Is Summer Reading Junk Reading?

Was it last summer or the one before that Jean Raber was sitting in her back yard reading Trollope? I was into my Dicken's Marathon...reading Bleak House, or was it Our Mutual Friend? Certainly we were listening to Pickwick Papers driving around New York State--remarkable similarities!

My annual Dickens or Austen rereads were cut short this summer by a friend who in late April sent me Anthony Price, Other Paths to Glory, feeding my World War I obsession. The plot focus is on a WW1 battle site being prepared for a post-WW2, Cold War meeting. Of course, all the characters are Brits MI6 with a far-off Cold War Soviet spy in the background and a French tour guide (really 2ieme Bureau) nosing around for the hidden surprise! It was a good read, a second-hand paperback deleted from the Braintree branch of the Essex County Council Libraries. The brown paper and 9 point type attested to its authenticity.

My friend was teasing a bit but it put me onto the other 19 Price spy novels, which range in price from 2.25 to 2.95 at Alibris. The postage costs more. (12 down, 8 to go). The round of characters appear and don't in each novel with the brilliant David Audley, a medievalist, the focal point of the ever warring (internally and externally) intelligence service. Quite the page turners.

This raises the question: Why are the English such good story tellers, plot-makers, and character creators? As I wait for my next batch of Price novels, we are reviewing all the Endeavour shows to be ready for the fifth and final (so they say) season!

More on McCarrick: "It can never happen again" - More Updates

Update 7/31/2018 9:24 pm: A few more updates are down at the bottom of the post; please scroll down to see them.

Update 7/30/2018 4:49 pm: Michael J O'Loughlin, writing in America, provides a round-up of American episcopal reaction so far to the allegations against McCarrick and his resignation.  At this point it's a fairly thin round-up, consisting of written statements from three bishops, some comments made in a radio interview by McCarrick's successor in the Washington DC archdiocese, Cardinal Wuehrl, and a couple of statements from others who are not bishops.  We may hope that the list grows in the coming days.  Among the items O'Loughlin highlights is a letter from Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of the Albany (NY) Diocese to his priests.  The letter hits some good notes and is worth a read for those who are interested in the reaction of church leaders.

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Sunday afternoon I returned from a weekend away, removed the shrink wrap from the Sunday edition of my local suburban newspaper, and read the words quoted in the title of this post.  Those words, from Commonweal contributing editor John Gehring, were quoted in that day's front page news article.  Headline: "Cardinal resigns amid sex abuse claims."

Dangers to freedom in the post-truth society

If you haven't heard of Reality Winner, read this.

Reality Winner -- her real name -- was an Air Force vet working for a civilian contractor when she read last year that Russian hackers had never succeeded in penetrating American voting systems. She knew better.  So she did what Daniel Ellsberg and Mark Felt (Deep Throat) did when they caught their government lying. She leaked.

She is getting ready to go to prison for five years and three months. As Will Bunch, who wrote the column for Phillynews.com, said:

So far, history is repeating itself. The nightmare of a foreign power like Russia trying to tip the scales of a weakened American democracy and install Donald Trump in the White House is the political scandal of the century, and yet two years into it, the only person convicted of a felony and sitting in a jail cell is the woman seeking to expose part of the cover-up.

Truth goes to prison, and the guilty send it there.

The five Trump voters

Who are Trump voters? Yes, okay, I know, we've seen this question beaten into the ground since the Republican primary season began ramping up in early 2016, especially by folks who can't fathom that anyone would vote for Donald Trump.  But courtesy of Henry Olsen, I ran across some public opinion research, published last year, that tries to sketch out just who it is who pulled the lever for Trump - and why.

Ensure Your Right to Vote

There has been a heightened focus on efforts to purge people from the voting rolls since 2016.  And lately New Hampshire has been in the news for an effort to prohibit voting by college students who came from other states (though it appears that this has been shot down, for now.)  All this points to concerns about voter suppression in the coming fall election. So now is the time to make sure that one is registered to vote, and that all information is correct.  It is less likely to affect the people reading this, since we are not likely to be first-time voters, and are likely to have kept our voting status current.  However we can help get the word out to others:

Disciples respond

This is my homily for this weekend, July 22, 2018, the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B.  The readings for this Sunday are here.  More information on the fire discussed below is available here.

“I think it’s going to be beautiful to see all the appliances.”

WaPo takes a look at a small-town Southern Baptist congregation and how congregants struggle to rationalize support for Trump.

I liked the report because it does not lump all congregants together. A few seem focused on the many presents they hope to receive in heaven for having been good (the kitchen appliances in the title). Some are elderly people still trying to come to terms with the civil rights movement and are dismayed to find themselves in an America that seems to be pushing religious diversity to the detriment of their faith. Some feel comfortable putting qualifiers in teachings like "love your neighbor."

But most struggle to square up Trump the womanizing bully with his stated support for the things they care about: abortion, law and order, and an America rooted in European Protestant values.

Reporter Stephanie McCrummen does a good job letting the congregation speak for itself without making wry comments or falling into regional stereotypes. A pleasure to read.

St. Hildegard and chronic pain

Our friend Gene Palumbo offers this as suggested reading, NYT story in which a composer with hellacious migraines finds inspiration in the possibility that St. Hildegard von Bingen, another composer, may have found inspiration in her own struggle with migraines.

The slant in this story is not religious, but it makes me think about what Christians are supposed to take from suffering. Christ's response to chronic suffering in Scripture is always to cure it.

Certainly the lives of saints who suffered offer glimpses into how those with strong connections to the divine soldier on in spite of affliction and sometimes because of it.

So Catholics know there are lessons and transformations that, with grace, can come from long-term suffering. But there are also days of deep doubt and resentment, and a temptation to believe that God is one mean son of a bitch.

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways," God reminds us through Isaiah. Got that right, pal.

I find comfort in Flannery O'Connor's reluctant pilgrimage to Lourdes. She seems to have gone mostly to get her family off her back, and she was appalled by some aspects of the shrine. It didn't cure her; she died of lupus. But she noted that when she returned from Lourdes, she was able to finish the story she was working on. It was a little miracle--a few good days, the chance to finish a project.

It's easy to overlook those little miracles, but those are the ones that keep us going in chronic illness or pain.  The writer of the NYT essay never talks about grace or miracles in Catholic terms, but she has  acknowledged it nonethless. I also like to think that, in doing so, she has made St. Hildegard her friend in heaven.

Trump and truth

I am the way and the truth and the life
     -- John 14:6

Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: "It is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons . . . are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth ... They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth."     -- Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 2467; the portion within quotation marks is from Dignitatis Humanae, the 2nd Vatican Council's decree on religious freedom, no. 2 

Footnote to the Cave Rescue

A few days ago we were discussing the plight of the boys who were trapped in the cave in Thailand, and their subsequent rescue.
Online, the criticism of the boys' soccer coach, Ekapol Jantawong, was pretty harsh.  Some felt that he had led the team into danger and had acted irresponsibly. So I was glad to read this article, from the African Mail and Guardian, in which it was clarified that Ekapol had actually gone into the cave to find the boys:

So much news. So little time.

politico.eu

‘Very stable’ Trump? European leaders beg to differ – POLITICO

BY Josh Gerstein

The president’s wild shifts in tone left many NATO allies concluding no hidden strategy lies behind his unpredictability. As a NATO summit he threw into chaos wrapped up Thursday, President Donald Trump cheekily declared himself a “very stable genius.”

The other world leaders present mostly begged to differ.

Trump’s wildly unpredictable performance over two days in Brussels left many European leaders convinced that there is little method to the American president’s rhetorical madness, and simply no way to anticipate what he might do next. “Nobody knows when Trump is doing international diplomacy and when he is doing election campaigning in Montana,” Danish Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said. “It is difficult to decode what policy the American president is promoting. There is a complete unpredictability in this and one of the things you need in this alliance is predictability towards Russia.” Frederiksen said NATO allies now “live with the uncertainty” that Trump “plays in a completely different way than the rest of us.”

Trump’s behavior has been just as unnerving, if not more so, to smaller allies that have long counted on Washington.

Trump upended the summit even before it started by unleashing a tirade against Germany during a breakfast meeting on Wednesday with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, and created further upheaval by hijacking a meeting Thursday morning about Ukraine and Georgia, where he again demanded that allies quickly increase their national military spending and threatened that if they fail to do so, the U.S. could break with the alliance and start conducting security policy unilaterally, by going its “own way.” Reaction to Trump’s tirades against European allies — not just on military spending but also on trade and other issues — has focused mainly on the major powers of Germany, France and the U.K. But Trump’s behavior has been just as unnerving, if not more so, to smaller allies that have long counted on Washington and shown unwavering loyalty to the Western alliance.

In the NATO leaders’ meeting that focused on spending — what the alliance refers to as “burden sharing” — Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he confronted Trump, noting that the Danish military had suffered casualties participating in the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan roughly in the same proportion as the U.S. military.  [BF mine...MS]

In an emotional presentation, Rasmussen told the president that he had attended the funerals and could not accept 

Public policy and breastfeeding

Follow-up to Tom's "Button up and stir" post below. While we're all boycotting Nestle, it might be a good idea to put equal pressure on lawmakers who ignore public policies that would make for healthier, happier families.

Seems clear to me that breastfeeding rates are clearly tied to laws that ensure adequate family leave time.

Read here.

At The Crossroads

There is a good article by Michael Sean Winters on the National Catholic Reporter site today.
From the article:
"With the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, the nation is about to be consumed, again, by a debate about abortion. As I discussed on Monday, the pro-life movement seems to me to be in a bind. Ever since the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade was rendered in 1973, the debate has become ever more dominated by the most extreme activists on both sides of the issue. Zero-sum debates, when the terms of debate are cast in categorical terms, and when the country is more or less evenly divided on the issue, can become a cancer on our political life.
So, it seems today. How to proceed?"

Accumulation: Why? Part 2

I read this morning about a woman whose daily trash fits in a Mason jar. A dinky jar. The size cold cream comes in.

Bea Johnson, a Zero Waster, talks about the fact that a life spent reducing packaging and other trash is "a life based on experiences instead of things. A life based on being instead of having."

I confess to an ascetic streak, and Johnson's anti-materialism appeals to me.

Especially since next week we will go to my mother's to continue trying to empty her house of 60 years of accumulated stuff.

The city provides a free dumpster for four days. It will be interesting to see how much of a dent we actually make in the contents of Mom's house. In the three months since her death, family member have taken scores of boxes out of the place with little visible effect. Every trip up there fills me with increasing dread, anxiety, and resentment. Days of my life are being wasted on dealing with this stuff. I am angry a lot, and I pick fights with people who aren't helping enough.

On a less personal level, it occurs to me that the amount of stuff that people of just modest means like my parents were able to accrue is an indictment of American consumerism.

My parents tried to love their neighbors despite their flaws. My mother was a generous donor to causes she cares about. My dad did many small.kindnesses for people who came to his  memorial service just to tell me so.

But in these days, loving your neighbor might include not filling up his  landfills and oceans with stuff you don't need.

What steps are you taking to live a life based on "being instead of having," and what spiritual blessings have you discovered in the process?

Disruption

If you were asked to name a Chicago priest, chances are the one who would come immediately to mind is Rev. Michael Pfleger.  Fr. Pfleger has been making headlines for decades.  He was back in the news this past weekend for closing down an interstate highway.

Button up and stir

 Did anyone else see the New York Times story about the United States position on breast feeding in the rest of the world? Basically, we are against it.

 The World Health Organization was working on a resolution to encourage breast-feeding and to have governments pledge to educate their people on how it's better than formulas. Not that our delegation would care, but there is a lot of science behind the preference for mothering like nature. Ecuador planned to sponsor the resolution. Whoops, forgot that American companies make infant formulas.

 Our delegation calmly explained:

 The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid. The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced.

One Monarch Butterfly Spotted

in New York State (won't say where lest the tourists come googling).

It looked good, hovering over a milkweed. Will keep you posted.

Will the Winner Please Stand Up!

Who will win the prize behind the door? Contestant number 1, contestant number 2, or contestant number 3?
The prize behind the door is, of course, to be Trump's pick to fill the seat on SCOTUS which was vacated by Anthony Kennedy. The whole scenario is classic Trump show biz; he is in his element with things like the Miss Universe contest, and game and reality shows. I'm sure he has already decided whom he is going to name, days or weeks ago.
Updated:  Just announced; Brett Kavanaugh is the nominee.

How Can We Read the Gospel Like a Roman?

  The New Testament tells us that God, in His inscrutable way, chose to become human in a Roman province during what later became known as the 1st Century.  Rome ruled through Jewish sycophants, although Roman military prefects kept an eye on them. It partnered with unpopular locals to collect its taxes, and it got its money whether the locals got their share or not. It held the power of life and death over the Jews. But if Galilee, Samaria and Judea had not been on the road between Rome and Egypt, they wouldn’t have interested the Caesars at all. As it was, they didn’t interest them much.

  Most of the spiritual instruction Jesus gave to the Jews turns out to have been good politics, considering their situation. The meek will inherit the earth (and the un-meek will feel the Roman whip). Don’t lengthen your tassels (especially where Herod might see you). If a Roman soldier orders you, as he legally may, to carry his impedimenta for a mile, carry it two. (At worst, you’ll soften him up, and at best you will impress him). Give Caesar his taxes (but remember he doesn’t own your soul).

 We study and reflect on the sayings of Jesus. But they were said to the oppressed Jews.

 We are the Romans now.

Thanks to Jean's Post

Not long ago Jean Raber posted her list of  novels featuring older persons (Old-adult fiction: Go, Went. Gone.). She asked for additions to her list.

That sent me to our shelves to find David Lodge's novel, Deaf, which I reread. While I was there with my dust rage [that should be RAG, but there's probably some truth in the mistake], I took down How Far Can You Go? his 1980 novel covering the fifties, sixties, and seventies among a group of young English women and men. I reread that too, and was quite taken with Lodge's acumen in tackling sex, Humanae Vitae, and English Catholics.. All of Lodge's other novels and all of his lit crit are on the shelf as well (freshly dusted).

The 1968 anniversary of HV coming up made me sit down and write something, now on-line at Commonweal: How Far Have We Gone. 

So thank you, Jean....  Would anyone be interested in co-authoring a novel called Accumulation: Why?  

Lost Boys Found

I have haphazardly followed the story of the 12 Thai boys and their coach who have been lost for 10 days. They are trapped in a cave now inundated with monsoon rains. They were found by divers on Monday, July 2. Today the question is whether to bring them out now, or leave them, perhaps for weeks, until the waters subside. More rains are expected; the boys are in a weakened condition; the swim out is precarious. What to do?
"Monsoon rains may force Thai cave rescue attempt this week." The Guardian.

Maybe I read too many boy's adventure stories when I was a kid: With Henty in Afghanistan, etc. But it is moving to read about the boys, the rescuers, the challenges ahead. Given the state of the world, the victims, refugees, asylum seekers, begging for our help, why is this story so compelling? Comments.

Here is an account by one of the divers who went in: from the Guardian:

AMLO wins

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has pulled off a majority victory in Mexico's presidential election, pushing the long-dominant PRI aside.

Lopez Obrador's vow to give preference to the poor sounds like something right out of the Pope Francis playbook. So does his willingness to confront government corruption and crime.

We must wish AMLO well in these endeavors, as the murder rate in Mexico has jumped by double digits in the past four years, and as Mexico is ceaselessly hectored by an American president who insists it pay for a border wall; who assails its people as rapists, drug pushers, and welfare-sucking louts; and who becomes enraged when companies move "our" jobs there.

This is sad and stupid, especially since Mexico has arguably had more cultural influence on the U.S. than our other nearest neighbor, Canada, and is a market with three times Canada's potential customers. More Americans want to vacation in Mexico than Canada, and more Americans retire to Mexico.  In addition, Mexico strikes me as a natural partner to help the U.S. to address instabilities in Central America.

Some potential good news is that AMLO will have four more years in his term if Trump is voted out in 2020. This may usher in better relations. We can hope.

ICE may mean "I Can't Execute"

  The Canada-U.S. border is a good place to start this. It was there, in British Columbia, where Cedella Roman, a 19-year-old French woman who was visiting her mother, decided to go out for a run. She ran along the beach, and when the tide came in, she ran up onto a path, took a photo and got busted by the U.S.  Border Patrol.

 Whoops, she said, I didn’t realize I crossed the border. Don’t blame us, the two Border guys said, in effect quoting Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, you broke the law. So off she went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lock-up. She was allowed to contact her mother, who brought her passport and other papers.

 And two weeks later, ICE decided she could go.

 Another fortnight at the world’s longest “undefended” border. Nothing at all like a day at the U.S.-Mexican border. Well, maybe a little like it. A great again nation can’t be too careful.