Mirror of Justice

A Coherent Politician

When I saw this headline in ZENIT:  "Pope Benedict Honors a Coherent Politician", my first thought was, boy, have the shenanigans of Governors Spitzer and Sanford, and Senators Edwards and Ensign, lowered the bar for the honoring of politicians! 

But the honoree here is someone who sounds like a contemporary heir to Saints John Fischer and Thomas More, at least morally.  From ZENIT's description: 

Benedict XVI describes Alcide De Gasperi as a statesman of high moral quality and "great faith" -- a model for politicians of today.

De Gasperi (1881-1954) was the architect of Italy's reconstruction after World War II. Founder in 1942 of the Christian Democratic Party, he is considered, together with the German Konrad Adenauer and the Frenchman Robert Schuman, one of the fathers of the process of European integration. . . .

The Pontiff recognized De Gasperi's "recognized moral uprightness" and his "religious sensitivity." He spoke of his "indisputable fidelity to human and Christian values."

"Formed in the school of the Gospel, De Gasperi was capable of transforming the faith he professed into concrete and coherent actions," Benedict XVI continued. "Spirituality and politics were, in effect, two dimension that converged in his person and characterized his social and spiritual determination."

The Holy Father acknowledged that at times there were "difficulties and even perhaps misunderstandings with the ecclesial world, but De Gasperi never wavered in his adherence to the Church."

"Docile and obedient to the Church," he continued, "he was independent and responsible in his political decisions, without using the Church for political ends and never faltering in his commitment to his upright conscience."

De Gasperi was coherent to such a degree, the Holy Father noted, that "at the end of his life, he could say, 'I have done all that was in my hands to do. My conscience is at peace.'"

But there's an interesting contrast between what Rick suggests Fischer and More represent, politically, [in Rick's words: "that the Church was (and still must be) an institutional center of non-state authority, if individual freedom is to be secure from arbitrary state power"], and how Gasperi applied his faith -- in helping create the "supra-national" governmental authority of the European Union.  In teaching Comparative Consumer Law here in Rome this summer, I'm thinking more about the EU, and the tensions inherent in the rather striking subordination of national laws to the authority of the EU, than I have in years.  My impressions is that the Christian Democratic parties in Europe have traditionally been among the proponents of a strong EU, and they did fairly well in the recent elections to the European Parliament 2 weeks ago.  How might this support for the creation of an additional layer of "state power" by "Christian" political parties in Europe relate to the general decline of active participation in the life of the Church by many Europeans in their private lifes? 

I'd appreciate any thoughts more informed international scholars might have on this question. 

Women Religious Tackle Human Trafficking

I've just arrived in Rome, where I'll be spending the summer teaching at the joint University of St. Thomas/Villanova law school summer law program, after a wonderful but exhausting five days treking through Germany, showing my kids where I grew up.  We spent the first couple of days with friends in Mainz, attending Mass at the beautiful baroque Church of St. Peter's, and admiring the astonishingly moving stained glass windows of Chagall at St. Stephen's.  (After years of pleading, the pastor of St. Stephen's, Fr. Klaus Mayer -- himself of Catholic and Jewish heritage, convinced Chagall -- all of whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust -- to make these windows, as an expression of German-Jewish reconciliation.  Chagall did them for free, but would NOT come and see them -- he would not visit Germany).

I am really not intending to write a travelogue, but you have to admit I kept the posting Catholic-related so far, didn't I?  But I really did have a Catholic legal theory-related reason to post, namely the news of this extraordinary conference going on somewhere very close to where I am now sitting.  It's a international conference of women religious working on stopping human trafficking and ministering to the victims of human trafficking.  From the Pope's message for the opening of the conference, he said it was important to bring about "a renewed awareness of the inestimable value of life and an ever more courageous commitment to the defense of human rights and the overcoming of every type of abuse."

Some descriptions from the ZENIT report on this conference struck me as a poignant reminder of the significance of this problem, and the importance of addressing not simply the legal structures that allow this exploitative industry to continue, but also the human dimension -- ministering to the victims.  The time and attention these women religious are devoting to this issue does seem to be to me, as Archbishop Veglio states, "prophetic."

In the Friday press conference presenting the conference, it was reported that 2.5 million people are affected by trafficking, which is a $150 billion business -- money that goes in the pockets of those who control the markets of prostitution, trafficking in organs, and forms of slavery that predominantly affect women and children.

In this context, Archbishop Vegliò affirmed, the Church has a role that is "not only important, but also prophetic."

He said that before all else, it is important to "know the factors that encourage and especially attract prostitution, and the strategies used by recruiters, traffickers, intermediaries and those who abuse the victims."

Then, in the commitment made by the religious to combat human trafficking, the Vatican official affirmed that personal and spiritual formation is needed, so that they know how to deal with difficult and broken lives that need to be reconstructed.

The Foundations of (Women's) Religious Life

If you're interested in the topic of women religious that was the subject of a recent flurry of posts, here's an interesting-looking book.  It's called The Foundations of Religious Life:  Revisiting the Vision, and consist of a collection of articles by representatives of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious.  It includes contributions from members of the Sisters of Life in New York City, the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, the Nashville Dominican Community of St. Cecilia, the Religious Sisters of Mercy, and the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George.  Here are some excerpts from the book blurb:

While many religious orders are currently facing marked decline in novitiates and the aging of their members, the communities of the CMSWR are experiencing growth on a worldwide scale.

In this collection of foundational articles, the CMSWR articulates how its perspective is in keeping with the vision set forth by Vatican II, suggesting that its commitment to a more visibly countercultural life and ministry is what sustains its orders and attracts young women to the CMSWR communities.

Here's a review of this book from the Denver Catholic Register.  One of the contributors is Sr. Prudence Allen, who has written the remarkable two-volume set on The Concept of Woman that has profoundly influenced my thoughts on Catholic feminism.   

Pope Benedict and the Disabled

Relevant to Michael S.'s recent posts on recognizing our own vulnerabilites, I find it striking that Pope Benedict's first stop on his pilgramage to the Holy Land was to Regina Pacis, a home in Amman, Jordan, for mentally- and physically disabled youth.  According to Zenit's report:

The center was founded in 2004 by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and offers not only medical attention but also formation and education to disabled youth, both Christian and Muslim.

Bishop Selim Sayegh, Latin patriarchal vicar of Jordan and the center's founder, together with the youth, the nursing staff and volunteers, the Comboni religious women who run the center, and retired Patriarch Michel Sabbah welcomed the Holy Father to the site. His Beatitude Patriarch Fouad Twal offered words of welcome.

Zenit's report continues:

Benedict XVI offered a reflection on the mystery of suffering as he spoke with the disabled youngsters and their caregivers.

"At times it is difficult to find a reason for what appears only as an obstacle to be overcome or even as pain -- physical or emotional -- to be endured," he said. "Yet faith and understanding help us to see a horizon beyond our own selves in order to imagine life as God does. God's unconditional love, which gives life to every human individual, points to a meaning and purpose for all human life."

The Holy Father confided that being with the youth was a blessing for him personally: "I wish to say that standing in your midst I draw strength from God."

"Your experience of trials, your witness to compassion, and your determination to overcome the obstacles you encounter, encourage me in the belief that suffering can bring about change for the good," he said. "In our own trials, and standing alongside others in their struggles, we glimpse the essence of our humanity, we become, as it were, more human.

One of Pope Benedict's stops during his visit to the United States was also with children with disabilities and their caregivers.  What a powerful witness, to make time for celebrating with most vulnerable and powerless, between visits to presidents and kings across the globe!

Mary Ann Glendon Declines Notre Dame's Laetare Medal

You can read her explanation here.

Kudos to ACE -- Implementing the Theology of Inclusion in Catholic Schools

I've complained before about the lack of commitment by Catholic schools to educating children with special needs.  Well, someone's finally doing something about it, and it appears that they are doing it very, very well!  Nicole Garnett brought to my attention an new initiative of Notre Dame's teacher training through service program,  Alliance for Catholic Education ("ACE").  The goal of the initiative is as follows:  "Based on the Theology of Inclusion, Catholic Schools will be prepared to educate the children of God regardless of special needs in learning, behavior, language acquisition, or social-economic status."

You can read a detailed memo about his initiative here, but it's clear from the introduction that these people absolutely understand what so many Catholic parents of kids with special needs have been trying to explain:  

Inclusion, in educational circles, is defined as providing an equal education to all children, and to the maximum extent possible, educating all children in the same setting.    Catholic social teaching compels schools to include and serve traditionally marginalized students, including students in poverty, those with special needs, and English language learners.  Over the past half-century Catholic schools have strived to be inclusive toward students in poverty.  However, during this same time period, they have largely failed to craft service delivery systems for students with special needs and for English language learners.   . . . We must first remind principals, teachers, and parents that Catholic education for the baptized is not a choice but a responsibility.  Secondly, we must give schools the tools to both address learning, language and behavior issues of children in the classroom, and to understand how to access federal and state monies to support this endeavor.  And, perhaps, most importantly, we must frame this work in our Catholic faith, in Scripture, in our Church documents, and in Catholic social teaching.

And its also very clear that ACE has a solid appreciation for the challenges that this project presents to Catholic schools. ACE has been conducting a pilot program in Florida for a number of years to train teams of teachers in under-resourced Catholic schools to recognize and deal with various learning and behavioral problems, and to tap into the IDEA-mandated resources available from the state to support education of students with special needs.  Going forward, ACE is proposing to offer its graduates who  have a major or minor in Theology training on the Theology of Inclusion, preparing them to offer workshops on this topic to diocese and school boards, and to consult with schools to train teachers to implement this theology.   Long-term, ACE is proposing to develop a Master of Arts in Inclusionary Practices. 

This is wonderful news!

"Shadows in Amsterdam"

Sally Thomas has written a moving and sobering essay in the May issue of First Things, well worth tracking down even if you're not a subscriber.  She writes about a former neighbor of hers, a Dutchman who kept in touch in the years after she moved away through occasional letters and homemade Christmas cards.  Thomas recently received from him a slender, self-published book, called Life With and Without my Mother, sharing the news of his 96-year-old mother's death. 

The book is sort of a journal, in which the son describes her, and his, journey toward her eventual decision to die by the voluntary euthanasia that is legal in Amsterdam.  One of the journal entries is:  "I feel the doctors need to give her the helping hand she deserves.  Why let her suffer?  Really, the fun is over for her."  The journal goes on to describe the actual procedure, with relatives gathering by her bedside on a Saturday morning, and the doctor administering the "process implementation." 

Thomas ends the essay with these thoughts:

Again I think of my own friend, of everything I have ever known about him: a kind neighbor, a loving father, a friend who keeps faith with people who move away. I think of the Christmas cards. I think of the tree in the yard. And I cannot square all that with this book which even now is propped beside me on my desk.

But of course, in truth, I can square this equation. I can square it by acknowledging that even the good are fallen and all of us carry death in our hearts. I can square it by acknowledging that the process of extrapolation works both ways: If I can extrapolate cultural suicide from one man in a café, then I can also extrapolate, from the fact of a culture of death, the easy transformation of any decent, law-abiding citizen into a murderer, into a murderer’s willing accomplice. If you build it, they will come, goes the hokey-mystical mantra in the movie Field of Dreams. Similarly, if you legalize it, it will happen.

Safe, legal, and rare. Isn’t that how the abortion chant goes? In reality, as a culture, Americans have allowed abortion to become the standard medical treatment for children prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome. Ninety percent of such children are aborted: That’s how heroic our moral struggle has been. That’s how often a loving mother is persuaded that her only merciful option is to assent to the death of her child. It’s a tragic fact of the human mind that, once it begins to entertain a proposition, however outrageous, the proposition becomes not a mere proposition but a sane and rational course of action.

No, make that the sane and rational course of action. From might to may to must: zero to sixty in a cultural instant. In the slipstream, even now, doctors in Amsterdam are packing up their things, and families are filing out of darkened bedrooms into the barren light of a Saturday morning.

John Allen on the Obama/ND Issue

John Allen's comments on ND's invitation to Obama strike me as extremely sensible.

Subsidiarity and the Financial Crisis

Today's article of the day on the First Things "On the Square" site is my essay "Subsidiarity and the Financial Crisis." In it, I discuss one of the aspects of the debate about legislative responses to the financial crisis that is not receiving much attention in the press coverage of the financial crisis -- federal preemption of state consumer protection laws.  However, preemption questions are at issue in an important case currently before the Supreme Court, Cuomo v. Clearinghouse, and are one of the reasons that the two Republican members of the Congressional Oversight Panel on Regulatory Reform withheld their support from the Panel's recent Special Report on Regulatory Reform, which recommended abolishing federal preemption.  [Incidentally, I highly recommend that report for a succinct explanation of the regulatory failures leading to the current crisis; the dissenting minority includes its own report, providing a nice set of perspectives on these issues.]

In my First Things essay, I argue that the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity might be useful in analyzing this issue.  I write:

In applying the principle of subsidiarity, we are asked to give preference to governance at the most local level at which a government’s purposes can be achieved. To the extent that the government’s purposes in preventing future financial crises include assessing the appropriate limits to greed, or setting an appropriate line between the “hard sell” and outright fraud, perhaps this could be achieved more effectively at the state level, even at the cost of the uniformity and efficiency available at the federal level. The faces and tactics of the greedy and the fraudulent look different in urban areas with large minority communities than in suburban areas with largely white populations. In the urban areas, subprime loans tended to be pushed on borrowers by lenders anxious to lend at rates that are higher than market justified. In the suburban areas, in contrast, mortgage fraud was more likely to involve participation by borrowers themselves, who inflated their incomes and accepted unjustified appraisals. This sort of a differentiated understanding of the different categories of culpability is easier to achieve at the local level. Similarly, judgments about the point at which legislative curbs on greed start to compromise the vitality of credit markets could vary in different states. The way in which greed and fraud affects its victims is also subject to regional variation, perhaps explaining why local enforcement officials have proven to be more adept at recognizing predatory lending earlier than federal officials.

What state governments offer their citizens that is not so readily available at the federal level is the more intimate contact that fosters solidarity, something that the Church insists must moderate the delicate application of subsidiarity to economic activity.

If Women had been Bishops

I realize that the conversation has shifted to same sex marriage, but I'd like to get back to Michael P's original comments in connection with the recent NYT article about the clergy sexual abuse scandal:  "[These are the men--the men!--whose insights regarding the complexity of human sexuality we are expected to genuflect before.  Gimme a break.  If women had been bishops--indeed, if mothers had been bishops--would this have happened?]"

I've often thought the same thing.  If there had been women with authority in the Church in most of the meetings between bishops and lawyers as the allegations of sexual abuse began to surface, I do think that things would have been handled differently.  I do not think that those women would have needed to be priests, though, to be women with authority in the Church.  Personally, I can accept that there might be a sacramental role in the Church that is uniquely suited to men.  However, I do not understand why such a unique sacramental role should, in itself, preclude women from holding more positions of authority in the Church, as either consecrated or lay women.

I think that if there had been women with authority in the Church in those early meetings between the bishops and the lawyers, and most particularly if those women had NOT, themselves, been priests, then there would have been some people in those rooms who could have identified more with the victims than with the priests.  And I DO think, as Michael P. suggests, that that identification would have been intensified if some of those women in the room were also mothers.  If those women had positions of authority in the Church, I do think this whole scandal would have been handled better.