12. Coakley, “Kenosis and Subversion,” p. 84.
13. Coakley, “Kenosis and Subversion,” pp. 106-8.
14. Since 1983, Catholics in the United States no longer must fast or abstain from meat except on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
15. Positio, 1:521-22.
16. ASBS, vol. 3, p. 242, 1892.
17. ASBS, vol. 3, p. 77.
18. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life (Bensalem, Pa.: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1983), p. 9.
19. MKD, A Call from Jesus Dwelling in the Blessed Sacrament (Bensalem, Pa.: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1912), p. 17.
20. MKD, Retreat Notes, 1881.
21. MKD, Meditation Slips, 1, p. 53.
22. MKD, Meditation Slips, 1, p. 56.
23. Quoted in Kenneth L. Woodward, Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn’t, and Why (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 240.
24. Positio, 2:10.
25. Positio, 2:24.
26. ASBS, vol. 3, p. 243, 1892.
27. Sr. Patricia Lynch, SBS, Sharing the Bread in Service: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1891-1991, 2 vols. (Bensalem, Pa.: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1998), 1:54.
28. Scully to MKD, September 29, 1893.
29. Lynch, Sharing the Bread, 1:54.
30. John Thomas McNeill and Helena M. Gamer, eds., Medieval Handbook of Penance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1938), p. 223.
31. Ariel Glucklich, “Sacred Pain and the Phenomenal Self,” Harvard Theological Review 19, no. 4 (October 1998): 391-92. There are many other aspects of sacred pain, such as the close self-identification with the suffering of Christ and penance for sin, but I do not believe they apply to Katharine’s practice. She was too humble to identify herself in that way with Christ, and while she had to deal with scrupulosity as a teenager, she overcame that as an adult. For other approaches to the roles of sacred pain, see Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1958); Lawrence P. Sullivan, Icanchu’s Drum: An Orientation to Meaning in South American Religions (New York: Macmillan, 1988); Bruce Lincoln, Emerging from the Chrysalis: Studies in Rituals of Women’s Initiation (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981); on kenosis see Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); Maureen Tilley, “The Ascetic Body and the (Un)Making of the World,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 59 (1990): 467-79.
32. Maureen Flynn, “The Spiritual Uses of Pain in Spanish Mysticism,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 65 (1995): 274.
33. Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner, ed. and trans., Dominican Penitent Women (New York: Paulist, 2005), p. 95.
34. Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907, online (accessed July 18, 2005).
35. Personal interview with the author, August 4, 2005. Spellman noted that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet employed the discipline as a group exercise in a darkened room.
36. Patricia Curran, SND, Grace Before Meals: Food Ritual and Body Discipline in Convent Culture (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989), p. 37.
37. Personal interview with the author, August 4, 2005.
38. Matthew G. Collins, “Matt’s Opus Dei FAQ,” online (accessed March 3, 2005). Also see the Opus Dei Web site at opusdei.org.
39. Frederick W. Faber, Spiritual Growth: The Progress of the Spiritual Life, 15th ed. (Baltimore: John Murphy, n.d.), pp. 163, 172.
40. Faber, Spiritual Growth, p. 175.
41. Quoted in Peter J. Boyer, “Hollywood Heresy,” New Yorker, May 22, 2006, p. 35.
42. Positio, 2:278.
43. Catechism of the Catholic Church (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1994), p. 2014.
44. Lumen Gentium, November 21, 1964, in The Sixteen Documents of Vatican II, introduced by Douglas Bushman, gen. ed., Marianne Lorraine Trouvé (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1999), pp. 39-40.
45. Lumen Gentium, 5.
46. MKD, Praying with Mother Katharine Drexel (Bensalem, Pa.: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1986), p. 22.
47. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 10.
48. MKD, Conferences, Counsels, and Maxims of a Missionary Foundress, p. 95.
49. Perfectae Caritatis, October 28, 1965, 14, in The Sixteen Documents of Vatican II.
50. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 9. Also see, Conferences, Counsels, and Maxims, p. 53.
51. MKD, Conferences, Counsels, and Maxims, p. 54.
52. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 10.
53. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 10.
54. Holy Rule of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, 1913, p. 110.
55. Perfectae Caritatis, 12.
56. MKD, Meditation Slips, 1, #102.
57. Lumen Gentium, 42.
58. MKD, Meditation Slips, 1, #1011.
59. MKD, Directory and Customs of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People: Maxims and Counsels and Excerpts from Conferences of Mother Mary Katharine (Cornwells Heights, Pa.: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1961), pp. 30-33.
60. MKD, Conferences, Counsels, and Maxims of a Missionary Foundress, p. 18.
61. Perfectae Caritatis, 13.
62. Quoted in Katherine Burton, The Golden Door: The Life of Katharine Drexel (New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1957), pp. 162-63.
63. Lou Baldwin, A Call to Sanctity: The Formation and Life of Mother Katharine Drexel (Philadelphia: Catholic Standard and Times, 1999), p. 86. In the early years, the three Drexel sisters shared an annual income of approximately $750,000. Elizabeth died childless in 1890; her portion of the estate went to Katharine. When Louise died childless in 1943, her portion also reverted to Katharine. Unfortunately, the estate income by that time was reduced to only approximately $400,000 a year. Throughout the years, as SBS missions and schools increased in number and expense, the amounts given annually to other missionary orders of priests and nuns declined, but support never ceased entirely.
64. MKD to Pantanella, October 14, 1903.
65. Apostolicam Actuositatem, November 18, 1965, 10, in The Sixteen Documents of Vatican II.
66. Perfectae Caritatis, 21.
67. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 25.
68. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 7.
69. MKD to the SBS at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, 1913.
70. MKD to the SBS at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, 1913.
71. Plutarch, Lives of the Noble Greeks, ed. Edmund Fuller (New York: Dell, 1971), p. 27. Also see David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge (Oxford: Clarendon, 1967), p. 257.
72. Jeanette Rave, quoted in Anthony J. Costa, “The Spirituality of St. Katharine Drexel: Eucharistic Devotion Nourishing Apostolic Works” (Rome: Facultate S. Theologiae, Apud Pontificiam Universitatem S. Thomae, 2001), p. 131.
73. Lynch, Sharing the Bread, 1:48.
74. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 7.
75. Lumen Gentium, 63.
76. Lumen Gentium, 62.
77. Lumen Gentium, 65 and 68.
78. MKD, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 28.
79. Positio, 1:515-16. Also in the Memoirs of MM Mercedes in the ASBS.
80. MKD to SBS, Christmas 1936, in ASBS.
81. MK
D, Reflections on Religious Life, p. 28.
82. MKD, Praying with Mother Katharine Drexel, p. 14.
83. Positio, 2:345.
84. MKD, Meditation Slips, 4, 1881. Date according to Costa, “Spirituality of St. Katharine Drexel,” p. 18.
85. MKD, Meditation Slips, 4, 1881.
86. Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, Golden Jubilee Booklet, 1891-1941 (Cornwells Heights, Pa.: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1941), April 18, 1941, emphasis added.
87. MKD, Retreat Notes, December 28, 1889.
88. Sacrosanctum Concilium, December 4, 1963, 10, in The Sixteen Documents of Vatican II.
89. MKD, Conferences, Counsels, and Maxims, p. 92.
90. MKD, Praying with Mother Katharine Drexel, p. 8.
91. Positio, 2:110.
92. MKD, Conferences, Counsels, and, Maxims, p. 92.
93. MKD, Praying with Mother Katharine Drexel, p. 4.
94. MKD, A Call from Jesus, p. 17.
95. Sr. Consuela Duffy, SBS, Katharine Drexel: A Biography (Philadelphia: Reilly Co., 1966), p. 369.
96. Costa, “Spirituality of St. Katharine Drexel,” p. 111.
97. Mary Heimann, Catholic Devotion in Victorian England (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), p. 58.
98. Ann Taves, The Household of Faith: Roman Catholic Devotions in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986), p. 30.
99. Bobbye Burke, archivist, Old St. Joseph’s, Philadelphia, Pa., email to author, October 8, 2005.
100. See Jay P. Dolan, Catholic Revivalism: The American Experience, 1830-1900 (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1978), especially the chapter “The Revival Crusade.”
101. Positio, 2:284.
102. MKD, Letters to SBS, 678.
103. MKD, Letters to the Southwest Missions, 1907.
104. Joseph P. Chinnici, OFM, Living Stones: The History and Structure of Catholic Life in the United States (New York: Macmillan, 1989), p. 152.
105. MKD, Praying with Mother Katharine Drexel, February 12, 1941, p. 12.
Chapter 5
The Pope, the Times, and the Saint:
“Be Not Afraid!”
Katharine Drexel’s was a life of heroic virtue in service to others for the love of God. It was a saintly life, and others saw her in that light. The question remains, however, why was she recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church when others, perhaps equally worthy or even more so, are not canonized? Why this particular woman at this particular time? This question can only be answered by the pope who canonized Katharine Drexel.
Pope John Paul II began his long pontificate by telling the ecclesial and secular dignitaries assembled in St. Peter’s for his coronation mass and the crowds waiting outside in St. Peter’s Square, “Be not afraid!” These words would become a major theme of his pontificate. Be not afraid, because Christ is faithful. Be not afraid, because the things of this world will pass away, but Christ is eternal. “Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of states, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization, and development. Be not afraid. Christ knows ‘what is in man.’ He alone knows it.” In his first homily as pope, the second new pope in one month, John Paul II asked for help and prayers for himself and for all who serve Christ, because to serve Christ is to serve “the human person and the whole of mankind.”1
To serve “the human person and the whole of mankind” provides a direct link between John Paul II and Katharine Drexel. She served the human person and the whole of mankind by recognizing what others inside and outside the Church did not, that African Americans and Native Americans were part of mankind and that the men, women, and children of those races deserved to be treated as individuals with the dignity befitting the human person. While the political and economic systems in the United States of Katharine’s day degraded people of color and acted to their disadvantage, and the general Caucasian society viewed them and their cultures as inherently inferior, Katharine saw them as children of God who needed to be helped by education to claim their human dignity, to elevate themselves and their people in order to join the wider society, and to compete with whites for the benefits the country had to offer. Even while she was offering them a political and economic leg up, her ultimate goal was to bring them to know, love, and entrust themselves to Christ in the Catholic Church. She was not afraid to speak out or to do the unpopular thing. In Katharine, Pope John Paul II found someone whose life and works could inspire and benefit those of the twenty-first century.
If, as Father Stephan had written her, she and her sisters were the only ones interested in the plight of the Native Americans, and later when her personal money was needed to build almost twenty-five schools in rural Louisiana, which had the largest population of African American Catholics, it was because the American Catholic Church hierarchy, in general, and the laity, as well, mirrored the prejudices of the majority of the citizens of the United States.2 But Katharine continued to seek ways to help Native Americans and African Americans to achieve their potential as individuals and as citizens. She believed that education had a circular and elevating power.
The educated person of color could elevate himself, participate in the education and leadership of others of his race, and thus benefit the race as a whole. Indeed, Xavier University in Louisiana produced graduates who fanned out across the state to staff the elementary and high schools funded by Katharine. The university also produced doctors, lawyers, judges, dentists, journalists, writers, artists, opera stars, priests, and bishops who worked to bring African Americans to an equal place in American society. Katharine was not afraid to swim against the tide, to “open the boundaries of states, political and economic systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization, and development,” and to “open wide the doors for Christ,” whom she believed was on her side. History has vindicated her, and Pope John Paul II has canonized her.3
This chapter establishes why John Paul II chose to canonize America’s millionaire nun. She is one of seven United States saints, and only the second born on its shores.4 What was it about Katharine Drexel that merited her inclusion in the last canonization ceremony of 2000? The first half of this chapter looks at the ways in which the pope read the negative signs of the times for which Katharine might serve as an antidote. This entails a reading of his works covering what it means to be a Catholic Christian living out the faith in the modern world, and to know the truth about man and God. It also discloses John Paul’s understanding of the essential place of love, communio, and the role of eucharistic spirituality. The eucharistic nature of the Church leads to a discussion of mission, which in turn leads to hope for the future. Of great importance are holiness and the prophetic place of the consecrated life in missionary activity. An exposition of John Paul’s understanding of the place of saints and the communion of saints in the modern Roman Catholic Church is also paramount. After all, he streamlined the Church’s archaic canonization process and beatified and canonized more people than any other pope, beatifying 1,338 individuals and canonizing 482 others.5 The second half of this chapter brings Katharine into dialogue with the pope to demonstrate why she would become for the pontiff an antidote to the negative signs of the times, a saint to be emulated for the third Catholic millennium, especially in the United States, and a reason to “be not afraid.”
Signs of the Times
Having versus Being
Times of crisis in the world and in the Church have always brought forth saints and prophets to help transform society and/or the Church, to call others to holiness, and to convince them of their sin and need for repentance. This happened during the time of the Babylonian exile of the Jews, the Roman persecutions of the early Christian church, the turb
ulence of the fourteenth century, and the periods of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The end of the twentieth century was, according to Pope John Paul II, such a time of need. The twentieth century saw bigger and bloodier wars and greater numbers of Christian martyrs than any previous century. It witnessed ideologies and structures of society that privileged science, technology, profits, and power over and against persons, individually and collectively as classes, races, and genders. Against this backdrop, and more than a half century after the Holocaust, John Paul called the West’s culture one of death.6 Death is literal in the case of the Western countries that have legalized abortion, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide, and that continue to use the death penalty for criminals. It is metaphorical in the case of worldwide degradation of the human person through racism, poverty, hunger, pornography, drugs, crime, and child exploitation. Death, or the fear of death or dislocation, also results from civil wars, wars of aggression, ethnic cleansing, tribalism, rogue states, worldwide and localized terrorism, and the activities of drug lords, drug cartels, and other international crime syndicates, not to mention the worldwide crisis of HIV/AIDS.
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