Some months ago I published a post (here) in which I recounted two of the seven themes on the New Evangelization that Father Robert Barron addressed in a lecture at the Union League Club in Chicago sponsored by the Lumen Christi Institute. (An earlier version of the talk that Father Barron delivered can be found here). These first two themes were to (1) “lead with beauty” rather than goodness or truth and (2) a warning not to “dumb down Catholicism” but to explore the riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition and to share it with others. In the prior post I tried to connect these themes to the MOJ project and the work of Christian law professors. Here I take up the third of Father Barron’s themes concerning the New Evangelization.
3. Preach with New Ardor
The injunction to “preach with new ardor” comes from Pope John Paul II. In March 1983 the Pope addressed the Latin American Bishops Conference (“CELAM”) gathered in Port-a-Prince, Haiti. He said that the Church needed a “New Evangelization that is new in ardor, new in method, and new in expression.” (The quotation can be found here). The new evangelization is not new in content in that the Church passes on the faith in its integrity as she has received it. Although our understanding of the faith deepens through the process of development over time, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). However, the New Evangelization is new in that it is a self-conscious encounter with modern men and women in their contemporary culture and circumstances.
The need for ardor, Barron said, goes back to Aristotle’s comment in the Rhetoric that people only really listen to an “excited speaker” – to someone genuinely convinced of the importance of that which he or she is trying to communicate.
I think we have all encountered the truth of this in the classroom – whether as students or teachers. Enthusiasm can be infectious and indifference breeds indifference.
The source of this ardor is the good news, the glad tidings of the Christian message: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! Declaring this good news is evangelization, and evangelization is, as Paul VI declared in Evangelii Nuntandi (¶ 14), the Church’s reason for being: “She exists in order to evangelize.” This good news is not a myth or a literary device or a symbol of the fulfillment of human longing. It is a fact in human history. Proclaiming the historical fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection has proven to be a stumbling block to some men and women of every age, but this astounding and radical claim is the heart of the Gospel message.
Expressing ardor for the Gospel as a law professor (whether as a teacher in the classroom, as a scholar, or as a faculty colleague) is a delicate matter full of risk – risk of ridicule (because religion is viewed in the contemporary academy as anti-intellectual, and Catholicism in particular is seen as corrupt, patriarchal and misogynist), and risk of being misunderstood (i.e. where the ardor of conviction is taken as intolerance for the views of others). The law school classroom is for teaching students the substance of the law, the skills of legal analysis, and the various theories behind law. Because law is a normative discourse, teaching the law invariably involves discussions of a normative nature. Still, one shouldn’t see the law school classroom primarily as a platform for teaching theology, scripture, or catechesis, although there are occasions when this will and ought to take place as anyone who has taught a course on Catholic social thought and the law, the Bible and the law, or canon law can attest.
Rather, the ardor for the faith should be apparent to students and colleagues alike in what one holds to be true and how this is reflected in how one lives his or her life. Because “[m]odern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers” the “first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically Christian life” (Evangelii Nuntandi ¶ 41). The hope is that others will see one’s faith not as a badge of cultural identity or family heirloom all but forgotten and safely ignored, but as a thing of beauty – as something that inspires ardor, as something worth living for and (if need be) dying for.
Here Father Barron reminded the audience that, at its root, Vatican II was a missionary council. Its primary aim was not the reform of the Church but the “Christification” of the world. The Council did, of course, institute several reforms (most notably the liturgy) and laid the groundwork for several others (e.g. the Synod of Bishops). Some of these reforms were begun under Paul VI and John Paul II, but others may only now be brought to fruition (i.e. Pope Francis’ reorganization of the Roman Curia). The point of all these institutional changes is to not to help the Church conform to the world and its times, but to make the Church a more apt vehicle for the proclamation of the Gospel.
I would add that, consistent with Vatican II, it is incumbent on those institutions that identify themselves as “Catholic” to reflect this ardor for the Gospel. Too often, it seems, Catholic institutions see their professed identity as a burden to be endured rather than a joy to be celebrated. At least, that is what I have generally observed in my study of American law schools operating under Catholic auspices. (There are, of course, a few discrete exceptions).
These law schools regard their affiliation as so many rocks that act as ballast to be tucked away, out of sight in the hold of the ship – ballast that weighs them down and keeps them from moving “forward” at the desired pace. True, ballast is something that that must be carried, but in the case of a genuine Catholic identity the burden is light (cf. Matt. 11:30). It is a weight that does not impede but enables. It keeps the ship from listing on a calm day, and steadies it in stormy seas.
Not a millstone (Luke 17:2), it is the pearl of great price (Matt. 13:46). It is also both a lodestone and the North Star (the immanent and the transcendent) that gives the school a sense of direction. It alerts passengers and crew alike “This is who we are and where we are going” but leaves the specific route to its current occupants.
That some in contemporary culture will reject this identity (“pearls to swine” Matt. 7:6), that some will walk away is to be expected (John 6:60-65). That some colleagues in the academy will think less of a school because it overtly and meaningfully identifies itself as “Catholic” is an inevitable part of the price of discipleship. But many wander through Chartres cathedral or Sainte Chappell and stare up in amazement for a few moments and then walk away. But some lookup and want to know more, and the Church in her ardor must be prepared to share the good news that she has learned with joy.
I suspect that Barbara Armacost and Rob Vischer will address at least some of these themes at the Law Professors Christian Fellowship-Lumen Christi Institute program at the University Club in Washington, D.C. on January 2, 2015 on “The Vocation of a Christian Law Professor” (see here). It will be interesting to hear what they have to say.
At Slate, media professor David Greenberg mourns the effective death of The New Republic, which he attributes not so much to digital-media economics as to the fact that the magazine's one-time "heterodox liberalism--the willingness (indeed the eagerness!) to test liberal thinking from within the liberal family—is now being squeezed":
Internet journalism has made it easy to find opinions that confirm one’s own beliefs and flatter one’s prejudices... The left and the right are retreating into cocoons of information and opinion, on cable TV and social media....
[The end of TNR is regrettable because:] Conservatives need a liberal magazine that’s unpredictable enough to make them want to read it. Liberals and leftists need a magazine that will prod them to question their beliefs, and revise or strengthen them.
I'm glad Slate was willing to publish a piece that scores a bullseye on exactly what's wrong with ... Slate. I'm refusing to read the comments to the piece, but I can only imagine they will validate everything Greenberg says about Internet readers expecting "cocoons of [confirming] opinion."
Saturday, December 6, 2014
In a world in which whatever doesn't violate the harm principle goes, forgiveness is a mostly idle concept. In the real world, however, where we sin in all kinds of ways and degrees that elude Mill's impoverished and arbitary norm, forgiveness is the gift of life. Literally. Forgiveness, often mistakenly analyzed as an optional piece of supererogation, is required by the very requirements of proper self-love itself, and it is therefore required without condition. The refusal to forgive works an abominable self-annihilation. The free and respectful granting of forgiveness liberates. Forgiveness does not entail reconcilation -- forgiveness is sufficient unto itself, as all of us who have been forgiven by the Divine Judge should be quick to announce. I argue the (controversial) case for UNconditional forgiveness here
Friday, December 5, 2014
One of the regular themes of the Mirror of Justice is the distinct value of religiously-affiliated higher education, most particularly in the law school environment. The following story does not involve legal education but does illustrate the small miracles and serendipitous (read: divine) encounters of people of faith that we see again and again in faith-based educational settings. God’s ways may be mysterious, so it is hardly surprising that we are more likely to perceive those ways at a faith-based school where we are open to those mysteries.
My daughter Katie is a sophomore at Notre Dame. Football Saturdays, of course, are a legendary part of the Notre Dame experience. When the Fighting Irish play at home, a host of visitors come to campus. On the Saturday of a recent home football game (we won’t say anything more about the game itself — it suffices to say it was a game in the second half of the season), my daughter was walking to the stadium with her two roommates, Jackie and Maddy. They happened upon a tailgate party hosted by a young couple to raise funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Intrigued by this tailgate with a purpose, because Jackie has cystic fibrosis, the group of three Notre Dame sophomores stopped to talk with the hosts. 
They learned that the couple running the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation — one a graduate of Notre Dame and the other of St. Mary’s — had been blessed only three weeks earlier with the birth of a daughter, Nora. But Nora was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and soon was in critical condition as her bowel accidentally had been perforated. Jackie told the parents that, like their little new daughter, she too had the condition, presenting to them an in-the-flesh example of a successful young woman at a leading national university who was joyfully overcoming cystic fibrosis. The smiles grew larger all around, even as the tears began to flow. Truly Providence had brought these five people together, blessing both the three Notre Dame students and Nora’s parents.
But the Notre Dame bond ran still deeper, as another spiritual stage had been set. The mother of the new-born with cystic fibrosis mentioned that, when her little daughter was going into surgery with little chance of survival, she had invoked the help of an American candidate for beatification, Father Solanus Casey and had asked his followers around the world the join in prayer for Nora. Venerable Solanus (or Barney) Casey, who had been a beloved priest in Detroit with a heart for the sick, lived from 1870 to 1957. Indeed, the mother emphasized she had been careful to invoke the help only of Solanus Casey and had asked recipients of her email message to do the same.
Displaying the photograph proof, Nora’s mother had touched a Father Casey relic to the baby’s cheek and then watched the baby’s face transform from an expression of pain to one of bliss. Little Nora survived and continues to slowly recover, contrary to the expectations and beyond the explanations of her physicians. (Support for the family by generous donors is most appreciated: here.) Nora’s mother is submitting the evidence of this miracle to the Vatican in support of Father Casey’s cause. 
As this small group of students and Nora’s parents celebrated God’s grace together, Nora’s parents were amazed to find how well informed my daughter Katie was about subject of beautification in general and about leading American candidates in particular. As a freshman seminar last year, Katie had studied American saints and conducted research on the cause of American candidates for beatification or canonization. As Katie has told her seminar professor, Kathleen Sprows Cummings, having been able to study the subject in that class allowed Katie to share more fully in that beautiful moment with Nora’s parents on the Notre Dame campus months later. This meeting ended with the parents showing Katie, Jackie, Maddy, and Mikey pictures of Nora smiling (and, yes, as a further miracle, she was able to smile even at such a young age) while holding the relic of Blessed Father Casey. Keep Nora and her parents in her prayers and continue to seek the intercession of Father Casey.
God of course moves in the lives and experiences of those who rely on Him while attending non-religious schools, and the power of the divine breaks through any attempted line of separation. God meets us wherever we are faithful. But through the spiritual environment created, the deliberate development of a faith-based curriculum, and the faithful intentionality of event-planning, religiously-affiliated schools are uniquely open to the movement of God.
(From Tom Berg:) The Court heard oral argument Wednesday in Young v. United Parcel Service, the case involving accommodations for pregnant workers under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (the PDA). As I've mentioned in a prior post, Peggy Young had sought and been denied the same sort of light-duty accommodation that had been given to workers with similar work limitations from other causes, such as on-the-job injuries, disabilities under the ADA, and conditions or circumstnaces (medical problems, drunk-driving convictions) that led to a driver-employee's loss of a Department of Transportation commercial truck-driving license. And as I've detailed, 23 pro-life organizations filed an amicus brief arguing that the PDA should be interpreted to require pregnancy accommodations when the employer made accommodations for other such categories of workers who were (in the words of the statute) "similar in their ability or inability to work."
I did a summary of the case and the pro-life brief Wednesday for Christianity Today. Many media outlets, including the N.Y. Times and the Wash. Post, remarked on the convergence in this case of pro-life groups and pro-choice feminist groups (it was striking, at the press conference after the argument, to see Galen Carey of the National Association of Evangelicals followed by Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center, both expressing support for strong protections for pregnant women). As I said in my CT piece,
I hope that the message of this brief will resonate, and draw attention, in the broader society: supporting pregnant women is a pro-life cause, and pro-life groups of all kinds are strongly committed to it.
Of course, oral argument focused on the key statutory-interpretation question: are the text and purpose of the PDA violated only when the employer disfavors pregnancy facially in a policy or by virtually singling it out for denial, or are they also violated when the employer makes accommodations for workers whose conditions, albeit from another source, make them "similar in their ability or inability to work"? The arguments got a little intricate, and some justices (Roberts, Kennedy) said less in this argument than usual, giving little or no indication how they were inclined.
Continue reading
Thursday, December 4, 2014
A good bit of our understanding of religious freedom and establishment is shaped by the legacy of reformation, restoration, persecution, and toleration in Tudor and Stuart England, and so along comes historian J.J. Scarisbrick in the Weekly Standard with this review of Jessie Childs's God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England (Oxford UP). A short excerpt is pasted below. As an aside, Scarisbrick is a remarkable figure in his own right--the author in 1968 of the definitive biography of Henry VIII (which inaugurated the revisionist view of Eamon Duffy and others arguing that the English Reformation was not all light and progress) and, along with his wife Nuala, one of the founders of the British pro-life movement.
[W]hat a story [God's Traitors] tells: plots and counterplots, assassinations and Armadas, horrendous torture and unspeakably gruesome executions, stinking prisons, secret messages written in orange juice (invisible until heated), spies and traitors and clandestine printing presses. Hollywood could not have made it up.
Jessie Childs is not Roman Catholic, but she is remarkably fair and astute in her judgments and (though she should not say that Catholics believe that the Eucharistic presence is a physical one) has a deep understanding of Catholic culture. She understands how bewildering it was for Catholics to find that the faith of their forefathers (and of English kings and queens since time immemorial) was now treason and that they apparently had to choose between queen and pope—let alone between queen and the king of Spain, who conveniently believed that Holy Mother Church was best served by Spanish imperialism.
