Barry Hudock's Blog, page 16

On flawed saints

Plain-spoken wisdom from one of my favorite Catholic bloggers yesterday:

Not that canonization is an endorsement of everything the saint ever did. As Fr Benedict [Groeschel] once said “You can go to hell imitating the vices of the saints.” As for me, flawed saints are proof that God sets a pretty low standard, and salvation is near-universal. Asshole saints (not that John or John Paul are remotely assholes) are a sign of hope.

Caelum et Terra is worth regular visits.

John Paul II and John XXIII posts and articles: oldies but goodies

In honor of this weekend’s canonization, here are some my past posts and articles on these two greats.

On Pope St. John XXIII:

Martin de Porres: patron of social justice (canonized by J23)

50 years ago today: Vatican II begins

My Our Sunday Visitor article on the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Pacem in Terris

The social teaching of St. John XXIII

On Pope St. John Paul II:

Redemptoris Mater, 25 years on

My Commonweal article “True Then, Truer Now: Sollicitudo Rei Socialis Turns Twenty-Five” (subscription only)

Has Jesus been “locked inside the Church and knocking because he wants to get out”?

“The book of nature is one and indivisible”: The popes, abortion, and Catholic social teaching

John Paul II on Eucharist and social justice

The social teaching of St. John Paul II

Canonizing John XXIII: “In fifty years’ time it will be too late”

Now here’s an interesting passage I came across today while checking for something else in Yves Congar’s Vatican II journals.

In his entry for October 2, 1964, Fr. Congar refers to the suggestion made by several bishops at the Council, including the great Belgian Cardinal Suenens, soon after the death of Pope John XXIII, that he be canonized a saint by popular acclamation — such as was done in the early days of the Church — rather than waiting for the formal process to happen. (A proposal advocating the move was circulated among the bishops at the Council, but Pope Paul VI preferred for the normal process to be followed and paired Pope John’s cause with that of his predecessor Pope Pius XII.)

Congar reports in his journal a car ride he shared with Suenens, in which the topic of the hoped-for canonization of Pope John by popular acclamation came up. He wrote, “He [Suenens] thinks that such a canonisation would find a very great echo in the world. But in fifty years’ time it will be too late.”

Here we are — almost precisely fifty years after Congar wrote those words on Suenens’ thinking – preparing for the canonization of John XXIII this Sunday. Obviously, Congar does not specify what Suenens meant by it being “too late.” But it’s worth surmising, and asking: was Suenens right?

Two new saints — four new articles

Our Sunday Visitor has published a special supplement of their April 27, 2014, issue, marking the canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. Four of the articles in the supplement are written by yours truly, and each is available online. They are (with a snippet from each):

“Cut from the Same Cloth”

With the April 27 dual canonizations of Popes St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II, much has been made of the differences between the two pontiffs. But the two have plenty in common — even beyond the obvious and most important connections of the Catholic Faith they both embraced and the important role they both played at the helm of the universal Church. Here are a few interesting things they share.

“The Legacy of St. John XXIII”

His work was marked by an openness to the positive aspects of modern society and an optimism about people and circumstances. He was convinced that condemning errors was less effective in the proclamation of the Gospel than dispensing what he called “the medicine of mercy.”

“The Legacy of St. John Paul II”

Pope St. John Paul II reminded the Church of its central mission: the proclamation of Jesus Christ to the world. From his very first encyclical letter in which he proclaimed Jesus as “the center of the universe and of history,” John Paul produced a massive amount of documents, speeches and books marked by the centrality of Jesus and the redemption he won for humanity.

“Beloved Popes Inspired Generations of Priests”

With the canonizations of Pope Sts. John XXIII and John Paul II, legions of Catholic priests will delight in the moment. Certainly, many lay and religious men and women also hold these two spiritual leaders in high esteem. But so many priests who prepared for ministry and were ordained during their remarkable pontificates look in a special way to one or the other as a lasting inspiration and model, giving us the “John XXIII generation” and “John Paul II generation” of priests.

There are plenty of other good canonization-related articles by other writers in this issue of OSV, too. I was especially taken by the insightful observations of the issue’s editorial, “The Mercy Popes.”

Enjoy!

The Triduum and Justice

The Easter Triduum, the high point of the liturgical year, is full of lessons on how we might “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8).

So says Mike Jordan Laskey, director of Life & Justice Ministries for the Diocese of Camden and of the blog, The Ampersand (which is worth frequent visits, by the way). Check out Mike’s fine post, “The Easter Triduum’s Justice Lessons” as we roll into these most sacred and beautiful days.

The social teaching of St. John Paul II

The other day I looked at the contributions of St. John XXIII to Catholic social teaching. Today we turn to St. John Paul II.

Over his 27 years as Bishop of Rome, Pope John Paul II published three major social encyclicals and two more that had major implications for Catholic social teaching.

Laborem Exercens, On Human Work (1981), offers a positive vision of work, asserting that the work that people do on a daily basis is a way of sharing in the creative work of God in the world. We become who we are largely through the work we do, the Pope said, putting him in close conversation with Karl Marx and making clear that by “work” he means not just paid employment (as Marx did), but other activities like taking care of one’s family and participation in community organizations.

The encyclical offered a ringing affirmation of the universal destination of goods, the principle of Catholic social teaching that says that the right to private property is not “absolute and untouchable” because the goods of the earth are meant for everyone. John Paul II insisted on the right to a “family wage” – wages that allow one breadwinner to support a family, as well as grants to mothers who do the important work of staying home to raise children.

Following LE’s publication, theologian Gregory Baum called the encyclical “a daring undertaking” that “raise[d] the Church’s social message to an unprecedented height.” Others, though, criticized its call for a family wage and family grants as a not so subtle means of keeping women at home and out of the workplace.

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, On Social Concerns (1987) was primarily about human development, marking the twentieth anniversary of Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI’s landmark encyclical on the same topic. (The Pope’s choice to mark the anniversary of an earlier social encyclical other than Rerum Novarum – the landmark encyclical of Pope Leo XIII that marks the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching – was itself unusual. Pope Benedict would later repeat the move by marking a Popularum Progressio anniversary with his own encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.)

John Paul II was very critical in SRS of the growing gap between rich and poor nations, and also between rich and poor people within individual nations. He criticized the consumerism and “superdevelopment” common to western nations like the United States. The encyclical was also the first to address the issue of ecology is a serious way.

John Paul drew attention to structures of sin, our society’s institutions, laws, and cultural attitudes that reinforce sin and injustice. He also emphasized in a significant way the virtue of solidarity, the principle of Catholic social teaching that insists on our moral responsibility for one another and for the common good. In both of these ways, the encyclical shows the marks the integration of fundamental aspects of liberation theology into the formal teaching of the Church.

Centessimus Annus, On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum (1991), marked the centennial of the publication of Rerum Novarum. The anniversary happened to fall soon after the historic collapse of the Communist empire in the revolutions of 1989 and 1990. Though it was perhaps unsurprising that this development was very much on the Pope’s mind, given his Polish roots and his own role in bringing it about, many criticized CA for the decidedly Eurocentric vision that resulted from the text’s preoccupation with the events.

In his encyclical, John Paul II assessed free markets and capitalism in these new global circumstances. He acknowledged the positive aspects of the free market, such as freedom and prosperity, as well as its negative aspects, including exploitation of workers and structures that oppress the poor. The pope again insisted upon the relative nature of the right to private property, teaching that to keep the goods of the earth from those in dire need is the same as stealing from them. The morality of markets, he said, must be assessed in light of such principles, and these markets must be limited by laws that protect the dignity of all.

In addition to these three encyclicals, two other major documents from John Paul II also made significant contributions to the church’s social teaching, though neither is typically included in standard lists of “social encyclicals.” In his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio, On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World (1981), Pope John Paul spoke of families as “domestic churches” and insisted that work on behalf of social justice and the common good were central aspects of the mission of the Christian family in society.

In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life (1995), John Paul clearly made the church’s opposition to abortion part of its social teaching. Invoking this venerable tradition, he wrote, “Just as a century ago it was the working classes which were oppressed in their fundamental rights, and the Church very courageously came to their defense by proclaiming the sacrosanct rights of the worker as a person, so now, when another category of persons is being oppressed in the fundamental right to life, the Church feels in duty bound to speak out with the same courage on behalf of those who have no voice. Hers is always the evangelical cry in defense of the world’s poor, those who are threatened and despised and whose human rights are violated.”

The contributions to Catholic social teaching by the church’s two newest saints – Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II – are major aspects of the legacy they leave and the challenge they offer us today.

The social teaching of St. John XXIII

As the canonizations of Pope John XXIII and John Paul II approach — Pope Francis will canonize them both on April 27 –  some commentators have chosen to emphasize significant differences between the two men (and there are those, to be sure). One compelling aspect that both pontificates have in common is that each made historic contributions to the social teaching of the Church. This is part of the legacy of both popes that has and will continue to impact both the doctrine and the social ministry of the Church for decades, and probably centuries, to come.

I’d like to offer just a brief overview of the contributions that each made to this teaching. Since today is the fifty-first anniversary of Pacem in Terris (promulgated on April 11, 1963), which is a remarkable contribution of John XXIII to Catholic social teaching, it’s a good day to look at his work. We’ll consider the work of John Paul II on the topic in another post over the next few days.

Pope John XXIII offered two historic social encyclicals during his five-year pontificate.

Mater et Magistra, On Christianity and Social Progress (1961), published on the 70th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, is a good example of Pope John’s conviction that Christians must be engaged with the world, not separated from it.

MeM was the first papal encyclical to direct attention to issues related to the economic development of poorer nations. It took the church even farther along its path away from the socially “conservative” institutions and ideas with which it had generally aligned itself previously and placed it more clearly on the side of policies and reforms that favored the poor.

Pope John voiced strong support for government involvement in issues like unemployment, rejected economics based on self-interest and unregulated competition, and called for respect for the right of workers to just wages and to a share in the wealth generated by the corporations that employed them. Elements like these in John’s encyclical spurred the popular conservative political journal, National Review, under the leadership of its Catholic editor William F. Buckley, Jr., famously noted: “Going the rounds in Catholic conservative circles: ‘Mater si, Magistra no.’” (And voilà, Cafeteria Catholicism was born!)

Pope John himself, on the other hand, considered the encyclical an important accomplishment. Rereading the text a few months after its publication, John wrote with satisfaction in his personal diary that it was “a great gesture of my humble pontificate.”

Pacem in Terris, Peace on Earth (1963) has been called (by the historian/theologian Alberto Melloni) the “peak and summit” of the teaching of Pope John XXIII. Its fundamental message is that international peace comes through respect for the human rights of all. Among these rights, Pope John included the right to life, food, shelter, medical care, freedom of speech, work, and a proper wage. He insisted that such rights are universal, inviolable, and inalienable, but also emphasized the importance of recognizing the duties than come alongside rights.

The encyclical came in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which Pope John had played an important role in resolving. When the Pope found out just a few weeks after the crisis that he was dying of cancer, he resolved to offer the world a strong and final statement about peacemaking, despite the fact that this meant, unusually, publishing an encyclical even as the Second Vatican Council was in process. The fact that he was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year just months before the encyclical’s publication surely lent further credibility to his voice.

This encyclical remains today the most exhaustive and authoritative statement of the Catholic Church’s teaching on human rights. It has fueled Catholic activism in human rights ever since, by believers all over the globe (not least of all, the efforts of John Paul II that made the Vatican a world leader in the promotion of human rights). This is all the more remarkable since the encyclical marked a notable departure from previous Catholic ambivalence toward individual rights and democracy that was often justified by a philosophy of “error has no rights.”

Last year, Our Sunday Visitor published an article I wrote marking the fiftieth anniversary of Pacem in Terris. You can find that here.

Finally, if we’re talking about Pope John’s contributions to Catholic social teaching, we’d be missing an important point not to mention Vatican II. He called this historic council and provided it with its spirit and vision. That spirit and vision led to further important steps in the Church’s social teaching, most clearly seen in the Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World and its Declaration on Religious Freedom.

 

 

Excellence in Catholic Publishing finalist!

Faith Meets World: The Gift and Challenge of Catholic Social Teaching is a finalist for a 2014 Excellence in Catholic Publishing Award! These are awarded annually by the Association of Catholic Publishers.

Faith Meets World is a finalist in the “General Interest” category. Winners will be announced next month.

My thanks to the ACP, and also to the good folks at Liguori for submitting the book to the awards. More information on the awards and the other impressive finalist books here.

“Blood on his hands”: Don Blankenship

Overlooking Williamson, West Virginia – the Mingo County seat and the town I called home for two years – there is a tall house built in the middle of a bald spot at the top of an otherwise forest-covered mountain. From almost anywhere in town you can look up and see that house, and the house surely affords a complete, nearly map-like view of the entire region. From our first days in Williamson, well before we knew who lived there, my kids took to calling that house “the castle.”

“The castle,” it turned out, belonged to Don Blankenship, a name that we would come to know well. You don’t live in central Appalachia without knowing it well. Until very recently, Blankenship was the CEO of the largest coal company of the region, Massey Energy, and one of the most powerful people in central Appalachian business and politics. Vanity Fair once called Blankenship “the Snidely Whiplash of coal, a larger-than-life figure so swaggering and creepy that his each next outrageous claim as chairman and C.E.O. of Massey Energy makes wonderful copy.”

One thing you have to understand is that coal is just about the only source of real jobs in Mingo County. If you don’t work in coal — or, if you’re lucky, in one of the tiny schools or hospitals of the area — you’re probably not making a living (and many, many people are not). There are several — though fewer all the time — coal companies in the area, but the titan among them was Massey. And Blankenship was the very prominent, very powerful face of Massey. Living up at the top of that hill, Blankenship was regarded among many local people as a sort of heavy-handed but benevolent Santa Claus, and by a few as a malevolent overlord. Like him or not, though, you knew he held the county in the palm of his hand.

Blankenship was responsible for crippling the United Mine Workers union in central Appalachia in the 1980s. More recently, he has been the most prominent and vocal defender of mountaintop removal mining (by which the coal is extracted from a mountain not by digging into it, but by blasting the top off of it). He was caught vacationing on the French Riviera with a WV Supreme Court justice who was in the midst of deciding a major suit against his company.

Finally, as Massey CEO, Blankenship presided over the most horrific mine disaster in living memory, the fourth anniversary of which fell this weekend. It happened on April 5, 2010, at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County, WV, killing 29 miners.

I was living in Mingo County at the time, and I remember the day (it was the day after Easter) well. I remember the fear and the discouragement and the heartbreak that gripped the region that day and those that followed.

What we did not know in those first awful days that we know now is that the Upper Big Branch disaster was the result of a reckless approach to safety practices in the name of maximizing profits. This is the conclusion of a federal report on the matter, and Laurence Leamer’s fascinating book, The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption, makes clear that the impetus for that business culture came directly from Blankenship himself. Indeed, the same practices led to an earlier accident at Massey’s Aracoma mine in 2006, which killed two men (10 others barely escaped with their lives), and also to Massey’s pumping billions of gallons of toxic material into the water supplies of thousands of West Virginians over a period of many years.

As it tottered under the weight of multiple law suits brought on by all of this, Massey Energy was purchased by one of its competitors, Alpha Resources, in 2011, just before Blankenship took a multi-million-dollar retirement package and moved to Las Vegas (though I believe the house on the hill over Williamson still belongs to him).

Now I see that Blankenship has produced his own little documentary defending himself. There’s also an ABC News report on the still incomplete federal criminal investigation. (The video at the link there is worth a look.)  Most striking is the comment from WV Senator Joe Manchin: “I believe that Don has blood on his hands. And I believe that justice will be done.”

This is interesting to the casual observer, I suppose, but if you’ve lived in coal country over the past two or three decades and known first hand the way Blankenship has dominated the economy, culture, and even the mythology of the place, it’s a stunning couple of sentences to read.

Pope to Curia on Evangelii Gaudium: I wasn’t kidding, gentlemen

From Catholic News Service yesterday:

Pope asks Curia to find ways to implement ‘Joy of the Gospel’ in its work

by Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis called together the heads of all Vatican offices to discuss how they could integrate into their work the teaching of the apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”). The Vatican said the meeting, held April 1 inside the Apostolic Palace, lasted two and a half hours.

Full story here.