’s loving gratitude and affectionfor Teacher never wavered. Kellerspent her later years trying to care forAnnie. She arranged medical treat-ments and repeatedly took Annieabroad to lift her spirits.

Nielsen shows how tragic Annie’s“secret” and “shameful” past hadbeen—a drama worthy of Dickens.She was born to impoverished, illiter-ate Irish immigrants, whose family fellapart when Annie’s mother died of


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newly founded school for the blind.In another Dickensian twist, sever-

al philanthropists connected to theinfluential New England progressiveestablishment arranged and supportedthe illiterate girl’sentry to the presti-gious Perkins Schoolfor the Blind. Throwninto the center ofBoston’s high culture,Sullivan struggled to catch up. Shesucceeded brilliantly. Although aca-demically successful, Anne remainedprickly and rebellious. A disabledyoung woman without family or con-nections, she desperately needed thetutoring job offered by the Kellers. Asa beautiful, high-spirited girl, she wasable to charm the powerful older menwho could decide her chances ofemployment.

The dramatic story of Sullivan andKeller is fascinating in itself, but it alsopoints to similar issues unresolved inour day. Women, in particular those

with disabilities, still have difficultiesbecoming financially and socially inde-pendent. They continue to findstrength in mutual support. The read-er follows Anne’s struggle to overcome

poverty and viru-lent anti-immi-grant prejudices.Health care andsupport for thepoor have not

been secured while scandals plaguepublic institutions for children andyouth. Most horribly, child abuse con-tinues to be uncovered in both secularand religious institutions.

America’s path toward achievingequal human rights and social justiceremains a rocky one. But the extraor-dinary story of Annie Sullivan andHelen Keller is an exemplary reminderthat perseverance in the face of obsta-cles can yield miracles.

SIDNEY CALLAHAN is the author, mostrecently, of Created for Joy: A ChristianView of Suffering (Crossroad).

tuberculosis and her father lapsed intoalcoholism. By that time Annie hadlost two siblings to death and contract-ed the painful, permanent eye infec-tion called trachoma. As her 4-year-old brother Jimmy was also disabledby a hip injury, he and 10-year oldAnnie were deposited at TewksburyAlmshouse and abandoned.

Conditions in the women’s sectionof the huge overcrowded state institu-tion were chaotic, rat-infested anddangerous. The indigent, thedeformed and the mentally ill, alongwith destitute women and theirfoundlings were lodged together in adaily struggle for survival. When herbeloved little brother Jimmy died,Annie despaired. Fortunately, certaingood-hearted and intelligent inmatesconsoled the little girl and encouragedher ambitions to escape. Annie’sincredible drive for an education actu-ally became her rescue. She literallypulled at the sleeve of the visitingtrustees and begged to be sent to the


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His Holiness Benedict XVI

Address to the 35th General Congregation

of the Society of Jesus, February 2008

“As my predecessors have often told you, the Church needs you, counts on you, and

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Does someoneyou know have aJesuit vocation?

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to the principles of Jesuit education, have suc-

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Holocaust Resource Center

presents

Dr. Samuel Kassow2nd Annual

Frederick M. Schweitzer

Lecture on the Holocaust

Between History & Catastrophe:Emanuel Ringelblum in the

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didate will be a practicing Roman Catholic, have

experience of and a demonstrated commitment

for abortion funding? If the principle applies to politicians

and new programs, should it not applyequally to the private sector and oldprograms? Where is the consistency?

RAY TEMMERMAN

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Constructive Engagement

As an Episcopalian who believes in aconsistent ethic of life and sees anurgent need for health care reform, Irely on the Roman Catholic bishops toprovide the leadership needed toensure that we get a health care reformprogram and that it respects con-science and does not fund abortion. Itwill be hard to tell when co-mingledfunds (funds from insurance premi-ums paid by individuals and privatecompanies and subsidies for healthcare paid by the federal government)


Four Tough Questions

I don’t have a problem with the bish-ops calling for abortion funding not tobe included in the health care bill(Signs of the Times, 10/26). I do havea problem with what I see as theinconsistency involved in their posi-tion, especially when some of them saythat politicians who vote in favor of abill that includes such funding, inwhole or in part, should not presentthemselves for Communion.

1. Where are the bishops demand-ing that Catholic senior executives andowners of the insurance companiesthat design, market, sell and adminis-ter health care plans that include atleast some funding for abortion (50percent to 90 percent of plans,depending on whether you use figures

LET TERS

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Joseph Cardinal Bernardin served

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months of his life. The Bernardin Center for Theology and

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

from the Kaiser Foundation for theFamily or the Alan GuttmacherInstitute) should stop presentingthemselves for Communion?

2. What about Communion forthose Catholic senior executives andowners of businesses buying for theiremployees health care plans that fundabortions in whole or in part (whichthereby force all their employees tofund abortions)?

3. What about Catholic employeeswho begin to examine their health careplans and find that those plans fundabortion in whole or in part? Shouldthey not demand of their employersthat they find other plans, or evenchange jobs to a company that offersan abortion-free plan?

4. Should not Medicaid be ques-tioned, since (from what I under-stand) it allows in whole or in part

not just recently in the Gaza Strip, butover a period of many years, it is abouttime for the government of Israel to beheld accountable. This is not to saythat Hamas has not committed atroc-ities of its own, but these are far lesssevere than those of Israel.

It was interesting to read that AviShlaim, an Israeli who served in theIsraeli army and is a professor of inter-national relations at Oxford, “describesIsrael’s treatment of the inhabitants ofGaza as ‘one of unbridled and unremit-ting brutality.’” Given this, perhapsother persons and organizations will beemboldened to speak out. I hope thatthe leadership of the U.S.C.C.B., evenin the face of sure criticism from Israeliwatchdogs, will have the courage toaddress this matter.

Lastly, it is about time for our owngovernment to understand that “atime comes when silence is betrayal.”Our government has betrayed thehuman rights of the Palestinian peo-ple by its silence about Israel’s cruel

conduct, which is aided and abettedby all the aid that our governmentgives to Israel.

(MOST REV.) VICTOR H. BALKE

Bishop Emeritus of Crookston,

Moorhead, Minn.

Flawed Judgments

Your editorial “Siege Mentality” callsfor an investigation and trial of theIsrael Defense Forces at theInternational World Court. The arti-cle offers a one-sided argument.

Here in Santa Fe we just celebratedthe 400-year commemoration ofSpain’s conquest of the territory, a landgrab by any standards, not to mentionthe enslavement of the Indians wholived in the nearby pueblos. Last weeka high Mass at the Cathedral Basilicaof St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fehonored Felipe Prince of Asturias, sonof King Juan Carlos of Spain. The his-torical land grab by Spain’s KingFerdinand and Queen Isabella had thefull cooperation of the Catholic

are funding abortion. This is a greatchallenge. It is important that thebishops’ efforts not overreach andattempt to restrict abortion furtherthan the funding issue. If we over-reach, we lose. Keep it up, but pleasebe engaged in the process. We getnowhere by folding our arms and wait-ing for the various committees to comeup with a proposal we will like.

CHRISTIAN RIDEOUT

Alameda, Calif.

Overburdened,

Underappreciated

Re Of Many Things, by James Martin,S.J. (10/19): Thank you for yourobservations. Personally, I don’t knowwhat a typical day is like for the pastorof a parish. I imagine he gets pulled inall different directions, and parish-ioners must think their pastor has aphotographic memory and instantrecall. But if those pastors picking youup at the train station had only askedsomeone of their parish to pick you up,instead, I’m sure there would havebeen a stampede of volunteers wantingto help, if only he would let them.Also, it is one thing to pray for voca-tions to the diaconate; it is anotherthing to encourage and accept voca-tions to the diaconate. The purpose ofthe diaconate is to assist priests so thatthey aren’t overburdened, frazzled andharried.

One of the most beautiful things inthe world to see is a happy, hearty, lov-ing priest leading his parishioners inthe sign of the cross at the beginningof Mass in their own church. I agree with you wholeheartedly:Parishioners love, love, love theirparish and their priests.

BILL SJOSTEDT

Mamaroneck, N.Y.

Emboldened to Speak Out

I want to commend Donald J. Moore,S.J., for his article in your Oct. 12issue, “When Silence Is Betrayal.”Given the evidence about the violencecommitted by Israel’s military forces,


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Church. It is documented that theCatholic Spaniards were cruel to thelocal Indians. This history coincideswith Spain’s Inquisition of the Jewswho were forced to be baptized, sub-jected to expulsion and the confisca-tion of their homes and assets andwere tortured and killed by theInquisitors of the Catholic Church.

Would you say this was “siege men-tality?” Your judgments against Israel’sI.D.F. are flawed in light of your ownhistory. Once more you are launching avery troubling campaign against thebrothers of Jesus. I can say this becauseI was baptized 70 years ago in the afore-mentioned cathedral.

YOLANDA HESCH

Santa Fe, N.M.

Come and Flourish

Re “Imagining the Immigrant” (10/26):My grandfather was an immigrant fromGreece, my grandmother from Brazil,and my wife and her parents emigratedfrom England after World War II. Theycame not to escape oppression or pover-ty but in search of a land of opportunityand to pursue a better life. None everwished to return to their country of ori-gin. All made a life in the United Statesnot of spectacular riches, but of ordi-nary sustenance and respectability.

My wife and I are the heirs of theircommitment to build life anew and inboth cases represented the first in ourfamilies to achieve a college educationand professional work. Is there notroom for many more? Immigrantsbring to us far more than we can everimagine. Let us not be just a haven forrefugees but also a beacon calling peo-ple worldwide to come and see, comeand be, come and flourish!

(DEACON) MIKE EVANS

Anderson, Calif.


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THE WORD

n recent decades, our understand-ing of the origins of the universehas grown immensely. We have

learned how our universe flashedforth 15 billion years ago in a greatexplosion of light and that it is ever-expanding, bursting with life from thecenter outward in creative, chaotic,unique patterns. But what happens atthe end?

In the first reading and the Gospel,two different biblical writers reflecton the end times. Both are writing fora people under duress, a people whomay feel that the trials and tribula-tions they are undergoing are thesigns of the apocalyptic end time.Will there be something beyond thisearthly life? The ancient Israelitesthought not.

Some believed they would merelylive on in the memories of their descen-dants. Some spoke of Sheol, the shad-owy underworld in which a shade ofthe former self survived, but that ishardly an afterlife at all. It was only inthe second century B.C. that the beliefin resurrection and an eternal rewardfor the righteous began to emerge.Daniel also mentions “everlasting hor-ror and disgrace” for the wicked, but hefocuses his attention on what happensto those who have lived wisely and whohave led others to seek and do justice.He envisions these people as shining

brightly, “like the splendor of the fir-mament...[they] shall be like the starsforever.”

Cosmologists tell usthat our bodies areliterally stardustmade flesh; they aremade of particlesthat were present inthe primeval fireballat the beginning ofthe universe. Daniel’simage of righteouspeople becoming starsis, in a sense, inviting usto be true to what we actually are. Hiswords give hope that those whoendure tribulation not only tend thedivine light within but also radiategoodness to others, increasing thebrilliance of the divine radiance, whichendures forever.

In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks tohis disciples about the days of finaltribulation. They are a terrible undo-ing of creation, an extinguishing of thelight of the sun and moon, with thestars falling from the sky. Against thebackdrop of this cataclysm Jesus inter-jects the assurance that he will comeagain in power and glory, gathering hiselect from “the end of the earth to theend of the sky.” He then offers theimage of a tender green shoot atspringtime, one that insistently burstsforth from the fig tree. Stripped of itsleaves and giving every appearance ofhaving died, its life tenaciously sproutsforth anew. And so Jesus assures hisdisciples that no matter what horren-dous suffering they endure, life will

rise again in them through his power.In the Gospel there is no reference to

punishment of those who are notfaithful, only of gathering in all

his scattered “elect.” The question of when all

this will take place hangsunanswered. There is a ten-sion in the Gospel. Jesus firstsays that it will happen in thelifetime of “this generation,”but then he asserts that no

one knows the day or the

hour—not even he—but only theFather. In between the two sayings isthe solid affirmation that Jesus’ wordsare trustworthy.

Speculation about the end timemay not be foremost in believers’minds these days. But when we areexperiencing tribulation, the questionof how long it will go on and what willhappen afterward is front and center.The readings today give hope thateverlasting radiance and tender newbeginnings come after refinement inthe fiery furnace of suffering.

BARBARA E. REID

Stardust Made FleshTHIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B), NOV. 15, 2009

Readings: Dn 12:1-3; Ps 16:5, 8-11; Heb 10:11-14, 18; Mk 13:24-32

“Those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever” (Dn 12:3)

I

PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE

• How does your inner radiance reflect

that of the Maker of the stars?

• How does Christian hope move beyond

the expectation of reward in the afterlife?

• What in nature speaks most strongly to

you of the ever-expanding love of God?

BARBARA E. REID, O.P., a member of theDominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Mich., isa professor of New Testament studies atCatholic Theological Union in Chicago, Ill.,where she is vice president and academicdean.

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Truthin Numbers

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We were the first to develop a Master of Divinity for lay

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Documents

A Rediscovered ManuscriptTHE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY NOV. 9, 2009 $3.50 The Spiritual Kandinsky LEO J. O’DONOVAN A Rediscovered Manuscript DOROTHY DAY