Slaves in Paradise: A Priest Stands Up for Exploited Sugarcane Workers

Slaves in Paradise: A Priest Stands Up for Exploited Sugarcane Workers.  By Jesús García, Ignatius Press, 2017.

 

Slaves in Paradise is the story of a priest who was compelled to follow his calling to care for some of the poorest and most exploited people in the world.  This overview of the career and outreach of Father Christopher Hartley is at times a grueling read due to the often-heartbreaking subject matter, but it is always compelling and serves as a reminder of the need for preaching the Gospel all over the world, and for the need for justice to help people who are being exploited by powerful forces.  

 

In the Foreword to the English Edition, Seán Patrick Cardinal O’Malley writes:

 

“Father Christopher Hartley and I first met many years ago when he was working in New York City, and what impressed me most about him was his missionary zeal and his priestly spirit.  I was acquainted with a little bit of his history, namely his desire to be helpful to Mother Teresa in her ministry, his generosity in serving the Hispanic population of the United States, and his desire to become a missionary to those on the peripheries, those who are often forgotten and neglected.

 

This desire to become a missionary led him to accept the Lord’s invitation to bring God’s love and salvation to the Haitian and Dominican people in the Dominican Republic.  His experience in the Dominican Republic with the exploitation of Haitian workers hard a very profound effect on Father Hartley, and his witness to the world helped to raise consciousness about the suffering and the injustices they endured on the sugarcane plantations of San José de los Llanos.  Like so many migrants in this century, the Haitians who left their country in search of paradise were actually fleeing extreme poverty, and they found themselves living in a new land, in search of a better life, as cutters of sugarcane.  The pages that follow are a witness to Father Hartley’s experiences as a missionary working among these poorest of the poor.  

 

Unfortunately his prophetic voice did not elicit the supportive response that we would have hoped for within the Church in Santo Domingo, and so Father Hartley had to leave his beloved ministry there.  But following the gospel injunction, he shook the dust from his sandals and went to another mission to continue to announce the joy and the liberation of Christ.  He is now in a very remote part of Ethiopia, ministering to God’s people and witnessing to the presence of the gospel in a heavily Muslim population.”

 

This history of Father Hartley’s work in the Dominican Republic is a scathing exposé of the abuses of the sugarcane industry, an unnerving social portrait of a society that is wracked with poverty and abuse yet still hungers for spiritual nourishment.  Father Hartley’s missionary work led him to discover people who had been compelled to flee their native Haiti to the bordering Dominican Republic.  Across the border, they found racism, squalid conditions, and the continuing oppression of wealthy and influential forces against the people who struggled in the cane fields.

 

In the Foreword to the Spanish Edition, Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera writes:

 

“Unquestionably, the principal figure in this story is not Father Christopher Hartley so much as it is God.  In effect, this account is akin to the Acts of the Apostles: the protagonist is God, who has vouchsafed for the benefit of all mankind his mercy, his immense love, and the grace he has poured out and spread all over the world through the apostles, which we see in what God has done through this priest, this missionary, in the sugarcane plantations of the Dominican Republic.

 

Anyone who reads this book will not find a superhero here in Christopher, my good and dear friend and brother.  He will find no more than a man of God– a faithful and reliable subject and servant of the Lord– who with deep sincerity seeks nothing more than to fulfill the Lord’s will: to affirm that the neediest of men, poor and suffering, share in his infinite loving-kindness, his eternal mercy, his extreme closeness, that they may share in his salvation, which is of the whole person and resides only in that union with the Lord.  Every page of this book attests to God’s love for and his salvation of the Dominicans and the Haitians in the bateyes [small villages populated by Haitian migrant laborers] of the sugarcane plantations of San José de los Llanos (Saint Joseph of the Plains).”

 

What separates Slaves in Paradise from other books that reveal horrific social injustices is its constant stress on the spiritual lives of its subjects.  Father Hartley is shocked by the paucity of venues for Catholics in some areas of the Dominican Republic.  Father Hartley found it necessary to build little chapels, and was amazed at the distances some people would travel in order to attend Mass.  The exuberance with which many people pursue their religious faith is inspiring, especially when compared with the fact that so many of these people have so little in the way of material possessions.  A secular book would have stressed that the sugarcane workers needed better pay and housing and care.  Father Hartley insists that all of those things are absolutely necessary and that the laborers deserve them, but also points out that Jesus provides an additional form of sustenance that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Father Hartley is disgusted by many people, including missionaries from other denominations that give out food only if the recipients attend their religious services.

 

Father Hartley was extremely outspoken in his attacks on the wealthy and powerful who profited from the horrific conditions in the sugarcane fields, and not surprisingly it earned him enemies.  After continued pressure and threats, Father Hartley was compelled to leave the Dominican Republic and attempt to save souls elsewhere in the world.

 

At the end of the book, Jesús García notes that despite Father Hartley’s efforts, very little has changed in the sugar industry. 

 

“I find it odd to think, as I am finishing the book, that there should be a tremendous uproar right now, in the U.S. State and Labor Departments, regarding some sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic.  It moves me deeply that thousands of men should have woken up with machete in hand this morning, and with nothing to wat, to cut tons of sugarcane for which they will receive just pennies while we in the West keep consuming that sugar, in practically every product we buy, unaware that in other parts of the world that sugar is bitter and red, not sweet and white.

 

It surprises me that somewhere in the Ethiopian desert, near the border with Somalia, a hurricane dressed as a missionary stays calm, having made peace with himself and with those who, at times, succeeded in upsetting him.  It is unmistakable proof that God calms everything, as he did the storm in the Gospel, and it is an echo of the gospel of Jesus Christ that this book aspires to be, in the people and circumstances that shape it.

 

To conclude, it is a blessing and a consolation to think that, all in all, those who have faith in God remain undisturbed in the face of the storm, firmly planted on the rock and looking to the future, having experienced so much, but as if nothing had happened.”

 

The conditions in the book are heartwrenching, and the fact that justice seems to be unobtainable is frustrating.  Not everybody is cut out for the kind of missionary work that Father Hartley has devoted his life to, but books like this inspire a need to do something to help the less fortunate around the world.  In the United States, it is disturbingly easy to overlook one’s blessings in a land of plenty, including the freedom of religion.  Chesterton once wrote of certain people who prefer that they milk “come from a nice clean shop and not from a dirty cow.”  After reading Slaves in Paradise, it will be impossible to forget that the sugar that comes in nice clean bags also comes from very dirty cane fields.

 

 

–Chris Chan

The Ball and the Cross & Freud’s Last Session

The Ball and the Cross.  By G.K. Chesterton, originally published in 1909.

 

Freud’s Last Session.  By Mark St. Germain, Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 2010.

 

“Debates” about the clash between religion and atheism are rarely developed well in literature and drama.  Such presentations tend to be ham-fisted and are often slanted one way or the other.  Either the character(s) representing religion are plaster saints or pious fools, and the debates over big issues are often shallow and devoid of nuance and deep understanding of important issues. 

 

Just because it’s difficult to handle such subject matter well, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be done in an interesting an entertaining manner.  This review will address two creative works that address the clash between religion and atheism with style, wit, and intelligence.  The first is a novel– G.K. Chesterton’s The Ball and the Cross, and Mark St. Germain’s play Freud’s Last Session.  

 

Chesterton’s The Ball and the Cross is the story of two men, McIan, a staunch Catholic, and Turnbull, a public atheist running a periodical promoting secularism.  Insulted by Turnbull’s treatment of the Virgin Mary, McIan challenges Turnbull to a duel.  The two of them attempt to fight on multiple occasions, but they are always interrupted by people with different opinions on life and the world.  The two men criss-cross the country, debating and arguing all the way, though never getting the chance to turn their swords against each other.  Eventually, the pair are compelled to join forces in order to defeat a threat that could destroy England.

 

In one passage, the two men reflect upon their complicated intellectual sparring and how their understanding of each other’s perspectives has developed in the light of listening to each other’s ideas:

 

“MacIan leant his white and rather weary face back upon the cushions in order to speak up through the open door.

 

“Mr. Turnbull,” he said, “I have nothing to add to what I have said before. It is strongly borne in upon me that you and I, the sole occupants of this runaway cab, are at this moment the two most important people in London, possibly in Europe. I have been looking at all the streets as we went past, I have been looking at all the shops as we went past, I have been looking at all the churches as we went past. At first, I felt a little dazed with the vastness of it all. I could not understand what it all meant. But now I know exactly what it all means. It means us. This whole civilization is only a dream. You and I are the realities.”

 

“Religious symbolism,” said Mr. Turnbull, through the trap, “does not, as you are probably aware, appeal ordinarily to thinkers of the school to which I belong. But in symbolism as you use it in this instance, I must, I think, concede a certain truth. We must fight this thing out somewhere; because, as you truly say, we have found each other’s reality. We must kill each other—or convert each other. I used to think all Christians were hypocrites, and I felt quite mildly towards them really. But I know you are sincere—and my soul is mad against you. In the same way you used, I suppose, to think that all atheists thought atheism would leave them free for immorality—and yet in your heart you tolerated them entirely. Now you know that I am an honest man, and you are mad against me, as I am against you. Yes, that’s it. You can’t be angry with bad men. But a good man in the wrong—why one thirsts for his blood. Yes, you open for me a vista of thought.”

 

The title The Ball and the Cross comes from the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, where a cross stands on top of a ball.  In the opening scenes, one character compares the ball to the world and the cross to religion, and states that the positions of the symbols ought to be reversed to illustrate the importance of secular concerns over supernatural ones.  His debating partner, a monk, points out that if the cross were below the ball, then the pair of stacked symbols would come tumbling down due to the imbalance.

 

As the two characters develop a grudging friendship, the two of them begin to gain a deeper understanding of their own beliefs, and gradually conclude that their own honest and passionate worldviews are more important than the wishy-washy beliefs of people who are too wrapped up with their worldly concerns to give the idea of God’s existence a thought.

 

“He [McIan] stopped again, and went on with the same air of travailing with the truth:

 

“When I saw that, I saw everything; I saw the Church and the world. The Church in its earthly action has really touched morbid things—tortures and bleeding visions and blasts of extermination. The Church has had her madnesses, and I am one of them. I am the massacre of St. Bartholomew. I am the Inquisition of Spain. I do not say that we have never gone mad, but I say that we are fit to act as keepers to our enemies. Massacre is wicked even with a provocation, as in the Bartholomew. But your modern Nietzsche will tell you that massacre would be glorious without a provocation. Torture should be violently stopped, though the Church is doing it. But your modern Tolstoy will tell you that it ought not to be violently stopped whoever is doing it. In the long run, which is most mad—the Church or the world? Which is madder, the Spanish priest who permitted tyranny, or the Prussian sophist who admired it? Which is madder, the Russian priest who discourages righteous rebellion, or the Russian novelist who forbids it? That is the final and blasting test. The world left to itself grows wilder than any creed. A few days ago you and I were the maddest people in England. Now, by God! I believe we are the sanest. That is the only real question—whether the Church is really madder than the world. Let the rationalists run their own race, and let us see where they end. If the world has some healthy balance other than God, let the world find it. Does the world find it? Cut the world loose,” he cried with a savage gesture. “Does the world stand on its own end? Does it stand, or does it stagger?”…

 

 “The world has gone mad,” said MacIan, “and it has gone mad about Us. The world takes the trouble to make a big mistake about every little mistake made by the Church. That is why they have turned ten counties to a madhouse; that is why crowds of kindly people are poured into this filthy melting-pot. Now is the judgement of this world. The Prince of this World is judged, and he is judged exactly because he is judging. There is at last one simple solution to the quarrel between the ball and the cross——”

 

Turnbull for the first time started.

 

“The ball and——” he repeated.

 

“What is the matter with you?” asked MacIan.

“I had a dream,” said Turnbull, thickly and obscurely, “in which I saw the cross struck crooked and the ball secure——”

 

“I had a dream,” said MacIan, “in which I saw the cross erect and the ball invisible. They were both dreams from hell. There must be some round earth to plant the cross upon. But here is the awful difference—that the round world will not consent even to continue round. The astronomers are always telling us that it is shaped like an orange, or like an egg, or like a German sausage. They beat the old world about like a bladder and thump it into a thousand shapeless shapes. Turnbull, we cannot trust the ball to be always a ball; we cannot trust reason to be reasonable. In the end the great terrestrial globe will go quite lop-sided, and only the cross will stand upright.”

 

In comparison, Freud’s Last Session is an imagined conversation between two real-life figures. While there is no proof that Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis ever met, there is a possibility that their paths might have crossed at some point after Freud fled for London in order to escape from the Nazis.  In this play, Freud’s atheistic worldview clashes with Lewis’s Christianity, and throughout their conversation, we learn about their lives and beliefs.

 

The play is set on September 3, 1939, in Freud’s study in London.  Freud is 83 and Lewis is 40.  Freud’s invitation to meet Lewis soon branches into a full-fledged, emotional debate, as both men’s biographical details blend with insight as to the nature of belief and reason, all set to the backdrop of the looming Second World War.

 

While Chesterton’s work clearly tips the scales towards religion at the end, Freud’s Last Session doesn’t take a side.  However, McIan, Turnbull, Freud, and Lewis are all portrayed as decent, intelligent, and honorable men.  Both sides of the debate are presented in fair, interesting, and intelligent manners, by exploring why people may believe or disbelieve, Chesterton and St. Germain create powerful and compelling works.

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

The Lion of Münster & The Cardinal Müller Report

The Lion of Münster: The Bishop Who Roared Against the Nazis.  By Daniel Utrecht, TAN Books, 2016.

 

The Cardinal Müller Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church.  By Gerhard Cardinal Müller with Father Carlos Granados, translated by Richard Goodyear, Ignatius Press, 2017.

 

This review will cover two recent works about two prominent members of the Church hierarchy.  In The Lion of Münster: The Bishop Who Roared Against the Nazis, the life and career of Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen, a churchman who openly spoke out about Hitler’s policies and politics, and galvanized many members of his flock as well.  The Cardinal Müller Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church looks at a contemporary and prominent figure in the Church, as Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, explains Church teachings and the pressing moral and ethical issues of our time.

 

The Lion of Münster opens with a summary of Bishop von Galen’s early life, and then quickly moves to the Bishop’s open condemnation of various policies, ranging from attacking Nazis who euthanized the sick and weak, to denouncing eugenicist racial policies:

 

“From the beginning of his time as bishop, shortly after Hitler took power, Clemens August von Galen had attacked the Nazi racial theories.  In the middle of 1941, when Germany’s war successes were at their height, he openly reprimanded the Gestapo for confiscating the houses of religious orders.  He had denounced the secret practice of deliberately putting sick and disabled people to death and, it seemed, had an influence in stopping it.”

 

Many historians and pundits have attacked the Church for remaining silent during WWII, but the work of recent historians has largely contradicted that view, refining certain allegations and outright contradicting others.  Several of these works have been addressed in recent reviews, such as Catholics Confronting Hitler and A Man for Others (both November, 2016), and Church of Spies (November, 2015).  In The Lion of Münster, the bishop explains why he was open and direct about his attacks on Hitler and all of the Nazi regime’s policies that contradicted Church doctrine.

 

“The dear God placed me in a position in which I had a duty to call black “black” and white “white”… I knew that many suffered more, much more than I personally had to suffer, from the attacks on truth and justice that we experienced.  They could not speak.  They could only suffer… But it was my right and my duty to speak, and I spoke… and God gave it His blessing.  And your love and your loyalty, my dear diocesans, also kept far from me what might have been my fate, but also might have been my greatest reward, the crown of martyrdom.”

 

Throughout the book, Bishop von Galen approaches his advocacy as a critical moral issue, and notes that this was a particularly dangerous and inflammatory time.  Politics and passions ran high, and making statements could have all sorts of repercussions, but failing to speak out would have even more dire consequences.

 

“For von Galen, this false theory of the unlimited power of the state was the sources of all the inner struggles that had kept Germany from developing a true sense of community.  The correct order of self-love was not respected, and so egoism ruled in its place.  Brother mistrusted brother; neighbor mistrusted neighbor.  Each one sought to win the majority to his side, in order to use the power of the state to defend his own interests by attacking the rights and freedoms of the other.  Might makes right is the motto of the modern state, according to von Galen.  Why should it not be the motto of private life as well?  People ask themselves, “If the might of the state, today the might of the majority, really makes right, then why only this might?  Why not also the might of the stronger fist, why not the might of money, why not the might of craftiness and clever business dealings?  The destruction that is introduced into the community by the working out of this fundamental principle should open people’s eyes to the destructiveness of this principle itself,” von Galen argued.  But in fact, he saw something else happening.  If the state is the creator of all rights and the all-powerful lord of all rights, then, many concluded, their rights and freedoms would be secure only if they themselves were the holders of state power.”

 

As a historian, one of the most fascinating aspects of the book was at the very end, where after the manuscript was completed, Utrecht discovered another historian’s work on the Holocaust, and Bishop von Galen was cited as having made some comments that clash very directly with Utrecht’s heroic depiction of the man.  Utrecht did a lot more research, and discovered that the document discovered in the other historian’s work was a forgery, circulated during the war in an attempt to discredit him.  This appendix is incredibly interesting, because it reveals how falsehoods can be spread through tainted evidence, and just how much thorough research goes into confirming or debunking evidence.

 

While The Lion of Münster is a work of history, The Cardinal Müller Report is more like a dialogue, where questions about Church teachings, culture, and the reasoning behind various Church decisions are addressed.

 

In his introduction, Father Granados writes that,

 

“Cardinal Müller’s tone is direct and frank.  He does not shrink from addressing the most sensitive questions.  He might sometimes make a joke and then add, in a conciliatory tone: “We had better not include that in the interview.”  He does not at all fit the stereotype– formal, diplomatic, cold, calculating– of a member of the Curia.  He sometimes takes his time in answering; a silence falls in which the interviewer considers asking another question.  But it quickly becomes apparent that he is thinking.  His conversation flows calmly and firmly.  He knows from the beginning where he wants to end up.  In addition to being the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Müller is one of the most outstanding figures in theology today.  As a theologian, he is a believer who strives to give God’s answers to men’s questions.  As the Prefect of the Faith. He has a privileged perspective on the circumstances. The horizons, and the questions that open up before us.

 

But what questions do our contemporaries have?  What answer do they demand from the believer?  People today do not see their lack of faith as a tragedy, but what does worry them profoundly is their lack of hope, for which– making matters worse– they try to make up with substitutes like optimism.  The key question, therefore, is one of hope.  And our contemporaries wonder whether there is hope for the “now,” they wonder whether they can find it in Christianity– and they wonder, above all: What is the foundation of Christian hope?”

 

There is no straight narrative to the book.  It’s more of a question-and-answer dialogue, with a special stress on what it means to live morally, to make the most out of one’s life in a spiritual and ethical manner, and how to improve the world.  In his opening chapter, “A Report on Hope,” the Cardinal writes:

 

“Man is always striving toward the future, imagining it, planning for it, dreaming about it… Life always holds the promise of the new and appealing, as we hope to find something different and great that will enable us to grow as a person.  Yet the future is the realm of the unknown, too, and it harbors threats that awaken fear.  Hope is precisely what enables us to move toward the future, placing our trust in the buds that are the harbingers of the plenty we long for and that, in addition, enable us to conquer our fears.

 

There are spheres of human life that engender what we can call “natural” hopes.  Consider the experience of love, which always carriers a promise of eternity and enables the lovers to imagine a future full of new possibilities.  Or consider the child who, just by being born, opens new horizons to his parents and society, lengthening their perspective on the future.”

 

Both of these books have a central question at the center– what does it take to stand up for one’s principles in the face of a hostile culture?  What consequences come from ignoring one’s moral and spiritual duties?  Through history and theology, these books pursue what it means to live out one’s faith.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Saint Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love

Saint Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love.  By Fr. Sean Davidson, Ignatius Press, 2017.

 

Who is Saint Mary Magdalene?  While most people have heard of her, the old adage about “what they think they know just isn’t so” is definitely in play here.  As Fr. Sean Davidson’s book Saint Mary Magdalene: Prophetess of Eucharistic Love illustrates, the average person has derived knowledge of Mary Magdalene from popular culture sources like The Da Vinci Code and other books and movies that provide a fictionalized and largely theoretical portrayal of the woman. Even Christian-themed depictions of Jesus’s life have crafted characterizations of Mary Magdalene that may not be entirely accurate or may rely on widespread misconceptions.

 

As is often the case, Fr. Davidson realized that there is a paucity of scholarly sources on the life and legacy of Saint Mary Magdalene, and there is only one solution to such a problem: to write a book of his own.  He writes:

 

“All of the great works on Saint Mary Magdalene that I know of are in French.  (Perhaps there are some books of this kind in English, but I would have difficulty in providing the name of one.)  I considered translating one of the books written by Henri Lacordaire, Pierre de Bérulle or a more modern work by Jean-Pierre Ravotti.  In the end, however, I decided to take the more audacious step of putting on paper what I have come to accept as a faithful image of her who has become one of my favorite saints.” 

 

Before reading this book, I was completely unaware of the controversy and intense debate over who Mary Magdalene was based on the evidence from the Scriptures.  Fr. Davidson notes that there was a great deal of debate of Mary Magdalene in the early years of the Church, which culminated in a doctrinal schism between the Western and Eastern schisms, leading to a solid answer, which has recently become an open question.

 

In the Bible, Mary Magdalene is a woman who was exorcised of seven demons by Jesus and who later discovered the empty tomb of Christ, later proclaiming that he had risen.  The Gospel of Luke also describes a sinful woman who repented and begged Jesus’s forgiveness, washing Jesus’s feet with her tears and hair.  Also, there is Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, mentioned in the Gospel of John.  Many faithful Christians believe– and indeed, the early leaders of Western Church argued this position– that the three women are one and the same.  In contrast, the Eastern religious leaders largely contended that the three women are separate figures, and the Eastern Orthodox Church soon made this a matter of doctrine.  Many leading Protestants concurred in this assessment.  Though the Catholic Church has a tradition of viewing the figures as a single woman, it is now acceptable for the faithful to come to differing conclusions, based on different interpretations, and indeed, there have been dramatic shifts in perspectives, leading to cultural and language differences.  In the English-speaking world, there are many thinkers who now contend that there were three different women mentioned in the Bible, and in France, many people still believe that all three are the same woman.

 

Throughout the book, Davidson addresses how differing interpretations of Mary Magdalene’s past and character have been portrayed over time, before moving on to discussing how her life and legacy can be inspirational to the faithful.

 

“Before we immerse ourselves in a meditation of the scriptural texts that will teach us many secrets about the interior journey to holiness of Saint Mary Magdalene, it is first necessary to mention the contemporary controversy surrounding her identity; and in order to do this, we will also be obliged to discuss some questions of an exegetical nature.  The goal of this first part of the book will be to show the reasonableness of continuing to believe the traditional portrait of the saint that the Church of ancient times painted for her children.  Since the identity of Saint Mary Madgalene is today somewhat of an open question, and since the Church has left us the freedom to reflect upon and debate it, we must also affirm that the faithful are free to reject the traditional image we will present.  The Church herself has no official position on this question, and even in her modern liturgy she no longer explicitly associates Saint Mary Madgalene with the repentant sinner of the Gospel of Luke.  In recent years there has been too much debate among the greatest of biblical scholars for the Church to propose as certain what is so seriously contested.”

 

According to Church tradition, Mary Magdalene and her siblings left what is now referred to as the Middle East for what would later become France.  Evangelization proved highly successful, but eventually Mary Magdalene grew tired of a public role, and returned to private contemplation, spending her remaining years in a cave in southern France, reflecting on the loving face of Jesus.  In keeping with the traditional view that Mary Magdalene was sister to Lazarus and Martha, Fr. Davidson notes that Jesus spoke of Mary’s choice of contemplation and faith was “the better part,” while Martha’s attention to household tasks, though worthy, were in many ways lesser than spiritual devotion.

 

“Saint Mary Magdalene no doubt spoke to all she met about the Risen Lord’s apparitions to her, and in this way the Catholic and apostolic Faith planted the deepest roots in the fertile soil of Gail.  The grace bequeathed to this privileged people has never failed to produce the most magnificent examples of holiness throughout the history of the Church.  It is as though the love with which Christ loved the family of Bethany has somehow been shared with the people of France; they have received an unending stream of private revelations of that love.  Saint Mary Magdalene participated in this initial evangelization of Provence, but eventually her choice of the “better part,” that is to say, her desire to fix the gaze of her contemplative heart on the holy face of Jesus in an uninterrupted manner, overpowered her soul, and this time the contemplative vocation was never to be “taken from her” again.  She found what is perhaps one of the most perfect locations in the entire region for a life of peace and solitude, in a grotto halfway up the mountain of la Sainte Baume, and there she lived out the final years of her mortal life.”

 

Additionally, special stress is placed on the greatest female figure in the New Testament– Mary, Mother of Jesus.  Fr. Davidson reflects and hypothesizes about the relationship between Mary and Mary Magdalene, and how the former’s influence may have shaped the latter’s faith and future spiritual life.  Fr. Davidson explores what an amazing thing it is to be free of sin, and to desire the love of Jesus, and how placing such goals as one’s primary purpose in life can mean for oneself and those around one.

 

“What a rare and delightful creature Mary was.  Her beauty came from deep within her soul; it was the beauty of love.  Magdalene would look upon her and weep that she had thrown her innocence away.  Yet the presence of the Mother never discouraged her but brought with it a deep sense of hope.  In her company, Magdalene never felt judged, but rather loved, respected and understood.  She wanted nothing now but to become like this woman clothed in the light of holiness and who had at last shown her what… beauty really is.  She would treasure every minute she was privileged to spend in the presence of this Mystical Rose, whose warm and welcoming heart seemed to contain nothing but love.  In her was nothing ugly or insincere, and Magdalene could only marvel at this woman filled with grace!”

 

In popular culture, there is also a prevalent rumor that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were romantically involved, and Fr. Davidson makes a point of debunking that belief on the grounds that it was contrary to the character of Jesus, and that had such a relationship existed or even had been likely to have existed, then it would have been well documented during that time.

 

“The Lord allowed the sinful woman to approach him because it is in this contact with the real bodily presence of the Word made flesh that one is sanctified.  The Pharisee, not really knowing who Christ was and thinking of the ordinary sinful tendencies of human beings, could look upon this with only great suspicion.  Like the Pharisee, certain people who read this text, who are conscience of their own sinful tendencies and who do not really know Christ, have insinuated that there may have been some kind of impropriety between Jesus and the woman.  From this have flowed numerous theories about a carnal relationship between the Lord and Saint Mary Magdalene.  The promoters of such theories have one thing in common: they do not understand that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate!  He is the Holy of Holies, purer than the angels in body and soul and the only marriage he has come into the world to establish is that between God and mankind.  The sacred humanity of Christ is the very fountain of grace and purity for all of the great saints, who because of his impeccable holiness were empowered to live lives free from the blemish of grave sin.  During Christ’s earthly life his adversaries desperately sought to find some sin to hold against him, but all they could come up with were a few distortions of certain statements he had made.  So immaculate was his life that nobody at that time would have believed he could be guilty of any base sin.  If accusing him of sexual impropriety never entered the minds of the people who hated him the most two thousand years ago, it is foolish to do so today.”

 

We may not know all of the details of Saint Mary Magdalene’s life and spiritual legacy for certain, but Fr. Davidson contends that what we do know can lead us to a fuller understanding of the rewards of the contemplative life.

 

–Chris Chan 

Who Am I To Judge? and DOCAT: What to Do?

Who Am I To Judge?: Responding to Relativism with Logic and Love.  By Edward Sri, Ignatius Press, 2016.

 

DOCAT: What to Do? – The Social Teachings of the Catholic Church.  Ignatius Press and Augustine Institute, 2016.

 

Who Am I To Judge? and DOCAT are both books that seek to make the teachings of the Catholic Church clear, accessible, and relevant to the readers.  Who Am I To Judge? is written by a professor of theology and scripture, who wrote this book to explain Catholic teachings to a wide audience, including young people who have grown up in a culture that sees claims to absolute truth as intolerant.  DOCAT is a collection of questions and answers to explain, justify, and defend various Catholic positions on a wide variety of issues.  These are books that have resonance to all individuals, but they are particularly geared towards younger Catholics, many of whom have never been exposed to a thorough defense of Catholic principles.

 

Who Am I To Judge? opens with a true story about a young Catholic college student who was bullied and publicly shamed for holding orthodox Catholic beliefs, and who rapidly came to embrace moral relativism as a means to protect her social standing and to avoid the condemnation of her peers.  Sri uses this anecdote as an example of the intellectual and moral culture of many college campuses, and extrapolates it to his own experience teaching.  In his introduction, Sri writes:

 

“Sixty-five college students every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Most of them don’t want to be there.  How do I present the Christian moral tradition in a way that is captivating and compelling to these young people– especially when so many of them think of morality as a bunch of arbitrary rules from religion, assume each individual should be free to make up his own morality, and balk at the slightest hint that someone might be trying to tell them what to do?”

 

It should be noted that this is not a book that bashes the younger generation, but it does attack the broader culture, along with the pervasiveness of moral relativism, which contends that there is no absolute truth and that all individuals but determine what morality is right for them, and everybody’s personal definition of ethics is right for them.  Sri understands that this is a seductive worldview, allowing one to feel sophisticated and nonjudgmental.  Sri notes that when he was younger, he did not have the background education to properly understand and defend Catholic doctrine, but it was through a thorough guidance system that he was able to comprehend and embrace Church teachings, and now his career and this book intend to provide a source of information to a new generation.  He writes:

 

“Over time, thankfully, through good friends, mentors, teachers, priests, and books, I eventually came to see more clearly the beauty of the Catholic moral vision.  It makes sense out of life.  It points to what makes us truly happy.  It shows us the pathway to virtue, friendship, and lasting love.  It also encourages us to face the truth about ourselves– our faults, our weaknesses, our sins– in light of the truth about God’s unwavering love for us.  It thus leads us to a profound encounter with Christ’s mercy and to a power that enables us to live and love in a way we could never do on our own: the power of God’s grace.  Indeed the Christian moral life is the pathway to human flourishing.  Only by living the way God intended for us, by living in union with Christ, can our hearts’ deepest desires be fulfilled.

 

But that’s not the average person’s impression of Catholic morality and certainly not that of the majority of college students I was preparing to teach.  Most had been shaped by the culture’s individualistic outlook on life and came with the presupposition of moral relativism.  For them, morality was just personal opinion.  Each individual makes up his own truth.  Each decides for himself what is right or wrong.  The one really bad thing to do in life is to make a judgment about someone else’s moral beliefs.  That would be intolerant.”

 

Who Am I To Judge? is a sharp rebuke to moral relativism (and nihilism).  Sri explains that the purpose of his book is to provide logical answers to big questions.  The point here is to shift the boundary lines of the debate.  While Catholics are often on the defensive in discussions, Sri goes on the offensive.  He provides a series of counter-attack comments that cause the proponents of moral relativism to examine the basis of their own beliefs, and to illustrate that Catholic stances on issues are not merely medieval superstitions, but instead are logical and well-reasoned positions that can be justified through reasonable argument.

 

“This is the challenge that we will address in this book: How do we talk about morality in an age that no longer believes in moral truth?  If anyone making a claim to truth is viewed as an intolerant bigot, then how do we even begin to speak about some actions being wrong all the time?  After all, who wants to be perceived as a mean, judgmental person?  If I live in constant fear that I might be shamed for my moral convictions, then maybe it’s just better to keep quiet.

 

This short, highly readable book is meant to help you rise above the mainstream “anything goes” attitudes around you and give you greater clarity and confidence in talking about morality with relativistic friends– greater clarity about how to think with a classical moral worldview and greater confidence in sharing that beautiful vision with others.  I am convinced that the more we are immersed in a proper moral vision, the more effective we will be in responding to the relativistic mindset.”

 

Sri’s work is intended to help Catholics defend the tenets of their Church in a debate.  DOCAT is a resource consisting of questions and answers, organized by topic.  Love, the Church’s social mission, the human person, the Church’s social doctrine, the family, human work, economic life, politics, the international community, the environment, peace, and love in action.  Each section contains numerous questions that the both faithful and the doubtful might ask about morality or Catholic teaching, and then responds with a substantial reply of what the Church says and why it says it.

 

 DOCAT’s introduction states:

 

“The social doctrine of the Catholic Church contains a wealth of resources for how to live out the faith in pursuit of charity and justice.  DOCAT presents this social doctrine of the Church in a way designed specifically for young adults, helping you to respond effectively to Pope Francis’s challenge to work for greater justice in the world. 

 

Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other important Church documents, DOCAT is written in a style and format just for you.  Through probing questions and thought-provoking exercises, DOCAT teaches how to understand and joyfully live according to the principles of truth, justice, and charity set forth in the social doctrine of the Church.

 

The truths of the faith are not meant to be merely an intellectual exercise– they are meant to make a real, tangible difference in daily life.  As Jesus tells his Apostles at the Last Supper, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

 

What does this love look like?  It is loving your neighbor as yourself and praying for those who persecute you (cf Matthew 5:44).  It is giving food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and imprisoned.  Love of God cannot be separated from service to others because when you care for others, you are serving God (cf Matthew 25:34-40).

 

Translated into multiple languages and distributed throughout the world, DOCAT can have a profound effect on young Catholics everywhere.  By learning to live a life transformed by God’s love, we can then, in turn, transform the world.”

 

DOCAT is interestingly designed.  The bulk of the text on each page consists of the question and answer format.  Lots of assorted pictures (mostly photographs) of a wide variety of subjects cover the pages, and on the sides of each page are quotes from numerous figures, not all of them Catholic.  Figures as diverse as G.K. Chesterton, George Bernard Shaw, Mohandas Gandhi, John Steinbeck, Albert Einstein, and scores of other notables are quoted.  Additionally, a series of little stick figure drawings are printed in the lower right corners of the odd-numbered pages, turning DOCATinto a flip book.

 

Both of these books are excellent resources, and can serve to educate and inform, because they are crafted in an extremely readable manner and advance their arguments clearly, firmly, and confidently.

 

 

–Chris Chan