July 2013 by St. Anthony Messenger

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The

O’Reilly Factor

We Named Him Andrew Beer, Pizza, and St. Benedict Hope in the Psalms of Lament A Tale of the Sea

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CONTENTS

ST. ANTHONY

❘ JULY 2013 ❘ VOLUME 121/NUMBER 2

Messenger ON THE COVER

COVER STORY

Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, a lifelong Catholic, shares his opinions about religion, politics, and other hot topics nightly on his news show, The O’Reilly Factor.

28 The O’Reilly Factor There’s a lot more to Bill O’Reilly than his politics. By Rachel Zawila

Photo courtesy of Henry Holt

F E AT U R E S

D E PA R T M E N T S

16 Beer, Pizza, and St. Benedict

2 Dear Reader

Not all Benedictines live in monasteries. By Ron Beathard

3 From Our Readers 6 Followers of St. Francis

24 We Named Him Andrew

Daniel Schell, OFS

Like the apostle, our son led us to Jesus. By Peter C. Wilcox

8 Reel Time Blackfish

34 Angels on the Battlefield 150 years after Gettysburg, we remember Catholic sisters who ministered to Civil War soldiers. By Elizabeth Bookser Barkley

10 Channel Surfing

12 Church in the News 22 Living Simply

40 Hope Springs Eternal

33 Editorial Our Role in Rape Culture

Alzheimer’s and depression sufferers face a difficult journey—as do their caretakers. But healing and hope can be found in the Psalms. By Patricia Robertson

39 Year of Faith A Life of Sacraments

46 Born of the Sea Here’s a fable about a grieving mother who finds a treasure on the shores of Lake Michigan. By Brian Doyle

Save Me

44 Short Take

Joyce Rupp

50 Ask a Franciscan The Holy Family’s Arrival in Nazareth

52 Book Corner The Seven Big Myths about the Catholic Church

54 A Catholic Mom Speaks Finding Comfort in Community

56 Backstory

ST. ANTHONY M

DEAR READER

essenger

A Holistic Faith

Publisher/CEO Daniel Kroger, OFM

Some Christians have long felt that science undermines faith; the treatment of Galileo Gaililei, for example, is not one of the Catholic Church’s proudest moments. Some Catholics felt he was challenging the Bible. Truth, however, ultimately comes from a single source: God. St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, a fellow student with St. Thomas of Aquinas at the University of Paris in the 1240s and ’50s, couldn’t have agreed more. In fact, one of the great intellectual debates they faced was whether something could be true philosophically and false theologically. For example, Aristotle had argued that the world is eternal; the Book of Genesis says that it was created by God. Which is it? Some students and teachers in Paris considered Aristotle more reliable than the Scriptures on this point. Bonaventure and Aquinas opposed these “radical Aristotelians” by affirming the ultimate unity in God of everything that is true. For the first time, by the way, the Catholic Church has a pope who is certified as a chemical technician. Pope Francis brings a unique perspective to any discussions about faith and science. May we be as open to God’s truth as was St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan, whose feast occurs on July 15.

Chief Operating Officer Thomas A. Shumate, CPA

Director of Content Creation and Services Jennifer Scroggins

Editor in Chief John Feister

Art Director Jeanne Kortekamp

Franciscan Editor Pat McCloskey, OFM

Senior Editor Jack Wintz, OFM

Managing Editor Susan Hines-Brigger

Assistant Editors Christopher Heffron Rachel Zawila

Editorial Assistant Sharon Lape

Director of Marketing, Sales, and Internet Barbara K. Baker

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ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER (ISSN #0036276X) (U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 121, Number 2, is published monthly for $39.00 a year by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-6498. Phone (513) 241-5615. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional entry offices. U.S. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: St. Anthony Messenger, P.O. Box 189, Congers, NY 10920-0189. CANADA RETURN ADDRESS: c/o AIM, 7289 Torbram Rd., Mississauga, ON, Canada L4T 1G8. To subscribe, write to the above address or call (866) 543-6870. Yearly subscription price: $39.00 in the United States; $69.00 in Canada and other foreign countries. Single copy price: $3.95. For change of address, four weeks’ notice is necessary. Writer’s guidelines can be found at Franciscan Media.org. The publishers are not responsible for manuscripts or photos lost or damaged in transit. Names in fiction do not refer to living or dead persons. Member of the Catholic Press Association Published with ecclesiastical approval Copyright ©2013. All rights reserved.

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

FROM OUR READERS

Friends in High Places Thanks for Christopher Heffron’s cover article on Pope Francis! I am thrilled with the pope—a man who holds the Franciscan way of life dear to his heart as evidenced by his way of life. I do not think it is a coincidence that he was elected in the year 2013. As we all know, St. Anthony’s feast day is the 13th. Maria H. Izzi Warwick, Rhode Island

Mary’s Family Tree In Kathy Coffey’s May article, “Mary’s ‘Yes,’” she states that Mary’s great-grandparents had “frequent,

What’s on Your Mind? Letters that are published do not necessarily represent the views of the Franciscan friars or the editors. We do not publish slander or libel. Please include your name and postal address. Letters may be edited for clarity and space. Mail Letters, St. Anthony Messenger 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 Fax 513-241-0399

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wavering infidelities.” Who were Mary’s great-grandparents? Where did Coffey get this information? Why wasn’t this footnoted and explained in the article? To make such a statement without an explanation invalidates everything in this article and makes me question the accuracy of any article in your magazine. Robert Wilcox Grand Junction, Colorado Editor’s note: The author assures me she was referring to “greatgrandparents” in a poetic, not literal, sense—read “ancestors,” whose infidelities—and fidelities—are well-documented in the Old Testament.

counsel and help women with troubled pregnancies. They have saved hundreds of babies. In contrast, there was E.T. Craig’s letter in “From Our Readers” complaining that Nancy Pelosi does not support criminalizing abortion. Criticizing Catholic politicians has not, to my knowledge, ever saved one baby. It seems clear that we Catholics and others who abhor abortion should put our efforts into helping women who are contemplating abortion. Life Choices—and similar organizations—deserve our thanks and our full support. Mike Clement Birmingham, Michigan

Helping Those with Mental Illness An End to Abortion?

I always enjoy St. Anthony Messenger, I just wanted to write and express but to actually see something about my thanks for Kathy Belby’s May mental illness in the May issue was article, “Life Choices.” What a great wonderful. I’m referring to Susan service they do for the pro-life comHines-Brigger’s “I’m Not Crazy, I’m munity and the many single moms Sick!” in “A Catholic Mom Speaks.” who have The National nowhere to Alliance on Men“Hopefully, reading this turn when tal Illness holds encountering meetings for all particular ‘A Catholic Mom unwanted pregtypes of mental Speaks’ will help people nancies. This is illness and is a with mental illness see what great organizathe muchneeded alternation. However, can be done to help them.” tive to Planned there is another —Patricia Merriam organization for Parenthood. If this model those who suffer could be expanded and done on a depression and/or bipolar disorder: national level, we could, I believe, DBSA (Depression and Bipolar Supmake some real progress against port Alliance). abortion. Thanks again! I am a member of both organizaBob LaPre tions, and I enjoy receiving informaWestfield, Massachusetts tion by e-mail from them. I am a facilitator for DBSA, and our weekly Many Sides to Pro-Life meetings always have a lot of attenThe May issue showed the stark condees. We are supported by our parish, trast between the two approaches to but unfortunately there are a lot of preventing abortions. There was people I know who have a mental illKathy Belby’s wonderful story, “Life ness, but won’t admit it and get Choices,” and the work they do to help. Hopefully, reading this particuJu ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 3

What Our Subscribers Read Our top-read articles from the May issue were:

93%

Pope Francis: From Argentina to the World

92%

Mary’s ‘Yes’

84%

Faith without Borders

2013 issue—with Pope Francis on the cover—the introductory verse is missing. I’d like to make a suggestion: Pete has packed a picnic lunch. He even made some tasty punch. The sky is clear, the air is crisp, Dad brought some bait so they all can fish. Michael Marino Loxahatchee, Florida

Miffed about Mike & Molly lar “A Catholic Mom Speaks” will help them see what can be done to help them. Patricia Merriam Goose Creek, South Carolina

Bravery in Writing I want to thank Susan Hines-Brigger for “coming out” with her mental illness. It must have been difficult for her to be so honest. I feel her openness may help others to “come out,” and perhaps that will lead others to get help, treatment, and healing. Sister Kathy Trenda New Prague, Minnesota

I am a new subscriber to St. Anthony Messenger. I am very much enjoying the issues I have received so far— very informative and very inspiring. However, I must take issue with Christopher Heffron’s review of the show Mike & Molly in May’s “Channel Surfing.”

When Mike & Molly debuted, I read teasers and it sounded like a great, funny show. After watching the first three episodes, I was appalled! I did not appreciate the foul language and the blatant sexual innuendos that were throughout the show, and I stopped watching it. After reading Heffron’s review, I decided to give it another try. I agree with his comment that Mike & Molly “showcases a husband and wife who are flawed, funny, and, above all, real.” But my reaction is the same. The show uses dirty words, and blatant sexual innuendos run rampant! I am stunned that a Catholic magazine would give this show a positive review. Patricia Reno Venice, Florida

Have You Seen Your Digital Edition?

Clothes Do Not Make the Man

FREE to

This month’s digital extras include an

Rhyme and Reason

audio clip from our interview with Bill

I am really enjoying John Feister’s “Backstory” in the last couple issues of St. Anthony Messenger. I also love “Pete and Repeat,” which runs each month in “A Catholic Mom Speaks.” You always have an introductory verse for the caption. In the May

O’Reilly, videos about St. Benedict and

4 ❘ J uly 2013

St. Anthony Messenger subscribers!

the Benedictines, and additional articles and resources on the psalms of lament, discipleship, and prayer.

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

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After reading May’s “From Our Readers,” in particular the two people who were shocked at priests wearing secular clothes and not their Franciscan robes, I picked up the prominent local newspaper which ran headlines about the latest clergy sexual-abuse case. This priest was accused of sexually molesting four boys. In fact, one of his victims had committed suicide. So I got to thinking: Do clothes make the man—or the priest? I really don’t think so! Eileen Neumann Bartlett, Illinois

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F O L L O W E R S O F S T. F R A N C I S

Mission to Mexico

PHOTO COURTESY MIGUEL PRO MISSION

iguel Pro Mission, a nonprofit organization committed to helping the people of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, was born of a Baptism, you could say. On July 12, 1959, in Sterling, Colorado, Father Peter Urban baptized Daniel Schell, OFS. The two didn’t meet again until 2007, when Schell attended a Mass led by Father Peter, who still remembered him. A few months later, Father Peter asked for Schell’s help. He had collected sewing machines, computers, and other items for Juárez residents and needed Schell’s assistance to transport the items south. Juárez is a city that has been plagued with a drug war. It is considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world. As a result, the city has been left economically devastated, with unemployment at an all-time high. As Father Peter continued his work in

Daniel Schell, OFS, with a group of kindergartners in Juárez, Mexico.

Juárez, Schell, who became a Secular Franciscan on June 7, 2009, started organizing the Miguel Pro Mission in Denver, which he had incorporated as an approved nonprofit on January 6, 2010. Today, Schell serves as the mission’s president. A trip to Juárez this fall is set for Schell, Father Bill Kraus, OFM Cap, and a new group of postulants for the Midwest region. In the meantime, the mission makes an impact in the city by supporting more than 80 students with a monthly stipend to help pay their expenses to stay in school. Three students they have helped will graduate from the university there this year. “It is a very big step for them and their families,” Schell says. “I feel for every child we can keep in school, it is one less who may get caught up in the gangs and drug cartels.” In addition, the mission helps families purchase small livestock to raise and gives aid to a health-care clinic, day care, and Montessori school. It also helps support a program that provides counseling and therapy to women and families living in poverty. All of this is done in the spirit of St. Francis. “[St. Francis] worked with the lepers, the

STORIES FROM OUR READERS Always There

Learn more about St. Anthony and share your story of how he helped you at AmericanCatholic.org/ Features/Anthony.

6 ❘ J uly 2013

When I was a small child, I had roller skates (the old-fashioned kind with a key). We could roller-skate in the basement in the winter and streets in the summer. One day my skates were gone. I was so sad. I prayed to St. Anthony every day for three months. One day I went outside, and there they were. Maybe someone stole them and felt guilty, but I did get them back. All my life when I lose things or misplace things (often lately), not once has St. Anthony failed me in finding the item! He was with me as a child as Jesus was, and they both have stayed with me all my adult life. —Michelle, Barnesville, Georgia

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Visiting the Sultan In autumn of 1219, Francis accompanied the Fifth Crusade to Egypt, hoping to convert Sultan Malik al-Kamil or to die as a martyr. Recognizing Francis as truly a man of God, the sultan gave Francis safe passage to visit the Holy Land. Franciscans have had a unique relationship with Muslims since then. Impressed by the Muslim custom of praying five times a day, Francis popularized the custom of praying the Angelus in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. His followers spread this practice. —P.M.

PHOTO BY RON RACK

outcasts of society,” says Schell. “We serve the poorest in Juárez, too many the outcasts of their society. We help them to build their lives and their futures for themselves and their families. We are with them side by side as brothers and sisters. We do not judge but only wish to serve.” Schell says, like St. Francis, he had to trust in God’s plan for him. “When told to rebuild the Church, St. Francis first looked to what was at hand and started to rebuild the physical structure he was in. It was not until later that the full meaning of rebuilding the Church manifested itself. He jumped into what was needed there and then. “When we are called, sometimes we do not fully understand what we are called to do. That is when we need to rely on God’s wisdom. When Father Peter called and asked if I could help him, who was I to say no or I did not know how? If this is what God is asking me to do, he will show me what I need to know and do.” —Rachel Zawila

To learn more about Franciscan saints, visit AmericanCatholic.org/Features/Saintofday.

Visit MiguelProMission.com for more information.

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Send all postal communication to: St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

Ju ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 7

PHOTO BY FRANK JASPER, OFM

The National Shrine of St. Anthony is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consecrated in 1889, it includes a first-class relic of St. Anthony and serves as a center for daily prayer and contemplation. The Franciscan friars minister from the shrine. To help them in their work among the poor, you may send a monetary offering called St. Anthony Bread. Make checks or money orders payable to “Franciscans” and mail to the address below. Every Tuesday, a Mass is offered for benefactors and petitioners at the shrine. To seek St. Anthony’s intercession, mail your petition to the address below. Petitions are taken to the shrine each week. To post your petition online, please visit stanthony.org, where you can also request to have a candle lit or a Mass offered; or you may make a donation to the Franciscans or sign up to receive a novena booklet.

REEL TIME

W I T H S I S T E R R O S E PA C AT T E , F S P

Blackfish

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES

SISTER ROSE’S

Favorite

Wildlife Films Born Free (1966)

The powerful documentary Blackfish shines a light on the practice of capturing and confining wild animals.

Winged Migration (2001)

Tilikum, a longtime star of SeaWorld, is an orca that was captured near Iceland in 1983 at about 3 years of age. During these 30 years in captivity, Tilikum has killed three people and seriously injured another. Blackfish is a documentary by director Gabriela Cowperthwaite that traces the origins and development of Tilikum’s aggressive behavior and asks probing questions about the morality of capturing and keeping wild animals for entertainment and profit. Through interviews with former SeaWorld trainers and witnesses of those tragic events, the filmmakers weave the background story and enhance these accounts through compelling video footage of how orcas are captured and family groups separated, as well as the strident living conditions of these majestic animals. Cowperthwaite likens the existence of orcas in captivity to that of a human forced to live out his or her life in a bathtub. The film reveals that SeaWorld teaches visitors that orcas live longer in captivity, when it is a known fact they do not. This calls into question the park’s entire educa-

March of the Penguins (2005) Arctic Tale (2007) The Cove (2009)

8 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

tional program and reveals the consequences of keeping wild animals in confinement. In the wild, the dorsal fins of orcas stand tall. In captivity, they flop. Blackfish should be seen, if not for the sake of the captive animals and the trainers who work with them, then for the children in your life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that our dominion over “other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute . . . it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation” (2415). Not yet rated, PG-13 ■ Peril, violent images.

Man of Steel A woman on the planet Krypton gives birth to a child. She, along with the father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe), places the child into a capsule bound for earth so that he can be saved from certain death on their planet. We see Clark as a child fending off a bully and trying not to strike out as his devoted mother (Diane Lane) calms him down. His father, Jonathan (Kevin Costner), advises the boy not to display his powers St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Henry Cavill in the iconic role of Clark Kent/Superman in director Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel.

because people will not understand. As a young man, Clark (Henry Cavill), working on a deep-sea fishing boat in Arctic waters, astonishes everyone when he rescues workers on an offshore drilling platform. Later, at his job in a bar, he defends a waitress from the unwanted attention of a truck driver. His powers are developing. When US radar discovers what seems like a Soviet-era submarine encased in ice in the Canadian arctic, two things happen: a reporter from the Daily Planet, Lois Lane (Amy Adams), comes poking around the military camp, and beings from the former planet Krypton get a signal from the vessel that starts a long adventure of discovery for Clark, the military, and his father’s old adversary General Zod (Michael Shannon). Man of Steel could have lost 20 minutes and two action sequences without diminishing the story. Themes of genocide, genetic manipulation, racism, and what it means to be human—as well as images of Christianity as counterpoints—are meaningfully woven throughout the nonlinear narrative. The scenes of destruction from a super tornado and airplanes purposefully crashing into skyscrapers will distress some, while the excess of military and fantasy violence will concern others. Not yet rated, PG-13 ■ Peril, violence.

Michael (Jesse Eisenberg) and Henley (Isla Fisher) used to work together before going their separate ways, but find work entertaining people with their magic. Jack (Dave Franco) and Merritt (Woody Harrelson) take a seedier approach to their profession. Each of them receives a tarot card inviting them to an apartment in Manhattan. From an unknown person, they receive directions for their next act as a team: the Four Horsemen. Their first act is in Las Vegas, then New Orleans, and with a mega-watt culmination in New York. Now You See Me is an action film with some excellent sleight-of-hand tricks and commentary on unpunished greed for deeds perpetrated by banks and insurance companies in recent years. It’s a heist film, but it is challenging to follow all the ins and outs. Still, the film is entertaining. The Four Horsemen are undoubtedly an allusion to those harbingers of justice described in the Book of Revelation 6:1–8. Not yet rated, PG-13 ■ Language, peril, sexual references.

Isla Fisher, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco play gifted magicians in the heist film Now You See Me.

Catholic Cl assifications A-1 A-2 A-3 L O

Now You See Me “The first rule of magic is to always be the smartest guy in the room” is a mantra that four talented and ambitious magicians keep repeating in director Louis Leterrier’s new film Now You See Me, cowritten by Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin, and Edward Ricourt. Fr anciscanMedia.org

General patronage Adults and adolescents Adults Limited adult audience Morally offensive

■

The Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings. See usccb.org/movies.

■

Find reviews by Sister Rose and others at CatholicMovieReviews.org.

J u ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 9

CHANNEL SURFING

WITH CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

UP CLOSE

Thursdays, 8 p.m., NBC “Blessed are those who hear the word of God” (Lk 11:28). And blessed are those who hear the word of God after nearly choking to death on a sandwich. As Beth Harper, a self-absorbed Midwestern wife and mother suddenly imbued with the power to speak to the Almighty after that near-death experience, Anne Heche brings her formidable comedic chops to the forefront in NBC’s new series. And she shines in the role. While the I-can-talk-to-God gimmick works—at least for the moment—the strength of Save Me lies in Beth’s desire to fix what was broken in her life prior to her clash with the sandwich. Emotionally absent from her teenage daughter and teetering on divorce with her husband, Beth is given a second chance. And she’s not wasting another minute. Though some channel surfers may tire of the show’s sometimes ridiculous attempts at slapstick—and some potentially troubling story lines—Save Me is still worth a look because God is positioned as a central character: omnipotent and unseen, slightly cantankerous, and wise. Beth is a woman jam-packed with flaws, but struggling to do better. With God in her corner, she might just be salvaged. Let’s hope that NBC will show similar mercy on this show.

Curb Appeal HGTV, check local listings Surveying the television lineup on HGTV is like facing down a mile-long buffet with a tiny plate in your hand: there’s just so much. There are, however, a couple of exceptions. Yard Crashers is entertaining but somewhat overwhelming. Another show to keep an eye on is Curb Appeal. What sets this one apart from the myriad other landscaping shows on the network is how invested host John Gidding and his team are not only in prettying up the exterior of a chosen home, but also in spreading the love to other houses on the same street. An architect by trade with an eye for structure and design, Gidding does more than give a street a facelift. He revitalizes the feel of a community.

Hot in Cleveland

PHOTO BY COLLEEN HAYES/NBC

TV Land, check local listings Strong, female-centered situation comedies are hard to come by. The Golden Girls (1985-1992) set a high bar—and few shows that celebrate female camaraderie have been able to match it. Although Hot in Cleveland, the first scripted program on TV Land, celebrates the importance of friendship in later life, the writing isn’t as smart as it could be, and too many story lines fall back on crass, cheap tricks. If nothing else, tune in to watch the legendary Betty White, who, as the boozing caretaker Elka, is an actor whose comedic skills have aged to perfection. What a pity she wasn’t given a better project with which to work.

Anne Heche plays a woman who discovers an ability to speak to God in NBC’s Save Me. 1 0 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

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CHURCH IN THE NEWS

❘ BY RACHEL ZAWILA

Audit Finds Decline in Abuse Allegations The numbers of allegations, victims, and clergy sex-abuse offenders reported in 2012 decreased, according to the annual audit of diocesan compliance with the US bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which gathered the data, 2012 had the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004. StoneBridge Business Partners conducted the on-site audits of 71 dioceses and eparchies and reviewed documentation submitted by 118 others, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). The Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, and five Eastern-rite dioceses refused to be audited, as they had in past years. Three dioceses were found to be noncompliant: the Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana, was cited because its review board

had not met in several years, while the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was noted because auditors could not determine if parishes provided safeenvironment training to religiouseducation students and volunteer teachers. The Diocese of Baker, Oregon, was also cited because students did not receive safe-environment training while a new program was being developed. According to the audit report, more than 99 percent of clergy members and 96 percent of employees and volunteers have been trained in safe-environment programs, along with more than 4.6 million children. Background evaluations were conducted on more than 99 percent of clergy, 98 percent of educators, 96 percent of employees, and 96 percent of volunteers. According to CARA, dioceses, eparchies, and religious orders reported costs related to sex-abuse

Number of credible allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in the United States, 2004–2012 1,092

reported to religious orders reported to dioceses

803

783 714

691

CNS GRAPHIC/NANCY PHELAN WIECHEC

594

2004

1 2 ❘ July 2013

2005

2006

2007

2008

513

505

2009

2010

471

2011

2012

allegations at more than $148 million in 2012. Dioceses and religious orders also spent more than $26 million for child-protection programs in 2012. In related news: ■ Despite the audit’s findings, there have been some recent setbacks in the Church’s efforts to stop abuse by clergy and other Church staff. On April 24, Father William F. Vatterott, 36, of St. Louis was charged by a federal grand jury with possession of child pornography. He has been on administrative leave since June 2011, when the archdiocese learned of the allegations. ■ Father Michael Fugee, 53, of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, resigned from active ministry May 2 after he was found to have violated a court-sanctioned lifetime ban on working with children. He had been convicted in 2003 of criminal sexual contact with a minor. Father Fugee was arrested on May 20, after his attendance at youth retreats and other events involving minors was disclosed in a series of articles by a local newspaper. He is charged with seven counts of contempt of a judicial order, which carry a maximum prison term of 18 months. ■ Msgr. Edward J. Arsenault, president and CEO of St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, a leading treatment center for clergy suffering from emotional, sexual, and addiction problems, resigned May 3 as an investigation continues into an alleged inappropriate adult relationship he may have had, along with the uncovering of possible illegal financial dealings in the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire. ■ The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri settled a lawsuit St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

N E W S B R I E F S N AT I O N A L A N D I N T E R N AT I O N A L

The Boy Scouts of America’s National Council voted May 23 to allow openly gay youth to belong to scout troops, but upheld its ban of gay scout leaders. The policy change will take effect January 1, 2014. The National Catholic Committee on Scouting said it will study the effects of the decision and “will work within the teachings of our Catholic faith and with the various local bishops and their diocesan scouting committees.” The Catholic Church is the third-largest faith-based organization with scouting membership, following Mormons and Methodists. Gay scout Pascal Tessier is pictured above. Recent appointments in Catholic higher education include Franciscan Sean O. Sheridan, TOR, named president of Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, and James Donahue, who becomes the first lay president of St. Mary’s College of California. St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, has announced it will freeze tuition rates starting for the 2013–2014 academic year. Students will be given a set tuition rate that will not change during their four-year stay. Scottish Cardinal Kenneth O’Brien, who resigned as archbishop after admitting to sexual misconduct, will

May 14 in which it will pay $600,000 to the family of one of Father Shawn Ratigan’s victims. Father Ratigan was arrested in 2011 for taking pornographic pictures of children. The diocese is led by Bishop Robert Finn, who was convicted last year of failing to report Father Ratigan to authorities. ■ Five lawsuits were filed against the Diocese of Joliet in Illinois May Fr ancisca n Media .org

leave Scotland “for several months for the purpose of spiritual renewal, prayer, and penance,” a Vatican statement said. Any decision about when the period will end and where the cardinal will live permanently will be made with Vatican input. An increasing number of men are pursuing a delayed vocation to the priesthood, according to a new survey by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The report found the average age of men becoming priests in 2013 is 35.5. Prior to entering the seminary, many of the men in the class of 2013 worked in education, finance, accounting, and insurance. Sister Megan Rice, 83, a member of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, was found guilty May 8 of “intending to harm national security” after she broke into a nuclear weapon-producing facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, and defaced its walls last July. Sister Megan has been arrested more than 40 times for acts of civil disobedience. Her sentencing is scheduled for September 23.

CNS/TRANSFORM NOW PLOWSHARES HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

CNS/MICHAEL PRENGLER, REUTERS

Vermont governor Peter Shumlin signed into law May 20 a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide, which allows doctors to prescribe death-inducing drugs to terminally ill individuals who can then administer the medication themselves. The law limits the prescriptions to state residents only. Oregon, Montana, and Washington have also legalized physician-assisted suicide. Local and national Church leaders opposed the laws in each state.

A survey of American priests shows almost 60 percent of the respondents do not like the new translation of the Mass. According to St. John’s University School of Theology-Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota, which administered the survey, one-third of the priests strongly disagree that the translation is an improvement, and 80 percent say that some of the language is “awkward or distracting.” More than six in 10 of the priests surveyed called for a revision of the revisions. For more news, visit AmericanCatholic.org.

15, alleging sexual abuse of minors by four priests and a lay school principal during the 1970s and 1980s. According to Jim Dwyer, interim communications director for the Diocese, all of the accused priests were removed from ministry between 1992 and 2012. One of the accused priests and the school principal named in the suit have passed away. The victims claim they had

repressed memories of the abuse until this year.

‘Constant Dialogue’ Needed between Vatican and Sisters Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, told an Ju ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 1 3

CNS/PAUL HARING

international gathering of sisters ness, and a mother’s intuition.” The May 5 that his office had not been pope stressed that the women should consulted about the Congregation be spiritual “mothers” rather than for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) “spinsters,” a comment that garinvestigation of the Leadership Connered worldwide media attention. ference of Women Religious (LCWR). “The ordained woman is a mother; Although the cardinal didn’t chalshe must be a mother and not a spinlenge the CDF’s decision ster!” the pope said. that the group’s statutes “You are mothers, like must be revised, he told the figures of Mary and some 800 members of the Mother Church.” He the International Union continued, telling the of Superiors General, a religious superiors they group that includes need to ensure their many LCWR members, members are educated in that the process must be the doctrine of the accompanied by real Church, “in love for the dialogue, “something Church and in an ecclewhich did not take place Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz sial spirit. previously,” reported “It’s an absurd dichotCNS. omy to think one can live with Jesus, “We must constantly discern in but without the Church, to follow order to move forward,” Cardinal Jesus outside the Church, to love Braz de Aviz said. It is essential “to Jesus and not the Church,” he said. have this constant dialogue about Following the pope’s speech, Carour lives as consecrated men and dinal Braz de Aviz told the sisters the women and as people who live and pope’s remarks were essential to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus.” remember because “some people say, In response to the cardinal’s com‘Christ, yes, but the Church, no.’ ments, the Vatican released a stateThese points must be clarified, and ment May 7 stating the media’s it’s not always easy, but you must interpretation of the cardinal’s believe in the other, trust the other. remarks “was not justified.” ArchIf we don’t have this relationship, bishop Gerhard L. Müller, CDF prewe’ll get nowhere.” fect, met with Cardinal Braz de Aviz a day after he spoke, and the two Order of Friars Minor “reaffirmed their common commitElects New Leader ment to the renewal of religious life and, particularly, to the doctrinal The Order of Friars Minor elected assessment of the LCWR and the Father Michael Perry its new minister program of reform it requires, in general May 22. A native of Indiaccordance with the wishes of the anapolis, Father Perry, 58, has served Holy Father,” according to a Vatican statement. During a mid-April meeting with LCWR officers, Archbishop Müller said he had discussed the reform of the organization with Pope Francis, who “reaffirmed the findings of the assessment and the program of reform for this conference of major superiors.” On May 8, Pope Francis also spoke US Franciscan Father Michael Perry, the new to the women religious superiors. minister general of the Order of Friars Minor, “What would the Church be without is pictured at the order’s headquarters in you?” he asked them. “It would be Rome May 23. missing maternity, affection, tender-

CNS/PAUL HARING

1 4 ❘ July 2013

as the vicar general since 2009. The order’s general council and 27 Franciscans representing different parts of the world elected him to serve until 2015; he will complete the six-year term of Archbishop José Rodriguez Carballo, who in April was appointed secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Father Perry entered the Franciscans in 1977 and was ordained in 1984. He has worked on African development for Catholic Relief Services, as an international adviser for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and as head of the Africa desk at Franciscans International at the United Nations. He spent 10 years as a pastor, teacher, and development director for Franciscan programs in Congo. In 2008, he was elected provincial of the Franciscans’ St. Louis-based Sacred Heart Province. The new minister general told CNS the Franciscans are united, energized, and challenged by the ministry of the new pope, whose name honors their founder, St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis “has energized us, but he also has challenged us just by who he is,” said Father Perry. The pope’s “authenticity is challenging us to rediscover our own authenticity and calling us to simplify our lives and to speak less and demonstrate more who we are.” Father Perry said it’s not a matter of promoting the Franciscan “brand” but demonstrating that “simplicity of life means greater life for all people. It means greater access to all that people need to have dignity and survive on this small, tiny planet we have. It means respecting creation so that we do not destroy the environment in which we live.” St. Francis “brings us back to the very core of who we are as human beings,” he continued. “Francis is a convener of humanity; he helps people come together and see what really matters for their lives and that we can live together in peace, we can care for one another, and we can care for our world.” A St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

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Beer, Pizza, and

St. Benedict Not all Benedictines live in monasteries. B Y R O N B E AT H A R D

haven’t done much. I haven’t won a Pulitzer Prize, escorted a beautiful woman to the Oscars, or won an Olympic medal. I haven’t swum, scaled, or walked anything. But I am an Oblate of the Order of St. Benedict— and that ranks right up there. I had always wanted to be a monk, but I knew I couldn’t take the scratchy robes and scratchy rules. I asked my priest if there was a way I could pray, meditate, do good works, and then punch out when I wanted beer and pizza. He suggested I contact the Oblates of St. Benedict and read Benedict’s book, Rule of St. Benedict. I did. And so begins my tale.

We Walk among You Although there are more than 25,000 Benedictine Oblates worldwide, we are little-known. When I told my friends about my new beginning as an Oblate, the usual questions were: “You’re going to join a monastery?” or “Does that mean you have to be celibate?” No and no. Oblates are lay men and women, members 1 6 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

of a monastery, sharing a spiritual union and friendship with the monastery—like adopted children. We search for more fulfillment in our everyday lives and a spiritual life deeply rooted in God. We Oblates live ordinary lives, eating, sleeping, working, praying, meeting people, and interacting. We have tasks and chores just like everyone else. But through St. Benedict, Oblates strive to do these things in extraordinary ways. We strive to find the holiness in ordinary life. We are not a Bible-thumping crowd. Being Roman Catholic for the most part—with some St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTO BY KRISTA HALL COURTESY SAINT MEINRAD ARCHABBEY

Episcopalians and Presbyterians thrown in for spice and variety—we go quietly about our business doing God’s business. A few years back, I walked along the hillside to the Church at the Saint Meinrad Monastery and Archabbey in southwestern Indiana. I stood before the altar and signed my name in a book. I “promised before God and all the saints, as my state in life permits, stability of heart, fidelity to the spirit of the monastic life, and obedience to the will of God.” I became Oblate Andrew. I’ve made promises before: to eat all the Fr anciscanMedia.org

food on my plate, never tell a lie, go to church every Sunday, and so on. But this promise is different.

Strong Backs, Strong Hearts What do Oblates do? I like to think we pray more often and perform more good works than other people. We don’t, but I bet we think about it more often. Both men’s and women’s monasteries have Oblates. A few years ago, Mary Alice, a friend of mine who was discerning becoming an Oblate, led a weekly prayer service and praying of the

Oblate Director Father Meinrad Brune, OSB, (left) invests three Oblate novices: Caryn Mucci, Timothy Capps, and Kathryn Capps in the Saint Meinrad Archabbey Oblate community. On the right is the assistant oblate director, Father Joseph Cox, OSB.

J u ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 1 7

Benedictine Oblates Nick Dellecave, Helen Haggard, and Jerry Gorup display a ceramic plate, depicting St. Benedict, that each of them received at their oblation at Saint Meinrad. (Below left) JoAnn Clare Dugan of Louisville, Kentucky, signs her oblation chart on the altar after making her public promises to be an Oblate. Father Meinrad Brune, OSB, is with her. PHOTOS BY KRISTA HALL COURTESY SAINT MEINRAD ARCHABBEY

(Below right) In a moment of celebration, Pamela Mary Deveary of Madison, Indiana, renews her promises on the 25th anniversary of her oblation.

rosary for the residents of a nearby nursing home. Mary Alice used Saint Benedict’s Prayer Book. A fellow Oblate, Joy (Oblate Scholastica, Benedict’s twin sister), puts the Benedictine motto ora et labora (“pray and work”) into action. She works with a team, building houses for Habitat for Humanity. At the beginning of the workday, after the communal prayer, she prays silently, thanking God for giving her the strength and the will to do God’s work. She prays that the work she does will be the help the new owners need. “I’ve learned to caulk,” she says. “Very messy. And how to toenail 2-by-4s—not easy. And climb scaffolding—scary at first. And when I get hot and tired and dirty, I like to think of myself as building a little Benedictine monastery—a place that will soon be filled with love and warmth and grace for the new family.” Mrs. Abel (Oblate Hildegard) tells me, “Although I only get to Saint Meinrad about once a year, every time I feel like I’m coming home. I know God is everywhere, but I know 1 8 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

he is more ‘everywhere’ at my monastery—a place made more sacred by the prayers said there. “Since I became an Oblate,” she continues, “I am aware of my promise of obedience to the will of God. And every time I can tell people about Benedict, my faith grows a little stronger.” Recently I met Oblate Anselm who picks up trash. “At my age,” he says, “I don’t get out much. But I don’t stop trying.” Three or four times a week, he and his dog, Shane, walk to a nearby park and playground. Oblate Anselm carries a trash bag and a longhanded grabber and picks up cans, bottles, paper, and plastic. Anselm does not receive any money, awards, or thanks. “Benedictine hospitality included washing the feet of guests,” he says. “This is my little way to show that hospitality—showing kindness and thoughtfulness to all of God’s creation.” And I take the spirit of Benedict from the scriptorium to the computer. Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, a Benedictine scholar, produces a St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

St. Benedict Father of Western Monasticism St. Benedict is called the father of

Sometime later, the monks, more

Western Monasticism. If you have to be

prone to pleasure than prayer, wanted

put in a pigeonhole, you could do

their new mentor out. They offered

worse.

Benedict a pitcher of poisoned wine.

Born to well-off, well-educated par-

When Benedict blessed the pitcher, it

ents around 480 in Nursia, high in the

broke, and he decided it was time to

mountains northeast of Rome, the

leave.

young Benedict was sent to Rome for a classical education. He didn’t like it. At that time, Rome was the Las

Around 529, Benedict moved to Monte Cassino, a few miles southeast of Rome. He tore down the ancient

Vegas of the world. The Tiber ran red

stones of a temple dedicated to Apollo,

with wine, thieves stole from prosti-

built his monastery, gathered together

tutes, learning was rare, and heaven

his brothers, and wrote the Rule.

knows how many gods played their Benedict escaped the wine-stained

Benedict’s only biographer, Pope Gregory the Great, defines Benedict’s life: “If anyone wishes to grasp his

toga crowd to the countryside and

character and life better, that person

became a hermit for three years. His

will find in the Rule a complete state-

spirituality became known and

ment of the abbot’s way of life, for the

respected, and a group of monks asked

holy man cannot have taught other-

him to become their spiritual leader.

wise than as he lived.”

website called “Monasteries of the Heart.” She invites readers to begin their own “online monasteries”—a kind of blog—using Benedict’s Rule as the spiritual center. I began a “monastery” titled “Benedictine Spirituality and Addiction Recovery.” In my commentaries I interpret the lessons of Benedict—humility, obedience, silence, prayer, hospitality, and stability—and how they apply to addiction healing of all sorts. With shared comments from the members of the monastery, we receive hope and encouragement. We gain the Benedictine tools to learn to lead an addiction-free, God-filled life.

Agents of Change There are opportunities for us to leave the splendid isolation of oblation. I belong to the Cincinnati Chapter of Oblates. We meet monthly. A brother from Saint Meinrad visits and leads a discussion of an aspect of the Rule. We pray lectio divina and end with the fellowship of punch and cookies. Annually, local chapters gather for a day of recollection at a monastery retreat for renewal Fr anciscanMedia.org

PHOTO © SAILKO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

dissipated roles.

of the Benedictine spirit. The Saint Meinrad Archabbey and local chapters conduct several three- and four-day retreats throughout the year. We promise to follow the lives of Benedictine brothers as our station in life permits. Each monastery designates a monk as director of Oblates. St. Benedict’s monks memorized all the psalms in order—and in Latin! We promise to read one or two each day and, perhaps, memorize a few that have a special meaning for us. We promise stability of Click here to watch short heart, commitment to one videos about St. Benedict monastic community, and conand the Benedictines. version. Conversion means that we know what we are going to be doing tomorrow and the day after and all the years to come: preferring nothing whatsoever to Christ. We don’t let changes make us. We make changes. St. Benedict said, “What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace.” We promise fidelity to the spirit of monas-

tal Digi as Extr

J u ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 1 9

The Rule In the bankrupt years of the decay-

Benedict saw hope for his monks with

ing Roman Empire, monasteries were

regular, faithful prayer. He asks us to

refuges where order and stability

get rid of self-will, self-centeredness,

existed. They were the sparks hidden

addiction—anything that takes our

in the ashes of a worn-out civilization,

time away from praising God and

keeping books, order, and knowledge

being Christ’s hands and feet.

alive. Monks, brothers, princes, and

He wrote in everyday Latin. His lan-

paupers needed structure to live and

guage is simple and direct, elegant

pray together, to seek God in body

and polished.

and spirit.

Benedict instructs the reader on

St. Benedict wrote the Rule in the

basic monastic virtues: humility,

sixth century. It is one of the great

silence, and obedience. He legislates

works of spiritual wisdom. It has been

the times for prayer, meditation, and

interpreted by poets and exhausted

manual labor. He advises how to live

by scholars. It has been a source for

in a crowd. And he even reminds the

books about raising children or run-

brothers to remove their knives from

ning companies, for addiction recov-

their robes before getting into bed.

ery or spiritual growth. More than a

The wisdom of the Rule lies in its

thousand different editions have been

flexibility, its tolerance for individual PHOTO © MICHAL OSMENDA/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

printed.

differences, and its openness to

Benedict did not expect his brethren to be saints. He wrote for the undisciplined, the flawed, the backslider.

change. It is a powerful and relevant guide for those who would seek God in the ordinary circumstances of life.

PHOTOS BY KRISTA HALL COURTESY SAINT MEINRAD ARCHABBEY

(Right) Oblate director Father Meinrad Brune, OSB, talks with Oblate Tom Rillo in the oblate office at Saint Meinrad. (Far right) Finding joy and companionship in her community, Oblate Rosemary Kilday from Oxford, Ohio, enjoys a retreat talk at Saint Meinrad Archabbey. tic life. We listen to the monasteries of our hearts for the life everlasting that Benedict wants for his brothers. Living and coping are balanced with praying and praising.

Finding My Place Sixty years ago, when I was in grade school, my family made annual trips to Santa Claus Land, Indiana. Our tour included the nearby French Lick Resort, Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, and Saint Meinrad Archabbey. I never asked my father to stop the car as we 2 0 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

drove through the monastery grounds. I would have had to explain to him, “I don’t know. I just want to walk around.” Sixty years later, I can walk around anytime I want. I own the place. The place owns me. And The UnStable—a hangout for seminarians at Saint Meinrad’s School of Theology— serves beer and pizza. A Ron Beathard is a freelance writer who lives in Harrison, Ohio. His work has also appeared in Newsweek and The Christian Science Monitor. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

POETRY

Summer Clouds

Miles of Sun

Summer clouds nesting On the mountaintop, ready To hatch the sunrise.

Summer is miles of sunshine, bird music in the trees, wind chimes tinkling on the porch, humming songs of bees. Summer is grass that turns to lace, a peaceful, happy town, and wherever flowers grow God sends his incense down.

—Jeanette Martino Land

Painted Clown: At the County Fair As I enter the front gate, just beyond large, green balloons, the wide face of a familiar clown, painted brightest red, uneven streaks of yellow, moving slowly among the gathering crowd, offering candy to curious children, their young eyes wide with excitement, his sudden, intermittent laughter suggesting festivity on a hot, late summer afternoon.

—William Beyer

Owl Feathers smooth a noble head eyes alert avian of mystery engaging from a high treetop its playful wink nothing less than a joyful greeting.

—Marion Schoeberlein

Erin Summer Solstice comes to Ireland with a profusion of flowers: joy blooming in tidy splashes of geranium color adorning Gaelic door and window, in delicately lavender bursts of rhododendron flung about the vales, in brilliant gorse garlanding each windy, walled-up, hilly field, in climbing nasturtium and berry blossoms, all the wild turf flowers, in scent of roses vining on long-lost walls of memorial ruin, in clover and heather spread over ancient slopes dressed new in greening fresh cloak as Celtic spring assuredly matures into a bonny Erin summer by the shimmering Irish Sea.

—Bonnie J. Manion

—Susan L. Taylor

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LIVING SIMPLY

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

10 Ways to Pray throughout the Day

“

s we watch the news, eat our meals, bike or run, go shopping at the mall, read or send a text message,

or play with those we love or those we don't love as much, we can choose to keep praying,” says Roy DeLeon. He’s the author of Praying with the Body: Bringing the Psalms to Life and founder and instructor of Blessed Movements (Spiritual Exercises for the Body, Heart, and Soul).

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Here, he provides 10 ways we can pray throughout the day:

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Every morning, pick a word that speaks to you, perhaps from the daily Scripture readings, and use it as your mantra throughout the day. Participate in some type of art or hobby that you enjoy. “Anything you have fun doing, do it for the love of God,” says DeLeon. Pick a sacred word and say it over and over for 20 minutes, especially when you need centering and grounding.

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Perform some type of service for others.

Read the readings/Gospel for the day or any other Scripture passage. Reflect on how it relates to your life and what it invites you to do for God today. While you’re brushing your teeth, recite a prayer like: “May my smile radiate your light and your compassion, O Lord.” Be silent. Turn off the radio in the car. Go outside in the morning and listen to the birds.

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Be aware of your surroundings and look for ways in which God is present. Set alarms on your phone to serve as Click here for more articles reminders to stop and and resources on prayer. pray throughout the day. You can also find apps for your smartphone that will provide a prayerful prompt.

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Be aware of your breath as the breath of God. DeLeon says this is the best tool because we always have it within us. Like God. Ju ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 2 3

We Named Him

A NDREW Like the apostle, our son led us to Jesus. BY PETER C. WILCOX

hat’s in a name?

Sometimes a great deal, but the implications only become clear with time. Some years ago, my wife and I experienced the stillbirth of our first child. Needless to say, we were devastated. Moreover, my wife almost died because of hemorrhaging. As we buried our son, we named him Andrew. There was no one in our respective families with that name and no other special reason to call him this. Perhaps the mystery in it all, without our knowing it at the time, was that there was much for us to learn from this name, the apostle Andrew, and our painful experience. It is always interesting to discover how parents choose the names of their children. Sometimes a child might be named after one of the parents, grandparents, or a close relative or friend. At other times, it’s because the parents simply like the sound of a particular name. We named our son Andrew.

Andrew in the New Testament

ILLUSTRATION BY VICKI SHUCK

There are three glimpses of Andrew that we are given in John’s Gospel. The first time that Andrew appears is when he brings his brother, Simon, to Jesus. Having discovered the Messiah for himself, through John the Baptist, Andrew wastes no time in informing his brother of Jesus and arranging an interview. Andrew’s transparency is reflected in the simplicity of the language used to describe the incident. “[Andrew] first found his own brother Simon and told him, ‘We have found the Messiah.’ Then he brought him to Jesus” (1:41–42). The second time Andrew appears is in John Fr anciscanMedia.org

6:8. On this occasion, Andrew presents a little boy with five barley loaves to the Lord. The situation is a large, hungry crowd and no apparent means of feeding them. Andrew seems to agonize over the problem: “‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?’” What does Andrew do? He acts. He leads the child with the loaves forward and leaves the rest to Christ. Again, it was Andrew who brought the little boy to Jesus. He trusted that the Lord would take care of the situation. The last occasion is in John 12:20–23, just before Christ’s Passion. Some Greeks arrive in Jerusalem anxious to see Jesus. They run into Philip who takes them straight to Andrew. Evidently, by this time, Andrew had the reputation of knowing what to do when others came seeking. Certainly, Philip had learned to trust Andrew from the previous incident. Together, they take the Greeks to Jesus. Their arrival is not unexpected. Recognizing here the gentiles who will form his Church, Jesus proclaims, “The hour has come.” This is the hour of the cross. This is the hour of the world’s redemption. Andrew is never mentioned again in John’s Gospel. With his objective of bringing others to the Lord accomplished, he is content to remain in the shadows.

A Model for Ministry and Spirituality There are many models of ministry and spirituality today. It is probably one of the most written about topics in recent years. Perhaps it is our desire to struggle with the integration of these two ideas into our lives that urges us to J u ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 2 5

constantly search for a more complete understanding. Andrew is clearly a biblical person who, by his life, gives us a deeper grasp of how these two dynamic realities intersect. Transparency. On every occasion that he appears in John’s Gospel, Andrew is shown bringing someone to Jesus and then quietly retiring to let the Lord complete his grace in that person. This is why we might not think of him as a model of anything. Andrew never draws attention to himself,

A transparent ministry invites us to become a doorway. It wants people to look through us in order to point the way to Jesus.

but to Jesus. He is a reminder that ministry ought to be transparent because it is in service of the Lord and not the minister. It is interesting to see that we lose sight altogether of Andrew since he gives way so perfectly to Christ and the other person every time. We can only minister to others when we truly know ourselves and are comfortable with ourselves—when we become transparent. Otherwise, we will get in the way of bringing others to Jesus. What is admirable about Andrew is that he truly knew himself and realized that 2 6 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

his role was to lead others to the Lord. In his personal diary, which he entitled Markings, Dag Hammarskjöld, secretary-general of the United Nations in the 1950s, reflected on this idea of transparency in his own life and ministry. He wrote about how he never wanted to “get in the way” of bringing others to Jesus. Using the images of a mirror and a doorway, he prayed for the grace of never becoming a “mirror” in which he reflected his own image back to other people, but rather a “doorway” through which people could walk in order to catch a better glimpse of Jesus. He once prayed, “Who will give me the power to transform the mirror into a doorway?” Becoming more transparent in our own lives—like Andrew and Hammarskjöld—allows us to become more of a doorway through which the people we minister to can catch a clearer image of Jesus. A transparent ministry is not selfish, not focused on ourselves, and doesn’t want to make us the center of attention. It doesn’t desire that we become better known. In fact, it doesn’t even need to be successful in the eyes of the world. Rather, a transparent ministry invites us to become a doorway. It wants people to look through us in order to point the way to Jesus. Detachment. For ministers, Andrew sets a standard. He is a mature adult, secure in himself, comfortable in his own skin, and clear about his mission. He does not allow jealousy, ambition, or pettiness to obstruct the gift of grace that flows between Jesus and the person. Once the connection has been made, he steps aside. He can do that because he has no illusions about himself. He is not the Messiah— Jesus is. It is interesting to see that later, when Peter is entrusted with the keys of the kingdom and made chief shepherd of the flock, Andrew makes no complaint that he has been passed over. There is no whining, no resentment, no anger, no bitter claim that he met Jesus first. Andrew understands his role. He is content to have created that space for Christ and for others in which his brother can reach the Lord and grow in his call to holiness. Detachment places service above self-interest. Ministry today invites us to this kind of detachment in which our service will be apostolic and bear much fruit. It requires that we struggle with the illusions that we have about ourselves or that can come to us from the people we serve. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Often these illusions can be very enticing and can actually keep us from bringing others to the Lord as Andrew did. Detachment is the antidote to all pride and foolish selfdependence, to every urge to dominate or possess or manipulate just to satisfy one’s image or protect one’s status in community.

The Grace of Solitude One of the necessary ingredients to bring about this kind of transparency and detachment in ministry is solitude. In Mark’s Gospel we read: “Rising very early before dawn, [Jesus] left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed” (1:35). In the middle of a very busy schedule of responding to impatient disciples and traveling from town to town, Jesus went off to a lonely place and prayed. Perhaps the secret of Jesus’ ministry is hidden in that lonely place because it is here that he finds the courage to follow his Father’s will and not his own. He has become transparent. Jesus reminds us: “I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me” (Jn 5:30). Everyone involved in ministry needs this level of solitude. For some, it might be a monastery. For others, it might be a church, a desert experience, a walk along the beach, a hike to the top of a mountain, or a quiet room. Without this kind of solitude, it is difficult to become transparent and detached. It becomes easier to fall into our illusions. Transparency and detachment are essential ingredients in the minister today because we are called to live in the world without being of it. It is in solitude that our inner freedom can grow. In his lonely place, Jesus became free to fail. And it is only when we are free to fail that we can be genuinely free to serve. It is only when we are free to fail that we can become transparent and detached—free from ourselves and our own illusions—so that we can be used by the Lord in any way he chooses. What happens is that in solitude, we find the strength to slowly unmask our illusions, gently face ourselves, and then become more transparent and detached. In solitude, we can slowly unmask the illusions of our success, power, and possessiveness and begin to realize that it is how we serve that really matters. In solitude, we become aware that our self-worth is not based on our success and that as we work hard in ministering to others we are Fr anciscanMedia.org

never discouraged by our failures or the lack of results. The danger is that a life without a quiet center can easily become egocentric and destructive. In that world we tend to build our own kingdoms rather than the kingdom of God. When we become more transparent and detached, our successes and failures slowly lose some of their power over us. Andrew was never concerned with his successes or failures—only with bringing others to the Lord. That should also be our goal.

Andrew, Our Guide Just as the apostle Andrew brought people to Jesus, our son Andrew brought my wife and me to others. After his funeral, she and I participated in the support group Compassionate Friends, which was very helpful to us. Then, I, as a therapist, received a call one day from a colleague, asking me to help her begin a camp for children who had lost a loved one. This camp has prospered and grown tremendously through the years. Following this, I became involved with our local county group of Bereaved Parents of the USA, giving talks at meetings and conferences. At the same time, in my own counseling practice, I began to see more and more clients—children, teens, and adults—who were struggling with the loss of a loved one. It was a major focus of my practice for over 20 years. It seems as though the Lord was using our loss to help others. Sometimes the most painful experiences in life are the most Click here for more articles life-giving. We just don’t know and resources on discipleit at the time. Andrew brought ship. others to Jesus for healing and new life. Perhaps, in his own way, our son Andrew has brought us to Jesus for healing, comfort, and new life. If we can become more transparent and detached like Andrew, we can then bring healing, comfort, and new life to others. If we can become more of a doorway rather than a mirror, as Hammarskjöld sought, then people will be able to see right through us and catch a clearer glimpse of Jesus. Moreover, like Andrew, we know that Jesus will always take care of the situation. A

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Peter C. Wilcox is a retired psychotherapist and spiritual adviser. He has taught at Loyola University Maryland, St. Bonaventure University, and Washington Theological Union. He and his wife, Margaret, live in Millersville, Maryland. J u ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 2 7

The

O’Reilly FACTOR

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There’s a lot more to Bill O’Reilly than his politics. BY RACHEL ZAWILA

HEN SISTER MARY LURANA declared third-grade student William James O’Reilly Jr. a “bold, fresh piece of humanity” back in September 1957, she surely had no idea how dead-on she was. Some 50 years since, Fox News political commentator “Bill” O’Reilly, 63, has been called much more than bold and fresh—the connotation of the descriptors varies depending on which side of the political spectrum they come from. Self-described as “one of the most controversial human beings in the world,” O’Reilly shares his opinions about the state of our society nightly with the millions of viewers of his cable news show, The O’Reilly Factor, which he has anchored since 1996.

Look past the politics, though, and there’s at least one aspect of O’Reilly many can relate to: his faith. “My family has been Roman Catholic for hundreds of years,” he tells St. Anthony Messenger in a recent interview. “This is an Irish Catholic traditional family, and I was raised that way.”

Strong Roots His mother, Ann, made sure of it. O’Reilly recalls on his 11th birthday, September 10, 1960, Ann pushing him out into Hurricane Donna’s torrential wind and rain. He was an altar boy, slated to serve the Sunday 8 a.m. Mass, and nothing would prevent him from doing so. Ann’s own mother was a Kennedy—”but not [from] the rich part,” says O’Reilly. A

Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly took a comedic approach to politics in 2012 when they held a live online debate, “The Rumble 2012.” Here, O’Reilly interviews Stewart on The O’Reilly Factor, September 22, 2010.

PHOTO COURTESY OF HENRY HOLT/METROPOLITAN BOOKS/TIMES BOOKS; BACKGROUND FROM PHOTOXPRESS

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Quoting his third-grade teacher, Sister Mary Lurana, O’Reilly remembers his traditional Catholic upbringing in his memoir, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity.

devout Catholic (and Democrat), Ann raised O’Reilly and his younger sister, Janet, in the family’s home in Levittown on Long Island, New York. O’Reilly’s father, William Sr., was a WWII naval officer, who worked long hours as an accountant at the Caltex oil company in order to put his children through Catholic schools. For O’Reilly, that was first St. Brigid’s, with Sister Mary Lurana, and then the all-boys’ Chaminade Catholic High School. Though his burgeoning boldness proved to be a handful for his parents and teachers, O’Reilly says their lessons weren’t lost on him: “There is no doubt that the way I think today has its roots in my traditional home and in the strict Catholic schools I attended,” he reflects in his aptly titled memoir, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity (Broadway Books, 2008). “I remember nearly everything about St. Brigid’s school. Those were great times, and they solidified my relationship with Catholicism because everything was tied in together: memorable classmates, coming of age, a charitable philosophy, and a sense that life has a purpose if you live it generously.”

In the Pursuit of Fairness At his Confirmation, O’Reilly stood up in front of his church and took the name Michael, in honor of St. Michael the Archangel. “When I was growing up, he captured my imagination,” O’Reilly tells St. Anthony Messenger. “He was really impressive, wielding that big sword to chase the demons back into hell where they certainly belonged.” After graduating from Chaminade in 1967, O’Reilly attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he played football and earned a degree in history. He taught English and history at Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami, Florida, for two years before moving back to the Northeast to pursue a master’s degree in broadcast journalism at Boston University. O’Reilly’s early TV career was scattered across the country, with reporting and anchoring positions in Scranton, Pennsylvania; Dallas; Denver; and Hartford, Connecticut. Finally, five years later in 1980, he returned to New York to anchor a local CBS news program, 7:30 Magazine. That led to a promotion as CBS news correspondent and then ABC news cor3 0 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

respondent, where he worked alongside the late Peter Jennings. Then between 1989 and 1995, O’Reilly sat in another anchor chair, this time for Inside Edition. He took a sabbatical from the broadcast business in 1996 to pursue a second master’s degree in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Now that he was armed with that knowledge and experience, Fox News came calling in October 1996, asking him to anchor The O’Reilly Report, which was later renamed The O’Reilly Factor. Like his Confirmation namesake, O’Reilly wields his sword in the form of a microphone and pen. Beyond his nightly broadcast, he hosted The Radio Factor until 2009 and is currently on a countrywide “Bolder & Fresher” speaking tour. He is also the author of numerous best-selling books. Take a look at some of their titles—Culture Warrior, The No Spin Zone, Who’s Looking Out for You?, Pinheads and Patriots—and O’Reilly’s purpose is clear: to hold the “villains” of modern day accountable. “Some will call me delusional, but I truly believe that I was put on this earth for a reason, and confronting evil is that purpose,” O’Reilly writes. “Imposing a sense of fairness on the world is what drives me in my profession and, basically, in my life.” O’Reilly cites Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and George Washington as important role models, along with Blessed Mother Teresa and several saints: “I admire people like St. Francis who were able to persuade people just basically on good works that they really had a view of life that should be emulated,” he says. “And then St. Paul, of course, who is the architect of the modern Church. You have to admire his sheer persistence and energy and ability to get his message out.”

A Balanced Approach O’Reilly labels himself an independent. Beyond extensive research into topics—a true historian at heart—he also lets his faith guide his judgments. “In what I think is right on public policy, I certainly want a perspective that obeys a certain amount of morality—you don’t kill people, you don’t steal, and you also look out for other people on the same level that you look out for yourself,” he explains. “So I do incorporate the Catholic belief system, the Christian belief system, into my public policy thinking.” But there’s a difference between the Christian and Catholic systems, he says, and it’s St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTOS LEFT TO RIGHT: CNS/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, ELIAS GOLDENSKY/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WARREN K. LEFFLER/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS, MATHEW BRADY/US NATIONAL ARCHIVES, CNS/KNA, CNS/OCTAVIO DURAN, MATTHIAS TRISCHLER

Bill O’Reilly’s Role Models

Abraham Lincoln

Franklin Roosevelt

George Washington

Blessed Mother Teresa

this confusion that causes one of the major “evils” of the day: secularism. “I keep telling people that Christianity is a philosophy first, and then if you choose that Jesus is God, it becomes a religion,” he explains. “That’s lost on many, many people, but that was the essence of my Christmas battle with these people who are trying to diminish Christmas.” He’s referring to his often-spoken-of “war on Christmas” he says society is waging, in which it is trying to do away with the seasonal traditions, declaring them impositions of religion. Be it Christmas, religious freedom, or a slew of other hot topics he touches on regularly, O’Reilly says he sees life as a constant struggle between good and evil, and his purpose as confronting that evil.

Sticking to the Core O’Reilly hasn’t shied away from holding the Catholic Church accountable for its actions, either. In 2002, he repeatedly called for Boston Cardinal Bernard Law’s resignation—and imprisonment—for his part in the clergy sexabuse scandal. Though he’s vocal about the Church’s defects, he doesn’t let them overshadow his belief. “I think I’m smart enough to understand that the Church is not the people who run it,” he says. “It’d be like leaving America because you didn’t like a certain president. The Church is based on a theology, and that theology has not changed. So why would I leave a theology Fr anciscanMedia.org

Robert Kennedy

Winston Churchill

St. Francis

that I believe is beneficial to mankind? “I’m able to separate the theology of Jesus— what he preached, what he taught—from the people, the human beings, who make the decisions in the Church. Some of these decisions are good, some are not, but I’m not going to throw out the theology because I don’t like some of the actions of the men.” While the theology of the Church isn’t changing, O’Reilly believes the Church could become a little more bold and fresh itself to help keep more of its adherents in the fold. “I think the Church has got to basically realize there’s a problem, number one,” he says. “Just like anything else, if you’re not having success, you’ve got to find out why. People are leaving the Church, Church attendance is way down, they can’t recruit priests. There’s a myriad of problems. But these problems can be fixed. But you have to acknowledge they exist. Then you say, ‘All right, how can we stop that?’ And that requires leadership, bold leadership.” Bold and fresh leadership, says O’Reilly. “Obviously, leadership means that in issues the Church feels strongly about—abortion, gay marriage, things like that—its position has to be articulated to the public in a way that’s relevant to the country. In the past, in America, the clerics have been hesitant to do that. In individual parishes, I think the sermonizing has to be updated [to show] this is why our faith is important in this modern age.” O’Reilly interviewed Cardinal Timothy M.

St. Paul

“I truly believe that I was put on this earth for a reason, and confronting evil is that purpose.” —Bill O’Reilly

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Killing Jesus, a follow-up to O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy bestsellers, will be released September 24, 2013.

Dolan of New York on his show back in March 2012. And though he commends Cardinal Dolan’s leadership thus far, O’Reilly says he thinks the cardinal could take it a step further. “I like [Cardinal] Dolan. I think he’s a good leader,” says O’Reilly. “I’d like to see him get out there more and tell the public about the good things the Catholic Church does, because I don’t think that’s widely known now. It’s a public-relations battle that the Church has to wage if they want to regain some momentum.”

Turn the Other Cheek

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O’Reilly has no interest in waging his own PR battle to gain adherents. He doesn’t need to. The O’Reilly Factor is the highest-rated news show on cable television, with a nightly average of 2.8 million viewers. The Hollywood Reporter has named him one of 2013’s 35 most powerful people in media. “[If people] don’t like me, that’s fine,” he says. “I’m not in a business of persuading people to like me. I find that often if people don’t like me, they don’t Click here to listen really know why. In the rare to more of our occasion that somebody will interview with confront me—which rarely Bill O’Reilly. happens because I’m 6′4″ and they don’t do that—I’ll say, ‘Well, what is the beef? What don’t you like? What do you disagree with?’ And they rarely can articulate what they don’t like. Sometimes they’ll have something, but very rarely.” Whether you like him or not, you can’t deny O’Reilly’s passion. “I always reacted when I saw someone treated unfairly,” he writes. “It is that passion, more than anything else, that

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has made me successful. Folks can feel it through their television screens. You might not like me, but it’s obvious there’s a real person looking right back at you. Sometimes, though, he’s cranky.” Luckily for this interviewer, despite our early morning interview, O’Reilly was anything but cranky. Straightforward, yes, unrelenting, no doubt, but when it comes to talking about politics, who isn’t? And when it comes to talking about religion, “proud” also needs to be added to the list, says O’Reilly. “I think you should be proud of your religion and your faith,” he tells me. “If people ask you about it, you should explain why you’re Catholic and what the good is of it. I don’t think it should be something you keep secret, but in this day and age, it’s very difficult to approach people who don’t want to be approached and discuss religion. You can do it if the circumstances present themselves, but you have to do it in a very benign, nonjudgmental way.” O’Reilly has come a long way since Sister Mary Lurana’s third-grade class. And while his bold and fresh ways have only solidified with age, so, too, has his faith, which he isn’t afraid to fall back on to help him in his fight. “Life is unfair, and nothing is going to change that,” he writes. “But if we ourselves strive to be fair, things will balance out. . . . It all goes back to Moses and Jesus, doesn’t it? Love your neighbor as you love yourself. When people ask me what drives my fierce work ethic, why I work so hard when I don’t have to anymore, I simply tell them that I’m still on a quest to make sure others get treated fairly.”

The Quest Continues O’Reilly will soon highlight the quest of another influential leader: Jesus. During the interview, I asked him if he is working on a follow-up to his best-selling Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy books. He shied away from giving any details, but he did predict I’d “be very interested.” A few weeks later, news broke that O’Reilly’s next book will be Killing Jesus, which will “tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth as a beloved and controversial young revolutionary brutally killed by Roman soldiers,” according to the publisher, Henry Holt and Co. O’Reilly was right: we are very interested. A Rachel Zawila is an assistant editor of this publication. She has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

EDITORIAL

Our Role in Rape Culture When I was a college freshman, one of the first things I remember being told was not to walk across campus alone at night. At the time, this made perfect sense; after all, a solo teenage girl heading to her dorm in the dark was subject to all manner of horrific fates, most notably sexual assault. Of course, a few weeks into the semester, I found myself walking home alone quite frequently—from the gym, the library, the newspaper. I knew I was taking a chance, and I did my best to walk with confident strides, keep my eyes and ears open, and be ready to run, scream, or defend myself with whatever resources I could muster. I knew that if something did happen, I would have brought it on myself by taking this risk of being a woman alone in the dark. Without realizing it, I had become part of rape culture.

Naming the Core Issues The concept of rape culture pervaded the news this past March, after the verdict in the Steubenville, Ohio, case in which two high school boys raped an incapacitated girl and then went online to brag, post photos, and otherwise degrade their victim. Much of the media coverage of the verdict focused on the ways the boys’ lives had been altered forever, their names tarnished, and their futures ruined. The female victim? Lost in the shuffle. If Steubenville seems like an extreme case of gender-based injustice, it’s not. It’s simply one of the most publicized. The fact is, women continue to be second-class citizens in the United States and around the world, marginalized politically, Fr ancisca n Media .org

socially, and domestically in ways both big and small. These acts are not always rape, but they absolutely are a part of rape culture. We’re well versed in the physical aspects of rape, and fortunately there is increasing awareness of the emotional and spiritual consequences. But what remains lacking is the acknowledgment that those outcomes—humiliation, intimidation, feelings of shame and worthlessness—are perpetuated every day as part of a culture that routinely tells women they are weaker and less valuable than men. Take the college-campus example. How many freshman boys—no, young men—are told not to walk alone? How many are made fearful of what might happen to them after the sun goes down, or if they’ve had too much to drink? How many have been explicitly told that a teenage girl is a holy creation that should be not only respected but treasured? How many teenage girls have been told that? The fact is, we teach girls how not to be raped and spend a lot less effort teaching boys not to rape. And almost none of that teaching, on either side, relates to the core issue of why all of this matters: the essential God-given dignity of a human being. After all, as stated in Genesis 1:27, “God created humankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (NRSV).

A Pervasive Problem That we even still talk about these topics in the context of “women’s rights,” and not just human rights, is telling. We have made a distinction and created a paradigm in which our cul-

ture seems inexorably stuck. When Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook and thus one very influential woman, wrote Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, her promotion of the book quickly morphed into a defense of it. She made people uncomfortable with the observation that women sometimes don’t pursue business success as aggressively as their male colleagues because when women act as strong leaders, they tend to be deemed “bossy” for the same behavior that lands a man a promotion. That reality is part of rape culture. The fact that women still earn about 77 cents to the dollar a man makes is part of rape culture. Obviously, the hypersexualization of women in the media is a huge part of rape culture, but not everything is so blatant. When politicians and activists spew rhetoric about women, reducing half the population to a bargaining chip, that’s rape culture. (And both pro-life and pro-choice advocates are leaders of the pack on this front.) When a parish prohibits girls from serving on the altar during holy days or special occasions, even though it technically is within their rights to do so, that’s part of rape culture. We want to think our Church is above the fray, but it’s not. We want to think we as individuals are above the fray, but we’re not. If we stop and look at our own behaviors and thought processes, we’ll discover that intentionally or not, each of us has played a role in allowing rape culture to continue. Once we recognize that, it’s our duty as Catholics—as human beings—to play a role in ending it. —Jennifer Scroggins Ju ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 3 3

Angels on the Battlefield 150 years after Gettysburg, we remember Catholic sisters who ministered to Civil War soldiers. BY ELIZABETH BOOKSER BARKLEY

WO YEARS after the first shots were fired in the United States Civil War, thousands of war-weary Americans joined a grieving president on a battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They were war-weary because few had imagined that those shots fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, would have resulted in a protracted war for which neither army was prepared nor equipped. They were grieving because the human cost had been astounding, and there was no resolution in sight. For many, including Catholic sisters from many communities—nurses by training—it was a time of heroic service. In his brief and memorable address at the Gettysburg cemetery, Abraham Lincoln told those gathered that “this great civil war” was testing whether this nation “dedicated to the 3 4 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

proposition that all men are created equal . . . can long endure.” In dedicating a portion of the field “as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live,” he said, the world “can never forget what they did here.”

Sisters on the Battlefield The remarkable women who nursed soldiers wounded in that war—or who consoled them as they met their death—are worthy of memory, too. Many of the nurses were Catholic sisters from 21 congregations who answered the pleas of governors, mayors, and bishops to contribute their nursing skills and compassion to heal soldiers on both sides of the conflict. These women certainly caught Lincoln’s attention and admiration. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

(Far left) The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863, was the war’s turning point. This barn, destroyed during battle, now rebuilt, carries the shadow of a Union monument, cast at sunrise.

CNS PHOTO/CHRIS HEISEY, THE CATHOLIC WITNESS

“Of all the forms of charity and benevolence seen in the crowded wards of the hospitals,” he wrote in his diary, “those of Catholic sisters were among the most efficient. I never knew whence they came or what was the name of their order. . . . As they went from cot to cot, distributing the medicine prescribed, or administering the cooling, strengthening draughts as directed, they were veritable angels of mercy. . . . How oftentimes have I seen them exorcise pain by the presence of their words.” In Lincoln’s words, they were all “sisters of mercy.” But to many soldiers, these unpaid religious women were, no matter what their order, “sisters of charity.”

PHOTOS COURTESY SISTERS OF CHARITY ARCHIVES

(Left) Sisters from many communities went to the battlefields to tend to the wounded, including, here, one of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton’s Sisters of Charity.

Sister Anthony O’Connell, SC, went from one battlefield to the next, caring and praying for the wounded. Her medical bag remains as testimony.

Sister Anthony’s Mission One of the most famous was actually a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio: Sister Anthony O’Connell. She ministered not only in hospiFr anciscanMedia.org

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CNS PHOTO/COURTESY UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA

Sisters, such as this Daughter of Charity—one of 300—ministered to soldiers on both sides.

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other sister-nurses brought knowledge and experience unmatched by many of the army doctors and other volunteers. At the start of the Civil War, nursing was not yet a profession. There were only 68 hospitals in the country, according to Sister Judith Metz, archivist for the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. “The ‘nurses’ in these crude institutions were frequently tough charwomen, undisciplined and untrained, for whom nursing was a distasteful drudgery rather than a humanitarian calling. Catholic congregations of sisters founded hospitals which provided the only good hospital nursing at that time,” she says. No wonder Sister Anthony and other sisternurses were in demand. They immediately and generously answered the call for volunteers. Two months after war was declared, five Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, including Sister Anthony, were invited by the archbishop and mayor of Cincinnati to Camp Dennison, situated on a railroad line 15 miles outside Cincinnati, “to attend to the sick soldiers, the worst form of measles had broken out among them and they needed immediate attention,” according to Sister Anthony’s journals. Many of the 12,000 Union soldiers stationed there suffered or died from measles before they were able to set foot on a battlefield. “Twice as many Civil War soldiers died of disease as of battle wounds,” writes historian St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTO COURTESY SISTERS OF CHARITY ARCHIVES

tal wards, but also in camps to measles-plagued soldiers on battlefields, in field hospitals, and on floating surgery ships. In his eulogy for Sister Anthony at her funeral in 1897, Bishop Thomas Byrne of Nashville, Tennessee, one of the cities where she nursed the wounded during the Civil War, reminded mourners of her motivation: “Christ was her inspiration, and for this reason she trod the battlefield and entered hospitals pregnant with pestilence. Her presence was more to those brave sons of America than that of an angel. Yet she was only a type of many.” Born Mary O’Connell in 1814 in Ireland, little could Sister Anthony have imagined that after her mother died she would emigrate to the United States—only decades into the life of this new nation. When she joined Elizabeth Seton’s Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland, at age 21, she bound herself to an American community whose motto proclaims, “The charity of Christ urges us.” At that time she could not have foreseen that this charity would urge her out of her convent into a conflict that, in four years, would slay 620,000 citizens. To this conflict, Sister Anthony and 600

Continuing the Service Tradition

tion ends at fourth grade. They provide some vocational services and an outreach program for abused women. They also conduct a violence-prevention/ education program, supported with funds from a Cincinnati-based health-care system. They call the program La Pax inicia con una sonrisa (“Peace begins with a smile”). “Basically, we serve the community in a

Drew Gilpin Faust. “The war, Union Surgeon General William A. Hammond later observed, was fought at the ‘end of the medical middle ages.’ Neither the germ theory nor the nature and necessity of antisepsis was yet understood. “A wave of epidemic disease—measles, mumps, and smallpox—swept through the armies of volunteers in the early months of war, then yielded precedence to the intractable camp illnesses: diarrhea and dysentery, typhoid and malaria.” “The battlefield of Shiloh,” wrote Sister Anthony, “presented the most frightening and disgusting sights that was ever my lot to witness.” Many of the mortal injuries were caused by

a new generation of rifles, ammunition, and cannons introduced in what historian Victoria L. Holder labels “the first modern war.” This war had new rifles using bullets called minié balls that “were designed to spin as they were fired from the barrel, giving them more speed and accuracy.” These balls caused “94 percent of all the Civil War injuries.” “Caregivers had no knowledge of how to suture major blood vessels or repair fractured bones, so amputation was performed in an attempt to save lives,” Holder reports, but amputation was no guarantee of survival, since “approximately one out of every four young men died from amputation.” Many soldiers never made it to field hospi-

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PHOTO COURTESY SISTERS OF CHARITY

century and a half separates Sister Sarah Mulligan from Sister Anthony O’Connell, but Sister Sarah is spurred on by the same “charity of Christ” that motivated sister-nurses during the Civil War. The 74-year-old Sister of Charity, who by now might feel entitled to retire, still has a passion for her nursing and administrative work with Mayan indigenous people in Guatemala—a ministry she embraced in 2004. Sister Sarah and a staff of 24 work in a clinic opened in 2005, providing complete outpatient health services—including a laboratory, pharmacy, and dental care—at minimal cost to low-income patients. “Although the average annual income in Guatemala is listed as $6,300, the truth is that six of every 10 persons receive $730 a year or less,” she says. In the aftermath of a 36-year civil war in Guatemala that ended in 1996, the country is still plagued by economic woes and violence that make life difficult for the people her clinic serves. “The Mayan people have been repressed and abused for years,” she says. “They have not had sufficient opportunities for education, health, and employment.” In addition to ministering to her patients’ physical needs through regular care and a diabetes-education program, Sister Sarah and her staff have made education a priority. Working with the government, they have enrolled over 200 adults in weekend classes to provide an education from first grade through high school in a country where the average educa-

variety of ways to help them live in a more peaceful environment,” Sister Sarah says. Although Guatemala is known for its high level of violence, Sister Sarah feels safe in her neighborhood, which is a 10-minute walk from the clinic. “Every day,” she reflects, “is like responding to the grace of the moment.” Her clinic serves about 15,000 patients a year.

Past retirement age by some reckonings, Sister Sarah started working in 2004 among Mayans, including this girl, in a Guatemalan clinic. “Peace begins with a smile” is her motto.

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tals. Winston Groom, in his book Shiloh 1862, quotes a survivor of Shiloh’s two-day massacre: “The blue and the gray were mingled together, side by side. Beneath a great oak tree I counted the corpses of 15 men, lying as though during the night, suffering from wounds, they had crawled together for mutual assistance, and there all had died.”

‘Our Nation’s Best Blood’

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Elizabeth Bookser Barkley is chairwoman of the Department of English and Modern Languages at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was a recipient of the 2011 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award from the Sisters of Charity. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

CNS PHOTO/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Little wonder that words failed Sister Anthony in her remembrance of that battle: “Whilst at Shiloh we were often obliged to move further up the river, owing to the terrible stench from the dead Click here for more informabodies on the battlefield, but tal Digi as tion on sisters and their what we endured on the field Extr ministries. of battle whilst gathering up the wounded from among the dead is simply beyond description. At one time there were seven-hundred of these poor creatures crowded into one boat.” Sister Anthony’s first patient on the hospital boat was a “poor fellow whose nose had been shot entirely off, and was nearly missed, and when found, was placed in a hogpen, the only place of shelter and “More lovely than repose remaining. Before he could anything I have ever be brought to the boat, he had lost blood enough, one would seen in art, so long think, to cause death; his devoted to the illusclothes were saturated, the had even reached his tration of love, mercy, blood boots.” and charity, are the One of Sister Anthony’s companions, Sister Theodosia, pictures that remain provides more details of the scenes on the boats that carried of those modest wounded upriver to hospitals in sisters going on their the Nashville, Louisville, and Cincinnati: “At one time our boat’s deck looked like errands of mercy ‘wounded’ everywhere! I among the suffering aamslaughter-house, sure some of our nation’s best blood was poured out on that deck. There seemed to be and dying.” scores of wounded and dying. I have seen Dr. —Lincoln’s diary Blackman cut off arms and limbs by the dozen and consign them to a watery grave. Oh, Sister, many of these men were young and beautiful who had left their dear mothers, to die, pains and anguish, often alone.” How these sisters’ routines—communal and private—must have been altered by their acceptance of this previously unimagined ministry. At home in Cincinnati, though, nurses probably had a less predictable pattern of community living than sisters in other ministries.

Nevertheless, theirs would have been knit together by a pattern of prayer, meditation, spiritual reading, adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, daily examination of conscience, and, just before bed, preparation for the next day’s morning meditation. Although Sisters of Charity were not cloistered, frequently interacting with patients, doctors, and merchants in the city, the structured world of these sister-nurses was turned topsy-turvy by the living and working conditions of the war. The sister-nurses’ “community room” was shared with sick and dying soldiers, overworked surgeons—lay and military—and thousands of other volunteers. Their “chapel” was a makeshift one, wherever they could carve out a spot for a quick and silent prayer among the moans and sobs of their patients. In an era of anti-Catholic feeling, women religious, like Sister Anthony, were at first met with skepticism: Who were these strangelygarbed women, professing an unfamiliar religion? Early suspicions to the contrary, they were not mingling or proselytizing among these wounded, terrified soldiers. They were there as nurses, not as preachers. Lincoln’s diary entry suggests that theirs was “value-added” nursing. “More lovely than anything I have ever seen in art,” he writes, “so long devoted to the illustration of love, mercy, and charity, are the pictures that remain of those modest sisters going on their errands of mercy among the suffering and dying. Gentle and womanly yet with the courage of soldiers leading a forlorn hope, to sustain them in contact with such horrors.” What the sisters brought to these scarring four years in the country’s history was efficient and compassionate care of the body. But it was also, indirectly, care of the soul. When the faith of so many soldiers and survivors was teetering, perhaps the sisters’ reverent care for those at the end of life bore quiet witness to their well-grounded belief in a compassionate God and, in the words of St. Paul to the Philippians, the promise of “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.” A

YEAR OF FAITH

❘ BY MARY LYNNE RAPIEN

A Life of Sacraments “Without the liturgy and the sacraments, the profession of faith would lack efficacy, because it would lack the grace which supports Christian witness.” Pope Benedict XVI, Door of Faith, 11

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Convinced that “the liturgy is the life of the Church,” Blessed Carlos Rodríguez (1918–1963) made it his life mission to proclaim the good news. He was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, and his first Communion marked the beginning of a love for the Church that would last a lifetime. A severe gastrointestinal disorder prevented him from finishing college, but Carlos used his meager salary as an office clerk to publish Liturgy and Christian Culture magazines to help promote greater understanding of the significance of the liturgy. His illness may have made him physically weak, but Carlos’ spiritual drive remained strong, enabling him to spend his short life spreading Christ’s message with joy. He was beatified in 2001.

third cord binding us together. We have been a source of grace for each other. In 1984, I contracted breast cancer. Before surgery, I received the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. When the priest laid hands on me, a sense of peace entered my being and has remained. Regardless of the outcome, I knew all would be well. Every New Year’s Eve for 40 years, we have celebrated Mass with friends in our home around midnight. We give thanks for the year past and ask for grace for the year ahead. God has given us the sacraments and liturgy to draw us into deeper relationship with him and to make our faith fruitful. Who would refuse to accept such grace-filled gifts? A

Guided by Grace Lord, open our hearts to your good news. Fill us with your grace and guide us to be stewards of your word. In all that we say and do, may we share the message of your love with all whom we meet.

Mary Lynne Rapien is a clinical counselor in private practice in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a catechist and Scripture teacher in her parish and a writer for Sunday Homily Helps and Weekday Homily Helps. Ju ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 3 9

ILLUSTRATION BY JULIE LONNEMAN

am sure there are many people who have a deep and active faith in God without ever hearing of the Catholic sacraments or the liturgy. There are countless others who cling to the faith despite years without a priest. However, being born into a family of faith, I don’t remember a time without the sacraments and prayer. They have marked the milestones in my family from birth to death. They have also provided the daily grace needed for my faith journey. In that journey, there have been some mountaintop experiences where God was intimate and faith secure. There were other periods of darkness and doubt where my faith was challenged to the core. Then the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation and the sacred Scriptures renewed and strengthened my faith and gave me the grace needed to get back on track. Although we are baptized and confirmed only once, the effects of these sacraments continue to affect us daily. Every time we dip our fingers into holy water and make the sign of the cross, we profess our dying and rising to new life in Christ. The gifts of the Holy Spirit offered at Confirmation are released only as we have the grace to embrace them. The Holy Spirit, alive in us, enables us to have a fruitful faith. My marriage to my husband, Ben, was not a one-time “yes” 53 years ago but is a daily recommitment of covenant love. Christ has been the

BLESSED CARLOS RODRÍGUEZ

Hope

Springs Eternal Alzheimer’s and depression sufferers face a difficult journey—as do their caretakers. But healing and hope can be found in the Psalms. B Y PAT R I C I A R O B E R T S O N

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he iconic 1993 movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, portrays situations that endlessly repeat themselves with no resolution or recollection of the past. Sound familiar? In fact, over the last few years, the United States Congress has enacted the same battles and played the identical budget-and-deficit game, kicking the can to the next year—and the next—without making any real progress. There have been times when I’ve wanted to crawl back into bed and hibernate until spring. I have occasionally felt stuck—every step forward

preceded two steps backward. There were days when I paid one bill only to receive two more in the mail. Haven’t you felt that way at times? Haven’t you had days at work where all your efforts seemed in vain? Times when you seemed to fight the same battle over and over again with no end in sight? Times when you thought that maybe the animal kingdom has it right: it’s better to sleep your way through winter? Murray’s movie character, Phil Connors, is a cynical weatherman caught in a February 2 time warp. Once he recognizes this, he uses what he learns the first time to take advantage St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

of that situation the next time. Although he begins every day with a clean slate, he usually spends it on meaningless activities. When he pursues love seriously, however, he uses his previous knowledge to better the lives of others. His relationship with Rita (MacDowell) breaks the spell of endless Groundhog Days, enabling him to discover what is most important in life and the benefits of doing good rather than evil. Connors experiences his own form of hell on earth because his initial evil involves no consequences. Eventually, he realizes that doing good is its own reward. Fr anciscanMedia.org

Alzheimer’s Can Be like That Dealing with individuals who have Alzheimer’s disease—especially during its early and middle stages—can feel like Groundhog Day. You keep answering the same questions but with no resolution, no remembrance by your loved one that you have already explained this repeatedly. Caregivers can feel frustrated because they feel that they are getting nowhere fast. In fact, they are losing ground as they realize that the disease’s progression will only make things worse. Their time spent thoroughly explaining something feels wasted when they must frequently answer the same ques-

tion. There seems to be no redemption for those who feel trapped in a loved one’s downward spiral. Family members and caregivers can deal creatively with such circumstances, just as Murray’s character does. Instead of repeating themselves, they may use humor and diversions as the disease progresses, knowing their loved one won’t remember. This frustrating situation can still be depressing: this feeling of getting nowhere fast. Many of us like to feel a sense of accomplishment, that what we’re doing serves a purpose and is going somewhere, moving us forward in life. We can get pretty frustrated when we J u ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 4 1

In addition to psalms of lament (approximately 50), we find laments in the Books of Job (3:11), Jeremiah (15:18), and Habakkuk (3:16). The entire Book of Lamentations expresses the confusion and suffering felt after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Psalms of lament include 4:7–9; 6:3; 7:2; 10:1; 22:2–3; 25:16–20; 38:12; 71:9; 88:4; 92:2–4; and 130:1. Victory over one’s enemies is sought in 79:1; 31:14; and 6:11. Lament is not a failure of faith, but an act of faith. We cry out directly to God because deep down we know that our relationship with God counts; it counts to us and it counts to God. Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, seeks pity from Jesus (Mark 10:47); Jesus prays that this cup might pass him by (Mark 14:36); and he dies while praying Psalm 22 (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34). —Adapted from “Biblical Laments: Prayer out of Pain,” by Michael Guinan, OFM (St. Anthony Messenger, March 2002).

feel that we’re not making progress or going backward. As I get older and start to deal with my own age-related health problems (knees that no longer allow me to run up and down stairs, ears that ring when no outside sound is present, and bones that are hollowing out), I have started to wonder: Is this all that I have to look forward to, only gradual decay and struggling to maintain what I have against future loss? How can I break this cycle?

Help from the Psalms Psalms of lament can perfectly express such feelings of frustration and despair. Almost a third of the Bible’s psalms are laments of individuals, indicating the prevalence and universality of such situations where individuals feel the need to call upon God in their sorrow and suffering. Psalm 13, for example, follows the normal structure of a lament, with a complaint: “How long, LORD? Will you utterly 4 2 ❘ J u ly 2 0 1 3

forget me? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I carry sorrow in my soul, grief in my heart day after day? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (vv. 2–3); followed by an appeal: “Look upon me, answer me, LORD, my God! Give light to my eyes lest I sleep in death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed,’ lest my foes rejoice at my downfall” (vv. 4–5); and ending in an expression of confidence in God’s help: “I trust in your faithfulness. Grant my heart joy in your help, that I may sing of the LORD, ‘How good our God has been to me!’” (v. 6). What beauty in this simplicity and sincerity of expression! We don’t know

the specific source of the writer’s distress, but clearly it was protracted. Not only will the psalmist’s enemies triumph, but his entire life’s work is called into question if his enemies correctly interpret his death as divine judgment. The psalmist prays for healing as a sign of God’s favor and that his faith has been justified. “How long” is repeated four times, indicating the severity of his troubles. God appears to have forgotten all about him. God has even hidden his face. The writer is in pain, which his enemies’ rejoicing only reinforces. He feels close to death. He clearly is depressed.

The Breakthrough The psalmist doesn’t remain in despair. Rather, he puts his trust in the Lord and God’s faithfulness. What the New American Bible translates as “faithfulness” is rendered as “steadfast love” in the Revised Standard Version, emphasizing faithfulness in loving. The psalmist’s trust leads to song: “I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

bountifully with me” (v. 6, RSV). This dynamic appears commonly in lament psalms. They end not in despair, but with confidence that God has heard the speaker’s plea and will respond. Some psalmists are so confident of God’s action that they respond as if God had already acted upon their request. People caught in situational depression brought on by life circumstances— as opposed to clinical depression caused by a chemical imbalance and requiring medication—may find it hard to remember that life wasn’t always this way. There have also been good times. Such depression can feel as though it has gone on forever, without any remembered happy times. It colors our present as well as our past, which is seen only through a cloud of misery. Situational depression can rob the future of hope. People can feel trapped with no way out. But even in depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s, or other age-related chronic ailments, there is redemption and hope.

ing more medication rather than dealing with underlying questions of meaning, self-worth, loss of connection to loved ones, and loss of love. If our self-worth is rooted in being beloved children of God, then even when we lose our abilities, when we are stuck in frustrating cycles, when we have nothing to look forward to except more loss, we will be able to rise above despair. This is doable thanks to our God who makes all things possible. We will be able to see our losses in this life as gain in our spiritual life—things that bring us closer to our God. Present amidst the winter snow, hope springs eternal: hope for spring— for new life arising out of the old. Our God can turn winter depression into spring song. That’s what happened for the psalmist, and it will happen again if we put our trust in God. A Patricia Robertson, DMin, has been a chaplain at a retirement community for 12 years. Previously a pastoral coordinator and director of family ministry, she lives in Michigan and has three adult children.

Click here for more articles and resources on psalms of lament.

tal Digi as t Ex r

ANSWERS TO PETE AND REPEAT 1. An extra tree is in the background. 2. Scruffy has joined Pete and Sis. 3. Pete is wearing sunglasses. 4. Sis is wearing a two-piece bathing suit. 5. There is a cloud in the sky. 6. Pete’s swim trunks have a stripe. 7. The bush in the background is gone. 8. Instructions are painted on the pool.

Love Is the Answer Where does this hope come from? It was love that brought Phil Connors out of an endless cycle of meaningless repetition in Groundhog Day. It was love that led him from selfish ways and into redemption. Trust in God’s steadfast love helped the writer of Psalm 13. It’s the same love that can help us break out of the cycle of despair. Such love and concern for others moves us beyond focusing on our own troubles, enabling us to accept the love of God who always loves us first. This is love in its purest form. We all have bad days, and for some those days go on longer than for others. If our self-worth arises only from accomplishments—getting ahead— then what are we to do when we are no longer able to do what we once did, when we are losing abilities rather than gaining? Older adults often become depressed as they lose more and more physical abilities and start to ask, “Why doesn’t God take me?” Far too often, the medical community responds by prescribFr anciscanMedia.org

Our One Great Act of Fidelity Waiting for Christ in the Eucharist RONALD ROLHEISER; READ BY JIM LUKEN

In this deeply personal book, Ronald Rolheiser delves into the history and meaning of the Eucharist, drawing upon the insights of various Scripture scholars, theologians, and Church teachings. With warmth and great insight, he reflects on his own particular Roman Catholic upbringing and the centrality that the Eucharist has within that tradition. Our One Great Act of Fidelity is an investigation into the ways people secure their faith and belief, and discover true intimacy with God and one another. ABOUT THE AUTHOR RONALD ROLHEISER is a specialist in the field of spirituality and is currently president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. Father Rolheiser writes a weekly column that appears in more than 90 Catholic publications. He is the author of The Holy Longing, The Restless Heart, Forgotten Among the Lillies, The Shattered Lantern, and Against an Infinite Horizon, all available in audio format from Franciscan Media. Item #A36545 | ISBN 978-1-61636-545-5 | $29.99 28 W. Liberty St., Cincinnati, OH 45202 1-800-488-0488 Fax: 513-241-1197 Order online at

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SHORT TAKE

❘ AUTHOR

Poetry as Prayer Poetry and prayer are kindred spirits, says award-winning writer Joyce Rupp. “Much like a verse from the Bible, just a few lines from a poem can refocus my intention for how I want to live as a woman of love and service,” says Joyce Rupp, OSM. Indeed, this award-winning poet and author has made a career out of exploring the bond between prayer and poetry. In her most recent book, My Soul Feels Lean: Poems of Loss and Restoration (Sorin Books), her poetry feels like prayer and sounds like music. As she maintains, poetry can bring us closer to the divine. Recently Joyce discussed the poetry-prayer connection in an interview with St. Anthony Messenger. Q: How are poetry and prayer linked? A: In my book Prayer, I suggest that praying is an encounter with the Holy One. This connection happens whether I am reading or writing poetry. A good poem draws me inward, takes me to that place inside where eternal love resides. There is always something in the poem that leads me to find further meaning and inspiration to live a Gospel-oriented life. Of course, not all poetry is prayer. Much depends on the focus or content of the poem. Something I value about poetry is being able to gather up an entire essay and offer its message in a few concise and powerful verses. The Bible contains this kind of poetry in the Psalms. But poems without religious language equally inspire and influence my life with God.

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PHOTO BY RODGER ROUTH

Q: What inspires you to write poetry? A: Almost anything or anyone can be a source of a poem—goldfinches, autumn trees, dying friends, people I meet in my travels, failures and successes, relationship joys and struggles. For instance, my latest book, My Soul Feels Lean, contains a poem about visiting a 90-year-old friend. She cooked chicken soup for me and served a delicious meal. When I arrived home, I wrote about how humbled my independent self felt when someone much older was waiting on me. In another poem, “Bittersweet,” I was on a walk one day when I felt led to leave the concrete trail to explore a brambly

woods nearby. There, happiness washed over me when I spied a small sapling entwined with vibrantly red berries, a visual gift I received because I left the secure path I usually walked. Q: How do you go about writing a poem? A: I rely on awareness. I try to listen to life—all facets of it—interiorly and exteriorly. When something stirs and keeps nibbling at my attention, I eventually sit down and write about it in my poetry journal. Maybe I just scribble a few words or phrases at first. I usually do this after my morning meditation. On future days I continually return to this jotting, sitting quietly with it, adding more thoughts and deleting some until the poem finally speaks as succinctly as possible to what I want to convey. Inspiration is essential for me, but so is editing. Most of all, I often turn to the presence of divine wisdom when I write, praying to be open to receive what is meant to be revealed to me and through me.

Q: How does poetry feed your soul? A: I can’t imagine my life without it. The past year or so, I’ve been memorizing certain poems or verses. I carry them with me interiorly when I travel so I can be reminded to serve generously and kindly. For years, I have read a poem a day. My personal growth has evolved significantly because of this.

By Joyce Rupp At surprising times the melody of my buoyant soul swells to unexpected immensity, flows through me like April leaves humming in the breeze. Merrily the song sways, swings without a care, in tune with the mysterious music sailing through the Universe. This unbounded harmony tosses my well-calculated life into tailspins of ecstasy, lifts me high in happy pursuit of the singing stars who know my soul’s melody by heart. Then all within me becomes calm and I settle once more into my soul’s silent glow. EXCERPTED FROM MY SOUL FEELS LEAN BY JOYCE RUPP. © 2013 BY AVE MARIA PRESS, P.O. BOX 428, NOTRE DAME, IN 46556. USED WITH PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER.

Christopher Heffron is an assistant editor and the poetry editor of St. Anthony Messenger. Fr ancisca n Media .org

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Q: Which poets—famous or otherwise—move you the most? A: My most beloved poet is Rabindranath Tagore, India’s first poet laureate. His ability to speak of God through common language and experience never fails to leave me with a message for my spiritual transformation. In my youth, it was William Wordsworth, Jessica Powers, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and May Sarton. I turn repeatedly to Mary Oliver, Ted Kooser, John O’Donohue, Jane Hirschfield, Naomi Shihab Nye, Antonio Machado, Pablo Neruda, and William Stafford.

Melody of My Soul

Born of the Sea Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a fable about a grieving mother who finds a treasure on the shores of Lake Michigan. BY BRIAN DOYLE

HEN I LIVED in Chicago, fresh out of college, I spent many hundreds of hours by the lake, which is so much bigger than what we usually mean when we use the word lake that it should be called an inland sea. It was so big that it had tides, and there were unbelievably enormous cargo tankers upon the wilderness of its waters. And it had its own weather: often you would see maps and

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photographs of terrific blizzards in the lake, while the city waited quietly in a thin shiver of wintry light. First from awe and then from something like reverence, I became a student of the lake and its denizens and cultures: from the shoals of tiny fish who swept along the shore and sometimes died in vast thousands at a time, cramming harbors with silvery redolent drifts; to the taciturn men who crewed the barges and tankers; to the enormous sturgeon that lived St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

KRISTOPHER ANDERSON/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

in the deepest acres of the lake; to the cheerful and brightly feathered weekend sailors; to the cops who patrolled the shore. It was one of these police officers who told me a story about the lake one day that I never could forget. I have turned this story over and over in my mind in the many years since I ran along the lake every afternoon with my basketball, spinning around startled ladies walking their tiny dogs. I still do not quite know what to make of it. Perhaps you will know. Fr anciscanMedia.org

he policeman was a burly older man who looked very sleepy but wasn’t. He had been assigned to my neighborhood for two years, and he patrolled his beat on foot, resorting to his car only on days of unbelievable snow. In his two years he had made a concerted effort to meet and greet every resident—a heroic task in that there were thousands of people in what amounted to a village. But he was not boasting when he said he knew nearly everyone. Often I would stand with him for an hour, chatting about this and that, and he would, in that time, greet 50 people by name and ask about their children, pets, and recoveries from various ills and ailments. He had the odd ability, perhaps honed by his profession, to be cheerfully telling me a story with his mouth while his eyes worked elsewhere. One time I remember him telling me a story about a sturgeon when he saw a kid fall over the seawall two blocks away. He took off running so fast that the sentence he had just spoken trailed after him an instant before it blew away in the wind. There was always a brisk wind cutting in off the lake. The story he told me that I never forgot, though, was about a woman who lost her son when he was five months old. The woman lived near the venerable, old Majestic Hotel, right by the lakefront, and the policeman saw her walking every day. He told me the whole neighborhood was thrilled when she had her baby, and the whole neighborhood was plunged into gloom when the baby died in his crib. After he died, she didn’t emerge for a while, and then when she did emerge and walk along the lake again, she was silent and dark. No one could cut through to who she used to be, not even the policeman, or the gentle, old Navy veteran, Mr. J u ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 4 7

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Pawlowsky, who knew everyone, or Mr. Pawlowsky’s wise and entertaining dog, Edward, who roamed freely in the neighborhood and was much liked and respected by all, even cats. One summer morning, though, as this woman was walking along the lake, she saw something struggling in the shallows. She ran down to the beach and found a baby wriggling and thrashing at the edge of the lake. She wrapped it in her jacket and carried it back up to the seawall path. Luckily, the policeman was just happening by at the beginning of his day, so he took her and the baby to the hospital. The baby was healthy. No one could find any trace of parents or identification, and the local alderman interceded to allow the woman to adopt the child. During the process of adoption, the child—a boy—was cared for by the woman on the condition that she check in with the policeman every day about problems, forms, insurance, and other matters of that sort. By the time the adoption was officially approved and all forms filled out, the boy was a year old, and the neighborhood celebrated his birthday with an impromptu picnic on the beach where he had been found. The policeman, at the woman’s request, found a priest to baptize the child, using water from the lake. His mother named the boy Muirin, which in Gaelic means “born of the sea.” The policeman told me that the boy, suitably enough, was totally absorbed by the lake and was already a fine fisherman—young as he was. “I see that kid every other day, I bet,” said the policeman. “And you will, too, if you keep your eyes peeled. Next time I see him, I will point him out.” Soon after that conversation, however, I moved to Boston, and never did see Muirin. But I never forgot the story of the boy who came out of the lake to a woman with a hole in her heart exactly his size. A Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, Oregon’s Catholic university. He is the author of many books, among them the sprawling Oregon novel Mink River and Grace Notes, a collection of spiritual essays. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

LIGHTEN UP

“Although I’ve been to seventh heaven many times, this is my first experience with the real thing.”

“Our season is going so bad, I’m firing the team chaplain.”

Fr ancisca n Media .org

“Sundays would really be awesome if they were followed by a Friday.”

Ju ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 4 9

ASK A FRANCISCAN

❘ BY FATHER PAT McCLOSKEY, OFM

The Holy Family’s Arrival in Nazareth Luke 2:39 says of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph: “When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.” In Matthew 2:13, however, an angel of the Lord appears in a dream to Joseph, who is clearly in Bethlehem. The angel says: “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,

and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph did so immediately. After Herod died, Joseph was told in another dream to go back to the land of Israel. In fact, they went to Nazareth because Joseph was afraid of going to Judea where Archelaus ruled (v. 22). According to Luke, the Holy Fam-

‘Catholics Seem Obsessed with Mary’

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HANNA, REUTERS

I am an evangelical Christian who is seriously considering conversion to Catholicism. To paraphrase Jesus, I sometimes think that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (Mt 19:24, Mk 10:25, and Lk 18:25) than for a “born again” Christian to accept all of the basic Catholic beliefs. Why do Catholics seem obsessed with Mary? Why do they insist that Communion is more than symbolic? And why does the Catholic Church mind if Mary had other children after Jesus? Catholics see Mary as a striking example of how human freedom can cooperate with God’s grace. “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38b) was more than Mary’s response to an angel. It was the connective tissue of her entire life. Mary is not an alternative to God; rather, she always points us to God, encouraging us to take the next step on our faith journey. Regarding the Eucharist, the first-century apostle Peter almost certainly did not understand the Eucharist as the 13thcentury St. Thomas Aquinas did. Both men, however, believed that it is real, much more than a symbol whose meaning can change over time. You might ask yourself: Why does the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist seem threatening? Finally, most Christians have understood scriptural references to Jesus’ brothers and sisters as indicating extended family members. Why should Mary’s perpetual virginity be shocking? Perhaps the more Catholics you know Pope Francis pauses in front who uphold these three beliefs, the less of a statue of Mary and problematic you will find them. Jesus in St. Peter’s Square.

5 0 ❘ July 2013

ily went to Nazareth a little more than 40 days after Jesus was born. Matthew’s Gospel suggests it may have been several years later. Which was it? The Gospel of Luke presents Mary and Joseph as residents of Nazareth who went to Bethlehem to pay the Roman census tax (1:26—2:7). In the Gospel of Matthew, however, Mary and Joseph could have grown up in Bethlehem. Matthew’s pre-history about the birth of Jesus (1:18–25) makes no mention of Nazareth. Matthew makes no reference to the Roman census, and Luke doesn’t seem to know about the flight into Egypt. The apparent contradiction you have identified arises from the understandable—but misguided— attempt to harmonize these two Gospels regarding Jesus’ infancy. According to Luke’s Gospel, the Holy Family would have returned to Nazareth about 45 days after Jesus was born. For Matthew, however, it took several years. If our calendar were perfect, Jesus would have been born in 1 AD. In fact, he was probably born between 4 and 6 BC. From other records, we are certain that King Herod the Great died in 4 BC. We also know that his son, Archelaus, ruled Judea until 6 AD, when the Romans exiled him to modern-day France. According to Matthew’s Gospel, therefore, Jesus could have been almost 12 years old when the Holy Family first came to Nazareth. These and other issues are explored in an excellent book by Raymond Brown, SS, called The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives of Matthew and Luke. Matthew and Luke do not present the written version of what a video St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

camera might have captured when Jesus was born. They have different audiences (Jewish Christians or gentile Christians) and unique points to emphasize. None of the facts as I have stated them should threaten anyone’s belief that the Bible is inspired. It conveys what God wanted to reveal through the writings of each biblical author. In a very real sense, the Bible has a single author: God.

Understanding Parables How many parables are there in the Bible? Is there a book that explains each parable in simple terms for a beginner Catholic? According to John L. McKenzie, SJ’s Dictionary of the Bible, there are between 35 and 72 parables in the Gospels, depending on how strict a person’s definition is. Jesus’ stories about the good shepherd (Jn 10:1ff) and the vine and the branches (Jn 15:1–7), for example, are more properly described as allegories than as parables. Wilfrid J. Harrington, OP, has written A Key to the Parables (Paulist Press) and Parables Told by Jesus: A Contemporary Approach to the Parables (Alba House). Gary Inrig’s The Parables: Understanding What Jesus Meant (Discover House Publishers) has been very well received.

Biblical Inspiration As a former Methodist, I’m one who takes the Bible literally. I figure: “The Bible says it; that’s it.” Do Catholics see it that way? In October 1962, the bishops at Vatican II sent back for revision a proposed document about Scripture. Only in November 1965 did they finally approve the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, which describes how the Church understands Scripture. The biblical writers “consigned to writing whatever [God] wanted writFr ancisca n Media .org

ten, and no more” (11). The Bible teaches “that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the sacred Scriptures” (11). “Seeing that, in sacred Scripture, God speaks through human beings in human fashion, it follows that the interpreters of sacred Scripture, if they are to ascertain what God has wished to communicate to us, should carefully search out the meaning which the sacred writers really had in mind, that meaning which God had thought well to manifest through the medium of their words” (12). The Pontifical Biblical Commission’s 1964 instruction “On the Historical Truth of the Gospels” identified three stages in their composition: 1) the events themselves, 2) the apostolic preaching about those events (several decades), and then 3) the actual writing of the Gospels (completed between 30 and 60 or more years after Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection).

Some Christians have been scandalized by having four Gospels. Marcion, a second-century Christian, tried to solve that problem by accepting only the Gospel of Luke as inspired. The Church did not agree. In the same century, the Diatesseron sought to harmonize the four Gospel accounts—an understandable desire, but one that ultimately blunts the uniqueness of each Gospel writer and his audience. Scripture was given to a faith community and is best understood within the faith community. We need to follow the Church’s lead in interpreting the Bible. A

Father Pat welcomes your questions! Send them to: Ask a Franciscan, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498, or Ask@FranciscanMedia.org. All questions sent by mail need to include a selfaddressed stamped envelope. This column’s answers can be searched back to April 1996 at StAnthonyMessenger.org.

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Ju ly 2 0 13 ❘ 5 1

BOOK CORNER

❘ BY CAROL ANN MORROW

The Seven Big Myths about the Catholic Church What

Our Readers Recommend

The One Thing Is Three: How the Most Holy Trinity Explains Everything Michael E. Gaitley, MIC Praying in the Cellar: A Guide to Facing Your Fears and Finding God Anthony Delisi, OCSO Absolute Relativism: The New Dictatorship and What to Do About It Chris Stefanick Why I Am a Catholic Garry Wills Jesus Before Christianity Albert Nolan

5 2 ❘ July 2013

Distinguishing Fact from Fiction about Catholicism By Christopher Kaczor Ignatius Press 164 pages • $17.95 Hardcover/e-book Reviewed by the REV. MICHAEL P. ORSI, EdD, chaplain and research fellow in law and religion at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Florida. AS A COUNTERCULTURAL INSTITUTION, the Catholic Church is often attacked, sometimes out of malice, but more often out of ignorance. In The Seven Big Myths about the Catholic Church, Christopher Kaczor, professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, provides a muchneeded apologetic for the Church’s position on science, freedom, women, contraception, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and celibacy. In each case, he contends, the Church’s teaching is geared toward true human happiness. He uses hard, scientific data, the social sciences, and Church documents to bolster his arguments. The issues are framed by Kaczor through the lens of the Church’s mission to advance human freedom and dignity. He shows how this is done based on the Gospel and philosophical reflection on the natural law. Kaczor establishes that the Church values science insofar as it aids human well-being. He reminds us that “the Catholic Church as

an institution funds, sponsors, and supports scientific research in the Pontifical Academy of Science and in the departments of science found in every Catholic university across the world. . . .” Kaczor reports, with staggering statistics, that more than any other single institution in the world, the Church helps women by providing them with food, shelter, clothing, health care, and education. The Church’s refusal to accept contraception, Kaczor says, is that when the act of love is not opened to procreation, the marriage is diminished. He explains, “Children are a good of marriage that unites the husband and wife in a way that realizes the aspirations of erotic love.” In regard to the charge that clergy child abuse is the result of celibacy, he writes, “The evidence is substantial and confirmed by psychologists, researchers, and insurance companies: priestly celibacy is not a risk factor for the sexual abuse of children.” Kaczor debunks the “equal rights” argument as relevant to homosexual marriage. He says that interracial marriage is not a valid analogy or argument for same-sex marriage. Any unmarried man or woman has a right to marry a party of the other sex, no matter his or her race. This is consistent with the natural-law principles espoused by the Church. Natural law, simply stated, is “the way a person is made is the way he or she should act.” Thus, the act of love is geared to persons of the opposite gender and designed for procreation. This position also satisfies the Church’s call for equal justice. Relying on expert testimony, Kaczor defends the Church’s opposition to condom distribution as a way of preventing the spread of AIDS in Africa. He shows how condoms lead to further promiscuity and to the spread of infection. Kaczor reminds us of the loving care the Church provides for those afflicted with the disease in Africa and around the world. This book provides sound theological and scientific arguments for the Church’s teaching on some very difficult issues. It should be part of the curriculum in all Catholic colleges and universities. St . A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r

BOOK BRIEFS

Poetic Expression God Speaks in Many Tongues Meditate with Joan Chittister on 40 Sacred Texts By Joan Chittister Benetvision 90 pages • $6 Paperback

Strange Gods Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life By Elizabeth Scalia Ave Maria Press 192 pages • $14.95 Paperback Reviewed by RACHELLE LINNER, a freelance writer and reviewer with a master of theological studies degree from Weston Jesuit School of Theology. STRANGE GODS, indeed, our contemporary idols are: coolness and sex, technology and social media, ideas and ideology, religious behavior, personal plans, and prosperity. Elizabeth Scalia, who blogs as “The Anchoress” on Patheos.com, introduces us to these idols in this short, though engaging, book. Scalia can be humorous (describing how writing a book about idols became an idol) and also poignant without being self-absorbed (speaking to her siblings about childhood sexual abuse.) Because anything can become an idol, the book is most helpful in describing the process by which “we attach ourselves to something other than God.” Scalia’s description of how and, more important, why this happens allows readers to be alert to patterns in their own lives. The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes “are meant to lead us away from those empty depths of our being where the idols are formed and polished and brought to the fore of our regard.” The book suffers from the brief, breezy style Scalia has mastered as a blogger. Idolatry is a subject that would be better explored in a leisurely, reflective manner. Although Scalia makes mention of the fact that she is a Benedictine Oblate, she does not explore the considerable insights Benedictine and monastic tradition bring to the topic of evil and idolatry. Strange Gods is not a bad book, but a thin and ultimately disappointing one. Fr ancisca n Media .org

Drawing on the sacred texts of other traditions, Joan Chittister reflects on 40 meditative prayers that reveal God through a variety of religious perspectives. Space at the end of each prayer for readers’ own reflections make this book ideal for group study.

Reading God’s Handwriting By Philip C. Kolin Kaufmann Publishing 96 pages • $16.95 Hardcover God’s handwriting is revealed each time we meet someone new or marvel at the beauty surrounding us. Philip C. Kolin’s collection of poems reveres the wonder of what God has written in Scripture and through nature.

I Lay My Stitches Down Poems of American Slavery By Cynthia Grady; illustrations by Michele Wood Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 34 pages • $17 Hardcover This collection of poems chronicles the various expressions of American slaves. Each poem is spoken from a different perspective, from a house slave to a slave fleeing on the Underground Railroad, and is accompanied by a historical note and full-page illustration. —R.Z.

Books featured in this column can be ordered from

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply 1909 West End Avenue • Nashville, TN 37203 800-233-3604 www.stmarysbookstore.com • stmarysbookstore@gmail.com Ju ly 2 0 1 3 ❘ 5 3

A CATHOLIC MOM SPEAKS

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

Finding Comfort in Community

wo months ago, my mom passed away after a brief illness. My world was turned upside down. I was too young not to have my mom—my rock, my friend, my confidant. Suddenly I was thrust into a whole new world and reality, and left to find a way to move on. I felt completely lost. But then, slowly and bit by bit, I was found. I was found in the loving embrace of my sisters. I was found in the late-night cry-fest phone calls with my friends. I was found in the understanding of my coworkers during my absence. I was found in my parish community. In short, I was found by my communities: family, faith, friends. Each of them, in their own way, lifted me up, whether it was through prayer or presence. Community was something my mom taught a lot about to my sisters and me. In my eulogy, which she had instructed me to keep short, I commented on the fact that our house was where everyone wanted to gather because they knew they would be well fed. But it was also about more than the food (though as teenagers that was certainly important!). It was the place where she welcomed any of our friends, classmates, or hangers-on whom we brought along with us. As far as she was concerned, they were all part of our community. I know my mom learned that example from her parents, just as I have learned it from her. But I also suspect that it came from her strong faith. For her, joy was found in community, and she manifested that through her work in the parish community as a teacher of religious education, a choir member, and in various other roles. 54 ❘ July 2013

At Mom’s visitation, I was reminded of that sense of community once again as I greeted her many friends and family. Each person seemed to belong to different communities throughout my mom’s life: grade school, high school, work, exercise class, lifelong friends—the list went on. Each group formed its own community, and each treasured its own connections.

That evening, it occurred to me that part of what hurts so much about my mom’s death is the loss of that connection. Those small communities of which she was a part—especially our family—are forever changed. Now there’s a “new normal.”

Comfort in Faith But that’s also where the comfort of our faith comes in. Through Jesus, St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

LOOK AROUND

we are all connected for all time. And while we may lose the physical connection, we believe that one day we will be reunited with our loved ones.

helpful? What type of impact am I making on their lives? What can I offer this community? Are there things I can change or do better to be a more loving member? After reflecting for a while, I discovered small changes in my behavior. I began looking at the bigger picture and truly seeing all the members of the communities in my life. Perhaps we should all try this exercise and adapt our lives and actions accordingly. We are, after all, one body in Christ.

We manifest that community each time we gather together for Mass and share in the Eucharist. We truly are many parts of one body. My mom was the center of our

PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS My mom had a very deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During her illness, she would request that we recite the following prayer with her. May you find as much comfort in it as Mom did.

CNS PHOTO/STEPHEN B. WHATLEY

Compassionate Jesus, I remember your gentle invitation to “Come...and be refreshed.” I bring you now all my worries, fears, needs, and doubts— and those of my world. I entrust to you my loved ones, Both living and deceased. Enfold us all in your love, Now and evermore. Amen.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY KURNICK MAASS

One of the things I heard over and over again in the receiving line at the funeral was what an impact my mom had on people. As I mentioned before, these people were all from different stages of my mom’s life, but her actions left an impression. So in the weeks after, I started reflecting on the communities in my life: family, friends, work, fellow parishioners—the list goes on. And then I wondered: In what ways do I demonstrate the sense of community to them? Am I welcoming? Am I

family’s community. And though she continues to be part of our lives, the struggle now is to figure out how to reconfigure that community to close the gap her death left. This is especially true for my dad, who spent 54 years by her side in marriage. And while we are sad, struggling, and reconfiguring, we take solace in the belief that one day we will all be together again. In the meantime, I will carry on in my mom’s spirit, working to build communities in my life and the lives of my children. A

Do you have comments or suggestions for topics you’d like to see addressed in this column? Send them to me at “A Catholic Mom Speaks,” 28 W. Liberty St., Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498, or e-mail them to CatholicMom@FranciscanMedia.org.

PETE AND REPEAT These scenes may seem alike to you, But there are changes in the two. So look and see if you can name ILLUSTRATION BY TOM GREENE

Eight ways in which they’re not the same. (Answers on page 43)

Fr a n c isc a n Medi a . org

Ju ly 2013 ❘ 5 5

BACKSTORY

s this issue was in its final throes of production, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, leader-in-exile of Tibetan Buddhists, came to nearby Louisville. It capped the “Festival of Faiths” celebration. Catholic

presenters at this year’s festival included Augustinian Friar Martin Laird and our own Franciscan Friar Richard Rohr. Father Richard appeared on stage with the Dalai Lama to give a Catholic perspective on compassion and contemplation.

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

The whole event says something about how the backstory here has changed. These days every media outlet is grappling with how to publish all at once in print, Internet, broadcast. Susan Hines-Brigger and I went to Louisville with smartphones, cameras, and digital recorders. Our coworkers Matt Wielgos, Judy Zarick, and Ron Riegler, who work in our media production department (radio, audiobooks, video, Internet) went with their video equipment to record interviews with Richard that could be used in some of our digital offerings, including the digital edition of this magazine (free to print subscribers). Susan and I worked with Matt’s crew to conduct the interviews. I was angling for an interview with the Dalai Lama himself for St. Anthony Messenger— admittedly it was a long shot, but, as they say, you’ve got to play to win! (I’ve scored a few celebrity interviews over the years here by

The Dalai Lama greets Richard Rohr, OFM.

doggedly pursuing them, against odds; Desmond Tutu was probably the biggest.) Anyhow, an interview with the Dalai Lama couldn’t happen this time, but I got assurance from a publicity firm that a chance for an interview might develop next year. We’ll see. You might ask, Why would Franciscan Media care about a Buddhist leader? In brief, interfaith relations are an important goal of the Church in the world. We have much in common with seekers of God, seekers of truth, in all religions. Listening to a Franciscan speak among a group of Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and other leaders reminds us editors of our own duty to pass that along to our readers. We’ll do so here, in our digital edition (StAnthonyMessenger.org), our Facebook page, our Twitter feed—need I go on?

Editor in Chief

56 ❘ July 2013

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

REFLECTION

N ever lose a holy curiosity. —Albert Einst in

ST. ANTHONY M 28 W. Liberty Street Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

essenger

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