Mirror of Justice

Project Adam's Pew

There are some situations in which the involvement of the legal system can only mean that something has gone terribly wrong on the level of fundamental human relations.  A paradigm of such a situation has to be the dispute leading to the Church of St. Joseph in Bertha, MN, obtaining a restraining order against a parish family, barring them from bringing their autistic 13-year-old son to Mass.   We can pray that the mediation scheduled to start this week will resolve this in a way that is consonant with our understanding of the Church as a gathering of the people of God.  (See, e.g., Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Called to Communion:  Understanding the Church Today  (Ignatius Press 1996), at 29:  ". . . the Eucharist, seen as the permanent origin and center of the Church, joins all of the 'many', who are now made a people, to the one Lord and to his one and only body.")

The mother who was barred from her church has set up a web-site to encourage people to reserve pews in their local churches for families who might need a positive indication from their churches that they are welcome, even if their loved ones sometimes engage in unconventional behavior.  Her project is called "Project Adam's Pew."  As I have mentioned before, I think the lack of welcome often felt by parents of kids with disabilities with respect to the community life of Catholic parishes is a real problem, and I am glad that this unfortunate episode might at least be raising awareness of the problem. 

Politicians to Watch

Here are two politicians that almost make me want to move to the West Coast, just so I could vote for them:  Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, WA:  (watch the whole clip -- it's adorable:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfNAiBj-Hvs&feature=related ) and the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin:  http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90EECIO0&show_article=1

More Saints

Speaking of the communion of saints, two people I most look forward to welcoming into the fold of officially recognized saints are John Henry Newman (whose beatification was recently approved), and Dorothy Day.  Today's Zenit has an interesting interview with Robert Ellsberg, the editor of a newly-released collection of Dorothy Day's diaries, "The Duty of Delight".  Here's an excerpt:

Q: Why have you chosen to title her diaries, "The Duty of Delight"?

Ellsberg: This was a line that recurred frequently in her diaries. She herself contemplated using it as the title for one of her books.

Often, after a recital of drudgery and disappointment, she would simply write, "The duty of delight."

I think it was a reminder to seek God in all things. That is really the theme of her diary, which is a chronicle of her efforts to perform all the chores and duties of her daily life with love and joy.

And here's a description of a more obscure saint that I was delighted to see recently in Magnificat.  Maybe he should be resurrected in the public eye as a patron for those victimized by predatory lenders?  Or the patron of lawyers struggling to find good witnesses for their cases?

Saint Severus of Naples, Bishop (c. 409).  Severus served as bishop of Naples, Italy, enriching his dioceses with the erection of numerous churches.  He is said to have defended in a most remarkable manner a widow victimized by a greedy creditor.  The latter was owed the tiny sum of one egg by the woman's husband, who had forgotten to pay the debt before dying.  Seizing the opportunity to profit from the man's death, the creditor made a false claim that the deceased had owed him a considerable sum.  As the widow was too poor to pay the amount, the judge ordered the woman and her children to be sold into slavery.  In desperation, the widow fled to the bishop, begging him to intervene.  Severus summoned the people of Naples to the deceased man's tomb.  After praying that God would make known the truth of the case, Severus called upon the dead man to speak from the grave as to what he really owed.  The corpse replied, "I owe but one egg." 

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

Congress just passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.  The vote was unanimous in the Senate, and 414 to 1 in the House.  It will make most forms of discrimination based on genetic testing illegal.  Except, of course, killing based on prenatal diagnosis of genetic conditions.....   Some things about this world in which we live just make no sense to me.

On a lighter note....

My eagle-eyed colleague, Elizabeth Brown, caught what may simply be a mistake in the coverage about Pope Benedict's visit to the U.S., but what may, instead, be a subtle sign of a Vatican shift in policy on the priesthood.  Take a look at the caption to this photo.  What do you think?  http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Pope-Benedict-visits-US-Pool-Yonkers2C-New-York-Pope-Benedict-XVI/ss/events/wl/033002pope/im:/080421/photos_ts/2008_04_20t101142_450x343_us_pope_usa/

Benedict XVI's Visit with Youth with Disabilities

My favorite part of Pope Benedict's pilgrimage to the U.S. was his visit with the group of young people with disabilities, which I was lucky enough to watch live on Saturday afternoon.   The visual contrast between this visit and the Mass at St. Patrick's earlier that morning was quite something.  At St. Pat's, I was struck by how neat and orderly everything looked when the camera panned the whole crowd.  The order was accentuated by the fact that groups of men and women from different orders were all sitting together, so the high overhead shots showed neat, orderly, patterns of groups of people in identical habits.  Everything was beautifully choreographed, and from what I saw, there were no flaws in the execution of any part of the ceremony.

In the equally ornate room in which the Pope visited with the young people with disabilities and their parents, in contrast, the high overhead shots showed chaos -- clumps of people clustered around wheelchairs, papers (presumably programs) strewn all over the floor.  You could just sense that this was a room in which a group of parents had been fighting a losing battle in keeping their high-spirited kids in check for the (probably) hours they had to be there before the Pope's arrival. 

When Pope Benedict plunged into the group to shake hands, share kisses and blessings, there was just as much chaos and disorder, but so, so, much love and tenderness.  The kids looked mostly nonchalant, but pleased, but the parents were just radiant.  I'm sure every one of those kids was coached on proper Papal etiquette, yet I distinctly saw one young fellow with Down Syndrome belt out "Hi, Pope!" when Benedict came close.  And the Pope was beaming, too, obviously enjoying himself.  His remarks (included below) were almost incidental to the visual manifestation of the Pope and these beautiful young people showing us how "our faith helps us to break open the horizon beyond our own selves in order to see life as God does."

"God Has Blessed You With Life"

YONKERS, New York, APRIL 20, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI gave Saturday in a meeting with young people with disabilities.

* * *

Your Eminence,
Bishop Walsh,
Dear Friends,

I am very happy to have this opportunity to spend a brief moment with you. I thank Cardinal Egan for his welcome and especially thank your representatives for their kind words and for the gift of the drawing. Know that it is a special joy for me to be with you. Please give my greetings to your parents and family members, and your teachers and caregivers.

God has blessed you with life, and with differing talents and gifts. Through these you are able to serve him and society in various ways. While some people’s contributions seem great and others’ more modest, the witness value of our efforts is always a sign of hope for everyone.

Sometimes it is challenging to find a reason for what appears only as a difficulty to be overcome or even pain to be endured. Yet our faith helps us to break open the horizon beyond our own selves in order to see life as God does. God’s unconditional love, which bathes every human individual, points to a meaning and purpose for all human life. Through his Cross, Jesus in fact draws us into his saving love (cf. Jn 12:32) and in so doing shows us the way ahead -- the way of hope which transfigures us all, so that we too, become bearers of that hope and charity for others.

Dear friends, I encourage you all to pray every day for our world. There are so many intentions and people you can pray for, including those who have yet to come to know Jesus. And please do continue to pray for me. As you know I have just had another birthday. Time passes!

Thank you all again, including the Cathedral of Saint Patrick Young Singers and the members of the Archdiocesan Deaf Choir. As a sign of strength and peace and with great affection in our Lord, I impart to you and your families, teachers and caregivers my Apostolic Blessing.

© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Noonan on Benedict

As usual, Peggy Noonan manages to capture more of the beauty in Church events than any other commentator I know in her latest column, a reflection on some of the contrasts between Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

2008 Conference on Catholic Legal Thought in Seattle

Conference on Catholic Legal Thought

2008 Summer Institute

May 28, 29 & 30, 2008

Seattle University School of Law, Seattle, Washington

Last June, at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and the previous year at Fordham University School of Law, Catholic law professors from all over the country met for three days to explore ways to foster the development of the emerging body of “Catholic Legal Thought” (“CLT”), rooted in Catholic social thought and teaching.The law schools represented at those meetings included Ave Maria, Boston College, Catholic University, Campbell University, Duquesne University, Fordham University, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University Los Angeles, Notre Dame, University of Oklahoma, St. John’s University, Seattle University, Seton Hall University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of St. Thomas and Villanova University. At the initial Fordham meeting, we named our coalition of scholars the “Conference on Catholic Legal Thought.” We decided to organize annual meetings to support the development of CLT, to be hosted on a rotating basis by different law schools around the country. These annual meetings are directed both at those who are just beginning the enterprise of integrating Catholic thought into their teaching and scholarship and at those who are more experienced. This year’s meeting will be hosted by the Seattle University School of Law in Seattle, Washington. The first day will include an introduction to basic aspects of Catholic social teachings and begin a deeper discussion of authority, led by Fr. Frank Sullivan, one of the preeminent authorities on magisterial authority. The second and third days will consist of interactive workshops exploring particular topics through the lens of CLT, or the application of fundamental principles of Catholic thought to the development of CLT in general. The workshops will offer combinations of lectures, debates, and discussions by members of the Conference, as well as outside experts from other disciplines and other faith traditions. The four topics for this year will be:

• Teaching and Our Pastoral Role.  Teaching CLT in a law school setting presents myriad occasions to make our own "the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties" of the students of our times.  This panel discussion will explore some of the pastoral issues that may arise in the course of our teaching, and will explore some practical ideas for a faith-informed response.  Questions will include how to present CLT when students lack formation in Catholic or Christian traditions and teaching; and how to approach CLT topics such as abortion, divorce, and sexual identity knowing that for some students these issues have been a source of "grief or anxiety" for themselves, family members or close friends.

• Catholic Thought and Legal Theory.  The body of CLT that has been developed over the last century-plus defies easy categorization; it is neither "liberal" nor "conservative."  This session will focus on several of the concepts/judgments that set CLT apart from other social theories; it will also focus on the question of what concepts/judgments give CLT an internal unity and make it a coherent body of thought.

• Scholarly Career Planning as a Christian.  This panel will discuss scholarship in CLT from both theoretical and practical perspectives with the hopes of encouraging a discussion of the ways in which conference participants may contribute to the developing body of scholarship in this field.  Speakers will discuss those areas in CLT that deserve additional attention, the gaps that exist in current scholarship and the contributions that law professors (often not theologically-trained) can make to this field.   More practically, this panel will also offer the opportunity to discuss how junior faculty may develop a scholarly agenda in this area, how scholarship on religious themes may be received in the tenure process (especially at secular schools), how to find mentors in the field, and how to combine this scholarship with more traditional legal scholarship.

• Works in Progress.  This session provides an opportunity for presenting new scholarship related to CLT.  Contact Russ Powell if you are interested in presenting.

The conference will also offer time for communal prayer and reflection, a field trip to the famous Pike Place Market, and plenty of opportunity for fellowship with like-minded legal scholars.  There will be no fee to attend any of these events, but participants will be responsible for their own travel, lodging, and expenses. 

If you are interested in attending or would like more information, please fill out the attached registration form and e-mail it to:  Russ Powell:  rpowell@seattleu.edu  (http://www.law.seattleu.edu will eventually provide updates.)

Detail, Schedule, and Registration form are included below.

Conference on Catholic Legal Thought

2008 Summer Institute

Seattle University School of Law

901 12th Avenue, Sullivan Hall

Seattle, WAS  98122

Please return this response sheet to Russ Powell by May 14, 2007.

Email:  rpowell@seattleu.edu    Fax:  (206) 398-4036

Name:

School:

Address:

Email (required): 

Phone:

I plan to attend:

__     05/28/08-05-30/08 Full Conference (You won’t want to miss Fr. Sullivan)   

__     05/29/0 and 05/30/08 Workshops Only

__     I cannot attend this conference, but would like to be kept informed of future meetings of the Conference on Catholic Legal Thought by e-mail.

Hotel:  A block of hotel rooms has been reserved for this conference at the Silver Cloud Hotel—Broadway, 1100 Broadway;  Seattle, WA  98122.  (reference: Conference on Catholic Legal Thought). This hotel is across the street from Seattle University. To book your room, please contact the hotel directly (Phone: 206.325.1400). (We were only able to block a limited number of rooms, so please book early.)

Conference Schedule

May 28th

9-10 Meet and Greet/Continental Breakfast

10-12 Introductory Session on Catholic Social/Legal Thought.

12-1 Lunch

1-3 Second Session on Catholic Social/Legal Thought: Authority (Fr. Frank Sullivan, S.J.)

3-3:30 Break

3:30-5:30 Third Session on Catholic Social/Legal Thought: Authority (Fr. Frank Sullivan, S.J.)

5:45 Mass

Dinner on your own

May 29th

9-10 Continental Breakfast

10-12 Teaching and Our Pastoral Role (Led by Amy Uelman)

12-1 Lunch

1-3 Catholic Thought and Legal Theory (Led by Patrick Brennan)

3-3:30 Break

3:30-5:30 Scholarly Career Planning as a Christian (Led by Lucia Silecchia)

5:45 Reception and dinner hosted by Seattle U. 

Spiritual Reflection (led by Fr. Greg Kalscheur) followed by Mass

May 30th

9-10 Continental Breakfast

10-12:30 Community Discussion/Planning for Next Year (Led by Russ Powell)

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-3:30 Discussion of Works in Progress

3:30 Mass

Heartwarming Update

The rainstorm is turning to sleet right now in Minneapolis, and they're predicting a major winter storm overnight.  It's been a long, long winter..... So here's a heartwarming update to a heartwarming story I shared about a year ago about a struggling urban Catholic school. 

Call for Papers: "The Feminine Genius in the Pursuit of the Common Good"

Clear your calendars for next October!  It will be the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of Mulieris Dignitatem, Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter on the dignity and vocation of women.  As Rob pointed out recently, Ave Maria and Catholic Law School are co-sponsoring a fantastic "Celebration of the Twentieth Anniversary of Mulieris Dignitatem" in D.C. at the beginning of the month (Oct. 3--4). 

At the end of the month (Oct. 23-24) here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis & St. Paul, a conglomerate of departments and institutes at the University of St. Thomas are sponsoring two consecutive, thematically-related one-day conferences exploring the contributions women are called to make in the pursuit of the common good.  The first conference is Mulieris Dignitatem and the Church's Social Vision:  The Feminine Genius in the Pursuit of the Common Good, co-sponsored by the Murphy Institute for Law and Public Policy, the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, the Center for Catholic Studies, the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Departments of Philosophy and Theology.  The second is Visions of Woman's Leadership, co-sponsored by the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership and the UST School of Law.

The organizers are issuing a call for paper proposals for the first conference.  Here's the call:

The first conference is in honor of the 20^th anniversary of the promulgation of the Apostolic Letter, Mulieris Dignitatem. Its aim is to engage scholars and practitioners in a consideration of several questions: What is the feminine genius and how can its existence be verified? Within which philosophical or theological categories can it be included? What is the role of the feminine genius in the world? What is its relationship to the complementarity of men and women? Should the feminine genius be more explicitly enlisted in the effort to make life more “human” for all, and if so, how? What are the indispensable contributions of women?

We invite papers that treat these questions in relation to both their philosophical and theological foundations and in light of five categories that, according to scholar Michael Schuck, emerge in a historical study of the Catholic Social Tradition: the religious, political, familial, economic, and cultural dimensions of community life, In addition, we are interested in papers that investigate the public policy implications that follow from these categories and that reflect on the ways that women can make a particular and concrete contribution to the pursuit of the common good.

Proposals should be sent by June 30, 2008 to Dr. Deborah Savage at: pdsavage@stthomas.edu

More details about both conferences, and the Call for Papers, are available below.

The University of St. Thomas is holding two consecutive conferences, both with the aim of exploring the contributions women are called to make in the pursuit of the common good. The conferences are the result of collaboration between the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, the Center for Catholic Studies, the Murphy Institute for Law and Public Policy, and the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership.

The symposium begins the evening of October 22 with a key note address by Ms. Mary Beth Bonacci. Two thematically related one-day conferences follow on October 23-24. Dr. Pia Francesca de Solenni, the winner of the Pontifical Award for her dissertation on the feminine genius in light of the work of St. Thomas Aquinas, will give the keynote address at the first conference. Ms. Hanna Suchoka, former Prime Minister of Poland and currently the Polish Ambassador to the Apostolic See, has been invited to give the keynote address at the second conference.

We are issuing a call for paper proposals for the first conference, “The Feminine Genius in the Pursuit of the Common Good,” though attendees are invited and encouraged to attend the second conference, “Visions of Women’s Leadership,” sponsored by the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership. The first conference is in honor of the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of the Apostolic Letter, Mulieris Dignitatem. Its aim is to engage scholars and practitioners in a consideration of several questions: What is the feminine genius and how can its existence be verified? Within which philosophical or theological categories can it be included? What is the role of the feminine genius in the world? What is its relationship to the complementarity of men and women? Should the feminine genius be more explicitly enlisted in the effort to make life more “human” for all, and if so, how? What are the indispensable contributions of women?

We invite papers that treat these questions in relation to both their philosophical and theological foundations and in light of five categories that, according to scholar Michael Schuck, emerge in a historical study of the Catholic Social Tradition: the religious, political, familial, economic, and cultural dimensions of community life. [Michael J. Schuck. That They Be One: The Social Teaching of the Papal Encyclicals, 1740-1989 (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 1991), 4.] In addition, we are interested in papers that investigate the public policy implications that follow from these categories and that reflect on the ways that women can make a particular and concrete contribution to the pursuit of the common good.

Proposals should be sent by June 30, 2008 to Dr. Deborah Savage at: pdsavage@stthomas.edu.

The documentary heritage of Catholic Social Thought has traditionally included papal encyclicals and other writings concerned primarily with issues of justice in the economic sphere. Scholars of the tradition have tended to focus their reflections on this arena, resulting in a vast treasury of thought on how the human community might come to “live in peace secured by justice.” [William Byron, "The Social Question: Who Asks? Who Answers? in "On the Condition of Labor and the Social Question One Hundred Years Later: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Rerum Novarum, and the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Association for Social Economics", ed. Thomas O. Nitsch, Joseph M. Phillips, Jr., and Edward L. Fitzsimmons, Toronto Studies in Theology Volume 69. (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994) 17]

But the recent publication of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church by the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace illuminates the fact that the Catholic Social Tradition encompasses not only concerns for human dignity and community in the economic sphere, but extends its scope to the role of the family and the unique contributions of women in bringing about a just society. Documents such as John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation on the family, Familiaris Consortio, as well has both of his letters to women, the Apostolic Letter of 1988, Mulieris Dignitatem, and the letter of 1995, are included and referred to at some length. The Compendium appropriates for the Church’s social tradition not only the topic of women and work and the labor question, but also the equality and complementarity of men and women, human sexuality and reproduction and the particular role of women in promoting the culture of life. [See Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005]

The Compendium states explicitly that the “feminine genius is needed in all expressions in the life of society, therefore the presence of women in the workplace must be guaranteed.” [Ibid, 295] This statement seems to imply two things: first, that women “belong” everywhere, and second, that this is so because women bring something to community life that is unique to female personhood. A further, if unstated implication is that whatever this something is, it is necessary to make a fully human society.

Clearly this calls for an investigation of what is meant by the “feminine genius” and the nature of the unique contribution women are called to make in the process of becoming fully and authentically themselves. In fact, it must be admitted that there is significant work to be done in considering the nature of this “feminine genius” and how it might be better enlisted in creating conditions that “make life more human” for all. [The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. 38: AAS 58 (1966)]

Good questions by Kaveny

AS usual, Cathy Kaveny raises some really good questions in her recent Commonweal article that was the subject of Rob's post and Richard M.'s comments.  I've just posted in the sidebar a link to  short article in UST Law's first alumni magazine, Catholic Feminism:  An Oxymoron or 'Deeper Truths?'  .(Can you believe we've been around long enough to have an alumni magazine?) In it, I explain that it was precisely Cathy's types of questions that have pulled me away from banking law scholarship the past few years.  I first read Mulieris Dignitatem just a few years ago, because of:

. . . my nagging desire to assess honestly whether my own career path – involving decades of juggling a career and raising my four children – was consonant with the Catholic Church’s notion of the vocation of motherhood.

My explorations of this issue have led me to the conclusion that there is, indeed, much in Church teachings to assuage my concerns, but also that more work needs to be done to address Cathy's type of questions.  I agree with Richard M. that there has been significant evolution in the Church's teachings since the 1912 encyclopedia; I go into this development in some detail in this article published in Catholic L. Rev last year.

But I do agree with Cathy that there is more work to be done in fleshing out the notion of complementarity.  That's one of the things I'm working on right now.  My favorite scholar on this to date is Sr. Prudence Allen.  She's done incredible work in two volumes of The Concept     of Woman tracing the philosophical roots of the concept of complementarity that plays such an important role in JPII's theology.  Quoting myself again, from that alumni magazine article, this is what I'm finding and exploring these days:

My search for an authentically Catholic feminist legal theory also has led me to philosophical theories of gender identity, particularly the theory of complementarity, which posits that men and women are fundamentally different, yet fundamentally equal. This theory has its roots in a Thomistic affirmation of the unity of body and soul; it was developed by a group of predominantly Catholic philosophers who rejected the Cartesian dualism underlying most post-Enlightenment philosophy – phenomenologists such as Dietrich and Alice von Hildebrand and St. Edith Stein, and personalists such as Jacques and Raissa Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier and Gabriel Marcel. These schools of thought can provide vocabulary, arguments and frameworks for a feminist legal theory that are consonant with my faith beliefs, but do not depend on tenets of faith for their logical integrity.

The more I study, the more I discover traces of agreement with some of the basic ideas underlying complementarity in the writings of philosophers who do not share my faith traditions, such as the Jewish philosopher Leon Kass and the socialist feminist Alison Jaggar.

In Gratitude.... for C.U.A.'s Symposium

I want to echo Patrick's  praise of the incredible conference organized by Bill Wagner's Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture at Catholic University last week.  I am, frankly, still reeling from the experience of hearing, seeing, and learning from so many of the brilliant writers & theologians  whose work I've been reading for years now, all addressing different aspects of one of MOJ's central questions -- IS there a "common morality", is there a language or mode of thought in which persons of different or no faiths can even argue about fundamental issues of morality?

CUA has generously posted streaming video of the entire conference in their electronic calendar.  You can see the program for the conference here, and choose the date and time for whatever talk you'd like to watch.

Some of my personal highlights were (of course) Patrick Brennan's elegant and trenchant response to Kathryn Tanner's talk about socio-cultural practices that keep us open to moral insight; listening to and watching the interaction between Gilbert Meilaender and Stanley Hauerwas; Robert George's defense of a natural law theory of human rights; Jean Bethke Elshtain's exploration of the application of the just war theory under Christian theology's claim that the distinction between justice owed to those inside the "polis" differs from justice owed to those outside ought to be abolished;  and the contrasts and commonalities in Michael Sandel's arguments about the morality of engineering children and Hadley Arkes' comparison of the intellectual move to define "personhood" to exclude slaves in the 18th century with the current application of the concept of personhood to fetuses and disabled infants.

I found the most fascinating thread running through so many of these talks to be the theme of the Conference's subtitle: "In Gratitude for What We Are Given."  Thomas Hibbs' exploration of the connection between Aquinas' metaphysics of creation and his account of the virtue of gratitude laid out for me most clearly what I think is a very serious question about the project of the conference (and MOJ).  Underlying the most robust notions of justice and equality is some element of gratitude -- some recognition that all we have is a GIFT, that we've done nothing to earn the most significant aspects of our particular situations in life -- the age or country or family into which we are born, our genders, our capacities, our races, etc.    But, (paraphrasing Hibb's account of Aquinas, from my hastily-scribbled notes) in the absence of some understanding of the "giver", it is hard to talk about gift.  My question is, if we don't share some common notion of that giver -- of God -- can we really share an understanding of our lives as gift?   If not, what does that mean for some of our equality-based theories of justice?

These papers will be an extraordinary resource, but if you have some time, do yourself a HUGE favor and make some time to watch some of those talks.  This was really an incredible conference.

"The Many Shapes of Personhood"

I rarely let myself click on YouTube videos, because the temptation to spend hours and hours on detours through that pit of inane, but utterly captivating, amusements is too great.  But here's one you should NOT miss.  I'm even presenting it in a format, though an article from Wired.com linked here, that doesn't directly expose you to all the browsing temptations of YouTube.

The article features Amanda Baggs, a young woman with autism.  Her video first shows a few minutes of her interactions with her environment, and then provides a "translation" of her interactions, though the aid of an augmentative communications devices that lets her type (which she does at 120 words a minute) and then speaks the typed words for her.  Her commentary on how "we" judge intelligence and personhood is haunting.  Her closing words are:  "Only when the many shapes of personhood are recognized will justice and human rights be possible."

Pope Benedict's Upcoming Visit

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to Pope Benedict's upcoming visit to the U.S. is the hope that I can comfortably watch the evening news with my seven-year old daughter again.  That's not been possible lately, between Spitzer, his gubenatorial successor, and Rev. Wright.  John Allen's latest column is a handy "One-Stop-Shopping Guide" to the Pope's visit.

Allen on Women in the Church

John Allen's latest NCR column includes this interesting reflection on the role of women in the Church.

What will we see first: a woman president or women priests?
That's an easy one. Since there's no doctrinal bar to a woman president, it's simply a question of a female candidate being able to get enough votes - and whatever eventually happens to Hillary Clinton in 2008, the evidence of this campaign would suggest we're probably not that far away. On women priests, however, there is a serious doctrinal obstacle. Without entering into the merits of that question, it seems clear that given today's strong pressure surrounding Catholic identity, women won't be ordained anytime soon.

What I suspect we will see throughout the 21st century, however, is a continuing effort to empower women in the church in all ways short of sacramental ordination. In the United States, 48.4 percent of all administrative positions in dioceses today are held by women, and at the most senior levels, 26.8 percent of executive positions are held by women. Perceptions of patriarchal bias aside, the Catholic church actually does better in this regard than many other institutions. A 2005 study of Fortune 500 companies found that women hold only 16.4 percent of corporate officer positions and just 6.4 percent of the top earner positions. Similarly, a 2007 study by the American Bar Association found that just 16 percent of the members of the top law firms' governing committees are women, and only 5 percent of managing partners are female. According to a 2004 report from the Department of Defense, women held just 12.7 of positions at the grade of major or above.

Even in the Vatican, there are signs of movement. No woman at all worked in the Roman Curia until 1952, when Pius XII created the Permanent Committee for International Congresses of the Lay Apostolate and appointed Australian lay woman Rosemary Goldie as its Executive Secretary. Things changed significantly over the following half-century. According to a 2005 report from the Catholic News Service, by the end of John Paul's pontificate women were 21 percent of Vatican personnel, even if they rarely broke through to the most senior levels.

Under John Paul II, two barriers for women in the Vatican where shattered. In 2004, he appointed Salesian Sr. Enrica Rosanna to the position of under-secretary in the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the first time a woman had ever been named as to a superior-level position in the Vatican. Also in 2004, John Paul tapped Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon as the President of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, the first woman to head a pontifical academy. (Glendon is now the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.) None of this augurs a revolution, but it is an indication of things to come.

The rise of the Charismatic impulse will also push Catholicism in this direction, since it encourages spontaneous, non-institutional participation that's as open to women as it is to men. There's an implicit egalitarianism in the Pentecostal movement that has allowed women to assume new roles in surprising ways. One of the most powerful Pentecostal pastors of the 20th century, for example, was Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Foursquare Church. "Sister Aimee" was, among other unusual accomplishments for her time, the first woman to own a radio station west of the Mississippi River. As Catholicism across much of the global South is progressively "Pentecostalized," we'll likely see more of this informal, charismatic leadership by women.

B.C. Controversy

I'm not certain this is a complete answer to Richard's question, but the Boston Globe article about the Mukasy decision includes the following explanation from Dean John Garvey:

Garvey said the decision to deny Mukasey the Founder's Medal predated the controversy over his choice as commencement speaker and was not directed at the attorney general personally.

In an effort to depoliticize the selection process, the school will no longer award the medal to commencement speakers, he said.

"This is a policy decision that will make it easier for us to invite people of his prominence in the future," Garvey said.

He said that inviting high-profile figures with well-known public views will invariably spur debate and that divorcing their selection from the school's highest honor will allow greater latitude in attracting noteworthy speakers.

Global Christianity

For an "Ecclesiology" class that I'm taking, we just read the first chapter of Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom:  The Coming of Global Christianity.  While reading the following passage, I was unable to shake the memory of the opening plenary session I attended at the AALS meeting in New York in January.  The day-long program was co-sponsored by the Sections on Women in Legal Education, Aging and the Law, Family and Juvenile Law, Law and Economics, Minority Groups, Poverty Law and Socio-Economics.  It was billed as a "day-long program seeking to discuss and address issues of gender and class from multiple perspectives."  At the time, I was struck by two things:  (1) how many of the plenary panelists identified themselves as Marxists or influenced by Marxist thought; and (2) how the only references anyone made to religious perspectives on the topics of the day were casual, vaguely derisive and dismissive comments.  In retrospect, that panel seems to me to have been a perfect illustration of Jenkins' observations about the blindness of large sectors of the academic world to the (growing, not diminishing) global vitality of religion.  (In fairness, I only attended one of the rest of the day's panels;  perhaps religious perspectives were addressed, for example, in the "Globalization" panel.  My reaction was just to the opening plenary session.)  Here's the Jenkins quote:

The theological coloring of the most successful new churches reminds us once more of the massive gap in most Western listings of the major trends of the past century, which rightly devoted much space to political movements like fascism and communism, but ignored vital religious currents like Pentecostalism.  Yet today, Fascists or Nazis are not easy to find, and Communists may be becoming an endangered species, while Pentecostals are flourishing around the globe.  Since there were only a handful of Pentecostals in 1900, and several hundred million today, is it not reasonable to identify this as perhaps the most successful social movement of the past century?  According to current projections, the number of Pentecostal believers should surpass the one billion mark before 2050.  In terms of the global religions, there will by that point be roughly as many Pentecostals as Hindus, and twice as many as there are Buddhists.  And that is just taking one of the diverse currents of rising Christianity:  there will be even more Catholics than Pentecostals.

Reviving Scholastic Usury Theory

Brian McCall, University of Oklahoma College of Law, wrote with his reaction to the recent article by Professors Peterson & Graves, "Usury Law and the Christian Right," the subject of a recent post.   Brian has just written an article concluding that modern credit regulation could benefit from application of a scholastic theory of usury.  Brian's comments:

I saw your post about the article of Professors Peterson and Graves on usury and the Religious Right.  I have read their article which presents some excellent empirical research about the location of abusive pay day lenders.  Their paper shows a correlation between concentrations of payday lenders and states with significant numbers of Christians committed to social issues informed by the Faith.  The article implies the question, “why would states with large sections of the population seeking to conform secular law to biblical truth apparently not exhibit concern over usury?” 

Coincidentally (or providentially) I have just submitted a draft article to various law reviews which may contain an answer to this question.  For the past year I have been studying the philosophy of usury as it developed in the West from the biblical texts to modern rate regulation.  The conclusion I reached was that a significant philosophical shift occurred in the sixteenth century that caused Christians to depart from the original theory.  This new subjectivist approach only found offenses when a bad intention was present.  Rate limitation was seen as a substitute for finding bad intention.  This shift caused the original objectivist approach (some transactions are by their nature unjust and need to be prohibited regardless of intention) to usury regulation to fall out of fashion.   My objective is to reintroduce the principles of the original scholastic theory into the modern credit regulation debates we are seeing almost daily in our newspapers.  By returning to these principles we could redesign usury law to bring more coherence, consistency and fairness to our credit markets.

The current draft of the paper can be found at http://works.bepress.com/brian_mccall/3/

Better Family Leave Policies for A More Balanced Academy?

Two Penn State professors have been trying to figure out empirially exactly why the academy leans toward the left politically.  They just released a paper, "Left Pipeline:  Why Conservatives Don't Get Doctorates", in which they conclude that the values and interests of liberal students naturally incline them more towards careers as academics than those of conservative students.  According to a Chronicle of Higher Ed article:

They found that in a variety of ways, conservative students were less interested than liberals in subject matter that often leads to doctoral degrees, and less interested in doing the kinds of things that professors spend their time doing.

For example, liberal students reported valuing intellectual freedom, creativity, and the chance to write original work and make a theoretical contribution to science. They outnumbered conservative students two to one in the humanities and social sciences — which are among the fields most likely to produce interest in doctoral study. Conservative students, however, put more value on personal achievement and orderliness, and on practical professions, like accounting and computer science, that could earn them lots of money.

The Woessners also found that conservative students put a higher priority than liberal ones on raising a family. That does not always fit well with a career in academe, where people often delay childbearing until after they earn tenure.

The research led the Woessners to conclude that if higher education wants to attract more conservatives to the professoriate, it should smooth the way financially, offering subsidized health insurance and housing for graduate students, and adopting family-friendly policies for professors.

Usury Law and the Christian Right

I haven't read this yet, but it sure sounds interesting!

"Usury Law and the Christian Right: Faith Based Political Power and the Geography of the American Payday Loan Regulation"

By Christopher Lewis Peterson, University of Florida -- Levin College of Law & Steven M. Graves, California State University, Northridge

The culture war has become a national moniker describing a variety of policy debates between social conservatives and secular liberal Americans. Hotly contested battle grounds in this metaphorical war have included abortion policy, affirmative action, the right to bear arms, and gay marriage. Frequently these debates have divided secular Americans from people of faith. This article explores this cultural divide in the context of consumer financial services. In the past fifteen to twenty years America has witnessed a stunning transformation in financial services offered to lower and lower-middle classes. A new breed of fringe creditors charging prices far in excess of the old mafia loan sharking syndicates have spread throughout much of the country. The archetype of fringe creditors commonly referred to as payday lenders, charges average simple nominal annual interest rates of around 450 percent. This Article presents empirical research based on the largest, most comprehensive database of payday loan locations yet created. Payday lender locations are compared to an index measuring the political power of conservative Christian Americans in all fifty states. We conclude that there is a strong correlation between the density of payday lending industry and the political power of conservative Christians, suggesting that conservative Christians have become a prime demographic target of payday lenders. These findings are further discussed in light of Biblical injunctions against usury.

Life Imitating Art?

This story about the attention Minnesota's superdelegates are getting illustrates that the (hilarious) Borowitz satire Michael Perry posted isn't far from the truth.

A Lovely Thing to Pray For . . .

. . . particularly if the allegations that the most recent Iraqi suicide bombers were two women with Down Syndrome turn out to be true....

Pope Is Praying for Mentally Handicapped

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 1, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict's general prayer intention for February will focus on the well-being of the mentally handicapped.

The Apostleship of Prayer announced the general intention chosen by the Pope: "That the mentally handicapped may not be marginalized, but respected and lovingly helped to live in a way worthy of their physical and social condition."

Interruptions

For some reason, I get particular spiritual nourishment from insights that bring home the reality of Christ's humanity.  (For example, during a particularly protracted toilet-training struggle with one of my children, it ocurred to me that Mary had to toilet train Jesus.  This idea still bemuses and comforts me in all sorts of situations.)

I just came across this passage in an excellent Catholic critique of American secular culture, particularly the liberal feminist movement, Joyce Little's The Church and the Culture War:  Secular Anarchy or Sacred Order.  It struck me as not only a wonderful insight into Christ's humanity, but also a good reminder, in general:

Henri J. Nouwen in his book Out of Solitude quotes a professor at Notre Dame as saying, 'I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly discovered that my interruptions were my work.' Those of us who pursue a career are all too prone to define for ourselves where the importance of our work lies.  We are constantly tempted to dismiss the demands others make on us as a waste of time, their needs as far less significant than the projects to which we have committed ourselves.  We can become quite convinced that we are doing what God wants us to do and that he himself would not wish to see that work disrupted by the paltry loose ends of other people's lives.

What we fail to understand is that if these interruptions are a waste of time, then Christ's life was a waste of time.  For when we read the Gospels attentively, we discover that the story of his life is one long sequence of interruptions.  The blind Bartimaeus interrupts his departure from Jericho, a woman interrupts his dinner in the home of Simon the leper, a centurion interrupts his entry into Capernaum, Jairus interrupts his meeting with the crowd, the woman with the hemorrhage interrupts his attempts to get to Jairus' daughter, his disciples interrupt virtually everything; even Mary interrupts his enjoyment of the wedding.  The list could go on and on.  One might even say that the crucifixion interrupts what could have been a splendid messianic career.  Those were not interruptions, of course.  They were precisely the people he came to help, the things he came to do.  When so much of his work consisted of attending to those who interrupted him, why should we suppose our own lives to be any different?

Defiant Birth

If you want a taste of what's in the Defiant Birth book that was the subject of Rick's recent post, it includes a slightly edited version of this essay I wrote about my experiences with prenatal testing.  With that self-interest disclosed, I have to say that the book is truly excellent.  The introduction by the editor, Australian pro-life author and activist Melinda Tankard Reist, is a rich source of data and information about the eugenic trend of much of prenatal care.  The essays in the collection consist of contributions from women all over the world, conveying how universal and widespread these eugenic attitudes are. 

The More Radical Dependency --"Let it be"

I wrote about some of the connections between the feminist critique of autonomy-based theories of justice (a la Glendon), its connection with Alisdaire MacIntyre's work in Dependent Rational Animals, and how Catholic thought enriches that critique, in the 2006 St. John's symposium on the Jurisprudential Legacy of JPII.

But all this focus on man's dependence on man shouldn't obscure something else that seems missing from the Rush-like world view -- our dependence on God.  That's a dependency much more radical than even the dependencies of childhood, old age, and disability than is typically the focus of "dependency justice" talk.  Maybe I'm straining too hard to make a connection here, but I just wanted to share something from an amazing book I'm currently reading about an amazing woman by another amazing woman.  It's (yes, you're reading this correctly) The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mary of Nazareth, by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda (and, yes, she is related, by marriage, to our very own Michael S.).

M. R. Scaperlanda points out that the words "Let it be" are spoken at three crucial points of the Scripture:  by God, during the creation of the world; by Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane; and by Mary, at the Annunciation.  Mary's "Let it be" became her life-long prayer.  I don't honestly know how this furthers the current discussion, but I keep returning to the following passage from the book on the significance of this prayer, which seems to me to be saying something radical about the "dependence" to which we're all called.  (And yes, the Beatles song keeps running through my head as I think through this.)

Mary knew that each human being is accountable, that what we do, how we live, and the choices we make are never without consequence.  So by choosing to say to God, "Let my life be your will, and not mine," meant she was willing to live through that end result -- not even knowing what that meant!

When Mary responded to the angel with the words, let it be done to me as you say, she was able to do so because her life's foundation included two important factors.

Mary believed in God, in a good and merciful God.  Her image of the creator of the universe was of a mightly and holy being, whose mercy to his people lives on from age to age.  And, because this was her understanding of God, Mary was willing to put her entire life in his care -- and her son's life as well!

Mary trusted her God so completely, so deeply, in fact, that she called herself the servant of the Lord.  This understanding of "servant," then, is not actually about submissiveness.  It is instead about trusting in God's goodness.  But it does include Mary's willingness to place the direction of her life in God's hands -- all of it.  No matter what "surprise" came her way.

Becoming a mother while still a virgin.  Giving birth to the Son of God.  Wise men from the east coming to pay her son homage.  Listening to her husband's dreams -- even when it meant leaving her home and family and living as refugees. 

In every new situation placed before her, Mary was able -- and open -- to see that reality, whatever it was, as parat of God's will for her life and the lives of those whom she loved.

She didn't have to, you know.  She chose to say yes over and over.  But just because her yes was a prayer did not prevent her from being accountable for the consequences of that yes, in every situation -- even standing at the foot of a cross watching her son die.

Mary was willing to turn her will and her life over to the care of God, and she did so deliberately and consistently, because in the midst of a crazy world, she trusted in the goodness of her Creator.

Silver's Vast Scientific Conspiracy

In First Things, Ryan Anderson and Maureen Condic have written this response to Princeton biologist Lee Silver's arguments that there is no difference between human embryos and human skin cells, discussed here, here, and here.

January 14, 2008

Professor Lee Silver’s Vast Scientific Conspiracy

By Ryan T. Anderson and Maureen L. Condic   http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=946

Just before Thanksgiving, news broke about a new stem-cell technique that could produce the equivalent of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) but without using or destroying human embryos. We referred to the news that these cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), could be made from human skin cells as a “Stem-Cell Breakthrough” marking “The End of the Stem-Cell Wars.” It certainly gave us one more thing for which to be thankful when we sat down to dinner that Thursday night.

In the new issue of First Things, one of us (Condic) argues that scientists are now “