rambler the
Veritas Ensis Noster.
Speaking the Language of Love Walking with Christendom’s Missionaries
April 7, 2013- Vol. 10, No. 5
In This Issue... Rambler: Pronunciation: \ram-blər\ Function: noun Date: c. 2002 1. A student organization determined to present truth and withhold nothing, discussing a variety of subjects such as administration, morality, literature, politics, and faith.
the rambler
An Independent Student Journal Christendom College Veritas Ensis Noster
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Matthew F. Naham BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Charles J. Rollino; Peter J. Spiering LAYOUT EDITOR Theresa R. Lamirande NEWS & POLITICS EDITOR Colleen A. Harmon SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Thomas A. Ferrara FAITH & REASON EDITOR Katie E. Brizek ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Theresa R. Lamirande FACULTY ADVISOR Dr. Patrick Keats COPY EDITOR Katie R. Wunderlich
News & Politics 5 SO YOU WANT EXPERIENCE?
by Monica Dillworth
Science & Technology
The Last Word
6 THE WORST TECH LIES
15 THE YEARS COME AND GO
by Thomas Ferrara
by The Editorial Staff
Walking with Missionaries 8 SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE by Sarah Halbur
FRONT COVER Speaking the Language of Love
10 THE CALL OF A FOCUS MISSIONARY by Bridget Lademan
11 FINDING RICHES IN POVERTY by Monica Dilworth
Faith & Reason 12 DON’T EAT BABIES by Thomas Ferrara
Senior Sarah Halbur on the mission trip to Cuzco, Peru. Cover Photo by Emma Seidl
Our Mission Statement
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14 THE MIRACLE OF THE WALL
by Christopher Roberts
CONTRIBUTORS Monica Dilworth Sarah Halbur Bridget Lademan Christopher Roberts
The Rambler and its staff are dedicated to training the next generation of Catholic journalists and intellectuals. We prize the liberal arts education received from Christendom College and write about the news, arts, culture, faith, and reason from this gained perspective. We believe we will play an essential part in a renaissance of new leaders, journalists, and communicators for the 21st century.
Poetry & Prose
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Editor’s Corner
Dear Readers, What is the point of public discourse? Lately, more than ever, I have struggled to comprehend what exactly happens when people talk to one another in the real world. Inevitably, some difference in opinion will arise and incite the ire of one person in particular. When this happens, the words “ignorant” or “bigot” will be uttered. But as a professor of mine has often noted, these words mean nothing more than “shut up”—or more mildly, “you think differently than I do and therefore you are wrong.” As much as I disagree with John Stuart Mill’s principles for public discourse, I recognize that they constitute the rules of the game in our country. Mill holds that morality is a mere matter of taste; licorice might taste good for me but may I rue the day that I impose myself upon others to think so. The hot button issue in our country today is that of homosexuality and equal rights to marry. What is true is that the majority of our nation now considers it a liberating and, consequently, a redeeming way to live out one’s life. Often when one “dissents” to this way of thinking aspersions are cast and ad hominem attacks rain down in abundance, for never before in the world has there been such backward thinking. In essence, this progressive agenda proposes to force-feed what Mill would call a matter of taste down the throats of those who find it distasteful. So what is the point? Is not everything in the modern view a matter of opinion? If so, why say anything, and furthermore, how is anything really credible? And yet, humans that have so often declared themselves skeptics or disbelievers have never been surer that homosexual “marriage” is neither a matter of opinion nor a matter of taste, when the rules of the American game of discourse dictate otherwise. We delude ourselves when we say there is no absolute truth absolutely. We delude ourselves when we say that morality is tantamount to taste, boldly asserting ourselves the master chef. Modern society considers traditional Christianity a closed system and rejects it. But I declare modern society a closed system because it rejects Christianity. Where does it all end? The chasm between belief and non-belief, between objectivity and subjectivity, is so vast that one can scarcely see how intellectual discourse is even possible anymore. The sides are so alien to one another that it is almost like two different languages. The only area in which people seem to coexist is the world of trivialities; to talk of nothing has become something (viz., Hollywood). Myriad stupidities on the internet, television, or any such media source entertain and placate the mind to such an extent that passive reception of information without realizing or pondering what has been received has become a normal part of daily life. I hold that this is symptomatic of the way people interact with one another in public discourse. Instead of actively engaging others as if it were possible that they had something of worth to say in a manner that is clearer, more concise, more intelligent, or more accurate than themselves, passive “consideration” rules the day. The words of others are now mere information, minutiae going into one ear and out the other, going into the eyes and out of the back of the head, with no real purpose or end in mind, and often to little or no effect when it counts. Never have we been so connected, never have we been so disconnected. There may not even be a point to public discourse anymore when heroic deeds and examples that shock passivity from the world are what are required.
In Jesu et Maria,
Matthew F. Naham Editor-in-Chief
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News Briefs
On Saturday, April 6th, the college hosted hundreds of honored and generous donors at Christendom’s 35th Anniversary Gala in Washington D.C. Thanks to the countless hours of planning and preparation on the part of the Faculty, Staff, and Students of Christendom College, it was certainly a wonderful night.
On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis celebrated Mass at Casal del Marmo youth detention center in Rome, instead of at St. John Lateran. During the liturgy he washed the feet of 12 detainees, two of whom were female.
There will be a new plaza in Washington D.C. for the National Cherry Blossom festival. This celebration on the National Mall honors the friendship between the U.S. and Japan and has occurred annually since Japan presented the U.S. with the original cherry trees 101 years ago. Groundbreaking for the new plaza is scheduled to begin after this year’s festivities.
On March 26th, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments appealing the decision of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which sought to overturn Proposition Eight: California’s constitutional amendment against samesex marriage. The decision will be pronounced sometime before the end of the court’s term in June.
South Korea and the U.S. stand together, as North Korea declares that their government has approved use of new nuclear weapons against the United States. U.S. forces are currently equipping Guam with an advanced missile-defense system.
The most recent CBDS debate considered the resolution: It is better to give alms directly than to go on a mission trip. Con won a landslide victory while a surprising number abstained. The featured section of this edition, “Walking with Missionaries,” gives insight into the mindset of some of Christendom’s own student-missionaries.
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News & Politics
So you want
Experience? by
Y
Christopher Roberts, ‘13
ou want a job. So the question then becomes, “do you want experience?” If you want to strengthen your resume, here are some of the opportunities Christendom offers that exist within an arm’s reach. Some jobs you may have heard about (who doesn’t love their RA?), while others are hidden deep within Coeli.
Admissions Student Ambassador
Students who serve as Student Ambassadors for the Admissions Office can get a leg up on other students when it comes to the job search and adding work experience to their resumes. The fact that a student is selected to be a representative of the college to future students and visitors shows a possible employer that the college thinks highly of the individual. If the college is going to trust its potential students with the student ambassador, it should give the future employer the belief that the student is responsible, outgoing, and that he/she has interpersonal skills as well.
Student Life Student Life Assistant
The internships through the Student Life Office offer an invaluable amount of experience and skills to apply to future jobs. Through leading various projects such as housing selection, RA selection, new student orientation packets, etc. students gain skills using all Microsoft office programs and learn about mailmerges, budgeting, advertising, publicity, and management. Additionally, students gain experience interacting with other students, parents, faculty, and staff through correspondence via e-mail and phone conversations and learning how various departments work together to run the college; more importantly, students serve as leaders, taking on at least one long term project for the semester and seeing it through to its completion while improving upon that project and working with a team of other individuals.
Resident Assistant
Resident Assistants oversee dormitory life for their fellow-students, plan activities, and cultivate relationships with their dormmates, in addition to enforcing rules and regulations. RAs provide leadership in the community and are responsible for being mature, timely, and dependable.
Development Phone Bank Caller
Are you good with people or on the phone? Students who work in the phone bank have the opportunity to call donors and cultivate excellent interpersonal and oral communications skills. Students thank donors for their gifts, and conduct surveys and other phone-related projects.
Budget/Finance Intern
If you like meticulous work, this one is for you. This intern’s job is exclusively to manage all aspects of the development budget, including submitting expense reports, keeping records, and analysis.
Assistant to Prospect Research
The Research Assistant helps the department’s Prospect Researcher in learning more about individuals’ giving capacity, identifying major gift prospects, and performing administrative tasks.
Marketing & Communications Assistant Communications Officer
These students photograph and write summaries of events, record talks, assist in the production of videos, and conduct other projects in the marketing office.
Communications Internship
An intern learns about web design and video production and assists with special projects, such as publishing archived news stories to the Christendom website, or assisting Niall with video interviews of students for new videos about the college.
So keep these positions in mind, and keep your eyes open for other opportunities on campus, knowing that the job experience you seek is well within your reach. 5 | five
Science & Technology
The Worst
Tech Lies
by
Thomas Ferrara, ‘13
T
here exist myths in the world of technology, but these are the innocent products of well-meaning people repeating misinformation. What are collected here are no mere mistakes, but tremendous whoppers circulated for possibly malicious purposes. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
“More megapixels means better quality digital photos.” So says the obsequious Best Buy salesman. Megapixels are a measure of pixel density, how many dots of color there are in a given area. When magnifying a digital photo, a picture with a higher megapixel count will appear sharper, but a low megapixel count will be blurry. A good example is zooming in on a cellphone picture and a digital camera picture: the cellphone picture will quickly become blocky and fuzzy under magnification. However, after about 5 or 6 megapixels, there is no discernable difference in picture quality. After this low threshold, picture quality depends on your camera’s lens and sensor size, not how many megapixels in which you’re shooting.
“You’re going to want the extended warranty on that.”
There ought to be a warranty on warranties. Most extended warranty programs tack on an extra hundred dollars for little or no benefit. These warranties almost exclusively cover defects in manufacture, not the accidents or damage from which you’re most likely trying to protect your electronics. Ordinary warranties usually cover the same problems, but in the time frame when problems like these could actually happen. It’s rare that a computer or TV will fail due to manufacturer defect after a year, since a problem as serious as this will usually happen much sooner. There are some warranties which will actually cover user-inflicted problems, but be sure to thoroughly explore what it will cover before you buy into any extended warranty. 6 | six
“Your computer is running slow; it must have a virus! You should buy an antivirus program.” Broadly speaking, there are only two purposes for viruses: theft and destruction. Viruses and malware that steal information from your computer are obviously written to be unobtrusive. These kinds of viruses don’t want to draw attention to themselves, to maximize their lifetime and data collection, so they aren’t written to damage or hinder your computer. Purely destructive viruses are more rare, but again, there is no incentive to make a virus to merely inconvenience you. These kinds of viruses are made for “the lolz,” with maximal destructive impact that renders your computer a useless hunk of metal and plastic for someone’s sadistic pleasure. Nobody who writes viruses for sheer malice would waste time making a virus that slows your operating system down when they can annihilate your entire hard drive. There is very narrow overlap between the problems that make us think of viruses and the problems viruses actually cause.
“You need an HD TV, a Blu-Ray player, and special cables to watch HD media.” This is chiefly a lie of omission. While it’s true that a home theater setup is one way to enjoy HD footage, it’s not the only way. Salesmen trying to hook you into spending thousands on upgrading your TV setup often use this lie. “High definition” is industry shorthand for any video with a vertical resolution of 720 pixels or more (the horizontal resolution is less relevant since the width of the screen changes depending on the style of the screen), with a typical upper limit of 1080 pixels. TV’s are only recently getting into the HD arena, with the most common TV resolution only around 480 vertical pixels. Computer screens have been operating at greater-than-HD
Science & Technology
resolution for years. Many online stores already offer HD downloads and purchases for movies that can be played on any computer with high enough resolution, without the need for a Blu-Ray drive or special screen.
“The human eye sees in 24 frames per second, just like how movies are shot.”
As painful a revelation this may be, movies are shot in 24 fps (frames per second) because Hollywood is interested in saving money, not verisimilitude. The human eye can easily tell the difference between many different rates of fps. With a little observation, you can tell the difference between 24, 30, 60, and 100 fps. The reason that movies can look realistic at a very low 24 fps is due to the motion blurring inherent in a photographic process, which simulates motion much more fluidly than an animation running at 24 fps. The Hobbit was filmed with a more expensive technique, at 48 fps, and the doubled rate of frames doubled the visual data the viewer received, which was off-putting to many people unused to high fps video.
“You’re going to want premium cables for the optimal experience.” You’re going to want to save your money. The electronics world thrives off uniformity; recall Zip Drives and HD-DVDs, if you can. Cables and connectors are no different. Spending 10 or 100 dollars on HDMI cables will yield identical results: the connectors and mechanics are completely the same. You will not get clearer picture or better sound from your TV by buying gold-plated unicorn hair cables over five dollar ones. The only consideration you need to be concerned with is whether the cable is long enough, or can withstand being stepped on. For some
real entertainment, try looking up the online reviews of $1,000 (really) video cables.
“You must safely eject your USB drive before removing it.” Like the worst lies, this one contains a kernel of truth. Flash drives are the most stable and reliable form of data storage available. Unlike hard drives, they contain no moving parts, and are immune to most physical shock. As long as there is no data going to or from the USB drive, you can yank them out of your computer with impunity. The worst that can happen is that a file will not transfer properly; there is no danger of frying your USB drive permanently or damaging your computer. This also applies to MP3 players or phones you might plug into your computer.
“I was hacked.” The lie so nice I debunked it twice. My longtime readers will know about the dangers of freely giving out your login information and re-using passwords. For those of you who only just now picked up The Rambler (what else have you been reading?) I can summarize all you need to know about Internet security in three steps: use different passwords for different sites, carefully examine what you are entering personal information into, and don’t download programs from unusual or unknown places. 99% of all online identity theft is enabled by user-volunteered information or action. Be as careful with your login information and downloading as you are with your Social Security and credit card numbers and you’re well on your way to being secure on the Internet.
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Walking with Missionaries
Speaking the Language of Love by
Sarah Halbur, ‘13
S
ometimes words fall short of expressing what we experience, especially when the experience is profoundly moving. This can often be the dilemma when it comes to explaining a mission trip. There is a reason for this. Last year, I went to Honduras on a mission trip with other Christendom students over spring break. I knew that I was going in order to give, but I did not anticipate what the Lord wanted me to receive during that trip as well. First, I discovered the joy of serving without holding anything back. Then, even more powerfully, I discovered what it meant to be served by those who held nothing back, by those who had very little materially but who still gave generously, even out of their need. The kind of connection that we formed with the people there in just a short week was quite marvelous. And the way it was formed was articulated best by the Honduran missionaries who served alongside us: “We speak the language of love. That language has no barriers.” The language of love surmounts differences of language and culture. In fact, the language of love does not even need words. That is why it can be difficult to put into words the entirety of a mission trip experience.
Those of us who venture out as missionaries discover a reciprocation of love that wakes us up from our normal routines. We go to foreign cities and even to foreign countries. We stay among strangers who treat us like family. We go in a spirit of generosity to spend our spring break with the poor, and they share with us an even greater generosity—giving from their need as the woman in the Gospels did when she gave her last two coins to the temple. In the little mountain villages of Honduras, for example, the families opened their homes and spread food on their tables for us, even though their homes were small and their food was scarce. 8 | eight
“
How do we discover such love in the hearts of the people in all of the mission locations where we go? Because love builds bridges that extend beyond the differences that make us foreign to each other. It unites us in a common Faith. It forms bonds of trust.
”
This year in Peru we met a young mother who was holding her baby girl. The missionary Sister who was with us explained that they had helped save the baby’s life, because the father had been pressuring the mother to abort. The mother, with whom we could not communicate because she did not even speak Spanish but only the native aboriginal language, smiled and handed me her baby to hold. She did not hesitate for a minute to let a strange group of girls from America enter her home and play with her children. Why? Because true love breaks down walls of distrust and unfamiliarity. My incredible experiences in Honduras and Peru are not isolated cases. In the past fourteen years, Christendom has sent over 700 students to over ten different countries including Brazil, Spain, Australia, Mexico, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. Every year, the students who participate return more enriched than when they left. Many testify that they will never forget the smiles on the faces of those they helped while on a mission trip. These smiles, however, do not just comprise a happy memory for us after we return home and fall back into our old routines. Rather, they present us with an enduring challenge: to begin producing those kinds of smiles in the people around us, by serving at college or at home or at work with as much vigor as we served the people whom we encountered while on mission trips. This notion of serving at home can make us hesitate. It’s easier to serve people who are sick and starving or disabled in a foreign country. Here at home, it’s different. The people around us can be annoying and unreasonable. It can be awkward trying to make conversation with that shy person at lunch who only responds to our questions with “yes” or “no” answers. And then when it comes to serving our own families… it’s such a drag putting up with their faults all the time. It’s no picnic. In reality, mission trips, as incredible as they are, usually involve challenges that are not a picnic, either. They pull us outside our comfort zones. Cleaning the filthy apartment of a woman dying from AIDS was probably not a picnic for the students who went to the Bronx this year, although in the process they discovered that she was one of the most amazing women they had ever met. Feeding disabled children in Peru sometimes meant that food got coughed back in our faces, yet we endured it—even joyfully!—because we saw the value of serving those in need.
Walking with Missionaries
However, it is not in spite of, but rather because of challenges such as these that our mission trips prove to be so inspiring. We learn to look deeper to see the worth in people whom the world calls “worthless.” If we can do that in a foreign place, why not do that right here in our own places? At home we don’t have barriers of foreign language or foreign culture, yet we fail to take the initiative to step outside our comfort zones. While it’s easy to look around and see the need when we travel on a mission trip, we often forget to look and see the need in the “normal” people around us every day. Going on a mission trip often has the effect of opening
“
our eyes to what we have never seen before. So now that we are back, we can’t let our eyes close. Instead, let’s discover how we can communicate love to the people around us right here, right now. . . . It might just leave us speechless.
” 9 | nine
Walking with Missionaries
The Call of a FOCUS Missionary
“
By: Bridget Lademan, ‘13
”
Has there ever been anything you loved so much or been so excited about that you just had to tell someone?
A
few months ago, I interviewed to be a FOCUS missionary and this was one of the questions I was asked during the interview. Even after the interview was over, this question continued to nag me. It pushed me to consider more concretely what it actually means to be a missionary for Christ. A few weeks later, my friend Eric Maschue and I were talking about our similar experiences interviewing for FOCUS. One thing that really struck me was that Catholics are called to witness and be missionaries for the faith in every aspect of their lives. Eric related an “epiphany moment” that he received during his interview, realizing JPII’s statement that the Church is not just a collection of facts or empty statements but rather is a real, living person, Jesus Christ. In our education here at Christendom we learn a lot about our faith and are given the means to defend it. What is primary in our ability to use this wealth of knowledge, however, is our own personal relationship with the Lord. Thinking about this, I was struck by its importance. Our faith, and thus friendship with Jesus Christ, should be something so real to us that we are excited to share it with each other! The message of the Gospel should make us overflow with the desire to share it. But how do we do this? We are a generation that does not get excited about a lot of the things that are really important. Often we take our blessings for granted and are afraid of making ourselves vulnerable by the things we love. Yet, our friendship with Christ requires that we make ourselves vulnerable and be willing to share the one who is Love with each other. Eric voiced a growing concern about those of us here at Christendom becoming lukewarm: “Catholicism is no longer popular at Christendom, and many times it is intimidating to ask people to pray. Why am I afraid at a Catholic school?” I think this has become a tendency on campus without our even realizing it’s happening. In our regular friendships we find nothing weird about talking with each other or inviting another friend along to hang out. In fact, usually when we become good friends with someone we want our other friends to get to know that person and share in the same experience. How neat would it be if our personal friendship with
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the Lord spilled over to invite others to partake of the same friendship? Indeed, this is difficult, and yet we know it can be achieved because we have the example of the saints to look to. Our first priority in being missionaries has to be to conquer ourselves for Christ, meaning that He becomes our greatest love. Eric affirmed, “We all want to be great people, but we put it on the back burner. We need to make it our first priority. We have to have a reason to live every day. YOLO— don’t screw it up!” How we live our everyday lives will be the greatest and ultimate example, as St. Francis said: “Preach always and when necessary use words.” Here at Christendom, we have so many opportunities to live out the message of Love, so why don’t we? In reality we are constantly struggling to love our neighbor and respect him, so how can we realistically do this? I asked Eric about loving people and the struggles he might have doing this as a missionary for FOCUS. He responded in a very interesting but thought-provoking way: “It’s all about love. We have to love them all, and it’s hard, but that’s our job— my job is to go out (as a FOCUS member) and love strangers. I am going to be denied a lot, but I have to love even if denied. Fear of being denied is scary, but I have to keep doing it despite being denied.” To be real missionaries to others, we have to begin in uncomfortable situations of loving when the other seems not to care or respond well. We have to be the example of loving Christ and each other whether our peers are as gung-ho as we are or not. The gift of loving means that we give without expecting anything in return, loving because Christ loves. Our conversations and interactions should reflect the formation we receive through knowing and living a real relationship with Jesus Christ. Finally, as our conversation came to an end, Eric concluded: “It is hard to do (live love), but we have to make it a habit—if we don’t start doing it now when it’s easiest (the chapel, opportunities to pray, great Catholic community) it will only get harder once we leave. Here at Christendom we realize why everything is, not just that it is and this is all given so that we can enhance our own personal faith!” Our faith should penetrate every aspect of our lives; why not allow your friendship with Christ to grow and develop into a love you can’t help but share with the world?
Walking with Missionaries
Finding Riches in Poverty:
Memories of the 2013 Guatemala Mission Trip By Monica Dilworth, ‘16
T
he little boy was eight years old, but his height was approximately that of a six year old. He was emaciated; his wrists and ankles were no wider than his bones. He was barely clothed and smelled of smoke and feces. He sat on the floor and held his head in his hands, rocking back and forth, moaning in pain. His mother, in little better condition, told us his name was Juan de Dios: John of God. She had brought her son to the hospital run by las Hermanas de Jesus Pobre, the Sisters of the Poor Jesus, so that they would nurse him back to health with the other malnourished children there. Twenty-two of us Christendom folk, led by Padre Planty, had descended upon El Progreso, Guatemala for a mission trip over spring break. El Progreso is a small town, bustling, with a colorful market, and is the Sisters’ hometown. Our principal goal on the trip was to help the sisters take care of the children. Mainly this assistance involved us chopping down trees and bushes with machetes and then hauling it on pick-up trucks to the Sisters’. This wood they used to cook the food necessary for both the religious community and the sick children. We also weeded the Sisters’ gardens, raked the grounds, moved furniture into storage and played with the kids in the hospital.
“
”
They are beautiful children. Their eyes are big, brown, deep; and even though they are so young, they have known much suffering which gives them a precocious wisdom. Their laughter touched me deeply because they enjoyed our games so much even though they had been, and still were, in so much pain. The little ones had survived malnutrition, parasitic infections and months of separation from their homes but were still able to chase us around, shrieking with laughter and grinning ear to ear. They were hungry for more than food; they wanted love, attention. They simply wanted to play. The starving boy Juan de Dios is an example of the extreme poverty that can be found in Guatemala. Poverty is a commonplace up in the mountain communities. Their main source of income is to grow coffee; and since the farming is far from efficient, it is a poor income. I’ll never look at coffee the same way again now that I know the poverty and back breaking work of those who grow it. The people up there can barely afford food; most of their meals consist of only corn tortillas and maybe black beans. The sisters go up into the mountains once or twice a year to distribute medicine to these families. With the money we college students had raised, the sisters were able to go up with us and give out desperately needed supplies. Padre and a few students, I included, trekked through the mountains to the houses of the sick to give them blessings. We visited around ten different homes in two and a half hours. The houses were made of mud bricks (adobe), usually covered by a metal sheet, and very dusty and dirty. Animals, including dogs, turkeys, chickens, walked in and out of the houses. Padre pointed that fact out, and said it is a sign of great
poverty when animals are allowed to leave filth in people’s houses and no one cares. Photo by Kim Day
Two things struck me about those who were ill. One: Their great suffering, sometimes even despair at being unable to work in the fields; and second, the relief they received from Padre’s blessings. They were in great pain. Most had parasites that cause stomach and bowel distress along with severe headaches. A few had other injuries; we visited a young man, husband and father, who had been hit by a motorcyclist and broken his leg. His despair was palpable at being unable to work in the fields and support his young family. He accepted Padre’s blessing but it did not seem to bring him any happiness. Worry remained in his eyes. But others seemed to find more joy in Padre’s blessing. We met one elderly lady who was suffering from headaches. She amazed me by saying that she was a great-great-great grandmother. Padre joked with her that she didn’t look bad for a twenty-five year old and she blushed and beamed. When Padre laid his hands on her head to bless her, her face lit up with joy, though the lines of pain on her face did not disappear. That was the deeply affecting aspect of this experience: The ability of these people to detach themselves from their suffering and cling to Christ. It made me realize my own selfishness: When was the last time I had given so much to Jesus? When had I made a sacrifice half as great as the sacrifices these Guatemalans made every day? This brings me to a question that dogged my mind throughout the entire trip. Who are the true beneficiaries of missionary work – the poor or the missionaries? The needy are given food, medicine and shelter: the necessaries of life that they need to survive and even start to thrive. But missionaries benefit in a necessary way too, though albeit on a more spiritual level. As a missionary, I learned that the way I am used to living as an American is utterly luxurious in comparison with most of the world. (Continued on page fifteen) 11 | eleven
Faith & Reason
DON’T EAT BABIES: by
Thomas Ferrara, ‘13
W
ith the advent of ever more sophisticated scientific techniques and apparatuses, the field of pre-natal diagnosis continues to advance steadily. Current technology allows us to determine as early as 12 weeks into a pregnancy if an unborn child has maladies such as Down’s syndrome or sickle cell anemia. With these new technologies come new questions concerning the applications of moral principles regarding such scientific clairvoyance. More importantly, we now more than ever have the ability to accurately determine if an unborn baby is non-viable, that is, unable to survive for more than a short time after birth. Given such an unhappy burden, the parents of such a child may be tempted to abortion, which is an intrinsically evil action. However, a less clear question is whether it is acceptable to induce an early birth if the child is certainly unable to survive outside the womb and there is danger to the mother involved in a full-term delivery. Before proceeding, a brief note is necessary concerning birth inducement. To induce birth at a point during the pregnancy when any baby would not be developed enough to survive is an abortion. This question deals with an artificially induced birth near the end of gestation, with the earliest extreme being the seventh month of pregnancy, at which a healthy baby has a two out of three chance of survival with no medical care at all. There is a significant physiological impact in being delivered on time and a month early, for example, but this difference is very rarely dangerous to the child. On the other hand, delivering him when the diagnosis of non-viability would be fatal, since the problematic conditions apparent at only 14-20 weeks into the pregnancy. For the sake of maximum clarification, we shall assume that the diagnosis of non- viability is correct beyond reasonable doubt, and a credible threat to the mother’s life will arise if the child is carried to term. “Danger to the mother” is often a codicil to open loopholes for everything from contraception to sterilization, but concerning nonviable children, it is frequently a genuine complication. Several deformities lethal to the child, such as the missing or malformed cerebral hemispheres and malformed shoulders present in an anencephalic child, can impede the birthing process and cause extreme physical trauma and internal hemorrhaging. In any event, the parents should seek further professional opinion and pray for the opportunity to carry the child to term. In cases where the non-viability of the child and the danger to the mother are clear, then delivery should be induced as a last resort to safeguard the life of the mother, that is, at the last moment when it is practically effective to do so. This is a morally licit action by virtue of the circumstances and motive, which is distinct from inducing labor before it is necessary to prevent danger to the mother, or, if there is no danger, in an effort to quickly surmount the ordeal, which is an abortion. 12 | twelve
Despite the tremendous psychological pain of the defective child’s parents, in these cases, the evil of shortening of the child’s life is the end of inducing delivery, and cannot be tolerated for the psychic good of the parents. A popular opinion among medical professionals and ethicists is that because the child is certain to die shortly after natural birth, that induction should be performed to spare the parents psychological trauma. This unjustly deprives the child of the brief life available in the womb, which is still a worthy good, despite deformities or other afflictions. The fact that nonviable children will not live for long outside the womb is not an invalidation of their right to life, just as terminally ill adults cannot be euthanized. While it is true a nonviable child delivered early may have nearly the same lifespan outside the womb as another nonviable child delivered on time, further time in the womb is an unmitigated good for the child, and that time can provide opportunity for the parents to prepare spiritually, mentally, and physically for the death of the child.
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When danger to the mother is an imminent problem, inducing delivery takes on a new motive and with it, real justification. The inducement is performed to save the life of the mother, and the shortened life of the child is accepted only as an evil side effect.
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In this case, a rational decision is made not for some greater good or lesser evil, but for a good with an evil, but tolerable, effect. In the case of delivering a nonviable child early to spare the parents sorrow, it is an evil action of shortening the child’s life with the good side effect of the parent’s comfort. To deliver the child early to save the mother is the good action of lifesaving with the evil side effect of shortening the child’s life. This distinction is subtle but not meaningless. It is not a case of “meaning well vs. meaning evil.” Though in both cases the parents are spared some evil, and the child’s life is shortened, each case brings about a different end through a different factor. The good of the parents who wish to end the pregnancy sooner for their sake can only be brought about by the decision to shorten the child’s life. What the parents in this case are really intending is not their own happiness per se, but the shortening of the child’s life. In the case of a medical emergency, what is truly intended is the health of the mother, since her health does not depend on the shortening of the child’s life. In other words, the good of the parents in the first case must require an intention to shorten the child’s life, since without that intention they will not perform the inducement. In the second case, only the health of the mother is intended, and the shortening of the child’s life is not intended or inseparable from that end. In this case, the parents would hope that the child lived as long as possible outside the womb, but the parents in the first case would not be able to achieve the minimization of grief without achieving the minimization of the child’s
Faith & Reason
A Study in Double Effect lifespan in or out of the womb. The medical field is full of these kinds of moral problems. It is a very different thing to do evil for the sake of good than to endure evil for the sake of good, even though the good and evil arise in very similar
circumstances. Only with a correct philosophical background and critical thinking (provided by, say, an education at a liberal arts college) can one accurately discern the ethical factors in concrete situations and accurately assess an upright resolution.
Photo by Sabrina Campagna http://flickr.com/photos/8314403@N03/2620922750
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Poetry & Prose
The Miracle of the Wall by
Monica Dilworth, ‘16
T
he wall was blank and lifeless, hopeless. Every day the girl passed it to and from work. She was silent, shadowy, passed over by life and quietly resigned to a wallflower existence. She liked the concrete wall. The girl felt sympathy with it, as if it mirrored her own drabness. Misery wants company, she thought, and smiled bleakly. Gray walls, slate sky and a living death blended together. The girl walked home. The girl was Elaine. Brown hair hung about her pointed face and dark green eyes stared out at the world, looking for light somewhere. Her pupils were often dilated in the search for a golden glimmer of truth in a silvery, faded world. Only a thought kept Elaine from leaping off the nearest bridge into eternity, and that thought was of a friend. He was an artist, specializing in vivid swirls of color that somehow shaped themselves into human faces. From close up, his canvasses looked like disjointed points and lines of color; from further back, it was clear that the moss-colored ovals were eyes, the red arch a mouth, and the peach curve, like a ballerina’s arm, was actually the contour of a cheek. The painter’s name was Cary Avon, and he was in love with Elaine. He knew about the concrete wall and her pale life. He understood the ties of loneliness that connected the girl and the wall. Because Cary loved Elaine, he wanted to bring color into her life. He wanted to see her eyes sparkle emerald with laughter. He wished to see her mouth turn to a scarlet crescent moon of joy. She must be happy. Elaine knew his concern, his hope for her life, but she saw him from a distance, as if her blind world was forever sundered from his sun of vivid peace. She felt she could never reach his level where he had found a grain of truth. Elaine thought she would never be happy until the concrete wall, the symbol of herself, reflected some hope for her soul on its gray rough surface. One evening she said to Cary, “Think of that wall as my heart. When that wall is bright, smiling and bursting with colors, my heart will be the same. It would take a miracle to make that concrete beautiful. It will take a miracle for me to find hope.” Cary went home, his hands sunk deep into the pockets of a caramel-colored trench coat, his blue grizzled chin almost touching his chest as he thought about Elaine’s miracle. The iron doors of her soul must be surmounted and life allowed to sweep in. Her search for truth was through a black and white lens – she missed the little colored bits of secret delight strewn about her daily path. Truth is as simple as good and bad or black and white; but Elaine forgot that while black is the absence of all color, white is the glorious combination of all. She noticed only the black of life, the bad times, and was disturbed that evil existed. In her confusion she lost sight of the good, the white and the true. Elaine wandered. Cary sat in his studio among the wreck of paint tubes, smears, glass bottles, brushes, knives, bits of wood, canvases and dried flakes of 14 | fourteen
paint. He pondered. He tired to paint Elaine’s face as he imagined it, glowing, but every time the eyes stared from the canvas, green, haunted by fears. At last Cary threw his palette against the wall and cursed brilliantly. The palette stuck to the wall for a few startling moments, then clattered to the floor. The wet paints left ridged blots on the pristine wall – crimson, dandelion, cobalt blue. Cary Avon had an idea. One at least of Elaine’s miracles would happen. He, an artist, had the power to make anything beautiful. Laughing, tears in his eyes, Cary threw his supplies into a stained canvas bag and rushed out into the evening. It was a crisp, still, lonely Sunday night. No stars, no moon, only yellow blasphemous light from street lamps dyeing the pavement. Cary stood before the wall all night, working the miracle with his gifted hands. The colors bloomed, the shapes grew, and when the morning arrived the concrete wall was gone, replaced by a merry riot of vividness. Seeing that his work was complete, Cary sat with his back against the wall, feeling waves of exhaustion lap at his limbs and gently consume his brain. He slept in the frosty pastel dawn. Elaine, coming down the sidewalk early that Monday morning, saw the wall. Elaine stopped. She trembled and gazed. “The miracle!” she gasped and opened her hungry eyes to gaze at the beauty. Viewed closely, the painting was a wild, joyful landscape with a leaping amber torrent falling in a waterfall, two green meadows flecked with gold, and a band of wildflowers blushing underneath. Seen far away, the tiny details faded out, and all that was seen was a rainbow twisting and circling in a multitude of graceful, uninhibited forms. Written across the whole were the words, gleaming in fiery orange: “I am with you until the end of the world.” Elaine’s searching eyes lost their haunted look, her pupils contracted as if in relief, and she wept. She did not cry with sorrow but with happiness. Her silent tears woke Cary, and he looked at Elaine, and she looked at him. Elaine found the truth. The truth was that Cary loved her, she loved Cary, and that they would not be separated until death forced them apart. Elaine found color too, and her life was no longer drab but intricately touched by the gold of joy and the jewels of gratitude. Cary stood up and moved away from the wall and toward Elaine; away from his dream of beauty and toward the reality of it. He gazed into her shining, emerald eyes. “I painted your face and your soul, just as they truly are, on that empty wall,” said Cary.
I am an artist and I make objects beautiful. This wall was ugly and I transformed it into something lovely. But you, Elaine, are already beautiful; another, greater Artist has created you and I just stand before the vision of your eyes in awe. I did not make you wonderful, I merely made this wall reflect what you already were.
The Last Word
Thumbs
Another opportunity for presenting our opinions on campus occurences. Agree? Disagree? Have an opinion of your own? Let us know!
THE YEARS COME AND GO by
Alleluia, He is Risen! Happy Easter from the Rambler staff; we hope you all had a wonderful and Blessed Easter.
On Friday, students thouroughly enjoyed Padre Planty’s “Year of Faith” themed Trivia Pub Night. It was a great time to brush-up on the teachings of our faith while relaxing and hanging out with friends.
What beautiful weather we’re having! But is it here to stay?
Thumbs up: the Senior Thesis drafts have been turned in! Thumbs down: the final drafts are due April 17th... You can do it Seniors!!
Senior Pat Rose broke his thumb during the Crusader’s double-header baseball game on Saturday. We wish you a speedy recovery, Pat!
The Editorial Staff
T
he years really do come and go, We seniors seem to think it so.
January resolves to begin anew— February frowns on wintry weather, And Marches on to sweet spring dew. April strings its fools to a tether, While May showers her grace in clear blue hue. June brings the welcome summer heat, July explodes, independent—free. August burns red, sensing her defeat, September’s cooler head prevails upon me; October’s deathly hallows trick and treat. Brisk November airs bluster, Old December’s snows cluster, And all the seasons come and go, repeat repeat; And all the years have come and gone, in mind again we’ll meet, we’ll meet.
Riches in Poverty: Continued from page thirteen I now appreciate simple things, like hot showers and coffee. But the thing that I struck me most is the incredibly deep faith that the people displayed. The Guatemalans have very little by American standards, but as they sat in the parish Church in El Progreso, drinking in the Word of God with all their body and soul, it is visible that all they truly value will be found in the next life. They are truly rich in the Lord. Though they have so little in this material world but their spiritual lives are full and abundant. Their cups are overflowing. I found myself wishing I could lead such a simple life, undistracted by many possessions, with the ability to hear God’s voice clearer.
This mission trip was a great blessing for all us Christendom students. I thank God for the experience and growth that I encountered in Guatemala. I want to go again, that is, as Padre says, if God grants us life. Here I just want to send a shout-out to Padre for all his hard work and generosity; to Padre’s Guatemalan friend Fernando who was our guide, moral support and comic relief throughout the trip; to Josh Petersen who put up with all us crazy gringos; to all those who donated money, making it possible for us to go on this mission; and to all the Christendom students who went on mission trips on Spring Break 2013. God bless you all!
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