America Magazine: Why are so many people fleeing Honduras?

Honduras has endured years of economic and political crises. The November 2017 election results, endorsed by the U.S. government but widely perceived as fraudulent, led to mass protests and dozens of deaths of demonstrators at the hands of security forces and police. The U.N. Office of the High Commission for Human Rights reported that military police and army “used excessive force, including lethal force, to control and disperse protests, leading to the killing and wounding of protesters as well as passers-by.” [...]

Karla Rivas, the coordinator of the Jesuit Migration Network, spoke with America by phone from Queretaro, Mexico, where she was accompanying a separate caravan of mothers who were searching for their children—young migrants who had gone unaccounted for after heading north. “The humanitarian exodus [from Honduras] is the culmination of several crises that have been manifesting themselves over time with the implementation of an unjust economic model.” She called it “an inhumane economic model that is based on extracting [resources] from communities.”[...]

The Center for Economic and Policy Research reports that Honduras has “the most unequal distribution of income in Latin America,” a inequity that has been accelerating since President Manuel Zelaya was deposed in 2009. In the two years after the coup, “over 100 percent of all real income gains went to the wealthiest 10 percent of Hondurans,” according to the report. [...]

Violence is another key driver of immigration from Honduras, which endures one of the world’s highest homicide rates. Much of the violence has been associated with drug trafficking and acts of extortion—criminal gangs can essentially control entire urban communities—but some of the violence results from collusion among gang members, police and security forces, sometimes in acts of intimidation directed at community or environmental activists.

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America Magazine: Controversy over L.G.B.T. Knight highlights tensions at Catholic colleges

The episode is the latest in a years-long struggle for colleges and universities affiliated with the church to balance support for increasingly diverse student populations while adhering to church teaching, which holds that same-sex relations are sinful, even if identifying as gay or lesbian is not. [...]

Father Guevin asked Mr. Keyes to resign his post, citing the possible scandal he would cause by continuing to serve in leadership. In an email to America, Father Guevin said that scandal is “an action that can lead to confusion and doubt regarding the church’s teaching.” [...]

Some students felt that some of Mr. Mattson’s claims are unsupported by science and fail to represent recent developments in the church’s attitude toward same-sex relationships. They wrote to the campus newspaper claiming the university was being hypocritical by calling its L.G.B.T students “beloved” while restricting them from inviting speakers with opinions that do not conform to the teachings of the church. [...]

Last month, Marquette University in Milwaukee stood behind its L.G.B.T. students when a Catholic group called for the administration to cancel a “Pride Prom” event held on campus. Crux reported that the university supported the event and issued a statement saying the U.S. bishops have “expressed that there is no room for discrimination in the Catholic Church, and we will continue to make progress through inclusivity.”

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America Magazine: Five Years of Francis: The Keys to His Papacy

The sheer surprise of Francis’ election was also a factor. John Paul II had been pope for 26 years at the time of his death, and his doctrinal wingman, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was elected to succeed him in 2005 as Benedict XVI. The combined pontificates represented 35 years of a traditional reorientation in the church, and those two popes had named all of the 113 cardinals who went into the 2013 conclave. [...]

But the hallmark of Francis’ papacy, and the source of the gravitational draw of his personality, is not about some tectonic shift in the church. Rather, it is a commitment to reforming the church first in order to serve the flock truly and bear genuine and convincing witness to Christ’s teachings. [...]

Benedict XVI was wiser about the need for the church to renew itself. But he insisted that all the tools and traditions were already at hand. He had neither the energy nor the administrative skill to open the church to reform and instead sought to highlight tradition and beauty and liturgy as the irresistible draw that would outshine the church’s obvious flaws. Both John Paul and Benedict, in other words, saw themselves as pastors who went out in order to bring others back to their fold, through their own gate. [...]

Prosaic as it sounds, part of the answer lies in the numbers. By the end of 2017, Francis had named just under half of the 120 cardinals who could cast a ballot in the next papal election. A two-thirds supermajority is needed to elect a pope, so it is not as though he has “packed” the College of Cardinals. To be sure, many of the cardinals appointed by Benedict and John Paul are happy about the direction in which Francis is taking the church. But others are dismayed, to say the least, and still others are perhaps unnerved by the tumult that has been stirred by Francis’ critics and may want a compromise candidate as his successor, someone less prone to stirring the pot. On the other hand, a principal dynamic at work in the 2013 conclave—an effort by a large majority of the cardinals, whatever their orientation, to rebalance the power equation between the Vatican and local dioceses—endures and could play a central role again.

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America Magazine: One key to understanding Pope Francis? His approach to judgment

The pope’s question held obvious appeal for L.G.B.T. Catholics and their families. For one thing, Francis actually used the word gay—a first for a pope. (Many Catholic leaders employ the more clinical sounding phrase “same-sex attraction” when talking about gays and lesbians, often over the objection of the people they are talking about.) It also signaled an openness from the highest echelons of the church toward accompanying gays and lesbians on their faith journeys, something relatively novel in recent church history. [...]

In “Evangelii Gaudium,” or “The Joy of the Gospel,” which Pope Francis published during the first year of his pontificate and which serves as the blueprint of his papacy, he wrote what has become another of his famous lines. He said that he prefers a church that is “bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” One of the symptoms of the church being closed in on itself, he continued, is that it makes Christians fixate on “rules which make us harsh judges.” [...]

He laid out this argument in a homily delivered at his residence in 2014, as reported by L’Osservatore Romano. He said that being merciful includes seeking forgiveness for one’s own sins—rather than condemning the shortcomings of others. “Who am I to judge this? Who am I to gossip about this? Who I am, who have done the same things, or worse?” he asked.

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America Magazine: Firing of L.G.B.T. Catholic church workers raises hard (and new) questions

The two are just the latest church workers to be fired over issues of sexuality and marriage, clashes that have heightened in recent years as same-sex marriage becomes more mainstream even as the church holds the line on L.G.B.T. issues. According to New Ways Ministry, at least 80 people have been fired from Catholic parishes, schools and other entities in cases related to sexual orientation over the past decade—though they note that this figure is based only on individual cases that go public.

“With each new firing, the injustice of these actions becomes clearer and clearer to Catholic people in the pews,” Francis DeBernardo, the group’s executive director, told America. Mr. DeBernardo adds that the “singling out of L.G.B.T. church employees as the only group whose lives must be in full accordance with the hierarchy’s sexual ethics is blatant discrimination.

“While these actions hurt those that are fired and the communities they serve, they also hurt the church as a whole because our credibility as voices of justice is weakened, and our image as a community of love and compassion is destroyed.” [...]

Ms. Kaveny echoed that sentiment, saying, “If you’re taking the church’s sexual ethic seriously, are you going to interview heterosexual couples to find out if they’re sleeping together before marriage or if they’re using birth control? Questions tend to fall unfairly on one group of people who may not be accepting Catholic sexual teaching in all its fullness.”

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America Magazine: German cardinal urges pastoral care of gay couples

According to a transcript provided by the German Bishops Conference, when Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising is asked if he “can imagine that there might be a way to bless homosexual couples in the Catholic Church?” he responds by saying, “There are no general solutions and I think that would not be right, because we are talking about pastoral care for individual cases, and that applies to other areas as well, which we cannot regulate, where we have no sets of rules.” [...]

German Catholic media had interpreted the cardinal’s remarks as moving a step back from a suggestion made by Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück in January that the Catholic Church should debate the possibility of a blessing ceremony for Catholic gay couples involved in the church. [...]

The initial coverage of Cardinal Marx’s remarks led Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia to write a blog encouraging bishops to be clear about what they intend or don’t intend to suggest on the subject.

And, Archbishop Chaput said, “any such 'blessing rite' would cooperate in a morally forbidden act, no matter how sincere the persons seeking the blessing. Such a rite would undermine the Catholic witness on the nature of marriage and the family. It would confuse and mislead the faithful. And it would wound the unity of our church, because it could not be ignored or met with silence.” [...]

“I’m not for ‘marriage for all,’ but if two homosexuals enter a same-sex relationship, if they want to take responsibility for each other, then I can bless this mutual responsibility,” Bishop Dieter Geerlings of Münster said. “This is valuable and praiseworthy, even if this bond is not in complete agreement with the church.”

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America Magazine: Creationism isn’t about science, it’s about theology (and it’s really bad theology)

The Creation Museum is a $27 million example of how Christians can lose their way fighting the culture wars. After spending time there this Christmas, I left convinced that as wrong as the museum’s science is, the most frightening driver of its “logic” is an impoverished theology, which is coupled with a desire to win moral arguments. This toxic combination propels devout people into strange and unnecessary battles with modern science. [...]

This concern about evolution and what it implies about God reveals that creationism’s core motivation is not science, but questions about evil, pain and suffering. Can a loving God use a process of death and competition to create life in all its awe-inspiring diversity? Can the biblical tradition give us insight? How and why can we trust that tradition if the narratives in the Book of Genesis do not match up with scientific facts? These are great theological questions, but they are not scientific ones. The Creation Museum has a serious theological problem that needs theological scrutiny. [...]

Strangely, in their attempt to provide definitive empirical answers to moral and theological questions, creationists like Mr. Ham have more in common with some of their most strident scientific opponents than with the broader Christian tradition. They are proponents of the strictest form of biblical inerrancy and literalism. And in this mode they are actually advancing a mirror-image of scientism, in which God’s revelation, both in Scripture and in creation, is meant to convey a list of facts.

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America Magazine: How the Catholic Church is fighting the drug war in the Philippines

But apartheid between Europeans and indigenous Filipinos grew such that by the 19th century the latter were still obliged to kiss the hand of any passing Spanish clergyman and were forbidden to break bread at the same table.[...]

That everyman image is a key reason Duterte became president last June. The Philippines is deeply corrupt and economically divided. In 2011, 40 families, most of whose wealth stems from the Spanish era, reaped 76.5 percent of its GDP growth. Since the turn of the century, the country has moved 32 places on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which surveys citizens on how problematic they consider day-to-day malfeasance to be. The Philippines moved from 69th to 101st of 176 countries. [...]

The police have recorded 6,000 deaths under investigation. The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates has recorded at least 12,000. Over 100,000 people have been arrested, and prisons are packed like slave galleons. Duterte has pledged to kill 100,000 “drug personalities.” Duterte is like the movie character Dirty Harry, one Manila taxi driver told me, holding his fingers up like a gun. “You do something bad now you have two things: the cemetery and the hospital.” [...]

“The sheer number of killings during martial law will pale in comparison with the records of killings in the war on drugs,” Edwin A. Gariguez, of Caritas Philippines, told me. “And the authoritarian rule of Duterte is beginning to become even worse than the martial law of Marcos, which he tried to disguise through some semblance [of] legality. Duterte is more brazen, unreasonably vindictive, with little or no regard for accountability.”

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America Magazine: The Editors: Pope Francis needs to restore trust in response to sex abuse crisis

It is typical protocol for the pope to offer the final commendation at the funeral of a cardinal in Rome, and long waits for official Vatican actions and announcements are nothing new. But the juxtaposition of these events is jarring to the world outside Rome. As attention is again focused on Cardinal Law, a symbol of the church’s abject failure during the sex abuse crisis in the United States, many survivors of abuse and other Catholics are wondering when the church will publicly hold bishops accountable for misdeeds and inaction in responding to sex abuse.

Pope Francis’ apparent lack of urgency in re-appointing members of the sex abuse commission and the lack of clarity about how survivors will be represented among those members is alarming. Confidence in the commission was already damaged earlier this year when Marie Collins, the only survivor of sexual abuse still active on the commission, resigned in protest against curial opposition to the process of reform. Healing and reconciliation within the church would be assisted immeasurably by a clear papal statement recognizing the need for transparency around the work of the commission and the reforms it proposes.

Catholics are called to trust the church and its leaders, and they want to respond to that call generously. But in its handling of sex abuse, the church spent decades squandering that trust. Continued bureaucratic delay on the renewal of the commission further erodes that trust. The lack of clear public action to hold church leaders accountable for their role in allowing sex abuse to happen damages that trust as well. Pope Francis should recognize that, for the world outside the Vatican, much greater transparency is necessary. He should act swiftly to establish it.

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America Magazine: What would Martin Luther say about today’s migrant and refugee crises?

Pastoral and theological reflections on immigrants and refugees from the perspective of theological traditions, including Catholic and Lutheran, are available. However, as Christians commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, it is surprising that little has been said on what Martin Luther’s teaching on hospitality toward strangers and exiles might offer to our current situation. We need to revisit the views of this 16th-century reformer on hospitality now more than ever: We live in an increasingly multiethnic nation, at a time when Christianity’s center of gravity has shifted to the global South, and in a world experiencing the greatest transnational movement of refugees and immigrants in history, including those coming to our shores and their children. In this day and age, I believe we are called to embody a radical hospitality toward these marginal neighbors. Let us rediscover that part of Luther’s teaching that can help us in this task. [...]

Although Luther focuses on exiles who flee for their lives due to religious persecution, he also reminds Christians to be “generous not only toward the brethren...but also toward those who are strangers in the state, provided that they are not manifestly evil.” For example, if a “Turk” (in today’s language, a Muslim) came to us as a “stranger” and “in distress” we should not disregard him “even though he is not suffering because of the Word.” Even if a Christian’s first responsibility is to those of “the household of faith,” they also should assist others “who experience misfortune.” [...]

Moreover, Luther teaches us that Christians must not lump all immigrants together with those who have an evil intent. This suggests we must put a human face on debates about refugee policy and immigration law. Not all refugees and travelers from the Middle East are radical Muslims bent on killing Americans. Not all undocumented immigrants are criminals, rapists or “bad hombres.” Christians must set a higher example and ask deeper questions about the kinds of sufferings these neighbors experience. As church, we must hear their stories with compassion. As citizens and residents, we must also seriously consider whether there is, as Luther would say, “some little domain of a godly prince in which there can be room for such people.” Going through this process of discernment will help us make decisions about advocacy and support for those whom Luther calls exiles on account of God’s Word and other “exiles of the state.”

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America Magazine: Ahead of Reformation anniversary, Lutherans pray for full communion with Catholics

Though today’s Lutherans and Catholics may feel more unified, obstacles remain to sacramental unity between the churches. The 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification allowed Lutherans and Catholics to express a common understanding of “justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ.” The central issues for which Lutherans and Catholics mutually condemned each other in the 16th century are no longer church-dividing. The issues of church and ministry—particularly the ordination of women, married clergy and apostolic succession—are today’s main challenges.  [...]

But Ms. Johnson knows the pain of Catholic-Lutheran tensions. When she was growing up, her Catholic cousins told her younger brothers that they were going to hell because they were not Catholic. Later in life, a priest publicly told her she was not welcome when she went up for Communion at her Catholic granddaughter’s Confirmation. Today, she is grateful for Pope Francis, whom she sees as moving away from the pain of the past. [...]

With Pope Francis and Catholic leaders making institutional efforts to promote unity among Christians, the work of ecumenism should also flourish at the ground level. Pastor Mills and his parishioners can offer Catholic parishes a model of friendship and prayer while both Catholics and Lutherans await full sacramental unity.

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America Magazine: Half of U.S. Catholics say belief in God is not necessary to be a good person

For the first time, a majority of Americans—56 percent—say it is possible to be a good person without religious belief. And about half of all U.S. Catholics agree. [...]

“In the 2011 Pew Research Center survey that included the question about God and morality, religious “nones” constituted 18 percent of the sample. By 2017, the share of ‘nones’ stood at 25 percent,” the report notes.

But even some believers have changed their opinions on the matter during the past few years. According to the report, among white evangelical Protestants, 32 percent now say belief in God is not necessary to have good values and be a moral person, up from 26 percent who said this in 2011.

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America Magazine: Pope Francis: The death penalty is contrary to the Gospel

When St. John Paul II published the catechism in 1992 it still admitted the use of the death penalty (No. 2266). But strong reaction from bishops and the faithful in many countries led him to revise the text in 1997, with the help of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The revised text (No. 2267), however, still did not exclude the death penalty on moral grounds as Pope Francis did today; it said that given the possibilities the modern state has of rendering the criminal incapable of doing harm again, then “the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity ‘are very rare, if not practically non-existent.’”

Several times since becoming pope, Francis has made clear his total opposition to the death penalty, including in his speech to the U.S. Congress and to the United Nations in September 2015. But today he took a much greater step than any of his predecessors by declaring publicly on a solemn occasion, directly related to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that the death penalty is “contrary to the Gospel” and “inadmissible,” making clear that the catechism must address the question in this more complete way. [...]

“Sadly, too,” he said, “also in the Papal State there was recourse to the extreme and inhuman remedy, ignoring the primacy of mercy over justice.” Speaking as the Successor of St. Peter, he said, “We assume responsibility for the past, and we recognize that those means were dictated more by a legalistic than a Christian mentality. The concern to fully preserve the powers and the material riches led to an overestimation of the value of the law, preventing a going in depth into the understanding of the Gospel.” [...]

Clearly anticipating objections of a theological nature from some quarters, Francis explained, “Here we are not in the presence of any contradiction with past teaching, because the dignity of human life from the first instant of conception to natural death has always found in the church it coherent and authoritative voice.” Indeed, he said, “the harmonious development of doctrine requires putting aside positions in defense of arguments that already appear decidedly against the new understanding of Christian truth.”

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America Magazine: San Diego bishop celebrates special Mass for parents of L.G.B.T. Catholics

The U.S. bishops’ committee on marriage and family released the letter “Always Our Children” in 1997 as an attempt to encourage parents not to abandon their gay and lesbian children and to assure them of God’s love. It received mixed reactions at the time, with some Catholics decrying it as a capitulation to the still-nascent gay rights movement while others said it did not go far enough to combat bigotry in the church and wider society. [...]

“You could see people crying,” he told America, recalling how one person in attendance confided to him that he had not been to Mass in nearly three decades. He said some parents, especially from the Hispanic community, had told him they felt as though they had to distance themselves either from their church or from their gay children, a choice he tells them they do not need to make. [...]

“The church is bending with the times and with the pervasiveness of homosexual activism throughout the country and indeed the globe,” Allyson Smith told the newspaper. “And we feel the church should stand strong as a bulwark against cultural trends.... Our concern today is the church is becoming too accommodating to homosexuality.”  

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America Magazine: Pope Francis: Priests proven to have abused minors cannot appeal

Pope Francis said that “the church irrevocably, and at all levels intends” to respond to the sexual abuse of minors with “zero tolerance,” in a meeting with members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors this morning, Sept. 21. [...]

“Today the person repents, he goes forward, we pardon him, but two years later he does the same,” the pope said. He acknowledged that “the church became aware of this too late” to realize the gravity of the problem and the church’s own responsibility in the matter. Referring to the past practice of moving priests around, and not facing the problem, he thanked God for sending “prophetic men and women” in the church who involved others and got the church to face the problem head-on. Acknowledging that there is a backlog of cases to be dealt with in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Francis said that more personnel would be assigned to this work. [...]

The prepared text noted that Francis accepted the commission's proposal regarding responsibility in the church for the protection of minors, when he issued the motu proprio, “Like A Loving mother” in June 2016. That decree “addresses the cases of those diocesan bishops, Eparchs, and Major Superiors of Religious Institutes who through negligence committed or through omission facilitated acts that have caused grave harm to others, either to physical persons or to the community as a whole.”

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America Magazine: Steve Bannon says Catholics "need illegal aliens to fill the churches"

Mr. Bannon was the subject of a much-discussed article written by two associates of Pope Francis earlier this summer, in which they condemned what they see as a growing relationship between Catholic and evangelical fundamentalists in the United States.

Following Mr. Trump’s decision on Tuesday to rescind the program that could affect up to 800,000 young people currently living in the United States, Catholic bishops reacted strongly. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the decision “reprehensible.”

“The bishops have been terrible about this. By the way, you know why? You know why? Because unable to really...to come to grips with the problems in the church, they need illegal aliens, they need illegal aliens to fill the churches,” Mr. Bannon said, according to the transcript published by CBS News. “That’s—it’s obvious on the face of it. That’s what—the entire Catholic bishops condemn him. ... They have—they have an economic interest. They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration, unlimited illegal immigration.”

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America Magazine: How the Vatican is encouraging dialogue between Russia and the West

President Vladimir Putin has visited the Vatican five times and has already had two private conversations with Pope Francis, in 2013 and 2015. He is expected to meet him again next January, when he comes for the opening of a Russian art exhibition in the Vatican. Moreover, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has met his Vatican counterparts on several occasions and engaged in what sources say were “substantial, constructive discussions.” [...]

This developing friendship has been matched by an ever-improving relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church, with its 150 million members, and the Holy See. Pope Francis has played a huge role in this with his approach to the Orthodox Church and his willingness to meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. Relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Holy See have been encouraged by President Putin, who has embraced the Orthodox faith not only at a personal level but also as part of his effort to consolidate his power at home. Last year, Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis met in Havana in February; a month later, the pope appointed one of the Holy See’s top diplomats, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, as nuncio to Russia. [...]

The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, visited Russia from Aug. 20 to 24, upon an invitation from Russian state and church authorities. (This was the first visit by a secretary of state since 1999, and the most significant since Cardinal Agostino Casaroli’s 1990 visit following the collapse of the Soviet Union.) Cardinal Parolin had what he defined as “important and constructive encounters” with President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Hilarion, president of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations and the number-two official in that patriarchate.

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America Magazine: Making sense of the tension and contradictions in Kenya and Rwanda's elections

When the incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta and his party (the Jubilee Party of Kenya) won the election with 54 percent of the vote, the leader of the opposition National Super Alliance, Raila Odinga, cried foul, claiming electronic “voter theft.” Protests followed and turned violent in Odinga-supporting areas. Mr. Odinga has decided to take the results to the Kenyan Supreme Court, despite the local and international observers’ conclusion that the election was basically free and fair.

In contrast, the elections in Rwanda on Aug. 4 passed almost without incident. The incumbent, Paul Kagame, was re-elected for a third seven-year term with a somewhat astonishing 98.8 percent against two other candidates. There was no electoral violence, no public disputing of the outcome and no overt signs of electoral fraud. Apart, that is, from one candidate for presidency, Diana Rwigara, having nude photos of herself leaked onto the internet, probably to discredit her. [...]

While many see the result as a sign of repression, supporters of Kagame see it as a sign that his no-nonsense approach to rebuilding a country that was devastated by the mid-1990s genocide has grassroots support. There may be truth in that: Under Kagame’s authoritarian rule, the country’s economy has boomed. Described as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Rwanda has had a GDP growth rate of around 8 percent, has reduced poverty levels, invested in infrastructure and technology, and is rated by the World Bank as the second best country to do business in in Africa (56th in the world). It is also rated by Transparency International as the third least corrupt country on the continent, ranking 50th out of 176 countries worldwide in 2016. [...]

However this should offer no consolation to the deeply fragile, though perhaps more democratic, Kenya. The political chaos that marks Kenyan elections and the corruption of the country’s political process does no one any good, least of all the economy. Kenyans need to take the positive aspects of Kagame’s success—anticorruption measures and economic growth—to heart. If they do, it is likely that it will afford Kenya a more certain and long-term stability and prosperity.

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America Magazine: When the K.K.K. came to town, Catholics prayed. Now what?

The K.K.K.’s visit to my city is the latest in a series of reactions to the efforts by the City of Charlottesville to critically examine its history of racism and slavery and the legacy of memorials in its public spaces. In April, the City Council in Charlottesville voted (3-2) to remove a statue of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee and unanimously agreed to change the name of Lee Park to Emancipation Park. Jackson Park in Charlottesville (named after Stonewall Jackson, another Confederate general) was renamed Justice Park. Though greeted with applause among many sectors of the community, retaliation against the city’s efforts has also been swift and fierce. Since then, Charlottesville has become a flashpoint for a variety of contentious national debates: how cities will deal with their tormented racial legacies; the appropriateness of Confederate symbols in public; questions of identity, the safety of minority communities, free speech and public protest. [...]

On July 8, about 50 members of the Loyal White Knights, a newer chapter of the Ku Klux Klan based in Pelham, N.C., held a rally in Justice Park. Their rally was met by an estimated 1,000-person counterprotest with representation from Black Lives Matter, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Solidarity CVille and the Charlottesville Clergy Collective. The Klan members carried Confederate flags and signs with anti-Semitic messages and engaged in a collective Nazi-style salute during the 45-minute rally. The chilling ritual concluded when they were escorted away by heavily armed police officers. A member of their group reported that they would retreat to private land for a cookout and a cross burning. [...]

On July 6, I received an email invitation from a local parish: “HOLY HOUR FOR PEACE AND THE END OF HATRED AND RACISM.” We would pray the rosary in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in anticipation of the K.K.K.’s rally. Frankly, I was surprised to receive an invitation of this nature from this particular parish. Like many Catholic parishes in the United States, this one almost never discusses race or racism in explicit terms, even as the body count of unarmed black men and women killed at the hands of police officers continues to climb. I quickly rearranged my schedule to be present with others for this prayer. [...]

Still, I wonder why I have never heard racism denounced in such clarion terms from a parish before. Will I hear it denounced so clearly again? Does the Catholic Church in the United States have the courage to stand up to racism before the K.K.K. comes to town? Or after the K.K.K. leaves town? Will our parishes stand in solidarity with those involved in nonviolent direct action in response to racial hatred?

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America Magazine: Edith Stein's niece on what her canonization means for Catholic-Jewish dialogue (February 13, 1999)

The Cardinal then quoted a comment made by Rabbi Daniel Polish in his contribution to a volume of essays that first appeared in Germany in 1990, Never Forget: Christian and Jewish Perspectives on Edith Stein (1998). In his essay Rabbi Polish wrote: “While we cannot embrace the notion that Edith Stein will serve as a bridge [between Jews and Catholics], we can see the occasion of her canonization as opening a door to significant discourse.” [...]

In 1993, John Paul II established diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Israel. In 1994, he sponsored at the Vatican a concert commemorating the Shoah. Earlier on, in 1986, he made a historic decision—he paid a visit to the great synagogue of Rome, the first pope ever to go there. On that occasion, he clearly condemned anti-Semitism and addressed the Jews as “our elder brothers.” He also recalled the deportations of the Jews of Rome during the Holocaust. These actions and statements of John Paul II have been welcomed in Jewish circles. They stand in sharp contrast to the policies of the Vatican during the rise of National Socialism.

On July 20, 1933, the Vatican concluded a concordat—a kind of mutual non-interference agreement—with the Hitler Government. It was signed by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, then the Holy See’s Secretary of State and later Pope Pius XII. I remember clearly that the news of the signing of this concordat had a devastating impact on Germany’s anti-Nazis and especially upon Jews. At that time, the Vatican could have taken a stand against Nazi ideology and against Hitler’s program of bigotry and belligerence without any risk at all. In fact, as the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholics in Germany, Pius XII could have persuaded a large segment of the German population to recognize the incompatibility of National Socialist programs and policies with the moral principles of the church. Instead, the pact boosted the prestige of this disreputable new German chancellor in the eyes of the world. [...]

In her own family, Edith was only one of four siblings who fell victim to the Nazis. Moreover, to speak of Edith Stein’s going to her death “for her people” poses a problem for Jews. Christians consider the death of Jesus to have been redemptive. By his sacrifice, he atoned for the sins of the people. In contrast, my Aunt Edith was killed alongside millions of Jews. Her suffering and death could not save the others. It was a death she did not choose, could not choose and could not have avoided. It was a death that did not stop the killing of others and did not give a religious meaning to the slaughter. It was a fact that Edith Stein died in solidarity with “her people.” Even though she had left the Jewish fold, she was finally, in an ironic twist, reunited with them in death. She was resigned to that fate, but she had no control over it. It was rather due to the Nazis’ definition of who is a Jew. It was because she was born Jewish, of Jewish parentage, that she became a “Martyr in Auschwitz.”

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