Mother Katharine Drexel

by Cheryl C. D. Hughes

  As a pilgrim pope, John Paul II traveled to more foreign countries than any of his predecessors and knew well the problems of the world, perhaps more intimately than any other world leader of his day. He made more than 120 pastoral visits outside of Italy during his pontificate, going to over 130 countries on every continent on the earth. He held almost 1,000 meetings with prime ministers and heads of state. He met regularly with scientists, philosophers, and artists, and his was certainly one of the most recognized faces in the world. For some he was a living saint, while for others he and his pontificate were highly controversial. His stated program of action on assuming the papacy in 1978 was to carry out the initiatives of the Second Vatican Council. He took as his pastoral initiative the universal call to holiness found in chapter 5, paragraph 39 of Lumen Gentium. Many Catholic liberals argue that he hijacked the Council and turned back the clock to a more authoritarian time by denying women the right to become priests, insisting on the right to life, opposing artificial birth control, upholding traditional morality, and opposing the democratization of the Church’s governance. It is true that he upheld the all-male priesthood, the right to life, opposition to artificial birth control, traditional mores, and the hierarchical structure of the Church. However, many do not see these issues in the same light. Catholic traditionalists, or conservatives, supported the pope in these areas. On the other hand, more extreme conservatives complained that the pope was too liberal in giving more power to national bishops’ conferences, in liturgical innovations and acculturations, and in his opposition to the death penalty and to the United States–led war in Iraq. Certainly there are those both inside the Church and without who believe that the Roman Catholic Church has outgrown the need for saints and miracles — all that is strictly medieval, and people today are much too sophisticated to believe in such things. In a church of one billion adherents, there is a wide range of attitudes and beliefs. The attitudes and beliefs important to this project are those of Pope John Paul II and St. Katharine Drexel.

  Along with his predecessor, Pope Pius XII, who told a radio audience, “The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin [and] . . . the loss of a sense of God,” John Paul II believed that the sorry state of man in the modern world was due to the loss of a sense of sin and the attendant loss of a sense of the reality of God.7 In his Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, John Paul II wrote, “In fact God is the origin and supreme end of man, and man carries in himself a divine seed. Hence it is the reality of God that reveals and illustrates the mystery of man. It is therefore vain to hope that there will take root a sense of sin against man and against human values, if there is no sense of offence against God, namely the true sense of sin.”8 If sin were the problem, then conversion from sin would be the obvious answer to man’s problems in the world. Indeed, the pope believed that “the grave challenges confronting the world at the start of this new Millennium lead us to think that only an intervention from on high, capable of guiding the hearts of those living in situations of conflict and those governing the destinies of nations, can give reason to hope for a brighter future.”9 It is the Holy Spirit in Roman Catholic belief that convicts and convinces an individual of sin. “And when [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). John Paul II expanded on this greatly in Dominum et Vivificantem, chapters 27–48.

  Even the institutional Church needs to examine itself for the sins and the evil its leaders and members have inflicted on people and societies throughout the ages in the name of the Church of Christ. John Paul spent a good bit of his energy making apologies for the Church’s past sins and seeking reconciliation with groups and individuals who were the targets of its sins. His statements about the Galileo case and the essential compatibility of the faith and reason and science,10 along with his highly publicized apologies to various groups of Jews11 and women,12 are among the most well known of his public gestures and statements. John Paul led by exhortation and by example. He would have had men and women seek assistance from heaven at the prompting of the Holy Spirit to reawaken consciences and turn from sin. Following his logic in Dominum et Vivificantem, individuals, organizations, nations, and religions are all caught up in sin and sinful structures that do harm to others; all are therefore in need of conversion.

  One of the main aspects of the pope’s “personalism” is his interest in the concrete person — this person here, that person there — not humankind in the abstract sense, but each human person individually. The Church does not claim to be the expert in economic or political systems, science, or the arts. The Church claims her expertise in humanity, because through the incarnation Christ is united with each person.

  We cannot abandon man, for his “destiny,” that is to say his election, calling, birth and death, salvation or perdition, is so closely and unbreakably linked with Christ. . . . Man in the full truth of his existence, of his personal being and also of his community and social being — in the sphere of his own family, in the sphere of society and very diverse contexts, in the sphere of his own nation (perhaps still only that of his clan or tribe), and in the sphere of the whole of mankind — this man is the primary route that the Church must travel in fulfilling her mission: he is the primary and fundamental way for the Church, the way traced out by Christ himself, the way that leads invariably through the mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption.13

  The only creatures who are a problem for themselves, humans are aware of being threatened on all sides in the modern world. Men and women are under threat from the very production of their hands, minds, and wills. It is much more than the alienation of the worker from his product spoken of by Karl Marx; it is comprised of the created products, the means of production, and the attitudes of materialism and consumerism that are turned against man. In his encyclical Redemptor Hominis, sections 15 and 16, the pope mentioned several instances of legitimate concern. He began with the exploitation of the environment for industrial and military purposes, noting that man has become a destroyer rather than a steward of nature. While there has been great technological advancement, there has been no concomitant development of ethics and morality to guide the use of technology in a truly human manner. It is possible for those with advanced technology not only to exploit nature but also to exploit the nations and peoples of the less developed world and to do so with a shocking sense of entitlement. In Genesis, man is called upon to have dominion over the created world. However, according to the pope, “The essential meaning of this ‘kingship’ and ‘dominion’ of man over the visible world, which the Creator himself gave to man for this task, consists in the priority of ethics over technology, in the primacy of the person over things, and in the superiority of spirit over matter.”14 The Holy Father, in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, points to two very common attitudes in people that oppose both God and neighbor: “the all-consuming desire for profit, and . . . the thirst for power. . . . In order to characterize better each of these attitudes, one can add the expression: ‘at any price.’ In other words, we are faced with the absolutizing of human attitudes with all of its possible consequences.”15 The question then becomes how to change such attitudes.

  The concern here for profit and power through any means entails not just money and the ability to impose one’s will on another, where other people become means rather than ends in themselves, objects not subjects; the threat, according to the pope, is at its base about atheistic materialism, which is far removed from any objective moral order, sense of justice, or social solidarity. It is obvious that those who are exploited and have nothing suffer greatly from the iniquity of others. What may be less obvious is that those who have a superabundance of goods and services available to them also suffer. These people become enmeshed in “having” versus “being.”

  “Being” is used by Pope John Paul II to mean “human” with all the dignity in the manner that Christ “reveal[ed] man to himself” — human in the fulle
st sense of the word in the unity of body and soul.16 Simply “having” need not necessarily be destructive of “being.” “The evil does not consist in ‘having’ as such, but in possessing without regard for the quality and the ordered hierarchy of the goods one has. Quality and hierarchy arise from the subordination of goods and their availability to man’s ‘being’ and his true vocation.”17 It is the mission of the Church to remind individuals of their true vocation to know, love, and serve God, and to become more human by becoming more and more conformed to Christ. For those in what the pontiff called the “superdeveloped” nations, quality of life issues become paramount, totally eclipsing any higher understanding of man, his transcendent reality, and his responsibility to himself or others. One is encouraged to have more goods, to be physically beautiful, to enjoy ever more pleasures — nothing is denied in the pursuit of pleasure. Indeed, the “pursuit of happiness” is enshrined in the United States Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right, along with life and liberty. No one would ever suggest that happiness is not a legitimate goal for humans, but when the definition of what makes one happy is put in terms of practical materialism, then the degradation of the human person is bound to follow.18 The person becomes divided from his true self as reflected in Christ. He forgets his primary relationship with God and his proper telos in union with him. Solidarity with one’s fellows and stewardship of the earth evanesce. Personal “choice” becomes the right that trumps all other rights, regardless of the thing or action chosen. Toleration becomes the trump virtue to the point that one may no longer call good and evil by their proper names.19 In the name of toleration, religion and morality become internal and private, and are no longer welcome in the public square.

  In his magisterial office, the pope taught that the way to ultimate and permanent happiness is the way of perfection, the perfection found only in Christ. “The Teacher from Nazareth invites the person He is addressing to renounce a program of life in which the first place is seen to be occupied by the category of possessing, of ‘having,’ and to accept in its place a program centered upon the value of the human person: upon personal ‘being’ with all the transcendence that is proper to it.”20 In response to the motto enshrined in the Rolling Stones’ song “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” the Holy Father told two million youths gathered in Rome for World Youth Day 2000,

  It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow the ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity. . . . If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze.21

  The pope believed that the invitation from Jesus was not merely a cry in the wind of stronger forces. The Christian faith teaches that, despite evidence to the contrary, God is still in charge and there will be ultimate victory. God is stronger than sin, stronger than death; his love will overcome all evil. One invitation to follow Jesus comes from the saints, of whom the pope said, “The saints took these words [of the Sermon on the Mount] of Jesus seriously. They believed they would find ‘happiness’ by putting them into practice in their lives, and they realized their truth in everyday experience: despite their trials and moments of darkness and failures, they already tasted here below the deep joy of communion with Christ. In him, they discovered the initial seed, already present in time, of the future glory of God’s kingdom.”22

  John Paul II saw cause for hope in what he saw as positive signs of the times, for not all the signs were negative: “Despite the voices of the prophets of pessimism, I would like to repeat once again, with emphasis: as we approach the third millennium of Redemption, God is preparing a great Christian springtime, the beginnings of which can already be glimpsed.”23 The pope proclaimed, “Is it not one of the ‘signs of the times’ that in today’s world, despite widespread secularization, there is a widespread demand for spirituality?”24 Visit any commercial bookstore in North America to find shelf after shelf of books on spirituality. It is a commercial phenomenon in the publishing world, with titles on spirituality multiplying year after year. The pope detected “that the West is now experiencing a renewed demand for meditation, which at times leads to a keen interest in aspects of other religions. Some Christians, limited in their knowledge of the Christian contemplative traditions, are attracted by those forms of prayer. While the latter contain many elements which are positive and at times compatible with Christian experience, they are often based on ultimately unacceptable premises.”25 Because the pope did not delineate these “unacceptable premises,” it is impossible to know to what he was referring. However, his main point seems to be that Christians are often unaware of the many sources and examples of Christian meditation. The crowded bookshelves on spirituality indicate that people in first-world countries are seeking meaning in their lives — something more beyond “more.” Those in the developing world seek reassurance that their lives, too, are meaningful, even in the face of great suffering.

  The Church calls humans beings to be themselves, their true selves, as revealed in Jesus Christ. Richard Gula tells an amusing anecdote about Rabbi Zusya that illustrates the importance of being one’s true self. The rabbi says, “In the world to come, I shall not be asked, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ Instead I shall be asked, ‘Why were you not Zusya?’ ”26 The Church challenges men and women to find their greatness and dignity as human persons made in the image and likeness of God, their Creator — “male and female he made them” (Gen. 1:27), each sharing in the image of God, in his creative powers, and in the expressions of their intellects and wills.

  The Truth about Man and God

  In chapters 5 and 6 of Dives in Misericordia, Pope John Paul II analyzed the parable of the prodigal son as an example of how a father welcomes home a hitherto lost son who had squandered all he had received from the father in misdirected, sinful pursuit of happiness. What parent would not run out into the street in joy to intercept a child thought to have been lost? Whatever anger and disappointment one might feel at the wicked deeds of the child, having the child home again more than outweighs any demands of justice. In the Bible this parable is given along with similar parables of precious things lost and joyously recovered, but nothing is more precious than a person, a child of God, gathered once again into the loving arms of a father. Accordingly, the pope considered it imperative for man to reclaim his rightful dignity as a child of God and a brother of Jesus, redeemed by the incarnation, the cross, and the resurrection of Christ.

  Christ the Redeemer “fully reveals man to himself.” If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity, and value that belong to his humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly “expressed” and, in a way, is newly created. He is newly created! “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ.” The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly — and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being — he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must “appropriate” and assimilate the whole reality of Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also a deep wonder at himself. How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he “gained so great a Redeemer,” and if God “gave his only begotten Son” in order th
at man “shall not perish but have eternal life.”

  In reality, the name for that deep amazement at man’s worth and dignity is the Gospel, that is to say: the Good News. It is also called Christianity. This amazement determines the Church’s mission in the world and, perhaps even more so, “in the modern world.” This amazement, which is also a conviction and a certitude — at its deepest roots it is the certainty of faith, but in a hidden and mysterious way it vivifies every aspect of authentic humanism — is closely related to Christ. . . .

  The Church’s fundamental function in every age and particularly in ours is to direct man’s gaze, to point the awareness and experience of the whole of humanity toward the mystery of Christ, to help all men to be familiar with the profundity of the Redemption taking place in Christ Jesus. At the same time man’s deepest sphere is involved — we mean the sphere of human hearts, consciences and events. (emphasis added)27

  To settle their restless souls, Pope John Paul called on men and women to reclaim their authentic dignity as human persons created, loved, and redeemed by God through Christ in the Holy Spirit. In a homily in Bern, Switzerland, the pope told the crowd assembled at Allmend Field,

  “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). It is not a merit of ours; it is a free gift. Despite the weight of our sins, God loves us and has redeemed us in the blood of Christ. His grace has healed our innermost being. Therefore, we can exclaim with the Psalmist: “How great, Lord, is your love over all the earth!” How great it is in me, in others, in every human being! This is the true source of man’s greatness; this is the root of his indestructible dignity. The image of God is reflected in every human being. Here is the most profound “truth” of man, which can never be unknown or violated. Every outrage borne by man is revealed, in short, as an outrage to his Creator, who loves him with the love of a father.28