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he beatification of John HenryNewman by Pope BenedictXVI on Sept. 19 in

Birmingham, England, brought particu-lar consolation to Catholics in theEnglish-speaking world. From the timeof Newman’s death, even fellow Britonswho did not share his Catholic faithjudged him worthy of canonization. Aneditorial in the Times of London theday after he died reflected on the popu-lar belief in his holiness. It read: “Ofone thing we may be sure, that thememory of his pure, noble life,untouched by worldliness, unsoured byany trace of fanaticism, will endure, andthat whether Rome canonizes him ornot, he will be canonized in thethoughts of pious people of manycreeds in England.”

The process of canonizing a saint, asthe late Vincent Ferrer Blehl, S.J., wrotein America more than 20 years ago(3/11/89), “begins with the faithfuland their relationship to the potentialsaint. Certain of God’s faithful becomeattracted by the personality and hero-ism of another person, and in theiresteem for that person they experiencea desire to experience that particularway to holiness.” The hierarchy, headded, “cannot ignore a devotion that, ifauthentic, has its origins in the action ofGod in human hearts.”

Father Blehl went on to explain thatin the early stages of the process, thetestimony to a saint’s holiness is basic tothe preparation of a candidate’s cause.Newman’s file contained 18,000 pagesof testimony. The search for testimonybegan, according to Blehl’s obituary inthe British newspaper The Independent(11/6/01), with an article in Americaby Charles J. Callan, O.P., in November1941 that canvassed opinions aboutNewman’s sanctity. “The response,” TheIndependent reported, “was over-whelming.” Nonetheless, it took nearlyanother 40 years for the process to getmoving.

In 1959, during a visit to England,

Father Blehl discovered that thoseresponsible for promoting Newman’scause were not following the appropri-ate procedures. Using his Jesuit contactsin Rome, Father Blehl helped set thework on the right course, but still it lan-guished for another 20 years. Blehl hadhoped to be appointed to the historicalcommission for Newman’s cause, buthis Jesuit superiors assigned himinstead to a succession of teaching posi-tions back in the United States.

In 1979 the Archdiocese ofBirmingham was making yet anotherstart. “Full of enthusiasm” for the cause,The Independent reports, Father Blehlsought early retirement from FordhamUniversity so he could devote himselffull time to Cardinal Newman’s canon-ization. Birmingham’s archbishopnamed him chairman of the historicalcommission, and subsequently hebecame postulator of the cause.

In 1989 the case for Newman’ssainthood was completed, and in 1991Pope John Paul II issued a decreedeclaring the cardinal’s heroic virtueand naming him “venerable.” In 2008the Congregation of Saints accepted asa miracle the cure of Jack Sullivan, apermanent deacon in Boston, of a crip-pling spinal disorder. This fulfilledanother of the requirements forNewman’s beatification. Miracles, Blehlhad written, are confirmation of theholiness people of faith have alreadywitnessed. Regrettably, Blehl did notlive to see this miracle approved orNewman beatified. He died in 2001.

Pope Paul VI once whispered to theFrench Academician and theologianJean Guitton: “Be consoled. One dayNewman will be declared a doctor ofthe church.”

“When that day surely arrives” andNewman is named a saint and doctorof the church, the author of FatherBlehl’s obituary wrote, “nobody shouldforget that it was Vincent Blehl morethan anybody who made it possible.”

DREW CHRISTIANSEN, S.J.

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES

TOF MANY THINGS

Cover: Catholics offer prayers forpeace in Iraq, the Palestinian territo-ries and Lebanon during a specialMass in Amman, Jordan, in 2007.Photo: CNS/Ali Jarekji, Reuters

EDITOR IN CHIEFDrew Christiansen, S.J.

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www.americamagazine.org VOL. 203 NO. 9, WHOLE NO. 4907 OCTOBER 11, 2010

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CONTENTS

C H R I S T I A N S I N T H E M I D D L E E A S T

11 CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS TOGETHER

Interreligious relations and the synod on the Middle East Elias D. Mallon

15 REMEMBER THE EXILES

The problem of refugees facing the churches of the Middle EastJoseph Cornelius Donnelly and Drew Christiansen

20 THE CHRISTIAN STAKE IN MIDEAST PEACE

A proposal for the protection of a minorityWilliam H. Keeler

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

4 Current Comment

5 Editorial Israel’s Choice

6 Signs of the Times

9 Column Still Points Margaret Silf

29 Letters

31 The Word Persistent Pursuit of JusticeBarbara E. Reid

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

22 TELEVISION PBS’s new series “God in America” BOOKS The Circle Dance of Time; Dreyfus

George V. Coyne, S.J., right, discusses the work of theVatican Observatory on our podcast, and Jon Sweeneyexamines the tradition of blessing animals. Plus, aslideshow on Christian life in the Middle East. All at americamagazine.org.

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4 America October 11, 2010

CURRENT COMMENT

Reform Begins at LastIf the views of registered voters nationwide are accuratelyreflected in a New York Times/CBS poll conducted inSeptember, then nearly half (49 percent) strongly or some-what disapprove of the new health care bill. Other pollsreport even higher disapproval. Apparently neither theObama administration nor health care reform advocateshave been able to sell the American people on the merits ofthe reform. Surely the built-in delays in implementing thelaw have hindered advocates from making their case, for thelaw and its benefits have seemed more theoretical than real.

Finally, in September, some reform measures tookeffect. It is now illegal for insurers to deny health coverageto applicants with a pre-existing condition, for example, orto deny a customer’s claim for payment on the basis of anerror made on the insurance application. Now insurersmust allow customers to purchase coverage for their unin-sured children up to age 26, a gain for unemployed youngadults. Tax credits are available for qualifying small busi-nesses to help them offer employees affordable plans. Andthe law prohibits insurers from gouging small employersby charging them much more (one executive reported anexample of “18 percent more”) than they charge large busi-nesses for the same coverage.

The law does not fully take effect until 2014, yetopponents’ efforts to repeal and diminish it have beenunder way since the bill was signed. At issue is whethervoters’ experience of some benefits of the law now canbuild enough support to forestall its repeal or eviscera-tion. If not, the health benefits lost will be more real thantheoretical.

Deporting Roma PeopleFrance’s decision to expel Roma people (Gypsies) and bull-doze their encampments has drawn sharp criticism fromhuman rights groups, the European Union and theVatican. Roma represent the largest ethnic group inEastern Europe, with almost three million in Romania andBulgaria. Because both countries are now members of theEuropean Union, Roma people can migrate without visasto wealthier countries.

Funds to assist Roma people are available through theEuropean Union’s social fund. Critics of the Sarkozy gov-ernment’s deportation policy (over 1,700 Roma have beenexpelled since July), like the European Union’s justice com-missioner, Viviane Reding, have claimed that this money isnot being used to help them. She caused an outcry in

France by calling the deportations ethnic cleansing andcomparing them with World War II Nazi roundups ofRoma and Jews. She later apologized for the comment.

In contrast to France’s negative policies toward Roma,Spain, with approximately one million Roma, has investedin education to promote their successful integration. Mostof its Roma are literate and have access to public housingand financial aid, provided they send their children toschool and health care facilities. Despite many years of vic-timization, they have become part of Spanish mainstreamculture. But much effort will be needed to persuade othercountries, like France and Italy, that expulsions are not asolution. They painfully reflect a discriminatory attitudetoward a marginalized population that has been deprived ofits dignity for far too long. Funds through the EuropeanUnion are available and should be used to help integrateRoma residents.

Hidden From the WorldDid you know that Eileen Mary Nearne was a war hero?Neither did her neighbors. The soft-spoken 89-year-oldwoman died recently in her home in Torquay, England.That her body went undiscovered for several days and thatshe was being slated for a “council burial” (pauper’s grave)indicate the hiddenness of her life. And what a life it was.The French government awarded Miss Nearne the Croixde Guerre for her courageous actions during World War II.She helped operate a secret radio from Paris that facilitatedweapons drops to the French Resistance, paving the way forD-Day. When she was captured by the Gestapo, the youngwoman was sent to the Ravensbruck camp, where she wastortured. After being moved to another camp, she escapedand linked up with American troops. It is a story that begsto be made into a novel, or at least a movie.

Not many of our friends or neighbors live lives out of aJohn le Carré novel. But Miss Nearne’s death and nearanonymity in her neighborhood (one obituary noted thatshe was known mainly for her love of cats) show how littlepeople often know about the quiet heroism of one another.A co-worker may be caring for an elderly parent, quietly. Aneighbor might volunteer at her church, stocking theshelves of a food pantry, silently. The hidden quality ofthese actions somehow lends them greater dignity, sincethey are done with no expectation of public adulation. AsHenri Nouwen once said, the key is performing acts thatare “hidden from the world, but known by God.” Thatgoes for both a reclusive World War II spy and the self-effacing parent of an ill child, both of them quiet heroes.

ope for a negotiated peace agreement in theMiddle East hangs by the thinnest of threads.Israel’s 10-month freeze on the building of new

settlements in the West Bank expired at midnight on Sept.26 despite international pressure to extend the moratorium.Palestinian leaders have not pulled out of talks yet, as theythreatened to do, but they may be in a politically untenableposition. Even seasoned observers of the Middle East can-not help but feel frustrated by what is beginning to look likeyet another missed opportunity.

The September deadline hung heavy in the air fromthe beginning of the U.S.-led talks. The hope that PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu was politically powerfulenough to convince his more conservative coalition toextend the moratorium turned out to be mere wishfulthinking. Shortly after the midnight deadline, Mr.Netanyahu pleaded with his partner in the talks, PresidentMahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, to continuewith negotiations, but it is difficult to see how Abbas canmove forward without any concessions from the Israelis.

So the United States and the other members of theso-called quartet working for peace—the United Nations,the European Union and the Russian Federation—are left,once again, to wait. As we go to press, President Abbas isplanning to meet with Arab leaders to decide on a plan ofaction. We hope that he is willing to continue negotiations;but without any breakthrough on the question of settle-ments, the chances for an agreement seem slim. Furthercomplicating matters is the contention by the Israeli pacifistgroup Peace Now that construction slowed but did notfreeze completely during the moratorium.

What makes the current stalemate especially vexing isthat both sides know what is required to reach peace: areturn to pre-1967 borders, land swaps, the sharing ofJerusalem, recognition of Israel by its Arab neighbors andan agreed remedy to the refugee question. Preventingprogress now are the radical elements on both sides, notablyJewish settlers on the West Bank, whose theological fervorfor building on the “promised land” shows no signs of fad-ing. If anything, the settler movement has become evenmore influential in Israeli politics, forcing Mr. Netanyahu’sLikkud party farther to the right.

The prime minister won praise from the settlers’ sup-porters for staying true to his word and not extending the

Israel’s Choice

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October 11, 2010 America 5

EDITORIAL

moratorium. The 10-month windowwas meant to facilitate talks with thePalestinians, but Palestinian leadersdid not agree to engage in negotiationsuntil almost nine months into themoratorium. Still, Mr. Abbas and hispartners must now wonder whether a final peace is possible,given that Israel is unwilling to budge on this crucial issue.There are already nearly 300,000 settlers in the West Bank,and Peace Now warns that number could quickly escalate ifconstruction is left unchecked.

When President Obama invited Israeli andPalestinian leaders to talks, it seemed possible that Mr.Netanyahu could, like President Nixon, defy his own partyand make peace with a longtime enemy. The hawkishNetanyahu is an unlikely peacemaker, but there were rea-sons for modest hope. He endorsed a two-state solution inJune 2009, though with conditions, and implemented thesettlement freeze the following November.

These hopes are now all but dashed. If PrimeMinister Netanyahu cannot convince his coalition partnersto end settlement construction, there is very little chancethat anyone can. So what is to be done? The current path isuntenable. Within a generation Arabs could constitute amajority in Greater Israel (Israel, West Bank and Gaza);their subjugation is beginning more and more to look like asystem of apartheid. Israel needs to be reminded that thealternatives to a two-state solution are few and unattractive.A single state, for example, with equal rights for all citizens,would be the death knell for the Jewish state as it now exists.Another plan, proposed by the well-respected prime minis-ter of the Palestinian Authority, Salaam Fayyad, wouldestablish a Palestinian state by August 2011, regardless ofthe status of peace negotiations.

Whether the Palestinian Authority has the resourcesto build a state is an open question; Israel remains in controlof much of the infrastructure in the region. What is clear isthat at least one player in these talks has yet to exercise itsfull authority in the cause of peace. With its annual $3 bil-lion in direct aid to Israel, the United States remainsuniquely capable of applying the pressure needed to bringsettlement construction to a halt. If the current peace talksfail, American political leaders will surely deserve some ofthe blame.


lmost 10 months after a magnitude 7 earthquake devastated Haiti inJanuary, it is worth noting something that has not come to pass: Socialunrest has not become widespread, as some feared it would, although

thousands of homeless are still living in tents in and around Port-au-Prince; doc-tors have not reported residual public health calamities or outbreaks of conta-gious diseases, as was predicted; and so far the 2010 hurricane season has sparedHaiti from a secondary natural disaster.

Relief that more tragedy has not followed in the wake of the nation’s unprece-dented catastrophe was palpable at an international summit of bishops andchurch leaders who convened in Miami from Sept. 22 to 26. The meeting’s pur-pose was to forge new mechanisms for rebuilding church life in Haiti and devel-oping strategies to deploy an estimated $330 million in Catholic donations col-lected worldwide after the disaster on Jan. 12. American Catholics alone con-tributed some $148 million for humanitarian relief and reconstruction. TheHaitian hierarchy committed themselves to a broad-based church reconstructionplan, with substantial support coming from church partners in North Americaand Europe, called the Program for the Reconstruction of the Church in Haiti.

A far smaller group assembledacross the street at the U.N. ChurchCenter to consider some of the sameissues. Their opinions ranged fromhopeful to bleak.

David Beckmann, a Lutheran min-ister and economist who is presidentof Bread for the World, was among thehopeful. He used the image of the exo-dus of the Israelites from their captivi-ty in Egypt to describe a growing lib-eration from hunger throughout theworld, of “God moving in our history.”He said reduction of hunger in nationsas far flung as Bangladesh, Ethiopia,

mid horn-blowing gridlockaround the United Nations onSept. 20, world leaders gath-

ered to discuss progress or the lackthereof in achieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goals for cutting globalpoverty and combating hunger and dis-ease by 2015. With five years to go,even keen supporters of the variousM.D.G. initiatives acknowledged thatthe overall effort is behind schedule.Few donor nations have honored com-mitments to direct 0.7 percent of theirgross national product toward the alle-viation of global poverty.

SIGNS OF THE TIMESH A I T I

Bishops Present Plan For Rebuilding Church Life

P O V E R T Y

Activists Assess Progress TowardMillennium Development Goals

Brazil and Ghana make “what hap-pened at the Red Sea look like smallpotatoes.” Nevertheless, goals remainunachieved, and therefore Americans,he said, need to push their congres-sional representatives to fund U.S.antihunger initiatives and to make itsforeign aid program more effective.

Katherine Marshall of World FaithsDevelopment Dialogues, called reducedpoverty “a reachable dream.” But, shesaid, gender inequality still hindersefforts to mitigate global poverty.

War likewise can be a major factorin locking people into poverty. ButArthur Keys, chief executive officer ofInternational Relief and Development,said that successful development workcould continue even in conflict zones.His own organization has assisted

The reconstruction plan will besubmitted to the U.S. bishops forapproval at their November meeting.The exact budget has not been final-

ized, and the bishops expect the recon-struction project to be long and costly.Of the total funds now available, just

over $30 million are designated forchurch rebuilding projects, whichbishops concede will fall far short of

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A young girl tends todinner at a tent citynear Port-au-Prince.

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deals, and inappropriate lending andborrowing has continued,” she said. Butif there is still unfinished business, and,as Professor Pogee says, “large forcesare at work against the poor,” so, too,there are good forces working for them.

now in ruins. In terms of humanitari-an vulnerabilities in Haiti, most of theconcern centers around the patchworkof tent cities in which many Haitiansare still forced to seek shelter. In theabsence of other authority, gangs havereportedly stepped in, and the victim-ization of women and children hasbeen on the rise.

The Most Rev. Joseph GontrandDécoste, S.J., bishop of the southHaitian diocese of Jérémie, who visitedMiami for the meetings, said his dio-cese has received some 14,000 fami-lies, or 100,000 refugees since theearthquake. “We didn’t want to havethat same dynamic of the campsbecause it makes the situation morecomplicated, so we found them place-ment with host families or families oforigin,” Bishop Décoste said. Manyhave since migrated back to Port-au-Prince in search of employmentopportunities.

“From my personal perspective,while they are deeply impacted, this is

farmers in Afghanistan, improvingboth the viability of their agriculturaleconomy and their communal resis-tance to the Taliban.

Thomas Pogee, director of theGlobal Justice Program at YaleUniversity, complained that the donorresponse to world poverty has been“ridiculous,” given the magnitude of theproblem. One in three people dies ofpoverty-related causes, he said, citingcorruption in developing countries asone of many barriers to reducing pover-ty. Rich countries also do harm by pro-tecting their own products throughrestrictions on imports from poornations. And making matters worse,the poor are often not at the table whendecisions that affect them are made.

Melinda St. Louis, director of

Jubilee USA, offered some evidencethat stubborn unwillingness to acceptdefeat can transform antipovertyefforts. She spoke of the way faith-based groups came together in themid-1990s to press for debt forgive-ness as a tool for reducing poverty.Because of this initiative, over a mil-lion children in Tanzania were able toattend school, and hundreds of newclassrooms were built in Ghana. Sheand her co-workers had been toldwhen they began their efforts that debtrelief was impossible.

In the end, though, the advocates fordebt forgiveness convinced world lead-ers to move ahead on debt justice,which, despite successes, remains anunfinished project. Twenty very poorcountries were “left out of debt relief

not a paralyzed and traumatized[church],” said Andrew Small, O.M.I.,director of the Subcommittee on theChurch in Latin America of the U.S.Conference of Catholic Bishops’Office of National Collections. “Whatwe have done over the past ninemonths is act as very necessary but-tresses to a very weak and traumatizedpeople to help them get back on theirfeet so that they can start thinkingagain about the future—which isgoing to be very difficult,” FatherSmall said.

Haitian church officials presenteda detailed and updated picture of thedamages to church institutions, uni-versities, hospitals and parish life inHaiti during the conference. “We sawpurpose, resolve, energy and love forthe people. We were surprised at thelevel of detail that the Haitian bishopscame up with.”

TOM TRACY is a photojournalist based insouth Florida.

the actual cost of rebuilding churches,rectories, seminaries, hospitals, con-vents and a national cathedral that is

A boy collects scrap from a river tosell in Paranaque City, Manila.

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The Dream Act EnduresThe Dream Act, which allows chil-dren of undocumented immigrants towork toward legal status and pursue acollege education, failed again on Sept.21 to pass through the U.S. Senate.But Kevin Appleby, director of migra-tion policy and public affairs for theU.S. bishops’ Office of Migration andRefugee Services, expressed confi-dence on Sept. 24 that the idea “isgaining more support on the merits.”The legislation regularizes the legalstatus of people who came to theUnited States before age 16, lived hereat least five years, graduated from aU.S. high school and were pursuinghigher education or military service.According to the Migration PolicyInstitute, approximately 114,000young people who have alreadyobtained at least an associate’s degreewould be immediately eligible for con-ditional lawful permanent residentstatus under the legislation. Another612,000 high school graduates couldbe eligible if they graduated from col-lege or completed two years of militaryservice.

Church Hopes Rise In OaxacaThe Rev. Carlos Salvador Wotto, anoctogenarian priest in the southernMexican city of Oaxaca, was murderedon July 28 at Our Lady of the SnowsParish. The Rev. Wilfrido MayrenPelaez, director of the peace and rec-onciliation ministry of the Archdio-cese of Oaxaca, does not accept thegovernment’s theory about the killing.“They disguised a murder as a rob-bery; there wasn’t enough money,enough things of value taken,” he said.The murder marked the latest in aseries of attacks against priests, whohave at times clashed with an outgoing

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

state government controlled for thepast 80 years by the InstitutionalRevolutionary Party, notorious forcorruption, coercion and thuggery. ButOaxaca voted for change on July 4when it opted for a four-party coali-tion headed by Gabino CueMonteagudo. And the governor-electhas promised to do away with oldI.R.P. vices, improve governance in oneof Mexico’s most impoverished andleast transparent states and providejustice in cases of human rights abuses.Church officials are among those withhigh expectations as they press to havecrimes committed against priests fullyinvestigated and finally resolved.

Pro-Euthanasia MoveWatched in QuebecMargaret Somerville, founding direc-tor of the Centre for Medicine, Ethicsand Law at Toronto’s McGill

University, said ethicists are keepingan eye on Quebec, where a legislativecommittee is holding public hearingson euthanasia. International cam-paigners see Quebec as a vulnerablebeachhead for legalizing euthanasia inCanada, and then in the rest of NorthAmerica. Though many Canadiansoutside Quebec were reassured earlierthis year by the resounding defeat of aBloc Québecois private member’s billin favor of euthanasia and assisted sui-cide, Somerville said pro-euthanasiaforces regroup after each defeat.Surveys show about 79 percent ofQuebec residents “think euthanasia isa good idea.” Though the rest ofCanada is opposed to euthanasia, JohnZucchi, a history professor at McGill,warned that Quebec’s support of itcould have a domino effect.

From CNS and other sources.

Chiara Badano, a young member of the Focolaremovement who died of bone cancer in 1990, wasbeatified on Sept. 25 in Rome. • Bishop Raul VeraLópez of Saltillo, Mexico, was honored by Norway’sRafto Foundation for Human Rights on Sept. 23for his opposition to immunity for government offi-cials and his work in defense of oppressed groupsin Mexico. • U.S. Catholic Worker groups wereamong the antiwar, environmental and animal-rights activistswrongly investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, accord-ing to a report from the Justice Department on Sept. 20. • TheUnited Kingdom group Christian Concern for our Nation is urg-ing British Christians to wear a “Not Ashamed” logo during Adventto protest discrimination endured, it alleges, by Christians in theUnited Kingdom. • Sue Krentz, an Arizona woman who has embod-ied border-area problems since her husband’s murder in March, wasseriously injured on Sept. 25 after she and another woman were hitby a car after attending Mass in Douglas, Ariz.

N E W S B R I E F S

Chiara Badano

just made a big move, from the EnglishMidlands to the west of Scotland. Hehowled all the way in the back of thecar, in spite of threats to put him up onthe roof and use him as a siren. Whenhe arrived, he didn’t know where hehad landed or what might happen tohim next. But he stopped howling. Hedid a careful reconnoiter of the newterrain before settling down in a darkcorner to gather himself and become

grounded again in anunfamiliar place, nottrying to work anythingout, just waiting forthings to reshape them-selves before resumingbusiness as usual. Notfor the first time I sawthat I have much tolearn from him.

At this time of theyear, when we may bestarting new work, a

new school, a new academic year, weare especially vulnerable to feeling lost.We may beseech God in our prayers,or in the silence of our anxieties, toshow us which way to go. And if weare willing to be led by Jesus’ wisdom( Jn 1:39), we will hear the invitationourselves to “come and see.” Jesus givesno specific address, no clear directionsfor getting there, simply that invitationto discover for ourselves, with him,where the future is beckoning us.

To hear that invitation, we will needto find the still point in the center ofthe storm. Only in that inner cave ofsilence will we, like Elijah, be able todiscern the “still, small voice” of God.And to respond to the invitation wewill need to trust that wherever life hasthrown us, we are not lost.

bewildered traveller was oncewalking in a strange country.Feeling fearful, without map

or compass, he came to the junction ofthree trails. There was no signpost toindicate where any of them might lead.As he sat on a rock, contemplating theproblem, a young boy came by andwished him a bright “Good Morning!”The traveler replied, “And a very goodmorning to you, son. Can you help me,please? I’m not from these parts, andI’m lost. Where does that trail overthere lead?”

“Sorry, sir, I don’t know” said theboy.

“Well, what about that second trailthere?”

“Sorry, sir,” replied the boy, “I don’tknow.” By now the traveller was gettingimpatient. “O.K., where does this thirdtrail go?”

“Sorry sir, I don’t know,” came thecheerful reply.

Now seriously frustrated, the trav-eller snapped back, “For goodnesssake, boy, what do you know?”

“I know I’m not lost, sir,” came theconfident rejoinder, as the boy went onhis way.

I can empathize with the travellerwho does not have any idea where he isor which way to go next. This is how Ioften feel myself, when none of thepaths ahead shows any clue as towhere it might lead. But I can alsoidentify with the young boy, whoadmits that he doesn’t know where anytrail leads, but who knows for sure thathe is not lost.

Not knowing where to go next isnot necessarily the same thing as beinglost, though the two conditions usuallyfeel much the same. We panic easilywhen we find ourselves on unfamiliarground without any signposts. We feelanxious when there are several pathswe could follow but we can not predictwhere they might take us. We wantcertainty. We want a God who tells usexactly which way to go and what to donext. Instead, we find a Godwho meets us in the wilder-ness with the words: “Don’tbe afraid. You are not lost.You are just a bit bewil-dered. If you want to knowwhere the future leads, putyour hand in mine andcome and see.”

What makes us able tosay, honestly, that we believethat promise, that we trustthose words? Are they just acliché, something we would love tobelieve but usually opt instead for ourown paths and our own maps. Whatcould it possibly mean, to know that weare not lost?

One thing that consistently helpsme to trust in times of turbulence ismy memory of past situations when Ihave felt myself in the midst of a whirl-wind and yet have discovered, right inthe eye of the storm, a still center thatI know from experience is more real,more true and more trustworthy thananything the storm might throw at me.I can, and do, creep into that still cen-ter when I don’t know where I am.Once there, I know I am not lost andnever can be.

The family cat is another unlikelymentor in the matter of trust. He has

Still Points

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To hear God,we need to

find thesilence

in the center of the storm.


MARGARET S ILF

MARGARET SILF lives in Scotland. Her latestbooks are Companions of Christ, The Giftof Prayer and Compass Points.


A displaced Christian woman receives supplies from the Muslim Red Crescent organization in Baghdad in 2008.

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Christians And Muslims

TogetherBY ELIAS D. MALLON

ope Benedict XVI was standing in prayer in the beautifulBlue Mosque in Istanbul. Alongside him stood AliBardakoglu, the president of the Religious AffairsDirectorate of Turkey. The image of the two men standingside by side in silent prayer on Nov. 30, 3006, presented a

stark contrast to the riotous Muslim reaction to Benedict’s lecture 11weeks earlier in Regensburg, Germany. There the pope’s quotation of apassage from Emperor Manuel II Paleologos to the effect that the onlything that Muhammad had brought was “cruel and inhuman” hadunleashed a storm of outrage across the Muslim world. The two eventsprovide a paradigm of Catholic-Muslim relations: On the one side,mutual respect and dialogue, and on the other, misunderstanding, tur-moil and resentment.

Last September Pope Benedict XVI convoked a Special Assembly ofthe Synod of Bishops for the Middle East to take place in Rome from Oct.10 to 24, 2010. The convocation was announced during a meetingbetween the pope and major patriarchs and archbishops of the sevenCatholic churches in the Middle East: the Coptic, Melkite (ByzantineRite), Maronite, Syrian, Chaldaean, Armenian and Latin (Roman).Although the assembly will deal primarily with Catholic churches in theregion, all Christians—Orthodox and Protestant as well—share the sameconcerns and experience many of the same problems as Catholics in theMiddle East. The overarching situation they all feel is living as a religiousminority in rapidly changing Muslim societies.

What follows is an examination of three closely related topics thesynod will have to address: 1) formal interfaith (Muslim-Christian) rela-

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INTERRELIGIOUS RELATIONS AND THE

SYNOD FOR THE MIDDLE EAST


ELIAS D. MALLON, S.A., a Graymoor friar, serves as advocacy director for FranciscansInternational at the United Nations in New York. His last article for America,“Shiite

Muslims——the Party of Aly,” appeared in 2006.

tions; 2) interaction between Muslims and Christians ineveryday life and 3) the factors spurring Christian emigra-tion from the region.

Leaders and ScholarsWith the publication of “The Declaration on theRelationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions”(“Nostra Aetate”) in October 1965, at the end of theSecond Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church com-mitted itself to dialogue with Islam, which, the declarationsaid, it holds in “high regard.” Since that time the CatholicChurch has engaged in widespread, high-level dialogue withMuslim religious leaders and thinkers. Although there havebeen bumps along the way, the dialogue has been fruitful.

Pope Benedict has visited several Muslim countries, andMuslim leaders have visited him at the Vatican. KingAbdullah of Saudi Arabia visited the pope in November2007—the first visit of a Saudi monarch to the Vatican.The following summer ( July 2008) the king’s interfaith con-ference in Madrid called for increased contact and dialoguebetween Muslims, Jews and Christians. In 2009 the popevisited King Abdullah II of Jordan and gave a major addressat the King Hussein State Mosque in Amman.

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue hassponsored and engaged in many dialogues and conferenceson topics of mutual interest with Muslims. There have beenexchanges of faculty members between Catholic andMuslim universities, with Muslim scholars teaching at pon-tifical universities, like the Gregorian in Rome, and Catholicprofessors teaching at universities in Turkey, Iran and else-where. On this level there are many signs of healthy dia-logue. While the pope’s Regensburg lecture was met withoutrage in Muslim quarters and some people engaged in thedialogue wondered if relations withMuslims had been mortally wounded, thepope’s speedy explanation and expressionof regret helped to defuse the situation.Benedict met with groups of Muslimleaders. Then in October 2007 leadingMuslim scholars, under the sponsorship of the Jordanianroyal family, published an open letter titled “A CommonWord Between Us and You” in an effort to establish con-tacts at greater depth with the Christian world.

“A Common Word” was initially signed by 138 Muslimthinkers (more signed on later) from an array of Muslim tra-ditions, as broad a representation of Islamic schools and sectsas one can find in modern times. The document is addressedby name to 28 Christian leaders and “leaders of ChristianChurches everywhere,” which reveals a sophisticated under-standing of the diversity of Christianity. The “common word”the authors chose to share was “the love of God.”

Several conferences of Catholic bishops, cardinals and

ecumenists have been among those who signed on to theprocess. In the United States, follow-up conferences havebeen held at Georgetown University and Yale, and atCambridge University in Britain. In terms of public aware-ness and the range of people now engaged in discussions, “ACommon Word” helped to move the dialogue betweenChristians and Muslims to an expanded level.

Most important, the Vatican initiated a new round offormal dialogues with representative Muslim scholar-partic-ipants. It has two tracks. The first deals with the religiousand theological issues raised in the letter. The secondaddresses practical, pastoral and social-ethical issues of con-cern to the church worldwide, but of special relevance to theMiddle East, where in many places Christians find theirrights denied. These include human rights, tolerance andreligious liberty. Pope Benedict has sometimes referred tothis package of issues as “reciprocity,” by which he means theneed for Muslim countries in the Middle East to allow thesame freedoms for Christians in Islamic lands that Muslimsenjoy in the West.

Encounters in Everyday LifeIf relations between Catholic and Muslim leaders are for themost part very good, relations on the local level are oftenproblematic, if not dangerous. Since the publication of“Nostra Aetate” many events have transpired that have pro-foundly influenced local Christian-Muslim relations for theworse: the occupation of the West Bank/Palestine (1967);the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990); the Iranian revolution(1979); the first and second intifada (1987–1993; 2000–);the first and second Persian Gulf wars ( January-February1991; 2003–); the war in Afghanistan (2001–); the rise of“militant Islam” or “Islamism”; and numerous localized con-

flicts among Israel and Lebanon and thePalestinians. These have made it very dif-ficult for Christians living in the MiddleEast.

Middle Eastern Christians experi-enced the same wars, deprivations and

sufferings as their Muslim neighbors. The historical trau-mas of the last 60 years, however, have put greater pressureon Christians, especially with the rise in the 1990s of apolitically resurgent and militant Islam. Since manyMuslims perceive some of these events as attacks by theWest on Islam, in many places the situation of MiddleEastern Christians has grown precarious. For that reason,the church has tried to encourage their full civic engagementin nonconfessional secular states whenever this is a real pos-sibility. In addition, the diplomatic policy of the Holy Seehas sought to guarantee religious liberty and full civic equal-ity for Christians in the region.

The Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Middle East,


ON THE WEBSelections from America’s coverage

of the Middle East. americamagazine.org/pages

like the Vatican, stresses notions of “citizenship” that tran-scend religious identity and entail equality for all citizens.The situation in which Christians find themselves variesgreatly from country to country. In Lebanon and JordanChristians are relatively free and equal, while in SaudiArabia, they are severely restricted. Notable progress hasbeen made in recent years in some Gulf states (Kuwait,Qatar and Bahrain), especially in the construction ofchurches, mostly for congregations of guest workers. But inother countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and toa lesser extent Egypt, barriers exist to full exercise of free-dom of religion.

Violence Against ChristiansA result of the breakdown of society in Middle Easterncountries like Lebanon during its civil war and Iraq andAfghanistan at present, has been a massive increase in law-lessness and violence. Extremist organizations like AlQaeda do not hesitate to use violence and terror againstcivilians. While the vast majority of casualties from Muslimterrorist attacks are other Muslims, local Christians oftenprovide convenient targets and, given their numerical andpolitical weakness, suffer a disproportionate amount of theviolence.

The number of violent attacks directed at Christiansbecause of their religious identity has risen markedly inrecent years. A coordinated bombing of six churches inMosul and Baghdad, for example, took place on Jan. 6, 2008.The following month Archbishop Paulos F. Rahho ofMosul was kidnapped; his body was found weeks later. Sixmore bombs were detonated in front of Christian churchesin Baghdad in July 2009. Reports from Christians living inIraq indicate that they are under constant threat of kidnap-ping, violence and murder. It is estimated that since thebeginning of the second Gulf war, half the Christian popu-lation has left Iraq. Although Christians comprised aminority of less than 5 percent of the total population,almost 40 percent of Iraqi refugees are Christians.

Even in secular Turkey there have been very publicinstances of violence against Christians. On Feb. 5, 2006,Andrea Santoro, a Capuchin priest, was murdered, appar-ently in retaliation for the publication of anti-Muslim car-toons in a Danish newspaper. Four years later, on June 3,2010, Bishop Luigi Padovese was murdered by his owndriver. While it is not clear that the latter was a crime moti-vated by religion, and Benedict XVI has stated that it wasnot so motivated, such acts do not make Christians in theregion feel any more comfortable. While Catholic-Muslimrelations appear to be doing well at the level of the leaders ofthe two faiths, demographic, political and cultural forces,like militant Islam, have made life increasingly difficult formany Christians living in the region.


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The Dilemmas of EmigrationIn the past century Christian emigration from the MiddleEast has reached alarming proportions. It is estimated that in1900 more than 25 percent of the population of Istanbul wasChristian. The figure is now 0.2 percent. In 1948 Jerusalemwas 20 percent Christian. Today the proportion is about 2percent. Christians who once were the overwhelming majori-ty in cities like Bethlehem now find themselves in the minor-ity; by some estimates they have gone from being 80 percentof the population a few decades ago to 15 percent today.

Christian leaders in the Middle East have long recog-nized the possibility that a viable Christian presence may belost in the very lands where Christianity was born. Thesynod has listed emigration as one of the primary problemsit will address. Merely to assert that Christian migrationfrom the Middle East has to be stopped, however, is not arealistic response. Without changes in the environment inwhich Christians live, calls from synods, the Council ofPatriarchs and local church leaders to stem the tide of emi-gration are not likely to be effective. If Christian families arediscriminated against or subject to violence, those who canwill do so to protect themselves and their families. Whilesome brave spirits may choose to continue to give witness toChristianity in the Middle East, it is highly unlikely thatthey will be a majority.

Clearly emigration is a major crisis for the EasternCatholic churches as well as for the universal church, not tomention the other historic churches of the region. MiddleEastern Christians have rich theological, spiritual and litur-gical traditions that go back to the very beginnings ofChristianity. To be deprived of these would be a loss for allChristians. When Christians emigrate, they face a doublethreat: first, the threat of becoming so assimilated into thecultures of their new countries that they lose their distinc-tive traditions; second, the threat of becoming “ghettoized,”reduced to living in exotic religious enclaves. The first threatimperils their identity; the second their viability.

The synod has a daunting task ahead of it. It needs toaddress the problems of Christians in the Middle East andprovide them with support and encouragement in meetingthem. The synod must also address Middle EasternChristians living—probably permanently—outside theMiddle East and help them to adapt to their new situationsand to bring the gifts of their ancient traditions to new coun-tries and new cultures. The members of the synod can beassured that Christians all over the world are of “one heartand soul” (Acts 43:32) in praying for their success.

Editor’s Note: While Catholic-Muslim dialogue is the majorinterfaith encounter in the region, we attempted to find a con-tribution on the Catholic-Jewish dialogue in Israel, but wereunable to do so by deadline.


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eing a refugee should be a temporary condition.Under international law, people who have fledtheir homes out of fear of persecution should beable to return home once conditions improve or,

when they are prevented from doing so, make a new homeelsewhere. To be uprooted from one’s home is especiallytraumatic in the Middle East, where family, home andancestral ties to the land are essential to one’s identity.People hold on to their house keys years after they havebeen expelled or taken flight.

Once a year, for example, Palestinians forced from theirhomes in West Jerusalem in 1948 recall their old homes byshaking their keys in a public display of dispossession and

longing. Exploring that attachment, the Israeli daily Haaretzpublished on July 23 a profile of Claudette Habesch, the pres-ident of Caritas Jerusalem, who was evicted from herJerusalem home during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence.“I am prepared to forgive them,” Mrs. Habesch told reporterAkiva Eldar, referring to those who took over her childhoodhome, “but I will never forget the years of suffering of a littlegirl of 7, in whose bed another child was sleeping and whosebicycle another child was riding.”

Generations of DisplacedToday in the Middle East, living as a refugee has become apermanent condition. More than four million Palestinianrefugees from the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1968 arescattered across the region. The Lebanese civil war (1975-90), the 2006 Israeli war against Hezbollah and ongoinginternal and regional tensions have led hundreds of thou-sands more, both Christian and Muslim, to emigrate fromLebanon. The 1990–91 Persian Gulf war and the subse-

Remember the ExilesThe problem of refugees facing the churches of the Middle EastBY JOSEPH CORN ELIUS D ONN ELLY AN D DREW CHRISTIANSEN


JOSEPH CORNELIUS DONNELLY is permanent delegate to the UnitedNations of Caritas Internationalis, a global confederation of Catholicrelief, development and social service agencies in 165 countries, andC.I.’s special adviser on the Middle East and peacebuilding. DREWCHRISTIANSEN, S.J., editor in chief of America, for 13 years advisedthe U.S. bishops on Middle East policy.

Pope Benedict XVI and Melkite Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus, Syria, arrive for an evening prayer service at theMelkite Catholic Cathedral of St. George in Amman, Jordan, on May 9, 2009.

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quent sanctions against Iraq sent tens of thousands of Iraqisin flight to neighboring countries, where they eked out anexistence at the edge of society. The chaos that followed theU.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 also led hundreds of thou-sands to flee their homes in search of asylum from religiousand political persecution.

Because of the vagaries of international politics, few inthese waves of “displaced” Iraqis, unlike the Palestinianrefugees of 1948, ever received official recognition. TheUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimat-ed in 2008 that across the Middle East more than two mil-lion Iraqi refugees were under its mandate, but only some300,000 were officially registered. The unregistered hid inurban slums, fending forthemselves in the grayeconomy. A large portionof the Iraqi refugee popu-lation is Christian. As of2007, there were an esti-mated one million refugeesin Jordan alone and anequal number in Syria, with an additional 2.8 million inter-nally displaced persons in Iraq proper, with most of theremaining Christian population clustered in theautonomous Kurdish zone in the north of the country.Maryanne Loughry of the Center for Human Rights andInternational Justice at Boston College, summarizing theview of many who have studied the situation, describes theplight of the Iraqi refugees as “a crisis that is deepening andwithout an end in sight.”

The upcoming Special Assembly of the Synod ofBishops for the Middle East (Oct. 10-24) will consider bothemigration and immigration as matters of special pastoralconcern, and well it should, because the numbers ofCatholics involved are significant. (In Saudi Arabia alone,for example, an estimated two million Latin Catholic immi-grants are without pastoral care and are denied the right toworship.) It seems, however, that in the Paul VI SynodHall, the auditorium where members of the synod willmake their addresses and take their votes, the uninvitedguest that has gone unacknowledged is the refugee church:the Christian refugees, especially from Iraq, and the largerrefugee population that the local and international churchhave served for so long.

Reasons for SilenceThe Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Middle East, atits congress in 1999, gave barely a nod to the refugee issue.The congress made many recommendations about theemigrant Eastern Catholic communities and their linkswith their communities of origin, but it spoke not at all ofrefugees, only of “the displaced” (Proposition 82). That

characterization avoided legal entanglements that couldhave required host countries to accord to the so-called dis-placed the rights of refugees and so the council recom-mended that political authorities try to return them totheir countries of origin “by all the means available.” Therecommendation was not a harsh demand for forced repa-triation, but it seemed to be a way to say the displaced wereunwelcome. In the case of Palestinian refugees, it was alsoa way to make a political statement: that under interna-tional law the refugees had a right to return to the homesin Israel from which they had been driven.

The Eastern churches, including the Latin church, andthe countries in which they reside face a difficult dilemma:

Deny the reality of therefugee population andretain the existing politicaland social arrangements ofthe host countries; ordemand that host coun-tries accept and integratethem and thus invite dis-

ruptive, very likely violent social change. Church social teaching would seem to urge the integra-

tion into new lands. Levels of acceptance without formalintegration vary from country to country. Refugees of longstanding live normal lives in Syria and Jordan; Jordan grantspassports to many. In Lebanon, refugees have only latelybeen granted the right to work, but outside the professions.More recent refugees frequently live in the shadows becausean acknowledgment of their presence would upend localpolitical balances.

If the churches openly support full integration of new-comers into their host countries, delicate religious and polit-ical settlements will be upset. In Lebanon, for example, thereligious balance of the country would tilt heavily to theMuslim side, giving greater weight to the Shiites and there-by placing in jeopardy the rationale for Christians holdingthe presidency. In Jordan, Palestinians, already a de factomajority, would clearly outnumber the native population.Israel has ruled out even a symbolic return of Palestinians tothe Jewish state for fear of compromising the Jewish major-ity and with it the country’s national identity.

It is therefore easy to see why the synod’s working doc-ument avoids the refugee question. It is as nettlesome asany issue could be. Why should the churches, which are aminority presence in the region, take on a problem withsuch little hope of success and such great risk of unhappyoutcomes? We believe there are both pastoral andprophetic reasons for the synod not only to make recom-mendations for social-pastoral action, but also to speakout on behalf of “the refugee church” and the widerrefugee population.

At the synod, the uninvited guest

that has gone unacknowledged is

the refugee church.


• The exercise of this right needs to be regulated bystates;• The right of hospitality and integration into a hostsociety should balance the common good with therights of the individual;• Forcibly displaced persons have a just claim on theinternational community to be assisted in order toreturn to a normal existence;• Displaced people searching for a more dignified lifebut present in an irregular situation in a host countryare not without rights.• An international regime should be established to bet-ter manage all forced human displacement, a socialphenomenon that is transitional by nature.(See “Human Rights as a Framework for Advocacy,” inDavid Hollenbach, ed., Driven From Home: Protectingthe Rights of Forced Migrants [Georgetown, 2010].)

Second, service of the refugees is an immediate social-pastoral problem for the church. Local pastors, bishops andCatholic Charities agencies, as well as nongovernmentalorganizations like Catholic Near East WelfareAssociation/Pontifical Mission and the Jesuit RefugeeService, scramble to assist the invisible refugees in receivingcommunities. But in a hard-pressed region, every choice isone between serving struggling established communities

The Pastoral Needs of Displaced People First, the officially recognized and especially the unrecog-nized refugees in the Middle East represent a human rightschallenge that is not being addressed by the sending coun-tries or the host countries or the international community.Having repeatedly committed itself to the service of humanrights beginning with Pope John XXIII’s encyclical “Peaceon Earth” and the Second Vatican Council’s “PastoralConstitution on the Church in the Modern World,” may thechurch in synod avoid addressing the Middle East’s refugeesbecause it is politically inconvenient? Must those across theregion who have been forcibly displaced from their homeswith no reasonable hope of return remain stateless personsdenied their human rights for the foreseeable future?

The church’s teaching on migration is rooted in its affir-mation of the dignity of the human person further support-ed by the unity of the human family in creation, covenantalduties to the stranger and Christian love of neighbor.Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See’s permanentobserver to the United Nations in Geneva and one of thechurch’s leading experts on migration, points out thatCatholic teaching on human rights supports several propo-sitions relevant to the refugee question:

• Moving away from the dangers of violence, hunger and oppression is a natural right of every person;


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already in place or those just getting on their feet and thewaves of needy new arrivals who flood in upon them. Thechurch’s service agencies can meet only a fraction of theneed. Aid and support are being extended heroically, butbecause of the vagaries of international funding and thetechnicalities of international refugee policy, the humani-tarian outreach is limited.

Third, there are direct needs for spiritual ministry toChristian refugees, especially in celebration of the liturgyand administration of the sacraments, which strain localclergy and their communities. Coping with refugee popula-tions may also demand new skills or augmentation of exist-ing ones to supply aid, provide employment or offer pastoraland family counseling.

At the same time, structural questions about the EasternCatholic churches and their interrelationships emerge. Howcan the historic religious identity of refugee populations bepreserved in a new land by a sister church? Will service of anemigré population interfere with attempts to persuade theexiles to return home and/or remain faithful to the rite oftheir ancestors? Will new eparchies and exarchates (Easterndioceses) be established or strengthened to accommodatedemographic shifts? Will receiving churches that providesupport to the refugees resist the temptation to recruit newmembers from those they are aiding?

Answers to these questions may emerge in part from thesynod’s central deliberation on communion among the par-ticular churches—that is, how Melkites and Maronites,Chaldeans and Latins, to name four, live together in unityand with greater charity. Fostering the sense of mysticalunion in which all the churches are rooted is fundamental.It provides a spiritual starting point for greater mutualunderstanding and closer cooperation. For the church thisis, to be sure, an end in itself. But in this time of crisis, onemust also ask, for what purpose? How will we experiencethe fruit of this unity in Christ? This meeting is called a spe-cial assembly because the regional situation presents all thechurches with exceptional challenges at the level of pastoralcare and social engagement. Addressing the needs ofrefugees, particularly the Christians among them, presents amajor test of the church’s pastoral capacities.

Prophetic ResponsibilitiesThe church as a whole must also weigh its propheticresponsibility for refugees. The practical imperatives ofchurch governance and international diplomacy ought notinhibit the church’s prophetic witness for the stateless. Aftervisiting the Daheisheh Refugee Camp outside of Bethlehemin 2000, Pope John Paul publicly affirmed the Palestinians’“natural right to a homeland of [their] own,” committing thechurch “to be at [the] side” of the refugees “and to plead[their] cause to the world.” Today’s refugees need to hear


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PRESENTERS

Robert Aleksander Maryks, Ph.D., associate professor of history at the City University of New York.

Thomas Cohen, Ph.D., associate professor of history at the Catholic University of America

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the feast of the Epiphany and the remembrance of the flightinto Egypt, an archetypal Christian memory of forced dis-placement and a search for refuge. Epiphany and MigrationWeek offer an opportunity to educate parishioners aboutthe church’s teaching on migrants and their rights and forlocal groups to become involved in advocacy on U.S. refugeepolicy.

As the social ethicist David Hollenbach, S.J., has writtenin his new collection Driven From Home: “Though the massdisplacement of Iraqis today has not been caused solely by

U.S. military action in that country, theinitiation of the Iraq conflict by U.S.intervention gives rise to special obliga-tions toward displaced Iraqis.” The annu-al quota for admission of Iraqi refugees tothe United States, especially for

Christians fleeing religious persecution, however, has beendisgracefully inadequate, and the actual admission rate hasbeen even lower than the total allowed. American Catholicscould respond to the backlogged needs of Middle Eastrefugees by pressing the State Department to admit the fullcomplement of positions allotted for Iraqis each year. For itspart, the synod should affirm the responsibilities of theEastern churches that are on the spot to offer hospitality,protection and advocacy on behalf of those in their midstwho have been forcibly driven from home.

from the synod similar expressions of solidarity.At the same time, with peace in the Middle East on the

diplomatic agenda once more, a prophetic challenge to theinternational community is needed on the refugee question.For both Israelis and Palestinians, the refugee issue is a deal-breaker. Only a regional accord in which the internationalcommunity is fully involved has a chance of finding a solu-tion. The church, which has been a servant and advocate forrefugees so often in modern history, ought now, gathered insynod, to speak out for a comprehensive, long-term solutionto the refugee problems in the MiddleEast. It ought to hold up for the world tohear its own teaching on the human rightsto be integrated into society and to estab-lish a home for one’s family, and it shouldchallenge the world community to upholdits commitments to the Convention on the Status ofRefugees and other international instruments.

Education and AdvocacyLast, during a time of xenophobia in much of the world, thesynod should remind bishops, priests and preachers every-where to educate parishioners about the church’s teachingon migration and the rights of refugees. In the UnitedStates, the bishops’ conference will observe NationalMigration Week from Jan. 2 to Jan. 9, 2011, beginning with


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ON THE WEBA slideshow of Christian life in the Middle East.

americamagazine.org/slideshow

A

he Middle East was once called the cradle ofChristianity because the faith first flourished inthe lands from Mesopotamia to Anatolia (mod-ern-day Iraq and Turkey) in Syria, Lebanon and

the Holy Land. But since the late 19th century, MiddleEastern Christians have been emigrating to flee conflict andto find a better life. In the last several decades, armed con-flict and religious persecution have taken an exceptional tollon the Christians of the region.

The Christian population of Iraq has dropped by morethan half, and Christians are emigrating from Lebanon,Israel, Palestine and Egypt too. Across the Middle EastChristians of various traditions continue to suffer fromprejudice, interreligious tensions and persecution. It is notsurprising then that the Chaldean bishops, who lead achurch indigenous to Iraq, petitioned Pope Benedict XVIto convoke a special assembly of the Synod of Bishops thismonth to consider the situation of the Christians in theMiddle East.

International and Interfaith PressuresThe predicament of Middle Eastern Christians results fromboth international and interfaith hostilities. The flight ofChristians from Iraq, as well as the pressures that theChristians who remain there endure from fundamentalistMuslims, is due to the breakdown of communal relationsand law enforcement following the American invasion in2003. The lack of resolution of the Palestinian question andthe 2006 Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon have leddirectly to Christian emigration in a desire to escape vio-lence, occupation and insecurity. Indirectly, the strengthen-ing of militant Muslim parties, like Hezbollah and Hamas,a result of the failure to resolve the conflict and of exploita-tion of the resulting deadlock for partisan advantage, hasalso put Christians at a disadvantage and driven many awayfrom their ancestral homes.

For decades Lebanon had been a sanctuary for Arab

The Christian Stake In Mideast PeaceBY WILLIAM H. KEELER

T

CARDINAL WILLIAM H. KEELER is emeritus archbishop of Baltimoreand a longtime leader in interfaith affairs. In 1989 he was a member ofthe ad hoc committee that drafted the National Conference of CatholicBishops’ pastoral statement “Toward Peace in the Middle East.”

Palestinian children hold candles during a Christmas cele-bration at Parliament Square in Beirut, Lebanon.

will be frail and inauthentic. Unless Jews, Christians and Muslims share the same

rights as citizens and as members of religious communities,the prejudices and resentments that feed conflict will con-tinue to smolder until conflict breaks out again. Guaranteesfor religious liberty everywhere should include a specialstatute upholding the rights of Jews, Christians andMuslims in Jerusalem and the shrines of the Holy Land.

Regional Peace Accords. The direct talks betweenPalestinian and Israeli leaders initiated by the Obamaadministration are a positive development. A bilateralIsraeli-Palestinian peace agreement, however, is not enough.The settlement of the Palestinian question must be part ofa regional peace agreement, like that proposed by Arab lead-ers in 2002. Leaders like Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarakand King Abdullah of Jordan have been helpful in the past.But other neighbors, especially Lebanon and Syria, must bedrawn into the process. Both are homes to sizable Christianpopulations who remain at risk without a regional peace.

In addition, talks should resume along the lines of theMadrid plan of 1991 addressing long-term regional prob-lems, including water, environment, refugees, economicdevelopment and arms control with a nuclear-free zone.Peacemaking must reduce the causes of hostility and layfoundations for a shared future.

Christians and a model of cosmopolitan living. After a longcivil war, Israeli occupation and repeated punitive attacks,including the 2006 war, the fragile Lebanese governmenthas been forced to accept the Islamic resistance groupHezbollah (Party of God) as a major partner in its coalition.Secular Arab governments in Syria and the northern WestBank are welcoming to Christians. But with an influx ofrural Muslim people into formerly Christian areas likeBethlehem, local Christians sometimes feel hostility fromtheir newly arrived neighbors.

Insecurity in the Holy Land, along with Israel’s efforts tobring East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank and itsresources, especially water, still more completely under itsown control, has made life ever more difficult forPalestinians, both Christians and Muslims. A governmentin Jerusalem with key ministries under control of the set-tlers’ movement has led to more burdensome policies notonly for local Arab Christians but also for internationalchurch workers and the institutions they serve.

Comprehensive, Regional PeaceIn 2010, building a peace in the Middle East hospitable toChristians will require action on three fronts: 1) care forrefugees; 2) reciprocity in interreligious relations; and 3) anArab-Israeli peace accord.

Refugees. Adequate provision must be made for support-ing the unrecognized masses of refugees, Christian andMuslim, across the region. For Western donors, investing inrefugee care, return or resettlement and integration will be afar better investment in peace than subsidizing more armsfor the governments of the region. Despite vast sums givenfor armaments and development over many years, hundredsof thousands of refugees in the shadows eke out an existenceoff the official rolls.

The refugees’ human dignity demands that countries oforigin, host countries and the international community findways to provide for their sustenance, health care and educa-tion. In addition, a route must be found to their full inte-gration as citizens in their old home country or a new one.Work on a framework treaty on refugees should not waituntil there is agreement on settlement of specific conflicts,especially the Israeli-Palestinian one, but should serve as anaid to concluding a regional agreement.

Reciprocity in Interreligious Relations. Pope BenedictXVI has introduced “reciprocity” as an issue for interreli-gious dialogue, that is, the recognition and implementa-tion of the same human rights and religious liberty inother countries, especially Muslim ones, that are found inWestern countries rooted in the Christian tradition.Peacemaking requires an expansion and intensification ofinterreligious dialogue in the Middle East at all levels. Butwithout reciprocity the contribution of dialogue to peace


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doms for themselves, refused them toothers, forcing Anne Hutchinson, forexample, into banishment for uphold-ing the rights of conscience against thestate. Colonies founded by minorityreligions (like the Quakers inPennsylvania and the Catholic LordCalvert in Maryland) opted for reli-gious tolerance among Christians.Roger Williams’s bold experiment inRhode Island was the most radical. Itallowed complete liberty of con-science: one could believe or not in thisnew land. Further south, Anglicanestablishments were less cocksure thanwere the Puritans that they were a spe-cially chosen people.

The first segment of “God inAmerica,” set in New Spain (currentlyNew Mexico), recounts how theFranciscan friars did not reciprocateIndian hospitality. The NativeAmericans left room for the new reli-

nyone who has trawledthrough the 1,158 pages ofSydney Ahlstrom’s magiste-

rial A Religious History of the AmericanPeople cannot help believing that a lesshefty volume would miss some centralelements of America’s many-sided reli-gious experience. The ambitious andextraordinarily well-produced PBSseries “God in America” (airing onmost stations for six hours, Oct. 11-13) has had to work with severe timeconstraints. Consequently, while muchof importance is included, much isalso left out.

Ahlstrom made clear that the icon-ic role of the New England Puritans,with their symbol of America as “thecity on the hill,” was not the only earlyreligious impulse in the country. ThePuritans, who sought religious free-

gion of Christianity, while maintainingtheir own customary religious dancesand rituals. When the Franciscanstried to extirpate what they saw as“pagan” rituals, however, rebellionbroke out. A war of the Pueblosagainst the Spaniards led to the mas-sacre of 21 priests and 400 Spanishcolonists. The Pueblos forced theSpanish to flee Santa Fe for El Paso.Later the Spanish general Diego deVargas returned for revenge butshowed more tolerance for the indige-nous religious practices, allowing asyncretistic amalgam of NativeAmerican and Christian practices.

This initial segment marks the lasttime we hear about Native Americanreligion in America. Tales of the send-ing of native children away from reser-vations to “missionary” schools(Protestant and Catholic) and a subse-quent “lost generation,” whose knowl-edge of tribal customs has diminished,are not part of the series. Nor do wehear of attempts by Black Elk (aCatholic deacon) to find a true incul-turation of Christianity in and

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FAITH OF A NATIONPBS’s new series ‘God in America’

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Above: a scene from “God in America”


and Boston led to Know-Nothing riotsand the burning of churches and a con-vent by American nativists. Hughescalled on a private Catholic militia toprotect his churches from threatenedarson. He also championed Irish-Catholic parents who withheld theirchildren from public schools thatinculcated an anti-papist Protestant setof courses and prayers. After unsuc-cessfully seeking a compromise onequal public funding for Catholicschools, as was granted for the so-called public (but actually Protestant)schools, Hughes helped Catholicsorganize politically to pass legislationbanning religion from the publicschools. The documentary presentsHughes as a champion of the very reli-gious liberty that Protestants hadclaimed for themselves. Yet this seg-ment shows only one aspect of a muchricher American Catholic history.

The power of this documentary liesmainly in its rich enactment of histor-

ical episodes. Part Two does this mag-nificently around the figure ofAbraham Lincoln and the events ofthe Civil War.

Initially, Lincoln had an aversion tocard-carrying Christians. But as thewar ground on, Lincoln, wary of anystrong notion of a personal God actingin history, came to wrestle mightilywith what was the will of God in thiscrisis.

The Southern states in their seces-sion constitution invoked the Almighty,calling upon a compact with God.Southern Methodists and Baptistsformed their own regional denomina-tions. As Lincoln stated in his secondinaugural address: “Both read the sameBible and pray to the same God andeach invokes his aid against the other.The prayers of both could not beanswered; that of neither has beenanswered fully.” Lincoln’s assassinationmade him, among ChristianAmericans, a Christ figure whose shed

through tribal lore, or of the mission-aries’ gallant efforts to save tribal lan-guages.

After taking up the war in NewMexico, the Puritans and AnneHutchinson’s trial, the series moves tothe role of religion (especially theheartfelt revival preaching of GeorgeWhitfield, who traveled thousands ofmiles to preach to audiences of manydissenting faiths) in preparing groundfor the American Revolution. TheRevolution won avid support frommany religious leaders, who likenedtheir historic battle to the Exodusstory of freedom versus slavery. Therevolutionaries believed that “the Godof Glory is on our side.” Part Onehighlights the debates in Virginia onreligious liberty and the important roleof the Baptist preacher Isaac Backus infighting for the abolition of establishedreligion. After the Revolution,Methodist and Baptist preachers fol-lowed the immigrants west, preachingfamous revivals at Cane Ridge, Ky.,and elsewhere. In 1811 alone, one mil-lion Americans took part in revivals.

Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracyin America, argued that religion wasthe first of America’s political institu-tions, since it anchored a civil societyalongside the state, which helped vol-unteerism to flourish. “God inAmerica” shows how between 1840and 1850 religion influenced manymovements: temperance, NativeAmerican rights, prison reform, anincipient women’s suffrage, abolition ofslavery, the implanting of learningthrough the Sunday School movementand denominational colleges, and thefounding of orphanages.

The most extensive treatment ofCatholics in this first part focuses onthe role of Archbishop John Hughes ofNew York (called “Dagger John”because of his feisty spirit and the wayhe signed his name, as a bishop, with adagger-like cross in front of it). Thehuge influx of immigrant IrishCatholics into New York, Philadelphia

“Ordained is a book that raises the questions

we need to discuss, not deny, not ignore,

not repress if we are really going to be church.”

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blood helped redeem the nation.Part Two also focuses on the rise of

Reform Judaism around the figure ofRabbi Isaac Wise and the split amongJews that took place after Wise’sunkosher banquet to celebrate thefounding of Hebrew Union Seminaryin Cincinnati. It then moves to the dis-putes between fundamentalists andliberals of the late 19th century and tothe struggle between William JenningsBryan, the “Great Commoner,” andClarence Darrow over evolution at theScopes trial in 1925.

The final two hours deal with thecivil rights movement, Billy Grahamand the endeavor to link religion andpatriotism in the anti-Communistcrusade (with dubious consequences).

The series also takes up the rise ofthe Moral Majority and the newChristian right and reflects on the riseof a more religiously pluralisticAmerica after 1965, when revisedimmigration laws brought to our shores

more Muslims, Hindus, Parsis andBuddhists. America has now become anew kind of spiritual marketplace.

Constraints of time force “God inAmerica” to omit some crucial elementsof American religious history. There isalmost nothing, forexample, abouth o m e - g r o w nAmerican religiousmovements like theMormons, Jehovah’sWitnesses, Disciples of Christ,Christian Science or the perduringinfluence of the American Transcende-ntalist Movement that flowed fromThoreau and Emerson and led toUnitarianism. Nothing is said about theParliament of World Religions or theearlier immigration of Japanese andChinese Buddhists or the fact thatMuslims were living in the UnitedStates long before 1965.

The choice of dramatic re-enact-ments, visually compelling though

they are, makes it hard to raise otherimportant religious issues. To whatextent, for example, does the dramaticstatistical rise in unaffiliated or self-declared “no-religion” Americans (16percent in 2010 compared to just 6

percent in 1990)reflect the politicalpolarization of reli-gion, flowing fromthe rise of theChristian right? “If

that is what it means to be religious,”many say, “I do not want to be that!”

There is a valid argument for view-ing America as a spiritual marketplace,with entrepreneurs fending off lazymonopolies and forcing all religions tocompete for adherents. But as AlanWolfe, a sociologist at Boston College,claims, such a religion has become aspecies of “capacious individualism.”We are not nor should we be a“Christian nation,” even if most of thepopulation is Christian. Catholics


Fordham UniversityGraduate School of Religion and Religious EducationAssistant Professor - Pastoral Care and Counseling

Fordham University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution, invites applications for afull-time tenure track faculty position in pastoral care and counseling,beginning Fall 2011 Fordham University's Graduate School of Religion andReligious Education (GSRRE) is committed to cultivating academicexcellence, scholarly research and ministerial skills in accordance with itsCatholic, Jesuit tradition. This position will involve teaching, student advisingresponsibilities, as well as institutional and professional service. Applicantswill have a Ph.D. or equivalent research doctorate, a timely research agenda,evidence of teaching effectiveness, clinical experience, and an openness toonline teaching.

Application Procedures: Submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, astatement of teaching philosophy/interests, one sample of scholarly work, andthree letters of recommendation along with contact phone numbers forreferences to:

Dr. Lisa Cataldo, Ph.D.Assistant Professor, Fordham University

Graduate School of Religion and Religious EducationE-mail: [email protected]

Review of applications will begin on December 1st, 2010 and continuesuntil the position is filled.

Fordham is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer.

ON THE WEBJon Sweeney on the Judaic roots

of blessing animals. americamagazine.org/culture

that Dunne loves to quote, “a movingimage of eternity”?

Dunne, who teaches theology at theUniversity of Notre Dame, raises asimilar question about space. He fre-quently cites “The eternal silence ofthese infinite spaces terrifies me,”Blaise Pascal’s plaintive expression ofthe sense of homelessness engenderedwhen early modern science replacedthe ancient cosmos—the orderlywhole in which our home was at thecenter—with a limitless, mostly emptyspace in which we occupy a random,insignificant outpost. Putting the earlymodern views of space and timetogether, Russell concluded that so“purposeless, [so] void of meaning, isthe world which Science presents forour belief...only on the firm founda-tion of unyielding despair can thesoul’s habitation henceforth be safelybuilt.” We have Steven Weinbergtoday (“The more the universe seemscomprehensible, the more it also seemspointless”) to tell us that Russell’sworld is the real world. But is it?

Like Pascal, Dunne takes his cluefrom the very facts that we are terri-fied, we are tempted to despair, welook for a point, we are not just asindifferent as the universe is said to be.All these things express the voice ofthe heart—“The heart has its reasonsthat reason does not know” is Dunne’sother Pascalian starting point. ForDunne, the heart is “the place wherethought and feeling meet and unite,”the seat of Augustine’s restlessness forGod, the “center of stillness surround-ed by silence” that Dag Hammarskjöldsays “we all have within us.”

In his opening pages Dunne asks,what if the eternal silence of the uni-verse is the same as the silence of ourcenter of stillness? According to theUpanishads, he says, it is: Atman isBrahman, God in the heart and Godin the universe are one. Both silencesare the surrounding presence of God.But the heart’s desire for eternal life isnot satisfied by an awareness of an

recall that the epithet “ChristianAmerica” often excluded them. Themyth of America as a Judeo-Christiancivilization no longer holds watereither. As De Tocqueville argued, inearlier periods, though beliefs shiftedacross denominations, there wasunderlying agreement on a moral civilreligion that was quasi-Christian ininspiration. As that has eroded, whatcan take its place to anchor a consen-sual view of common citizenship andnationhood? The danger is sheer plu-ralism, a “naked public square.”

In his brilliant book To Change theWorld: The Irony, Tragedy andPossibility of Christianity in the LateModern World, the sociologist JamesDavison Hunter argues that in the21st-century United States,Christianity, despite all its vitalities, is a


weak and “marginalized” culture.Christians have opted for politicalstrategies that equate the public withthe political in ways harmful to bothreligion and politics. Hunter argues fora Christian stance of “faithful presence”in and to a secularized, religiously plu-ralistic America where one can believeor not, by constitutional warrant.

Watching “God in America,” withits vivid dramatic encounters, left mewanting much more such sociologicalanalysis. The talking heads inter-spersed throughout are mainly histori-ans who tell very well what happenedin history but interpret less well whatis taking place now.

JOHN A. COLEMAN, S.J., is a sociologist andassistant pastor at St. Ignatius Church in SanFrancisco, Calif.

B O O K S | WILL IAM J . COLL INGE

ABIDING PRESENCETHE CIRCLE DANCE OF TIMEBy John S. DunneUniv. of Notre Dame Press. 164p $25(paperback)

“I take one step at a time,” John Dunnewrites, “a paragraph a day, out of theheart, going from insight to insight.”He takes images, mostly from quota-tions, ponders them, juxtaposes themand returns to them again and againfrom different points of view, alwaysseeking insight into them. Longtimereaders will recognize many of thequotations as having played a part inDunne’s thought for 30 years andmore. At the center of it all is the ques-tion of time. The present book, his18th, is the fifth to contain the word“time” in its title.

Dunne’s question is not Augustine’s“What is time?” It is WalterBenjamin’s “Is time constitutive?”—istime all there is? Is our lifetime simply

a relentless march to death andhumankind’s time merely “destined toextinction in the vast death of the solarsystem,” as Bertrand Russell put it in1903? Or is time, in a line from Plato

eternal presence that we can touch inour temporal lives.

Christian faith offers us more: thePresence is one we can address as athou, and in Christ it dwells in us, “I inthem and thou in me.” Christ isEmmanuel, “God with us.” But is thisonly another image, only a way we canconstrue things? It is at least that; it “isan interpretation, and yet living outthat interpretation is a real experi-ence.... If we are faithful to the story of‘God with us,’ the surrounding silenceswill speak.” They speak, Dunne says,through a kindling of the heart and anilluminating of the mind, revealing lifeas a journey with God in time and arelationship with God in Christ that“is capable of passing through deathand surviving it.”

Dunne initially titled this bookFaith Seeking Understanding, a phrasefrom St. Anselm that often serves as adefinition of theology. Faith, Dunnequotes Pascal, is “God sensible to theheart”—our relationship with Godfelt in the kindling and the illuminat-ing—and “if you enter into the rela-tionship yourself, you will under-stand.” Dunne is indeed doing theolo-gy, although of a unique kind, as heponders the Christian images of “Godwith us” and the modern images of aworld from which God seems absent,seeking the insights that will reveal theabiding presence of God. He changedthe title, however, to The Circle Danceof Time, taking an image from theGreek philosopher Plotinus of thesoul and the universe circling theircenter in God or the One. Life andtime, too, are a dance in the great circleof the love that is “from God, and ofGod, and toward God,” as Dunnequotes the words of a Bedouin toLawrence of Arabia. In this vision, lifeis a going out from God and a return,but always a “journey with God.” Theuniverse, too, goes out in emanation, asPlotinus says, and returns in evolution,as Teilhard de Chardin says, withoutever losing its relationship to God in


Fordham UniversityGraduate School of Religion and Religious Education

Assistant Professor - Christian Spirituality

Fordham University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution, invites applications for afull-time tenure track position in Christian Spirituality beginning August of2011. Applications require a completed Ph.D. in Spirituality (or equivalent).For the position in Christian Spirituality, the successful candidate will begrounded in theology as well as some other allied discipline, with ability toteach historical and contemporary courses. This position will involve teaching,student advising responsibilities, an expectation for scholarly productivity,receptivity towards distance learning, as well as institutional and professionalservice. The successful candidate will also be involved in the Master ofArts and Doctor of Ministry programs. The Graduate School especiallywelcomes applicants from diverse denominations and cultural backgrounds.

Application Procedures: Submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, astatement of teaching philosophy/interests, and three letters of recommendationalong with contact phone numbers for references to:

Dr. Harold Horell, Ph.D.Assistant Professor, Fordham University

Graduate School of Religion and Religious EducationE-mail: [email protected]

Review of applications will begin on December 1st, 2010 and continuesuntil the position is filled.

Fordham is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer.

Master of Arts in Religious Education (33 credits)

Master’s Certificate in Religious Education (18 credits)

Post-Master’s Certificate in Religious Education (18 credits)

Graduate Religious Education

ONLINE

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STUDENTS FIRST

insights come, to become awarethrough these insights of “God withus” in our own hearts, and finally toexperience our lives and world as tak-ing part in the great circle of God’slove. None of this comes easily to aturtle. Still, if we can read at all, I sup-pose that we are not real turtles; and,to use the example of Lewis Carroll’sMock Turtle, Dunne invites us tomake the effort, even if only a para-graph a day, to share the vision andjoin the dance.

WILLIAM J. COLLINGE is the Knott Professorof Theology at Mount St. Mary’s University inEmmitsburg, Md., and the author of The Ato Z of Catholicism.

“seculars,” so too there were no mono-lithic “Catholics.”

By patiently unraveling and layingout the pieces of a vast fin-de-siècletapestry, Harris tells at least three newstories. The first blurs the dividebetween “science” and the “irrational.”In the conventional account,Dreyfusards were politically active“intellectuals” (an appellation theythemselves invented), largely occupy-ing positions in academic natural andsocial science departments, rationallybattling the irrational forces of super-stitious and largely Catholic “anti-intellectuals.” Extending insights thatalready appeared in her book Lourdes:Body and Spirit in the Secular Age(1999), Harris revises this accountand shows that the divide was hardlyso distinct. Both sides embraced evolu-tion, both were fascinated by myth,magic, spiritualism and the occult, andboth engaged the role of the “uncon-scious” in mass politics.

A second new story unfolds asHarris explores the “history of emo-tions,” a return to the “seeminglyinchoate world of feeling that is diffi-cult to interpret.” Although theDreyfus Affair has been typically por-

trayed as the inevitableand necessary triumphof dispassionate reasonover superstition, itwas in fact nothing ifnot the quintessentialhistory of rage, a casestudy in what Freudtermed the “narcissismof marginal difference.”Harris’s earlier work onfin-de-siècle Murdersand Madness (1989)assists here as sheassembles a panoply ofprejudices, deep-seated

fears and other violent impulses.Feelings also played constructive roles,including the affectionate friendshipsthat forged the Dreyfusard coalition.Among the most poignant episodes is

creation. “Secularism is a temptationon the far swing from God,” Dunnewrites, as the circle passes throughloneliness, darkness and death; and itcan be answered by attentiveness toGod, trusting “God with us” to lead usthrough illumination of the mind andkindling of the heart.

Dunne does not mention it, butPlotinus has another image of a choricdance, only this time a turtle wandersinto it. It does not go well for him. Eversince I read that passage in college, Ihave identified with the turtle, andreading Dunne reminds me why.Almost every sentence calls on readersto meditate, to ponder images until


STEPHEN SCHLOESSER

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBERDREYFUSPolitics, Emotion, and theScandal of the Century

By Ruth HarrisMetropolitan Books. 560p $35

Although the Dreyfus Affair may beunfamiliar to some Americans, it was avital moment in French history, and itssignificance for modern Catholicismcannot be overstated. The court-mar-tial in 1894-95 of Colonel AlfredDreyfus, a Jewish army officer, and hisimprisonment on Devil’s Island inau-gurated an era of intensified Catholic-Republican strife. Rage againstDreyfus’s wrongful conviction andright-wing anti-Semitism would leadto political victories for a unified left.

These in turn enabled the passageof anticlerical legislation between1901 and 1905 that radically trans-formed the face of the CatholicChurch in France: religious orderswere expelled, Catholic schools wereclosed, diplomatic relations with theVatican were severed and church andstate were divorced. In several ways,the affair raised questions that would

find resolution for Catholics only ahalf-century later at the SecondVatican Council: the legitimacy ofdemocracy, affirmation of religious lib-erty and the condemnation of anti-Semitism.

Ruth Harris’s contribution to thevast bibliography of the affair is bothdeeply engaging andhighly original. Shehas self-consciouslytaken the standardmelodramatic narra-tive (which she her-self learned as a childin Hebrew school)and transformed itsstock figures—virtu-ous “seculars” and vil-lainous “Catholics”—into rounded com-plex characters. In herversion, campaigners’loyalties, both pro-and anti-Dreyfusard, were not deter-mined in advance. Rather, contingentfactors, conflicting motives and care-fully calculated choices all played theirparts. Just as there were no monolithic

CL ASS IF IEDthe tragically bitter and rancorousunraveling of this coalition. The affairdragged on, idealized infatuationswore thin and deep-seated differencescracked open beneath the surface ofsolidarity.

Finally, a third story blurs bound-aries between religion and “modernity.”Standard accountsover the past centuryhave portrayed theaffair as an archety-pal moment in and amaster script of thesecularization process. By contrast,Harris’s account is more adequate toour present sensibilities, a scholarlyreconsideration informed by religion’sresurgence in the public sphere since atleast 1979. As both Dreyfusards andtheir opponents “borrowed across thescience/religion divide,” the affair nowsuggests not so much religion’smarginalization as its pervasivenessaround 1900. In retrospect, religionplayed an integral role in the context of

“modernity.”In her preface, Harris acknowledges

that not all readers will embrace thisrevision. She reports that as her inves-tigation proceeded, she became awareshe would “transgress taboos by exam-ining the impact of Dreyfusard anti-Semitism on the Affair and for high-

lighting the waysome Dreyfusardscame to promote arepressive vision ofRepublican ortho-doxy.” Harris’s

esteem for the Dreyfusards is notdiminished; nor does she downplaytheir painful experience. However, shesuggests that it led them to compro-mise their own Enlightenment andLiberal humanitarian ideals. The anti-clerical campaigns and construction ofthe radically laicist state thus appearnot as the moral triumph of reason and“modernity” but as ideological intoler-ance and a desire to persecute.

In her epilogue, and more extensive-ly in a recent essay (“How the DreyfusAffair Explains Sarkozy’s Burqa Ban,”Foreign Policy, 5/12) that has stirredconsiderable debate on the Internet,Harris applies her interpretation toFrance’s current debates over Muslimwomen’s wearing of the burqa. She seesin desires to ban the burqa not so muchan application of Enlightenment uni-versalism as of the laicist intolerancemade possible by the affair.

Dreyfus takes the reader on a rivet-ing ride that has the added advantageof being true. The players are not less-ened by being less cardboard and morecomplex; they are magnified and moresympathetic. Virtuous and villainousacts, less determined and more delib-erate, also become more of what theyare, more edifying in some cases andmore contemptible in others. It is anall too human story.

STEPHEN SCHLOESSER, S.J., associate pro-fessor of history at Boston College, is the authorof Jazz Age Catholicism (2005).

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PositionsDIRECTOR OF MAJOR GIFTS. America PressInc., New York, N.Y.—national media ministry ofthe U.S. Jesuits, publisher of America magazineand host of www.americamagazine.org—seeks afull-time Director of Major Gifts to solicit andclose major gifts that support the mission, needsand priorities of A.P.I. Capacity to support enthu-siastically and knowledgably the mission of A.P.I.is essential. Creativity, passion and motivation toengage potential donors a must. Bachelor’s degreerequired plus 5 to 7 years of experience in fundrais-ing and a proven track record in securing majorgifts. To apply please send cover letter, résumé,salary history/requirements to [email protected], or fax to publisher’s attention at(212) 399-3596. Preferred deadline is Nov. 1,2010, with candidates reviewed on first-comebasis. Be part of a team that translates dreams intogoals with deadlines!

KENRICK-GLENNON SEMINARY RECTORPRESIDENT. The Archdiocese of Saint Louis hasan immediate need for a full-time Rector Presidentfor Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. The candidatewho is selected will assume responsibilities July 1,2011. Founded in 1893, today K.G.S. has a stu-dent body of 126 seminarians, after ordaining oneof the largest classes in the United States in 2010.The Rector President must be a priest in goodstanding with an advanced degree in theology orcanon law. This is a full-time position anddemands someone who has the ability to form aseminary community as outlined in the Program ofPriestly Formation (fifth edition). Send applicationsto: Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop ofSaint Louis, 20 Archbishop May Drive, SaintLouis, MO 63119-5738.

PRESIDENT, FRANCISCAN SCHOOL OF THE-OLOGY, a Roman Catholic seminary and graduate


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school of theology operated by the Province of St.Barbara, Order of Friars Minor, and a memberschool of the Graduate Theological Union,Berkeley, Calif. The Franciscan School ofTheology seeks an experienced academic leaderand administrator with a proven record of institu-tional advancement and relevant Ph.D. or equiva-lent. Applicants must support the Franciscan the-ological tradition/educational mission and the ecu-menical mission of the Graduate TheologicalUnion. Preference will be given to a vowed reli-gious member of the Franciscan family or othervowed religious who has demonstrated commit-ment to and understanding of the Franciscanvision. For complete description, see www.fst.edu.By Nov. 15, 2010, applicants should send letter ofapplication, C.V. and three references to: Chair,Presidential Search Committee, Franciscan Schoolof Theology, 1712 Euclid Avenue, Berkeley, CA94709; e-mail: [email protected].

RetreatsBETHANY RETREAT HOUSE, East Chicago, Ind.,offers private and individually directed silentretreats, including Ignatian 30days, year-round in aprayerful home setting. contact Joyce Diltz,P.H.J.C; Ph: (219) 398-5047; [email protected]; bethanyretreathouse.org.

WISDOM HOUSE, Litchfield, Conn. Labyrinthwalks are open during the month. InterfaithInstitute, “Money and Faith,” Oct. 29-30:Speakers include Margaret McCarthy, BarbaraCohen, Rev. Terry Wysong and Mufti Ikram ulHaq. For other retreats and programs, visitwww.wisdomhouse.org, or call (860) 567-3163.

WillsPlease remember America in your will. Our legal titleis: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, NewYork, NY 10019.

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The Model Gentleman“Conspiracy of Bishops and Faithful,”by Drew Christiansen, S.J. (9/27),reminds me that the 19th-centuryprose and even the poetry of JohnHenry Newman may be a little hardfor today’s readers to digest. But toread him, even to meditate on hisseamless logic, introduces 21st-centu-ry folks to a methodology sadly lack-ing in church conversation.Furthermore, this man cannot helpbut give us the model of the “gentle-manly” (today we might say morecivil) mode of reaching sound doc-trine and practice. Great strides havemade the Catholic Church a moreuniversal believers’ church. Muchremains to be done. At present theconstructive contribution of the laitystill seems to be voluntary rather thanorganic and systematic. Newman’sfuture canonization may be a stimulusin the latter direction.

JOHN HUNTPompano Beach, Fla.

Protecting the ClubIn response to “How Will TheyKnow?” (9/13), I am among thosewho have left the church, three yearsago. I was 59. With no voice in thechurch, I could no longer sit in the pewand write the checks that support thehierarchy and all its misdeeds. I real-ized that I was an enabler. If there hadbeen one sign in Rome that bishopswould be held accountable for hidingthe criminal acts of sexual predators,there would have been some hope. Butthose who live in luxury in Rome andchanceries around the world havemore concern for their own lifestylesand protecting the members of theirclub than they have for children and

teenagers preyed upon by priestsunder their supervision. This is thechurch that has some of the most pow-erful teachings on social justice; butwhen it comes to themselves, it’s allempty words.

ANNE CHAPMANArlington, Va.

Three Questions?Bravo for Archbishop TimothyDolan’s “The Schools We Need”(9/13)! But what is missing right nowis a united national campaign to takethe idea forward. Would this bring thehierarchy and the laity together as achurch? Has not our parochialapproach hindered us in an era thatrequires more innovation in telling ourstory in the mass media? Could thenational campaign lay the groundworkfor informed servant leaders indecades to come?

FRANCIS J. BUTLERWashington, D.C.

Fight for VouchersI thoroughly enjoyed ArchbishopDolan’s defense of Catholic schools(9/13). But the weakness of his plan isthat he does not explain where themoney will come from. His statementthat surely “American Catholics havethe wealth and imagination” doesn’tcut it in terms of a realistic plan totackle the problem. In suburbs, mid-dle-class families pay high taxes forbloated school budgets. How can theypay these taxes and still send theirchildren to Catholic schools? The onlysolution is to go back to fighting forvouchers. We must argue that closingour schools and sending these stu-dents to public schools will be animpossible cost increase for the localtaxpayer.

EDWARD THOMPSONFarmingdale, N.Y.

Are Words Enough?As I read Jeannine Hill Fletcher’sreview (9/27) of ComparativeTheology, by Francis X. Clooney, S.J.,one of the hardest things for me tounderstand was the depth of the splitbetween Eastern Orthodox Chris-tianity and the Roman CatholicChurch. I have come to the tentativeconclusion that it has little to do withtheology, but it does have somethingto do with the authority modelsadopted by either side (apparently dif-ferent interpretations of tradition) anda healthy portion of almost tribalnationalism. Is it possible for even themost exhaustive study of the textsrevered by each side to shed light on allthese influences?

C. R. ERLINGERSan Antonio, Tex.

Horse DustKyle T. Kramer’s column “HorseSense” (9/27) suggests that horses,since they operate on solar energy anddeposit a waste product that fertilizesthe farm, are more energy efficientthan cars and other machines. There isanother interpretation of the samephenomenon: Horses leave droppings.When dry, they turn to dust, whichcarries disease. The horseless carriagewas a healthy development.

RICHARD KNUEBBINGKennesaw, Ga.

Night and DayThe Of Many Things column byGeorge M. Anderson, S.J., on DorothyDay (9/27) reminds me of hearingabout the Catholic Worker movement40 years ago. Otherwise I knew nothingabout her. It is all my loss. What a won-derful woman! So human, just like me;so holy, as I hope to be, now an old manbut still striving toward that elusivegoal. In the 1940s there was a love songwith the words, “Under the hide of me,there’s a burning, yearning, deep downinside of me.” That song sums up herlife in her love for Jesus and the poor.

BRUCE SNOWDENBronx, N.Y.


Sacred Space for Advent and the

Christmas Season 2010–2011The Irish Jesuits

With weekly themes, daily readings, prayers, and suggestions for a retreat day, Sacred Space for Advent 2010–2011 provides a way to prepare for the hectic Christmas season in the time-tested wisdom of the Jesuit spiritual tradition. Great for parish-wide distribution.ISBN: 9781594712500 / 96 pages / $2.50

The Unsheltered HeartAn At-Home Advent Retreat, Cycle ARonald Patrick Raab, C.S.C.

From the award-winning author and radio commentator Ronald Patrick Raab, C.S.C., comes this courageously diff erent, disarmingly honest approach to Advent that guides spiritual seekers out of the armchair and into the heart of the Gospel call for justice. ISBN: 9781594712548 / 64 pages / $5.95

Advent and ChristmasThe Merton Institute for Contemplative Living

Edited by Jonathan Montaldo and Robert G. Toth

Using the signature dialogue process of the popular Bridges to Contemplative Living series, this small-group resource explores great theological themes of the Advent and Christmas season through the writings of Th omas Merton and fi ve other renowned spiritual masters.ISBN: 9781594711954 / 64 pages / $5.95

Meeting Christ at Broadway

and BethlehemDay by Day Through AdventEdward Hays

Hays helps readers appreciate the mystery that Advent underlines: that Christ is present in our joy and in our longings as we celebrate his coming now, and in the world to come. A perfect booklet upon which to build a parish Advent theme.ISBN: 9780939516841 / 32 pages / $2.25

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Notre Dame, IN 46556 • www.avemariapress.com • Ph: 800-282-1865A Ministry of the Indiana Province of Holy Cross • www.holycrossvocations.org

Simple, practical resources for individual,

small-group, and parish-wide use.

Advent 2010

NEW!

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repeated actions of seemingly inconse-quential people who never give

up. In a patriarchal world it isexpected that the powerfulmale figure will be the God-

like character. But in thisparable it is the widow whoembodies the divine insis-tence on justice and whomost resembles Jesus’ man-ner of tirelessly preachingand acting to bring it about.

Persistent prayer goeshand in hand with persistent

action for justice. In order to sustainthe constant struggle for peace, theheart and mind must be continuallytransformed by the One who is oursource of peace. The first readingreminds us that this is not a solitaryeffort. Like Moses, we need compan-ions to hold up our arms when wegrow weary, and like Frances Crowe,we need to engage other faithfulfriends in our persistent actions forjustice. Fearless, because she has noth-ing to lose, she vows, “as long as I haveenergy I’m going to keep at it.”

BARBARA E. REID

her voice and her presence. She breaksthe stereotype of how widows are gen-erally regarded.

Throughout the Hebrew Scripturesthere is a repeated admonition to carefor widows, along with orphans andstrangers, the mostvulnerable peoplein the society (e.g.,Dt 24:17-21).This widow shouldbe cared for by hernearest male rela-tive, and it is he whoshould be pleading her casebefore the judge. Instead, the widowintrepidly enters into space usuallyreserved for males and will not giveup until justice is accomplished.

The judge is impervious to herpleas. He continues to ignore heruntil he can no longer stand herinsistent protests. He has not beenchanged; he still insists he has nofear of God nor respect for persons,but he finally relents because he isafraid she will haul off and give him ablack eye! The verb hypopiazein inverse five is often translated metaphor-ically as “wear me out,” but it is a box-ing term that literally means “to strikeunder the eye” (see also 1 Cor 9:27). Itis a hilarious image: a supposedly pow-erful judge cowering in front of aseemingly powerless little widow.

The humorous vignette, however,conveys a very serious message: It isthrough persistence and tirelessactions of nonviolent confrontationthat justice is attained. More oftenthan not, this happens through the


THE WORD

ow 91 years old, FrancesCrowe has for 65 years beenprotesting against war and

advocating for peace, human rightsand environmental justice. She hasbeen arrested and imprisoned for lead-ing public demonstrations more timesthan she can remember. This diminu-tive widow never tires of her persistentpursuit of justice. She seems the veryembodiment of the widow in today’sGospel.

Luke has framed the parable withintroductory and concluding versesthat were likely not part of the originalparable Jesus told (preserved in vv. 2-5). The parable begins with the intro-duction of two characters: a judge,who twice declares he has no fear ofGod and no respect for any humanbeing; and a widow, who comes to himover and over and over, day after dayafter day, insisting that justice be done.The imperfect tense of the verbs indi-cates repeated action; she comes againand again and will not give up until shereceives a just verdict.

We can picture her going back tothe courtroom every day, raising hervoice in protest, calling out to thejudge, telling him he might as well lis-ten to her today because if not, she’llbe back tomorrow She sees peoplewith influence and money beingattended to, while her only recourse is

Persistent Pursuit of JusticeTWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (C), OCT. 17, 2010

Readings: Ex 17:8-13; Ps 121:1-8; 2 Tm 3:14–4:2; Lk 18:1-8

“Be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient” (2 Tm 4:2)

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PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE

• How does your faithfulness to prayerembolden you for persistent actions forjustice?

• Who holds you up when you becomeweary? Whom do you hold up?

• How do you use the power of your voiceand your presence in advocating for jus-tice?

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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