NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS DECEMBER 2003 / JANUARY 2004 ■ VOLUME 33, NUMBER 3 Three traditions dialogue on just war By Julie Bourbon The Jesuit Conference and the Woodstock Theological Center jointly hosted a day long Forum on Catholic Traditions on Peace and War at Georgetown University. Prompted by a request last year from the Jesuit provincials of the United States to examine the just war tradition in light of the changing nature of post-Cold War warfare, the forum will result in a publication on the Catholic tradition on war and peace that will be geared toward high schools, colleges and parish adult education. About 100 people attended the forum, held November 6. Presenters included Fr. J. Bryan Hehir, president of Catholic Charities USA, Fr. Gasper Lo Biondo (MAR), director of the Woodstock Theological Center, Fr. Drew Christiansen (NYK), associate editor of America, and Maryann Cusimano Love, associate professor of International Politics at Catholic University. Fr. Rick Ryscavage (MAR), former secretary of Social and International Ministries at the Jesuit Conference and the forum’s moderator, recalled that, in the wake of the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, he has heard from many quarters, “Why don’t the Jesuits say something? Or, conversely, why don’t they shut up?” The forum was a partial response to those cries for the Society of Jesus to “say something.” But, Ryscavage assured, this was not intended to be “just another panel on Catholic Just War Theory.” He outlined three primary aims for the day’s events. The first was pedagogical, to dispel what he called a “sense of confusion” as to what, exactly, is the Catholic tradition. “Can we step back and introduce into the public discourse … clarity?” he asked. The second aim was to raise consciousness that present day peacemakers are facing a new world situation, unlike the one they have traditionally operated in throughout the 20th century. “The geopolitical landscape is shifting,” Ryscavage said. “The way we wage war has changed.” The traditional Catholic response has long been based on government interaction, but how does that apply to non-state actors? The third aim was to begin the process of integrating Catholic thought on war and peace and bringing those strands to the service of policy makers. Ryscavage called the forum’s timing particularly appropriate, given the recent 40th anniversary of the papal encyclical Pacem in Terris. The morning session was taken up largely with the presentation of three positions, which were discussed throughout the afternoon, first in small groups and then at an open microphone session. Position one covered the pacifist tradition on peace and peacemaking, as presented by Fr. Michael Baxter, CSC, Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, and Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine. Position two dealt with the presumption against force and the just war tradition, contemporary Catholic teaching on peace and war, as presented by Christiansen, Cusimano Love and George A. Lopez, director of policy studies at Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Position three addressed just war and U.S. responsibilities after 9/11; it was presented by Gregory Reichberg of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo and Robert Royal, president of the Faith and Reason Institute. Noting “pacifism began with Jesus,” Baxter, speaking for the first position, asked what the pacifist might have to offer this debate. He recommended that policymakers consult with Christians and with peacemaking groups in the Middle East, to gain insights into political and religious dynamics in the region. He also urged that the rights of conscientious objectors be restored, that monetary aid to Israel be contingent on military reforms, that NGOs working to ameliorate the living conditions of Palestinians be funded, that the occupation of Iraq be terminated and that any U.S. military action against Iran or Syria first be approved by the United Nations. The second position argued for the continued, indeed, increased, relevance of the just war tradition. Calling the modern Church’s position “a composite one” of non-violence and just war, Christiansen was critical of the U.S. rationale for preventative war in Iraq, saying that “just wars are never wars of choice.” Addressing the proliferation of non-state actors in the Middle East, Cusimano Love said that “terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and non-state actors are not new … the global megaphone is new.” While acknowledging the existence of a “paradigmatic shift in international life, warfighting and the challenge to protect the innocent” post-September 11, the second group argued for the compatibility of just war theory in light of these new realities and the necessi- “Just war” continued on page 15 Daniel S. Hendrickson (WIS), left, and D. Scott Hendrickson (MIS), right, twin brothers and Jesuits, were among the nearly 10,000 protesters marching at Fort Benning, Ga., Nov. 21-23 seeking the closure of the renewed School of the Americas. Fr. Tom Lankenau (ORE) writes about the Ignatian Family Teach-In that highlighted the two-day event on pages 10 and 11. Daniel S. Hendrickson contributes a brief reflection on the experience on page 12. (Photo by Tom Lankenau, SJ) 5 Feature 8 Feature 20 Jesuit Relations Fr. Joe Tetlow wonders about his father's prayer book. Fr. Bob Fabing receives honors from Chinese friends. Bro. Ed Sheehy brings an apostolate of puppets to those in need. News Jesuits and Interreligious Dialogue Brueggeman Center and interreligious dialogue Making friends with real life representatives of world religions By Joseph A. Bracken SJ For many years before my arrival at Xavier University in 1982, the late Edward B. Brueggeman SJ was co-host of a popular Sunday morning television program called “Dialogue,” which involved a Roman Catholic priest, a Protestant minister and a Jewish rabbi in conversation on a variety of topics. When the local network station cancelled the program, funds were raised to establish a chair in interreligious dialogue at Xavier University. Initially, the endowment for the chair only allowed for visiting lecturers to give talks on interreligious topics each semester. But in due time the revenue from the endowment permitted us to invite a distinguished professor in interreligious studies to give courses of his/her choice for an entire semester. Most recently, a house on campus has been set aside both as living quarters for the visiting professor and for the offices of the Brueggeman Center. Within this context I have until recently offered survey courses on the undergraduate level dealing with various non-Christian religions, first, under the title of “World Religions in Dialogue” and then under the heading of “Far Eastern Religions.” Being primarily a philosopher rather than a historian of religion, I tended to focus on the differences and similarities between the different relig ions in terms of their respec t ive worldviews. I was likewise aided in my reflections by regular conversations with an academic colleague, Dr. Paul Knitter, who has been even more active than I in interreligious dialogue as a result of the extraordinary success of his first major book “No Other Name?” (Orbis, 1985). My own book “The Divine Matrix: Creativity as Link between East and West (Orbis, 1995) was the eventual fruit of this extended line of thought. The Brueggeman Center for Interreligious Dialogue at Xavier was commissioned to organize an interfaith Millennium Peace Celebration involving the various religious communities in the greater Cincinnati area (Protestant, Jew ish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sik h, Jain, Nat ive American) together with Dr. Knitter and the current chairperson of the theolog y department, Dr. Brennan Hill. Assist ing the three of us was a remarkable young woman, Sheila Speth, who, besides being the mother of one young child and pregnant with another, managed to coordinate all the details of such a wide-ranging public relat ions event. Subsequently she ser ved as my assistant (prog ram direc tor) of the Brueggeman Center until this past spring (2003) when the birth of her third child forced her to give full attention to her growing family. The Millennium Peace Celebration was so successful that we for thw ith decided that as director of the center I should organize an annual symposium on an interrelig ious topic as well as secure the ser vices of a visiting professor in interreligious studies in the fall semester of each year. Likewise, given the numerous personal contacts thus achieved in virtue of staging the Millennium Peace Celebration, it was fur ther decided to have a board of adv isors for the Brueggeman Center drawn from those same religious communit ies in the g reater Cincinnat i area. In this way, I gradually found myself making friends with real-life representatives of the world religions, which I had been teaching in a survey course for “World religions” continued on page 14 Conversion to interreligious dialogue: a duty within the Church’s mission By James T. Bretzke SJ Recently I came across some remarks by a former acquaintance from my years of teaching at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Fitzgerald, a former missionary in Africa, was commenting on a forthcoming document from the Holy See on interreligious dialogue. He strongly affirmed that dialogue with believers of other religions “is not a hobby or an extra activity but a duty within the mission of the Church.” Dialogue, though, involves more than merely conversational etiquette. Fitzgerald stated “the problem that arises is how to reconcile dialogue as part of the mission of the Church with Jesus’ mandate to go out and preach.” Thus there is an intimate connection between evangelization and dialogue. Fitzgerald stated that the Church must do both, noting the two tasks “are different but not opposed,” since the ultimate judge and animator of the Church’s mission, including interreligious dialogue, is the Holy Spirit. Interreligious dialogue is a bit like inculturation: everyone seems to be in favor of it, but the precise roadmap to reach these theological destinations remains open to some considerable debate. At the time of Pope John Paul II’s 1990 Encyclical Redemptoris Missio (“On the Permanent Validity of the Church’s Mis- MOVING? NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS EDITOR: Thomas C. Widner SJ PUBLICATIONS MANAGER: Marcus Bleech PUBLICATIONS ASSOCIATE: Julie Bourbon 2 National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 “Church mission” continued on page 14 Send change of address to: NJN, 1616 P Street, NW, Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20036-1420 Name: NEW address: City, State, Zip: Province Correspondents Jerry Hayes SJ, California George Kearney, Chicago John Moriconi SJ, Detroit Jackie Antkowiak, Maryland Phil Steele SJ, Missouri Richard Roos SJ, New England Louis T. Garaventa SJ, New York Kenneth J. Boller SJ, New York Brad Reynolds SJ, Oregon Donald Hawkins SJ, New Orleans Patrick Dorsey SJ, Wisconsin sionary Mandate”), one of my colleagues at the Gregorian lamented that too many of our international students wanted to do their thesis research on topics related to their native culture and contexts. Qui si fa la teologia universale. “Here we do universal theology” was his reply to these requests and that remark reveals the ongoing tension over the universal and particular that any, and every, valid theology must encompass. The old Italian travel advisory, “All roads lead to Rome,” would mark a danger indeed if these roads all turned out to be one-way and/or dead-ends. The road that led me personally to Rome (and later on to California) started in Asia. After ordination I went to Korea as a missionary and my Korean superiors sent me to Rome for my doctorate in moral theology, with a view to teaching in a future theologate back in Seoul (that still has not quite opened). Probably my encounters with the religious and philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Shamanism in their native Asian contexts convinced me that a “teologia universale a la Romana” might not be the only, or best response, to the twin task of mission and dialogue that Archbishop Fitzgerald underscores. The year after my Roman arrival (1987) the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) with the Protestant The articles published here reflect the opinions of the editor or the individual authors. They are not meant to represent any official position of the Society of Jesus. When sending in address changes include your full address and home province. mailto:[email protected] Find us on the Web at: HTTP://WWW.JESUIT.ORG National Jesuit News (ISSN 0199-0284) is published monthly except January, March, May, July, August, September by the U.S. Jesuit Conference, 1616 P St., NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20036-1420. Phone: (202) 462-0400/FAX (202) 328-9212. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., 20066-9602 and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to National Jesuit News, 1616 P St., NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 200361420. For undeliverable copies, please send form 3579. Copyright © 2003 by the Society of Jesus. Photos by Tom Lankeneau, SJ Jesuit school students find their way to Fort Benning With God in Vietnam: giving the Exercises to religious women By Tony Sholander SJ Despite the assurance that Vietnam is SARS-free, seeing airport officials with facial masks checking the temperature of passengers was unnerving for the California scholastics who traveled to Vietnam during the summer of 2003. “We were tired and anxious. What if things went wrong?” A. Tran of JSTB remembered. Four scholastics assisted local Jesuits in giving silent retreats to religious women. They paired up and each team gave several eight-day retreats in Central and South Vietnam. Based on the Spiritual Exercises, the retreats were half-preached and half-directed. The Spiritual Exercises has become influential in the spiritual life of the Church in Vietnam. Not only that the Exercises has been the favorite method of retreat among religious women for the past 20 years, many bishops of Vietnam now request the Society to give the Exercises for candidates preparing for ordination and priestly renewal. In addition, college students look to the yearly Ignatian retreats to renew their faith commitment. There are always more requests for the Exercises than Jesuits to fill them. This year alone, the Jesuits had to turn down nearly 100 retreatants because of a dearth of manpower. The California scholastics provided a small but significant help to this important apostolate of the Society in Vietnam. For the scholastics, the experience is more than just directing a retreat; it is also an immersion in a third-world country where they experienced faith and poverty in a very concrete way. From 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. they were praying, preparing conferences, directing eight to 10 people, meeting with other directors, and setting up liturgy and prayer services. The living conditions include 100-degree heat (without air-conditioning), mosquito net, open-air shower, and little privacy. Several retreats took place in makeshift facilities with grade-school classrooms converted into bed space and prayer halls. What brings the scholastics deep satisfaction is the opportunity to help many young religious sisters to reflect on their vocations. Listening to the vast experiences of the retreatants and sorting out the different spirits/movements that affect them is grace-filled. R. Pham of JSTB observed, “Sometimes they do not have the answer [about their vocation], but they trust in God and move ahead to the future with God’s grace. Listening to their pain and struggle reminds me of the humanity of Jesus.” Pham’s teammate, M. Tran, agreed, “Some retreatants carried with them deep wounds and suspicions. It took us a while to gain their trust. Yet somehow God opened their hearts and they experienced healing.” Working in Vietnam helps the scholastics be sensitive to the needs of the people. They learn that faith is practiced in a concrete manner by real people in a struggle to make sense of their milieu, which is often unsupportive. Tran observed, “I was impressed with the retreatant’s dedication to and love for God in the midst of their struggles, of not being able to support their family, of not having their religious lifestyle understood by society.” Another highlight is opportunities for collaboration. Given the large number of retreatants, up to 40 at times, they enlisted the local religious women to help with spiritual direction. Working with religious women in a traditional patriarchal setting and trying to treat them as partners in Christ is humbling. C. Nguyen, who gave a retreat in Vietnam before, explained, “The sisters were ver y hesitant at first, but we insisted that they should work with us because we could not do it by ourselves. At the end, they appreciated the opportunity to work with us, and likewise, we appreciated working and learning from them.” Despite the hot and humid climate, lack of space and privacy, and inadequacy of language at times, the scholastics agreed that this was one of their best summer experiences. “This experience,” exclaimed Nguyen, “helped me want to be a Jesuit priest even more so that I can help others to encounter God in an intimate way.” The experience also helped them to appreciate what is available to them in the U.S.: education, oppor tunit y, equalit y, suppor t, and freedom of thought and speech, to name a few. Before the trip, SARS in Vietnam caused some hesitanc y. Both entering and exiting the countr y could have health implications. But the concerns for the spiritual needs of the retreatants prevailed. A. Tran, Nguyen’s teammate, commented, “Looking back, I am glad we went. What I did was to give myself an opportunit y to be present where things were happening. I often reflect on the question: ‘Have we made a difference because we showed up?’ I think we have.” Due to security concerns, only the last names of the scholastics are given at their own request. If you are interested in the possibility of directing retreats in Vietnam, please contact Tony Sholander (CFN) at [email protected]. National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 3 Commentary How to fashion a new Middle East By Joseph E. Mulligan SJ Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to spend a carefree vacation in the Middle East? Wouldn’t it be fun to fly in the U.S. without having to remove your shoes several times and without the airport anxiety, which has become common after September 11, 2001? But such pleasant tourist dreams will never become a reality as long as the government, which acts in our name, remains aggressively interventionist and is feared and detested around the world. A former intelligence chief and the current top U.S. administrator in Iraq express that aggressive U.S. stance. Last April James Woolsey, former CIA director and current member of the Defense Policy Board, stated that the U.S. is now fighting World War IV and that it could last for years. Before a group of college students, Woolsey explained that the Cold War was the Third World War and predicted that the fourth could “last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II--hopefully not the full fourplus decades of the Cold War” (CNN, April 3, 2003). The new war is against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the “fascists” of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda, he noted. “As we move toward a new Middle East,” Woolsey said, “over the years and, I think, over the decades to come ... we will make a lot of people very nervous.” It will be America’s backing of democratic movements throughout the Middle East that will bring about this sense of unease he said. “Our response should be, ‘good!’” Woolsey exclaimed. Focusing on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, he said, “We want you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the side of those whom you -- the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family -- most fear: We’re on the side of your own people.” The key question, of course, is whether U.S. interventionism, out to build “a new Middle East,” is in favor of democratic movements or in the service of American-based multinational corporations. Has the U.S. invaded Iraq, for instance, on the side of the people or for the interests of Halliburton, Bechtel, the oil giants, and a consumption-addicted U.S. economy? Members of the Bush team often speak of democracy in the same breath with free-market economics and free-trade areas; indeed, the term “free-market democracy” is frequently used. And yet there is no necessary connection between the political concept and the economic model. Paul Bremer, a U.S. ambassador during the Reagan administration and the former chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism, was present at Woolsey’s talk. Now the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, Bremer, in a May 26 news conference, said “the United States would begin a ‘new phase’ of its occupation focusing on reviving Iraq’s economy through free trade and the eventual elimination of large state subsidies that made food, gasoline and other essentials affordable for many Iraqis,” the Washington Post reported. The article suggested that democracy in Iraq will be severely limited: “his comments today indicated that Iraqis would not be deciding for themselves what kind of economy will replace the state-planned system that functioned under Hussein.” Bremer practically defined freedom in terms of economic liberty: “A free economy and a free people go hand in hand. History tells us that substantial and broadly held resources, protected by private property, private rights, are the best protection of political freedom.” But freedom for whom – for the Iraqi people or for American and British investors? (Bremer may exacerbate opposition in Iraq as he implements one component of his “free economy” -- the elimination of state subsidies on many basic items.) If the U.S. continues to invade sovereign countries, imposing upon them an economic model which suits our corporate interests, then American citizens, who in a democracy share responsibility for such policies, will never be at ease, either at home or traveling abroad. (Fr. Mulligan [DET] works with grass-roots communities in Nicaragua. He is the author of “The Nicaraguan Church and the Revolution” (1991) and “The Jesuit Martyrs of El SalvadorCelebrating the Anniversaries” (1994). Resisting fear – and moving on from here By Thomas C. Widner SJ Peter Hansen (CFN), first year theologian at JSTB, stands before the crosses that decorate the fence outside Fort Benning, Ga., during the Ignatian Family Teach-In weekend there. (Photo by Tom Lankenau, SJ) 4 National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 On the server in the computer technician’s office at the Jesuit Conference is a screensaver that scrolls a simple message over and over – Resist the call to fear. The film “Bowling for Columbine” opined that Americans are a nation of people living in fear. We are dominated by a political system and especially a commercial culture that preys on our fears. A TV reality program – “Fear Factor” – serves up curiously awkward situations in which people with a lot of time on their hands can prove to viewers they are not afraid of eating worms. Franklin D. Roosevelt once told the American people the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. Now, however, there is a market for fear. Someone in power even floated the notion of investing in guessing when and where terrorists might attack. There are those who say terrorists have already won because our fears are so exacerbated. Certainly the gun industry and the NRA have benefited. New Yorkers teach us to walk along the street side of a sidewalk and not against buildings at night lest someone with mischief in mind step out of a darkened entryway. The modern world is a fearful place to live. A district court in Australia has ruled that it is ok to kick and stomp on a pregnant woman’s stomach to procure a miscarriage if she wants to abort her pregnancy that way. A woman in the United Kingdom recently obtained an abortion because her fetus has a cleft palate. Over the years a number of women in the UK have obtained abortions for that reason. Our culture encourages women to fear pregnancy. The war in Iraq – the one that continues to this day – instills fear of unknown terrorists in Americans. James Dobbins, special U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, believes the broader political strategy of the Bush administration in Iraq is being undermined and has limited options. The failure to anticipate the breakdown in order there, the failure to deploy sufficient forces at the outset of the war and the failure to take a more multinational approach are all to blame, he says. Each failure increases fear at home. How can one resist the call to fear? Students from Jesuit colleges and universities made an attempt this past month. Along with several thousand others, they gathered at Fort Benning, Ga., to once again protest the School of the Americas. The annual event though goes beyond protest. Some critics say it is time to move beyond SOA. Move on to Congress or some Federal agencies because the protest is really seeking a change of foreign policy and that won’t be accomplished at Fort Benning. The Jesuit students take part in what has come to be known as the Ignatian Family Teach-in. Its purpose is to broaden the students (and others) in their awareness of social justice issues. It is a time to listen and to learn. It carries on the spirit of dialogue while an atmosphere of protest numbs dialogue and closes all discussion. The Ignatian Family Teach-In carries the spirit of dialogue back to campuses and into the larger community when its participants return home. The spirit of protest, while at times useful, only addresses an immediate moment. Fear remains. Real dialogue strengthens relationships and can heal. May the Ignatian spirit take root and spread. Defending and propagating the faith: how will we do it? By Joseph A. Tetlow SJ When my father died in 1968, he left me a small prayer book that had fit into his shir t pocket. I used to see him use it at Sunday Mass, but he used it every day of the week. He had it from the Jesuits at the retreat house where he went every few years to make a weekend retreat. My father’s solidly holy life had been shaped by the Jesuits who taught him to know God through the prayers in that book and others like it. Ordained in 1960, I had gone to give my first preached retreat at that same house. It was, incidentally, the place where I had decided to become a Jesuit – on a weekend retreat when I was a senior in high school. I have given many retreats there since my father died. But for a while during the 1970s, I felt that those weekends were not the “real” Exercises, so I dropped that framework and experimented with other approaches to “spirituality.” During the 1980s, I spent most of my time directing people one-to-one. I started giving Exercises in Daily Life and before long was forming lay people to give them. The formation was aimed at one-to-one guidance, based on Annotation 15’s admonition that the guide remain at a balance during the Exercises. I thought with everyone else that these Exercises in Daily Life were Annotation 19 Exercises. The wall I had built to separate “spirituality” from ordinary Christian life (which I have to admit I did not honor very much) crashed about the same time the Berlin Wall came down. Gradually, I discovered Annotation 18. I realized that Master Ignatius was creating a program of Christian living to give the ordinary exercitant, “so as to retain what he has gained.” That program includes – we all know this part – the examen, confession and communion, and the simple ways of making mental prayer. But what we have not been aware of is how Master Ignatius and the early companions formed the religious lives of ordinary people. The Jesuits got to be known as the ones who insisted on weekly confession and regular communion. They also taught ordinary people lessons from the “rules” in the text of Exercises, four sets that the one who gives Exercises has to interiorize and then pass on what might be useful: rules for eating, style of living, dieting, and for living tranquilly in the Church as it is right now. We were doing none of that. Instead, we were teaching discernment of spirits and finding God in all things – a fairly vague spirituality. Further, we were doing this when “religion” was despised in the West and in much of the rest of the world. We were infected with this distrust – this disdain – of “religion.” Yet my father had lived a holy life by living his religion. The families I grew up with remained in the Church, receiving the sacraments, living faithful married lives – all by “religion.” It has become very clear to me as I traveled the world attending meetings and giving workshops that the huge majority of Catholics will never have a spiritual life, an interior life of prayer and progress in asceticism. They will live and die as my father did, knowing God intimately through the Church. They are neither leftist nor far-right radicals. They are the millions in the middle. The histor y of the early Jesuits brought home the truth that the early Company spent much more time and energy on these middle millions than on the few to whom they gave one-to-one Exercises. More than that, Master Ignatius had done that, himself: he spent more time in the plaza than in the conference room or confessional. This is what he wrote into the Constitutions: “The Spiritual Exercises should not be given in their entirety except to a few persons ... But the exercises of the first week can be made available to large numbers; and some examinations of conscience and methods of prayer (especially the first of those which are touched on in the Exercises) can also be given far more widely; for anyone who has good will seems to be capable of these exercises” [649]. And when it comes to choosing the “greater good,” the Constitutions says in summar y “when there are some occupations which are of more general use and extend to the aid of more of our fellow men, such as preaching or lecturing, and others which are concerned more with individuals, such as hearing confessions or giving Exercises; and when further it is impossible to accomplish both sets of occupations simultaneously, preference should be given to the first set” [623]. I know from long experience how valuable oneto-one Exercises can be. I still give people spiritual direction, here in Rome. I bank on the authentic Exercises as the Jesuit heritage. But now Jesuits have committed ourselves to parish work. We have committed ourselves to give to the laity the help that they ask for – and the laity are begging for help to live instructed, thoughtful, holy lives within the real Church. And now Jesuits in our retreat houses know that they cannot just wait for retreatants to come make one-to-one Exercises. All of us Jesuits are reaching out. With what? That is my question. What are we going to give the “ordinary Catholic” that will be like my father’s prayer book? What are we to do to remove the blemish from “religion”? The Formula Instituti lists some things the companions found useful for “defending” the faith: preaching, lecturing, doing other ministries of the Word, giving Exercises, instructing children and adults in the faith, confessing, and conferring other sacraments. “Defending” the faith seems meaningless today unless you recognize that “defending” had very little to do with contentious theology. And “the faith,” to the early companions, meant a comprehensive Catholic way of life. I hope that we will find in Ignatian spirituality the means of composing such a comprehensive Catholic way of life. The kind symbolized by my father’s prayer book. (Fr. Tetlow [NOR] is director of the Secretariat for Ignatian Spirituality at the Jesuit Curia in Rome.) National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 5 FEATURE Discovering provident care happens in this novice’s training Men of 18 are adults and should be treated as such. The program in the novitiate should be one that will teach them to take Thomas Acker’s article “Nurturing and Harvesting Vocations” responsibility for their lives. This is not easily done when the (NJN, Nov. 2003) intrigued me as I am one of the two novices in novice director thinks of them as young men who “work best under clear and precise rules and conditions” to quote Fr. Acker. North America this year to enter right out of high school. An extension of high school is not, in my mind, at all approHis proposal of drawing more vocations from the preparatory schools is one I would support. I would love to have more priate for one entering a complex religious life where there is not company around my age up here in St. Paul. However, I would always someone to look after you and tell you what to do. In order want to stay in St. Paul and not in a small town farmhouse away to discern a Jesuit life in this day and age, a man needs to sample a Jesuit life in this day and age. One cannot take vows and be from the rest of the Society. I would disagree with Fr. Acker’s contention that the needs of thrown into a reality he has not experienced. The major trials of the world need to be endured before somethe younger novices are not met in our present program. In the “Old Society” this may have worked well. There were one vows poverty, chastity, and obedience – not after. Postponmany men who entered out of high school. So after first vows, ing the issues may not make them easier to deal with when they come. Designate a time in which to they all went off to their houses of deal with them. studies, regencies, and future misThe major trials of the world I agree that the issue of low numsions with men their own age. In this bers is a legitimate concern. I do think day and age, that is no longer the case. need to be endured before it would be a worthy experiment to How will these members of the “new focus on recruiting young men from novitiate” made up of 18 and 19-yearsomeone vows poverty, chastity, high schools, but these recruits need olds know how to live with older and obedience – not after. to be treated in the same way the other men? recruits are treated – like the men they How can they acquire these valuare. A gap could result from separatable skills if they are kept away from ing the age groups, which would lead to a division. their other classmates? Imaginethe29or30-year-oldnoviceslookingdownonthe19-year-olds It seems like that should be learned before they take vows and enter religious life. Keeping them from the reality of not having whowereinthe“kiddiehouse.”Thatisnowaytofosterunitywiththepeople men their own age around all the time will cause some shocks wemustbeunitedwith. Let them come to the novitiate and find provident care as I have. Comand discomforts that should be dealt with in the beginning. At the Novitiate of the North American Martyrs, we have been munally, with their fellow novices, they will find the best bond for our life in studying the Constitutions as a class. Part III deals with the men theSociety:loveofChristOurLord. Theywillhaveatimetogrowanddealwiththehardissuesoflifeandself in the first stage of probations. Therein, St. Ignatius designates the novitiate as a place and time for spiritual progress under prov- so that those issues will not accumulate with the concerns that come in the laterstagesofformation. ident care (pgh. 243). (Buehler[MIS]isafirstyearnoviceattheJesuitnovitiateinSt. Paul.) I can only speak from my own experience, but I would say that all of my needs have been met quite well in this program. We have 22 novices who range in age from 19 to 38 with every age in-between represented. I would like to have brothers here who are my age, but is what I like necessarily what I need? LETTER TO THE EDITOR Is my comfort zone a place in which I can discover provident care? My emotional and spiritual growth here has been rapid and extremely beneficial. I could not see the same taking place in college or in a group of others who are my age. After high school I carried an attitude that caused me to think that I had something to prove. I was going to take this attitude with me no matter where I went. I did not even know I had To the Editor: it. I came to the novitiate hoping to measure up to and You can imagine with what interest I read the recent connect with my brothers on their levels. This hope led article by Ray Schroth on Villa Cutbacks, since I am me to disappointment when I was not able to discuss the pastor of Tonopah. advanced philosophy or complex church issues at the I was, however, distressed to note that Ray had mistable, go out to a bar on the weekends with a group of spelled the name of our city. One advantage that he my friends, or share wild stories from college and failed to note was the practically complete immunity beyond. It was the pain of not being able to be like them to allergies at any time of the year. Few people are allerwhen I realized that God was calling me to be here. God gic to sand or sagebrush. was calling me. I am preparing a presentation, together with the I learned the all-powerful lesson of self-comfort and interChamber of Commerce, to attract more Jesuits into this nal self-esteem, which happened perfectly in my present setlonely but hospitable area. My parish covers 20,000 ting. This setting is different from any other in my past, a worthy square miles, and I'm sure you can find many places probation in which I could grow in my spirituality and knowlsuitable for your recreation. edge of self, which seems to be the ultimate goal of the novitiate Please send me an address that I can send our years. I would have had a much harder time dealing with this information and invitation to. issue amidst the final exams in philosophy or while I was teachWith thanks and eager anticipation, ing freshmen during my regency. How would I have learned this lesson as effectively in a setJames P. McCauley SJ ting where I am with a group of people my age, with whom I am St. Patrick’s Church used to competing in academics, social settings, or sports’? How Tonopah, Nev. could I have been as humbled as I have been here’? By Max D. Buehler nSJ Tom Lankenau (ORE) photographed many of the pictures in this issue of NJN of Jesuit institutions taking part in the Ignatian Family Teach-In. Daniel Hendrickson (WIS) captured many others including this one of Lankenau himself. (Photo by Daniel Hendrickson, SJ) Society of Jesus, U.S.A. http://www.jesuit.org VisitJesuit.org for current news, back issues of NJN in PDF format, upcoming vocation events, and more. Busted Halo http://www.bustedhalo.com This site, created by the Paulists, aims to explain the Catholic faith in a way that is conversant with US popular culture. Topics include spirituality, human dimensions, life at work, and relationships. 6 National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 More suitable places for recreation Ongoing formation – mostly in retrospect By Bob Hilbert SJ Ongoing formation seems to be a common topic of talks and articles for priests these days. Being at the upper end of life and ministry (60 years a Jesuit, 47 years a priest), I am inclined to think that my ongoing formation is mostly past, though I am sure some bits may still be ahead. In my early Jesuit years, initial formation was standardized – 15 years from novitiate through tertianship, with little in the way of electives. I ended up with the requisite degrees and, more importantly, with a pretty good start on developing a relationship with God. I had learned through the routine regency period (three years of high school teaching) to overcome my fear of standing before an audience, and I found that I enjoyed teaching. In tertianship I discovered I also liked giving preached retreats. So, after some additional graduate study of mathematics, I embarked on a career as priest, high school teacher and, in whatever vacation time came along. retreat director. Many of us, I am sure, find that our work life doesn’t follow the lines of early expectation. I distinctly remember talking with Father Kochanski, the prefect of studies, during theology about what kind of assignment I might look toward after tertianship. I told him I thought I was most suited for high school teaching, but that I was open to any assignment superiors might wish except that I did not think I was suited for Campion (our boarding high school) and the Indian missions. My first assignment was teaching at Marquette High, a job and community I most thoroughly enjoyed for four years! Then came seven years as rector at Campion and this is now my 22nd year of ministry on an Indian reservation. Reading provided some continuing learning. In those early 1960s at Marquette High, I particularly remember finding a book on grace by Franzen a refreshing shift from the rather cut and dried treatise we had had in theology. Some works of Karl Rahner also offered a fresh view and he became my favorite theologian. It was also the period of the Second Vatican Council, and the documents and various lectures and workshops on them made for a quite lively period of theological exploration. Major movements in the world around us made that period of the 1960s a time of rethinking, clarifying. For some years, in addition to mathematics, I taught social ethics at both high school and university level, based on the Church’s social justice documents. The civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, the assassinations of the Kennedys and of Martin Luther King, the drug scene and the “Hippies” all sharply challenged the relatively placid world of the 1950s, and issues of racism, poverty and war were hot topics as well as textbook subjects. I am aware that, in my own case at least, the formation of the last 50 years has been a combination of experience and study. I am not a scholar, given to full time study and teaching. My experience in ministry, however, has constantly pushed me to more and more study and reflection. During theology I spent two summers as a plumber in a couple of buildings at St. Francis Mission, working under the direction of an Indian man about my own age. This was chosen simply as an alternative to the usual summer at Lake Beulah, not because of any previous interest in the mission or the Indian people. Getting to know Lloyd One Star, however, was a mind opener. Lloyd was from a traditional family, and, with all his skill in plumbing, it was quite apparent to me that his cultural values, ways of thinking, worldview were very different from mine. It was for me a lived experience of profound cultural difference. After the first summer of work at St. Francis I helped with the Sunday liturgy and catechetical work at the Pottawattomie reservation near the theologate for the next three years. I also read a bit of history of white-Indian conflict, a neglected area of education in my earlier years. That was a shocking revelation of duplicity, arrogance, greed, cruelty embodied in my nation and people. The civil rights movement soon after I finished tertianship carried further my understanding of cultural differences and the societal incarnation of injustice not only toward the original inhabitants of the country but toward the slaves and their descendants. Through the 1960s I had some small acquaintance with Blacks, mostly in Milwaukee. At Campion High School we began a summer program for junior high kids from inner city Milwaukee schools. We also introduced some Black students into the school itself. We did this with a deliberate concern for their cultural identity and took measures as best we could to give them some cultural support in that formerly all-white school many miles from any Black community. It also led me to some small study of liberation theology and of the nature and history of prejudice. Altogether those years provided some strenuous experiences. I found myself caught in a very sharp and profound conversion experience, rooted in consciousness of my own personal sharing in the arrogant sense of superiority and “Manifest Destiny” that pervades centuries of Euro-American history. My experience of God in my earlier spiritual development had led me to a sense that my very being is an incarnation of love, that I am God’s Love expressed in the creation of me. This later experience of my being a member of the white Euro-American U. S. people gave me also a sense that I am sin, I am personally an incarnation of the spirit that has fostered centuries of rapine, slavery and massacres. I could feel as simply apt, not an exaggeration, that phrase of St. Ignatius in the Second Exercise of the First Week, to see myself as “utcus quoddam et aposterna, unde pullularunt tot peccata et tot nequitiae ac venenum tam turpissimum.” In the 1960s individual direction became a more common retreat style. I made a couple of my personal retreats that way, and soon some Jesuits began asking me to direct their retreats. I went to a couple of workshops designed to help directors in this method. The biggest boost in this for me was in helping direct tertians in their 30-day Spiritual Exercises, which I was privileged to do three times in the years from 1972 to 1983. Here at St. Stephens Mission I have generally had some opportunity to direct retreatants, including some in the style of the 19th Annotation. In the mid 1980s I also spent four years as partner with Sr. Mary Dingman, SSSF, in the Emmaus spirituality center in Des Moines. That, too, has led to considerable study of spirituality, chiefly Ignatian, and of spiritual direction. My present ministry among the Arapaho and Shoshoni people of the Wind River Reservation challenges me in many ways. In a sabbatical semester at Weston in 1994, 1 took two very pertinent courses, “Cross and Redemption” (the theology of suffering) and “Theology of Mission.” Neither, of course. offered final solutions, but both stimulated study and reflection. Currently, along with practical issues of day-to-day ministry in a cross-cultural oppressed situation, I am again trying to work “For a reflective person, knowledge and experience form an integrated organic whole, a sort of general worldview.” further toward understanding something of the call to inculturation of the Church. In the college years of my youth I did a paper on Newman’s “Idea of a University.” Something from that sticks in my mind, something I think very pertinent to the notion of ongoing formation. For a reflective person, knowledge and experience form an integrated organic whole, a sort of general worldview. As experience and study add something new it is not just something patched on, but becomes an integral part affecting and changing the whole. There is no end term to formation, nor is there any universally applicable syllabus. In all our encounters and experiences grace is at work. No one will duplicate my path nor will I be quite the same priest as anyone else. For me something still to be discovered is whether ongoing formation continues beyond death. (Fr. Hilbert [WIS] is associate pastor of St. Stephens Mission in St. Stephens, Wyoming.) National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 7 News By Julie Bourbon As a boy, Fr. Bob Fabing (CFN) listened to missionary stories of China as told by his dad’s best friend, the late Wilfred LeSage. A Jesuit priest in mainland China, LeSage’s visits back to the States were infrequent, and dinnertime conversation often drifted toward the East. “My father would say ‘Bill, we need you in California. Why are you spending your life in China?’” Fabing recalled. “He would say ‘Joe, it’s the devotion of the Chinese people.’ And that sort of stuck with me.” Now grown, and a priest as well as an author and liturgical composer, Fabing has experienced for himself the devotion of the Chinese people. And it has stuck with him. Last month, Fabing and his works were honored at the Ricci Institute for ChineseWestern Cultural History at the Center for the Pacific Rim (University of San Francisco). Three of his books and two compilation CDs – “Come to Me” and “Shadow of My Wings” – have been translated into Mandarin Chinese. His publisher, Oregon Catholic Press, co-sponsored the event, called “Lift Your Hearts in Song – Celebrating Chinese-Western Cultural History Today.” About 300 people attended and were entertained by a 50-voice choir that performed some of Fabing’s compositions in Chinese; the guest of honor sang in English. “It was fabulous. It was just wonderful,” said Fabing, 61, who first went to China in 1989. “They just sing it from their heart. They did a great job.” That initial visit was inspired, in part, by another late Jesuit whose missionary experience profoundly affected Fabing. Fr. Ed Malatesta, who founded the Ricci Institute, convinced Fabing to go to Shanghai and Beijing; once there, he taught liturgical theology and sang liturgical music at the Sechan Seminary in Shanghai, where the seminarians translated some of his music into Chinese. It wasn’t until 10 years later, though, that one of his books, “The Eucharist of Jesus: A Spirituality for Eucharistic Celebration” was formally printed at an old Jesuit compound in Shanghai and distributed. “They published 5,000 copies and gave a copy to every seminarian on mainland China as a text to study Eucharistic theology,” Fabing said. “Isn’t that fabulous? And it was all a fluke. … This is all grace.” Fabing dedicated his performance at the Ricci Institute to both LeSage and Malatesta. The event marked the kickoff of a Ricci Institute scholarship fundraising effort in Malatesta’s name. The missionary influence of the two men prompted Fabing to visit Taiwan in 2001 and 2002, to speak at the National Taiwanese Religious Education Congress, a four-day conference for more than 300 Chinese educators at which he was the sole speaker. He also travels every month, domestically or internationally, giving presentations on liturgical music. Sr. Elaine Marie Peng, of the Society Devoted to the Sacred Heart, is the director of religious education for the Archdiocese of Taipei, Taiwan, where a little over two percent of the population is Catholic. The two met at one of Fabing’s presentations in California. Peng worked on the song translations with a team of five scholars from Fu Jen University, the Jesuit universi- A combined choir from Los Angeles and San Francisco sings Fabing’s music in Chinese. 8 National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 ty in Taiwan, and National Taiwan University. Peng said Fabing’s translated works are commonly sung in Taipei. “The people feel that his music is quite Chinese … it speaks to the Chinese soul,” she said. “The music has an Oriental flavor.” Peng recounted the story of a Catholic woman whose husband was so moved by the music, he listened to one of Fabing’s CDs more than 100 times. “The message we give people they will forget, but a song they will remember for life.” Fabing commended Peng’s translations, saying, “It’s not just like translating a book. In order to sing, the syllabic quality has to make sense on, for Fr. Bob Fabing presenting at the reception for his music, which has instance, the downbeat been translated into Chinese. or the most powerful melodic part of the line. The word has give a series of talks on prayer to Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charito be coordinated” with the music. The Chinese translations reflect the ty in Calcutta. Upon his return to growth of that population in California, Minnesota, where he was chaplain of St. said Dr. Xiaoxin Wu, director of the Ricci Paul’s Novitiate at the time, he composed Institute. “There is a demand, need and three songs for Mother Teresa, including interest in liturgical music and songs,” “Your Song of Love,” which became the said Wu who, as a native Chinese speak- order’s signature song. Fabing returned er, appreciated the beau- to India in 1997 to perform the piece at ty of Peng’s work, which her funeral, and sang it again at her beatwas performed by the ification in Rome in October. “That was a tremendous experience,” choirs that day. “It’s like he said of the chance to perform three songs poetry.” Fabing, who is also at the ceremonies, presided over by John the founder and director Paul II as he celebrated the 25th anniverof the Jesuit Institute for sary of his papacy. “The highest point of my Family Life Association, religious, artistic experience. … I have grew up with musical never in my life sung better.” After the beatification, he made it back parents and began composing while still a to the U.S. just in time for the Ricci Institeenager. In 1960, he was tute event, which he said complemented the first man allowed to nicely Fr. General’s statement this year citbring a musical instru- ing China and Africa as priorities for the ment – his guitar – to Society and its works. “This is really important. I’m just tryseminary. He began writing liturgical music in ing to figure this all out. This is a work of 1968, recording his first the Holy Spirit,” reflected Fabing. “God album three years later. returning to the California Province the He has recorded seven mission of mainland China.” (Visit Oregon Catholic Press at CDs. His music has taken www.ocp.org and click on the Chinese lanhim to other mission guage icon to be taken directly to Fr. Fabing’s countries, including a translated works, available for purchase. fateful trip in 1983 to Also available at 1-800-LITURGY) Photos by Fran Stiegeler, SJ Jesuit composer Bob Fabing honored by USF Chinese institute Journey to the New Mexico desert offers contrasts By John Dear SJ New Mexico has some of the most stunning, unusual, even mystical landscapes in the nation. Orange deserts, rocky red hills, snow covered mountains, river gorges, spectacular big skies, every variety of wild animal and the ever present sage brush spreading out over wide open spaces combine to make it a magical place. Out here, most people grow up with a deep, innate spirituality that the rest of us spend our lives pursuing. Living in deserted places, witnessing the grandeur of God’s creation, dwelling in a natural peace far from the rat race of the big cities, people have cultivated a supernatural grace, a rare peaceableness. According to the most recent census statistics, New Mexico is the poorest state in the nation. In 2001, the U.S. poverty rate was 11.7 percent, with more than 32.9 million people suffering under poverty. New Mexico’s official poverty rate is 17.7 percent. The numbers are deceptive. In the desert, everyone is desperately poor. On top of that, New Mexico leads the nation in nuclear weapons spending. It is the birthplace of the bomb, and the midwife to every nuclear weapon since. It is the home of the mininuke, post nuclear laser weapons, Star Wars, radiation dumpsites and other demonic inventions. The nuclear age was born here, on July 16, 1945, amid the cholla and yucca cactus of the Tularosa Basin in central New Mexico. Since then, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the White Sands Missile Range work to expand the profitable nuclear industry. Today they employ over 19,000 of the world’s best technicians in the art of annihilation. Much of New Mexico has suffered from nuclear fallout. Cancer and its related illnesses are widespread. In my parish town of Cimarron, population 900, over 80 percent of the people have cancer or diabetes. For years, Dr. Helen Caldicott, the longtime antinuclear activist, has said that New Mexico along with Nevada should be permanently closed. New Mexico then is a land of contrasts, from grace to disgrace, from angelic spirits to the demons of war, from natural nonviolence to nuclear violence. It combines the best and the worst of the United States. It is the perfect place to practice the “preferential option for the poor,” to stand with, serve, walk with and defend the poor on the farthest margins, and also a good place to practice the “preferential option for peace,” to call for nuclear disarmament and announce Jesus’ way of loving nonviolence. The four parishes and five missions I serve in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe are in the northeastern corner of New Mexico, in the high desert plains, as well as the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The churches are spread out over nearly 200 miles, far away from any major cities, so I drive through the desert into rugged canyons, up to various mountain villages and back through the plains to small desert oases for Mass, home visits, and classes. The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Cimarron is the oldest of my parishes. It was built in the mid 1800s at the foot of the Rockies along a row of desert hills where the plains begin and extend out through Texas. Though there is a history of Wild West violence here, beginning with Jesse James and Doc Hol- liday, there is also a history of faith, hope and love, and a deep understanding of the spiritual life. Though they have serious problems – unemployment, poverty, lack of healthcare, and boredom, and though life for some can be a struggle simply to survive, the people of New Mexico, in many ways, have an innate understanding of the Gospel. For most of them, Jesus’ words make sense. In them, they come true: the poor in spirit are blessed; the reign of God is theirs. The meek are inheriting this beautiful earth. The merciful are receiving mercy. The pure in heart are seeing God. But their most basic experience is grief. Every day I witness the tears of the poor. They weep over their sufferings; the death of loved ones, and the powerlessness and tragedy of their lives. The best I can do is offer some consolation. On August 6th, 75 Catholics came from all over the state to Los Alamos to pray for nuclear disarmament and the closing of the nuclear weapons facilities. The vigil was remarkably peaceful. At the teach-in the night before, everyone agreed to a covenant of nonviolence. Instead of targeting anger at the employees or the police, they focused their energy on God in a plea for disarmament and the closing of Los Alamos. The police and the press reported that it was the most nonviolent, peaceful protest they could remember. During the teach-in, Greg Mello, director of the Los Alamos Study Group, (see www.lasg.org) explained the history of Los Alamos. Since its birth in 1943, the U.S. has spent about $54 billion in Los Alamos alone, most of it building weapons of mass destruction. The small town itself is sur- Fr. John Dear (MAR) marches at left with parishioners in the annual Chimayo to Los Almos peace walk. rounded by contaminated landfills. Today, Los Alamos has been taken over by the Pentagon, and is run by a retired admiral who used to direct the Trident submarine system. The Lab also spends billions annually lobbying Congress for further nuclear weapons development. In the late 1990s, the Los Alamos budget doubled. Between “stockpile stewardship” and new “earth penetrating weapons,” business is booming. According to the Brookings Institute, the U.S. now spends about $30 billion a year on the manufacture, deployment and control of weapons for nuclear war. If we invested that $30 billion annually for food and medicine in the Third World, Mello observed, the world would be much safer and we would discover true security. For the last three or four decades, lab officials believed that nuclear weapons would never be used. Today all the employees presume they will be used someday. According to Mello, none of the thousands of employees know exactly what the others are doing or how the parts fit together. They each work on different segments of the system. In the end, Mello argues that the best hope for change will be the resignation of individual scientists for reasons of faith and conscience. That is why they need our love and prayers and our public presence, in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. Some Catholic scientists have written to me confidentially for advice as they struggle with these questions. Instead of cutting back, however, the Bush Administration is expanding nuclear weapons development at every level, most notably with the proposed building of a new “Modern Pit Facility,” either in Los Alamos or in Carlsbad, N.M., where they intend to build plutonium triggers to replace the Rocky Flats, Col., plant which closed in 1989. So the need to speak out for nuclear disarmament is as important as ever. These days, I can see why the ancient desert fathers and mothers stepped back from the imperial culture to pursue the Gospel of peace in the desert. Today the desert still has much to offer those who want the essential ingredients of Gospel living. It is still a place to wrestle with the demons of violence, but it can also lead us to the basics of faith, prayer, peace, poverty and nonviolence. It can be a training ground for the spiritual life, as John the Baptist and Jesus both knew so well. (Fr. Dear [MAR] is the author of 20 books, including most recently “Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings”; “Mary of Nazareth, Prophet of Peace”; and “Living Peace” (Doubleday). National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 9 FEATURE ‘Lord, it’s good to be here.’ Over 1,000 participate in Ignatian Teach In By Tom Lankenau, SJ “Lord, it’s good to be here.” With these cheerful words spoken by Peter on the mountain of transfiguration, Fr. Provincial Fred Kammer (NOR) welcomed over 1,000 students, teachers, Jesuits, former Jesuits and friends of the Society gathered in Columbus, Ga., Nov. 21–23 for the fifth Ignatian Family Teach-In. “We have built a tent here today,” Kammer boomed. “We have come to see the Lord in a new way and to hear the Lord in the voices of many speakers, many witnesses, and many remembered martyrs.” Held in conjunction with the School of the Americas (SOA) protest at nearby Fort Benning, this pep rally for social justice used the backdrop of the commemoration of the El Salvadoran martyrs to explore issues of faith and justice in Latin America and throughout the world. “We are here this weekend to celebrate life, to stand in solidarity against injustice, to fight for the justice of the poor, to be a voice for those who don’t have a voice and to press one another uncomfortably to seek the truth,” remarked Boston College senior and student coordinator Sarah Berger at the opening session. Introduced to the SOA protest as an eighth grader by her uncle and founder of the teach-in, Bob Holstein, Sarah challenged the crowd to let go of all “your expectations, your worries, your concerns and your anxieties, and let the spirit be within you.” Like other young people she too had once questioned “what it meant to fight in solidarity with the poor.” “The idea of changing the world, or saving the world was absolutely foreign.” But what Sarah had not realized at the time was that this commitment to the vigil of November 1996 would be a pivotal moment in her life. Others would reminisce about Holstein’s influence throughout the sun-kissed weekend. He died this past year. “Bob is watching over us from his tent in heaven,” recounted Fr. Charlie Currie (MAR), president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU). “The presence of so many students provides great hope for Bob, the Society of Jesus and the world.” Many interests, one tent It was impossible not to feel the hope at this Jesuit jamboree. From the packed restaurants to the sleepy tree-lined downtown, all of Columbus would be moved by the energy emanating from the can-do attitude bursting the seams of the packed tent. As the revival-like atmosphere spilled over to the informal gatherings on the spacious lawn and into late-night reflection sessions in hotel rooms, friendships made at previous teach-ins were renewed while new connections were formed. “The first year I felt so unprepared. The issues were over my head,” recounted three-time participant Craig Montoya of Spring Hill College. With each trip Craig found himself growing in understanding of the importance of the teachin. Others like his traveling companion freshman John Bennett were newcomers. Though not initially attracted to the trip, he found that after researching the SOA that there were still nagging questions. “The problems kept coming back. I had to see the SOA for myself.” The teach-in also provided Bennett with a sense of solidarity. “All too often kids think they are too small to make a difference.” First year student Char Jennings of University of Detroit Mercy knew she had to attend when she watched a video on the SOA in a philosophy class. Preparing for the weekend has also inspired her to “think more about justice and to educate others.” Sponsored by the West Coast Companions, a group of former Jesuits, the Teach In has grown from its humble roots in a hotel lobby to its current location. This year representatives attended from every Jesuit college and university, more than 20 Jesuit high schools, Jesuit Volunteer Corps regions, and Jesuits from all 10 provinces, plus students from numerous state and private universities. “We gather as an Ignatian family in peace and for peace, to be in touch with the gritty reality of the world,” exhorted Fr. Currie. “Our agenda is broader than closing the SOA. Each of us is involved in the struggle for the humanization of the world.” Many routes, one destination As the weekend progressed it was readily apparent that the color of that struggle was just as diverse as the t-shirts and banners identifying the origins of the participants. For Jorge Duarte of Loyola Academy, Wilmette, Ill., it was his experience as the son of a Colombian immigrant that brought him to see God as not only his friend, but as a God of justice. 10 National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 “Just as God loves us we have an obligation to love others.” Anna Egoville of the University of Scranton came to Columbus via her participation in an anti-war protest last February, while Loyola Marymount student Chris Zepeda’s route brought him through contact with the campesinos in the fields of Chiapas, Mexico. Though Morgan Tribuno and Colin Strickland arrived on the same bus from Rhodes College in Memphis, the seeds of activism were sewn 1,500 miles apart during high school when Colin attended Tampa Jesuit while Morgan hailed from Cheverus in Portland, Me. Loyola University Chicago students Alena Chanh and Cynthia Mazanigos found a common bond through their involvement in Students Against Sweatshops, while Boston College freshman Casey Otto became interested in the SOA when he heard about it in high school. “I came to learn more so that I can teach others.” For David Murray and Spencer Brown of Creighton Prep the weekend was also a chance to practice what they learned in the classroom. “Coming here felt like this is what you should do,” reflected David. But the step from the campus to the street is not always easy. “Protesting is a scary word,” observed Creighton Prep Spanish teacher Bob Pearce. Active in pro-life issues, he had reservations about attending in 2002. “Catholics are easily mobilized on pro-life issues. But we generally don’t talk about war, materialism, racism and sexism in the same breath.” Pearce sees the teach-in as a way to form bridges between the different factions of the social justice movement. “The tent of activism is very large in the Catholic Church.” “ T h e S OA Watc h h a s e f fe c t ive ways of present ing decept ive informat ion” “We wa nt you to l o ok at b ot h s i d e s of t h e i s su e a n d m a ke a n informed decision.” “We a sk t h at you com e h e re to judge for yourself.” “I b e l i e ve t h at b e c au s e you a re here that you have already made the decision.” Many of the students in fac t had come to a de c i sion . Up on b o ard i ng the retur n bus, Pichon spoke of the “s e n s e t h at s om e t h i n g i s n ot r i g ht h e re .” O t h e rs sh a re d t h at t h ou g h they were g lad to have v isited, they fe lt “s n owe d ove r” by t h e p e r for mance. One issue at a time Thousands gather in protest – Marchers carried white crosses bearing the names of individuals killed in Central America in procession (opposite, lower left) while more crosses hung on the fence outside Fort Benning surrounding a photo of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was murdered while celebrating Mass in 1980 (opposite, top left). Participants gathered at Fort Benning’s main gate during the protest (above). Fr. Dean Brackley (NYK), (below) teaches at the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador. He replaced one of the six Jesuits murdered there in 1989. Moving from head to heart Whatever the various motivations for attending, the message to participants was one of empowerment. They had been taken hold of by God and were standing at the threshold of a new journey of transformation. “We have discovered something impor tant,” reflec ted SOA Watch founder, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, MM. “We cannot go back to the person we were.” “The spirit of God is in our hearts, exhorted prominent peace activist Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ de Medaille. “When we wake up to justice we wake up to ever ything.” Kate Pichon of the Jesuit School of Theolog y at Berkeley brought the crowd to its feet when she shared her own struggle of being moved in a new direction. “I truly believe that God is most present to us in and through our passions.” After attending as a Jesuit Volunteer in 2002 Gonzaga University graduate Mar y Van Cura realized that she too was ruined for life. “The experience transformed me.” Now involved in death penalt y work in Nashville, where she regularly cor responds w ith an inmate on death row and marches in rallies, Van Cura has put the “heady social just ice talk into action.” At a packed and stirring closing liturgy California Fr. Prov incial Tom Smolich echoed this sense of being called and plowing ahead to the 2000 clapping worshippers. “Once our eyes have been opened, we cannot turn back.” “We walk together to bring the reig n of God to life – for this we were born, for this we came into the world.” Touring SOA, touching pain Many would confront their first challenge to “dig deeply w ithin this profound experience” upon tour- ing the SOA complex on Saturday af ternoon. Renamed the Western Hemisphere Inst itute for Securit y Cooperat ion ( WHINSEC), the makeover included a commitment by the school to public access. But being welcomed w ith open arms by openly armed soldiers in the name of openness was as uncomfortable as it was ironic. Glimpsing the world behind the war riors would require submitting to irritating inconveniences as well as g ripping a profound sadness. As a multitude of MPs ushered the quiescent guests past guarded and closed doors, through the Hall of Liberation and into a large auditorium, a pall of unease spread throughout the corridors. Aware that they walked in the same footsteps of dic tators and oppressors, even murderers, few managed a whisper above the haunt ing hush. Yet to the gauntlet of uniformed greeters the tour would be a coup de etat against the invectives of innuendo and falsit y spewed against the school. When challenged by JSTB student Clare Foley to articulate “what is that you understand why we are here,” WHINSEC commander Colonel Richard Downie defended its past and current activities. “I believe you are here because you have been deceived.” With no chance for follow up questions and a well-educated and smooth talking WHINSEC staff volleying back quest ions w ith ease, the polite but captive audience of over 250 endured a dialogue of denial. “We don’t teach torture. We don’t teach terror.” Fou r te e n ye a rs a f te r s o l d i e rs under orders by graduates of the SOA entered the campus of the UCA and mu rd e re d s i x Je su i t s , t h e i r h ou s e keeper and her daug hter, the Ig natian Family Teach-In still draws upon i t s m e m or y to m o bi l i z e m i n i ons of laborers in the vineyard of injustice. Nu n c a m a s . No m ore . T h i s wa s the v ision of Bob Holstein. This was t h e c h a nt of t h e t h ou s a n d s w h o marched to the lo cked gates of For t Benning on Sunday morning. But as the horizon for social just ice ex p an d s , to t he war i n Ir aq, to an Amer ican-backed war in Colombia, to the continuing tragedy of mill ions p o or and star v i ng , and to the i n hu m a n it y of c apit a l pu n i sh m e nt , t h e ro a r of nu n c a m a s on ly g rows louder. “Our challenge is not to be overw h e l m e d or e ve n p a r a ly z e d by t h e sheer breadth and depth of the problems we see all around us,” exhor ted Fr. Currie. “Choose one or a few and t r y to m a ke a d i f fe re n ce , n ot ju s t today or tomor row, but for the long haul.” “We are working as God’s collabor ators ,” of fe re d Fr. D e a n Br a ck l e y ( N Y K ) of t h e Un ive rs i t y of C e nt r a l America. “If we cannot find the people in this tent and in Catholic universities, I don’t know where we will find them.” Al l tents are temporar y. By Sunday afternoon workers had pulled up stakes on the big white tent. Within a fe w we e k s on ly t h e t r a mp l e d g rou n d w i l l h i nt of t h e e ve nt s t h at o cc u r re d u nde r t he aw n i ng on t h at sun kissed November weekend. T h e s t u d e nt s a n d te a c h e rs a n d friends of the Society gathered at the Ig n at i a n Fa m i ly Te a c h - In h ave m ove d on . But t he y do n ot j ou r n e y alone. They take w ith them the w it ness of ot hers engage d i n t he i r ow n way as companions of Christ in the strugg l e for t h e hu m a n i z at i on of t h e world. (Lankenau [ORE] is a third-year theolog ian at JSTB.) National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 11 province briefs NEW ORLEANS ■ Fr. Provincial Tim McMahon and Fr. Socius Phil Steele took their show on the road during November. In a series of “Town Hall” meetings in Denver, Kansas City and St. Louis, they discussed the province’s newly revised “Policies for Responding to Allegations of Abuse by a Jesuit” and efforts to draw up another document focusing on professional boundaries and prevention of abuse, then answered questions. ■ Fr. Jim Lambert, provincial assistant for parishes and retreat houses, attended the fall joint meeting of the Jesuit Conference Committees for Pastoral Ministries (NJCPMN) and for Social and International Ministries (JCSIM), held at the Campion Renewal and Retreat Center at Weston. Assistant for Social Ministries Mary Baudouin represented the province at the JCSIM gathering. ■ Fr. John Padberg attended and spoke at ceremonies marking the 200th anniversary of the restoration of the English Province. From there he journeyed to Capetown, South Africa, for a weeklong series of lectures on the Society. ■ Mr. Michael Bouzigard, doctoral student of economic policy at Oxford University, had the joy of learning that his doctoral thesis had been approved. Mr. Mark Mossa, instructor in philosophy at Loyola University of New Orleans, attended the Just War Forum in Washington, D.C. ■ The Rockhurst High School Board of Trustees hosted a gala celebration, Ave Atque Vale, at which the nearly 600 attendees thanked Fr. Tom Pesci (MAR) for his nine outstanding years as the school’s president, and welcomed Fr. Terry Baum (CHG), who takes over the post in February. ■ Fr. Gary Seibert has been commissioned by Cross International to travel one or two weekends a month to preach in a U.S. parish and solicit donations for the poor. Last summer Seibert spent a week visiting the orphanages and parishes in La Caye and Port au Prince, Haiti, where the money he raises is sent. ■ Fr. Bart Geger is spearheading the still-infant Jesuit effort in Colorado Springs. He is working to bring together for both social and spiritual events students from all the local colleges, including the Air Force Academy, where he regularly does liturgies, weddings and presentations for the cadets. Geger was also asked by Rabbi Howard Hirsch to join the board of the “Center for Jewish-Christian Dialogue.” ■ History buff Fr. Gerhardt Lehmkuhl has been compiling a long list of prominent graduates of Jesuit secondary schools around the world. Contributions may be sent to Lehmkuhl at Jesuit Hall in St. Louis. ■ For the second time the DumkaRaiganj Province has contributed two regents to the Missouri Province, Augustine John Victor and Mariasusai Amalorpavnathan Loordu Selvaraj Pakkiyam (Selva MALSP for short). The Jesuit Community of Belize and St. John’s College are the beneficiaries , after weeks of visa hassles. ■ Mr. T.J. Martinez, director of the community service and social justice program at Jesuit College Prep of Dallas, organized the first ever sophomore class community service event to benefit the Race for the Cure to raise money for the fight against breast cancer. The volunteers included the entire sophomore class as well as their mothers, with a total of 450 in attendance. This event followed the freshman class project in which 231 freshmen, inspired by Fr. Superior Raymond Fitzgerald, dutifully cleaned a lake. ■ At Sacred Heart Church in El Paso, the parish computer lab was dedicated to Fr. Ed Schott, now a member of the Ignatius Residence community in New Orleans, who spent many years in El Paso keeping alive the ministry for children who needed computer training. ■ Visitors to Strake Jesuit Preparatory in Houston during the last months of the first semester are advised to bring hard hats! Renovations on the community house are underway, and each board or strip of molding that is removed brings a fresh surprise to Br. Joe Martin, who is overseeing the renovations. ■ A long, drawn out symphony of calling roosters inaugurated each morning. Mangy dogs always seemed to be the first to respond, set in motion looking for food they couldn’t find the day before and fights with each other that were fierce and unpleasant. The young feet of the campo began to scamper around, followed by more callused ones that carried heavier loads of water. Small bonfires crackled in surrounding cinder-block kitchens. Mothers shouted commands and men sharpened machetes. By the time I emerged on the scene the sun was well arced and promising a lot of heat. A whole new day had commenced and a woman was again pushing her wheelbarrow. I was moving throughout Central America that summer, and this was the month that landed me, alone, in a sugar-cane cooperative just beyond the towns of El Paisnal and Aguilares. It was a difficult month, too. El Salvador was only five years beyond the end of a civil war. Some of its people had been able to piece their lives together in hopes of something greater to come. Others were grief-stricken, full of resentment, or just plain numb and to them I was a do-good Jesuit, a gringo touring their poverty, or a curious new face in the midst of monotony, respectively. But to each and all, I was a clumsy speaker, confused about a different dialect and yet another set of idiomatic expressions. For the woman with the wheelbarrow at least, that was a great source of amusement. She was the first person I saw each morning. I guessed then that she was 45 or 50. She was probably much younger. Her frame was stout and almost dumpy, and her skin looked rough. While she was forever barefoot, she daily wore a red FMLN cap that was sun-bleached and sweatstained. Sometimes a young daughter tagged after her and the wheelbarrow. I was never quite sure what she was hauling, but it looked heavy and smelled. We would exchange pleasantries. After awhile I found the nerve and some words to ask about her daughter, inquire of other children and family, or muse about her work at the cooperative. We would laugh about my questions and the answers I had difficulty interpreting. Whether we spoke much or not and whether it was the start of my day or well into it, she was always smil- ing. And after the first few days that month I didn’t want her to smile anymore. The whole place became too desperate. It lacked plumbing. Electricity was sparse. The food wouldn’t vary. Respite from the sun’s heat was minimal. The entire area was dry and dusty or muddied, suddenly, by a violent rainstorm. And as soon as it was over and done mosquitoes bred. I was convinced that her life was miserable, and the wheelbarrow and the slop within it seemed to represent hardships she could never escape. In fact, the wheelbarrow defined her. The combined effect of her politically resistant cap, the load she carried, and the smile that wouldn’t quit impacted me well beyond my short stay in the sugarcane cooperative. It certainly didn’t make the poverty better – lighter and less smelly, for instance, or more comfortable; but as the image stayed with me, the wheelbarrow became less defining. The image exposed, instead, dignity and the determination of a spirit at work in her life and in the world around her. That spirit was capped by an emblem that demanded change and still wants more. It daily showed an enduring strength against the injustices of poverty right in front of her. And the smile said, quite simply, “This is who I am.” It became less about being happy or amused and more about a deeper kind of freedom and a bit of grace. I was in Columbus, Ga., recently for a lot of reasons. I wanted to see the School of the Americas protest and better understand it. I had heard great thing about the Ignatian Teach-in and hoped to both pray with others and think critically. I looked forward to connecting with Jesuit friends from all over the country, and seeing students and colleagues from different Jesuit universities. I needed a dose of that magic that thrives at Creighton University and made regency there as full of grace as I’d dreamed for! I’ve been to the UCA and have seen the pictures. And I’ve met Salvadorans. They have fed me, sheltered me, nursed me (quite literally), and taught me. But I went because of the woman who’s probably still pushing that wheelbarrow. (Hendrickson [WIS], a first-year theologian at JSTB, contributed many of the photos on the SOA protest.) ■ Fr. Paul Deutsch, assistant for secondary education, and Mary Baudouin are making this year’s visitations to the province’s four high schools together. -- Donald A. Hawkins SJ National Jesuit News By Daniel Hendrickson, SJ ■ According to Fr. Marvin Kitten, province vocation director, there will be at least four provinces represented among the directors for the two annual discernment retreats at the Grand Coteau novitiate, one during the Thanksgiving holidays and one just before Christmas. -- Philip G. Steele SJ 12 A woman, a wheelbarrow, and freedom Photo by Tom Lankeneau, SJ MISSOURI December 2003 / January 2004 Daniel Hendrickson (center) and the contingent from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley that attended the Ignatian Family Teach-In in Columbus, Ga., in late November. Oregon Jesuit has been in the Society longer than anyone else in U.S. Father Francis A. Logan (ORE) celebrated his 101st birthday with relatives, friends, and members of the Jesuit communities at Gonzaga University on October 12. Logan has been in the Society of Jesus in the U.S. Assistancy longer than any other living Jesuit. He entered the Society at Los Gatos on August 30, 1919. James A. Martin (MAR) is the oldest living Jesuit in the U.S. He was born more than a month before Logan. Martin entered the Society on August 14, 1921. Logan taught at Seattle University for more than 30 years prior to his retirement in 1970. Since then he has continued parochial ministry in Seattle area parishes. In 2000 he moved to Francis A. Logan the Jesuit infirmary at Spokane. “Everybody tells me how good I look,” he wrote in his bimonthly newsletter to friends, “but I sometimes wonder. To be honest, I have not found it hard to remain in the infirmary. I have my daily walks and exercises.” Known as “Coach,” Logan founded Seattle U.’s long running HiYu Coulees hiking club. He continues to celebrate liturgy almost daily in the Jesuit community chapel. He also preaches to the congregation at these liturgies. Logan credits his longevity to balancing work and play. Listening to baseball games and the World Series are his current priorities. Jesuit Old Boy wins Nobel Prize (ICN) – A former pupil of two British Jesuit schools - Beaumont College in Windsor and Wimbledon College in south London - has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Anthony Leggett shared the prize with two Russian scientists, Vitaly Ginzburg and Alexei Abrikosov. The three worked separately on the same area - the nature of matter at extremely low temperatures - and their theories led to the development of magnetic imaging scanners which use magnetism and radio waves to produce remarkably clear pictures of the human anatomy. Born in London in 1938, Anthony J. Leggett spent two years at Wimbledon before concluding his secondary education at Beaumont. According to the headmaster of Wimbledon College, Fr. Michael Holman SJ, Leggett was known as “AJ” during his time there: “AJ’s contemporaries remember him as a brilliant classicist who started a chess club in Year 7, at the age of 11, advertising it with a Latin poem which he’d written! His father was a Physics teacher at Beaumont, and apparently Anthony was put off the subject after attending one of his father’s lessons. So he carried on with Latin and Greek,” said Holman. However, once at Oxford, he obtained his Doctor’s Degree in Physics at Balliol College; he is now MacArthur Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ill. His own main research on superfluidity was done in England in the 1970s, and scientists say the laureates’ work still has potentially revolutionary applications. “Anthony Leggett’s contribution to the development of the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan was considerable,” said Holman. “Since it assists in the early diagnosis of cancer and other medical conditions, it has benefited huge numbers of people. We can all be proud of his achievements.” OREGON ■ A String Quartet, composed by Fr. Kevin Waters, was recorded by the Nevsky Quartet of St. Petersburg, Russia for release on their upcoming CD. First performed by the Kronos Quartet in Seattle in 1973, the composition includes avant-garde techniques such as multiphonics and controlled oscillations. Waters composed the quartet while studying with Bruno Bartolozzi in Florence, Italy. ■ The Alaska Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities has presented its Individual Artist Award to Fr. Norm Pepin (NEN) for his musical compositions. The award was presented in Anchorage this fall. In addition to his music, Fr. Pepin, 70, is chaplain for both the Catholic grade school and high school in Fairbanks, director of the House of Prayer, and a pastoral minister to the city’s Hispanic community. ■ Five Oregonians were ordained deacons in October. Craig Hightower was ordained on Oct. 11 in Cambridge. The following week, on Oct. 18, Jack Bentz, Viet Tran, Tom Lankenau and Bryan Pham were ordained in Berkeley. Pham, completing his M.Div. degree at Regis in Toronto, flew out to stand in line with the West coast ordinands. ■ Fr. Robert Araujo (NEN), a professor of law at Gonzaga University and legal advisor to the Vatican, delivered Gonzaga’s annual Jerry Tucker Memorial Lecture on Nov. 17. He lectured on the university’s mission in a speech entitled, “The Jesuit University: An Instrument of International Justice?” ■ The St. Leo’s Parish community welcomed their new pastor, Fr. Steve Lantry, at his official installation during a Sunday liturgy on Nov. 2. In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, Lantry will continue his work as vocation director for the province. ■ After chaining himself to the front doors of Tacoma’s Federal Building to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq last summer, Fr. Bill Bichsel was found guilty in a trial held last month. The judge sentenced the 75-year-old priest to five days in jail for the misdemeanor. His case is currently being appealed. Bischel has served two long terms in federal prison for his protests against the School of Americas. CALIFORNIA WISCONSIN ■ “The happiest 35 of my 76 years have been on this Hill of Peace in Los Gatos.” Those are the words of Guy Entriken, the California Province’s only donné, who has served under the past seven provincials, including Fr. John Francis Xavier Connelly, who brought him into our good company. ■ The wonders of Calgary, Alberta persuaded Fr. Tacho Rivera to visit his classmate and friend Fr. Max Oliva who has been busy with retreat ministry in the Canadian Rockies. What’s more, the two were celebrating 40 years in the Society along with 10 other Californians. ■ Fr. Luis Proença (POR) has produced, directed and edited yet another prize-winning documentary entitled Pukiki – The American Portuguese in Hawaii. The film reveals the contribution to Hawaii made by the Portuguese who first flooded the islands after the Reciprocal Treaty of 1876 between Hawaii and the United States. ■ Messrs. Piotr Twardecki (PMA), Mirek Bozek (PME) and Fr. Robert Wawer (PMA) set out on an adventure during the semester break by scaling the highest peak in the lower 48, Mt. Whitney, only to drive themselves the next day to the lowest point in the US at 282’ below sea level: the Badwater Basin in Death Valley, Calif. ■ Fr. Scott Santarosa is on hiatus from the taping of episodes of “The West Wing” to give more attention to his new duties as vice president for administration at Verbum Dei High School in Compton. Freed from his job as director of development this year, Scott has also found the time to fill in coaching (and running with) the cross-country squad. ■ The eternally young Fr. Bob Welch has not been slowed down by a recent stroke. His concern for his students’ grades and their papers kept him on his regular rounds of preaching and teaching at Loyola Marymount University last month. ■ Bishop Gordon Bennett preached and presided at the anniversary Mass celebrating 75 years of the Society’s ministry to the diocese of Phoenix, Ariz. and specifically St. Francis Xavier Parish. The relationship between Brophy College Prep and St. Francis Xavier Parish had its beginnings in the Brophy School Chapel at Christmas 1928. ■ Fr. Marty Hosking organized a Latino Mass at Creighton Prep; Hispanic students played a prominent role. As a part of the newly created CPLatino Club, the “Misa” is well received and the club has grown to include students of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Costa Rican, Cuban, Colombian, Guatemalan and even European heritage. CPLatino club also sponsors weekly tutoring for English as a second language in South Omaha, which is heavily populated by Mexican immigrants. Through the efforts of the CPLatino club, Latino students are discovering a voice and identity and other youths are learning through experience about Hispanic culture. ■ Fr. Peter Fink (NYK), who is spending sabbatical time here from Weston, spoke to the Creighton University Jesuit Community on the sacrament of the sick. He gave a second presentation on another Sunday on the sacrament of reconciliation. ■ The Creighton University Jesuit Community hosted an open house for students. Groups toured the Ignatius House first, then moved to the second floor of the Jesuit Residence in the Administration Building. Community members met then along the route and explained various aspects of Jesuit life. Pictures of the original Creighton buildings were of particular interest. Most of the visitors were girls. ■ Fr. Bert Thelen and a committee of lay people hosted Fr. Roy Bourgeois on the Creighton University campus. He is a Maryknoll priest and founder of the School of Americas Watch. After a social gathering and dinner in the Jesuit Community, Fr. Bourgeois spoke to an interested audience in the student ballroom. ■ In recognition of the expert and compassionate care given by their health-care providers, Creighton’s School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center together received the prestigious Outstanding Community Service Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Annually, 460,000 underserved and rural patients in Nebraska and Iowa are served. Creighton students receive clinical training and experience in schools and clinics in the area. Creighton is the first Jesuit university to receive this award. The two schools also worked together with Nebraska officials to develop a bioterrorism preparedness plan for the state and to help fund and staff a poison center. -- Patrick Dorsey SJ -- Jerry Hayes SJ -- Brad Reynolds SJ National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 13 PROVINCE BRIEFS MARYLAND NEW YORK ■ Fr. Gasper Lo Biondo addressed the 2003 Annual Conference on Mission and Transformation in Milwaukee, Wis. in early November. His topic was “Mission and Transformation: One Response to the Challenge of Our Mission of Solidarity in a Globalized World.” ■ Fr. Jim Redington will take an appointment at JSTB as an associate professor of interreligious dialogue, teaching courses in theology of religions, devotional Hinduism and wisdom Hinduism. Jim will remain a senior fellow at The Woodstock Theological Center. ■ Fr. Brian McDermott spoke at the opening night dinner of the Forum on Catholic Traditions on Peace and War sponsored by the Jesuit Conference and Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. His presentation, “Discernment and Theological/Moral Reasoning about War and Peace,” addressed Ignatian guidelines for discerning a course of action an individual or group has a right to make. ■ Fr. Joseph Hacala was a speaker at the recent dedication of the diocesan Heritage Center in downtown Wheeling. Most of the archives and memorabilia of the WheelingCharleston diocese will be kept at the center and be accessible there. ■ On Nov. 5, Kurt Denk and Fr. Dan Ruff invited novices Kevin O’Donnell and James Dunn to meet a group of Loyola College alumni and students to talk about their life vocations. At a Mass afterward, O’Donnell preached about following Jesus in his ministry to the poor, the suffering and the weak. Following Mass, the men and seven Jesuit faculty enjoyed dinner and conversation at Ricci House. ■ Fr. J. Leon Hooper gave a lecture on the philosophy of John Courtney Murray to the Benedictine Community at St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, New Jersey in early Nov. ■ Fr. Michael Braden is happy to announce that one of his video students, a 1995 graduate, has developed and produced a movie, “Bringing the Rain.” The movie was screened on Nov. 4. ■ Fr. Donald Kirby was honored for his long association with Le Moyne College (Class of 1963; faculty since 1976). He received the Ignatian Service to Le Moyne Award for his work as a teacher of excellence, the director of the Values Program, and his selfless service to the Le Moyne Community in “promoting a commitment to social justice with a concern for each individual.” ■ The continued economic downturn has been especially felt by the most marginalized. Fr. Ned Murphy, the president of P.O.T.S. (Part of the Solution) in the Bronx reports an increasing demand for meals, food packages and shelter. ■ Fr. Carsten Martensen and the people of St. Anthony’s Church, Oceanside, NY, will have a special commemorative Mass in December to mark the 20th anniversary of the Jesuits’ ministry in the parish. ■ Mid-November marks Homecoming Sunday at St. Aloysius Parish in Harlem. This year, in addition to many former parishioners and alumni of the parish school, Fr. Ed Durkin returned from Buffalo to preside and preach. It was an opportunity for the parish to acknowledge his contributions to the people of St. Aloysius for the past 13 years. ■ The New York Province celebrated its 60th anniversary at the annual Jesuit Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. The Xavier Award was presented to Dr. Jasper H. Kane, who received it on behalf of all New York Province benefactors. Each guest at the dinner received a facsimile medal of the Xavier Award as thanks from the members of the province. ■ Fr. Joe McShane was inaugurated as the 32nd president of Fordham University on Oct. 24. The celebration was joyous and included events for almost every constituency of the university community, among them Cardinal Avery Foster Dulles’s McGinley Lecture in honor of Pope John Paul II’s silver anniversary, a gallery show, a conference on urbanism and American religion, and student receptions. ■ Loyola College hosted the first of several area Maryland Province Sexual Misconduct Sessions on Saturday, Nov. 1. Frs. J.A. Loftus, Jerry McGlone and John Swope all made professional presentations. These gatherings will be held in all regions of the province. ■ Fr. Jim Coughlin triumphantly passed all three of his qualifying examinations for the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Jim currently teaches at Xavier High School, New York. -- Jackie Antkowiak -- Louis T. Garaventa SJ NEW ENGLAND ■ Fr. Julio Giulietti, director of Boston College’s Center for Ignatian Spirituality, hosted Cardinal Pham Minh Man, Cardinal Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from Nov. 3 to 7. While at B.C. Cardinal Man explored the possibility of developing an educational partnership between his archdiocese and the university. ■ Fr. Louis Grenier, 85, long-time missionary in Jamaica, recently spent a week in Nicaragua to celebrate the centenary of the city of Bluefields, where many decades ago large numbers of Jamaicans migrated. Grenier was the guest of Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos, who 60 years ago was one of Grenier’s high-school students at the Colegio Centro America in Granada, Nicaragua, where Grenier taught the first two years of his regency. ■ Fr. Jack Crabb of Gonzaga: Eastern Point Retreat House (EPRH) recently was certified as an associate supervisor by the examining board of the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education. This opens the way for Crabb to become a full supervisor in ACPE. He has already received his degree as full supervisor with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC). ■ Fr. Bob Gilroy, also of EPRH, returned to his beloved Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota to teach an art course at Sinte Gleska University, using art and art therapy in conjunction with his ministry of spiritual direction. ■ Fr. Vincent Lapomarda’s book, “The Catholic Church in the Land of the Holy Cross: A History of the Diocese of Portland, Maine,” was published by Editions du Signe, Strasbourg, France, in conjunction with the sesquicentenary of the diocese. ■ Fr. Bill Mulligan celebrated his golden jubilee in the Society by joining JRS and moving to Monrovia, Liberia. He arrived Oct. 27, and has already sent several long e-mails to friends in Boston detailing his new and strange experiences in a foreign culture and environment. ■ Fr. Jim Hayes, director of vocations, through his Vocations Task Force, successfully motivated and inspired numerous events and activities around the province on Nov. 5, the Feast of All Saints and Blessed of the Society and National Jesuit Vocation Promotion Day. -- Kenneth J. Boller SJ -- Richard Roos SJ 14 National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 Continued from page 2 World religions so many years. As Paul Knitter has often remarked in conversation, it is a totally different experience truly to become friends with someone from another religious tradition than to simply read about his/her religion in a college textbook. One cannot but be impressed by the depth of faith and commitment in the other person. At present, I have ceded the directorship of the center to another academic colleague, Dr. James Buchanan, who will thus be in charge of making the move to the new Brueggeman Center residence. Likewise, with the recent arrival of Dr. Jonathan Tan in the theolog y department, with his considerable background in Confucianism and Taoism, I have g iven up teaching courses in Far Eastern Relig ions and focused on my other major speculative interest, namely, the dialogue between religion and science. But the friendships thus gained with members of other religious traditions have made an indelible impression upon me and have convinced me that in the future Christian theology should regularly be done in an interreligious context. For, as I see it, we Christians will never fully comprehend our own religious identity except through careful comparison and contrast with the living traditions of the other world religions. Religiously oriented people have much to learn from one another, preferably through conversation on an interpersonal basis. (Bracken (CHG) is professor of theology at Xavier University.) Continued from page 2 Church mission Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) released a joint statement titled “Working With Other Religions,” in which they spoke of dialogue as being not “ primarily a matter of talking. It is, in the first instance an attitude, an openness to the neighbor, a sharing of spiritual resources as people stand before the great crisis of life and death, as they struggle for justice and human dignity, ... In dialogue, Christians and their neighbors enter into a reciprocal relationship which becomes a process of mutual learning and growth.” Another colleague of my days in Berkeley, the well-known Protestant Taiwanese theologian C. S. Song, has written extensively in this area, and argues that genuine interreligious dialogue is not so much a communication technique as it is a multi-stage process of conversion for those involved. An initial stage Song labels “bi-lateral cease-fire,” which requires that those involved in the dialogue have to stop trying to conquer the other side by converting them. If the parties agree to this theological armistice then they might reach the next crucial stage of “blessed ignorance,” in which we recognize (or least entertain the suspicion) that our own religious-cultural experience is not the sum of all possible truth. If we accept the possibility that the absolute fullness of complete truth does not reside in our religious tradition or moment in history, then this may lead us to accept that our dialogue partners might have something to contribute to the mutual search for the splendor of the truth. Song calls this ignorance “blessed” because it is a graced development, which allows real dialogue to begin. This grace supposes a human nature of incompleteness, and builds on and perfects it through the practice of epistemological humility, leading to a real conversion to a new goal, a commitment to entering into what the FABC calls the dialogue of life. Like conversion from sin, dialogic conversion involves a metanoia, turning away from using dialogue as a strategic means to convert others and turning towards stepping more fully into the richness of the lives of our dialogue partners. Let the conversion begin. (Fr. Bretzke (WIS) is associate professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Francisco and visiting professor of moral theology at the Loyola School of Theology in Manila, Philippines.) Continued from page 1 CHICAGO ty of strengthening conflict resolution methods “so that the point of necessity and last resort (war) is rarely reached.” The third position argued to “apply the principles of just war and international law to the new realities of asymmetrical warfare and cross-border lawlessness.” Saying that “sometimes, the use of force is morally obligatory,” Reichberg said that a full reading of the just war Fr. Michael Baxter, CSC, from the University of Notre Dame, presents a paper on text allows the use of force the Catholic pacifist tradition. not only for defense, but for restorative, deterrent and punitive ends, as well. Unlike Resource and Research Center for Contemporary the Cold War, which was characterized by the pre- Spirituality, is also a member of a new United sumption against the use of force or force as a last Nations’ initiative, the UN Global Peace Unit for resort, “the international terrorism of our time forces Women Spiritual and Religious Leaders. She spoke us, whether we like it or not, to recuperate a neglected passionately about the victims who are “never dimension of the just war tradition, the bellum offen- counted,” the women, children, the elderly. “We sivum.” count only the soldiers, and then only our own,” “One of the nice things about being Catholic is you she said. She cautioned against theologizing war in can suffer from multiple personality disorder,” joked the same way that slavery was once theologized. Royal, adding that the proliferation of terrorism “truly William Bole, a Woodstock Fellow whose task raises the ante” in the debate about just war. The two it was to listen, observe and point out the topics argued that the distinction between just and unjust that weren’t covered in the afternoon’s discussion, war is not the same as the distinction between offensive noted two tracks: the just war question itself and and defensive force, for a preemptive attack may be whether it is possible to fight a war with moral justified. From there, they went on to consider the case means; and the issue of peace building – methods, for war with Iran. strategies, attitudes. The former dominated at the A series of policy responses followed the presen- forum, yet the latter is true for the larger Church. tations. Al Pierce, director of the Center for the Study “I would have to say that the Church has largely of Professional Military Ethics at the U.S. Naval Acad- been on the peace building track for roughly 40 emy, critiqued the pacifist position for its silence on years since Pacem in Terris,” said Bole, trying to the vital “national interest,” calling it the thing that recall when the current Pope last publicly discussed matters most to policy makers. Pamela Quanrud of the the Just War principles. State Department suggested that the Iraq situation The conversation continued after the forum might have played out differently had the Pope weighed officially drew to a close, only one part of an ongoin earlier in the debate. Quanrud also commented that ing conversation about just peacemaking and peace justice, unlike peacemaking, is a relatively new field building. “It is good to say no,” said Wallis earlier in the Just War debate. in the day, at the open microphone. “It is better to After breaking for lunch, the conference par- have an alternative.” ticipants returned to hear reflections from both the (For more information on the forum, contact Judaic and Islamic traditions before the floor was John Kleiderer at the Jesuit Conference at jkleideropened up for general discussion. Chittister, exec- [email protected] or Dolores Leckey at Woodstock Theutive director and founder of Benetvision: A ological Center at [email protected].) Photos by Julie Bourbon Just war DETROIT ■ Fr. Gerald C. Walling will play Ebenezer Scrooge, a role he’s always coveted, in “A Christmas Carol” at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights, Ill. Walling’s previous theatrical credits include the role of Fr. O’Reilly in “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Shine Up?” and George Bernard Shaw in “The Best of Friends.” He also played prison guard number 2 in the hit film “The Blues Brothers.” ■ Fr. Provincial Edward W. Schmidt visited Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, Ill, on Nov. 16 to bless the new Jesuit residence and expansive conference center. He was welcomed by Bellarmine’s director Fr. John T. Dillon, who spearheaded the expansion project. ■ Fr. Bob Scullin spent a month visiting Jesuit Institutions in India and Nepal. What impressed Bob the most about his trip? The Society’s commitment to the poor in those countries. ■ Br. Jim Boynton, the new Detroit Province vocation director, is visiting each province community informing them about his current and planned vocation promotion efforts. He stresses the active role of each Jesuit in inviting men to enter and keeping in contact with men interested in joining. ■ Frs. Bill Bichl and John Staudenmaier (WIS) are the provincial assistants for higher education. They replace Fr. Mark Henninger, who will teach philosophy at the Gregorian University in Rome (after his sabbatical). ■ Fr. Albert J. Fritsch has been busy. In the last year, he’s given talks on renewable energy application, ginseng research, off-road vehicles, land stewardship and ecotourism to various groups in the Midwest. His paper, “Property Decision Making” is being published by the National Treasurers Association of Religious Institutes. He’s also co-authored two soon-to-be-released books: “Ecotourism in Appalachia, Marketing the Mountains” (with Kristin Johannsen), and “Critical Hour: 25 Years After Three Mile Island” (with Mary Davis and Art Purcell). ■ Fr. John Langan presented a paper entitled “The Present and Future of Just War Thinking after Iraq II” at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs in New York, and a paper entitled “Just War and Pacifism in Christian Theology,” at the Université de Québec à Montrèal, both in November. ■ With the shipment of three 20 ft. containers this year, the total number of books Fr. Bob Dietrich has sent to Africa is nearing the half million mark. The latest container, holding about 25,000 books, went to Fr. Ted Walters at St. Augustine University of Tanzania. Bob is now collecting books for the new Jesuit School of Theology in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. If you have books to contribute, you can contact him at [email protected] or 216-2812305. ■ Fr. Steven F. Hurd has joined the staff at the Milford Spiritual Center and begun his service as coordinator of conference retreats and treasurer of the community. ■ As noted in last month’s column, Jesuits from the province celebrated the 100th anniversary of Jesuit service to the patients and staff at Cook County Hospital. On October 24, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution commending the Jesuits for their service as chaplains. The resolution also “further resolved that the 100th anniversary of the start of this service, Sunday, October 26, 2003, is hereby proclaimed ‘Jesuit Day’ in Cook County, Illinois.” Fr. James E. Chambers (PAT), one of the three Jesuit chaplains at the hospital, accepted the resolution at the board’s meeting. ■ Fr. Tom Acker, working with Senator Robert Byrd, is overseeing the construction of a $10 million educational center in Beckley, W. Va. This 55,000 sq. ft center will house six public colleges/universities with a special focus on health and energy. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2005. ■ Acker, busily working in southern West Virginia, has supervised the training of 400 math/science/ health teachers K-12 in the utilization of the computer as a teaching/learning tool. An additional focus is use of body composition analyzers to address obesity and lack of exercise in children. These new instruments are then donated to the schools. ■ Fr. George A. Lane, president of Loyola Press, led a group of young adults from Charis Ministries on an exploration of the architecture and history of five churches in the Chicago area. -- George Kearney -- John Moriconi SJ Dr. Gregory Reichberg (left) from the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway, and Dr. Robert Royal from the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington present one of the just war positions. National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 15 memorials John P. O’Connor SJ (Missouri) Father John Paul O’Connor, 80, died after a long illness on August 14, 2003 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a Jesuit for 62 years and a priest for 50 years. Born in Parsons, Kan., he attended two years at Rockhurst College before entering the Society at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Mo., in 1940. After philosophy at Saint Louis University, regency at Marquette High in Milwaukee, and theology at St. Mary’s, J.P. was ordained in 1953. After tertianship J.P. was sent to Belize to teach history — a subject in which he had little background. To his credit, he tried to gather knowledge and new ideas through taking summer classes in the States; but ultimately the frustration of his teaching enterprise did much to undermine his sense of confidence and self-worth. Only slightly more satisfying was a period of service as a traveling missionary around Orange Walk; the independence and loneliness of Jesuit life in Belize at the time confused and frustrated him. So on to the library at St. John’s College, where he worked hard to catalog and organize a library that desperately needed the attention of someone as dogged as J.P. There followed a variety of pastoral assignments, mostly in parishes and hospitals. One suspects he was at his best at the bedside of a sick or dying person in need of comfort; there his deep compassion could be felt and his gentle words heard without the distraction of the shyness and awkwardness that made more public ministry sometimes difficult. But no matter where he was, J.P. was relentlessly drawn to the boiler room. Many of his suggestions for greater efficiency were probably on the right track — although sometimes extreme. Sadly for him, J.P.’s suggestions were often dismissed, or received with a certain degree of resentment, because they were usually delivered without the sort of political sensitivity needed to successfully negotiate the structures of organizations — even small ones. But his heart was always in the right place. His family saw clearly what others sometimes missed — what one Jesuit who knew him well described as “a kind, plain, sincere, yet simple person who likes other people.” Finally, J.P. just wanted to fix things — to see if he could make them work the way they were supposed to, the way they were designed to work. Ultimately that is a profoundly sacred desire: a desire shared with the God who labors to restore and redeem all of creation. -- Philip G. Steele SJ same years of study he was a full-time caseworker, primarily in family counseling, for the Catholic Charities Office in Brooklyn, N.Y. For the next five years he taught in Fordham’s School of Social Services, and for two years after that he taught sociology at Holy Cross. In 1957 he went to the Philippines to serve as director of social services at the Ateneo of Manila and to teach at the Ateneo de Yamboanga. He returned to the U.S. in 1961 to serve as chaplain at Worcester State Hospital for the next 15 years after which he engaged in pastoral work at several parishes in the Worcester, Mass., Diocese, and in dedicated pastoral work while living at Holy Cross College. Somewhere in Scripture there is a passage -- “Many men are popular with their fellows, but how many are faithful to their duty?” He was known to be very faithful to his duties, his responsibilities and his commitments. For years he was “on call” and available as a father confessor at Holy Cross for clergy and laity. He carried a bulky old-fashioned predecessor of today’s cell-phone so that he could be reached even if he were walking about the campus. Over the years, very many priests and some bishops of the Diocese of Worcester were regular visitors to the Holy Cross Campus to meet with Fr. “Dick” McKenney. He was a very kind quiet, unassuming man, but in spiritual terms, a very influential man. -- Paul T. McCarty SJ Charles R. McKenney SJ Robert E. Nilon SJ (New England) Father Charles R. McKenney, 88, died of pulmonary disease at Campion Center in Weston, Mass., on August 15, 2003. He was born in Springfield, Mass., but grew up in the Boston suburb of Brookline. He transferred to Boston College High School in his fourth year of high school and graduated in 1932. He attended Boston College for two years, and then entered the Society of Jesus at Lenox, Mass., in 1934. After novitiate and a year of juniorate he came to Weston College for philosophy and earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and licentiate degrees. In 1940-41 he taught math at B.C. High then returned to Weston College for theology. He was ordained in June of 1944 and finished theology in 1945, with a Licentiate in Sacred Theology. Tertianship followed at Auriesville, N.Y. He had a strong interest in social work and earned a master’s degree in that field in 1948, after studies at Boston College and Fordham University. During these (New Orleans) Father Robert Nilon was born in St. Paul, Minn., but grew up in Florida where the historic Jesuit church and school in downtown Miami, the Gesu, became the center of his early years. In 1941, one year after graduating from the Gesu, he followed in the traces of his older brother, Tommy, and entered the Society at Grand Coteau, La. Tommy Nilon, six years older than Bob, was an exemplary and promising young Jesuit before his untimely death in 1949, weeks after completing his tertianship 30day retreat. Throughout his life of 81 years Bob found inspiration and much peace in the memory of his brother. He prayed with Tommy’s rosary faithfully and took it with him to the grave. Bob was ordained at Spring Hill College in 1954, after philosophy and theology studies there and St. Mary’s, Kan. In 1955 he went to Cleveland to make tertianship. In 1956 Bob became Prefect of Discipline at Jesuit High School, New Orleans, where he had taught as a 16 National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 Spring Hill philosophate (1962-65), and still another three years in the same office at Jesuit in New Orleans (1962-65). But it was in the pastoral apostolate that Bob would fulfill his priestly calling. For 37 years, from 1965 until a few months before he died on August 18, 2003, Bob served as pastor or associate pastor in a number of Jesuit parishes. These assignments included Spring Hill, Grand Coteau, New Orleans, Key West, Miami, West Palm Beach, and Tampa. He spent a total of eight years in West Palm Beach and was pastor of St. Ann’s there in 1977-79. In downtown Tampa, at Sacred Heart, Bob was also Catholic chaplain at Tampa General Hospital (1995-2003). A devastating type of bone cancer (multiple myeloma) necessitated his move to Ignatius Residence in January 2003. There, in his own hand Bob appended to his dossier one line: “2003 … Praying for the Church and the Society” And he prayed for death. He was ready. Father John Edwards, superior of Ignatius Residence, and Bob’s classmate in the Society, ministered to Bob daily. He anointed him again as the end drew near. In his eulogy two days later John spoke of Bob’s deep and simple faith, of his edifying manner, and of the many testimonials and words of appreciation that Bob received from grateful parishioners. -- Louis A. Poché SJ Daniel Lewis SJ (New England) Fr. Daniel Lewis, 73, died on Sept. 4, 2003, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (“Lou Gehrig’s disease”) at Campion Center in Weston, Mass. He was born in Newton, Mass. Dan graduated from Boston College High School in 1948 and studied for a year at Boston College before entering the Society at Lenox, Mass. After novitiate and juniorate at Shadowbrook he came to Weston College for philosophy in 1953, after which he taught Latin, biology, and history at Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine. He returned to Weston College for theology, was ordained in 1962, and in 1963-64 did tertianship at Pomfret, Conn. He did graduate-level work in religious education at Lumen Vitae in Belgium during the following year, then another year of advanced theological study at the Greg in Rome. From 1966 to 1973 he served as religion department chairman and taught religion at Fairfield Prep and at Fairfield University, while also teaching religious education in the Diocese of Bridgeport. He was called to Boston in 1973 to serve as director of novices, and continued in that critical capacity for seven years. In 1980 he became provincial assistant for social ministries and planning as well as assistant for pastoral services and director of province communications. In 1987 he went to Cheverus High School to serve successively as rector of the Jesuit community, acting principal, and president - all the while teaching religion and Latin in the classroom until 1993. After a sabbatical year he returned to B.C. High. When the diagnosis of his disease became definite in late 2002 he continued in the classroom until increasing impairment required him to come to Campion Health Center. Accepting his disease as from the hand of God, Dan cooperated fully with his medical caretakers and the devoted assistance of his very loyal friend, Bill Murray, who had once been one of Dan’s novices. As word passed that Dan was nearing the end, many members of the Campion community and Jesuits from across the city came to his room and blessed him with laying on of hands or gesture. They spoke to him or prayed with him and for him and thanked him for the good works he had done in their midst. good works he had done in their midst. Dan was able to open his eyes and smile or watch, mumble a few inaudible words to thank them for their presence, their comfort, because in fact he did seem comforted by this ritual of his passing. Dan Lewis will be greatly missed by his brother Jesuits of the New England Province. -- Paul T. McCarty SJ George L. Crain SJ (California) Father George L. Crain, 82, died September 9, 2003 at Regis Infirmary, Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos. He was a Jesuit for 65 years and a priest for 52 years. George was born in Newport, R.I., on November 20, 1920. He entered the novitiate at Los Gatos on July 30, 1938. After studies at Mount St. Michael’s, he did regency at Bellarmine Prep, 1945-48, where he taught Latin, history and moderated sports. He studied theology at Alma College, 1948-52, and he was ordained to the priesthood in 1951. Following tertianship, George was assigned to teach Latin at the recently opened diocesan minor seminary in Fresno, Ryan Preparatory College. In 1954 he went to Rome as regional subsecretary at the Jesuit Curia. Returning to California the next year, he returned to Ryan Prep as teacher of Latin, Greek, and speech. He also served as Prefect of Discipline. George remained there until 1969, when he moved to Jesuit High, Sacramento, as a Latin teacher. George was an excellent and demanding teacher. California Provincial Tom Smolich characterized him as “the best pedagogue I ever had” and remembers him as a strict disciplinarian who required absolute silence in class. George left the classroom in 1974 and studied the Spiritual Exercises under Fr. William Peters in Auburn, Cal., where he made the long retreat and learned spiritual direction. When he completed this practicum, he was assigned to the staff of Manresa Retreat House, Azusa, and, in 1976, to Loyola Marymount University. From this base he gave retreats, days of recollection and spiritual direction to numerous groups and individual religious and lay people. Each summer for nine years he would give the 30-day Exercises in the Midwest. In the late 1980s-early ‘90s, George served as chaplain to LMU’s basketball team in their high-profile years as NCAA championship contenders. On the televised games, he could be seen on the bench, intently rooting and praying. He played an important consoling role in the aftermath of the sudden on-court collapse and death of their star athlete, Hank Gathers. George retired to Los Gatos in 1997, where he spent his final years in quiet prayer. He was a self-effacing man, generous and solicitous of others and willing to go out of his way to be helpful. He was an avid fisherman who loved to hike the Sierra to his favorite streams and lakes. While at Ryan Prep, he would lead hiking, camping, and fly-fishing jaunts with the seminarians to the mountains. He lived his life in a spirit of gratitude, leading countless others to a holier and happier life through his example, teaching and spiritual counsel. -- Dan Peterson SJ Francis A. Wallner SJ (Maryland) Father Frank Wallner, 88, died September 10, 2003, at Wernersville, Pa. Frank was born in Bethlehem, Pa. on March 31, 1915. His parents had emigrated from Austria-Hungary and eventually settled in the town of Freemansburg, Pa. where Frank attended elementary school. After graduating from high school in Bethlehem, he entered the Society of Jesus at Wernersville in August of 1939. Following philosophy studies at Woodstock College in Maryland and theology studies at Weston College in Massachusetts, he was ordained in June of 1951. Between 1953 and 1972, Frank taught philosophy at Scranton University, Loyola University in Baltimore, Wheeling College, and Saint Joseph’s College in Philadelphia. In 1972 he began a 30-year ministry to the diocesan church when he established a small house of prayer for priests in Haddonfield, N.J., which he staffed for more than six years. Then, responding to another need of diocesan priests, Frank based himself in the Jesuit community at Wernersville and began substituting for a week or two at a time in parishes throughout the Allentown and Harrisburg dioceses where priests needed a replacement in order to take a vacation or make a retreat. In 1985 Frank took this valued ministry to the growing diocese of Charlotte, N.C., where he continued as a pastoral substitute until 1990 when the bishop of Charlotte asked him to become pastor of St. James Church in the town of Hamlet. Then in 1993 Frank returned to Wernersville and again substituted in many single-priest parishes throughout the Allentown and Harrisburg dioceses, a ministry he continued until his health began to fail in 2002. -- James A. Borbely SJ James B. Corrigan SJ (Wisconsin) Fr. James B. Corrrigan, 90, died Sept. 17, 2003 at the St. Camillus Health Care Center in Wauwatosa, Wis. He was a Jesuit for 64 years and a priest for 54 years. Jim and his twin, John, were born in Milwaukee on August 2, 1913. Jim graduated from Marquette University High School in 1931 and from the University of Notre Dame in 1935. After graduation he worked at a stock brokerage house and as a salesman for Milwaukee Label and Seals. Described as a “world-class gentleman, a charmer, a man of unfailing humor,” Jim could have been successful in business but chose instead to enter the Society at Florissant, Mo. in 1939. He received a shortened formation: one year of juniorate, two years of philosophy, one year of regency at Saint Louis University High School (1945-46), and four years of theology in St. Marys, Kan. He was ordained in June 1949. His first assignment was at Saint Louis University High School as assistant principal (1951-53), then as principal (1953-55). His next was Campion Jesuit High School as rector/president (1955-60). At Campion he raised funds for two new buildings and built one of them. Having gained experience as a builder and fundraiser, Jim moved on to Oshkosh (1960-63) where he renovated the former novitiate into the Jesuit Retreat House and became its first director. He became pastor of Gesu Parish, Milwaukee in 1963. Jim received a large benefaction and used it to renovate the church according to Vatican II norms. In 1970 Jim accepted the request of John Raynor, president of Marquette University, to be a liaison between the president’s office and potential donors, both corporate and individual. By 1977 Raynor gave this position a new title – vicepresident for development and alumni relations. Finally, Jim was named director of the Jesuit Mission Service in Minneapolis, raising funds especially for Korea (1979-86). These were the years when the Korean Jesuits had become sufficiently numerous to replace the Americans as superiors and directors of works in their country and when, in 1985, Korea became an independent region. In 1986 Jim returned to Marquette U. to live in semi-retirement. Regardless of where he lived or what he did, Jim always enjoyed meeting people. This was especially so during his stay at St. Camillus (1992-2003) where he often stationed himself near the entrance to the building in order to greet all who entered. Recently a younger Jesuit, newly appointed as director of a work, asked his advice. His reply says a lot about why he did so well in many different ministries: “Never become so attached to anything that you become bitter if you don’t get it.” -- Charlie Baumann SJ Joseph M. Moffitt SJ (Maryland) Fr. Joseph M. Moffitt, 90, died September 17, 2003, at Merion Station, Pa. Joe was born in Philadelphia on January 7, 1913. After graduating from Saint Joseph’s Preparatory School in 1931, he entered the Society at Saint Andrew-on-Hudson in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on August 14, 1931, and completed his Juniorate in the same house of formation in 1935. After completing his A.B. degree in 1937 and his Ph.L. in 1938 at Woodstock, he went on for an M.A. in Educational Psychology at Fordham University. He completed regency at Loyola High School, New York (1939-1941) where he taught German to sophomores and juniors. Joe completed his STL in theology at Woodstock in 1945, and was ordained on June 18, 1944. In 1946 he began his extraordinarily long tenure in the service of the mission of Georgetown University. This long run of dedicated service in the ministry of teaching and formation of young people at Georgetown was interrupted only by two years in Freiburg (1962-1964), Germany, where he was professor of theology. During his many years at Georgetown, Joe was professor of religion and vice-director of the Jesuit Seminary and Mission Fund (1947-1954), director of admissions for Georgetown College, and for the Schools of Foreign Service and Nursing (1954-1962), assistant dean (1956-1962), and finally, professor of theology for 30 years (1964-1994). Joe remained at Georgetown University as professor emeritus of theology. -- John W. Swope SJ The following Jesuits have died since the NJN last published and prior to our November 21 deadline. Their obituaries will appear as space and information become available. Brady, John F. (MIS) Bryant, Curtis C. (CFN) Burke, Robert R. (NEN) Cheney, Edmund K. (NEN) Coles, Edward T. (NOR) Dieckman, Leonard E. (MIS) Farrand, John L. (NYK) Knott, Francis X. (MAR) McCluskey, John D. (ORE) Meyers, Louis E. (NOR) Neenan, Robert P. (WIS) Polzer, Charles W. (CFN) Porter, Richard L. (WIS) Stevenson, Alden J. (CHN/CFN) Thatcher, John R. (ORE) Vogt, Robert H. (NYK) Walsh, Maurice B. (NEN) Witzofsky, Richard H. (MIS) National Jesuit News ■ November 16 November 18 October 26 November 9 October 21 September 12 October 18 September 12 November 3 October 25 October 9 November 4 September 28 October 3 November 19 November 15 October 31 November 13 December 2003 / January 2004 17 FEATURE Relationship between earth and human is a defining issue By John Surette SJ In 1989 at Port Burwell, Ontario, I heard cultural historian Fr. Thomas Berry CP speaking in a most comprehensive manner for all humankind. Berry spoke of how continued progress in the divine-human relationship and continued progress in the human-human relationship, now for the first time ever, depends upon progress in the earth-human relationship. The divine-human relationship – this was something that has always allured me. In fact, it brought me into our Society. The human-human relationship – I was aware of the importance of all the works of social justice and of our Society’s commitment to a faith that does justice. The earth-human relationship – since I was 12, the natural world has been my spiritual director. When I heard Berry’s words, there came forth from deep inside of me a passionate “Amen.” It seemed that my entire life experience had come together into a unity. I felt gifted with new eyes with which to look upon everything. It was so strong an enlightenment that all things seemed quite new to me. I knew that those first two important relationships will only find their fulfillment through the third. The ecological issue had become a defining issue for me. I knew that I would devote the remainder of my life to focusing upon the earth-human relationship, knowing that in doing so I would be continuing to work in the areas of the divine-human and the human-human. It was a moment of grace for me. It has only been in recent years that a serious meditation upon the earth-human relationship has taken place. When I first stumbled across the word ecology as an undergraduate in the early 50’s, I thought that it might have to do with the study of echoes! 18 National Jesuit News ■ It was 41 years ago that Rachel Carson wrote “Silent Spring,” her passionate critique of industrial agriculture. In 1972, the Stockholm Conference of the U.N. dealt with the industrial devastation of the planet and the need of every nation to establish an Environmental Protection Agency. In 1982 the U.N. Assembly passed the World Charter for Nature. In 1992, the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development took place in Rio de Janeiro with modest results and in 2002 the World Summit on Sustainable Development happened in Johannesburg with disappointing results. In 1983, the 33rd General Congregation gave what is perhaps our Society’s first authoritative statement regarding ecological matters when it said that “lack of respect for a loving Creator leads to a denial of the dignity of the human person and the wanton destruction of the environment.” Since then an ecological consciousness has slowly emerged within our ranks. In 1995, responding to postulates from a number of province congregations, GC34 issued its Decree 20 on ecology. This congregation, due to lack of expertise, time constraints, and a general ambivalence about the issue, recommended that Fr. General call for a study. The results of this study have been published in the document “We Live In A Broken World: Reflections on Ecology.” It is a prophetic document. I personally was disappointed by the inability of the Congregation to do more. But I too had been rather ambivalent about the ecological issue. In keeping with the teachings of the Church and our Society, my focus in those years was on justice for the human community. I considered justice to be the defining issue of our time. “To serve faith and promote justice” became my purpose. I understood that the social gospel placed the dignity of the human person at the center of all justice concerns. December 2003 / January 2004 And so, along with so many other Jesuits, I had my long list of social issues. There was the poverty issue, the refugee issue, the women’s issue, the racial issue, the unemployment issue, the nuclear issue, etc. It seemed that as soon as I was not looking some new issue cried out for my attention. The length of the list had a numbing effect on me but at the same time it energized me. My identity was that of a Jesuit who was concerned with the pathos of the human situation and who was called to do something about it on the personal and structural levels. I was so completely absorbed in this orientation that any hint of an ecological issue escaped my consciousness. I found myself weeping over the people, and the God whom I knew and to whom I prayed was a God who also was weeping over the people. Then Thomas Berry’s words entered my consciousness, my soul. They stirred up the dust there, with the result that things would never be the same for me. The pathos of the human will always be with me. It must never be neglected. I have come to understand, however, that we will never be able to adequately advance the well being of the human community unless, at the same time, nurturing a primary concern for the well being of the total earth community. As Berry says, “We are moving from suicide, homicide, and genocide, to biocide (the killing of life systems) and genocide (the killing of earth itself) in its more elaborate modes of expression.” I now find myself weeping over earth with its community of life that includes our human community. The God whom I know and to whom I now pray is also weeping over this same more comprehensive community. I find myself at a time of reversal of values within which earth is primary and we humans are derivative. Yes, derivative, but important nonetheless. It is a time of understanding that the alleviation of human suffering can only be achieved by respecting the natural world upon which we all depend for our physical, psychic, and spiritual growth as well as our very survival. No longer do I see the ecological issue as having a specific place on my list of social issues. The real challenge is how the total human adventure with all of its issues can find its place within the larger earth context. I have one anxiety about our Society’s ability to respond creatively to this challenge. It has to do with what is our finest achievement in the human order of things, namely, our prophetic concern for afflicted humanity. This concern can have a dark side. It can blind us to the necessity of establishing an intimate human presence to earth. GC34 in its Decree on Ecolog y has opened us up to this kind of presence, to this more global priority, to this more universal good. The good is that justice for earth and justice for earth’s humans become one justice, not two. The good is the nurturing of a mutually enhancing earth human relationship, a relationship in which earth is foundational and in which we humans, with all our important social issues, are embedded. The fulfillment of the earth-human relationship, the establishment of a harmonious relation between earth and its humans, has become an imperative. It is a defining issue of the 21st century! (Fr. Surette [NEN] is the cofounder and director of Spiritearth, a center for contemplation, reflection, and justice making in the Ecozoic Era.) Books Who Is Jesus? An Introduction to Christology By Thomas P. Rausch SJ The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minn., 2003 232 pp., $23.95, paper ISBN 0-8146-5078-3 The text covers the three quests for the historical Jesus; the methods for retrieving the historical Jesus; the Jewish background, the Jesus movement; his preaching and ministry, death and resurrection; the various New Testament Christologies; and the development of Christological doctrine from the New Testament period to the Council of Chalcedon. Fr. Rausch is professor of theology at Loyola Marymount University. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Scriptural Reflections for Lent By Patrick J. Ryan SJ Paulist Press, New York/Mahwah, NJ, 2004 185 pp., $14.95, paper ISBN 0-8901-4207-4 These reflections on the Lenten liturgical readings arise not only out of study of the scriptural passages but also from the author’s familiarity with the history of religion and his long experience of life in Christian churches both in the U.S. and Africa. Fr. Ryan is the president of Loyola Jesuit College, a secondary school on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria. He has lived in Nigeria and Ghana for more than 20 years. Life’s a Dance, Not a Dress Rehearsal By John G. Sturm SJ Tony Walker Press, Williamsville, N.Y., 2003 113 pp., $29.95, paper ISBN 0-9742327-0-X Fr. Sturm shares insights into his own spiritual journey and encourages others on the same quest. Suggesting the key to life is discovering happiness in one’s self, he writes about willingness to change, to take risks, to re-evaluate daily living values and readjusting beliefs. Fr. Sturm is currently associate pastor of St. Michael’s Parish in Buffalo. `xÜÜç V{Ü|áàÅtá from all of us at National Jesuit News ANNOUNCEMENTS Administrative Coordinator Office of Social and International Ministries Jesuit Conference Washington, D.C. The Jesuit Conference Office of Social and International Ministries [JSIM] seeks an Administrative Coordinator based in Washington, D.C. The mission of JSIM is to support and animate social and international ministries of the Society of Jesus. The Administrative Coordinator facilitates communication and provides support for the 4-5 person JSIM staff, and assists other Jesuit Conference staff with administrative and project needs. For a complete job description, visit our website at www.jesuit.org, and check the job openings section of News and Info. Applicants should have office management experience and strong administrative and organizational skills. Proficiency with Microsoft Office and WordPerfect, as well as use of the Web and the Internet is necessary. Familiarity with the Catholic Church and the Society of Jesus is desirable. Experience with government affairs and / or advocacy organizations is valuable. Foreign language skills, while not necessary, are useful. Competitive salary commensurate with experience and a liberal benefit package are offered. Minorities and women of color are encouraged to apply. Send resume to JSIM, US Jesuit Conference, 1616 P St NW #300, Washington, D.C. 20036 or fax to (202) 328-9212 or email to [email protected]. No phone calls please. EOE M/F/V/H. Outreach Coordinator Office of Social and International Ministries Jesuit Conference Washington, D.C. Three Jesuits arrested at Fort Benning - Three Jesuits, two from the Detroit Province and one from the Chicago Province, were arrested for crossing onto restricted government property during the protest demonstrations at Fort Benning, Ga., on Nov. 23. After his arrest, Fr. Joe Mulligan (DET) posted $1,000 bail and returned to his ministry in Nicaragua. Ben Jimenez (DET) and Mike O’Grady (CHG) refused to post bail and are self-designated “prisoners of conscience” until their trial, which could take place as early as January 26. (Photo by Daniel Hendrickson, SJ) JSIM seeks an Outreach Coordinator. The mission of JSIM is to support and animate the social apostolate in the various educational and pastoral ministries and institutions of the Society of Jesus, as well as in specifically social and international ministry. The Outreach Coordinator facilitates collaboration between the Office and individuals and institutions in the field, developing and implementing creative projects for bringing to bear the varied strengths of Jesuit ministries on social issues and concerns. The position is based in Washington, D.C. and involves travel. For a complete job description, visit our website at www.jesuit.org. Applicants should have at least 3 years in a senior position in an educational or nonprofit organization with demonstrated experience in both organizational development and outreach / capacity building work, including ability to deliver facilitative assistance and training. Strong writing, research and computer skills, including internet and web familiarity, are necessary. Fluency in Spanish, a postgraduate degree and inter- national experience are a plus. Familiarity with the Catholic Social Teaching and the Society of Jesus, and experience in educational institutions, are desirable. Competitive salary commensurate with experience and a liberal benefit package are offered. Minorities and women of color are encouraged to apply. Send resume to JSIM, US Jesuit Conference, 1616 P St NW #300, Washington, D.C. 20036 or fax to (202) 328 9212 or email to [email protected]. No phone calls please. EOE M/F/V/H. Jesuit Retreat Holy Spirit Center Anchorage, Alaska All Jesuits are invited to the Jesuit retreat scheduled for July 22-30, 2004 at Holy Spirit Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Fr. Greg Boyle SJ (CFN), director of Jobs for a Future and Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles will direct the retreat. Cost is $550. For more information contact Noreen Weishaar, Business Manager, Holy Spirit Center, 10980 Hillside Drive, Anchorage, AK 99507, [email protected] or check out the Holy Spirit Center website at: home.gci.net/~hsrh Teaching Pastor and Faculty Member Jesuit School of Theology Berkeley, Calif. JSTB is seeking a Jesuit Teaching Pastor to serve as a member of the faculty and to lead St. Patrick’s parish in Oakland, Calif., which has been affiliated with JSTB as a teaching site for the past four years. Appointed in collaboration with the Diocese of Oakland, the Teaching Pastor’s primary responsibility would be to pastor an African-American and Hispanic inner-city parish, which is a pastoral, immersion-learning situation for ministry students. He would also serve JSTB as a regular, non-tenured faculty member in residence. Although his principal responsibilities would be as pastor, he would also mentor students in parish work and collaborative team ministry, and he would be expected to teach one course each semester at the school in some area of pastoral theology (e.g., Liturgical Presiding, Parish Administration, or Multicultural Ministry). Required qualifications include abilities as a spiritual and community leader, staff developer, administrator, and teacher / mentor. The candidate should likewise give evidence of good pastoral experience in poor, preferably multi-ethnic parishes. A terminal degree is not required, but some familiarity with higher educational institutions would be desirable. Candidates should send appropriate resumes c/o Fr. John Treloar SJ, Academic Dean JSTB, 1735 LeRoy Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709-1193, Tel: 510549-5012 FAX: 510-841-8536; or c/o Fr. David Haschka SJ, Secretary for Pastoral Ministries, Jesuit Conference, 1616 P St. NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036 Tel: 202-462-0400 FAX: 202-328-9212. National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 19 Jesuit Relations A Jesuit Gepetto enraptures audiences across the world “It is my apostolate,” said Sheehy, who would be thrilled if another Jesuit took an interest in writing plays or scenes for his Photo by Julie Bourbon puppets. The action need not always be instructional or allegorical, either, he said. “Sometimes the message is joy.” An artist among his creations, Br. Sheehy presents his wide array of marionettes. 20 National Jesuit News ■ December 2003 / January 2004 Novena of Grace of St Francis Xavier http://www.jesuit.ie/novena A site dedicated to St Francis Xavier, the 16th century Jesuit missionary to the Far East. The novena is actually meant to take place in March, but this Irish Jesuit site offers an excellent introduction to the life of Francis Xavier, a man of his time. Karl Rahner: Foundations of Christian Faith http://www.west.net/~fischer/ Rahner000.htm This epic work of the German Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner, considered by many as the greatest Catholic theologian of the 20th century, is paraphrased on this site. The work is a very important one, but its complex and turgid language makes its ideas difficult to access, which is why the site is useful. 1616 P St. NW, Suite 300 ■ Washington, DC 20036-1420 “It’s amazing that each country would have its own puppetry,” said Sheehy, flipping through one of several photo albums he keeps of his travels. “It’s like drums. Every country has drums.” The photos show a joyful Sheehy and an enraptured audience. Children, it seems, are children everywhere, fascinated by the magic of a puppet on a string. “It’s like Broadway would come into this little village. … It’s quite an experience. They tell me people will be talking about this for months,” said Sheehy, clearly incredulous at the thought. They are not the only ones to feel such excitement. “I’d pinch myself and say this is not Jersey City. Never in my wildest dreams!” The practice of puppetry has applications to everyday life, with Sheehy modestly, unwittingly, tossing off maxims such as “Once you find something worthwhile, then you really have to work on it,” as he practices with one puppet in front of a mirror, or, when animating a particularly complicated hand puppet that holds a stick in each of its tiny fists, “One hand has to help the other.” His is a helping apostolate, visiting schools, nursing homes, retired religious. Once a blind man came to a puppet show; Sheehy let him handle all the puppets afterward. Children at St. Peter’s put on an annual family Mass using the puppets to act out stories of the Prodigal Son or the Good Samaritan. “It is my apostolate,” said Sheehy, who would be thrilled if another Jesuit took an interest in writing plays or scenes for his puppets. The action need not always be instructional or allegorical, either, he said. “Sometimes the message is joy.” In the meantime, he is a man alone with his puppets, performing, creating, entertaining. “Somewhere along the line, getting a little older, a lot older,” he adds with a smile, “you take on sort of a Gepetto mystique. This is me, this is what I do and these are my puppets. It’s not so much wood and glue anymore.” national jesuit news and crafts to the children. There, he had an attic workshop and delighted in the thought of being the only puppeteer he knew with a In Br. Ed Sheehy’s (NYK) office, a fiddler plays on the roof, a graceful rollerblad- studio on Park Avenue. Four years ago, he returned to Jersey er glides by, a trapeze artist performs to the tune of Stars and Stripes Forever, a young City, to St. Peter’s Prep, to a ground floor studio crammed full of Asian woman in traditionstuff: a sewing machine, al dress juggles a ball onto traveling trunks, Styroher head, Mother Teresa “Once you find foam balls that will one counts her rosary beads, and a man carries parcels something worthwhile, day be marionette heads, Superman paraphernalia home from the market. Once a baker of bread, then you really have to (he’s a big fan), swatches fabric to make cosshaping loaves, Sheehy now work on it... One hand of tumes, books on puppets shapes wood and cloth into and dolls. He has also puppets that teach and has to help the other.” dabbled in painting and entertain around the world, sculpture, and at holiday from Guyana to Jersey City. “I haven’t baked in 40 years,” said Shee- time, the school uses an ever-expanding hy, 70, dimpled, balding, with hands that crèche he built his first year back. In that crowded studio, and in places come fully alive when they are animating a Ukrainian hand puppet or lovingly work- like Central Park, where Sheehy can just ing the strings of a handcrafted marionette. observe people being people, Sheehy comes In 1970, he went to Universal Studios and up with his ideas. His puppets are invested saw his first puppet show; today, he has with humanity and move like people move dozens of string, rod and hand puppets that – walking, taking a rest, breathing, doing take up all of his time. “The rest of my life, double takes, hiking up their pant legs before sitting. “These are the things that I’m never going to have enough puppets.” Fifty-two years ago, Sheehy left the St. make a puppet real,” said Sheehy. He has dozens of marionettes. The fidPeter’s schoolyard in Jersey City with a Jesuit brother, bound for Grand Central Station. dler on the roof, the oldest member of his A second brother accompanied him to troupe, is in its fifth incarnation, the first Poughkeepsie, to the novitiate at St. four worn out by frequent use. The pupAndrew’s on Hudson, now the Culinary pets have been around the world with Institute of America. With a wink and a Sheehy, to Micronesia, Guyana, Indonenod, Sheehy will happily (and honestly) tell sia and Nigeria, where they put on shows you he used to bake bread and decorate for local audiences. The trips have afforded him a unique chance not only to percakes at the CIA. He also coached sports at St. Ignatius form his ministry in other cultures, but School in New York City, and after his intro- also to learn about their puppetry tradiduction to puppetry, began teaching arts tions. By Julie Bourbon
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