Transcript of an oral history interview with Robert D. Forger conducted by Joseph Cates at Forger's home in Newtown, Connecticut, on 16 March 2016 as part of the Norwich Voices oral history project of the Sullivan Museum and History Center. Robert D. Forger was a member of the Norwich University Class of 1949. The bulk of his interview focuses on the history and development of his relationship with Norwich University, including as a student, alumnus, and trustee. ; 1 Robert Forger, NU '49, Oral History Interview March 16, 2016 At His Home in Newtown, Connecticut Interviewed by Joseph Cates, of the Norwich Oral History Project JOSEPH CATES: Mr. Forger, Bob, can you please state your full name and date and place of your birth? ROBERT FORGER: Robert D. Forger, May 24, 1928, in Norwalk, Connecticut. JC: Talk a little bit about growing up in Norwalk. RF: I grew up in Westport. Westport did not have a hospital. And for years we could get our birth certificates in Westport but then they stopped. If you were born in Norwalk, you can't do it. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: That was a wonderful place to grow up in. It was a town of about 5,000 people. I went to a high school that took in students from two other towns and had a graduating class of about 96, almost 100. And 11 were from one other town and 13 were from the other town, so the other 75 were from Westport. I got a wonderful preparation there. We had a very, very good faculty. If you can believe this, I learned all my English from the Latin teacher. I took four years of Latin. We had to diagram the sentences. Latin sentences. And I had an English teacher whom I had for three years who was hung up on the classics, so we learned very little English, but we sure know all of Shakespeare and everybody else. (Laughs) And I got a good preparation because when I went off to Norwich, the curriculum as a chemist, I had to take trigonometry. And I said, "But I've had trigonometry." Oh, no, you haven't had trigonometry like this. This is really …, so you have to take it. So, I took it and got a 98 and the instructor said to me when it was all over, he said, "You know, I think you've had this subject before." And I said, "I certainly have." (Laughs) JC: What made you decide to go to Norwich? RF: I went to the physical – I wanted to go to West Point and I have a military bend and nobody in the family knows from whence it came. And I wanted to go to West Point and as a junior in high school I flunked the physical because of astigmatism in one of the eyes in which they would not give a waiver. And it was very difficult to get into it at that time because the war was on and everybody wanted to get in and be protected for four years or maybe the three-year curriculum they were doing at the time. So, our local dentist said, "Why don't 2 you go up the Norwich?" I knew nothing about Norwich but his nephew, who practiced not very far from where we are now, had gone there, Class of '39, and had become a dentist and he said, "You ought to go there." So, I applied. We went up to take a look at the place and I got accepted. JC: Okay. This is a question for you. Tell me a little bit about your rook year, about being a rook. RF: I think it was pretty darn easy. JC: (Laughs) RF: I don't think it was bad. A lot of people complained about it but I had read some stories about what went on at West Point, I had a book West Point Today about what they had to go through. As long as you didn't try to think as an individual, and not do what they wanted you to do, you were fine. One of my experiences was, they came in, and I doubt they do this today, came into our room. My roommate, myself, they turned the heat up on high and said, "At 9:30 we're going to have everybody in here." And they had everybody in our room and you had to bring your blankets, you had to wear your mackinaw, wear your blanket – wrapped in a blanket and it was so darn hot in that room and then you had to jump up and down, singing "God Bless America." At 10:00 (inaudible) [0:05:08], everybody left. They left our room in shambles. And we had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to straighten it out for inspection. (Laughs) But that was – and that was not a bad experience, it wasn't bad at all. JC: You were also in a fraternity. Tell me about that. RF: Sigma Phi Epsilon, Sig Ep. In the building where the president now lives. That wasn't as plush as it is now. They've added to it since those days. And it was interesting because nobody was around fraternities in my freshman year and they rushed the new pledges in October of my sophomore year. And the house president got up, I understand, later. He said – now you have to remember, they were all civilians, because Norwich took in anyone who had been there before. To come back in civilian clothes and finish up his education. Didn't have to wear a uniform. Didn't have to participate in the military. Really a very good decision, I think. And, he said, told them, "You have to remember, we're a military school and our future is military. And you guys shouldn't be voting in people who are civilians now, just because they're your friends. You've got to stick with the military." Sig Ep took in five cadets and we were the most cadets, we were down there with cadets with 45 other civilians. (Laughs) And, we developed from there. But it was a really wise thing to say, because some of the fraternities took in only two and that was, I think, a mistake on their part. JC: Well, how did you feel about when they did away with the fraternities? 3 RF: Mixed emotions. It was sort of a second-class citizenship, particularly athletically because we had a troop league and when I left there were six troops. A headquarters troop, which was the band, and five line troops. And we had an athletic league with the troops and an athletic league with the fraternities. And it ended up that the guys who were left behind in the troops, they just felt like second class citizens. They didn't play with the big boys. And I think that was one divisive effect that the fraternities had. But it was a great place to go and to relax. When you went through the front door, why military was out the window. But when you went out the front door, your tie better be straight and your cap on right and in everything else, the military prevailed. JC: Now, you said there was an incident that happened that caused the fraternities to be done away with. RF: Yes, this was what – I left in June of '49 and early '50 when General Harmon came on board as the president. And I believe it was Winter Carnival that year and one of the fraternities, a guy in a drunken stupor went headlong down the stairs and did damage to his neck and his back and everything else and lost a semester of school because of the injuries. And that was the catalyst for Harmon getting rid of the fraternities. He – it took him a while, but he usually gets his way. (Laughs) JC: What is your – what do you remember most about your years at Norwich? RF: I think the camaraderie. I think it was a wonderful small school. I made so many friends. It was the type I liked and could live with and getting up at 6 or 6:15, that kind of thing, it – the rules and regulations never bothered me. I may have been an exception but I never walked a tour in my life. When it was O.D. (?) [0:10:05] my senior year, I can remember the temperature – 10 degrees in the middle of winter, starting a tour line with a hundred guys in it. (Laughs) JC: (Chuckles) RF: And they had a system, which I overlooked at the time, I knew what was happening. The first three guys in the line would peel off and go into Alumni Hall. Now when the line came around again, the next three or five or whatever number they had decided on, would peel off and the other ones would come back out, get at the end of the line. Because it was so darn cold. JC: (Laughs) Now, Homer Dodge was president when you were a student. RF: Yes. JC: Tell me about that. 4 RF: I don't think he was – in retrospect, I didn't have that much of an insight. I don't think he was a very effective president. He was – he wore a uniform, but that was about it. He didn't know how to wear it. He was an eminent physicist and – well we had Fuzzy Woodbury. We had a good physics department. He was the wrong guy for the job. And we finally got to him and he realized he wasn't doing anything. Fortunately, we had a guy, in fact two of them, that were commandants and assistant commandants that really kept the Norwich activity going. And some of the guys that returned, some of the veterans, I can remember the veterans getting after it. They got dressed up in their uniforms and they got all the sophomores together and they said, "We see that you're violating some of the traditions and these are what they are." And one of them was Jack O'Neil. "These are what they are and you've got to start living by them." JC: Tell me about when Eisenhower came to the commencement and gave the commencement address. RF: I don't remember anything about the commencement address, but it was allegedly his first or maybe only one of his first appearances in 1946. In my freshman year, we had three graduates. Who – how they did it – but finished up their last year and their last semester. And Eisenhower came, both senators were with him. JC: (Laughs) RF: As you might expect. And the one thing I do remember is the pushing match he got into with President Dodge. In the military, the lowest ranking guys get in the car first. And the highest ranking last, so he can be the first one out of the car. And Homer Dodge would not let – he would not precede Eisenhower. And Eisenhower solved the issue by putting the palm of his hand in the back of Dodge's back and propelling him into the car. And it worked pretty well. But that's the only thing I really remember about the commencement. JC: Tell me about some of the professors that really had an influence on your life. RF: Well, I think there were probably two. Both junior chemistry professors. They were probably only instructors at the time. And one was Bill Nichols, who taught most of the advanced organic and inorganic. He was only here the one year I was there, in my senior year. He taught most of the organic and inorganic advanced classes. Whereas, the other professors taught the physical chemistry, the more difficult courses. He was a great guy and the other was Jack O'Neil who was a senior when I was a junior and a senior only because he came back. He was the Class of '44 and returned after the war. He ran most of the labs down in the bottom of Dodge Hall. He was a true Norwich guy. And one of the things I think that proved it was when our son, Gary, went up to Norwich, he was the Class of '75. When he went up in '71, we were in the orientation line and Jack O'Neil comes up and said "hi" to me and shook hands with Gary and he said, "Things get pretty rough up there. If you need some relief any time, here's my telephone 5 number. I live right down the street. Give me a call and come on over and get away from it all." And that was really a very nice thing to do. JC: What does the idea of the citizen soldier mean to you? RF: This is a put-up question, because this is something I answered on the questionnaire that your predecessor sent out. JC: Yes. It's on the first page. RF: Read it. "Citizen soldier" by my definition is an individual with a strong interest in the military, who is willing to act in the secondary line of military preparedness, rather than full-time service. Now, that was true in my day. And up until the second Gulf War started. It really isn't true anymore because anyone who is in the national guard or the reserves is going to get called one way or another. JC: Now, you served in the reserves from 1949 to '72, correct? RF: '72, yes. JC: Can you talk a little bit about that? About being in the reserves. RF: It was a nice experience, a great experience. I got some fairly good jobs out of it. I was with a tank battalion in Stamford and the C.O. was a 1934 graduate from the University of Massachusetts. I went to my first meeting and a guy sidles up to me and he says, "You know, that isn't an army uniform. That's a Norwich uniform." I didn't have any uniforms. I graduated in June and this was a September meeting and who was this guy but Phil Marsilius. JC: Oh. (Laughs) RF: (Laughs) Who was the emeritus chairman of the board. He was the S2 of the battalion. And the next day when he brings up another guy and introduces him to me, he's the S3 and it's Tommy, they called him in those days, Andy I always knew him as, Andy Boggs, who was the Class of '44 and who was the S3. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: And I got this C.O. that I had, I got some good jobs out of it that proved to be good because I could do them. And, he went to summer camp with the Norwich guys. And he was ROTC, not military. ROTC such as Norwich. And he told me later, he gave me these jobs because those Norwich guys could do anything. And he observed it at camp, at his summer camp, they could do anything. And we had 6 two Norwich guys. We had a bunch of lieutenants who had just come in when I left the tank battalion. And he – so I got some pretty good jobs out of it. JC: Where did you go to summer camp? RF: Ft. Meade, Maryland. And we spent a week down at A.P. Hill in Virginia, living in tents in rain storms and everything, because they didn't have a range big enough. That was the closest range large enough to fire the tank guns. Now I guess they all go out to Washington some place, Ft. Lewis, I think. JC: Oh, yes. RF: And of course, we were at, in those days, I got a commission at Armored Cavalry Reserve. Now I think you get branch and material and you sort of get your branch when you graduate, but I'm not sure. JC: I know if they're in ROTC, they pick which branch for ROTC now. If they want to go navy ROTC – RF: Oh, yes. See, we didn't have any navy or any air force. And when our son was there a year and with us paying the money for him, he got offered an air force ROTC scholarship for the last three years. Which we spoke to him and said, "You've got to serve five or six years or whatever," and he turned it down. JC: Now, one thing I wanted to ask you was – you were at Norwich when they still had the horse cavalry, correct? RF: Correct. JC: Can you talk a little bit about that? RF: (Laughs) Well, I was a stellar horseman. They brought back the horses at the end of our sophomore year, the summer between sophomore and junior. As the graduate, you had to take equitation. So, I took equitation in my junior year and my claim to fame was I led the class in being thrown. JC: (Laughs) RF: (Laughs) My roommate at the time was about 5'4" and every day – every Thursday when we went down for equitation, he got assigned the biggest horse, Burma. And he couldn't get up on the darn horse, because he fixed the stirrups the way you had to and they watched over you and made sure you did this, and he couldn't get up on the horse. And they had to boost him up. It was an interesting experience and something I really didn't want to continue. And they took the horses away at the end of our junior year. So, it was over. 7 JC: They came and they went within about a year. RF: Yes. JC: Now, how did Norwich prepare you for life? RF: I think it brought out the – my leadership aspects. I think I had some during elementary and junior high school. I think perhaps they faded in high school but they sure brought them out in being willing to step in and do something and to take charge when you had to. And I'm really quite proud of – when the organization of Society of Plastics Engineers that I was executive director for the last 22 years of my civilian career, I had a president whom I was not close and some you get very close to and others you don't. At the annual meeting, after I retired, he asked me to make sure I was at the annual meeting, he had a poem that he did that went on and on and on, citing really my whole life. And at the end, he said he left us with many attributes. He represented us well in the plastics industry, he did this, he did that. But most of all, was his leadership that we value. And that was brought out later on by a couple of people that I was not particularly close to. (Laughs) They told my son, who ended up with the same organization, they told my son, "We really miss your father, because he always did what he said he would do and he did it on time and we knew exactly where we stood on every issue." JC: Another question that we ask everybody in these oral histories is what does the Norwich motto "I Will Try" mean to you? RF: I really don't know. I think it means you'll do the very best you can under any circumstances, whatever circumstances may confront you. And we use it here every day. I go out in the car and I leave Eleanor behind and she says to me, she says, "Drive safely," and I always reply with, "I will try." (Laughs) JC: So, what did you do after you left Norwich? RF: I only worked for two companies in my life. One was Dorr-Oliver, which was involved in the separation of liquids and solids, starting with ores but later got into sewage and water treatment and things such as that. And then for 33 years with the Society of Plastics Engineers. Which I got aimed into with the only two electives I ever had in my life at Norwich. I was ordered with 84 or 86 credits in chemistry and so much in math and physics and all this stuff and I took a course from Peter Dow Webster; a semester of advertising and a semester of public relations. And I enjoyed it. And I ended up doing this with Dorr-Oliver after I left the lab. And I applied for some way to do this kind of thing, with the Society of Plastics Engineers and got the job at SPE. And I did virtually every job – the meetings manager, and the local sections and divisions coordinator, the publisher of four magazines, associate executive director and then, finally, executive director. 8 JC: So, you didn't go to Korea right after – you ended up with deferment, correct? RF: Correct. (Laughs) JC: Now, how did that happen? RF: I was with Dorr-Oliver in the labs and I got called into active duty. And they said this kind of thing could happen and the personnel director put up a statement that if any of you are called to active duty, let us know immediately. And I got called to be a filler second lieutenant in a Tennessee tank battalion. And down south, your country. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: And so, they put in, or I had to put in for it but they backed it up through the Department of Mines or the Department of the Interior. And I got strictly a political deferment. And I was the first one to get the deferment and they never lost anybody in the Korean War. And interestingly enough, the deferment was signed by I.D. White, who was the chief of staff for the second army, a major general in Governors Island. And he put a handwritten note on it. "I certainly don't enjoy giving a deferment to a Norwich man." (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) I can understand that. Now, talk a little bit about what you did at Dorr-Oliver. RF: I was – as a result of the courses I took with advertising and public relations and getting back to my high school chemistry teacher, I wasn't – chemistry was not my bag and how he recognized it, I don't know. I said I would like to get into advertising or public relations and they discouraged me. They said, "Well, we just hired a second guy for the ad department. So, chances are you're not going to do it." And four years later when the deferment was no longer necessary, they had an opening and I went down there as the third person in the ad department. After a merger, I went with my boss who was the ad director, who became the ad director of public relations at the revised corporation, and got involved in being the liaison for the technical and engineering societies and the technical publications. And that's what I gravitated into and then applied to SPE for a somewhat similar type of job, and got that job. JC: And, so you continued doing that type of work for SPE and then became the executive director. RF: For a short time. And then with changes and everything, why I ended up doing meetings when the meetings manager left. I ended up doing division when they had nobody to do the technical divisions, only because I had a technical 9 background. And I ended up as an associate executive director and then when my boss got fired, I got the job. JC: Let me see – RF: Can I interject something here? JC: Yes. Absolutely. RF: I believe I was at Norwich in a very transitional time. In fact, as I look back on it, it was – you'd never know what was coming next. When I went there, we had one dormitory, Hawkins, filled with cadets. And we took in, in the summer of '49, about 50 cadets who started in July and then about 50 others who started in September. And, I made a count of this, as it might be of interest. The ones that came in July, only 16 graduated. And in my class, the September class, only 11 graduated. JC: Oh, really? RF: We were losing guys like crazy to the draft. And I was young enough so I didn't get drafted until the war was – I didn't get – I didn't have to sign up for the draft until after V.E. Day and then V.J. Day came and they were drafting people – they evidently didn't need me. The mistake the other guys made was going up to Montpelier to register for the draft. And in two weeks they might pick them off because they came from Long Island City or Aurora, New York or someplace they weren't locals. And seeing this, I went home to Westport to register for the draft. Where they knew me. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: For some reason, I never came up or they never had the quotas to fill or whatever. But, we had, at one dorm full of Norwich cadets. We had two dorms, I don't know what they call it now, it's Cabot, the one right next to it at the time. It might be Goodyear or something. With – in Alumni Hall, we had four companies of fast tracks, army reserves specialized training guys who they sent to college for a year or so and then when they needed infantry troops they pulled them right out. They were -- at the end of my first year, they were gone. And we had enough when the Class of '50 came in, to fill two dormitories, Cabot and Hawkins. And in Cabot – in Hawkins, pardon me, in Hawkins they had a veteran troop; some guys that wanted to take ROTC but came back – but they had to wear a uniform if they took ROTC. And we had the veterans living in Alumni and fill/Phil/Bill (?) [0:31:02] Jackman Hall. And in my third year, why the cadets took over Alumni Hall. And, we had the veterans just in Jackman. And my fourth year, we had a few of the overflow senior bucks living in Jackman with the veterans because we didn't have enough room with the three existing dormitories. But it was – I went 10 through my yearbook and made a count. I had a hundred thirty-six in the class. And we had 27 that started that went through for four years and graduated – JC: And graduated. RF: -- as you would normally expect. And it was very, very transitional and very unusual. You'd never know what was coming next. In my sophomore year, we were loaded with veterans. They could wear their uniforms if they wanted to, if they didn't have civilian clothes. We had five lieutenant colonels walking around the campus. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: Which was unusual. JC: You were also involved a lot in the Alumni Association. RF: Yes. JC: Can we talk about that a little bit? RF: Yes. I – somebody put my name in to run for the alumni board. This was like 1983. No, '81. And at that time, they had an election. They nominated three reasonably recent graduates and two were elected and two of the old timers, in which classification I fit in. And two of the three in both classes were elected. But, the problem was, the guy who was the oldest class, always lost, because nobody knew him. And, so, I was on the alumni board for three years and the system was, it may still be, that at the end of three years and four years, those eight guys were eligible and we have girls on there now, were eligible to be elected president of the alumni board. And we knew who was going to be elected. A fourth-year guy who had seemed to be in line forever. And, a third-year guy came up to me and asked me if he was going to run for alumni president and would I support him? And I made an immediate decision. He'd been on the board and never done a darn thing in my estimation and I had done a number of things. When I said, no, I couldn't support him because I was going to run. And, fortunately, we had every preponderance of Boston people and the rest from around the country, although not many outside New England. And I ended up splitting the Boston vote and I had three people in the Boston group whom I knew, who were my contemporaries, and I'm sure they voted for me. And it ended up we had 19 that voted and I got 10 so I got the majority in the first ballot. That was it. I also got hell from my wife when I told her. She said, "You never mentioned it." I said, "No, not until last night was I even thinking about running for office." (Laughs) And she didn't have the right clothes. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) 11 RF: And then from there, usually the outgoing alumni president is elected the alumni trustee for that year. And in the other year, when there's an outgoing president, it's somebody else who the alumni board recognizes is worth being an alumni trustee. JC: So, you were on the board of trustees? RF: For a five-year term. JC: Five-year term. RF: Yes. JC: And what was that like being on the board of trustees? RF: Oh, it was very interesting. There had to be the five alumni trustees but of the 30 of them, even the board, there were 22 of them that were alumni to begin with. And they supported the president very fairly, particularly when you had a take charge guy like Russ Todd, and I would guess, Harmon and Hart, President Hart. He was there between Harmon and Russ Todd. But it was interesting and I think this is where we were interrupted, that I tangled with Russ three times when I was on the board of trustees. I look upon it as I won one, I lost one and we tied one. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: The first was when he had the bright idea that we should form a Norwich University savings and loan association. And it could be a bank and put out loans to parents who wanted to bankroll their kids to go to Norwich. And I think I tied that one. Fred Haynes and myself of the Haynes Stadium were the only two that voted against it. But, within a year, they had the savings and loan association in crisis and they ended up selling of -- giving the very infantile savings and loan association they had to the bank which is now ensconced down there by – was down there by the alumni center. I think that one I won decisively. When I was chairman of the alumni board we did a survey of eight colleges that we had considered our equals, our size, Middlebury, Babson, I can't think of any of the others, St. Lawrence. We had two people on the board go to each school and ask certain questions as to how what they did – (break in audio) RF: We did this survey and compared how we stacked up with other schools in a number of different things that the Alumni Association did. And I was only on the board for one year. I was only a trustee for one year. And Russ came up with the idea that we would get a – we would subscribe to some kind of alumni magazine where we had a four page insert, all the rest would be "pat" material. 12 And a number of previously prepared and published that a number of schools did. And I called to his attention that we had done this survey and he had seen it and we stacked up very well with our alumni communications, in other areas we did not. But the communications – and they like the Alumni Record the way it was. And I said, "I think we're going to do this." His only comment was, "I hear you," and he dropped it. We never had anymore – Of course, the third thing I tangled with him on was when President Schneider came. And what they did was, they kept Russ on the board of trustees. And the Alumni Affairs Committee of the board the trustees felt this was wrong. The alumni association thought this was wrong. And that he should not be on the board when the new president arrived. I guess I didn't do a very good job with my point earlier with remaining Norwich graduates around, Russ insisted on leaving the room and I said, "I don't want you to because I'm not going to say anything I wouldn't say to your face." We ended up starting to discuss it and somebody made a motion that we elect him to the board of trustees and have somebody resign so it would be a vacancy. I said, "I resign everything." And I said, "This is the wrong way to do it." And I moved to table the motion until the next meeting. And the chairman at the time didn't even hear my motion. And I said, "This is a parliamentary motion and it supersedes all others." Which is does. And he just didn't even listen to me and he called for the vote and he was elected to the board of trustees. (Laughs) And he was on it until he was 70. And it was interesting because shortly thereafter we played our last game with Middlebury, football game, which was a very disappointing thing that we should give up or have to give up that rivalry which was over one hundred years and only because the conference that Middlebury was in, the Little Ivy League, said that you can only play within your own conference. And, my gosh, we get a call from Carol Todd – were we coming up for the game. And we said, "Yes." And she said, "Will you stay with us." (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: And this was a month after my tangling with him. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: And all my son could say was, "Who is going to taste your food." (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: But we've come along very, very well with the Todds. And he was, he was a good president, a very good president. JC: Now, you were also a proponent of merging with Vermont College, correct? RF: Yes. 13 JC: Can you talk about that a little bit? RF: (Laughs) It was very difficult to enact. I ended up, and I kept my secretary at SPE busy for a week, writing letters. And I wrote to the class agent of all the five-year classes and we substituted the name of VC class agent in the Norwich letters and the Norwich class agent in the VC letters trying to get them to coalesce. And this was, I think my last year on the alumni board. The only person I was successful in getting to march with our class was my lady. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: And she marched with the Class of '50. And some guy says, "Where did you come from? I never knew any girls in my class." JC: (Laughs) RF: And we got to our reunion and he wasn't having a reunion and he got there and at the start, he got up before we started the program, and he said, "Bob, I would" -- in front of everybody, -- he said, "Bob, I wouldn't have said what I did if I realized she was your wife." And he says, "I apologize." And Eleanor jumped up and she said, "You don't apologize to him, you apologize to me!" (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: His wife got up and laughed at him and said, "That's wonderful!" (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) Let me think, what else do I want to ask you about. Life milestones. What are your major milestones in life? Can you talk about those? RF: Well, (Laughs) I was among the first to advocate a VC/Norwich union. And did so by marrying a gal who was the Class of 1950 from Vermont College. If I got the wrong year there, she'd kill me for that. (Laughs) JC: I'll fix it on mine. RF: And we had – a number of other people did. And I think it was just very natural that you had a boy's school and essentially a girl's school 10 miles away. And it worked out very well. And the girl's school were willing to relax their rules whenever we had a dance or a big weekend or something such as that. But, let me tell you, it was difficult enough having to ring a quarter of ten every Saturday night. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: Of course, I dated her only during her freshman year. During her second year, I was gone. (Laughs) 14 I think another milestone was having our son, Gary go to Norwich. Although he was not necessarily in accord with us. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: He was, unfortunately, he was a very good student, but he tested poorly in the SATs. And he applied for college when they were integrating some of the men's colleges, such as Bowden or Middlebury where he wanted to go. And they were also – with females and they were also integrating them with as far as the Afro-Americans go and diverse Americans. So, he said, when a gal got accepted to Middlebury, he ranked something like eighth in his class out of 250. And a gal who was way down in the ratings got accepted at Middlebury and all he could say was, "She took my place." And it was probably true. And Norwich was a safety school. And he went there and went through. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the love for the place that I do. And I think part of that is because of his wife. And she just doesn't have anything to do with the military and that kind of thing. And the reunion, when I was at his reunion. It falls the same five years as Eleanor's and it was – he was up there for a reunion and it was when I was the alumni president and placed the wreathes on the graves and gave some of the awards and everything. And it was Eleanor's reunion year. And he was there and he drifts in after the alumni parade was over and after everything is over, with his buddy. And said, "We just didn't get up early enough." Which to me was crazy. And I don't think he's ever been back. I think that's the only reunion he was ever back for. And Dave Whaley, he's having a hell of a job getting any money out of him! (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) I'm sure. And you have another son, Jeffrey, correct? RF: Another son, Jeffrey and he said, "You don't think I'm going to go to Norwich and be a rook, when my brother is the regimental supply officer." (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: He said, "It's just not going to happen." He loved Norwich. He went four years to the summer camp so he says that's his alumni. And he loved the athletic department. He learned to play soccer there and he was a star of the Wilton High School soccer team, as the goalie. He – Joe Sable and Wally Baines were just his ideals. They were the ones that ran the summer camp. And another thing that I could mention, the Norwich camaraderie. This flyer came for summer camp and I said, "Well, maybe the boys would like to go." And at the dinner table, I brought it up. I said, "There's a camp at Norwich. You may like to go. I'll drop it on your bed." And they said, "No way." And a week later, they came to me and said, "You know, we think we'd like to do it." So, they did it. And the first week they were up there, it shows how soft-hearted they are, the first week they were up there, they called home on Sunday and reversed the charges, of course. Called home on Sunday and they 15 were both in tears. First time they'd ever been away from home, and (inaudible) [0:11:14], and who walks by but (inaudible) Wally Baines. He says, "What's your problem?" And they said, "Well, we're talking to him at home." He took the phone, he says, "They're finished talking with you. We're going to put them to work." (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: My son, Gary went back another year and Jeffrey went back three years they enjoyed it so much. And Gary called at the start of his sophomore year, and he said, "I can't believe what they're doing to these rooks." He was almost in tears. He said, "They shouldn't be doing this." I said, "Well, Gary, you went through this and it makes them better people." He said, "Yes, but I don't like to see them do it." He was just soft-hearted. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) Now, he graduated in '75. RF: '75, yes. JC: And Bob Hope was the commencement speaker. RF: Yes. JC: Do you want to talk about that a little bit? RF: Well, that was – Gary told us, for almost a year in advance, Hope was going to be their commencement speaker. And I said, "That's crazy. Bob Hope is not going to Norwich-- (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: -- to be the commencement speaker." And, sure enough, he was. And came strutting in, typical Bob Hope. (Laughs) Making remarks to the audience and everything and it was just a wonderful occasion. The great disappointment was you could get up front and take a picture of your graduate getting their diploma from Hope. Which I did. And the development company that took – we had them developed – lost the negative. So, he doesn't have that. JC: Oh, goodness! Tell me about some of the places that you've traveled. You said you traveled to England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Canada and Mexico. RF: Some of these were vacation. Some were business. And all of them, Eleanor went along. I think the greatest trip we ever had, I was involved in an organization, The Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives – who were guys who were executive directors like myself. About 130 in the U.S. 16 and Canada. I ended up as president of the organization in about 1987, I guess it was. And, they had their annual meeting in San Francisco. And it was the year I came in a vice president. And we left home and went out to San Francisco for the annual meeting on Monday. We went out and it was over on Thursday night. And on Friday, we flew home. On Saturday – it takes all day to get back from the West coast. On Saturday, Eleanor did the laundry, I did the lawn. And on Sunday, we left for my counterpart in Great Britain, the British Isles, his retirement party. We went over on the Concorde. Went to his retirement party and came back on the QE2. So, that was the most eventful two weeks we ever had. JC: I bet it was something flying on the Concorde. RF: Yes. Well, we left at noon from Kennedy and we got over there in time to have dinner. Which, otherwise, it's an overnight flight. JC: Oh, yes. I've done that one a couple of times. RF: And, the other countries -- we were bitten on cruises, both with our close friends and our closest friends over the years, have always been (inaudible) [0:15:24] alumni, the guys that I was associated with and their wives. One time, there were 18 of us, there are only four of us left now. And well two others that moved a long distance away. And we went on a cruise with them. And then we went on a cruise with Bro Park who used to be the alumni – used to be the PR director at Norwich. Organized after he left Norwich. And there was the Mediterranean and we went to Alaska. And for our 50th anniversary, we took a cruise from the Hawaii Islands through the Hawaiian Islands and up to Victoria, British Columbia. And that's the way we got to a lot of these places. Mexico, we went to because we had two sections down there that we visited. And never were we so glad to get back to this country and be able to have a salad and some good water in New Orleans. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) Well, there's always good food in New Orleans. RF: Oh, yes. JC: What is your favorite memory of Norwich? RF: I don't think I could pick it out. JC: (Laughs) RF: I have – no really, I have so many good memories that I couldn't have one above the other. JC: Well, is there one of those memories that we haven't talked about? 17 RF: I don't know. No, I don't think so. I think maybe this time we didn't – well, it's not a favorite memory, it's a humorous memory. I don't think we talked about it. Some of the veterans, in either – I think it was the beginning of my junior year, pulled out by the roots, the parking meter in Montpelier. And they came and installed it in President Dodge's private parking spot. Dug it into the ground and everything. And we got up in the morning for reveille and here's the parking meter. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: Which the Montpelier Police came over and traded it at a later date. JC: Well, let me ask you this. What was it like being a teenager during World War II? RF: Well, (Laughs) I was too young to get my driver's license until my senior year. But I think the biggest thing was the lack of transportation. And I was on the football team in my senior year, and we had to take a common carrier, a bus that -- had to get dressed, walk up to the bus route, then get on the bus, common carrier, to go to Fairfield. And get off the bus and walk to their field because you couldn't get enough parents that had enough gas coupons and or you couldn't hire a bus because they couldn't get the gas for a football game. So, -- (Laughs) JC: Was there anything else that you'd like to add, that we haven't talked about? RF: I'll think of all of them after you leave. JC: (Laughs) RF: That will happen you know. JC: That will happen. Let me see if there's anything I haven't – we haven't discussed. RF: I enjoyed my days in the Army Reserve. The tank battalion I was in, we had a great bunch of officers. But the enlisted men we had were out of the bowels of Bridgeport. And these guys, you never knew what kind of a scrape they were going to get into or anything, but they were the best damn enlisted men. I was a supply officer for the battalion. We got ready to turn in our equipment and (Laughs) we were short something like 40 gas cans. Where would 40 gas cans go? The resupply sergeant said, "Don't worry. Me and the boys will have them by morning." And I go over at 6:30 in the morning and here's the 40 gas cans. Lined up. And you know where they got them. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) 18 RF: I've seen them – I've seen them stop a jeep, two of them, stop a jeep and ask directions. And in the confusion and everything, the first one is talking to the driver and the other one unhitches that gas tank off the back and that's the way they got them. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: They could do anything, really. And the battalion commander thought I could get anything done. (Laughs) And it was only because of these guys – JC: Yes. RF: -- that did it. JC: Well, can you think of anything else? RF: No. I'm very pleased of graduating from the general's staff school. After I'd been in the reserves maybe two or three years. I said, "I'm going to do 20 years." I said, "I'm going to go to the command and general staff school, and, I'm going to make lieutenant colonel." And I made all three of those. JC: So, you retired a lieutenant colonel. RF: And, as you might say, I'm on the dole now, because I did 20 years and it wasn't until about 19 – no 2002 that Senator Warner from Virginia said, "You have to treat retired reservists the same as the regular army reservists." And up until that time, I was on my own for health care and everything else. That action by the congress -- I got Tricare and prescriptions paid for and every other darn thing. So, what was so – and I think, now deceased Senator Warner, who was Elizabeth Taylor's last husband I think. (Laughs) JC: (Laughs) RF: I think that's about it. JC: Okay. Well, I thank you very much for this interview. It will be a great addition to our collection. And I will --
"El diseño universal en productos de consumo masivo y la experiencia del usuario con discapacidad visual moderada" (2015)
Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación Nº 65
ISSN: 1668-0227
Maestría en Diseño de la Universidad de Palermo [Catálogo de Tesis. 5ª Edición. Ciclo 2014-2015]
Año XVIII, Diciembre 2017, Buenos Aires, Argentina | 236 páginas
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Introducción
Planteamiento del problema
Desde el año 2007 la Argentina forma parte de la Convención de Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad, la cual entró en vigencia en 2008. En ella los Estados partes se comprometen a emprender o promover la investigación y el desarrollo de bienes, servicios, equipos e instalaciones de Diseño Universal, que requieran la menor adaptación posible y el menor costo para satisfacer las necesidades especificas de las personas con discapacidad, promover su disponibilidad y uso, y promover el Diseño Universal en la elaboración de normas y directrices (ONU, 2006).
El Diseño Universal es un concepto creado y desarrollado por Ronald Mace (1989), arquitecto de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte, y lo define como el diseño de productos y entornos para ser usados por todas las personas, al máximo posible, sin adaptaciones o necesidad de un diseño especializado.
El desarrollo de este trabajo de investigación se centra en el Diseño Universal, y en la búsqueda del mismo en los empaques de productos de consumo masivo. Encontrar Diseño Universal ha de suponer una fácil tarea ya que el mismo tiene 20 años desde su creación y más de cinco años en vigencia en la Argentina.
Silvia Coriat en Lo urbano y lo humano. Hábitat y Discapacidad (2003 p. 15-17) comenta que las dificultades en el campo del diseño se reflejan no sólo en el escaso conocimiento de las normativas y la legislación vigentes en la materia desde hace 20 años, sino también en profesionales que, con acceso a dichas normas, en tanto resultan extrañas, ajenas a las pautas aprehendidas y asumidas hasta el momento, no saben qué hacer con ellas y las perciben como restricciones al proceso creativo. Las normas y pautas de diseño sin barreras dejarán de resultar extrañas y ajenas cuando puedan visualizarse como el resultado de una cadena de procesos sociales de los cuales forman parte, tanto los profesionales como las propias personas con discapacidad, expone la autora. Es así como la misma trae a colación la distancia que existe entre el diseñador y las normas que están en vigencia en su campo con respecto al diseño sin barreras (Diseño Universal) y cómo el diseñador se desliga de ser parte del proceso social en el cual tiene un rol importante.
Por otro lado Ana Arboleda (2007) comenta la importancia de los productos en los individuos acotando que los productos hacen parte de la experiencia de vida de los mismos. Por esta razón, los consumidores tienen la capacidad para asociar formas y colores con determinadas características que integran categorías.
Es por ello que es importante resaltar lo que señala Gloria Martínez (2008), y es que la mayoría de los productos y servicios básicos ignoran a los consumidores ciegos o con deficiencias visuales. Ello requiere de los diseñadores una actitud más participativa y responsable en cuanto al diseño de empaques se refiere. Al proyectar, los diseñadores deben contemplar las necesidades de acceso a la información de todas las personas, considerando las diferentes y complejas problemáticas perceptivas.
Por otro lado, según la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) (2013) en el mundo hay aproximadamente 285 millones de personas con discapacidad visual, de las cuales 39 millones son ciegas y 246 millones presentan bajan visión. Según la nota descriptiva de la OMS con el arreglo de la Clasificación Internacional de Enfermedades, la función visual se subdivide en cuatro niveles: visión normal, discapacidad visual moderada, discapacidad visual grave y ceguera. La discapacidad visual moderada y la grave se reagrupan comúnmente bajo el término baja visión; la baja visión y la ceguera representan conjuntamente el total de casos de discapacidad visual.
La distribución mundial de las principales causas de discapacidad visual coloca a los errores de refracción (miopía, hipermetropía o astigmatismo) no corregidos con un 43%. Es por ellos que esta investigación toma como eje temático a los discapacitados visuales moderados, colocándolos como objeto de estudio ya que representan una mayoría que según acota Gloria Martínez (2008) ha sido ignorada.
Así mismo las personas con discapacidad visual moderada son también consumidores de los productos de consumo masivo, y al igual que cualquier otro consumidor, son participes de un nicho que no toma en cuenta su discapacidad, lo que puede traer como consecuencia que su experiencia de compra sea diferente a la de otros. Pues como Vargas Bianchi (2003) explica, a través de la experiencia, la actividad de compra, la publicidad y la recomendación, el consumidor aprende acerca del producto, las características del empaque, el uso y el desempeño. Pero ¿qué sucede cuando la experiencia y la actividad de compra se encuentran afectadas por el diseño del empaque? ¿Cuándo una persona con dificultad para ver no puede entender las características del empaque, el uso y el desempe- ño? ¿Es posible llegar a todos los usuarios con el Diseño Universal? ¿El Diseño Universal mejora la experiencia y la actividad de comprar? Es por ello que durante el desarrollo de este trabajo de investigación busca centrarse en el concepto de Diseño Universal, el empaque de productos de consumo masivo, el discapacitado visual moderado con la experiencia de uso. Debido a que cuando se habla de experiencia de uso conlleva no solo al análisis de los factores que influyen en la adquisición o elección de un determinado producto, sino analizar cómo los consumidores usan el producto y la experiencia resultante del mismo a través del diseño del empaque de dicho producto. El Diseño Universal ha de estar insertado en el diseño de productos desde hace seis años y sin embargo se encuentran empaques de productos como el arroz, la pasta, la azúcar y otros de uso diario que no poseen Diseño Universal, pero sin embargo tampoco poseen un diseño amigable y eficaz para las personas que poseen dificultades para ver, lo que conlleva a una experiencia diferente que la del resto de los usuarios que no poseen ninguna discapacidad. La unión de estos tres ejes temático (Diseño Universal específicamente en empaques de producto de consumo masivo, discapacidad visual moderada y experiencia de usuario) tiene como propósito demostrar como un eje se relaciona con otro, es decir, cómo un empaque realizado bajo los principios de Diseño Universal facilita la experiencia de un usuario con discapacidad visual moderada al momento de que éste interactúa con el empaque, es decir, al momento de la compra y al momento de ser usado el producto. ¿Puede realmente el Diseño Universal marcar una diferencia?
Objetivo general
El objetivo general propone investigar la aplicación de los principios del Diseño Universal (uso equitativo, uso flexible, uso simple e intuitivo, información perceptible, tolerancia al error, mínimo esfuerzo físico y adecuado tamaño de aproximación y uso) utilizados en los productos de consumo masivo en empaques tipo caja plegadiza de cartón y de qué manera facilitan la experiencia de uso de los mismos, en usuarios con discapacidad visual moderada.
Objetivos específicos
Los objetivos específicos se proponen identificar las características del Diseño Universal en los empaques de caja plegadiza de cartón que se encuentran en el mercado; definir los principios del Diseño Universal que son aplicados en cada empaque de caja plegadiza de cartón; investigar las valoraciones del usuario con discapacidad visual moderada en relación a los productos de consumo masivo en empaques de caja plegadiza de cartón; indagar en las facilidades que tiene el discapacitado visual de identificar el producto de consumo masivo en empaques de caja plegadiza de cartón con Diseño Universal; e identificar de qué manera afecta el Diseño Universal a la experiencia de compra y uso de productos de consumo masivo en empaques de caja plegadiza de cartón en usuarios con discapacidad visual moderada.
Hipótesis
La hipótesis plantea que la aplicación de los principios del Diseño Universal (uso equitativo, uso flexible, uso simple e intuitivo, información perceptible, tolerancia al error, mínimo esfuerzo físico y adecuado tamaño de aproximación y uso) utilizados en los productos de consumo masivo en empaques tipo caja plegadiza de cartón facilitan la experiencia de uso en usuarios con discapacidad visual moderada (Argentina, Buenos Aires 2014).
Estado de la cuestión
Para los consumidores, el empaque de un producto con armonía es aquel que, además de ser funcional, le proporciona información veraz y de fácil acceso. Cuando se habla de discapacidad visual no sólo se hace referencia al no vidente, también a las personas que por alguna u otra razón (edad avanzada, problemas psicomotores, etc.) tienen deficiencia visual. Para ellos no es aplicable el método Braille1 , pero sí herramientas del diseño que los ayuden a distinguir los productos, como la tipografía, el alto contraste de colores, el uso de macrotipos, la disposición de los elementos, etc.
Durante el desarrollo del estado de la cuestión se notará la preocupación de algunos de los autores de los artículos allí nombrados, acerca de la falta de Diseño Universal en espacios, productos y servicios. Existe un gran desconocimiento no solo en Latinoamérica sino en otras partes del mundo donde no se conoce esta metodología. En el que aplicar los siete principios (uso equitativo, uso flexible, uso simple e intuitivo, información perceptible, tolerancia al error, mínimo esfuerzo físico y adecuado tamaño de aproximación y uso) marcará una diferencia en los usuarios, especialmente los que poseen una discapacidad. Sin embargo, el Diseño Universal tiene sus limitaciones no sólo por la falta de conocimiento sino, como expresan otros autores, porque no es posible ser universal y no considerar los valores sociales, históricos y culturales de cada región. Los autores del artículo llamado A Framework and Representation for Universal Product Design, Daniel McAdams y Vincent Kostovich (2001) presentan un marco de análisis de los productos para mejorar la investigación y la práctica en el Diseño Universal. Resaltan que 17 % de la población en EE.UU tiene algún tipo de discapacidad y que, a pesar de esto, muchas empresas no conocen aún los principios del Diseño Universal. Está en los diseñadores determinar las necesidades de los clientes, la función del producto y la actividad del usuario pues en el contexto de la realización de Diseño Universal, el diseñador debe enfocar la atención en la función del producto y en el modo en que interactúa con el usuario. En este artículo los investigadores resaltan el papel protagónico del diseñador a la hora de hacer la diferencia tomando en cuenta a todos los usuarios al momento de diseñar un producto. Resaltan que los diseñadores no pueden dejar a un lado las necesidades de los clientes y la función del producto, que es tan o más importante que su estética.
Siguiendo con la misma línea que los investigadores anteriores, Víctor y Silvia Margolin (2004) profesores de la Universidad de Illinois, Chicago, especializados Diseño Gráfico, Diseño Industrial y Tecnología, exponen en Un "modelo social" del diseño, que cuando la mayoría de las personas piensan en diseño de productos, visualizan productos hechos para el mercado, generados por un fabricante y dirigidos a un consumidor a lo que ellos refutan señalando que existen otras posibles opciones aparte del diseño de productos para el mercado, que no se ha conducido aún hacia un nuevo modelo de práctica social. Ellos sostienen que las teorías sobre el diseño para el mercado se han desarrollado muy bien abarcando diversas áreas, desde métodos de diseño hasta estudios de manejo gerencial y semiótica para la mercadotecnia; esto ha influido en que exista una rica y vasta bibliografía que ha servido para que el diseño se adapte a nuevas circunstancias tecnológicas, políticas y sociales generando, a su vez, nuevos procesos que han implantado estructuras, métodos u objetivos para el diseño social. Para los autores aun no se han atendido las necesidades sociales y tampoco se ha puesto atención en cambiar la educación de los diseñadores de productos, quienes tienen en sus manos la posibilidad de incluir y unificar la sociedad.
Entre las áreas aplicables de Diseño Universal se encuentra también la arquitectura y es por ello que Fernando Alonso (2007) director de ACCEPLAN, organización que realiza estudios sobre accesibilidad y adaptación del medio construido; explica en su investigación Algo más que suprimir barreras: Conceptos y argumentos para una accesibilidad universal, la falta de accesibilidad a los distintos entornos y servicios para el discapacitado. Expone que nadie parece poner en duda la necesidad y oportunidad de esa mejora de accesibilidad, sin embargo se detecta un minúsculo avance sobre ese tema en algunas adaptaciones en espacios públicos, equipamientos y edificios. El mismo menciona que se está reconociendo la implicancia que la accesibilidad tiene para la calidad de vida de todas las personas a través de un diseño de mayor calidad y orientado hacia la diversidad de usuarios.
Por último, Fernando Alonso (2007) explica que el progreso de accesibilidad es un proceso de mejora que se proyecta hacia otros ámbitos, como la movilidad, la optimización de uso de los espacios públicos y la ergonomía, causando reacciones favorables que pueden incidir tanto en los deseos de integración de unos, como en las mejoras de confort y funcionalidad de otros.
Por otro lado, continuando con el Diseño Universal pero enfocando en la tercera edad; la investigación realizada por Julio Lillo y Humberto Moreira (2004) sobre las ventajas del enfoque del Diseño Universal en el discapacitado, los autores hacen explícito que el diseño ha excluido socialmente al anciano quien va perdiendo facultades auditivas, visuales y motoras "Diseña para el joven y excluirás al anciano. Diseña para el anciano e incluirás al joven". Por añadidura Lillo y Moreria comentan que durante la vejez, la persona reduce o pierde la capacidad para combinar la información de los dos ojos para percibir la distancia y esto conlleva a desarrollar la coordinación ojo-mano.
De este modo los investigadores concluyen que las soluciones de diseño que se encuentren a esta problemática no sólo beneficiarán a las personas de la tercera edad sino a todas aquellas que, de forma permanente o transitoria, sufran las mismas limitaciones que ellas. Otra investigación realizada por Julio Lillo y Humberto Moreira (2008) llevan el Diseño Universal y la vejez al ámbito laboral, y explican cómo la aplicación de los principios de diseño universal incluye y facilitan la participación del anciano. Pues el diseño ergonómico basado en principios de diseño universal, además de servir para compensar los efectos de las limitaciones ya mencionadas, puede ser útil para retrasar su desarrollo.
La vejez no es la única dificultad que puede presentar un consumidor, también están las discapacidades con las que muchos viven día a día o temporalmente. Alan Colburn (2010) señala en Diseño Universal, que el Diseño Universal no sólo beneficia al discapacitado que no ve, o que se traslada en sillas de ruedas, sino también a los padres que van con el coche, al repartidor que entra con cajas y otras situaciones de la vida cotidiana. Los subtítulos en la TV también son parte del Diseño Universal ya que hace la programación accesible a aquel con problemas auditivos y a aquel que no pueda escuchar la TV por el ruido externo, dejando otra vez en claro que el Diseño Universal es inclusivo para todos.
Otros investigadores han desarrollado sus trabajos de Diseño Universal con una discapacidad específica, como lo es el trabajo de investigación desarrollado por Gloria Angélica Martínez de la Peña (2008). La autora explica de qué manera se puede usar el braille y otros símbolos táctiles en las etiquetas de productos de usos cotidianos y de los medicamentos especialmente, resaltando que la información es un elemento clave en los envases, empaques y etiquetas de los diferentes productos comerciales, donde la calidad visual de muchos packagings no responde a la necesidad de establecer una comunicación efectiva, ya que resulta imprecisa en las diferentes situaciones de uso.
La autora concluye que es importante que los diseñadores tengan una actitud más participativa y responsable en cuanto al diseño de empaques se refiere, incorporando el sistema braille o los macro tipos.
Para los investigadores Neves, Barreto y Neves (2011), el objetivo fue ayudar a las personas con discapacidad visual en la compra de ropa y en la organización de cómo esto se iba a llevar a cabo. Las pruebas se realizaron en las etiquetas con el usuario real, en las que fuese posible identificar el símbolo con el tacto, sin embargo les llevo tiempo adaptarse a la simbología. La etiqueta tuvo resultados positivos ya que todos los usuarios fueron capaces de identificar los símbolos e indicaciones de la composición y de materia prima, esto último escrito en Braille. Se colocaron los símbolos de lavado, cuidado y abreviaturas de los colores de las composiciones de las materias primas. Esta investigación fue pionera al llevar al discapacitado visual a conectarse con la simbología. Con esto se logra facilitar, ayudar y mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas con discapacidad visual y les genera sensación de independencia ya que ellos mismos pueden seleccionar su ropa. A partir de esta investigación se ha desarrollado una etiqueta bordada en Braille la cual fue mejorando luego de ser evaluada por personas con discapacidad visual. Esta investigación contribuyó al conocimiento de una necesidad que existe de productos específicos para este nicho de mercado y a la que los autores consideran una gran oportunidad de negocio para explotar. Existen varias dificultades con las que se encuentra el discapacitado visual diariamente y es por ellos que constantemente existen personas investigando y desarrollando proyectos en pro de estos usuarios, un ejemplo de esto es la investigación realizada por Marina Días de Faria y Jorge Ferreira (2009), Compuesto para restaurantes: atendiendo consumidores con deficiencia visual, tuvo como objetivo identificar los atributos más importantes y los niveles relativos de la experiencia de consumo de las personas con discapacidad visual en los restaurantes en la ciudad de Río de Janeiro, en ocasiones de ocio. Los resultados de grupo de enfoque apuntaban a ocho atributos, cada uno con dos o tres niveles, lo que llevo a concluir que los restaurantes que invierten en la formación de sus asistentes y la accesibilidad parecen ser capaces de retener a los consumidores con discapacidad visual, esto se vio en los grupos focales en donde el discapacitado visual expresaba que cuando va a un restaurante y está bien servido, siempre vuelve; además de ser difícil para ellos encontrar un restaurante que sea accesible. Los resultados indican que hay mucho por modificar en estos establecimientos para que puedan reunir los atributos valorados por las personas con discapacidad visual.
Estos investigadores encontraron la manera de realizar un estudio saliéndose del típico enfoque que suelen tener las investigaciones de comportamiento del consumidor, pues se enfocaron en un consumidor que no es tomado en cuenta a la hora de hacer el estudio de mercado y estudiaron el comportamiento del mismo con respecto al servicio que suelen ofrecer los restaurantes no solo por la atención sino también por la infraestructura.
A pesar de existir muchas investigaciones de acuerdo con lo que propone el Diseño Universal, existen otros que le encuentran fallas a esta metodología. Para Jane Bringolf (2008), el Diseño Universal falla en sus propios principios, pues ella explica que el uso sinónimo de "universal" y "accesible" es parte de no conocer lo que constituye el diseño universal. El término "Diseño Universal" fue creado en EE.UU. En Europa se conoce como "Diseño para todos" y en Gran Bretaña como "Diseño inclusivo". Todos estos términos se basan en un mismo concepto el cual es dar la máxima utilidad para el número máximo de personas independientemente de la edad, cultura, educación, nivel socioeconómico o habilidad. Jane Bringolf (2008) señala los siete principios del Diseño Universal y expone que existe una brecha entre los conocimientos de diseño y la diversidad de la población. Los críticos afirman que estos principios se centran demasiado en la función y no abordan cuestiones como la accesibilidad y participación social; estas críticas sugieren que los principios son de poca ayuda e indican que la principal falla esta dentro del mismo concepto de Diseño Universal en sí; que no es fácil o simple de entender e intuitivo a la hora de aplicarlo.
Existen diversas opiniones entre los investigadores, diseñadores y usuarios que ya están familiarizados con el Diseño Universal. Sin embargo aunque tiene ya varios años, el Diseño Universal es aún muy desconocido, incluso dentro del ámbito de los diseñadores de productos, y gráficos que elaboran las etiquetas y los envases. Las pocas personas que conocen sobre el tema no han hecho eco del mismo. En tal sentido convendría que esta filosofía estuviese integrada dentro de los programas de las escuelas de diseño y, de esta manera, no se dejaría de diseñar con Diseño Universal por desconocimiento del tema. ¿Por qué el Diseño Universal aún no es parte de la mente social? Y más importante aún, del diseñador. Existe poca información sobre esta metodología a pesar de que la Argentina firmó en el 2008 un acuerdo de las Naciones Unidas donde se comprometía a aplicar los principios del Diseño Universal.
Para los discapacitados visuales moderados no resulta fácil entender lo que comunica un empaque y el diseñador no ofrece soluciones, al contrario, suma un problema, un problema de comunicación.
Sin embargo hay que considerar factores que pueden resultar ajenos a la voluntad del diseñador, como lo son los costos del Diseño Universal. Hacer Diseño Universal ¿es económico?. Puede que seguir los siete principios del Diseño Universal implique elevar los costos de los productos, cosa que puede afectar al consumidor cuando la idea es ayudarlo. Hay que tener en cuenta los efectos colaterales que trae aplicar Diseño Universal, porque es una cadena, si aumenta el costo de la producción aumentará también el precio de venta. Se podrá notar que se han abordado temas similares referentes al Diseño Universal y, cuando se habla de las etiquetas de los productos, sólo se habla de incluir el Braille en las mismas sin ningún tipo de criterio. Sin embargo, lo que el Diseño Universal propone es que no se haga ninguna adecuación especial a los objetos, en este caso, los envases, para que tengan el mayor número de usuarios posibles sin importar su capacidad. A pesar de que se han realizado investigaciones referentes al Diseño Universal, al comportamiento del usuario con discapacidad visual y la mejora de algunos espacios y servicios, ninguna se ha ocupado de estudiar los aspectos formales de los envases de alimentos que forman parte del día a día de las personas, pues es una necesidad básica alimentarse y, por lo tanto, tener acceso a los mismo, sin importar la capacidad.
Sin embargo, el Diseño Universal no es una teoría muy conocida en el ámbito del diseño, pues de ser así sería más probable encontrar productos realizados bajo los siete principios y estudios que hablen del mismo. Es muy poca la información que se encuentra sobre ello, además que es una metodología que no se aprehende durante la formación de los profesionales de diseño.
En el área de diseño de empaque tampoco se ha mostrado preocupación sobre el Diseño Universal teniendo en cuenta que el diseño de un empaque que logre comunicarse correctamente con el usuario genera una mejor experiencia y, por ende, un mejor comportamiento del usuario. Es por ello que, a través de este estudio, se quiere investigar si aplicando los principios del Diseño Universal se puede obtener un buen diseño de empaque que cumpla con sus funciones comunicacionales lo que traerá como consecuencia una mejor experiencia de usuario, en este caso, el usuario que posee alguna discapacidad visual moderada, es decir, aquellos que tienen algún error de refracción (miopía, astigmatismo, hipermetropía y presbicia) pero que éste no les impide realizar sus actividades diarias, sólo presentan cierta dificultad con la que aprenden a vivir.
Orden del trabajo
Esta investigación se desarrollará en cuatro capítulos que abarcaran desde la teoría de Diseño Universal hasta la experiencia del usuario.
En el primer capítulo se exponen varias teorías desarrolladas por distintos autores sobre el concepto de diseño para hacer una referencia de cómo éste concepto se fue adecuando y adaptando para ser usado como base para desarrollar el Diseño Universal, el cual será definido desde la visión del creador del concepto Ronald Mace, y luego dar entrada a la explicación y desarrollo de los siete principios del Diseño Universal: uso equitativo, uso flexible, uso simple e intuitivo, información perceptible, tolerancia al error, mínimo esfuerzo físico y adecuado tamaño de aproximación y uso.
En el segundo capítulo se hacen definiciones sencillas y concisas sobre la función visual y la discapacidad visual, pues sólo se exponen los conceptos necesarios para desarrollar este estudio y que se entienda qué es la discapacidad visual moderada, cuales son los errores de refracción que conllevan a esta y la explicación de cada uno.
En el tercer capítulo titulado Envase, empaque o packaging, se define cada uno de los elementos nombrados en el título para establecer las diferencias que existe entre cada uno de ellos y la importancia de tenerlas en cuenta para entender esta variable de la investigación como lo es el empaque, su diseño y su uso. También se llevarán a cabo las definiciones de los materiales de cada uno, ya que el material define qué tipo de empaque será y ayuda a crear atributos al producto que pueden ser beneficiosos o no para la venta del mismo. Dentro de este mismo capítulo se desarrollará, también, el marketing del empaque y se explicará cómo los elementos utilizados a la hora de diseñar ayudan e influyen a la venta del producto.
En el cuarto capítulo titulado experiencia del consumidor, se desarrollan conceptos relacionados con el comportamiento del consumidor al momento de comprar un producto, y lo que pasa después de que ya lo adquirió. Se definirán conceptos de producto, se hablará sobre el comportamiento de usuario y todo lo que este conlleva y para finalizar se indagará y razonará sobre la satisfacción del cliente.
Para finalizar, se mostrarán los instrumentos de recolección de datos, los cuales son: Observación y Matching; con sus respectivos resultados y conclusiones de cómo finalizó el estudio y la comprobación o no de la hipótesis que muestra el problema que condujo al desarrollo de este trabajo.
Líneas temáticas
Esta investigación se encuentra enmarcada en dos líneas temáticas, Medios y estrategias de comunicación y Diseño y producción de objetos, espacios e imágenes.
En este trabajo de investigación se desarrollan conceptos del packaging, se estudia el proceso de diseño del mismo, desde la idea hasta que llega al supermercado; es así como se introduce la línea temática de Diseño y producción de objetos, espacios e imágenes, ya que como describe la misma se estudian los procesos de formación y cualidades del objeto, en este caso, el packaging. No solo del objeto, sino también otros factores que participan en el proceso del mismo como lo es el diseñador y la sociedad que lo rodea para ese momento histórico. Por otra parte se reflexiona sobre la comunicación del empaque encontrado en góndolas y de cómo el Diseño Universal puede mejorar la estrategia de venta del mismo si son aplicados los siete principios que él ofrece. Es así como se introduce la línea temática Medios y estrategias de comunicación, ya que se hace una investigación profunda sobre el proceso de compra del usuario, de su comportamiento y las estrategias previas usadas por el packaging para su venta., es decir, la experiencia ofrecida por el producto a través del diseño del empaque y la forma en que es usado en casa tras el acto de compra.
Notas
1. Método Braille es sistema de lectura y escritura ideado para personas ciegas.
Memoria de Tesis doctoral presentada por Guillermo Asín Prieto, para obtener el doctorado (Mención en Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Automatización) por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), realizada bajo la dirección de Juan Camilo Moreno Sastoche y José Luis Pons Rovira .-- 186 páginas. ; This doctoral thesis presents, after reviewing human gait, the main pathologies and conditions that affect it, and the different rehabilitation approaches with the corresponding neurophysiological implications, the research journey that leads to the development of the rehabilitation robotic tool, and the therapies that have been designed, within the framework of the European projects BioMot: Smart Wearable Robots with Bioinspired Sensory-Motor Skills and HANK: European advanced exoskeleton for rehabilitation of Acquired Brain Damage (ABD) and/or spinal cord injury's patients, and tested under the umbrella of the European project ASTONISH: Advancing Smart Optical Imaging and Sensing for Health and the national project ASSOCIATE: A comprehensive and wearable robotics based approach to the rehabilitation and assistance to people with stroke and spinal cord injury. Initially human gait is presented, characterizing it according to its stance and swing phases, and the spatiotemporal, kinetic and kinematic parameters, without neglecting the physiological parameters; followed by a review of the main pathologies or conditions that affect human gait: spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, neuromuscular impairments, osteoarticular diseases, aging, and stroke or cerebrovascular accident. Next, the robotic tool that is developed in this thesis is framed in the context of rehabilitation for stroke, based on its use in this widespread pathology, as it affects 13.7 million people every year, since there are about 80 million survivors, affecting all age ranges. In addition, 80 % of people affected by a stroke find also compromised their motor abilities, motivating the need to develop tools focused on the rehabilitation and recovery, as far as possible, of the independence lost due to the disease, with gait as a fundamental component of that independence. After reviewing gait and the characteristics of the pathology, an explanatory review is given for the three phases of therapy for gait rehabilitation: T1) preparatory training based on mobilization of the lower limb joints; T2) gait recovery; and T3) improvement of gait with the aim of recovering mobility for activities of daily living. This classification of the therapy phases is presented to frame the work of this thesis in phases T1 and T2. Motor recovery is based on motor learning, and thus, I provide a brief introduction to it, exposing its relationship with neuroplasticity, and establishing that, in order to enhance all types of learning, it is essential to establish a challenge, i.e., an acceptable difficulty, not only making the training less monotonous, but also enhancing retention. Motor learning, like all kinds of learning, requires the occurrence of neural plasticity. Neural plasticity can be described by these four factors: 1) evolution of neuronal representation for movements that require skill, which were latent before the injury; and recruitment of healthy areas that were used before the injury occurred, when the difficulty of the task was greater; 2) greater excitability of neurons and more efficiency of synaptic connections; 3) morphological changes associated with long-term potentiation and depression (LTP and LTD) phenomena; and 4) adaptation of cortical, subcortical and spinal networks that still function to the learned movement. There are different non-invasive methods that allow the evaluation of neuroplastic changes (Hoffman reflex, F-wave, motor evoked potentials, etc.), and since in this thesis the motor evoked potentials (MEPs) have been assessed, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is presented as the technique used to evoke potentials in the motor cortex associated with the muscle or muscles whose excitability is being evaluated, collected by means of superficial electromyography. The TMS technique allows to observe changes in corticospinal excitability before and after a treatment that potentially induces motor learning, being able also to evaluate if these changes are related to the treatment, as well as allowing to observe if they are long-lasting. In the literature review chapter, the differences between traditional rehabilitation approaches, and those robotic technology-aided are also introduced, showing that there is no clear winner in such a battle, but showing the advantage of robot-aided approaches, as they allow objectively measuring and help characterizing the recovery process. Once the robotic technology has been introduced as a rehabilitation technology, exoskeletons are presented as the most appropriate robotic technology involved in rehabilitative approaches for gait, and a review of the relevant existing devices, with their characteristics and limitations, is given to show the motivation of this work. The limitations presented by current devices are: they use pre-recorded patterns; they do not have visual feedback systems, or their feedback systems are too simple, not presenting the potential of a video game: entertainment and adherence to the treatment, allowing the difficulty to be modified. Some, on the other hand, are so complex that they demand a high cognitive effort for patients, or are even complex to configure and command, leading to the abandonment of the technology by both patients and therapists. In addition, most of them lack the ability to introduce randomness in the treatment, potentially leading to boredom of the patient, and ultimately abandonment of the therapy. Last but not least, the tasks are not adapted along the treatment to the capacities and the recovery of the subject. Therefore, the tool proposed in this thesis consists of the integration of a robotic ankle fixed to a platform, with a visual feedback comprised of a video game designed to train movements in the sagittal plane of the ankle: dorsiflexion and plantarflexion; with the subject sitting. The tool is capable of generating controlled torque patterns that disturb the trajectory followed by the subject, increasing the difficulty to collect the items on the screen. In addition, the magnitude of these disturbances depends on the performance during the task, increasing the difficulty when the performance is rising, managing to impose a continuous challenge, enhancing the adherence to the treatment as well as its effectiveness to promote the retention of what has been learned. After presenting the review of the literature, I present the development of the rehabilitation tool, describing the journey from the test of the control algorithms, to the development of the video game and design of the experimental protocol, through the adaptation of the control to the compliant actuator on which the tool is based, or tests first on a test bench and then with healthy subjects wearing the device. The first study presents the application of a bioinspired algorithm for autonomous learning, used in bipeds (providing them with the ability to learn to walk without prior knowledge of the task nor the environment, only knowing some points of the angular trajectory), to a six degrees of freedom actuated exoskeleton, with rigid actuators, in the sagittal plane, corresponding to the three main joints of the lower limb, i.e., hip, knee and ankle. This adaptation of the algorithm allows to modulate the rigidity of a rigid actuator with a simple implementation. The term tacit adaptability (TAd) was coined to refer to this control strategy. The third study extends the results to subjects on a treadmill, showing that the algorithm allows to absorb the deviations that the subject may have on the trajectory imposed by the controller of the robot. These studies have demonstrated the use of TAd with a position controller. For the development of the tool, its use is also tested with a torque controller, in order to modulate the amplitude of the applied torque. Then, the following chapter shows two protocols applicable to the T2 phase, just before starting free overground gait rehabilitation. The same robotic tool is used, varying the angle at which the subject's leg rests, to be used standing up. This study aims to explore the application of torque controllers to the rehabilitation robotic tool. In the first training, the robot applies a torque downwards, during the time equivalent to the swing phase, to force the subject to make a higher dorsiflexion torque to be able to follow a natural ankle angular trajectory profile. At the end of the training, during the final 15-20 % of time, the torque is removed. It is observed that the subjects have a greater dorsiflexion when the effect is removed, as well as a minor activation of the dorsiflexor muscles (in the absence of the force to be compensated), and tend to normalize the patterns over time. We also observe that when the torque downwards is removed, there is a trend to anticipate the maximum dorsiflexion peak angle in the swing phase, a trend that tends to disappear over time. In the second training, the robot exerts a torque upwards, similar to that exerted by the ground in the stance phase (ground reaction force), but at a lower magnitude, throughout the training. A lower activation is observed in the gastrocnemius medialis (plantarflexor muscle) than during a free walking over ground. This indicates that the reduced force made by the robot is similar to that experienced when wearing a body weight support. Next, the development of the visual feedback based on a video game is presented. The game consists of a gyrocopter whose position on the vertical axis can be modified by means of the dorsi and plantarflexion of the instrumented ankle (the horizontal axis advances automatically). The aim of the game is to collect the gas bottles that appear on the screen, following the optimal trajectory between bottles. The following study, whose objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of using the tool integrated by the robotic ankle fixed to the platform and the rehabilitation video game, prior to applying the TAd, exposes that applying a training without modulating, and modulating progressively and with a simple rule, the maximum torque applied by the robot, learning is promoted in healthy subjects, being greater the learning with the modulated approaches. Once the viability of the tool to promote motor learning in healthy subjects has been proven, the adaptation of TAd to MACCEPA, with a torque controller, is presented, giving rise to what we have dubbed as haptic adaptive feedback (HAF). This paradigm makes use of the performance in the task to modulate the maximum amplitude of the torque exerted by the robot, depending on the capabilities of the subject. In this way, the concept of challenge is maintained, without excessively exceeding the subject's capabilities, and adapting to the improvements in the execution of the task. The last study I present, corresponding to the development phase, presents the results when testing the feasibility of the final protocol with a healthy individual. For five consecutive days, the subject received a training with the robotic ankle consisting of playing the video game designed to encourage motor learning. We observed that the subject learned throughout the days, showing a significant reduction in the error when following the best trajectory between bottles, as well as a significant increase in the score, understood as the number of collected bottles. The study shows that the protocol is capable of generating learning in a healthy subject. The following chapter shows an extension of the previous study to a sample of ten healthy subjects, applicable to the T1 therapy phase. The subjects trained for three consecutive days. In addition, corticospinal excitability was recorded by means of TMS, focused on the tibialis anterior muscle, before starting the training on the first day, just after the training on the third (and last) day, 30 minutes later to see if the effects were maintained along time (LTP-like), and 24 hours after, to see long-lasting effects. An increase in both score and error was observed throughout the days. Likewise, a significant increase in the corticospinal excitability of the tibialis anterior was obtained, but not in the other two registered muscles: soleus (as a muscle involved in the task) and rectus femoris (as a proximal muscle, and, therefore, not involved in the task of dorsi/plantarflexion). The lack of significant changes in the soleus may be due to the fact that being a muscle whose action is in favor of gravity, it has been less potentiated. Another possible reason is that, because the tibialis anterior receives a higher density of corticospinal projections than the rest of the lower limb muscles, it needs a lower intensity to be recruited compared to the soleus. We extended this study in a case study with a pathological subject to test the feasibility of applying the protocol with patients. To do this, we modified the torque profile exerted by the robot so that it only forced dorsiflexion, preventing the patient from having to compensate for a movement of the robot downwards, focusing on training the dorsiflexor muscles. We observed a significant increase in the score in the task of the video game, as well as a significant decrease in the error, throughout the five days of the experiment. In the case of the patient, clinical scales were also recorded, observing improvements in resistance, speed, distance and transition time to standing position. Finally, the range of motion and speed of dorsi/plantarflexion were also recorded by means of an ad-hoc designed test, in which the subject was asked to move the foot up and down as quickly as possible to vertically move an onscreen ball to the limits of the screen. These metrics also shown improvements throughout the treatment. Nonetheless, these positive results cannot be extrapolated to the population of pathological subjects, as the effects of our training cannot be isolated from the rest of the patient's daily therapy; but it is concluded that it is a viable training for use in clinical scenarios. ; Esta tesis doctoral presenta, tras repasar la marcha humana, las principales patologías y condiciones que la afectan, y los distintos enfoques de rehabilitación con la correspondiente implicación neurofisiológica, el camino de investigación que desemboca en la herramienta robótica de rehabilitación y las terapias que se han desarrollado en el marco de los proyectos europeos BioMot: Smart Wearable Robots with Bioinspired Sensory-Motor Skills y HANK: European advanced exoskeleton for rehabilitation of Acquired Brain Damage (ABD) and/or spinal cord injury's patients, y probado bajo el paraguas del proyecto europeo ASTONISH: Advancing Smart Optical Imaging and Sensing for Health y el proyecto nacional ASSOCIATE: A comprehensive and wearable robotics based approach to the rehabilitation and assistance to people with stroke and spinal cord injury. Inicialmente se presenta la marcha humana, caracterizándola en arreglo a sus fases de apoyo y balanceo, y a los parámetros espaciotemporales, cinéticos y cinemáticos, sin dejar de lado los parámetros fisiológicos; para pasar a mostrar un repaso por las principales patologías o condiciones que afectan la marcha humana: lesión medular, parálisis cerebral, lesión cerebral traumática, deficiencias neuromusculares, enfermedades osteoarticulares, envejecimiento, e ictus o accidente cerebrovascular. A continuación, se enmarca la herramienta robótica que se desarrolla en esta tesis, en la rehabilitación para el ictus, fundamentando su uso en esta extendida patología debido a que afecta a 13,7 millones de personas cada a˜no, y a que hay unos 80 millones de supervivientes, afectando a todos los rangos de edad. Además, el 80 % de las personas afectadas por un accidente cerebrovascular ven asimismo comprometida su capacidad motora, motivando la necesidad de desarrollar herramientas enfocadas en la rehabilitación y recuperación, hasta donde sea posible, de la independencia perdida por motivo de la enfermedad, con la marcha como componente fundamental de esa independencia. Después de dar un repaso por la marcha y las características de la patología, se da un repaso explicativo por las tres fases de la terapia para rehabilitación de la marcha: T1) entrenamiento preparatorio basado en movilización de las articulaciones del miembro inferior; T2) recuperación de la marcha; y T3) mejora de la marcha con el objetivo de recuperar la movilidad para las actividades de la vida diaria. Se presenta esta clasificación de las fases para enmarcar el trabajo de esta tesis en las fases T1 y T2. Debido a que la recuperación motora se basa en el aprendizaje motor, se da una breve introducción al mismo exponiendo su relación con la neuroplasticidad, y estableciendo que, para potenciar todo tipo de aprendizaje, es capital establecer un reto, esto es, una dificultad asumible, y que no sólo hace que la tarea de entrenamiento sea menos monótona, sino que además potencia el proceso de retención del aprendizaje. El aprendizaje motor, como todo aprendizaje, para poder tener lugar, requiere que haya plasticidad neuronal. La plasticidad neuronal se puede describir por medio de estos cuatro factores: 1) evolución de la representación neuronal para movimientos que requieren habilidad, que estaban latentes antes de la lesión; y reclutamiento de áreas sanas y que se usaban antes de que la lesión ocurriera, cuando la dificultad de la tarea era mayor; 2) mayor excitabilidad de las neuronas y m´as eficacia de la conexión sináptica; 3) cambios morfológicos asociados a los fenómenos de potenciación y depresión a largo plazo (LTP y LTD de sus siglas en inglés, long term potentiation y long term depression respectivamente); y 4) adaptación de las redes corticales, subcorticales y espinales que aún funcionan al movimiento aprendido. Hay distintos métodos no invasivos que permiten evaluar los cambios neuroplásticos (reflejo de Hoffman, onda F, potenciales motores evocados, etc), y dado que en esta tesis se han usado los potenciales motores evocados(MEPs, de sus siglas en inglés, motor evoked potentials), se presenta la estimulación magnética transcraneal (TMS, de sus siglas en inglés, transcranial magnetic stimulation), como la técnica utilizada para evocar en la corteza motora asociada al músculo o a los músculos, cuya excitabilidad corticoespinal se desea evaluar, un potencial motor, recogido por medio de electromiografía superficial. La técnica de TMS permite observar cambios en la excitabilidad corticoespinal antes y después de un tratamiento que potencialmente induzca un aprendizaje motor, para poder evaluar si estos cambios están relacionados con el tratamiento, as´ı como permitiendo observar si son duraderos en el tiempo. En el capítulo de la revisión de la literatura se introducen también las diferencias entre los enfoques clásicos de rehabilitación, y los ayudados por las tecnologías robóticas, mostrando que no hay un claro ganador en tal batalla, pero manifestando la ventaja de la tecnología al permitir medir de manera objetiva y ayudar a caracterizar el proceso de recuperación. Una vez introducida la tecnología robótica como tecnología para la rehabilitación, se presentan los exoesqueletos como la tecnología robótica más adecuada implicada en los enfoques rehabilitadores para la marcha, y se da un repaso por los dispositivos existentes, con sus características y limitaciones, para mostrar la motivación de este trabajo. Las limitaciones que presentan los dispositivos actuales relevantes son que: utilizan patrones pre-grabados; no tienen sistemas de retroalimentación visual, o sus sistemas de retroalimentación son demasiados simples, no presentando el potencial de un video juego: entretenimiento y adherencia al tratamiento, permitiendo modificar la dificultad. Algunos, por otro lado, son tan complejos que demandan un esfuerzo cognitivo difícil para los pacientes, o incluso son complejos de configurar y comandar, llevando al abandono de la tecnología tanto por parte de pacientes como por parte de terapeutas. Además, la mayoría de ellos carecen de la capacidad de introducir aleatoriedad en el tratamiento, potencialmente desembocando en el aburrimiento del paciente, y en el abandono de la terapia en última instancia. Por último, pero no por ello menos importante, las tareas que proponen no se adaptan a lo largo del entrenamiento a las capacidades y recuperación del sujeto. Por ello, la herramienta que se propone en esta tesis consta de la integración de un tobillo robótico fijado a una plataforma, con una retroalimentación visual por medio de un video juego diseñado para entrenar los movimientos en el plano sagital del tobillo: dorsiflexión y plantarflexión; con el sujeto sentado. La herramienta es capaz de generar patrones de par controlados que perturban las trayectorias seguidas por el sujeto, dificultando la tarea de recoger los ítems en pantalla. Además, la magnitud de estas perturbaciones depende del rendimiento durante la tarea, incrementando la dificultad cuando el rendimiento va mejorando, consiguiendo imponer un reto continuo, potenciando la adherencia al tratamiento así como su eficacia para fomentar la retención de lo aprendido. Tras exponer la revisión de la literatura, se presenta el desarrollo de la herramienta de rehabilitación, recorriendo el camino desde la prueba de los algoritmos de control, hasta el desarrollo del video juego y diseño del protocolo experimental, pasando por la adecuación del control al actuador compliant en que se basa la herramienta, o las pruebas primero en banco de pruebas y después con sujetos sanos vistiendo el dispositivo. El primer estudio que se presenta consiste en aplicar un algoritmo, bioinspirado, de aprendizaje autónomo, utilizado en b´ıpedos (los cuales presentan la capacidad de aprender a caminar sin conocimiento previo de la tarea ni del entorno, únicamente conociendo algunos puntos de la trayectoria angular a realizar por las articulaciones), a un exoesqueleto con seis grados de libertad actuados, con actuadores rígidos, en el plano sagital, correspondiendo con las tres principales articulaciones del miembro inferior, esto es, cadera, rodilla y tobillo. Esta adaptación del algoritmo permite modular la rigidez de un actuador rígido con una implementación sencilla. Se acuñó el término adaptabilidad tácita (TAd, de sus siglas en inglés, tacit adaptability) para referirse a esta estrategia de control. El segundo estudio que se presenta tiene como objetivo aplicar el TAd a un actuador compliant: el MACCEPA (de sus siglas en inglés, mechanically adjustable compliance and controllable equilibrium position actuator). El MACCEPA es un actuador basado en un elemento elástico en serie, cuya pre-compresión puede variarse, ofreciendo distintos grados de rigidez. La ventaja de este actuador es que permite aplicar un control de par sin necesidad de un complejo sensor de par, conociendo la constante del elemento elástico y las posiciones del motor y del ángulo articular del sujeto. En el estudio, se presenta adaptación del TAd al MACCEPA, en el banco de pruebas, mostrando que, mediante este algoritmo, y sin modificar la pre-compresión del elemento elástico, se puede modular la rigidez del actuador tanto en condiciones estáticas como dinámicas, demostrando que el control puede adaptarse a las capacidades del sujeto, de manera automática y autónoma. El tercer estudio extiende los resultados a sujetos sobre la cinta de marcha, mostrando que el algoritmo permite absorber las desviaciones que pueda tener el sujeto sobre la trayectoria impuesta por el control del robot. Estos estudios han demostrado el uso del TAd con un control de posición. Para el desarrollo de la herramienta, se prueba también su uso con un control de par, para poder modular la magnitud del par aplicado. El siguiente capítulo muestra dos protocolos aplicables a la fase T2, justo antes de empezar un entrenamiento de marcha libre. Se utiliza la misma herramienta robótica, variando el ángulo en que reposa la pierna del sujeto, para poder ser utilizado en bipedestación. Este estudio tiene como objetivo explorar los controladores de par con la herramienta de rehabilitación robótica propuesta. El primero de los entrenamientos consiste en que el robot aplica un par negativo (hacia el suelo), durante el tiempo equivalente a la fase de balanceo, para forzar a que el sujeto haga un par de dorsiflexion superior al habitual para poder seguir una trayectoria angular de tobillo natural en caminata. Al final del entrenamiento, durante el 15 - 20 % final del tiempo, se quita el par negativo. Se observa que los sujetos tienen una dorsiflexión mayor al quitar el efecto, así como una activación menor de los músculos dorsiflexores (en ausencia de la fuerza a compensar), y tienden a normalizar los patrones a lo largo del tiempo. Observamos también que cuando se deja de aplicar el par, hay una tendencia a anticiparse al efectuar el pico máximo de dorsiflexión en la fase de balanceo, tendencia que va desapareciendo con el tiempo. En el segundo entrenamiento, el robot ejerce un par positivo, similar al ejercido por el suelo en la fase de apoyo, pero de una magnitud inferior, durante todo el entrenamiento. Se observa una activación inferior en el gastrocnemio medial (músculo plantarflexor) que durante una caminata normal sobre suelo. Esto indica que la fuerza reducida efectuada por el robot es similar a una caminata con un sistema de suspensión del peso. A continuación, se presenta el desarrollo de la realimentación visual a modo de videojuego. El juego consiste en un autogiro cuya posición en el eje vertical puede modificarse por medio de la dorsi y plantarflexión del tobillo instrumentado (el eje horizontal avanza de manera automática). El objetivo es recoger las botellas de gasolina que aparecen en la pantalla, siguiendo la trayectoria óptima entre botellas. El siguiente estudio, cuyo objetivo es demostrar la viabilidad de uso de la herramienta integrada por tobillo robótico fijado a la plataforma y el videojuego de rehabilitación, previo a aplicar el TAd, expone que aplicando un entrenamiento sin modular de ninguna manera, y modulando de manera progresiva y con una regla simple, el máximo par aplicado por el robot, se promueve aprendizaje en sujetos sanos, siendo mayor con los enfoques modulados. Una vez probada la viabilidad de la herramienta para fomentar el aprendizaje motor en sujetos sanos, se presenta la adaptación del TAd al MACCEPA, esta vez controlado en par, dando lugar a lo que hemos bautizado como retroalimentación adaptativa háptica (HAF, de sus siglas en inglés, haptic adaptive feedback). Este paradigma hace uso del rendimiento en la tarea para modular la máxima amplitud del par efectuado por el robot en cada momento en función de las capacidades del sujeto. De esta manera, se mantiene el concepto de reto, sin sobrepasar en exceso las capacidades del sujeto, y adecuándose según se producen mejoras en la ejecución de la tarea. El último estudio presentado, correspondiente a la fase de desarrollo, presenta los resultados a la hora de probar la viabilidad del protocolo final con un sujeto sano. A lo largo de cinco d´ıas consecutivos, el sujeto recibío el entrenamiento con el tobillo robótico consistente en jugar al videojuego diseñado para fomentar el aprendizaje motor. Se observó que el sujeto aprendía a lo largo de los días, mostrando reducción significativa en el error a la hora de seguir la mejor trayectoria entre botellas, así como aumento significativo en la puntuación, entendida como número de botellas recogidas. El estudio demuestra que el protocolo es capaz de generar aprendizaje en un sujeto sano. El siguiente capítulo muestra una ampliación del estudio previo a una muestra de diez sujetos sanos, aplicable a la fase de terapia T1. Los sujetos entrenaron a lo largo de tres días consecutivos. Además, se registró la excitabilidad corticoespinal por medio de TMS, enfocado en el tibial anterior, antes de empezar el entrenamiento el primer día, justo después del entrenamiento del tercer (y ´ultimo) día, media hora después para ver si los efectos se mantenían con el tiempo, y 24 horas después, para ver efectos a largo plazo. Se observó, a lo largo de los días, un incremento tanto en puntuación como en error. Así mismo, se obtuvo un incremento significativo en la excitabilidad corticoespinal del tibial anterior, pero no así de los otros dos músculos registrados: sóleo (como músculo involucrado en la tarea) y recto femoral (como músculo proximal, y, por tanto, no involucrado en la tarea de dorsi/plantarflexión). La falta de cambios significativos en el sóleo puede deberse a que al ser un músculo cuya acción es a favor de la gravedad, se haya visto menos potenciado. Otra posible razón es que, debido a que el tibial anterior recibe una mayor densidad de proyecciones corticoespinales que el resto de músculos del miembro inferior, necesite una intensidad inferior para ser reclutado en comparación con el sóleo. Se extendió este estudio con un caso de estudio con un sujeto patológico para probar la viabilidad de aplicación del protocolo con pacientes. Para ello, se modificó el par realizado por el robot para que sólo forzase dorsiflexión, evitando que el paciente tuviera que compensar un movimiento del robot hacia abajo, centrado en entrenar los músculos dorsiflexores. Se observó un incremento significativo en la puntuación en la tarea del videojuego, así como un decremento significativo del error, a lo largo de los cinco días de experimento. En el caso del paciente se registraron también escalas clínicas, observando mejoras en resistencia, velocidad, distancia recorrida y tiempo de transición a bipedestación. Por ´ultimo, también se registró el rango de movimiento y velocidad de dorsi/plantarflexión por medio de un test dise˜nado ad-hoc, en el que se pidío al sujeto que moviera el pie arriba y abajo lo más rápido posible para tocar con una bolita los extremos verticales de la pantalla. Se observó una mejora en esta métrica a lo largo del tratamiento. Aunque se ven mejoras, no puede extrapolarse este resultado a la población de sujetos patológicos, así como no se pueden aislar los efectos del juego del resto de la terapia diaria del paciente; pero se concluye que es un entrenamiento viable para su uso en entornos clínicos. ; The research presented in this thesis has been funded by the Commission of the European Union under the BioMot project - Smart Wearable Robots with Bioinspired Sensory-Motor Skills (Grant Agreement number IFP7-ICT - 611695); under HANK Project - European advanced exoskeleton for rehabilitation of Acquired Brain Damage (ABD) and/or spinal cord injury's patients (Grant Agreements number H2020-EU.2. - PRIORITY 'Industrial leadership' and H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges' - 699796); also under the ASTONISH Project - Advancing Smart Optical Imaging and Sensing for Health (Grant Agreement number H2020-EU.2.1.1.7. - ECSEL - 692470); with financial support of Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) under the ASSOCIATE project - A comprehensive and wearable robotics based approach to the rehabilitation and assistance to people with stroke and spinal cord injury (Grant Agreement number 799158449-58449-45-514); and with grant RYC-2014-16613, also by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
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Dirk Messner on the dynamics of global change and the significance of international science and technology cooperation in the post-Western world
This is the fifth in a series of Talks dedicated to the technopolitics of International Relations, linked to the forthcoming double volume 'The Global Politics of Science and Technology' edited by Maximilian Mayer, Mariana Carpes, and Ruth Knoblich
In recent years, the analysis of new emerging powers and shifting global order has become central to the study of international relations. While International Relations, aiming to evolve into a truly global discipline, is only just about to start opening up towards Non-Western perspectives, global power shifts have already led to a restructuring of global governance architecture in large fields of political reality and practice. Dirk Messner illustrates how far global power shifts have to lead to new patterns of international cooperation using international science and technology cooperation as a case in point. He argues that investment in joint knowledge creation and knowledge exchange is vital for managing the earth system. Messner also points to the multitude of tasks related to socio-technical systems which the political sphere is currently facing, particularly with regard to the challenge of managing the climate system.
Print version of this Talk (pdf)
What is the most important challenge facing global politics that should be the central debate in the discipline of International Relations?
The biggest challenge of the next decades which we have to come to terms with is governing the big global commons. When I say global commons I do have in mind the atmosphere, the climate system, and other parts of the earth system, but also international financial markets and global infrastructures, such as the Internet – stability of these and other global commons is a public good much required. We need to stabilize the global commons and then manage them in a cooperative manner.
Three dynamics of global change make it specifically challenging to manage these global commons. The first wave of global change is the globalization wave; the economic globalization, cross-border dynamics, global value chains. It becomes evident that in many areas and especially when it comes to the global commons, regulation exceeds the capacity of individual nation states. The international community is required to institutionalize multilateralism and efficient global governance mechanisms in order to properly address issues arising from global dynamics. The second big global change is the shift from a Western to a post-Western world order. Global power shifts remaking the international system impede governing global commons. The third wave of global change is related to climate change, which adds a new dimension of global dynamics; human beings now have to learn how to steer, to stabilize, and how to govern the earth system as such. We are not only a species living on this planet, depending from resources and ecosystems of the earth systems. With the acceleration of economic globalization during the 1990s and the emergence of new, non-Western economic drivers of change, like China, humankind now significantly impacts the physical structures of the earth system. This trend is new. For the first 4,6 billion years of the existence of the earth system it was driven by the laws of physics, the dynamics of biology and bio-chemical processes. Homo sapiens appeared 220.000 years ago, and the impact of our species on the earth system has been marginal until the industrial revolution started 250 years ago. During the last decades human mankind became a major driver of change at a planetary scale.
How did you arrive in your current thinking about these issues?
I have always been interested in international relations, international policy dimensions, and the global economy. I started at the Free University of Berlin at the beginning of the 80's towards the mid-80's, studying Political Science and Economics. One among those professors who have been particularly important to me is Elmar Altvater. He was the supervisor of my diploma as well as of my Ph.D., and he sent me abroad. This resulted being a pivotal experience to me. I studied the last year of my first degree in Seoul, in South Korea. It was the period, the 80's, when the four Asian Tiger states emerged following Japan's example: South Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong, and Singapur. I had the chance to visit these countries, study there and learn a lot about Asia. I was fascinated by the dynamics of emerging economies and what this implied for the international arena. Somewhat later, the Latin American continent became the center of my interest. I did research in Nicaragua, Uruguay, Chile and some other Latin American countries, trying to understand liberalization-movements, how weaker actors come under pressure in Western-dominated global settings, but also how some countries managed it to become dynamic parts of the global economy (like the "Asian tigers" or Chile) and why others failed. I learnt that it is crucial to understand dynamics of global change in order to being able to build solid and inclusive economic structures and legitimate political systems at national levels. There has always been a political impulse that pulled me into certain fields I decided to work in.
What is your advice for students who would like to get into the field of global change research or international cooperation?
My first advice is: visit and work in different countries and different cultural and political settings. It is one thing to learn from scholars or books, but having studied and having lived in different contexts and countries is absolutely a key experience. This is the way to understand global dynamics, to get a feeling for differences and similarities. My second advice stems from my experience and conviction that we need much more interdisciplinary research than we currently have. We talk a lot about interdisciplinarity, however, we do not have career paths that systematically build interdisciplinary teams.
Looking particularly at global environmental changes and the future of the earth system, at the end of the day, social scientists and natural scientists need to learn how to work together and to understand each other. The future of the oceans, for example, is not a question that can be understood by ocean biologists only. They are the people studying how these elements of the earth system are actually working, the dynamics and drivers - focusing on physical, chemical, and biochemical processes. But when we look at the oceans towards 2100 from the perspective of global change, the most important drivers are now us human beings, our economies, our consumption patterns, our greenhouse gas emissions and their impacts on the oceans. And this implies that to understand dynamics of global change, we need to analyze the interactions, interdependences and feedback loops between three systems: the ecological system(s); social systems (our economies and societies) driven by humans; the technical systems and infrastructures. Therefore natural scientists, social scientists, and engineers need to interact very closely. In the German Advisory Council on Global Change we call this approach: Transformation Research. Currently, we do not possess the appropriate university structures to adequately address this sort of problems. This is an immense institutional challenge. If I were a young scholar I would move into this direction, crossing disciplinary boundaries as much as possible.
What is the role of science and technologies in the dynamics of global change?
There are multiple important dimensions, but I would like to focus on some of them by moving through the aforementioned waves of global change. Technology is driving economic globalization, the first wave of global change. So we need to understand the dynamics of new technologies, especially the impact of ICTs, in order to understand the dynamics of economic globalization. The World Wide Web and social communication media are restructuring industrialization processes and global value chains. ICT infrastructure is also displaying a big potential for less developed regions. In Africa, for example, we saw many African countries jumping from the old telephone technologies to smartphones within less than a decade, because the old, maintenance and capital intensive communications infrastructure was no longer needed. Many African people now have access to smartphones, thus to communication- and information networks, and begin to reshape prize constellations and the global economy. Because of its restructuring effects, the impact of ICTs is relevant in all areas of the global economy. The global trend towards urbanization is similarly related to ICTs. Currently, we approach the global economy via data on national economies. But this might be about to change, as global mega-cities develop into global knowledge and financial hubs, building their own networks. In 2040, 80 percent of the global production, global GDP, global consumption, global exchange might be concentrated in 70 to 80 global cities or city regions.
Technology is also linked to the second wave of global change – the tectonic global power shift – in the way that investment in technology and knowledge in emerging economies are growing rapidly. We are not only facing economic and political power shifts, but also a remaking of the global science and research system itself. From my perspective, international cooperation in the field of science and technology research between "old powers" and "new powers", between Western countries and non-Western countries is extremely important for two reasons: First, we need to pool know-how in order to solve core global challenges and to develop patterns for managing the global commons. Interaction and cooperation in the field of science and technology is especially important for the creation of knowledge that is "better" in any way. For instance, in the field of adaptation policies to the impacts of climate change, most of the knowledge on how societies and local communities actually work or respond under these conditions exists in non-Western societies. The generation of knowledge is context dependent. We need to interact with colleagues from the respective countries for mutual learning and common knowledge improvement. My second argument is that, as an effect of the global power shift, traditional development cooperation is losing legitimacy. Many of these societies, from China to Peru, from Kenya to Vietnam, are no longer interested in our usual business, in our "aid-packages", our money, our experts or our concepts. What they are more interested in is true and reciprocal knowledge exchange and joint knowledge creation. Therefore, investments in respective forms and institutions of knowledge exchange and creation will be a central pillar of/for future oriented development cooperation or international cooperation and beneficial for all partners involved. Joint knowledge creation is a precondition for joint action and legitimate global governance initiatives.
The role of technologies with regard to the implications of climate change is crucial and multifaceted. In the German Advisory Council on Global Change we put forth suggestions concerning the transformation towards a low-carbon global economy. We are relatively optimistic in a technological sense. This statement is partly based on the Global Energy Assessment (GEA) research, which has been driven by Nebojsa Nakicenovic, one of our colleagues, who is working on energy modeling. The perspective there is that we know which kind of technologies we need for the transformation into a low-carbon or even zero-carbon economy. We can even calculate the investment costs and structures of different countries and regions. But we do know relatively little about the transformation processes of entire societies, economies and, eventually, the international system towards low-carbon systems. The transformation towards a low-carbon society is a "great transformation". In the entire history of mankind there might be only two examples for such a profound change: the industrial revolution 250 years ago and the Neolithic revolution 10.000 years ago, which induced the practices of agriculture. Today, we thus witness the third great transformation: the decoupling from fossil resources, from high-carbon to zero-carbon. To achieve the 2° Celsius goal, a complete decarbonization of the basic infrastructures of the global economy (the energy systems, the urban infrastructures and systems, the land use systems) is required – within a very limited period of time, until 2070. Comprehensive knowledge is key to achieve this. Let me emphasize once more the significance of international cooperation in the field of science and technology research, particularly in the IPCC context. I am sure that politicians from China, India, or Brazil only accept what the IPCC is presenting as objective knowledge, as the stand of the art knowledge, because their national scientists are deeply involved. If this were a classical western-based knowledge project it would have resulted in a lack of legitimacy. In the case of global climate policy, it is obvious that investment in joint knowledge creation is also about creating legitimacy for joint action.
What are the main obstacles of the low-carbon transformation?
The first two great transformations have been evolutionary processes. No one "planned" the industrial revolution, not to mention the Neolithic revolution. These have been evolutionary dynamics. The sustainability transformation instead needs to be a governed process right from the beginning. In our institute, we looked at different transformation dynamics, not only the really big ones, the Neolithic, industrial, and the current sustainability transformation. We also examined structural adjustment programs in Latin America and Africa, the collapse of communism at the end of the 80s, the abolition of slavery, and similar other key transformations of human societies. Based on this historical perspective, we have identified four main drivers of transformation: The first one is crisis, this is the most important one. Confronted with strong crises, society and probably also individuals react and change direction. The second important driver is very often technology and scientific (r)evolution. The third driver is vision: If you are confronted with a problem but you do not know where to go to, transformation becomes very difficult. The European Union is the product of a fresh vision among elites after World War II; the United Nations is a result of the disasters of the first half of the 20th century. Advancing a vision is an essential means to move or to transform in a goal-oriented manner. Sustainability, of course, is also a vision. The fourth and last driver of transformation is "knowledge": you know that you have a certain problem constellation, and though the crisis is still not there, you react based on your knowledge in a preventive way.
For the low-carbon transformation, the fourth driver currently is absolutely key. We are able to address problems which would otherwise become much worse in the future, although the climate crisis is latent still – in contrast to, for example, the financial crisis, which is more visible in its effects. The impacts of a global warming of 4 or 5 degrees are still not visible. This makes for a huge difference. In fact, humans are not very good at acting and transforming significantly based on knowledge only. In combination with visible, tangible crises, knowledge is a strong driver of change, but without crisis, it is merely sufficient. Transformations based on knowledge and preventive action only are rare. The ozone hole is one positive example; solving the problem was possible because it required less complex technological change, affecting few industries only. Human beings are risk-averse in a sense, we are conservative, we do not like to change rapidly; we are path-dependent. John Maynard Keynes once said: "It is easy to develop new concepts and ideas. The difficult thing is to forget the old ones". Therefore, scientific tools are needed in order to sketch out future scenarios. Based on scientific knowledge, we need to convince our societies, our political decision-makers that it is necessary and possible to transform societies and economies towards sustainability – in order to avoid disruptive change in the earth system. Pushing towards sustainability at a point where the crisis has not yet materialized implies a specific and new role for science in managing global dynamics. Organizing a deep transformation towards sustainability avoiding significant crises driven by Earth system changes would be a cultural learning process – a civilizational shift.
What are the effects of growing multipolarity for global governance processes?
To start optimistically, I would argue that in contrast to historical situations in which this kind of tectonic power shifts led to conflicts or even wars, the current situation is different. The world is highly interconnected and economic interdependencies are stronger than ever. Charles Kupchan is differentiating between "war", "cold peace" and "warm peace". I think that a big "war" is not very probable, and "cold peace" is what we are in actually. "Warm peace" would be cooperative global governance: we identify our problems, have a joint problem analysis, and subsequently start acting cooperatively on them. But this does not describe the contemporary situation. While there are no severe global conflicts, we do not solve many of the global interdependency problems.
There are many barriers to global cooperation and I would like to mention two or three of those. The first one consists of power conflicts and power struggles. Hopefully realists such as John Mearsheimer are not right in claiming that "a peaceful rise of China is not possible". But the fundamental point remains that the re-organization and shuffling of power resources is rendering cooperation extremely difficult. The second point is that all the important global actors currently have severe domestic challenges to manage. The European countries are coping with the European dept crisis. Similarly, the United States is concerned with financial turbulences and rising social inequalities. China has to keep its annual growth rate of about 8 to 12 per cent and meanwhile stabilize its rapid modernization process. In India, there is still a large group of people suffering from poverty. So, managing that and trying to be a responsible global actor at the same time is not easy at all. In brief, all actors that we would like to see taking on a more responsible role on the global level are overcommitted domestically.
There is consensus among different disciplines on what cooperation is actually about. At the Centre for Global Cooperation Research we did a study on The Behavioural Dimensions of International Cooperation (2013) based on insights of very different disciplines – evolutionary biology, social anthropology, cognitive sciences, psychology, political sciences, behavioral economics – to find out what the basic mechanisms are which help human beings to cooperate at any scale towards global corporation in a world of nine billion people. Finally, we identified seven factors promoting cooperation: trust, communication, joint we-identities, reputation, fairness, enforcement – and reciprocity, which is the most fundamental prerequisite. These factors form an enable environment for cooperation and they are manmade. In contexts, actor constellations, systems, in which these basic mechanisms of cooperation are strong, they help to embed power dynamics, to solve social dilemma problems and to manage interdependencies. In contrast, contexts, actor constellations, and systems in which theses basic mechanisms of cooperation are weak, will be driven mainly by power dynamics and struggles. By looking at these factors one immediately understands why the G20 context is so difficult. We have been able to create and to well establish these factors in our old settings; in the European Union, the Western world, the transatlantic community. But now we are sitting together with new actors rather unknown. The G7/G8 world – the OECD driven and the western driven global economy and global politics – has moved towards G20 since it was acknowledged that one cannot manage any global turbulence without emerging economies. The G20 was created or rather called to meet in 2008, a few days after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers when many feared the collapse of the world's financial markets. Most western economies were highly indebted, whereas the emerging economies, especially China, were holding large currency reserves. From a behavioral perspective we have to invest in these basic factors of cooperation in the G 20 context in order to create the essential preconditions of joint action to solve the big global problems. This represents a long-term project, and unfortunately many of these global problems are highly challenging from the time perspective: a tension derives from the gap between time pressure in many of these areas and the time it probably needs to build up these basic mechanisms of cooperation. In fact, the major feeling is that international cooperation is even weaker now than a decade ago. I usually visualize the current situation of the G20 as a round table with 20 seats but no one is sitting there. Charles Kupchan's "No one's world" or Ian Bremmer's "The G0 world" deal with the same problem: international cooperation, global governance is currently so difficult, although all these interdependency problems rendered the problem of managing the global commons fully obvious. If you talk to our Foreign Ministers or Finance Ministers or Chancellors and Presidents, they of course all know exactly what is out there in terms of globalization impacts. But organizing the necessary global consensus and the governance and cooperation structures is tremendously difficult.
How far is the discipline of development research affected by global change?
This is a complex question, to which I do not have a definite answer. The whole field of development research is currently about to get redefined. In the past, the concept of development was clear: On the one side, there was the developed world, the OECD-world, consisting of 35-40 countries and on the other side, the "underdeveloped" part of the world, all other countries. Understanding the differences between developed and developing, along with thinking about the basic drivers of modernization and wealth creation in less developed countries was at the core of development research for a long period. How can poor countries become rich and as developed as OECD countries already are?
Today, it is highly questionable if even the broader categories of "development research" still serve to analyze the new realities. Do we currently still need "development economists", and how would they differ from classical "economists" doing research in those European countries suffering most from the debt crisis, high unemployment and weak institutions? Situations in many OECD countries nowadays look like what one would expect from a still developing or emerging economy, and the other way around. So, what distinguishes development research? This is an important question. Studying non-OECD countries, do we still need development research based governance theories or democratization theories – thus, theories that are systematically different from those we apply in our research on OECD countries? The discipline of development research is under immense pressure. This debate is linked to the second wave of global change we talked about: the post-western world order, emerging economies catching up, convergence trends in the global economy.
If you look at the role of international technology transfer, the same scenario arises: the North-South, donor-recipient categories have dissolved. Technology transfer has lost its distinct direction, and it is much more reciprocal and diffuse than it used to be. There are several studies currently pointing to the fact that investment rates in R&D and in technology creation are growing fast in several regions around the globe, whereas in many OECD-countries, investment is stagnating, or even decreasing. The whole map of knowledge, if you like to say so, is about to undergo deep changes. This implies that the common assumption that knowledge is based in OECD countries and transferred to the South via development cooperation is just not working any longer. We need new patterns of cooperation between different countries in this area. And we need research on global development dynamics which will be different from classical development research which has been based on the assumption of a systemic North-South divide for a long time.
How do institutions such as the World Bank react to the emerging and redefined agenda of development?
The current reorientation of the World Bank as a Knowledge Bank originates from the assumption that knowledge is just as important as money for global development. The second point is that more and more of their partners in non-OECD countries, classical developing and emerging economies, are more and more interested in the knowledge pools of the World Bank and less in their experts. And: dynamic developing countries and emerging economies are even more interested in investments in their own knowledge systems and joint knowledge creation with the World Bank. The old North-South knowledge transfer model is eroding. You might say that there currently are two contradictory global trends: on the one hand via social media and the Internet, knowledge is being widely distributed – broader than ever before and actually, theoretically accessible at any point in the world –, on the other hand the proliferation of knowledge is accompanied with access restriction and control, and the growing privatization of knowledge. Aiming to play a constructive role in collaborative knowledge generation, the World Bank invests a lot in building up freely accessible data bases and open research tools, including the provision of governance or development indicators of any kind. However, this is a difficult process that is developing slowly.
The World Bank is currently undergoing several basic re-orientations. The structures inside of the World Bank are about to become less hierarchical and more horizontal. Originally, the World Bank has been a much more western dominated organization as the Bretton Woods institutions were formed by the United States and its allies. If you look into the governance structures of the World Bank today, it is still largely dominated by OECD countries, but you can notice that this is changing. It is a global organization but 90 % of people working there have been studying at Anglo-Saxon universities. Actors especially from emerging economies have been criticizing that for long, claiming that the World Bank as a global organization should have to be represented by a global citizenship. Although this had slowly started to change already, all the knowledge and all the qualification procedures still remained very western dominated. So they asked the World Bank to diversify its partner structures, to reach out and cooperate with research institutions from around the world. This is what the World Bank is trying to do at the moment, which is really a break with its culture. Because even though the World Bank is a global organization, it has always been a very inward-looking organization. The World Bank was strong, with fantastic professionals and researchers inside, but without cooperating tools. Now they are trying to broaden their cooperation structures and to learn from and together with other institutions.
What are the opportunities and difficulties of big data analysis for global development?
Access to any kind of data is important for any kind of knowledge creation. It has been very limited for many developing countries over a very long time. So, thinking about how to assure access to serious data is significant. This would be my first point. My second point is that, when it comes to big data and the question of managing large amounts of indicators on, for example, cross-country or cross-sector modeling, I think the new technologies are opening up new research possibilities and opportunities. Big data provides the opportunity to identify patterns. Looking for similar dynamics in very different systems is a very interesting exercise, because you get deeper insights into the basic dynamics of systems. This is what I have learned from my colleague Nakicenovic, whom I have mentioned before, and who is working on the Global Energy Assessment, or from Juergen Kurths, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who is studying basic structures and dynamics of very different complex systems like air traffic networks, global infrastructures and social media networks. Managing big data allows you to see patterns which cannot be seen if you only work with case studies. However, to understand the dynamics of countries and sectors, new actor constellations or communities, you need to go into detail and in this specific moment, big data is only the starting point, the background: you also need qualified, serious, very often qualitative data on the ground. Big data and qualified, specific data: they complement each other.
For sure, an important aspect of big data is that for the most part, it is gathered and stored by private businesses. We started this interview talking about global commons and we actually just defined a global commons: data on development should be a global commons, and we need standards and rules of managing those. Private actors could play a role, but within a set of rules defined by societies and policies, and not the private business sector.
Dirk Messner is the Director of the "German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)" since 2003 and teaches at the Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen. He is Co-Director of the "Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR)", University Duisburg-Essen, which was established in 2012. He furthermore is Co-Chair of the "German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU)", member of the "China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development", member of the "Global Knowledge Advisory Commission" of the World Bank and member of the "European Commission's Scientific Advisory Board for EU development policy". Dirk Messner's research interests and work areas include globalisation and global governance, climate change, transformation towards low carbon economies, and development policy. He directed many international research programs and thus created a close international research network.
related links:
Profile at German Development Institute Messner, Dirk / Guarín, Alejandro / Haun, Daniel (eds.) (2013): The Behavioural Dimensions of International Cooperation, Global Cooperation Research Papers 1, Centre for Global Cooperation Research (pdf)
Read Jing Gu, John Humphrey, and Dirk Messner's (2007) Global Governance and Developing Countries: The Implications of the Rise of China here (pdf)
Messner, Dirk (2007): The European Union: Protagonist in a Multilateral World Order or Peripheral Power in the »Asia-Pacific« Century? (pdf)
1PERANAN KEPEMIMPINAN KEPALA SUKU DALAM MENGATASI KONFLIK ANTARA SUKU DANI DAN SUKU DAMAL DI KABUPATEN(Suatu Studi di Mimika Provinsi Papua)OLEH : UNDINUS KOGOYANIM : 090814015ABSTRAK Konflik yang terjadi di antara suku Dani dan suku Damal yang ada di Kabupaten Mimika di mulai sejak pertengahan tahun 2013, yaitu di daerah tambang emas dimana kedua suku ini menjadi tambang Mimika sebagai sumber mata pencaharian, berawal dari salah satu perempuan suku dani di perkosa oleh salah satu anggota suku damal, hal ini tidak dapat diterima oleh suku dani, secara spontan anggota suku dani menyerang suku damal, sehingga terjadilah perang antara suku dani dan suku damal. Kapasitas Pemerintah dalam menyelesaikan konflik antara kedua suku ini hanyalah sampai pada pendekatan persuasif, yaitu mengajak untuk dapat mendiskusikan secara baik, agar tercapai suatu kesepakatan damai, namun upaya pemerintah tersebut sampai dengan saat ini tampaknya belum berhasil, karena kedua suku yang bertikai masih semangat mudah sekali untuk terpancing sehingga perdamaianpun tidak terwujud. Penelitian ini dilakukan di wilayah Mimika yang merupakan salah satu propinsi yang ada di Papua. Karena di wilayah ini sering terjadi konflik antara kedua suku tersebut. Metode penelitan yang dipakai adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif yaitu menggambarkan berbagai faktor yang menjadi pemicu konflik dan cara serta peran yang dimainkan oleh pemerintah dalam mengatasi konflik tersebut. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui faktor-faktor penyebab terjadinya konflik antara suku dani dan suku dalam. dan untuk mengetahui penyebab ketidakmampuan kepala suku meredam amarah anggotanya. Hasil dari penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa kepala suku tidak mampu meredam konflik, serta memberikan ketenangan bagi anggota sukunya, sehingga perdamaian sulit untuk di wujudkan. Key word: Kepemimpinan, Kepala Suku, Konflik2Pendahuluan Salah satu harapan dikeluarkannya undang – undang No. 32 Tahun 2004, tentang Pemerintahan Daerah, yaitu meletakkan dasar-dasar administrasi Pemerintahan Desa sehingga baik para pemimpin formal (Kepala Desa dan Pamong Desa), maupun para pemimpin informal (Kepala Suku, Pdt / Pastor dan para Tokoh) semakin tahu dan mampu menjadi pelopor dalam masyarakat, terutama dalam fungsi mereka sebagai jembatan yang menghubungkan antara kemauan pemerintah dan kepentingan masyarakat, maupun kepentingan masyarakat yang satu dengan masyarakat yang lainnya. Dalam fungsi demikian mereka menjandang beban mencerna dan menerangkan kebijaksanaan – kebijaksanaan umum dan prioritas pembangunan yang dirancang oleh pemerintah kemudian menjelaskannya ke segenap anggota masyarakat. Berhasil tidaknya proses pembuatan keputusan brgantung pada peranan elit formal dan informal dalam keikutsertaan mereka dalam proses pembuatan keputusan tersebut. menurut penulis, kedua elit tersebut sebaiknya berperan dalam proses pembuatan keputusan agar di peroleh hasil keputusan yang tepat. Oleh karena itu pembuatan keputusan itu di lakukan secara cermat dengan memperhatikan langkah-langkah sebagai berikut :1. Dimusyawarahkan lebih dahulu antara elit formal dan informal dengan anggota masyarakat agar keputusan yang diambil mempunyai bobot yang berkualitas serta dapat membentuk kelompok kerja yang sesuai dengan kepentingan desa.2. Keputusan yang diambil harus jelas, tidak bersimbang siur atau bertentangan satu sama lain, dan sedapat mungkin disertai dengan cara-cara pelaksanaannya diformulasikan dalam bentuk kata-kata yang sedarahana, mudah dipahami dan berlaku untuk semua golongan masyarakat desa.3. Keputusan harus diambil dalam waktu secapat mungkin. Terlalu lama mengambil keputusan akan menimbulkan ketegangan – ketegangan masyrakat sehingga menyulitkan penjelesaiannya dikemudian hari dan akan menimbulkan masalah baru.Dalam kehidupan masyarakat, setiap individu memiliki peran sesuai dengan profesionalisme ditempat mana saja ia berada. Bahkan setiap orang diharapkan dapat berperan dalam suatu komunikasi dan setiap orang harus belajar untuk mengisi perannya. Kenyataan yang ada Suku Dani dan Suku Damal, peranan elit informal (Kepala Suku) dalam proses pengambilan keputusan cukup besar, karena pengalaman dari para kepala suku dapat mengerakkan mempengaruhi partisipasi masyarakat yang ada di desa. Partisipasi masyarakat3merupakan modal yang besar dan sangat diperlukan dalam pelaksanaan pembangunan. Disamping sikap dan motivasi dari para elit informal juga turut mempengaruhi pelaksanaan pembangunan didesa dalam meningkatkan kesejahteraan masyarakat. Apabila dugaan ini benar maka kondisi – kondisi tersebut memberikan kontribusi yang besar dalam proses pengambilan keputusan. Konflik yang terjadi diantara Suku Dani dan Suku Damal yang ada di Kabupaten Timika, di mulai sejak Tahun 1997, yaitu didaerah tambang emas dimana kedua suku ini menjadikan Timika sebagai sumber mata pencaharian, berawal dari salah satu perempuan suku Dani di perkosa oleh salah satu anggota suku Damal , hal ini tidak dapat terima oleh suku Dani, secara spontan anggota suku Dani menyerang suku Damal, sehingga terjadinya perang antara suku Dani dan suku Damal. Kapasitas pemerintah dalam menyelesaikan konflik antara kedua suku hanyalah sampai pada pendekatan persuasif, yaitu mengajak untuk dapat mendiskusikan secara baik, agar tercapai suatu kesepakatan damai, namum upaya pemerintah tersebut sampai dengan saat ini tampaknya belum berhasil, karena kedua suku yang bertikai masih sangat mudah sekali untuk terpancing sehingga perdamaianpun tidak terwujud. Kepala suku dalam hal ini sebagai tokoh yang di kagumi, dan di hormati kerana kharisma dan kewibawaannya di mata masyarakat, mempunyai peranan penting untuk menyelesaikan konflik di antara kedua suku ini, karena kepala suku mempunyai kekuasaan untuk memberikan perintah kepada anggotanya agar tidak terjadi peperangan. Namum pada kenyataannya kepala suku yang ada Suku Dani dan Suku Damal, tidak mampu untuk meredam amarah dari masing – masing anggota sukunya, sehingga perang antara kedua sukupun tidak dapat terelakan. Hal ini di picu juga oleh latar belakang dari pada suku – suku yang ada di Kabupaten Timika, yaitu saling bersaing untuk mendapat pengakuan, suku mana terhebat, dan juga mempunyai kebiasaan berperang. Berdasarkan kenyataan yang di uraikan di atas, masalah dalam penelitian ini adalah peranan Kepala Suku dalam mengatai konflik, yaitu antara Suku Dani dan Suku Damal, sehingga tidak terjadi perang. PembahasanTanah Papua merupakan salah satu wilayah di indonesia yang masih menyimpang berbahagai macam permasalahan sosial. Salah satu masalah sosial yang sampai sekarang telah ada dan masih terjadi adalah konflik sosial. Konflik sosial yang terjadi di Tanah Papua sangat beragam dan mencakup semua ini kehidupan, melai dari aspek sosial, budaya, politik dan ekonomi. Konflik sosialyang terjadi di Tanah Papua pada beberapa tahun belakang ini4juga tidak terlepas dari pokok permasalahan tersebut utamanya adalah konflik sosial yang di picu oleh perbedaan suku, budaya dan golongan atau kelompok, sesuai dengan karakteristik dan dianggapnya sebagai salah satu permasalahan yang dapat merugikan dan mengganggu bahkan melanggar aturan dan norma yang berlaku pada suku-suku yang ada. Masalah persinahan atau perselingkuhan, pembunuhan, kematian tidak wajar, dan rasa dendam yang mendalammerupakan salah satu penyebab perang suku di daerah pedalaman Papua. Di samping itu konflik internal antara suku yang terjadi waktu lampau juga menjadi salah satu factor penyebab perang suku dan kelompok di daerah pedalaman Papua yang dapat menyebabkan kerugian secara fisik maupun materi lainnya. Konflik social yang ada di daerah ini sering di sebut sebagai perang suku atau bahasa dani di sebut wim sedangkan bahasa damal /amungme wem, sebab perang suku yang terjadi adalah antara suku-suku asli Papua yang mendiami daerah tersebut yaitu Suku Dani, Suku Nduga, Suku Delem, Suku Damal/ Amungme, Suku Moni, Suku Wolani, Serta Suku Ekari/ Me, dan Suku-Suku lainnya. Suku- Suku tersebut merupakan Suku – Suku yang mempunyai tradisi perang yang sangat kuat. Perdamaian perang suku yang di lakukan oleh pemda, Lembaga kemasyarakatan dan gereja pada dasarnya memiliki pola pemahaman dan penanganan yang sama. Perang suku di lihat dari suatu tindakan yang negative, sebagai suatu kriminalitas, yang bertentangan hukum-hukum positif maupun hokum-hukum agama. Karena pemahaman semacam ini, perang suku harus dihentikan dan ditiadakan. Dengan pemahaman semacam ini, peran ketiga lembaga di atas tidak lebih dari seorang polisi penjaga, yang melari dan menghentikan pertikaian.Anehnya, sekalipun ketiga Lembaga itu melihat perang sebagai suatu yang negative, tetapi dalam upaya mereka untuk menghentikan dan meniadakan perang suku, ketiganya justru memanfaatkan mekanisme penyelesaian secara adat membayar ganti rugi kepada pihak korban disertai upacara bakar batu. Ketiga lembaga itu percaya bahwa perang suku baru akan berhenti ketika pihak-pihak yang bertikai melakukan pembayaran ganti rugi disertai upacara bakar batu. Pengakuan tergadap nilai-nilai kulturan serta digunakan nilai-nilai tersebut untuk menyelesaikan perang suku, tentu merupakan suatu hal yang sangat penting dan bermanfaat. Terbukti, suatu perang suku baru bisa dihentikan ketika perang pembayaran ganti rugi serta upacara bakar batu dilaksanakan. Akan tetapi pola penanganan semacan ini punya dua kelemahan yang mendasar. Pertama, pola penanganan semacan ini bersifat persial. Artinya, penanganan semacan ini hanya efektif untuk satu kasus. Ketika kasus yang lain muncul maka perang akan muncul kembali. Kelemahan ini sudah terbukti dalam sejarah. Meskipun perdamaian secara adat telah sering dilakukan untuk menghentikan dan mendamaikan pihak-5pihak yang terlihat dalam perang suku, akan tetapi ketika masalah yang baru muncul maka perang kembali terjadi. Kenyataan seperti ini memperlihatkan bahwa upacara bakar batu ganti rugi dan upacara bakar batu ganti rugi bukan suatu bentuk penyelesaiak konflik yang bersifat preventif. Padahal, ketika perang dilihat sebagai sesuatu yang negative di perlukan suatu mekanisme penyelesaian perang suku yang bersifat preventif sehingga perang tidak terus menerus terulang. Kedua, penanganan secara adat justru akan semakin memperkokoh keutamaan kategorisasi (kelompok) social. Padahal kategorisasi social justru menjadi penyebab utama dari berbagai konflik social. Ketika keutamaan dari kategorisasi social ini terus merus dikukuhkan, itu berarti konflik social akan terus terulang. Atau, dengan kata lain ketika nilai-nilai cultural setiap suku yang ada di pedalaman terus menerus di pertahankan dan mendapatkan legalitas secara politik maupun religious maka perang antar suku akan terus menerus terjadi. Bagi peneliti kedua kelemahan itu memunculkan suatu tanya: kenapa pembayaran ganti rugi dan upacara bakar batu yang secara historis tidak mampu menyelesaikan konflik secara permanen dan justru semakin memperkokoh penyebab utama perang suku yaitu keutamaan kategorisasi social terus-menerus dilakukan? adakah berbagai kepentingan yang bermain dibalik perang suku dan upacara bakar batu? Penulis melihat adanya beberapa indicator yang mengarah kepada hal itu, yaitu: 1. Secara ekonomis, perang suku dan upacara bakar batu selalu menghabiskan biaya yang tidak kecil. Setiap terjadi perang, harta benda yang menjadi korban atau dikorbankan tidaklah sedikit dan biaya pembayaran ganti rugi dan upacara pelaksanaan bakar batu bias mencapai Rp 500.jt,.( lima ratus juta) sampai Rp.1.m,- (satu meliar). Kenyataan semacam ini akan berdampak terjadinya kemiskinan di antara masyarakat Papua. Akibat lebih lanjut dari kemiskinan ini ialah masyarakat papua akan kesulitan dalam mengembangkan potensi-potensi yang mereka miliki sehingga citra sebagai "masyarakat termiskin" di Indonesia terus dipertahankan.2. Aspek ekonomis itu pada gilirannya juga berdampak secara politis. Ada dua dampak politis yang bias dilihat.a). jika citra sebagai masyarakat termiskin bisa dipertahankan dalam jangka waktu yang semakin lama, maka akan memunculkan sebuah citra baru bagi masyarakat Papua, yaitu citra sebagai masyarakat yang tergantung pada pihak lain. Jika persoalan ini dikaitkan dengan persoalan politik yang terus bergejolak di Papua, akan menjadi alat yang akan meredam keinginan sebagian masyarakat Papua untuk merdeka. Bagaimana mereka bisa merdeka, jika hidup mereka masih sangat tergantung6pada pihak lain? b). Masih dalam kaitannya dengan pergolakan politik di Papua, perang antar suku juga akan semakin menyulitkan keinginan sebagian masyarakat Papua untuk merdeka. Bagaimana mereka bisa merdeka, ketika pikiran, tenaga dan sumber-sumber ekonomi yang mereka miliki senantiasa dipusatkan untuk berperang dan mengatasinya? 4. Hak Asasi Manusia. Setiap terjadi perang, satu-persatu masyarakat Papua meninggal dunia sebagai korban perang. Jika perang terus menerus terjadi, pelan tapi pasti Ras Melanesia di Papua akan hilang akibat konflik di antara mereka sendiri. Jika persoalan seperti ini dikaitkan dengan persoalan diseputar penyakit AIDS yang banyak diderita oleh masyarakat Papua, maka pertanyaan yang muncul kemudian adalah apakah ada kepentingan genocide dibalik perang suku ?siapakah pihak-pihak yang berkepentingan dengan itu? 5. Ketika, Pemerintah Daerah, Lembaga Kemasyarakatan Adat dan juga gereja terus mengupayakan penyelesaian secara adat, maka pertanyaan yang pantas diajukan kepada ketiga lembaga itu adalah apakah ketiga lembaga itu berkepentingan dengan berbagai citra yang muncul akibat adanya perang suku ? apakah mereka turut bermain di situ ? lalu apa kepentingan mereka itu? Untuk menjawab pertanyaan tersebut adalah tugas bangsa papua yang cinta tanah Papua .pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini sebagai catatan kritis penulis bagi proses penanganan perang suku yang dilakukan oleh ketiga lembaga tadi.Menurut peneliti, penanganan perang suku yang dilakukan secara adat terbukti tidak mampu mengatasi perang suku secara permanen.Penanganan yang hanya mengedepankan persoalan cultural itu justru semakin mengukuhkan penyebab utama konflik, yaitu kategorisasi sosial.Oleh karena itu perlu diusahakan suatu bentuk penanganan konflik yang baru. Sebuah pertanyaan yang pantas dikedepankan dalam upaya mencari solusi terbaik bagi perang suku adalah ketika nilai-nilai kesukuan menjadi penyebab utama dari perang suku, apakah nilai-nilai kesukuan harus dihilangkan? Jawaban akan hal ini tentu bukan hal yang mudah. Sebab ketika nilai-nilai kesukuan dihilangkan, akan beresiko terjadinya ketercerabutan kultural. Untuk mengatasi hal ini, sumbangan teori identitas sosial dalam menangani konflik sosial akan sangat berguna, utamanya proposalnya tentang dekategorisasi dan rekategorisasi. Melalui dekategorisasi, keterikatan individu dengan kelompoknya dieliminir sedemikian rupa sehingga hubungan antar individu semakin dipersonalkan.Sehingga ketika berinteraksi, setiap inidividu tidak mewakili kelompoknya, tetapi sebagai seorang individu-individu yang unik. Pun demikian dalam hal cara pandang individu terhadap yang lain. Karena individu bukan wakil suatu kelompok, maka ketika7terjadi konflik antar individu, kelompok tidak turut terlibat dalam konflik. Dekategorisasi akan mempersempit wilayah konflik sehingga terbatas pada konflik antar individu. Pada titik ini, penyelesaian konflik antar individu yang bisa memuaskan kedua belah pihak perlu dipikirkan.Sejarah perang suku dalam sepuluh tahun terakhir memperlihatkan bahwa semula perang suku terjadi karena konflik antar individu.Pihak-pihak yang terlibat konflik tidak puas dengan penyelesaian berdasarkan hukum positif.Sebab, disamping rendahnya kesadaran mereka terhadap hukum positif, mereka juga melihat bahwa hukum positif tidak mampu menggantikan sesuatu yang hilang akibat dari suatu kasus, yaitu persoalan harga diri.Sebagai ganti, mereka lebih menyukai penyelesaian berdasarkan hukum-hukum adat.Berdasarkan pada hal ini, nilai-nilai kultural suku-suku yang ada di papua perlu dipikirkan sebagai salah satu acuan hukum untuk menyelesaikan kasus-kasus yang bisa memicu lahirnya perang suku. Jalan untuk memanfaatkan nilai-nilai kultural sebenarnya sudah terbuka lebar. Sebab pemerintah Indonesia telah mengeluarkan UU no. 21 tahun 2001, bab XIV tentang kekuasaan peradilan. UU tersebut mengatakan bahwa "peradilan adalah peradilan perdamaian di lingkungan masyarakat hukum adat, yang mempunyai kewenangan memeriksa dan mengadili sengketa perdata adat dan perkara pidana di antara para warga masyarakat hukum adat yang bersangkutan."Dan ayat 2 dikatakan "pengadilan adat di susun menurut ketentuan hukum adat masyarakat hukum adat yang bersangkutan." Mencermati isi dari ketentuan-ketentuan tersebut, akan sangat bijak ketika sebuah institusi peradilan adat yang eksistensi dan otoritasnya diakui oleh semua kelompok suku yang ada dibangun. Suku-suku di pedalaman Papua pada dasarnya patuh pada hukum, sepanjang hukum itu memang berpihak kepada kepentingan orang banyak, diwadahi dalam, satu sistem yang profesional dan bebas dari intervensi pihak manapun, dan para penegaknya dapat menjadi suri teladan bagi masyarakat suku. Keadaan yang disebut di atas ini merupakan salah satu modal dasar yang ampuh dalam rangka mencari kesejahtraan rakyat Papua. Di dalam hukum adat maupun hukum positif di Papua khusunya, supremasi hukum itu sendiri harus ditegakan juga agar terlihat secara nyata dalam penanganan perang.Hal ini penting mengingat tingkat kepercayaan masyarakat terhadap nilai-nilai adat masih sangat tinggi dibanding dengan kepercayaan mereka terhadap hukum positif.Dekategorisasi sebenarnya merupakan suatu usaha untuk membentuk suatu budaya baru yang lebih menonjolkan sisi individualitas manusia daripada komunalitasnya. Harus jujur diakui bahwa masalah diseputar budaya individualitas dan komunalitas merupakan8persoalan yang cukup pelik dan menjadi debat yang berkepanjangan, bukan saja bagi para teoritisi tetapi juga para praktisi budaya. Tanpa bermaksud terlibat dalam debat tersebut, untuk kepentingan tulisan ini cukup dikatakan bahwa dalam konteks masyarakat Papua, komunalitas yang berpusat pada ikatan-ikatan kesukuan telah menjadi persoalan serius dan berulang kali memicu lahirnya perang suku. Oleh karena itu komunalitas tersebut perlu dieliminir dengan menonjolkan sisi individualitas. Membentuk suatu budaya baru yang menonjolkan sisi individualitas, bukan suatu usaha yang mudah.Pekerjaan semacam itu membutuhkan waktu yang cukup lama dan berkesinambungan.Ia memerlukan proses sosialisasi baik formal maupun non formal. Sadar dengan kenyataan semacam ini, dunia pendidikan di Papua akan mempunyai peran yang sangat penting dalam usaha menciptakan suatu budaya baru yang bisa mengeliminir sisi komunalitas suku-suku yang ada di sana. Dunia pendidikan perlu merancang suatu kurikulum pendidikan yang sesuai untuk tujuan tersebut. Bersamaan dengan proses dekategorisasi dan pembangunan institusi hukum adat, proses rekategorisasi perlu dibangun. Dengan rekategorisasi berbagai kelompok suku yang ada disatukan dalam suatu kelompok yang lebih besar dengan identitas bersama yang baru. Tujuan utama yang hendak dicapai dalam proses rekategorisasi. Pertama, rekategorisasi dimaksudkan untuk mencari alternative bagi nilai-nilai yang hilang akibat proses dekategorisasi, yaitu terkikisnya ikatan-ikatan komunalitas lama dengan menciptakan ikatan-ikatan komunalitas yang baru. Khusus "perang suku" di Mimika, sumber konflik Dani-Amungme juga harus dipahami. Amungme, selain orang Kamoro, adalah tuan tanah di Mimika. Orang Dani (dan suku-suku pegunungan lain seperti Mee, Nduga, dll.) adalah pendatang yang pelan-pelan mengokupasi tanah dan lahan Amungme.Jumlah orang Dani terus membesar melebihi Amungme.Dalam banyak hal Amungme selalu merasa terteror dengan tingkah laku mereka."Perang suku" antara mereka sudah pecah sejak paruh kedua 1990-an.Sumber konflik antara mereka tidak hanya yang tradisional seperti perempuan, babi, perzinahan atau lainnya, tapi juga soal dana bantuan Freeport, pemekaran, Otsus, politik Papua Merdeka, atau bahkan pilkada. Itu artinya pihak luar seperti Freeport, pihak aparat keamanan, dan pemain pendatang sangat mungkin ikut berperan. Harus diakui tradisi kekerasan dalam bentuk "perang suku" ada di mana-mana di tanah Papua. Dokumen VOC Belanda di abad ke 17 menunjukkan orang-orang di sekitar Fakfak (dulu Onin), Kaimana (dulu Kobiai), Raja Ampat, Biak, dan lain-lain sudah punya tradisi "perang suku" dan bahkan9menjual tawanan perangnya sebagai budak di pasar Seram Timur. Tapi "perang suku" di daerah-daerah pantai ini sudah berhenti berkat pengaruh luar, sebagian oleh masuknya Islam dari Maluku, kemudian pasifikasi oleh Pemerintah Kolonial Belanda, dan sivilisasi oleh kalangan zending dan missionaris sekitar awal abad ke 20. Pengaruh luar datang lebih lambat di daerah pedalaman dan pegunungan.Baru setelah Perang Dunia II umumnya Gereja dan pemerintah Kolonial Belanda masuk. Persebaran suku-suku yang sangat luas dan sulit dijangkau, membuat banyak komunitas suku tidak tersentuh pengaruh pemerintahan modern atau pun Gereja. Yang sudah tersentuh Gereja atau Pemerintah pun masih berkeras melanjutkan "perang suku".Dani, Damal, dan Amungme adalah suku-suku yang sudah mengenal Gereja dan pemerintahan modern sejak 1950-an. Di Wamena sendiri, tempat asal kebanyakan suku Dani, perdamaian kolosal pernah terjadi pada 1993.Sejak itu pihak-pihak yang bertikai tidak pernah berperang lagi di Wamena. Tapi di daerah pegunungan lain kita masih sering mendengar berita "perang suku". Bagi peneliti kedua kelemahan itu memunculkan suatu tanya: kenapa pembayaran ganti rugi dan upacara bakar batu yang secara historis tidak mampu menyelesaikan konflik secara permanen dan justru semakin memperkokoh penyebab utama perang suku yaitu keutamaan kategorisasi social terus-menerus dilakukan? adakah berbagai kepentingan yang bermain dibalik perang suku dan upacara bakar batu? Penulis melihat adanya beberapa indicator yang mengarah kepada hal itu, yaitu: 1. Secara ekonomis, perang suku dan upacara bakar batu selalu menghabiskan biaya yang tidak kecil. Setiap terjadi perang, harta benda yang menjadi korban atau dikorbankan tidaklah sedikit dan biaya pembayaran ganti rugi dan upacara pelaksanaan bakar batu bias mencapai Rp 500.jt,.( lima ratus juta) sampai Rp.1.m,- (satu meliar). Kenyataan semacam ini akan berdampak terjadinya kemiskinan di antara masyarakat Papua. Akibat lebih lanjut dari kemiskinan ini ialah masyarakat papua akan kesulitan dalam mengembangkan potensi-potensi yang mereka miliki sehingga citra sebagai "masyarakat termiskin" di Indonesia terus dipertahankan.2. Aspek ekonomis itu pada gilirannya juga berdampak secara politis. Ada dua dampak politis yang bias dilihat.a). jika citra sebagai masyarakat termiskin bisa dipertahankan dalam jangka waktu yang semakin lama, maka akan memunculkan sebuah citra baru bagi masyarakat Papua, yaitu citra sebagai masyarakat yang tergantung pada pihak lain. Jika persoalan ini dikaitkan dengan persoalan politik yang terus bergejolak di Papua, akan menjadi alat yang akan meredam keinginan sebagian masyarakat Papua untuk10merdeka. Bagaimana mereka bisa merdeka, jika hidup mereka masih sangat tergantung pada pihak lain? b). Masih dalam kaitannya dengan pergolakan politik di Papua, perang antar suku juga akan semakin menyulitkan keinginan sebagian masyarakat Papua untuk merdeka. Bagaimana mereka bisa merdeka, ketika pikiran, tenaga dan sumber-sumber ekonomi yang mereka miliki senantiasa dipusatkan untuk berperang dan mengatasinya? 4. Hak Asasi Manusia. Setiap terjadi perang, satu-persatu masyarakat Papua meninggal dunia sebagai korban perang. Jika perang terus menerus terjadi, pelan tapi pasti Ras Melanesia di Papua akan hilang akibat konflik di antara mereka sendiri. Jika persoalan seperti ini dikaitkan dengan persoalan diseputar penyakit AIDS yang banyak diderita oleh masyarakat Papua, maka pertanyaan yang muncul kemudian adalah apakah ada kepentingan genocide dibalik perang suku ?siapakah pihak-pihak yang berkepentingan dengan itu? 5. Ketika, Pemerintah Daerah, Lembaga Kemasyarakatan Adat dan juga gereja terus mengupayakan penyelesaian secara adat, maka pertanyaan yang pantas diajukan kepada ketiga lembaga itu adalah apakah ketiga lembaga itu berkepentingan dengan berbagai citra yang muncul akibat adanya perang suku ? apakah mereka turut bermain di situ ? lalu apa kepentingan mereka itu? Untuk menjawab pertanyaan tersebut adalah tugas bangsa papua yang cinta tanah Papua .pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini sebagai catatan kritis penulis bagi proses penanganan perang suku yang dilakukan oleh ketiga lembaga tadi.Menurut peneliti, penanganan perang suku yang dilakukan secara adat terbukti tidak mampu mengatasi perang suku secara permanen.Penanganan yang hanya mengedepankan persoalan cultural itu justru semakin mengukuhkan penyebab utama konflik, yaitu kategorisasi sosial.Oleh karena itu perlu diusahakan suatu bentuk penanganan konflik yang baru. Sebuah pertanyaan yang pantas dikedepankan dalam upaya mencari solusi terbaik bagi perang suku adalah ketika nilai-nilai kesukuan menjadi penyebab utama dari perang suku, apakah nilai-nilai kesukuan harus dihilangkan? Jawaban akan hal ini tentu bukan hal yang mudah. Sebab ketika nilai-nilai kesukuan dihilangkan, akan beresiko terjadinya ketercerabutan kultural. Untuk mengatasi hal ini, sumbangan teori identitas sosial dalam menangani konflik sosial akan sangat berguna, utamanya proposalnya tentang dekategorisasi dan rekategorisasi. Melalui dekategorisasi, keterikatan individu dengan kelompoknya dieliminir sedemikian rupa sehingga hubungan antar individu semakin dipersonalkan.Sehingga ketika berinteraksi, setiap inidividu tidak mewakili kelompoknya,11tetapi sebagai seorang individu-individu yang unik. Pun demikian dalam hal cara pandang individu terhadap yang lain. Karena individu bukan wakil suatu kelompok, maka ketika terjadi konflik antar individu, kelompok tidak turut terlibat dalam konflik. Dekategorisasi akan mempersempit wilayah konflik sehingga terbatas pada konflik antar individu. Pada titik ini, penyelesaian konflik antar individu yang bisa memuaskan kedua belah pihak perlu dipikirkan.Sejarah perang suku dalam sepuluh tahun terakhir memperlihatkan bahwa semula perang suku terjadi karena konflik antar individu.Pihak-pihak yang terlibat konflik tidak puas dengan penyelesaian berdasarkan hukum positif.Sebab, disamping rendahnya kesadaran mereka terhadap hukum positif, mereka juga melihat bahwa hukum positif tidak mampu menggantikan sesuatu yang hilang akibat dari suatu kasus, yaitu persoalan harga diri.Sebagai ganti, mereka lebih menyukai penyelesaian berdasarkan hukum-hukum adat.Berdasarkan pada hal ini, nilai-nilai kultural suku-suku yang ada di papua perlu dipikirkan sebagai salah satu acuan hukum untuk menyelesaikan kasus-kasus yang bisa memicu lahirnya perang suku. Jalan untuk memanfaatkan nilai-nilai kultural sebenarnya sudah terbuka lebar. Sebab pemerintah Indonesia telah mengeluarkan UU no. 21 tahun 2001, bab XIV tentang kekuasaan peradilan. UU tersebut mengatakan bahwa "peradilan adalah peradilan perdamaian di lingkungan masyarakat hukum adat, yang mempunyai kewenangan memeriksa dan mengadili sengketa perdata adat dan perkara pidana di antara para warga masyarakat hukum adat yang bersangkutan."Dan ayat 2 dikatakan "pengadilan adat di susun menurut ketentuan hukum adat masyarakat hukum adat yang bersangkutan." Mencermati isi dari ketentuan-ketentuan tersebut, akan sangat bijak ketika sebuah institusi peradilan adat yang eksistensi dan otoritasnya diakui oleh semua kelompok suku yang ada dibangun. Suku-suku di pedalaman Papua pada dasarnya patuh pada hukum, sepanjang hukum itu memang berpihak kepada kepentingan orang banyak, diwadahi dalam, satu sistem yang profesional dan bebas dari intervensi pihak manapun, dan para penegaknya dapat menjadi suri teladan bagi masyarakat suku. Keadaan yang disebut di atas ini merupakan salah satu modal dasar yang ampuh dalam rangka mencari kesejahtraan rakyat Papua. Di dalam hukum adat maupun hukum positif di Papua khusunya, supremasi hukum itu sendiri harus ditegakan juga agar terlihat secara nyata dalam penanganan perang.Hal ini penting mengingat tingkat kepercayaan masyarakat terhadap nilai-nilai adat masih sangat tinggi dibanding dengan kepercayaan mereka terhadap hukum positif.Dekategorisasi sebenarnya merupakan suatu usaha untuk membentuk suatu budaya baru yang lebih menonjolkan sisi individualitas manusia daripada komunalitasnya. Harus12jujur diakui bahwa masalah diseputar budaya individualitas dan komunalitas merupakan persoalan yang cukup pelik dan menjadi debat yang berkepanjangan, bukan saja bagi para teoritisi tetapi juga para praktisi budaya. Tanpa bermaksud terlibat dalam debat tersebut, untuk kepentingan tulisan ini cukup dikatakan bahwa dalam konteks masyarakat Papua, komunalitas yang berpusat pada ikatan-ikatan kesukuan telah menjadi persoalan serius dan berulang kali memicu lahirnya perang suku. Oleh karena itu komunalitas tersebut perlu dieliminir dengan menonjolkan sisi individualitas. Membentuk suatu budaya baru yang menonjolkan sisi individualitas, bukan suatu usaha yang mudah.Pekerjaan semacam itu membutuhkan waktu yang cukup lama dan berkesinambungan.Ia memerlukan proses sosialisasi baik formal maupun non formal. Sadar dengan kenyataan semacam ini, dunia pendidikan di Papua akan mempunyai peran yang sangat penting dalam usaha menciptakan suatu budaya baru yang bisa mengeliminir sisi komunalitas suku-suku yang ada di sana. Dunia pendidikan perlu merancang suatu kurikulum pendidikan yang sesuai untuk tujuan tersebut. Bersamaan dengan proses dekategorisasi dan pembangunan institusi hukum adat, proses rekategorisasi perlu dibangun. Dengan rekategorisasi berbagai kelompok suku yang ada disatukan dalam suatu kelompok yang lebih besar dengan identitas bersama yang baru. Tujuan utama yang hendak dicapai dalam proses rekategorisasi. Pertama, rekategorisasi dimaksudkan untuk mencari alternative bagi nilai-nilai yang hilang akibat proses dekategorisasi, yaitu terkikisnya ikatan-ikatan komunalitas lama dengan menciptakan ikatan-ikatan komunalitas yang baru. Khusus "perang suku" di Mimika, sumber konflik Dani-Amungme juga harus dipahami. Amungme, selain orang Kamoro, adalah tuan tanah di Mimika. Orang Dani (dan suku-suku pegunungan lain seperti Mee, Nduga, dll.) adalah pendatang yang pelan-pelan mengokupasi tanah dan lahan Amungme.Jumlah orang Dani terus membesar melebihi Amungme.Dalam banyak hal Amungme selalu merasa terteror dengan tingkah laku mereka."Perang suku" antara mereka sudah pecah sejak paruh kedua 1990-an.Sumber konflik antara mereka tidak hanya yang tradisional seperti perempuan, babi, perzinahan atau lainnya, tapi juga soal dana bantuan Freeport, pemekaran, Otsus, politik Papua Merdeka, atau bahkan pilkada. Itu artinya pihak luar seperti Freeport, pihak aparat keamanan, dan pemain pendatang sangat mungkin ikut berperan. Harus diakui tradisi kekerasan dalam bentuk "perang suku" ada di mana-mana di tanah Papua. Dokumen VOC Belanda di abad ke 17 menunjukkan orang-orang di sekitar Fakfak (dulu Onin), Kaimana (dulu Kobiai), Raja Ampat, Biak, dan lain-lain sudah punya tradisi "perang suku" dan bahkan13menjual tawanan perangnya sebagai budak di pasar Seram Timur. Tapi "perang suku" di daerah-daerah pantai ini sudah berhenti berkat pengaruh luar, sebagian oleh masuknya Islam dari Maluku, kemudian pasifikasi oleh Pemerintah Kolonial Belanda, dan sivilisasi oleh kalangan zending dan missionaris sekitar awal abad ke 20. Pengaruh luar datang lebih lambat di daerah pedalaman dan pegunungan.Baru setelah Perang Dunia II umumnya Gereja dan pemerintah Kolonial Belanda masuk. Persebaran suku-suku yang sangat luas dan sulit dijangkau, membuat banyak komunitas suku tidak tersentuh pengaruh pemerintahan modern atau pun Gereja. Yang sudah tersentuh Gereja atau Pemerintah pun masih berkeras melanjutkan "perang suku".Dani, Damal, dan Amungme adalah suku-suku yang sudah mengenal Gereja dan pemerintahan modern sejak 1950-an. Di Wamena sendiri, tempat asal kebanyakan suku Dani, perdamaian kolosal pernah terjadi pada 1993.Sejak itu pihak-pihak yang bertikai tidak pernah berperang lagi di Wamena. Tapi di daerah pegunungan lain kita masih sering mendengar berita "perang suku". KESIMPULAN Berdasarkan hasil penelitian pada bagian terdahulu, penelitian ini dapat disimpulkan sebagai berikut:1. Kepala suku sebagai pemimpin informal melakukan perannya sesuai dengan tradisi, adat, budaya yang lahir tumbuh dan berkembang di tanah Papua dari nenek moyang mereka, dimana sudah menjadi suatu kewajiban untuk tetap mempertahankan kehormatan suku yang dipimpinnya, sehingga berperang merupakan suatu kehormatan untuk mencapai kemenangan demi mempertahankan martabat suku yang dipimpinnya. Kekalahan yang menimpa salah satu suku menjadi suatu hinaan bagi kepala sukunya, sehingga kepala suku akan terus mencari cara keluar dari hinaan tersebut, dan terus menyemangati para anggota sukunya untuk tetap semangat meraih kembali kehormatan yang hilang karena kekalahan dalam berperang.2. Kepemimpinan kepala suku dalam mengatasi konflik bukanlah menjadi solusi yang tepat, karena kepala suku tidak akan dapat meredam konflik masing-masing anggota sukunya.3. Konflik yang terjadi di Timika antara suku Dani dan Damal, tidak bisa hanya diselesaikan dengan menggunakan hukum positif yang berlaku, begitu pula dengan pendekatan secara keagamaan, karena sebelum agama masuk ke tanah papua, tradisi berperang antar suku ini sudah menjadi budaya.14SARAN1. Pemerintah harus mampu lebih kritis lagi mencari tahu penyebab konflik ini, bukan hanya sekedar mencari pemicunya, apabila hal ini merupakan suatu tradisi budaya, hal-hal yang lebih konkrit dan kompleks harus lebih dikedepankan, seperti mengundang antar suku yang bertikai, tokoh adat, dan tokoh agama.2. Dalam menyelesaikan konflik ini, pemerintah harus mencari orang tengah, bukan hanya sekedar mencari pemimpin sukunya, yang biasanya berperan memimpin perang suku, jumlahnya bisa lebih dari satu.3. Carilah dahulu "orang belakang" karena orang inilah yang memiliki otoritas ritual perang dan perdamaian. "Tuan perang" dan "orang belakang" biasanya tersembunyi dan dilindungi15DAFTAR PUSTAKA Adisasmita, Rahardjo. 2006. Pembangunan Pedesaan dan Perkotaan, Yogyakarta, Graha Ilmu Bintarto R, Buku Penuntun Geografi Sosial, Yogyakarta, UP.Spring, 1969, hal. 95. Bartle, Phill, 2002. Participatory Method of Measuring Empowerment.Modul Pelatihan Pemberdayaan. Daldjoeni, N dan A. Suyitno. 2004. Pedesaan, Lingkungan dan Pembangunan. Bandung: PT. Alumni Dahl, Robert,1983.Democracy and Its Critics.New Haven Conn: Yale University Press. Friedmann, John. 1992. Empowerment: The Politics of Alternative Development. Chambridge: Blackwell Publishers. Hulme, David & M. Turner, 1990.Sociology of Development: Theories, Policies and Practices. Hertfordshire: Harvester Whearsheaf. Kartasasmita, Ginandjar. 1997. Administrasi Pembangunan. Jakarta: LP3ES. Momon Soetisna Sendjaja, Sjachran Basan,1983,Pokok-Pokok Pemerintahan di Daerah dan Pemerintahan Desa, Bandung, Alumni. Paul, Samuel, 1987. Community Participation in Development Projects-The World Bank Experience.Washington DC: The World Bank. Soetrisno, Loekman, 1995. Menuju Masyarakat Partisipatif. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kanisius.Sri Sudaryatmi, Sukirno,TH. Sri Kartini, Beberapa Aspek Hukum Adat, Badan Penerbit Undip, Semarang. Sugiyono, 2007, Memahami Penelitian Kualitatif.Alfabeta; Bandung. Suharto, Edi. 1997. Pembangunan, Kebijakan Sosial dan Pekerjaan Sosial: Spektrum Pemikiran. Bandung : Lembaga Studi Pembangunan STKS (LSPSTKS). Suharto, Edi. 2006. Membangun Masyarakat Memberdayakan Rakyat. Bandung : PT. Refika Aditama. Sulistiyani, Ambar Teguh, 2004. Kemitraan dan Modul-modul Pemberdayaan. Yogyakarta: Gava Media. Tampubolon, Mangatas. 2006. Pendidikan Pola Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Dan Pemberdayaan Partisipasi Masyarakat Dalam Pembangunan Sesuai Tuntutan Otonomi Daerah. Trijono, Lambang. 2007. Pembangunan Sebagai Perdamaian : Rekonstruksi Indonesia Pasca-Konflik. Jakarta : Yayasan Obor Indonesia.
Issue 13.3 of the Review for Religious, 1954. ; A. M. D. G. Review for Religious MAY 15, i95.4 Pontificate of Pius X . , . . . J.P. Leonard Pray Reasonably . Joseph F. Gallen ¯ -Nature and Grace . : . Joseph P. Fisher New Little Office . o Adam C;.'Ellis Secular Institutes . . . Fr,~ncis N. K~orfh ¯ Father Larraona:s Golcl~n "Jubilee Questions and Answers ~ .~ Book Reviews News and Views ~ VOLUM~ Xlll,' NUMBER 3 VOLUME XIII MAY, 1954 NUMBnR 3 CONTENTS FATHER LARRAONA'S GOLDEN JUBILEE .1.1.3. THE PONTIFICATE OF PIUS X~ ~ Most Reverend d. P. Leonard, 8.J . 114 BI[,ESSED PlUS X--SOME D.ATES . 124 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 124 PRAY REASONABLY--Joseph F. Gallen, S.d . 125 NEWS AND VIEWS-- Pius X; Adaptation and Prayer: Silver Jubilee; Congress in Canada; Summer Sessions; Institute of Spirituality . 137 NATURE AND GRACE--Joseph P. Fisher, S.J .142 NEW REVIEW OF SPIRITUALITY . 148 NEW EDITION OF THE LITTLE OFFICE--Adam C. Ellis, S.J. 149 MORE ABOUT SECULAR INSTITUTES--Francis N. Korth, S.J. 153 PLENARY INDULGENCE FOR SEVEN SORROWS BEADS 159 BOOK REVIEW (Nature and Grace). . . 160 BOOKS ABOUT MARY . 160 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS . 161 MARIAN YEAR PLAY . 165 NOTICE FOR PUBLISHERS . 165 "QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- 16. Form of Address for Sisters . 166 17. Bowing while Kneeling " 166 18.Duty of Delegate to Members Electing Him . 167 19. Cashing of Insurance Policy by Novice . ; 167 20. Tabernacle Veil for Benediction after Mass . 168 21. Flowers on Altar during Penitential Seasons . 168 PRAYER FOR SICK . " . 168 MORE INDEPEiklDENT AURELIANS . 168 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, May, 1954, Vol. XIII, No. 3. Published bi-monthly: January, March,May, July, September, and November at the College Press, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas, by St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as second class matter January 15, 1942, at the Post Office, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editorial Board: Augustine G. Ellard, S.J., Adam C. Ellis, S.J., Gerald Kelly, S.J., Francis N. Korth, S.J. Copyright, 1954, ,by Adam C. Ellis, S.J. Permission is hereby granted for quota-tions of reasonable length, provided due.credit be given this review and the author. Subscription price: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U. S. A. Before writin9 to us, please consult notice on inside back cover. ON DECEMBER 8, 1953, the Most Reverend Father Arcadio Larraona, Secretary of tb~ Sacred Congregation of Religious, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his religious profession in the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (C.M.F.). Father L~irraona was born in Spanish Navarre, November 12, 1887. At the age of twelve be entered the apostolic school of the Claretian Missionaries at Alag6n, near Zaragoza. After completing his classical studies, he made his novitiate at Vich, in the Province of Barcelona, and pronounced his first religious vows on December 8, 1903. His philosophical and theological studies were made at the University of Cerv~era. He was ordained priest in Zaragoza~ in 1911. Not long after ordination be went to Rome to do post-graduate studies in canon law. He received the degree of Doctor Utriusque Juris (Doctor of both Civil and Canon Law). Several years later, in 1918, he succeeded Cardinal Massimi in the chair-of Roman Law on the Faculty of San Apollinare. He held this posi-tion for over thirty years. In 1920, together with Fathers Maroto and Goyeneche, he founded the Comrnentarium pro Religiosis. of which he is the chief editor today, and in which he continues to publish what will un-doubtedly become the most exhaustive commentary on the canons of the Code concerning religious ever attempted. For twenty-five years and more he has been attached to^ the Sacred Congregation of Religious--first, as Consultor;. then as Under Secretary; finally, as Secretary. He became Under Secretary, November 27, 1943. By an Apostolic Brief dated November 11, 1950, Pope Plus XII appointe~'d him Secretary. He has also served other Sacred Congregations of the Roman Curia and will be espe-cially remembered for the active part he took in the formulation of the Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Church. It was our privi; lege to have him preside over the First National Congress of Reli-gious in the United Sates, held at the University of Notre Dame, August 9-12, 1952. The editors and readers of REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS extend their best wishes to Father Larraona on this. happy occasion, and they ask Our Blessed Lady, during this Marian Year, to obtain for her faith-ful son an abundance of spiritual blessings. 113 The Pon :it:ic :e ot: Plus X Most ReverendJ. P. Leonard, S.J. .| F THERE IS ANYTHING that strikes us when studying Church | history it is the amazing fact that she has weathered the most fearful storms and survived attacks both from within and from without that should, normally have wrecked any institution, how-ever solidly egtablished. The secret lies in the'words of Our Blessed Lord to His apostles: "Behold, I am with you all days even until the consummation of the world . " With special cogency do these words of Christ apply to him whom He appointed head of the Apostolic College and invested with the supremacy of power, to Peter and his successors. "And the Lord si~id, 'Simon, Simon, be-hold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not; and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren' " (Luke 22:31-32). The meaning is plain: as the Church rests on the Papacy as .on an unshakable rock bed, so the Papacy itself derives its security and its strength from Christ the cornerstone. The history of the Church is the history of the Papacy. It is the Papacy that ensures her well-being and expansion, that wards off the blows which are leveled against her; it is the Papacy that fos-ters and promotes her many works, that organizes and directs her mission of teaching, of guiding, of sanctifying the souls redeemed by the precious blood of her Founder. It is the Papacy that steers the 15ark of Peter over dangerous seas and through lurching reefs. We find this verified in the splendid succession of Pontiffs who occupied the Chair of Peter during the past hundred years and not least in Pius X, who was beatified June 3, 1951. Many of this holy Pontiff's activities are apt to appeal to us in a particular manner as they bear directly on the pastoral ministry. Not that his action was restricted to matters of internal organization and parochial duties. Like his illustrious predecessor and his no less illustrious succes-sors in the Chair of Peter, he had to tackle all .the intricate ques-tions of the day, ,keeping his hand on the pulse of ailing humanity so as to ~uggest suitable remedies for the many ills of mankind. ~Still it is true to say that his greatest care always turned to the direct in-terests of the Church and to the realization of the program which hc outlined at the beginning of his reign, and which "he crystallized 114 THE PONTIFICATE OF PlUS X in'the motto: lnsta{tre omnia in Christo (Eph. 1:10)--"to renew all things in Christ." I. HI~ SOCIAL MESSAGE AND DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS That Pius X, for all his-absorbing solicitude fo~ the internal organization of the Church and the spiritual improvement of the Christian communities, nevertheless kept in close touch with the so-cial,' economic, and political trends bf his time, we gather from his wise ordinances in the field of social action and from his relations with governments. 1. Social Action Aware of the important contribution which Pope Leo XIII had made towards the solution of the Social Question and in full sympa~ thy with the principles laid down in the encyclical Return novarurn, ~Pius X pledged the fullcooperation of the Church to the establish-ment of a healthy social order. In a motu proprio dated Dec. 18, 1"903, he drew up a list of nineteen propositions,, collected from various encyclicals of Leo XIII, in which he pointed out the chief pitfalls to be avoided and the safe course to be followed. He had sensed dangerous leanings towards socialism and was keenly alive to the prevalence of a growing spirit of independence and insubordi-nation to ecclesiastical authority. Soon after, he dissolved the ex-isting Catholic welfare and social-reform organization of Italy, the Opera dei Congressi, and substituted a new organization aiming at eliminating the causes of friction and at creating an atmosphere con-ducive to a healthy social action. His encyclical II ferr, o proposito (June 11, 1905) outlined a scheme of "Catholic Action~' which Plus XI wasito develop later on. W~hat he achieved for Italy, he also tried to effect for FranCe, where the Sillon (the F,urrow)--a social movement avowedly Catholic in aim--was rallying the support of the more enthusiastic and enterprising among the French Catholics. The movement, however, showed signs of drifting into dangerous innovations. Pope Plus X ordered it to be reorganized under episcopal control ~Aug. 25, 1910). In Germany, where the Catholic minority was still fighting for its rights, the guilds and ~/olkst~erein were organized on a strong sociological basis. But the Pope had to warn them against an ex-cessive independence (encyclical Singulari quadam, Sept. 24, 1912, on Catholic and mixed labor organizations in Germany). Social Relief--The kindness and charity of Pius X were a 1-15 J. P. LEONARD Reuiew for Religious byword in Rome and throughout the world. Not content with greatly encouraging charitable institutions and relief organization-s in aid .of the destitute, he set a noble example. So great were his charities that people wondered where his funds were coming from. His sympathy and support were always on the side of the weak and the .oppressed. Witness his outspoken condemnation of the harsh treatment meted out to the Indian labor in the rubber planta-tions of Peru (cf. the encyclical Lamentabili statu, June 7, 1912.). When in 1908 the town of Messina was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake of extraordinary violence, the Pope organized a relief commission and placed the home of Santa Martha by St. Pe-ter's at the disposal of the refugees. Calabria, too, experienced his outgoing charity during the great earthquake that visited that prov-ince. Seven million francs were collected and spent in works'of re-lief and reconstruction. Nor was the Pope's solicitude confined to Italy. Public misfortunes everywhere found him ever ready to step in with a generous donation. 2. Diplomatic Relations Plus X was a lover of peace and he had nothing more at heart than to secure harmony and collaboration between Church and State. The principle that guided his policy in his relations with governments was clearly set forth in an address to Argentine pil-grims to Rome: true to God and to the Church, the Catholics were pledged to loyal allegiance to the civil authorities so long as the rights of God and the liberties of the Church were not compromised. "The Church," he said, "will always defend the constituted au-thorities, imposing love, obedience, respect and observance of the laws, helping the State to provide for the maintenance of peace." But in many countries the Church had fallen on evil days, and Plus X was hard put to it to maintain cordial relations. The spo-liation of the Papal States was still relatively recent, demanding an attitude of aloofness and protest against the Italian Government. Pius X followed the policy of his predecessors, while cautiously exploring all the avenues to a reconciliation. By opportune repre- " sentations and by exerting his personal influence he succeeded in pre-venting a divorce bill and other irreligious legislation from going through the Italian Parliament. In.,Fran.ce the religious situation was particularly difficult. In 1901 the Law of Associations against religious orders and congre-gations resulted in thousands of religious men and women being 116 May, 1954 THE PONTIFICATE OF PlUS X compelled to go into exile and closing thousands of institutions. In 1904 the famous Combes at one blow closed more than 14,000 congregational schools. In 1905 the concordat of 1901 was denounced by the French Government and diplomatic relations with the Holy See were sun-dered. A decree of separation of Church and State was passed and an aggressive campaign against the Church was launched (cf. the encyclical Vel~emer~ter, Feb. 11, 1906). The question of ecclesiastical property became a thorny one. The Government proposed the establishment of what was termed cult.ual associatior~s. Though some leading Catholics were decidedly of.the opinion that the scheme might be given a trial, the Pope in consultation with the French episcopacy rejected it as uncanonical (encyclical Graoissirao ot~icii, Aug. 10, 1906). It was a severe blow as it deprived the French clergy of all State help and made them de-pendent on Catholic charity alone. But it had the advantage of freeing the Church from all State domination. Said Mgr. Gauthey, Bishop of Nevers: "Pius X at the cost of sacrificing our property emancipated us from slavery. May he be forever blessed for not shrinking from imposing that sacrifice on us!" Pius took advan-tage of the newly won freedom to consecrate over a score of bishops, filling all the vacant sees without any .reference to the Government. _Nor was the Government x}ery happy over the results of its tyran-nical onslaught on the Church. The firm attitude of Pius X caused it 'such embarrassments that after a period of twenty st6rmy years it agreed to another, and canonical, settlement for the administration of Church property. Portugal fol!owed the pattern of France. In 1910 a revolution broke out and a republican government of a strongly anticlerical bias took over. As a result, the religious congregations were ex-pelled and their property confiscated. The c6ncordat of 1886 was repudiate.d and a decree in favor of separation of Church and State was enacted. In neighboring Spain, too, trouble was brewing. But Latin America, on the whole, remained loyally attached to the Holy See. On the other hand, the new Government of Turkey sent an am-bassador to the Vatican and shortly before the outbreak of World War I a concordat was signed with .Serbia. Pius X had not been trained in diplomacy. What guided his outlook and policy was a deep understanding of the Church's mis- Sion and the consideration of the primacy of the spiritual over the J.P. LEONARD temporal. His direct way of dealing with critical situations may not have appealed to those who favored more subtle and round-about methods of approach, but it was not less effective, while the simplicity and affability of his manner were singularly impressive and disarming. On the other hand, his firmness sprang from a deep-rooted conviction that if God permitted trials to befall His Church, it was with a view to her ultimate good and greater free-dom. While trustingly biding his time and God's chosen 'hour ,he gave his unstinted attention and care to other tasks of a more con-genial nature. II. ORGANIZATION AND LIFE OF THE CHURCH 1. Pope Pius X's name is associated with important ecclesiastical reforms. The Roman Curia--His first care was to reorganize his own household and to improve the administrative machinery at the cen-ter. His Curia had to deal with an overwhelming mass of ecclesiJ astical material. To dispose of it expeditiously is an herculean task. Pope Plus X set about overhauling the complicated organization, introducing administrative changes which experience has proved to be very wise and effective (constitution Saplentl consilio. June 29, 1908). According to the reformed system, the work is judiciously distributed among twelve Congregations, three Tribufials, and five Offices, each with its personnel and its appointed task. To give but one example, up to the reign of Plus X such coun-tries as England, Ireland, the United States, Canada, and Holland had been under the jurisdiction of the S. Congregation of Propa-ganda. The Pope placed them under the jurisdiction of the Consis-torial Congregation, thus restricting the territorial domain of Propaganda and relieving it of a considerable amount of work. Roman Commissions--As early as March 19, 1904, Plus X appointed a special Commission under Mgr. Gasparri, later Car-dinal, as secretary, to codify canon law--an urgent and most diffi-cult task already recommended by the Vatican Council (motu pro-prio Arduum sane munus, March 19, 1904). The Pope watched the prodress of this great work with the liveliest interest. But he did not live to see the pr?mtilgation of the new Code (in 1917). He also reorganized the Biblical Commission, set up a commis-sion for the revision and correction of the Vulgate text of the Bible, and in 1909 founded the Biblical Institute for Scriptural studies. Another commission was entrusted with the revision of the brevidry. 118 May, 1954 THE PONTIFICATE OF PIUS X New Ecclesiastical Units--Nor was the Pope less concerned with the progress of the Church at large. During his tenure of office, Plus X created twenty-eight new dioceses, sixteen vicariates apostolic, and. fifteen prefectures apostolic. 2. But above all he directed his attention to matters of ecclesi-astical discipline, to promoting the liturgical and devotiona~ life of the Church and to Christian doctrine. " Training of the Clergy- As I~ishop, his chief care had been de-voted to the formation of the cler~gy. No wonder that as P~ope the functioning of the seminaries became the object of his constant so-licitude. Small and inefficient semin,aries were suppressed. Where necessary, r,egional seminaries were established. A new order of studies based oh that of the Roman seminary was promulgated, and bishops were exhorted to spare no pains in seeing that the candidates to the priesthood were properly trained in learning, ~iety, obedience, and zeal. His exhortatioh to the clergy all over the world gives ex-pression to his inmost desires and tender solicitude in this direction. It was published on the occasion of the 50tI~ anniversary of his own priestly ordination (Aug. 4, 1908). Full of affection and wise counsel it concludes with the words: "Reform of the priesthood is the~best gift that can be offered Us on the occasion of Our own sacer-dotal jubilee." Care for the lntegrit'g of the Faith--The purity,of the faith Pope Plus X cherished like! the apple of his eye. Aware of certain dangerous tendencies that threatened the objective and immutable character, of the Catholic teaching, he ~¢as loud in his denunciation and drastic in his condemnation. In the decree Larnentabili (July 3, 1907) he singled out .sixty-seven propositions for ecclesiastical censure. This syllabus was followed shortly afterwards by the en-cyclical Pascendi (Sept. 8, 1907) in which he dealt with modern-istic innovations, and laid down wise rules as to how to combat these pernicious doctrines. Among the means he advocated, he in-sisted particuiarly on the censorship of books and the creation of a "Committee of Vigilance." Subsequently, by the motu proprio Sacrorurn Antistitum (1910), he prescribed the oath against Mod-ernism. ' Solicitude /:or the Divine Worship--Anxious to preserve pure and intact the sacred deposit of faith and the traditional teaching of the Ch~urch, Pope Plus X was no less concerned with the honor of the house of God and the splendor of the liturgy. He earnestly de-sired that the liturgical functions should be a worthy manifestation 119 J. P. I~EON_ARD Review for Religious of faith and devotion. Lex orandi lex ~redendi. To that end he insisted that Church music should be in keeping with the decorum and respect due to divine worship~. As a parish priest, as Bishop of Mantua, and as Patriarch of Venice he had shown himself an ardent promoter of the Gregorian chant and had befriended and patronized the distinguished ~omposer Lorenzo Perosi. As Pope he published the Motu proprio on sacred music (Nov. 22, 1903) stating the general guiding principles of the Church and drawing up clear regu-lations. , "Sacred music," he wrote, "should possess in the highes~ degree the qualities proper to the liturgy, or, more precisely, sanctity and purity of form from which its other character of universality spon-taneously springs. It must be hold/, and must, therefore, exclude all profanity, not only from itself, but also, from the manner in which it is presented by those who execute it. It must be true art, for otherwise it cannot exercise on the minds of~ the hearers that in-fluence which the Church contemplates when she welcomes into her liturgy the art of music. But it must also be unfioersaI, in the sense that, while every nation is permitted to admit into i~s ecclesiastical compositions those special forms which may be said to constitute its native music, still these forms mustbe subordinated in such a man-ner to the general characteristics of sacred music that no one of any nation may receive any impression other than good on hearing them." S~ecial emphasis was laid on congregational singing. Says Plus X: "Special efforts are to be made to restore the use of the Gre-gorian chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more active part in ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times" (Motu proprio, n,. 3). The Motu proprio also directs that a commission be appointed by the Ordinary to watch over all musical performances. This papal ordinance served a useful purpose. It not only clearly deter-" mined the character of genuine Church music, but it recalled to the attention of the Catholic world the dignity and beauty of the liturgical services and impressed the minds of the faithful with a proper sense of what was due to the majesty of God and the sacred-ness of, His Temple. Devo6on, to the Holy Eucharist~Pius X has been rightly called the Pope of the Holy Eucharist. To combat the lingering in-fluence of Jansenism, he recommended the reception of frequent and even daily Communion. He relaxed the Eucharistic fast in favor of the sick so that they might receive holy Communion twice a month. Marl, 1954 THE PONTIFICATE OF PlUS X or oftener, though unable to.keep the fast. By the decree Quam singulari, dated Aug. 8, 19'10, he ruled that children should be ad-mitted to First Communion shortly after they have attained the age of discretion. What untold blessings for the young accrued from this bold and salutary innovation it is difficult to say. It was of the nature of a minor revolution in the training of the young and laid ¯ them under an everlasting obligation to the loving kindness of the Sovereign Pdntiff. It was at the express desire of Pope Plus X that the Eucharistic Congress of 1905 (the sixteenth) was held in Rome--an event of unprecedented grandeur which set the pace for yet greater develop-ments. As a fitting sequel to that memorable function the Pope pub-lished in December of the same year the decree Sacra Tridentina Synodus advising daily Communion. Devotion to Our Lady--Equally earnest ~vere the Pope's efforts to promote devotion to Mary Immaculate. He extended the commemoration of Our Lady's apparition at, Lourdes to the whole Western world. In 1904 he caused the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception to be cele-brated with unusual pomp and solemnity. On this occasion he published an encyclical (Ad diem illum), and a Marian Congress was held in Rome, culminating in the crowning of the image of Mary Immaculate in the choir of St. Peter's. Religious Instruction -- Intent on safeguarding the faith against the inroads of Modernism and on promoting piety among the faith-ful, Pius X realized--as no one better--that the best means of achieving his object lay in making the teaching and example of Our Lord better known and loved. Hence his great insistence on reli-. gious instruction. As a parish priest and bishop he had been most assiduous in instructing his people. As Pope he laid special stress on this obligation of the sacred ministry, setting the example by preaching a homily on the Gospel in one of the Vatican courtyards every Sunday. Catechism teaching received a fresh and vigorous impetus after the publication of the encyclical Acerbo nimis, on the teaching of Christian doctrine (April 15, 1905). In this document Pius X attributed the prevailing religious crisis to the widespread ignorance of divine truth and laid down strict regulations concerning the duty of catechizing. He enacted that (1) all parish priests, and, in gen-er, al, all those entrusted v~ith the care of souls, shall on every Sun-day and feastday throughout the year, without exception, give boys 121 J.P.,L~ONARD Reoie~ for Religious and girls an hour's instruction from the catechism on those things which everyon~ must believe and do in order to be saved; (2) at stated times during the year they shall prepare boys and girls by continued instruction, lasting several days, to receive the sacraments of penance and confirmation; (3) they shall likewise and with special care, on all the week day~ in L~nt, and if necessary on other days after the feast of Easter, prepare boys and girls by suitable in-struction and exhortation to make their First Communion in a holy manner; (4) in each and every parish, the society.commonly called "Confraternity of Christian Doctrine" shall., be canonic~lly erected: through this the parish priests, especially in places where there is a s.carcity of priests, vcill have lay helpers for the catecbetical i~struc-tion in pious persons who will devote themselves to the office of teaching. To give effect to this enactment Plus X bad a new cate-chism prepared for use in the Diocese of Rome and in its ecclesiastical province and expressed a desire that it should be adopted throughout Italy. Nor was he less emphatic in prescribing catechetical instruction to adults. We know that the ruling on the subject contained in canon law (cc. 1329-1336, particularly 1332, 1335) Was inserted by his special recommendation. Thus did he hope to oppose an effective remedy to what be deplored as the pernicious, source of the prevailing religious indifference and neglect of the Church's services. CONCLUSION ~,Ve have considered some of the activities of the saintly Pontiff. Summing up his reign, U. ]Senigni writes in the Catholic Encyclo-pedia: "In a few years Plus X has scored great, practical,-and lasting results in the interest of Catholic doctrine and discipline, ,and that in the face of great difficulties of all kinds. Even non-Catholics recognize his apostolic spirit, his strength of character, the precision of his decisions, and the pursuit of a clear explicit programme." (Cf. conclusion of article "Pius X.") ¯ Outward achievements of consequence are indeed a credit to a man, a proof of ability~, a monument to his name. But they do not tell the whole tale. Yv'hat is of greater importance is to probe~the inner spirit that lay back of the actions and prompted them. St. Ber-nard, ~riting to his former disciple Pope Eugene III, reminded him that outward works, however .holy~ and worthy they might be in themselves, were of no value unless they were inspired and sublim-ated by a pure intentiori and actuated by holy motives: they might 122 May. 1954 THE PONTIFICATE OF PlUS X even be fraught with danger inasmuch as by their m, ultiplicity and deadening pressure they were apt to choke and stifle the spirit, as too much wood heaped on a flame causes it to be smothered. In the case of Plus X, we know for certain, nothing of the kind wa, s to be feared: he never allowed himself to be diverted from his own great purpose and ideal: All for Christ! To restore all things in Christ ! There was more than this lofty singleness oi~ purpose, this un-swerving orientation of all his activity towards a cherished goal. All those who had the privilege of approaching him and dealing with him were deeply impressed by the character of holiness that radiated from him and was reflected in his manner, speech, and every action. Baron yon Pastor says of him: "He was one of those chosen few men whose personality is irresistible. Everyone was moved by his Simplicity and his angelic kindness. Yet it was something more that carried him into all hearts, and that 'something' is best defined by saying that all who were ever admitted to his presence had a deep conviction of being face to face with a saint--and the more one knows about him the strc~nger this conviction becomes." It was this conviction that led the Cardinals of the Roman Curia as far back as February 1923 to petition that the cause of his beati-fication and canonization be introduced, Their fond hope has be-come a glorious reality. Pope Plus X was solemnly beatified on June 3, 1'951--50,000 pilgrims crowding St. Peter's to venerate him and to invoke his blessing. But long before the authoritative decree was read out, the popular voice had anticipated the official pronouncement. People had not the slightest doubt about the re-sult of the process, more than 200 witnesses testifying to his heroic virtue. What they prayed for during the years that intervened be-tween his death and his glorification, what they desired with all the ardor of their hearts was that the day should not be too long de-layed, that they should live to see their hopes come true. During the Holy Year it was quite a usual sight to behold groups of pil-grims kneeling on the spot over the Pontiff's tomb and reciting the prayer for his beatification. Rome has spoken. The happy event has brought jubilation to millions of souls. We share the joy of our fellow Catholics all the world over. With them we acclaim the new Beatus and recommend ourselves to his powerful intercession. But let us do more. Let us take to heart the lesson of his saintly life. Let us impress upon ou,r minds and hearts the wise directions he addressed to the Catholic world during his fruitful Pontificate, 123 J.P. LEONARD par.ticulaily those that concern us more directly in regard to our per-sonal safictification and in regard to our pastoral duties. Let us im-plore him to obtain for us an ardent love for Christ Our Lord, an unflagging zeal for His dear interests, a sincere devotion to the Holy EuCharist and :o Mary Immaculate, and, last not least, a loyal at-tachment to the Vicar of Christ on earth, an active interest in the Church's welfare, a self-sacrificing gift of ourselves to souls in the exercise of our calling. Blessed Pius, p?ay for us. Amen. Blessed Pius X--Some Da'l'es 1835:Giuseppe Sarto born of poor parents at Riese, in the territory of Venice. 1858: Ordained a priest.--Parish ministry. 1875: Canon of Treviso, rector of the seminary. - 1884: Bishop of Mantua. 1893: Cardinal and Patriarch of Venice. 1903 : August 4, Elected Pope. Oct. 4, Encycl, E supremi: restoration of all things in Christ. Nov. 22, Motu proprio on Sacred Music. 1904: March 19, Commission for the codification of canon law. 1905: April 15, Encycl. Acerbo nimis: teaching of Christian Doctrine. 3une 1 !, Encycl. II fermo proposito: 'Catholic Action.' Dec. 20, Decree Sacra Tridentina &.lrmdus: daily Communion. 1907: Sept. 8, Epcyd. Pascendi: against Modernism. 1908: 3une 29, Constit. 8apienti consilio: reorganization of the Curia. Aug. 4, Exhortatio ad Clerum Catbolicum. Haerent anlmo. 1910: Aug. 8, Decree Quam sinqulari: Communion of children. 1911 :.Nov. 1, Constit. Dit~ino aOtcttu: new disposition of the psalter in the.,brevi-ary. 1913: Oct. 23, Motu proprio Abhinc duos annos: reform of the breviary. 1914: Aug. 20, Death of Plus X. ' 1951: June 3, Beatification. 1954: May 29, date scheduled for canonization. (Even this brief list of documents makes one realize how deep an influence Plus X has had on almost every aspect of the life of the Church.) OUR CONTRIBUTORS MOST REVEREND J. [3. LEONARD i:; Archbishop of Madurai, India. JOSEPH F. GALLEN is professor of canon law at Woodstock College, Woodstock, Mary-land. JOSEPH P. FISHER is master of novices at St. Stanislaus Seminary, Floris-sant, Missouri. ADAM C. ELLIS and FRANCIS N. KORTH are members of our editorial board and professors of canon law at St. Mary's College, St. Mary's, Kansas. 124 Pray Reasonably Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. ALL will agree that prayer is supremely,necessary in the religiou.s life; all will admit also that the necessity in modern times is an intensification, not a minimizing of prayer. The same agreement should extend to the principles t.hat the amount of pre-scribed prayer should not be. impracticable or even impossible, that it should harmonize and not conflict with work, that quality, quan-tity, and preference should be based on the purpose of the religious life, self-sanctification and the sanctification of others, and that pro-longed prescribed prayer does not necessarily produce a prayerful re-ligious. The following pages are ~n examinfition of the practicable amount and quality of prayer in lay religious congregations of ac-tive purpose. ~Attention is directed principally to the excess and ex-ternal defects of prayer. All will not agree with every opinion here expressed, but the purpose of the article will be attained if it leads to a more common recognition and practical study of a very im- 'portant problem) l, Hour o/: ddt~g. This should be such as to give sufficient sleep. It should not be so early that it is excessively difficult in itself and causes the burden of too long a day. An efficient hour of rising also depends on the climate. It is my opinion that the hour of rising for religious of active purpose in the United States should not be earlier than five-thirty. This applies also and especially to religious engaged in l~ospital and institutional work. Some now rise ~it five o'clock and even somewhat before five. The early hour is frequently caused by an unthinking tenacity to what~has been done in the past, to the equally unjustifiable principle of making the horarium exactly the same in all countries in which the institute has houses, and, I believe, especially and more commonly to the excessive number and duration of the religious exercises. The Holy See in its practice in approving constitutions has stated more than once that the religious exercises should not be multiplied excessively. Habitual physical exhaustion is not conducive to a life of pray-er. Some other pertinent facts that are worthy of practical reflec-tion under this same heading are: the lack of a weekly holiday and 1Please see our observation~ relative to "Adaptation and Pra}'er," p. 138.--ED. 125 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Retyieu~ [or Religiou~ of a summer vacation, excessive occupations during the Christmas and Easter vacations and during the summer, the burdening of days free of class with too many added spiritual duties, and overwork in general. 2. Mornin9 pra~ters. Neither the Code of Canon Law nor the prac-tice of the Holy See contains any prescription on morning prayers for religious. The constitutions of lay congregations usually en-join morning prayers in common. An enactment that all the mem-bers of the co.mmunity must be present in the chapel for vocal prayer five minutes before the beginning of meditation is reasonable and helpful. No objection can be made to the usual practice of saying these prayers in common. There would also be no imp.erfection in a practice of saying them privately. The excess in vocal prayer in many institutes begins with the morning prayers. I find it difficult to admit as reasonable any duration of these prayers beyond five minutes. This opinion seems to be evident with regard to those in-stitutes that prescribe the daily recitation in private and especially in choir of the'Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary or any equiva-lent amount of vocal prayer. Very many lay congregations are in this category. The repetition of the same prayers, for example, Our Fathers and Hail Marys repeated many times for various ahd, perhaps, almost endless intentions, is something that should be avoided as the matter of common vocal prayer. Such practices tend to make prayer monotonous, mechanical, and formalistic. An ex-ample of the lack of balance of vocal with mental prayer would be a usage of twenty or twenty-five minutes of ordinary morning prayers and a half-hour of meditation. I believe that the proper balance here would be five minutes of morning prayer and forty-five minutes of meditation and that no other meditation should be obligatory for that day. 3. Meditation. Here, unfortunately, is the greatest weakness in the prayer of very many individual religious and even of entire in-stitutes. Many do not in fact evaluate m~ntal prayer as the most important prayer for the gefieral and special purpose of the religiou~ life, personal sanctification and the sanctification of others. Canon 595 commands religious superiors to take care that their subjects make a daily meditation but it does not define the duration ~of the meditation. It may be argued that the practice of the Holy See as stated in 1901 favors an hour of meditation, half of which may be made in the afternoon. It' is also recognized that the Holy See con- 126 May, 1954 PRAY REASONABLY siders meditation as one of the most important daily exercises and that dispensations should be granted only very rarely and for very serious reasons. The Sacred Congregation of Religious now con-stantly approves constitutions that demand only a half-hour of meditation. A few congregations have an hour in the morning and a half-hour in the afternoon. I presume that most authorities would incline to a daily medi-tation of an hour. However, such practical facts as a seven-hour day in school, a twelve-hour day and perhaps a seven-day week in a hos-pital or institution, and the amount of prescribed vocal prayer can-not be ignor.ed. I believe that the practical and proportionate amount of mental prayer is forty-five minutes, unless the institute prescribes the Little Office or a similar amount of vocal prayer. In this case a, half-hour of meditation seems to be the only practical norm. A half-hour is the absolute minimum, and no other exer-cises, such as morning prayers, should be permitted to detract from this amount. This is not the time to adduce many arguments and authorities to prove the necessity and value of mental prayer for the religious life. It will suffice to quote the present Roman Pontiff. His words in the apostolic exhortation Menti Nostrae are concerned directly with priestly sanctity but they apply with even greater force t6 the religious life, since its .obligation is that of striving for complete evangelical perfection: "Hence We feel Ourselves under serious ob-ligation to exhort you, in a special manner to the practice of daily meditation, which the Code of Canon Law also recommends to all clerics. Just as by this daily meditation zeal for priestly perfection is strengthened and re-enkindled, so also from neglect of this p.rac-rice arises that disgust with spiritual things whereby piety grows cool and languishes, and whereby not only is each one's pursuit of sanctity broken off or slowed down, but the activities of the sacred ministry likewise suffer no small harm. Wherefore, in all truth We assert that the special efficacy attached to meditation cannot be sup-plied by any other means and, consequently, that nothing else can replace the practice of daily meditation." Meditation discloses another general defect in prayer. One of the difficulties in meditation is the insistence on a common book of pre-paration or points, which are read in common to all. This practice is only one manifestation of the false general principle that all prayer must be in common. The standard proof advanced is that Our Lord is present wherever two or three are gathered together in 127 JOSEPH F. GALLEN His name. It can be retorted that the soul of every individual in the state of grace is the temple of the Holy Ghost. The plan of prayer in any religious institute should leave sufficient time and opportunity for individual 'prayer, for the individual to follow the inspiration df the Holy Ghost, and for the satisfaction of individual desires in prayer. The same meditation book and the same spiritual reading book do ,not suit nor al3peal to all. The individual should be per-mitted here to ~hoose his own book. He shou!d also be permitted to make his spiritual reading and to say the rosary in private and at the times, he finds most convenient. The Holy See has approved con-stitutions that explicitly permit the individual preparation of the meditation and spiritual reading and the rosary in private. Another manifestation of excessive uniformity i'n, prayer is in the po~sition during meditation. In many lay congregations, if not practically all, it is the custom for all to sit down .always for the en-tire meditation, except for a few minutes at the end. This is a very practical means of attaining a sluggish meditation. The principle of evident common sense is that the individual should take the posi-tion that he finds most conducive to prayer at t~h$ moment. 4. Mass. No one will question that this is the supreme act of the day. The recollection of the sacred or great silence, morning pray-ers, and the meditation should have prepared the religious for Mass. It is to be presu.med that all know how to assist profitably at Mass and are conscious of the necessity and value of thanksgiving 'filter Communion. I do not think it necessary to delay on daily Mass and Communion but I am convinced that it is imperative to draw attention to the very universal cult of.thd "second Mass." Religious who have only a half-hour of morning meditation usually recite the Little Office for twenty or twenty-five minutes be[ fore Mass. At the end of the thanksgiving they will thus. have spent an average of an hour and forty or forty-five minutes in con-tinuous prayer while .still fasting. In~ a few institutes this time reaches two hours. Every principle of common sense says that this is enough prayer for the early morning. There should be no fer-vent stampede to the chapel or even outside the house for a second Mass. "But the Eucharist is the center of our lives!" Even with regard to the most h~ly things it is a clear postulate ~f God's law that our conduct should be reasonable. There has been enough prayer thus far; there will be too much prayer during the regt of the day. Now is the time for other things, especially for a reasonable, Ma~l, 1954 PRAY REASONABLY if brief, period of free time and of relaxation of body.and mind, for work and preparation for class. We can reverence the Eucharist reasonably by assisting at one Mass as perfectly as possible. It is at least interesting to note how many institu'~es allow only thirty or thirty-five minutes for the community .Mass inclusive of thanks-giving, and yet a second Mass in their chapels always commands a very large attendance. Why not give the proper time of forty ,or forty~five minutes to the community Mass? This custom of attendance at a ~econd Mass suggests at least to my mind similar practices and a very important and basic question. Some institutes have an astonishing number of novenas during the year. There is a pronounced susceptibility to anythin~ bearing the name of litany. The mention of sufficiently rare practices of devo-tion is not infrequent. No month or day that offers an opportun-ity for special devotions in common is passed over. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament are distinguished by prescribed xCocal prayers and frequently enough by the repetitign of the same vocal prayers. The market for extraordinary and even unreasonable practices ;of piety is notably wide. There should be some practices of devotion in the lives of all religious, but I think it is legitimate to a'sk v~hett~er prac-tices of devotio'n have not engrossed and smothered the s~iritual liv'es o~ too many, religious, whether devotionalism has not supplanted the prayer of sanctity, mental prayer. Have we too many pious and devout men arid women rather than saintly religious? many practices of piety but few really interior and deeply prayerful religious? long prayers but too little mortification? many hours in the chapel but relatively little desire for detachment and self-conquest? 5. Little O~ce of the Blessed Virgir~ Mar~. The recitation of the Little Office in choir or privately is not commanded by the Code 9f Canon Law nor by the practice of the Holy See in approving con-stitution~. There are lay congregations that recite no office; but the Little Office is more usually prescribed in such institute~. The Holy See in 1901 commended, generally speaking, the choral recitation of at least a part of'the Little Office to these congregations. Constitu-tions enjoining only the private recitation of the office are relatively few. The amount and extent of the choral recitation prescribed in other institutes is sufficiently varied. In'some congregations the whole o.ffice is recited daily in choir in all the houses; in others this same obligation extends only to the mother housh, while houses en-gaged in the external works of the institute recite the entire office in 129 ' , JOSEPH F. GALLEN Reoieu) for Religious choir only on Sundays, holydays, and other vacation days; finally, some institutes demand that only a part of the office be recited daily in choir. The Little Office in lay congregations is a laudable approxima-tion to the public prayer of the Church. The widespread efforts to make the choral recitation more correct, prayerful, and edifying are equally praiseworthy. However, our present question is primarily the practicability of the prayer assigned in lay cbngregations. The choral recitation of the entire Little Office appears to take an hour and ten minutes. Considering the crowded and burdensome day of such institutes, I think this is entirely too much. In my judg-ment no more than a half-hour daily should be given to the choral recitation. Furthermore, if an institute imposes the Little Office in choir or privately, I do not believe that any other vocal prayers should be prescribed daily, especially in common, except the rosary and the vocal prayers of morning and evening visit. The quantity of religious exercises assigned to any period.of the day should not be overwhelming. We can accept as a maxim that a very good way of obtaining little prayer is to assign too much pray-er. For example, is it reasonable to impose the burden of a solid hour and a ball or two hours of spiritual duties in the afternoon and after a seven-hour day in class? Is it likely that the time ac-tually given to prayer will be proportionate to the time assigned to prayer? Does such a usage make reasonable allowance for'physical fatigue, necessary work, hospital or institutional schedules, prepa'- tion for class, and advance in knowledge? Religious should also be allowed the satisfaction of completion in prayer; they should not be subjected to the somewhat nagging tendency of having prayers constantly tacked on. Why should a long period of ordinary vocal prayers be added to the chorhl recita.- tion of the office? Why must several Our Fathers and Hail Marys, litanies, and acts of faith, hope, and charity be always tacked on to the office? , 6. Examen of conscience. Canons 592 and 125 oblige religious su-periors to take care that subjects make at least one daily examina-tion of conscience. The Code does not impose any determined method, frequency, or duration. Some congregations make the examen only once a day. The more usual frequency is twice, at noon and at night. The duration also varies, and five, seven, ten, and fifteen mintifes are found in constitutions approved by the Holy See. A general and particular examen twice daily of seven minutes 130 Mag, 1954 PRAY REASONABLY appears to me to be the reasonable and proportionate norm. Constitutions of lay congregations that prescribe the particular examen more commonly state that the particular examen is to be made at noon, the general at night. This has always seemed to me to be a strange practice. There is no doubt that the general examen may be separated from the particular and that the general may be confined to the evening, although the preferable practice for religious is to make both together. The strangeness is found in making the particular only at noon. Is it the intention to strive for the con-quest of a particular defect or the acquisition of a particular virtue for only half the day? If not, isn't it rather unnatural to examine oneself on this matter from noon to noon? 7. Spiritual reading. The Code of Canon Law contains no pre-scription on this matter, but the practice ~f the Holy See demands that an appropriate amount of time be given daily to spiritual reading. The varying times found in constitutions are thirty, twenty, and fifteen minutes. I believe that twenty minutes is the practical and proportionate amount. It can be reasonably suspected that the value of spiritual reading as an aid and remote preparation for mental prayer has not been too universally realized. The book and manner of reading should habitually be reflective and prayerful rather than merely informa-tional. The one book read in common for all, usually in the chapel, is the very common practice. I do not think that this practice is justi-fiable. As stated above, each professed religious should be permitted to choose his own book and to make the reading at the time that he individually finds most convenient. It is presumed that the book will be profitable and that the religious will follow any direction of competent authority. It is understandable that all should assemble for some of the religious exercises, for example, morning visit, medi-tation, examen, preparation for meditation, and night visit. Other-wise it can be reasonably feared that the faithful performance of these exercises will be too deficient. The religious necessarily as-semble for Mass and the choral recitation of the office. Not only the crowded and laborious day but also the fact that the religious should be trained in and given an opportunity to exercise individual re-sponsibility urge the conclusiqn that such duties as spiritual readil~g and the rosary should be in private and at the times chosen by the individual religious. 131 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Reuietu for Religfo,,~ Some institutes have an exercise called lecture. This apparently means an assembly in which~ the superior reads a chapter or two of the constitutions or something from another spiritual book and gives any general corrections or makes any announcements that he or she thinks necessary or opportune. This exercise is usually prescribed almost daily or at least several times a week. I do not. see the ne-cessity or value of such an exercise in the crowded day of the reli-gious we are discussing. Private spiritual reading will be rfiore effi-cacious. If desired, the chapter of two of the constitutions could be read more practically in the refectory at one or two meals of each week. I find it difficult to conceive of a religious community so gen-erally errant that the superior must have the opportunity of giving a common correction sever, al times a week. Few announcements in a religious community are of such a private nature that they cannot be posted on a notice' board or, if private, cannot be communicated in other ways than by a special assembly. I see no reason why it should be necessary to give the superior such an opportunity more than twice a month at the very most. Some constitutions explicitly state the very reasonable interpre-tation that a,n unusual religious exercise, such as an instruction, conference, Benediction, Holy Hour, or chapter of faults, dispenses from the obligatory daily spiritual reading. 8. Rosary. Here also canons 592 and 125 apply and oblige supe-riors to take care that their subjects say the rosary daily. Five decades are sufficient. 9. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and similar matters. The same canons oblige superiors to take care that their subjects visit the Bles-sed Sacrament daily. Visits that total fifteen minutes a day are cer-tainly sufficient as far as canon law is concerned, anh there is no doubt that the prescribed visits in lay congregations far exceed this amount. The obligatory visits in common should not be multipiied ex-cessively. I see no reason why these should not be confined to the mo~ning and night visits and to visits after each meal. The dura-tion should not be too prolonged. Five minutes should suffice for these visits. They should~not be put at a time that causes a conflict with or inconvenience to work. For exdmple, it is not reasonable to prescribe a visit at an hour when practically all the religious must be at work. Visits as found in lay congregations manifest the overemphasis 132 Ma~l, 19,54 PRAY REASONABLY on vocal prayer in common, particularly of the repetition of the same prayers. The usual repetition is that of Our Fathers and Hail Marys for a multiplicity of intentions. The obvio.us first recom-mendation is that the intentions for which such prayers are being offered should be most thoroughly examined. It is certain that some of these constit'ute the unreasonable perpetuation of the individual fervor of superiors of the past. The intentions should be restricted to those that can be classed as necessary or of unusual and common value. I see no reason why the prayers for most of these intentions should be in common. Why would it not suffice to post~or to read in the refectory once a month all the prescribed intentions and the prayers to be said by all privately for each intention? A notice could be similarly posted or read for any prayers for occasional spe-cial intentions. Prayer in common can be and is exaggerated in these institutes. We are to remember that God is the Heavenly Father of each one of us. A~ religious should be granted some time alone with his Father. Under this heading we must add the prin-ciple contained in many constitutions approved by the Holy See: no local superior should be allowed to add in any way to the pre-scribed religious exercises withoht the permission of"a higher~ supe-rior. This ,permission should be granted 6nly rarely, fqr an im-portant matter, and temporarily. A Holy Hour in common is imposed weekly in some institutes. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to confine this to the eve of First Friday? The months of March, May, June, October, and Novem-ber and the season of Lent ar. frequently the occasion of obligatory special devotions in common. The prudence of imposing common devotions during all of these times can be questioned. The duration of such devotions .should not ordinarily exceed five minutes. Pro-longed devotions of thi~ type can raise the prescribed daily religious exercises to a most formidable and even impossible total and can easily weary rather than strengthen the spirit of prayer. In institutes that do not have the Little Office the common, vocal prayers apparently intended as a substitute are sometimes excessive. I do not think that the time assigned for such prayers added to that given to meditation should total more than an hour and twenty minutes. The same general type of excess is verified in'the addition of a considerable amount 6f other vocal prayer to the Little Office. Private visits are to be encouraged, as is the Way of the Cross in private. Most of these visits should be very brief, but it is a good 133 o ,JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious practice to make one visit a day that is rather prolonged, i.e., aboiat ten 6r fifteen minutes. A religious who never makes a private visit has to be classed as quite deficient, but the emphasis on individual visits and time before the Blessed Sacrament can also be exaggerated. The encomium that a religious spends all his time before the Blessed Sacrament can be questioned. It is impossible in a laborious life. We have been implying thus far that the religious exercises cannot be prescribed without careful consideration of the long and heavy labors in the works of the institute. Another consideration is equally important. The day of the religious must permit proper ¯ prepaiation for class and other work and some time also for advance study in his field. It is a certain fact that this time is completely insufficient in practically all lay congregations. Especiall';- the higher fields of knowledge require protracted periods of study and cannot be mastered or prepared for class presentation by intellectual snacks of five minutes here and there. 10. Preparation for meditation. Eight minutes should suffice for this exercise. Individual preparation will also eliminate the dry serving of points at ten-minute intervals during the meditation. This practice h~s certainly contributed to the dehydrated and dessi-cated complexion of the mental prayer of many religious. 1 1. Silence, cloister, and l~orarium. In the religious life the sacred or ,great silence lasts from the time of a definite exercise in the evening until an appointed time in the morning. This silence demands that no one shall speak except for a serious reason and then as briefly as possible and in a low voice. The work of the institute is something of an obstacle to silence throughout the day, but as far as possible ordinary religious silence is to be observed during the day; i.e., in the house and outside of recreation religious talk only of what is necessary, useful, or demanded by courtesy. The purpose of reli-gious silence is a recollected and prayerful life. One of the purposes of cloister is to exclude unnecessary distractions and thus also to help to a life of recollection and prayer. Silence and cloister tend to recollection partially by effecting a quiet, calm, and peaceful,tenor of life. We canreasonably doubt that the horarium in lay congre-gations tends to the same effect. Isn't the daily life of many such religious a scurrying, headlong, excited, and feverish rush from duty to duty? The point I wish to make is that such a pace is an evident obstacle to a recollected and prayerful life. The excited religious is not a prayerful religious. I realize that there are difficulties, espe- 134 Mag, 1 ~ 5 4 PRAY REASONABLY cially that of overwork, in adjusting the horarium, but some ad-justment is possible. The horarium must be less minute, less insis-tent on everything in common; there must be more breaks, more free time, more attention to rest and less to keeping the religious busy; more easing of the tension; more emphasis on sincere interior prayer than on long prayers. 12. Chapter o1: faults. This is not mentioned in the Code of Canon Law nor is it of obligation from the practice of the Holy See. How-ever, the constitutions of lay congregations usually prescribe the chapter of faults. The norm of frequency stated by the Holy See in 1901 for congregations that had the chapter was that it should not be prescribed more frequently than once a week nor less than once a month. As actually found in constitutions, the greater number of institutes have it once a month, others every two weeks or weekly. A few institutes have the ch~ipter very rarely. In one congregation approved by the Holy See the chapter is held only four times a year. I believe that the proportionate frequency would be no more than once a month at the very most. In practice the chapter is an assembly in which the religious ac-cuse themselves of external violations of religious discipline. The superior assigns a penance after the accusation and in some institutes adds a counsel, admonition, or correction. The chapter is an exer~ cise that can readily become mechanical. It has been praised as very useful by some canonical authors, but I incline to an emphasis and insistence that the superior should be more of a spiritual guiding force for the community and the individual rather than an executive or a mere dispenser of permissions and that he shouId have the courage to give individual an~l private correction when this is neces-sary or advisable. 13. Annual retreat. Canon 5'95 commands religious superiors to take care that their subjects make an annual retreat. The Code does not determine the method, duration, nor manner, in common or in private, of the annual retreat. The duration ordinarily found in constitutions is eig]~t or six days. A very few institutes have a duration of seven or five days. Eight full days constitute the pref-erable duration. 'Many suggestions could be given for making retreats more profitable, but I wish to confine myself to a matter that is abso-, lutely fundamental. The basic reason why retreats to many reli-gious institutes are not producing a more marked profit is that very 135 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review for Religious few of their religious ever really make a retreat. The usual practice in' an Ignatian "retreat to religious in the United States is that, the director, in addition to a practical conference, gives the preparation for three meditations, but in inang institutes the retreatants make only one meditation and that o.nly for the time of their ordinary morning meditation. What an unreasonable~ .contradiction! The primary instrument of~a retreat is meditation, and yet almost no one will meditate! To give preparations for meditations that have no possibility Of existence! To be faced by so many religious who are completely unconscious of the fact that they should meditate! The meditation that tells the director all is that after breakfast on the first day, If, as soon as he has finished giving the preparation, he sees all the religious leaving swiftly with a sense of completion, he knows that it is the same old story, a retreat th'at is not a retreat, a retreat wihout the essence of a retreat, spiritual exercises dominated by.passivity. Isn't this very wide practice a clear indication that mental prayer has lost its rightful place in the life of many religious institutes? It is also a practice that should not be permitted to con-tinue, The retreatants should make each meditation for at least forty-five minutes and should spend ten minutes in reflection after each meditation.- Any other religious exercises of the communl,ty that c6nflict with the time or energy demanded by the retreat should be abbreviated or omitted. In a few institutes the director is asked, after giving the prepara-tion for the morning meditation the previous evening, to repeat this preparation or even to make the meditation with the community the next morning.' The reason often given fdr the request is that this is what is done during the year, the points for the morning rfieditation are read the night before and also in the morning before the meditation. It is very difficult to be patient with such a request. The memories of nb religious community are so generally de, ficient as to justify this' request, and it is to be held as a firm pres~mption of the law of the Church and a clear principle of common sense that mental prayer is within the power of all religious. 14. Montblg recollection. The constitutions almost universally ' prescribe a day of monthly recollection. This exercise'is not com-manded by canon law, but Pius XI earnestly urged the practice even to lay people to conserve the spiritual profit of the retreat and also as an,efficacious spiritual means in itself. Inasmuch as the day of recollection participates of the nature of a retreat, mental rather than 136, May, 1954 NEWS AND VIEWS vocal prayer should be favored in any added exercise. Many consti-tutions propose or emphasize this practice as a day of preparation for death. Since the aspect Of death is apt in fact to give the practice a completely negative character'of self-examination and. to minimize that of progress, I would have preferred its omission. 15. Tridua. Some congregations prescribe a triduum, in fact, a full three-day retreat, at the close of the year. The practice is in itself commendable, but I doubt that it permits the r.eligious to have the rest during the Christmas vacation that their strenuous a~hd over-burdened life demands. I prefer the practice in use in a few insti-tutes of a day of recollection, really a day of retreat, conducted by a priest on the last day of the year. Plus X (~ur article, "The Pontificate ot~ Pius X," is reprinted with per-mission from The Clergv Monthlv (August, 1951), a periodical edited by the 3esuit Fathers at St. Mary's Theological College, Kurseong, India, and published by the Catholic Press, Ranchi, B.N.Ry, India. The summary of dates following the article is also taken from The Cterg~l Montfilv. The author of the article, the Most Reverend 3. P. Leonard, S.,I., is now the Archbishop of Madurai. The article is reprinted with only a few very slight changes. It seems certain as we go to press that the Pope will proceed with the canonization of Blessed Pius X on ,May 29. Archbishop Leonard's article will make very appropriate reading for the occa-sion; and one more change--in a sense, not slight--will be in order: "'Saint Pius, pr,ay for us. Amen." Adaptation and'Prayer Some years ago (March, 1949) we published an article by Father d. Creusen, S.d., on "Adaptation." The article was pub-lished before the Congress on the States of Perfection iva~ held in Rome (September, 1950), but the general lines of the article were in perfect accord with the proceedings and conclusions of the Con- ~ress. We now have another excellent article on adaptation, based 137 NEWS AND VIEWS Review [or Religious on the proceedings of the Congress, that will be published in "our July number. , In our present number, Father Joseph Gallen, S.J., considers an aspect of adaptation that many religious will consider "touchy." Nevertheless, if prayer is to be what it should be in the li.ves of re-ligious, serious consideration must be given to the points raised by Father Gallen, especially to all customs that concern the saying of vocal prayers in dommon and to the multiplication of such prayers. As Father Gallen says, not everyone will agree with him on all his suggestions; but it seems to us that every thoughtful reader-- whether agreeing with him or not--must realize that he himself has given much thought to the problems. We would welcome frank discussions of the questions he raises and of the solutions he offers. Silver Jubilee Father Creusen's article on adaptation, referred to above, ap-peared originally in Revue des communautds religleuses, XVIII, 97. With Father 1~. Jombart, S.J., Father Creusen began the Revue des co~rnunautds religieuses in 1925. Publication was interrupted during most of World War II; hence Volume 25 was not completed till the end of 1953. On the occasion of this silver jubilee of publication, Father Creusen received a congratulatory letter from Monsignor Montini, the Pro-Secretary of State, who wrote in the name of the Holy Father. The Revue was praised for the high quality of its articles, for the utility of the articles and documents it publishes, and in general for its beneficial influence on religious and clergy. The Holy See's praise of the Revue has a special meaning for us because we are trying to do in the United States what Father Creusen and his associates have done and are doing among French-speaking religious. Eagerly we add our own small praise to the congratulations of the Holy See. Congress in Canada By decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious there will be a national congress of all the religious institutes of Canada, in Montreal, July 26-30. Tile Congress will be similar to that held at the University of Notre Dame in 1952. Rev. Joseph Rous-seau, O.M.I., Procurator General of the Oblates of Mary Immacu-late and Consultor to the Sacred Congregation of Religious, has been appointed General Secretary of the Congress and of its Execu-tive Council. Associate Secretaries are Rev. Andf~ Guay, O.M.I., 1138 , Mag, 1954 NEWS AND VIEWS Director of the Catholic Centre of the University of Ottawa, and Rev. Edward Sheridan, S.2., Prefect of Studies of the Jesuit Semi-nary in Toronto. In reality, four distinct congresses will be held: of French-speaking religious men, of French-speaking religious women, of English-speaking religious men, and of English-speaking religious women. Only the inaugural and concluding sessions will bring the four groups together. The Congress will be held at the Holy Cross College of S. Laurent and the adjoining women's colle, ge of Ste. Croix, in a northern suburb of Montreal. The spacious facilities of these two adjoining institutions, with their many classrooms and lecture halls and fine collegiate church, ~iIl provide ample accommodation for the sectional session halls, committee rooms, etc. The COngress will meet for four full days. On each of the four days, four short papers, each of some twenty minutes length, will be read in each section. The delegates willhave summaries of these papers by the opening of the Congress and a more complete and detailed development of each paper will appear in the Acta 8f the Congress. On the conclusion of the fourth paper, the section (of men or women, English-speaking or French-speaking) will break up into small committees to discuss the paper in greater detail and in its practical applications, according to prepared questionnaires and discussion topics which will be different for different committees. In the afternoon, the section will reunite for a general disc~ussion and for reports of each committee. A survey of the.findings, prob-lems, and solutions resulting from these committee sessions will be presented and will appear in the Acta. The sectional afternoon ses-sions will close with the formulation of resolutions, recommenda-tions, and petitions. A pilgrimage of all four sections to Montreal's famous St. Jo-seph's Shrine on Mount Royal, is planned for the evening of the last day of the Congress. Certain members of each institute will attend the Congress ex officio, namely, major superiors, masters and mistresses of novices, superiors of scholasticates. Others will attend as the appointed delegates of their institutes, in numbers proportionate to the num-bers of the institutes represented. It is expected that the Congress will unite a total of some fourteen hundred religious--eight hun- 139 NEWS AND VIEWS Review t~or Religious dred sisters and six huiadred priests and brothers--from all the in-stitutes of Canada. The program of papers, which is substantially the same for all sections, is: First day: (1) Tending to Perfection in Charity; (2) Religious Obedience; (3) Religious Poverty; (4) Perfect Chas-tity. Second Day: (1) Liturgical Prayer; (2) Prayer; (3) The Sacrament of Penance; (4). Religious Observance. Third day: (1) Judging a Vocation; (2) Methods of Recruiting; (3) The Personnel Required for Forming Religious; (4) Elements in the Formation of Young Religious. Fourth day: (1) Perfection in Charity and the Apostolate; (2) The Sanctifying Value~ of the Various Works of the Apostolate; (3) Diversity of the Apostolate and the Need for Collaboration; (4) Problems of the Apost61ate. Summer Sessions?. Marquette University will offer a course restricted to sisters on Marriage Guidance for Teachers. Among (;ther things, the course is designed to prepare the sisters (i) to present the matter of marriage in such a way as to enable the students to make a rational choice of vocation in life, and (2) to convey an attitude toward sex and mar-riage which will be a stabilizing factor in and out of marriage. Fa-ther Richard Arnold, S.J., will conducl~ the course. Marquette will also continue the courses in theology on the graduate level, de-signed especially for religious brothers and sisters. This graduate program leads to a degree of Master of Arts, with a major in the-ology. For further information write to:' The Director, Summer Session, Marquette University, Milwaukee 3, Wisconsin. Between June 14 and August '3 each Sunday afternoon a con-ference will be given by members of the Creighton University Sum-mer S,chool Staff on the religious virtues. Sister Mary Digna, O.S.B., w'ill conduct a week-end institute on the scientific factor in selecting candidates for religious life. Dr. Leo Kennedy will conduct an in-stitute on guidance and vocational counseling. Sister M. Casimir, O.P., is arranging an institute on music for the schools. Dr. Robert Nossen is director of the institute on the teaching of high school English. Sister M. Muriel, S.H.M., will teach courses in remedial reading and will likewise direct an institute in. that field. Another workshoi9 wll be "conducted in story-telling, book selection, and extra-curricular reading for elementary school children. Nine gradu-ate or under-graduate credits may be earned during the eight-week session. Rev. Francis Korth, S.J., will have a 3-hour course on 140 Mag, 1954 NEWS AND VIEWS moral guidance, and Rev. Leo Cbressel, S.d., will continue his theo-logical cycle course with "special questions in dogmatic theology." Rev. Vincent L. Decker, S.d., will teach fundamental theology, and Rev. Philip Derrig, S.J., will teach Christian iworship. Please direct inquirie~ and requests for Summer School catalogues to: Dean Wil-liam F. Kelley, S.3., Director of the Summer Session, Creighton Universit~r, Omaha 2, Nebraska. The-Rev. duniper Carol, O.F.M., formerpresident of the Ma-riological Society of America and now its secret~iry, will offer a series of lectures in Mari01ogy at St. Bonaventure University, Olean, N. Y., tl~is summer. The course will begin duly 3 and con-tinue through the first week in August. Father Carol is a well-l~ nown Franciscan theologian of Our Blessed Lady in the United States. He has written many amcles and books on Marian docmne, especially the doctrine of Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix. Other courses this summer include dogma, moral, church history, canon law for religious, and catechetics. The course at St. Bonaventure leads to a Master's degree or a certificate in theology. Ins÷itu~e of Spldtuali~y 849 sisters, representing 159 religious communities, attended .the Institute of Spirituality at the University of Notre Dame last summer. This institute, which is for superiors and mistresses of novices, will be given at Notre Dame again this summer, August 4-10. , The morning-lectures Will be given b.y the Reverend Paul Philippe, O.P.; the Reverend Gerald Kelly, S.J.; and the R~verend Charles Corcoran, C.S.C. Father Philippe's lectures are entitled, "The Role of the Holy Spirit in Counseling'i'; Fa,ther Kelly's, "Psychologichl Problems in Religious Life"; and Father Corcoran's, "The Vow of Obedience," The evening lectures will be given by the Reverend A.PI~,O.P.; the Reverend Albert J. Riesner, C.SS.R.; and the Reverend Gabriel Diefenbach, O.F.M.Cap. Father Pl~'s lectures are entitled, "The Adaptation of the Religious Life to Actual Conditions"; Father Riesner's, "Canon Law for Religious--The Vow of Poverty"; and Father Diefenbach's, "The Life of Prayer." ~ "This important institute is'one of the tangible effects of the Congress of Religious, held at Notre Dame in 1951. For further information write to: The Reverend A. Leonard Collins, C.S.C., Department of Religion, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana. 141 N :ure Joseph P. Fisher, S.J. IHAVE OFTEN wondered just how satisfactory an understand-ing of the relation between nature and grace most religious-- especially those untrained in theology~have. They certainly .have been impressed by the role of grace in the economy of salva-tion. In their reading and meditating they must often have con-sidered those clear words of Christ, "Without Me you can do nothing." They know that grace "is absolutely necessary for sal-vation, necessary for any advance in the spiritual life, necessary even for a start in it. Grace stands, therefore, before their eyes as all-important and so it should. Their knowledge of grace as far as it goes is, accordingly, quite accurate. But I wonder about their understanding of nature. While they have been reading and meditating on the marvels of divine grace, they have also, quite likely, been forming some notions about na-ture. And, of course, nature regarded as a competitor or adversary of grace is put in its place--and a very low and despicable place it is. Without distinctions being made, or at least clearly made, nature-- often used in ~i rather vague sense--is made to look very bad. 'Very many books on the spiritual life have remarks about nature that can well be typified by this statement in the Follgtoing of Christ: "'Wherefore, as nature is the more kept down and subdued, with so much greater abundance is grac.e infused" (Bk. III, Ch. 54). It is true that fi Kempis himself has the correct distinction in mind (the whole of Ch. 54 implies the distinction and there is an explicit statement in Cb. 55) but the force of an unmodified word has strange power. It is all very simple if we understand all the oppro-brium heaped on nature as being piled on corrupt, unregenerated na-ture, inasmuch as it is the source of the inordinate in human life. St. Paul says some hard things about nature, but anyone who wants to understand the sense in which he uses the word can check his meaning as set forth in Fernand Prat, The Theologg of St. Paul, Vol. II, pp. 61-62. It comes to this, that because of original sin there is left in all men a strong inc\ lination to e~;il. Understood, therefore, as the source of sin, nature can be despised and set at naught as much as one likes, but there is mucl~ good in nature which must be respected. 142 Ma~t, 1954 NATURE AND GRACE It may come as a surprise to some that it is a defined truth that by the light of the natural intellect man can know considerable truth about God and, it follows, much truth about many things: "If anyone shall say that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, cannot be certainly known by the natural light of human reason ~hrough created things, let him be anathema" (Vatican Council, Sess. III, de revel., can. 1). And it is certain that by the strerigtb of the natural will man can do considerable .good--not, however, salutary as far as supernatural salvation is concerned. It is no doubt because of these truths that the Baltimore Catechism has introduced the following change into the new edition: "The chief punishments of Adam which we inherit through original sin are: death, suffering, ignorance, and a strong inclination to sin." And the explanation of the last item runs thus: "Although we have a strong inclination to evil as a result of original sin, our nature is not evil in itself: it can perform some good actions in the natural order without the aid of grace." The old catechism had this: "Our nature was corrupted by" the sin of our first parents, which darkened our understanding, weakened our will, and left in us a strong inclination to evil." All this brings out the point that when one says "nature is bad, is to be repressed," one has to know what one means by "nature." God has never disowned, rejected the good in human nature as the Protestants would have it that He did. What, then, does it mean, "Without me you can do nothing"? It means we can do nothing of use to salvation without grace. That, of course, says a lot but it would be worse than a mistake to under-stand it in such a way as to deny the truths stated above. Actions speak louder than words. A~cordingly the example of the saints acts strongly to form a man's spiritual outlook. In the matter with which we are dealing, lives of the saints have had their effects. Many a person untrained in theology has come to the con-viction that the lives of many saints are a living proof of the state-ment that "as nature is the more kept down and subdued, with so much greater abundance is grace infused." And it is true that the saints have often, at least according to the accounts of their lives, disdained nature and its needs and, apparently, were the better for it. Many ate extremely little, slept hardly at all, undertook severe austerities, and yet carried on their work in a remarkable way. It is. certain that if an ordinary individual would do what the saints have d6ne in despite of nature in the ordinary providence of God he would pay the price. There is, therefore, a distinction that must be 143 JOSEPH P. FISHER Reuieu.~ for Religious brought in here. Ordinarily God does' not work miracles to make up for the rashness and mistakes of men. True it is that in His ex-. traordinary providence God takes care of His holy ones, and that is one reason why we say God is wonderful in His saints. A clear example of What could happen, and has happened, if the idea expressed above (that the more nature--even that which is good in nature--is contradicted and thwarted the higher grace rises) would be carried to its logical conclusion is this: the absolute cessation of all spiritual progress--at least for the time-~by insan-ity. That is a terrible thing to think of, but it is true. Whatever one thinks about the relationship of nature and grace, one cannot get around this hard fact: not a few human beings have come to the end of their growth in grace because the natural faculties of mind and will have ceased their natural functions and hence grace--which do~s no"t operate in a void '" is at a standstill. There are, of course, less extreme results brought about by a neglect of nature and We shall instance some of these later. For the time being it is enougl~ to make clear that God does not always--to say the least--work a miracle to stop or rectify the results of a man's imprudence in handling nature. God can if He so chooses suspend the effects of nature's physidal laws, but we do not ordinarily count on that. So far we have been rather negative in what we have said. What can be said positively of nature's position in regard to grace? At the outset it has to be remarked that anyone treating of the relation-ship between' nature and grace has to be careful not to fall into the errors of Pelagianism or semi-Pelagianism. In order to make clear, ,before we proceed further, the teaching of the Church i~n the mat-ter we shall summarize what has to be said. First of all, mere nature, that is, nature without the aid of grace, cannot, in strict justice, merit initial grace (.the first grace a man re] ceives on the way to sanctifying grace) nor, consequently, any of the series of subsequent graces that lead to sanctifying" grace. More-over, there is no naturally good work' by which unaided nature could acquire even so much as an equitable claim --- one not "in strict justice but as a matter of fitness or equity--to supernatural grace. Nor can nature merit supernatural grace even by natural prayer, that is, merely human prayer without the aid of God's grace. And beyond all this a man cannot move God to the bestowal of super-natural grace by any positive disposition or preparation on his part. A man, for example, might prepare wet wood for burning by soaking' it in kerosene, but there is no such positive preparation by 144 May, 1954 NATURE AND GRACE which a man can prepare nature and make a claim on God for grace. Finally, the only thing a man can do to dispose nature for grace is to prepare himself negatively by not putting any obstacles' in the way or by removing obstacles that are present. ' In the example of the wood used above it would be similar to drying the wood and hence removing the wetness that would prevent the wood from burning. It is to be noted in t~is last case that by this negative disposi-tion a man does not cause--in the strict sense--God to give him grace, but if God so wishes He freely gives it. The freedom of God in giving grace must be preserved. By reason of this freedom in the disposal of grace God can choose and often has chosen the ignorant to confound the wise and the weak to shame the strong. The power of His grace stands out the more in such instances. And yet in His ordinary providence He seems to respect nature; not that He has to, but it seems from the facts that He does. God has never rejected the good in nature. " For this reason theologians have always taught that grace does not destroy nature but builds on it, elevates it. God loves His creation and even after man sinned there was still much in the work of His hands that He loved. It is time, then, to consider some of the ways in which grace builds on nature. In the first place, does it make any difference in the spiritual life what kind of mind a man has and how he uses it? It definitely does. God can make the very stones cry out or can speak-through a jackass--as He once dld-~but ordinarily He uses instruments according to their natural capacity. Wrong thinking in the spiritual life, wrong direction, has led to harmful consequences. Hence the importance of having accurate knowledge on spiritual matters. In the second place, does strength of will make any difference in the spiritual life? Does it help to know the true psychology of the will.; how~ to bring it to action? Admittedly God could take a weak-willed man and by His grace suddenly make him strong. But again God ordinarily works according to a man's nature. Poor use of will has held back many in spiritual progress. It is imperative, then, that those ,striving for spiritual advancement know at least the chief elements in the psychology 9f the will. And, thirdly, does the spiritual life depend in any way on a person's physical health, health of organs and nerve~s? Again God could set physical health aside as He has done in the case. of many saints. But saints are saints, and while we may admire them we cannot and ought not imitate their extraordinary conduct unless 145 JOSEPH P. FISHER Reoieto [or Religious God clearly calls us that way. The health of ordinary,mortals often has more to do with what goes,in their spiritual lives than they think it has. Everybody knows how St. Theresa and St. Ig-natius insisted on this fact. There is a story which may serve to il-lustrate this truth rather vividly. It was published some year~ ago in the Reader's Digest and goes something like this. A certain man of considerable means had suffered huge losses in the great de-pression of 1929. Worry over his critical financial condition, over what the future might bring, and over 'what people might think, naturally reacted on his health. He became more and more sleep-less, lost his appetite, grew more and more nervous, and felt as if a complete physical collapse was imminent. In this crisis he thought of what many others had thought of as a way 6ut--suicide. But for the sake of his family and his own good name he did not want to make a crude job of it; go he decided to consult a psychiatrist on the best way to achieve his purpose with the least notice and oppr6- brium. When he gave his stor~ to the psychiatrist, the wise man sympa-thized with him, thought the matter over, and suggested this method of carrying out his intention. The patient was over middle age, fat, in poor condition, and no doubt not very far from a heart attack. So all he would have to do would be to eat a good supper, then go for a little walk, after a while start running, and then be-cause of his poor condition his heart would give out and people would say that he had had a heart attack. This plan sounded very fine to the patient and he resolved to try it. So that night he did as the doctor had told him. But when he started running, nothing happened, and so he kept running and puffing. Growing tired, he stopped and after some time returned home tired and sleepy. He went to bed rather early and slept like a baby. When he got up in the morning he was a little stiff but felt rather well. But he was resolved to try a little harder that evening. And so he did. He walked farther and ran harder and puffed even more. Again nothing happened. So he returned home and slept even better and ate voraciously in the morning and felt dangerously well. But he was still resolved to carry out his purpose. So he repeated the per-formance the next night, exerting himself even more,' but again nothing happened. He went to bed and again slept marvelously well. He arose in the morning and ate heartily and had a strange sense of well-being. He felt he could meet and conquer all his prob-lems. He was even eager to get at them. 146 May, 1954 NATURE AND GRACE This story, aside from the fact that it concerns an attempted suicide and has the psychiatrist pretending to condone the attempt, allows for a wholesome application because it shows how ill health may create a spiritual problem and good health may solve it. Not infrequently religious are impeded in their spiritual lives by tired-ness, headaches, nerves, and such .complaints. No doubt like'all "creatures" of God these distresses can be used to help one in the spiritual life, but they must be handled by the great virtue of pru-dence. Our Lord told us to be as wise as serpents and as simple as doves. With the help of our spiritual guides, we must learn when such things advance us and when they impede us in the great work we are doing. And we must come to some decision as to how we are to conduct ourselves in their regard. Finally, there is the question of the natural virtues. It will be sufficient for our purpose to indicate in general their importance in regard to the accompanying virtues. Without the accompanying natural habit the infused, supernatural virtue is left, so to speak, in the air. The natural virtue gives the infused virtue facility and solidity. A person, for example, who has the infused virtue of for-titude m. ay in practice act very cowardly. It is only/ when he has acquired the habit of acting bravely that the supernatural virtue will function as it should. And so with all other virtues. That is why Father Hull in his little book, The Formation of Character, says that "all virtues, even the supernatural ones, are radically and .functionally natural ones . " It may be well to add that religious ought not to fear to develop and use to the utmost the natural talents God has given them. All too often the words of Our Lord apply to religious: "The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light" (Lk. 16:8). Certainly the wicked make the utmost use of the gifts they have to further their evil ends. Shall those who pro-fess to fight God's cause allow to lie dormant the precious powers .God has entrusted to them? Every religious should occasionally meditate on Our Lord's parable of the talents. If we have been ¯ given even only one, we are expected to wbrk with it and show proper increase. A good way of acting would be that suggested in the saying attributed to St. Ignatius: Work as, if all depends on you; pray as if all depends on God. The use of nature to the advantage of the supernatural in the various ways suggested above should not surprise us who realize that ,our God has lifted even matter to be an ally of grace. In our sac- 147 JOSEPH P. FISHER ramental' system, Water, bread and wine, and oil are wondrously dignified by the part they play in the bestowal of grace on men. And even apart from the sacraments it is rather amazing how the Creator has mysteriously decreed not only that "for the most part men be saved by men" but that often even material things have an important part in a man's salvation or damnation. The speed of a car, the presence of blood plasma, the right drug. at hand may give the time. required to baptize or absolve a soul in need. Even if it is not explicitly said, it is sometimes implied, that any kind of trust in nature will lead to an.attitude of self-sufficiency and pride. There. is no good reason why this should be so. Is 'not ,God the Creator of nature as well as the Author of grace? Are not His natural gifts gifts? Can we not say in regard to the goods of nature which God has bestowed on us what the Blessed Virgin said in the Magnificat: "He who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name." Surely a man must crush the inordinate in nature but he should be careful lest in doing so he also spoil what is good.- Since God took upon Himself our nature there has been a truly wonderful union between nature and grace. And God wishes us to respect and cherish this union. May we not elevate the thought of the poet Coleridge and apply his words to our matter: He pra~etb best, tvbo lovetb best All the'rigs both great and small; For the dear God who lovetb us, He made and lovetb all. (Rime of the Ancient Mariner 11. 614-617)., NEW RI:VIEW OF SPIRITUALITY Cbristus is tb~ title of a new review of spirituality directed by the French Fa-thers of the Society of Jisus. The first number is entirely devoted to "Christ Our Lord"--with a number of articles that are ~emarkable for'their doctrine, historical information, and modernity. The purpose of the review is not to promote the spirituality of a "school," but rather to perform a service for consecrated souls, re-gardless of the spiritual family to which they belong, by opening up a source of spirituality which our present Holy Father called one of the most efficacious for the spiritual regeneration of the world. The price of this new quarterly is 700 ft. per year in France; 900 ft. for foreign subscribers. Address: Christus, 15, rue Monsieur, Paris (7e)~ France. 148 New I:::dit:ion of :he Li :t:le Ot:t:ice Adam C. Ellis, S.J. THE Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary was long a favorite devotion of pious layfolk, especially in England, where there were two versions of "Mary's Hours" current as far back as the eleventh century. Today many of the laity use the Little Office as their daily prayer in honor of Mary. It is part of the rule for Dominican, Carmelite, and Augustinian Tertiaries, and Franciscan Tertiaries are exhorted, though not obliged, to say it. Many mem-ber~ of the various Sodalities of Our Lady recite the Little Office daily as a matter of devotion. This office is called "Little" to distinguish it from the "Great" or Divine Office, which is recited daily by all clerics in major orders, by many religious orders of men, and by most communities of cloistered nuns. Many religious conoregations of sisters and broth-ers established during the nineteenth century and later have adopted the Little Office as their special" form of common prayer and recite it daily in whole or in part (for instance, Vespers and Compline), .or at least on Sundays and holydays. Some who are prevented by the nature of their work from assembling together at a fixed time recite the Little Office privately. A" feature article in L'Osseroatore Romano for March 17 an-nounced the publication of a new edition in Latin and German of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fortunately, we have at hand a copy "of this new version; and it seems to us that our readers might welcome some information about it. Papal Approval of New Texf The text of the new edition of the Little Office announced in L'Osseruatore Romano was prepared by Father Augustine Bea, S.J., professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (of which he was rector for many years) and a Consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The work was done at the request of the Teaching Sisters of the Holy Cross, a congregation of Franciscan Sisters whose mother house is,located, at Menzingen, Switzerland. It was to the mother general of these Sisters that Pope Plus XII wrote the following let-ter, which approves the new Little Office and which is printed as an introduction to the text: 149 ADAM C. ELLIS To Our beloved daughter in Christ, greetings and Apostolic Bene-diction. ,The fervent devotion of the faithful to Mary, the Most Blessed Mother of God, besides many other exercises of piety, has also in-cluded for many centuries, that practice by which the same Mother of God is especially honored, namely the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This pious practice has increased in recent times, since in man~ religious congregatons of brothers and sisters its daily recitation is already prescribed by the constitutions, a prescription which indeed is worthy of the highest, praise. And so it happens. that souls dedicated to God daily propose to themselves for imita-tion the glorious virtues of the same Blessed Virgin, especially her inviolable purity and unimpaired virginity; and by this pious dailg homage they secure for themselves more efficaciously Mary's moth-erIy care and most powerful protection. Furthermore, this same recitation of the Marian Office unites them closely with the liturgical life of the Church and with the Divine'Office of the priests. Especially now in our days this love of the sacred liturgy, re-markably increased through the inspiriztion of the Holy Spirit, has also aroused a stronger desire in not a feu~ of those who daily recite these Marian prayers that they be even more closet~t connected uJith the Church's solemnities and feasts than is possible with the form of the Little Office which has been found in the Roman Breviary since the time of Our Predecessor, St. Pius V. Therefore, with special pleasure, We have learned that while you and your sisters have faith-fully desired to preserve the old and praiseworthy custom of reciting the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, yet at the same time you cherish the pious wish to have a fuller participation in the liturgical life of the Church, and that you have therefore carefully seen to it that a somewhat expanded edition of the Little Office be prepared, which is adapted more closely to the times and feasts of the liturgical year. Since We have a certain hope that this your holy fidelity to the centuries-old tradition of religious congregations will bring about for you from day to day the greater favor and blessing of the Mother of God, and also that your love for the sacred liturgy will produce in you new and precious fruits of the spiritual life, We gladly permit you, and other congregations who may so desire, to use this new edition of the Little Office of Mary in your daily reci: tation. May the Apostolic Blessing which We impart to you gladly in 150 May, 1954 LITTLE OFFICE Our Lord, dear daughter, and to all the members of ~lour congrega-tion, be a tohen of Our paternal beneoolence. Giuen at Rome, at St. Peter's, March 12. 1953, in the fifteenth ~/ear of Our Pontificate. POPE PIUS XII Use of the New Text This approval of the Holy Father grants members of religious congregations of brothers and sisters who are now reciting the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin by reason of their constitutions or by custom the permission to substitute this new Latin text for the old text approved by Pope Saint Plus V for the entire Church and which is printed in the back of the Roman Breviary. The firm of Marietti, Via Legnano 23, Turin, Italy, issued the first printing of the new text in a combined Latin-German text in December, 1953, and has the sole right of publication. According to the article which appeared in L'Osseruatore, a Latin text by it-self was then in press, and should be available by now. Transla-tions into English, French, and Italian will follow shortly, from the same press. (The Newman Press, Westminster, Maryland, is the agent for Marietti in this country.) Use in the Vernacular The Holy Father approved both the Latin text and the accom-panying German text for the Sisters of the Holy Cross of Men-zingen. They evidently have been reciting the Little Office in Ger-man with special permission. May other religious congregations use any one of the translations to be issued by Marietti without further permission? Some distinctions must be made: (1) As was stated above, any religious congregation now reciting the Little Office in Latin, may at once make use of tl~e new Latin version without ~r-tber permission. (2) Any religious congregation now reciting the Little Office in the vernacular with proper permission, may at once make use of the new text in the vernacular as published by Mari-etti; any other translation of the new Latin text must have the ap-proval of their own local ordinary before it may be used. (3) Any religious congregation now reciting the Little Office in Latin by reason of a prescription of its constitutions, may not change from Latin to the vernacular without permission from the proper au-th6rity: (a) the local Ordinary in the case of a diocesan congrega-tion, since he has the power t~ change their constitutions; (b) tile 151 t ADAM C. ELLIS Sacred Congregation of Religious in the case of a pontifical congre-gation, since only the Holy See can change constitutionk approved by it. This permission should be bequested by a general chapter. " Special Features The new edition of the Little Of}ice of the Blessed Virgin has the following, characteristics: 1. For the Latin text of the psalms it follows theVatican Psalter, a new translation of the Book of Psalms prepared at the Biblical Institute, made prir~cipally from the Hebrew Masoretic text, and approved for optional use in his Motu Proprio In cotidianis precibus by Pope Plus XII, on March 21, 1945. For the German text the psalms are taken from Deutscber Psalter, edited by Romano Guardini, with the permission of the publishers, "K6sel-Verlag." 2. The text is arranged for and adapted to six exact liturgical seasons of the ecclesiastical year: Advent, ChriStmas, Lent, Passion-tide, Eastertide, and the time after Pentecost, with special lessons for each season. 3. The new text has the special antiphons (for the Magnificat and Berledictus) and the proper orations for the more prominent general feasts of the year: Circumcision, Epiphany, St. Joseph, As-cension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, Sts. Peter and Paul, and All Saints; also for the Commemoration of All Souls; likewise for many particular feasts of Our Lady: Immaculate Con-ception; Purification, Annunci'ation, Visitation, Assumption,, Im-maculate Heart, Nativity of "Our Lady, Holy Name of Mary, Seven Sorrows (both feasts), Holy Rosary, Maternity, and Presentation. 4. During Advent the special "O" antiphons are used at Ves-pers on the eight days preceding the vigil of Christmas. For the last three days of Holy Week the Office is conformed to the rubrics, and the Christus factus est :is added to each hour. Conclusion ~ Religious communities of sisters and brothers ~vho have been reciting the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mar~ in common by direction of their constitt(tions or by custom will welcome this new edition of the text, brought up to date to conform wih the spirit of the modern litu[gical movement, and approved for them by ,Our , Holy Father. 152 /V ore abou!: Secular Ins!:i!:ut:es Francis N. Korth, S.J. DIRECTORS of souls and others who come in contact with possible vocations will be interested in some information about secular institutes that are actually existing in the United States and Canada and about other groups that have hopes of be-coming secular institutes at some later date if everything works out all right. It happens at times that a religious is approached by a boy or girl who seems to have a clear call to a special practic~ of the evangelical counsels while remaining in the world; it seems to be a vocation to the life led by ~embers of secular institutes. Unfortu-nately little information of practical use has been published for helping such prospective vocations make the necessary contact with individuals who would be in a bett~r position to advise them. The present article is intended to obviate this difficulty to some extent. To this end some items about a number of groups that either are secular institutes or are on the way to possibly developing into secu-lar institutes will be given. It is understandable that in such a highly specialized vocation great care must be taken in admitting candidates; a certain amount ot~ lack of publicity could be a safe-guard. On the other hand, it also seems desirable to have some in-formation about existing groups made available among those who could be of help to candidates having a true vocation to that'type of life. Existing Secular Institutes" Among the few secular institutes existing in the United States ¯ (as far as is known), the first to be mentioned is the pioneer in this country, the Opus Dei. Opus Dei (whose full title is: Sacerdotal Society of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei) was founded in Madrid, Spain, on October 2, 1928, by Monsignor Jos~ Maria Escrivfi 'de Balaguer. Its members make som~ studies in philosophy and, the-ology; some'later go on to the priesthood. A women's branch of Opus Dei (distinct from that of the men) was begun in 1930; this is a completely separate secular institute. For the most part the gov-ernment is in the hinds of the lay members; priest members act inca spiritual kapacity, though some high offices usually are held by priests. The purpose of Opus Dei is to enable its members, while 153 FRANCIS N. KORTH Review for Religious living in the world, to achieve personal p~rfection through the prac-tice of the evangelical counsels and to spread the life of Christian perfection among all classes, especially among those whose profes-sions or positions permit a great influence on society. Opus Dei was the first secular institute to obtain papal approval (decree of praise on February 24, 1947) and the first to receive definitive papal ap-proval (on June 16, 1950). Today Opus Dei has about two hundred houses in various parts of the world; it numbers members from more than thirty countries. In the United States a house of the men's branch has been in exist-ence in Chicago for a number of years (address: 5544 Woodlawn Ave., Chicago 37, Illinois); during the past two years a house of the women's branch has also been set up there (address: 4944 Woodlawn Ave., Chicago 37, Illinois). Since November, 1953, a house of the men's branch has been located at Boston (address: 22 Marlborough St., Boston, Mass~achusetts). At present in the United States there is no diocesan priests' branch. It is of special interest to note that initial steps, in God's providence possibly leading to the honors of the altar, have been taken regarding one of the former members of Opus Dei, Isidoro Zorzano by name, a man in an ordinary profession in the world (he was a railroad construc-tion engineer). His story is told by Daniel Sargent in God's En-gineer. Besides Opus Dei a second secular institute has been given the definitive approval by the Holy See (August 3, 1953) ; it is the in-stitute known as the Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ. This group ~was started at Assisi, Italy, on November 19, 1919, by Father Agostino Gemelli, O.F.M. It is an association of women, with the purpose of dedication to Christian perfection through the observance of the evangelical counsels and of dedication to the lay apostolate of spreading the Kingdom of Christ according to the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi. All members of this secular institute are also members of the Third Order of St, Francis. There is an active section and an oblate section. While no particular aposto-late is undertaken, the members place themselves at the disposal of the Church; members of the active section serve where superiors want to use them. The activities are varied: helping the poor and the sick, operating protective organizations, taking special interest in fostering the liturgical apostolate, encouraging adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in churches, and other works. Candidates might 154 May, 1954 SECULAR INSTITUTES qualify if they, are convinced that they wish to live for Christ, are available for an active apostolate, and are engaged in work that as-sures independence. Applicants should be between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five, should be in good health, and should realize the need of daily Mass, Holy Communion,and meditation. This institute has three branches: one for men, a second for women (separately organized but .with the same constitutions the men's branch has), and a third for diocesan priests in as far as compatible with their loyalty to their bishop. Lay members may live in their own homes or anywhere they choose. The government, except for the priests' branch, is in the hands of lay persons. An American foundation of this institute exists in Washington, D.C. (Address communications to: Rev. Stephen J. Hartdegen, O.F.M., Holy Name College, 14th and Shepherd Streets, N.E., Washington 17, D.C.) The institute has spread extensively in the country of its origin, besides branching out into four or five other countries; its total membership is probably about four thousand. In 1926 at Schoenstatt, Germany, under the guidance of Father Joseph Kentenich, S.A.C., the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary of the Catholic Apostolate had their origin. (The word "sisters" is a German title used by all engaged in social work and does not here mean religious sisters in the canonical sense.) The members of this group dedicate themselves fully to a practice of evangelical perfec-tion and the apostolate through a specifically Marian and apostolic formation of modern women in order to aid the spiritual renewal of the world in Christ through Mary. This secular institute for wom-en is part of the general Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement with its various circles and groups, in accordance with the central idea of a universal apostolate--all fields of activity, all persons, everywhere. Some of the varied activities performed by this group include teach-ing, conducting hospitals, acting as home visitors, helping in par-ishes as teachers of children and converts, acting as social workers. The institute nt~mbers close to two thousand today and is spread over five continents. Contact with this group can be made at the following address in this country: New Schoenstatt, R.R. 5, Madi-son 4, Wisconsin. On June 30, 1950, the decree of praise was bestowed by the Holy See on a secular institute known as the Company of St. Paul. Growing out of a Catholic Action activity, this group was started by Cardinal Ferrari at Milan, Italy, on November 17, 1920, as a religious community with a common rule of life. It received the 155 FRANCIS N. KORTH Reuieu~ for Religious name of Companyof~ St. Paul in 1924. A decree of recognition and approval of its rule was received from the Holy See on July 1, 1942. In 1949 the Company of St. Paul was_ included under the new rulings of the Piooida Mater Ecclesia. Besides the pursuit of perfection through the practice of the .evangelical counsels, the pur-pose of this institute is to promote a more efficacious collaboration of clergy and laity in the establishment of the reign of Christ in modern society, both in individuals and in social institutions. Each of the three sections (for.priests, for laymen, and for laywomen) has its own superior, but all are united under one general head cho-sen from the section for priests. Some work is being done in this country by this institute, although no foundation ~xists as yet. (A contact address could be furnished on request.) Another group which has no foundation at present in America, but which has some solid hope of realizing such a foundation in due time (initial steps have been taken), is the Institute of Ou.r Lady of Life. Following the Discalced Carmelite spirituality, this secular institute was started by Father Marie-Eugene, O.C.D., in 1932 near Venasque, France. The element of dedication to the con-templative life in the world, of the silent apostolate of edification, of being witnesses to Christ either through individual activity or through works proper to the institute is the characteristic note of this organization. Any appropriate kind of work is permitted to the members; some are engaged in teaching, others in social work or various walks of public life. This institute received diocesan ap-proval in France several years ago., " The foregoing are the secular institutes known to have founda-tions or at least representatives in this country. Groups in Process of Deuetopment Besides established secular institutes, a number, of other groups in this country and in Canada are in the process of possibly devel-oping into future secular institutes. An organization which has obtained approval (as a "pious union") in two dioceses in France and in one in Canada is caIled the Daughters of St. Catherine of Siena. This group was founded in France in 1947~ by Father Thomas Deman, O.P. The Dominican spirituality is followed. Formation of the members takes place in convents of the Dominican Sisters of the Congregation of St. Cath-erine of Siena. At present all American members are affiliated with the Canadian foundation; a house in the United States is desired. 156 Ma~t, 1054 SECULAR INSTITUTES Canada has a very flourishing association of this kind which is in the process of possible development into a secular institute. Its purpose is dedication to evangelical perfection and tb an apostolate in the world according to the principle, "Caritas Christi per Mari-am" (the Charity of Christ through Mary). The apostolate is being carried on in Canada; foreign mission work is a possibility. This associaton has over twenty-two groups with about two hun-dred members, many of whom practice a profession. .Members are trained to live alone; personal responsibility is cultivated. The growth of this group has been phenomenal. A number of smaller groups are in lesser stages of development in this country. One such group is at present engaged in the home care and guidance of teen-age boys, and envisions eventual apostolic work in career-counseling, information services, engaging in Church public relations, personnel service in staffing Catholic organizations, and obtaining positions in other institutions. Another group, based upon the Benedictine way of life, is dedi-cated to the rural lay apostolate of helping pastors in their work for souls in needy rural areas. A third group has adopted St. Francis de Sales as its patron in its general apostolate of helping the pastor of a parish; under his direction such help might take the shape of visiting families in the p.arish, talking with persons about going to the sacraments and having their babies baptized, the promotion of retreats and da.y,s of recollection and the like. Still another group is dedicated to an apostolate of service in discovering and developing a Christian culture primarily through work in the poorest and most needy parishes; a member might fill in temporarily for a teacher who is sick or might help to clean the church or do other tasks. In such groups provision is made of course for fostering the spiritual life of the members. In at ,least several of them the breviary is recited in English. Since members usually support themselves in their regular professions or positions or jobs, they are accustomed to work. In one group eight hours of work per day is expected of each regular member. To help meet the financial problem in another of these organizations, the smaller groupings will have three or four members, with one earning the income for the group and the others devoting their full time to the works of the institute without re-muneration. All of these groups are still in the formative stage; as such they also usually are small in number for the time being. When further development is realized, expansion would be desirable. Besides these developing groups, there are several other, tentative 157 FRANCIS N. KORTH Reoiew for Religious groups in the early stages of thought, Possibly there are many more. If anyone in a responsible position cares to send in more information for publication about one of the groups already mentioned, or about others, such information would receive due consideration for pos-sible publication in this REVIEW. A goodly number of priests are quite interested in these new institutes because of the possibilities of their apostolate. Some priests are helping groups to develop; others direct or prepare possible candidates for some such group. One priest, for exampIe, becomes weIl acquainted with young people in the retreats he conducts; then, having knowledge of exist!ng secular institutes or associations in the stage of development, he is in a posi-tion to aid likely candidates and channel them to one of the groups existing in various parts of America. The Nagoya Group After, considering the various known secular institutes and the developing groups in our own country and in Canada, our readers might be interested in knowing something about a secular institute which has been established in Nagoya, Japan. This move is con-sidered of historical impc~rtance, according to one newspaper ac-count, because "it represents something entirely new in the history of mission countries." .The problem of catechists and lay apostles in Japan had become vital owing to the increasing number of catechumens. At the same time a large number of young women were yearni~ng to consecrate themselves entirely to a life of perfection and of the apostolate. As a result various bands of catechists worked in" different ~places. Four years ago, undef the inspiration and guiding hand of a missionary, Father'George Gemeinder, S.V.D., women catechists were grouped together for the purpose of forming a future secular institute. On January 28 of this year (1954), the Secular Insntute of the Cate-chists of Our Lady, Virgin and Mother, received the nihil obstat from Rome in regard to its constitutions; the institute was then established by the Prefect Apostolic of Nagoya, Monsignor Peter Matsuoka, on February 11, 1954. The first year of novitiate was scheduled to open on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 1954. One of the women members has been made "Inchosama," which is a general term for "head of the house" or superior. Father Gemeinder acts as director; Father Anthony Zimmerman, S.V.D., is wce-dlrector. The purpose of this institute is to help the needs of the missions. 158 May, 1954 SECULAR INSTITUTES Among the varied forms of the apostolate in which members might be ~ngaged would be included the following: acting as full-time catechists at various mission stations; assisting existing organizations in the locality: acting as .teachers, hospital workers, and the like; being employed in a professional field. Candidates should have the necessary physical, mental, and so-cial qualities for carrying on the.work of the institute. After a pos-. tulancy and novitiate, during which a solid'training in spiritual mat-ters is given to help them lay a firm foundation for a life of personal perfection and for a fruitful apostolate, the members take the vows of poverty, chastity,, and obedience proper to their institute and,a promise under oath to devote themselves to the apostolate. In car-rying on their apostolic work, members might live individually or at times in community. This gives some idea of the new secular institute at Nagoya. As its name implies, stress is placed upon catechetical training and work --an all-important apostolate in a country in which so many souls have not yet heard the message Christ came to preach. Conclusion As a conclusion to these statistics on secular institutes, it might be interesting to mention the secular institutes which are listed in the Annuario Ponti[icio for 1953 as being institutes of pontifical right. On pages 832-833 four secular institutes for men are thus listed. They are the Company of St. Paul (originated in Italy), Opus Dei (originated in Spain), the Priest Workers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Spain), and the Society of the Heart of Jesus (France). For women fi've such institutes are given on page. 1233: the Daughters of the Queen of the Apostles (Trent), the Teresian Institute (Mad-rid), the Missionaries of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus-Christ (Milan), the Institute of Our Lady of Work (Paris), and the Women's Section of Opus Dei (Madrid). PLENARY INDULGENCE FOR SEVEN SORROWS BEADS At the request of the Prior General of the Order of the Servants of Mary (Servites), His Holiness, Pope Plus XII. on December 19, 1953, kindly granted a plenary indulgence to be gained by the faithful who, after confession and Holy Communion, devoutly recite the beads of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, before the Blessed Sacrament of tbe Altar, wbether publicly exposed or re-served in the tabernacle. (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, February 16, 1954, p. 73.) 159 NATURE AND GRACE. By Matthlas Joseph Scheeben. Translated by Cyril Vollert, S.J. Pp. xxlv ~ 361. B. Herder Book Co., St. Lou~s, 1954. $4.~s. With the Publication of this work in 1861 the author took his first step on the path which brought him to the forefront of the theologians of his day. In it be set out to treat the central theme of his thought--the super~natural and its place in the life of the Chris-tian. Around this thought his treatise is built and on it the em-phasis is constantly placed. This is not a textbook but a readable treatise which has been put into flowing English. Scheeben not only knew the great Scholastic writers but be was also well versed in the Fathers of the Church, both Western and Eastern. With such an equipment he manages to make clear many difficult concepts and doctrines. We are thus treated not merely to a fine doctrinal exposition but also to a stirring appeal to realize our destiny. Parts, if not all, of the book will serve well for spiritual read-ing. Thus, after a thorough explanation of man's spiritual nature, of sanctifying grace and the supernatural order, there follows'a care-ful explanation of the acts of the supernatural life, particularly faith, hope, and charity. The climax is an enthusiastic description of the union of nature and grace in the supernatural acts. --AUGUSTIN C. WAND, S.J. Books abou Mary A book of exceptional value is PAPAL PRONOUNCEMENTS ON MARY, compiled and arranged by the Right Rev. Msgr. William J. Doheny, C.S.C., and the Rev. Joseph P. Kelly. It contains transla-tions of the principal papal statements about Mary from Pius IX to Pius XII. Included are the texts of Ineffabilis Deus and Muni£- centissfmus Deus, defining the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption respectively, and the very beautiful encyclical of Plus X, Ad Diem Illum. This is the best kind of spiritual read-ing about the Mother of God. (Milwaukee, Wis.: The Bruce Pub-lishing Company, 1954. Pp. x -t- 270. $4.50.) 160 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS MEDITATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN, by the Rev. Arthur Vermeersch, S.J., is a reprint of a work pub-lished in the early part of the century and translated by W. Hum-phrey Page, K.S.G. The meditations and instructions are intended for the use of both clergy and laity. Volume I contains meditations for each of the feasts of Mary, a novena for the Feast of the Im-maculate Conception, a novena to obtain devotion to Mary, and meditations for the month of May. Volume II has a meditation for each Saturday of the year, as well as a supplement with meditations for various feasts. (Westminster, Md.: The Newman Press, 1954. Pp. I." xxiv + 438; II: xv + 468. $7.50 per "set.) The Rev. A. Biskupek, S.V.D., offers readings and reflections on OUR LADY'S LITANY. This is a good book for meditation during May, October, or any other time during the Marian Yea[. Helpful reflections are provided for each invocation of the Litany of Loreto. The author will be remembered for his three volumes of conferences on the rite of ordination. (Milwaukee, Wis.: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1954. Pp. vi + 166. $2.75.) MARY C~OD'S MASTERPIECE features sixty-two reproductions of paintings of Our Lady in full color, with appropriate texts from the Sacred Scriptures and the Liturgy~ The the Redemptorist Fathers as a Marian-Year Mother. It is a real work of art, an attractive Year. (New York, N.Y.: Perpetual Help $2.00.) The latest of his many writings about book was prepared by tribute to the Blessed souvenir of the Marian Press, 1954. Pp. the Blessed Mother is THE SONG OF THE ROSARY, by Daniel A. Lord, S.J. The book covers each of the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary in a style which the author himself explains in his own inimitable way: "I found that I could not possibly confine in simple prose the context of what I had to write or the emotions needed to accompany the writing. So I adopted a sort of natural rhythm that is not prose and yet not strictly analyzable poetry. Call it what you wis,h; I call it simply a rhythm." (St. Louis, Mo: The Queen's Work, 1953. Pp. 399. $4.00.) BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS [For the most part, these notices are purely descriptive, based on a cursory exam-ination of the books listed.] AVE MARIA PRESS, Notre Dame, Indiana. Patch Scatters Culture. By Patrick J. Carroll, C.S.C. This is 161 I~OOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review for Religious the fourth of Father Carroll's books about Patch. The first was published almost twenty-five years ago. It was, as one reviewer said of it, "one of the happiest, brightest, most vivacious stories of a boy's life that one could wish to read." Of the author, the same re-viewer said: "Father Carroll has the gift of spinning a story and filling it with humor and wisdom. His dialogue is even more sprightly than his narrative." The story-telling gift; and espe-cially the realistic, Irish-flavored dialogue are still ~manifest in this fourth volume which continues the reminiscences of Patch and con-cludes with an Epilogue about how Patch, now a priest, visited his homeland. "And so happy memories to you," the Epilogue con-cludes; and one who knows Father Carroll can even hear him say it. Pp. 223. $2.75. BEAUCHESNE, R
Issue 12.3 of the Review for Religious, 1953. ; Bellarmine and t:he Queen ot: Virgins John A. Hardon, S.J. ST. ROBERT BELLARMINE is widely known in theological circles as the great champion of the Papac, y. At the Vatican Council, h~s Controoersies.were the principal source from which the assembled fathers formulated the definition of papal infallibility. An.d in 1931, when the Holy See declared him a Doctor of the Church, he was described as "The Prince of Apologists and Strong Defender of the Cathoiic Faith, not only for his own time but for all future ages." But Bellarmine has another title to glory, seldom pointed out, which should endear him in a special way to priests and religious who are directors of souls. St. Robert was for years the spiritual counsel-i " lor and confessor of St: Aloysius Gonzaga, to the day of the latter's death in 1591. So attached was Bellarmine to his spiritual son that he was largely responsible for his early beatification, which he lived to see, and asked to be buried near the body of his "caro Luigi" as a perpetual remembrance of their mutual affection. Pope Benedict XV was sufficiently impressed by this circumstance that he proposed, "for the imitation of confessors, the prudence of that 'wisest of spiritual directors, Robert Bellarmine, who moderated ev'en the' penitential ardor of St. Aloysius Gonzaga." St. Aloysius is the heavenl~ patron of Catholic youth, ahd the chosen exemplar of heroic chastity. We should 'not be surprised, therefore, if his spiritual director was personally so much devoted to the Immaculate Mother of Virgins that be drew from her life and example the inspiration which he transmitted to Aloysius. Bellarmine once wrotethat, "Every great man in the Church has been most de-voted to the Blessed Virgin Mary: Ephrem, Bernard, Dominic, Fran-cis of Assisi"--and we may now add, as the following sketch will show, Robert Bella~rmine, the spiritual father of Aloysius Gonzaga. Bellarmine's Personal Devotion to the Mother of God . St. Robert w~is devoted, to the Blessed Virgin fr6m his earliest years. According to his schoolmate, later Canon Vincent PatiucheIli, as a young boy Bellarmine used to recite daily the Office of the Bles- 113 JOHN A. HARDON sed Virgin, often in company with Vincent as the two of them walked slowly ~long the road. Bellarmine retained this custom of reciting the Ottice of Our Lady throughout life. In the same way he kept the custom to his old age of ~aily saying the Rosary. ,~Iexander Jacobelli, who was the cardinal's almoner for twenty years, testified at the beatification process that, "He ~never omitted saying the ~OfIice and thd Rosary of the Blessed. V!rgin Mary, during which he. was often found melted in tears." " HOwever, Robert .was not satisfied with only a single recitation of the.Rosary. The beads were Iite~a!ly his constant companion. In the words of his chaplain, "when fatigued with study, Bellarmine would find recreation in reciting the beads wiih uncovered head:'.' And again, "his relaxation was to say the Rosary of O~r Lady.". On his frequent journeys as Archbishop of Capua, attendants noticed that he always followed the same "ritual: celebrate Mass, say the Itinerarium,' and, rosary in hand, enter the carriage for the journey. Juan de Serayz, a close friend of Robert, has left some interesting details on bow Bellarmine would say.the Rosary. It was June 14, 1618, the feast of Corpus Christi, th~it Bellarmine and Juan were returning from a procession at St. Peter's Basilica-. "As we got int9 the carriage," relates Juan. "he told me that he was ablb to say the third part of the Rosary exactly three times, from the time the pro-cession left the Sistine Chapel to where it finally ended at the Altar of Exposition in St. Peter's When I asked him, out of curiosity, hbw he said the Rosary, he told me that he separated the decades of the Angelic Salutation with an Our-Fathe.r, adding to eacB decade a short prayer corresponding to the different mysteries, .and preceding the decades with a short meditation on the following mystery. Then with emphasis he said that he recited the Hail Mary's sJow.l~l, s!owl~l. When I observed that this did not leave much time for keeping his partner company, he answered that during the whole procession he did not say a single word to his~ cardinal companion." We can understand, therefore, how painful were the doctor's Or-ders during Bellarmine's last illness, when he was forbidden not only to say the Breviary but also the Rosary. . For, as his brother explained, the doctor knew with what ardor and devotion he applied himself to these prayers: Finally, the doctor was moved by ~he dying man's pleas an.d mitigated the orders first given to the servant, allowing'the sick man "a moderate use'of the Rotary," although everyone knew that, "his intense application to this prayer would'be a great strain 1!4 'Ma~/, 1953 BELLARMINEAND MARY upon him." To the Office and the Rosary, Bellarmine added the Saturday fast in Mary's honor. He fasted th'ree days a week with the same. rigor that he kept the Lenten fast, that is, most strictly. According.to a syllogism which he wrote on the subject, he argued in this way: Our justice should be greater than that of the Pharisees. Matt. 5/20. But the Pharisees fasted two days a week. Luke 18/12. Therefore, I should fast at least three days a week! So besides the fasts for the vigils and the Lenten fast, and besides the whole of Advent, he kept a sacred fast on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of each week. That he kept the Saturday fast in honor of Our Lady is clear from the Sermon which he gave on one occasiofi for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, when he said that among the practices most pleasing to the Blessed Virgin and her Divine Son, and most useful to grow in their, love and friendship, is the daily recitation of the Rosary and the Saturday fast in Mary's honor. It was only under express orders,from hi~ confessor ~o fas~ only twice~a week, that in his old age Bellarmine relinquished ~he Saturday fast. Bellarmine and the Immaculate" Conception According to available evidence, Robert Bellarmine was the first bishop of the Catholic Church to have formally petitioned the Holy See for a definition of the Immaculate Conception. It was made while he was serving as cardinal member, of the Congregation of the Inquisition. The petition is dated August 31, 1617, and carried two main questions: Is the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin definable doctrine; and is it expedient at the present ,time to define this doctrine? Then follow three thousand words of careful theoiogical exposition and answering of objections, calculated to break down the resistance of ~ertain critics in the Roman Curia. One of the reasons whch Bellarmine gives in favor of the defini-tion is especially revealing. "It is possible," he says, "for a mere creature to be without an~i sin. Such, .for example, a~e the good angels in heaven. Consequently, the ~ame must be true of the Virgin Mother of God, who is more .pure than the angels. Otherwise she would be less pure than the angels, at least by the presence of sin. For tru.e purity consists of two qualities: absence of sin and nearness to God." The point is that if Our Lady is more pure than the angels in closeness to God, which all admit, then she is also as pure as they 115 ,JOHN A. HARDON Review for Religious in the absence of sin, since purity comprehends both qualities with-out discrimination. St. Robert's devotion to the immaculate Conception is also at- . tested by the number of sermons which he preached on this preroga-tive of the Mother of God. Besides other testimony, there are two extant letters which Bellarmine wrote on the subject i one in 1617 to an English priest, and another in 1618 to Philip III of Spain, in both of which he promised to do everything in his power to promote the defense of the Immaculate Conception. Juan de Serayz, previously quoted, testified at the Beatification Process that Bellarmine bad a singular devotion to the Immaculat~ Conception. After this general statement, h~ added that, "his de-votion was manifested in all the Roman Congregations on which the Cardinal served. And relative to. this question, he often told me that he would not rest until the doctrine was defined. ' 'There is no. need of convoking a General Council in this matter,' he said, 'since the Pontiff can easily pronounce the definition by means of a papal b~ll.' " It is significant that when Pius IX defined the dogma in 1854, he did so without convoking a General Council and by means of a papal bull, exactly as BeIlarmine had suggested. It was Bellarmine's mind that the definition of the Immaculate Conception in his own day was not only opportune but even neces-sary, as he wrote to King Philip, "to remove the terrible scandals which are daily committed against the 1donor of God and with such danger to the the souls of the faithful." Only two months before his death, Bellarmine was still 'urging the cherished definition. On August 1, 1621, says the chronicle,. St. Robert engaged the Holy Father in a long conversation, and frankly told him that if he were Pope he would not hesitate immedi-ately to define the Immaculate Conception, s~eeing no obstacle what-ever standing in the, way. st. John Berchmans died on August 13, 1621. Shortly after his death, Bellarmine heard of the vow which John had made, signed with his own blood, and declaring: "I, John Berchmans, unworthy son of the Society of Jesus, promise thee and thy Son . . . that until death I, will ever declare and defend thy Immaculate Conception." When the aged cardinal was informed of this "fact, he exclaimed: "What a marvelous act of devotion! What aningenious expression of love, written in his own blood! What he says is most certainly true; I am sure he was inspired to this action by Our Lady herself. 116 MaR, 1~53 BELLARMINEAND MARY For just now in Flanders, while others ,are attacking Mary's honor, this young man from Flanders has been chosen by the Mother of God to defend her." Bellarmine was referring to the forerunners of 3ansenism at Louvain, who were teaching that, "No one except Christ is without original sin. Consequently the Blessed Virgin died because of the sin which she had contracted from Adam." Bellarmine and the Annunciation Cardinal Orsini rec'alled that one year he happened to stop at the Jesuit Novitiate in Rome on March 25th, where Bellarmine' was making the Spiritual Exercises. That.morning, the latter's medita-tion had" been on the Annunciation of Our Lady, and when Orsini called on his friend, Bellarmine immediately began to talk about the sublime'mystery .with such fervor and clarity that his visitor was convinced "he had received a special illumii~ation from God that very morning/' It may be noted also that all his life Bellarmine delighted to mention that he was ordained to the priesthood on Holy Satur-day, ,March 25, 1570, and therefore had the privilege of celebrating his first Mass in honor of Our Lady's Annunciation. Since one of the main points of opposition by the Protestants was clerical celibacy and religious chastity, Bellarmine 'took every occasion to defend this traditional practice of the Catholic Church. There are tl~ree complete sets of sermbns which Bellarmine preached for the feast of the Annunciation, and in several of them he took as his theme the Virginity of the Mother of God, stressing the sublimity of this privilege and the example it affords for our imitation. Thus on one occasion he is commenting on the words, "And Mary said to the angel: 'How shall this be done, because I know not man?' " and explains: "The obvious implication of these words' is that Mary had not only chosen to be a virgin but that she had confirmed her choice by vow. According 'to St. Augustine, the Blessed Virgin would never have spoken this gray to the angel unless she had already vowed her-self as a virgin to God. "Can we imagine a greater courage than Mary's, when she made this choice of a virginal life? Even in our own day, it is no small thing to preserve oneself i'n untainted virginity after we have been taught the dignity ofthis state of life by Christ Himself, after St.Paul has clearly recommended it to us, after the Fathers of the Church have given it unstinted praise, and after so many thousands of people 117 JOHN A. HARDON Re~ietu [.or Religious of both ~exes have embraced the life of,celibacy and kept it inviolate until death. How. remarkable it is, therefore, that the Virgin Mary should have aspired to the palm of this virtue although she had been given no precept to that effect by God, had received no counsel, and the only example" she had to follow was the disrepute in which vir-ginity was held by everyone around her." Bellarmine and the" Assumption Among the lon,gest sermons that Bellarmine preached are three for the feast of the Assumption, which he gave at Louvain in St. Michael's Church: In Rome at the titular Church of Our Lady of the Way; and in the Cathedral Church at Capua, as Archbishop, in t 1604. It is worth noting tfiat the fifteenth of August was one of the six feast days each year ~vhen all the servants and attendants of Car-dinal Bellarmine were obliged to go to Confession and receive the Hol~r Eucharist. St. Robert would himself distribute Holy Com-munion to his cardinalatial family, at the Mass'which b~ "said~ for their intention. Two other of these six days "of.precept" were March twenty-fifth and December the eighth. In,the first of his sermons on the Assumption, Bellarmine returns to his favorite theme in relation to the Mother of God: her spotless p,urity. Contemporary witnesses record thht many of his listeners at Louvain were English Protestants, who crossed the Channel to Bel-gium just to hear him speak. ' "The Mother of Jesus," they were told, "was the first woman in history to have consecrated her virginity to God. She was the first to have pointed out the path of chastity which leads to the highest sanctity. It is common doctrine that no one, either man or woman, bad ever taken a vow of virginity before the Blessed Virgin Mary. ~ "Add to this the ~act that Mary, alone of all others before or after, united the state of virginity with the holy state of matrimony, in the truest and fullest sense of the word. For other virgins may be said to contract marriage only in a restricted sense, in that they be-come spiritually espoused to the Person bf Christ. "But most remarkable of all, she alone joined virginity of body and soul with true progeny, and such progeny as ~vould make her the Mother of God. Other virgins, it is true, are also not without chil-dren, when, by their example, prayers and exhortations, they bring sinners back to God and thus increase the number of the elect. And it not infrequently happens that the unmarried in God's'Church are 118 May, 1953 ~BELLARMINEAND MARY more fruitful in this regard than those who are married, as witness St. Catherine of Siena, St. Clare, and others. However,' with the sole except.ioa of the Blessed Virgin, none of them could at the same ' time remain virgins and also give birth to a natural offspring. All"of which must finally be attributed to a special ~race of God, and also, let us not forget, to the free choice of Mary, who chose to take a vow of virginity, to take a human spouse, and who chose to become the Mother of 'God." The Blessed Virgin in the Apostolate Bellarmine instinctively apl~aled to the virtues of the Mother of God, whenever he urged consecrated religious to the more faithful f~racti.ce of their profession. ~While he was Archbishop of Capua,,for example, a convent, of nuns which he had reformed, was accused of receiving only applicants of noble birth. When. investigatibn showed that the charge was true, St. Robert addressed .to the Sisters of San Gi'ovanni one of the longest letters Which he ever wrote. Following the lead of St.Augustine, Bellarmine praised the Sis-ters for 'consecrating their virginity to Almighty God. He implied that in so doing they were admirably imitating the, chastit~y of the Blessed Virgin Mary, becoming "the affianced of the Lord." But he also suggested that chastity is not enough, unless it is coupled with true humility. "Religious life," he told them, "cannot'co-exist with the spirit of the world, nor can ,it be ruled by it, bu~t by the Spirit of God aloiae. The spirit of the world makes accbunt of nobility and wealth, but the Spirit'of God esteems virtue and holin~s~ of life above everything else." Taking this for granted, he continues: "I thought that the nuns of San Giovanni would have really laid aside the spirit of the world, and have gone out from it not less in body than in soul." NOw (he pointed shaft: "If the Blessed Virgin were on earth and wanted to become a nun, she would never be able to get itito ~;our convent, being a carpenter's wife . This will show you in what favor you will be with the Queen' of Heaven and her "Divine Son, if you persist in such a spirit of worldly'vanity." And he con, cl'udes that, "We must nbt try' to impose our ideas on the.Holy Ghost, debarring Him from calling to His service those whom He pleases," seeing that He chose the humble Virgin Mary to become the Mother of God. Also when exhorting his own religious brethren in Rome t6 the practice of perfect chastity, he counselled them'to "be vigilant over 119 JOHN A. HARDON Review for Religious the first movements of the senses, which is easy~ because then the pas-sions are still weak and a man is strong and able to resist."' Undoubt-edly this means a constant war on our concupiscence, literally. "bearing the cross in our bodies." But in this. religious have the ex-ample of the saints to imitate, notably St. Luke, "whose friendship and familiarity with the Blessed Virgin Mary made him an ardent lover of Christ,~' for whose sake, and with the help of whose Mothe~ he was able to carry the cross faithfully until death. Also outside the cloister, on at leastone occasion, Bellarmine ap-pealed to the purity of the Mother of God in asking for a favor from the Pope himself. In the city of Ro~e, nea'r the Cardinal's titular church of Our Lady of the Way, was a public house of ill repute, which Bellarmineconsidered an insult to the Church. First he tried to do something privately, and when that failed, he wrote a letter to the Sovereign Pontiff, in which he begged, "by the love which Your Holiness has fob the most pure Virgin Mary," to see that this nui-sance was re_moved. Needless to say, his request was promptly granted. Bellarmine's Hymn to Mary the Virgin Among St. Robert's extant writings there is a short poem of twenty stanzas ~;hicb he composed in the nature of a Litany to the Blessed Virgin. The text was first published in Italian some fifty years ago, and to th6 best of l~he writer's knowledge, has never been translated into English. Each verse-line begins with the name "Virgin,~" joined to a title and petition to Our Lady, starting with the letter "A" and going down the Italian alighabet to "V". Tfius the first seven verses begin with the invocation: "'Vergine adorna . . . Vergine bella . . . Vergine casta . . . V.ergin( degna . . . Vergine eletta Vergine felice,. . . Vergine gradita . . ." A free translation of this tribute to the Virgin Mother reads as follows: "Virgin Virgin Virgin Virgin Virgin adorned and clothed with the sun, grant me thine aid. most beauti'ful, mystical rose, take abode in my heart. most chaste, all undefiled, grant me true peac~. deser;cing of all honor and praise, give ine thy love. elect and full of all grace, lead me to God. Virgin most .blessed, star of the sea, dispdl the storms .besetting ' me. Virgin most virtuous, holy and swdet, show me the way. Virgin illustrious, with thy burning light, enlighten thou my mind. 120 May, 1953 BELLARMINEAND MARY Virgin more precious than jewels or gold, make reparation for me. Virgin most worthy of all praise, mother, daughter, and im-maculate spouse. Virgin and Mother, make me more pleasing to Jesus thy' Son, Virgin most innocent of any stain or fault, make me more worthy of God. Virgin enriched with every gift and grace, obtain the remission of my sins. Virgin most pure, grant me" to enjoy the bliss of hehvenly love. Virgin, thou lily ambng thorns, I pray thee for the grace of a happy death. Virgin more rare than the rarest dream, bring joy to my heart, Virgin so great there is none like thee on earth, bring peace to my soul. Virgin most true, loving Mother too, Virgin Mary." ST. CLARE PLAY BY A POOR CLARE Candle in Umbria is the story of Saint Clare of Assisi told in a verse play by a Poor Clare Nun. The play of four acts, eight scenes is suitable for production by college students or by high schools with.special direction. The play was writt¢~l to honor the fohndress of the Poor Clares on the seventh centenary (1953) of her. death. The author is a regular contibutor to Spirit magazine. $I.00 per copy, including the music for the "Canticle of the Sun" which is embodied in the play. Those interested in obtaining a copy of this production should write to: Poor Clare Monastery, Route I, Box 285 C, Roswell, New Mexico. SUMMER SESSIONS Loyola University of Chicago announces several courses in theology scheduled expressly for Sisters during the coming summer session, Jtine 29 to August 7. Th'e Rev. James I. O'Connor, S.J., a canonist from West Baden, Indiana, will conduct an institlate" on Canon Law for Religious (Theol. 298). The Rev. Edward J. Hodous, S.J., a professor of Scripture at West Baden, will give a course on the Letters of St. Paul (Theol. 216). An authority on St. Joseph and author of several books on the saint, the Rev. Francis L. Filas, S.J., is giving a course on the History and Tbeology of the Devotion to St. Joseph (Theol. 253). For further information write to the Rev. L, J. Evett, S.J., Loyola Univet;sity, 820 N. Michi-yah'Ave., Chicago 26, lllinois. 121 Canonical Visi :at:ion ot: t:he Local Ordinary Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. ONE of the many obligations imposed on bishops is that,of vis-it! n.g their dioceses. Canon 343. § 1 commands a bishop to visit all or part of his diocese each year in such a way that the entire diocese is visited at least within every five-year period. The importance of the visitation is evident from the fact that a metropoli-tan is to. report to the Roman Pontiff: a suffragan bishop who has gravely neglected his duty of ,i.sitation. In such a case, the metro-politan himself, after obtaining the approval of the Holy See, may make the v.lsitatio.n.1 The Ordinary's visitation of religious is significant part of .'this general visitation. At least one author states absolutely that his, obligation of making the canonical visitation religious is serious.~ All religious are subject to the visitation except those that are exempt, who are to be visited only in the cases expressly. mentioned in the law.3 The specific legislation on the Ordinary°visitation of religious is found in can~ 512, It is more oractical confine this articld to his visitation of the religious community, distinguished from! its works, and to lay institutes, that is, congrega-tions of brothers a~nd sisters and orders of nuns. 1. Congregations of Brothers and Sisters . 1. Person of.the uisitor. Canon 512 prescribes that the visitation of religious is to ble made by the local Ordina'ry personally or through a delegate. The term local Ordinary includes a residential bishop, vicar or prefect apostohc, and an abbott or prelate nullius. Unlike the law on the ghneral visitation of the diocese, can. 512 gives the'l Ordinary full liberty to make the v,sitation personally or through" delegated visitors;'| The vicar or delegate of the Ordinary for reli-g, ous has vls~torial powers only if these have been expressly assigned to h~m by the O~dmary. When many priests are delegated for the visitation, it appears to be the prefeiable and more efficient practice to assign houses of the-same institute to a particular delegate, as far as lCan, 3431 § 3: 27~4;'4°, 5°. ZToso, 48; Cf. Coronata. p. 654. nora 5. SCan. 344, § 2. VISITATION OF ORDINARY this is possible. This lightens the delegate's burden of familiarizing himself with the life of the house be visits. He should study previ-busly the Rule, constitutiong,, directory, c'ustom book, book of com-mon prayers, and ce.remonial of the institute. 2. Frequenc~t of the visitation. Canon 512 enjoins the Ordinary; to visit every house of lay congregations, pontifical or diocesaia, of men or wpmen, every fifth year. Again unlike the canon on the gen-eral visitation of the diocese, can. 512 does not command the Ordi-nary to visit some of the religious houses every year nor to visit all of them at least every five years. The obligation of the Code is com-pletely fulfilled by one visit in five years, and it is perfectly licit to confine the visitation of all the religious houses to one year. The further question arises as to whether tile Ordinary may make a can-orfical visitation of these houses more frequently than once in five years. He may certainly do so in diocesan instituteR, since cart. 492, § 2 subjects these houses completely to the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary. It is the more probable opinion that the Ordinary may not make more than fine canonical visitation in five years in pontifical congregations of men or women,a A canonical visitation constitutes .an Intervention in the religious life of a pontifical congregation, and can. 618, § 2, 2° forbids such an intervention t6 the Ordinary ex-cept in the cases expressly mentioned it, law. These statements are based on the law of the Code. It~is~not impossible to find diocesan congregations and much more exceptionally pontifical congregations that prescribe a greater frequency of visitation in their constitutions. 3. Visitation of places in pontitfcal congregations. The places that the'Code subjects to the visitation in the houses of these congre-gations are: "the ~hurch, the sacristy, the public oratory, and the c!onfessionals.''s Churches and public oratories are practicall3; never iittache'd to the houses' of lay congregations in the United States. All chapels, whether principal or secondary, in the houses of these insti-tutes are classified canonically as semipublic oratories.6 Canon 512 subjects only public, not semipublic, oratories to the visitation of the local Ordinary. Since it is the intention of this c~non to define the persons, places, and things in a religious house that are subject to the visitation of the Ordinary, it is at least probable that he possesses neither the obligation nor the right to visit the semipublic oratories 4Farrell,, ~01-102; LarraonaTCpR, VIII (1927), 444; Toso, 49. sCan. 512, § 2, 2% 3°. 6Can. 1188, § 2, 2°; 1192, § 4. 123 JOSEPH F. GALLEN of lay pontifical co confessionals erected the religious and of sory to the oratory¯ 4. " Visitaffon of Review [or Reliqious gregations. The same principle is true of the in the semipublic oratory for the confessions of the sacristy, which is to be considered as acces-persons in pontifical congregatiot~s, a) General-ate arid provincialat ;. The general and i~rovincial house, superiors, officials, government, and administration of temporal matters of pon-tifical congregational are not visited by the Ordinary. Canon 512 assigns to the Ord~nary the right and the obligation to visit only houses, not provinces or institutes; can. 618, § 2, 2° foriaids the Or-dinary to intervene .~n the .internal government and .discipline of pon- ¯ tifical congregations except in the cases expressly mentioned in the law, and no particu, lar canon gives the Ordinary the right to visit the generalate or proviricialate as such. The dowries are the only matter of general administration that fall under the canonical visitation Otherwise the gene, ral and provincial house, .superiors, and officials are subject to the ~isitation only as a local house and as members of a local community. IT.he same principles are true of. such intermediate divisions as vice,prbwnces, quasi-provinces, visitations, regions, mish sions, districts, and vicariates. b) Imernal'qoloernraent. The internal government of pontifical congregations is exempt by law from the visitation of the Ordinary? Therefore, th~v .,s,tor does not inquire directly ihto the government of local, provincial, other intermediate, or general superiors. .Both [anons 5 2 8 2 3',° and 618, § 2, 2 ° restrict the Visitation of persons XC1 s, on in the latter canoh, in which both government ano a~sctptme are mentioned but the~ intervention of the Ordinary is imm.ediately re- " stricter to &sc,phne. Internal government :includes not only the gen-eral~ elation of subject's to superiors but also the admission of sub- 7De Carlo,.n. 93. 4°, Ib) ; 5°; Larraona, CpR, VIII (1927), 447, and nora 501 448; Reilly, 99, I I2;[Slafkosky, 96-97; Vromant De Personis, n. 177, IL2),a). For the contrary opmton, of. Farrell, 104. Cf. also Ciacio. 60; Coronata, p. 655, ~ota 2; Goyeneche, C'pR,'III (1922), 335-336; Schaefer, n. 560; XVernz-V~dal, p. 123, nots 91.550 ' SCan. 535, § 2; , § 2. . 9De Carlo, nn. 64, III, b) ; 93, 5°, b) ; 404, c) ; Fanfani, IfDiritto Detle Rehq~- ose, n. 60, 2 , c) ; De Reliqiosis~.n. 70, d) ; Larraona, CpR, IX (1928), 100, and aota 505; Pruemmer! qq. 187, 5, c): 242, 2, c). Cf. Abbo-Hannan, ~. 512, Bastien, n. 141; Bryn, n. 616, 6°: Ch°elodi, ~. 281,~b~: Cocchi, pp. c5)2, 183, Goyeneche, De Rehg~ps~s, 169; Jorabart, I, nn. 827, 2, e); 890, 2, ; Raus, n. 178, 4); Regatillo, n. 746; Schaefer, nn. 560, 1285; Vermeersch-Creusen, nn. 631; 778, 2. 124 May, 1953 VISITATION OF ORDINARY jects into the congregation' and to the professions, their education and formation, appointment t_o various offices and employments, and transfer from house to house. c) R~liqious discipline. The right and the duty of the Ordinary to inquire into religious discipline is specified by can. 618, § 2, 2° as follows: 1 ° "The observance of discipline according to the constitutions." The Ordinary is not a religious superior in canon law. His office in this matter is that of the vigilance of external authority and not of direct government of the religious life. He does not inquire into re-ligious discipline in the detailed and rather individual manner of a higher superior. His right and duty is to ascertain the general state of religious discipline in the house and especially the existence of abuses in discipline. Inquiries bearing on an individual should, not be made unless, there is at least a rumor or founded suspicion of the misconduct of the individual.1° The Ordinary is not obliged to in-terview all tbe religious but only the number and the particular indi-viduals who because of their office, employment, or other circum-stances will be sufficient to enable him to discern the general state of discipline.11 Religious dlsc~phne includes the observance of the laws, decrees,' and instructions of the Holy See except those on government. Prac-tically all of these that are pertinent are or at least should be con- .rained in the constitutions. Inquiry sh6u!d also be made as to whether these lay religiou, s are informed on such important canonical legislation as the duration, continuity, and laws on absence of the canonical year of noviceship; the limitation on the application of novices to external works of the congregation during the second year of noviceship; the necessity of the reception of all juridical profes-sions and especially of the renewal o'f temporary professions; ind the observance of the canonical prescription of three full years of tem-porary vows for the validity of the perpetual profession. A direct investigation is to be made on such matters as the observance of the Code and the instructions of the Holy See on begging and on the canonical prohibition of electioneering. The more proper field of religious discipline is the observance of the vows and of the articles of the following sources of obligation: the Rule, constitutions, legitimate customs, ordinations of the general 10Chelodi0 n. 194, c). nCan. 513, § 1. 125 Review for Religious JosEPH F. GALLEN chapter, an~i regula.tions of higher superiors. The most apt norm of inquiry that can be suggested here is the list of questions of the quin-quennial report to ,the Holy See, especially those contained in Chap~ ter II, Article II of this list. The observanc~ of the vow of poverty demands the pe'rmission of the superior fo~ the disposition of material things, but both the ancient and modern abuses in poverty are in the neglect of common life, for example, ~he possession of money that th~ religious' disposes of dependently or independently for his' own necessities; .the frequent or habitual obtaining of necessities from externs; the failure of the institute to supply these necessities adequately and generously; the absence.of the pres, cnbed and reasonable uniformity among the reli-gious in material things, especially in such matters as trips and vaca, tions; and ¯imprudent and excessive demands on parents for these ne-cessities, particular!y during the postulancy and noviceship: ' The external ~afeguards of chastity are subject to the inquiry of the visitor. Thes~e include the avoidance of familiarity and sensual friendships, care ih reading, prudence in the use of the radio, tele-vision, and in thelchoice of the moving pictures shown to the com-munity. The observance of cloister falls under this heading but it is mentioned individually later in the canon. Tile OrdinarY inquires about fidelity to the prescribed religious exercises: Mass, meditation, Little O~ce of the Blessed Virgin Mary, examen 'of conscte, nce, rosary, spiritual reading, visits to the Blessed~ Sacrament, etc. ¯ The spirit of i cooperation, peace, happiness, charity, the general spiritual Ievel in the house, and the obstacles to all of these come un-der the scrutiny of the Ordinary. The canon orl the purpose of the general visitation 6f the diocese directs the Ord, i!nary aiso positively to promote the welfare of the pkrsons and place~ he visits,t2 His counsels can be of value to 'insti-tutes that are la~'king in initiative, manifest a most unsatisfactory rate of increase o~ membership, have a constricted mental outlook, or live so much. in ~he traditions of the past that they refuse to face modern times in ,their lives in general, their work, spiritual forma-tionl and' educat.~gn of subjects. He can give a sympathetic hearing and even effectivei aid to representations on the universal lack of suf-fici'ent financial r~sources in lay congregations. This fact is the cause l~Can. 343, § 1. 126 ) May, 1953 VISITATION OF ORDINARY of overwork, of some of the weakefied health, df much of the loss of the full fervor of the religious spirit, of inadequate education of sub-jects, of the failure to provide sufficient material necessities and suit-able vacations, and, finally of annoying and undignified ways of raising funds. The whole matter of overwork in its relation to the ~observance of religious discipline should be thoroughly studied. The daily schooltwork of brothers and sisters is more than sufficient labor in itself. Added burdens can readily result in the contradiction of the unprepared teacher and the natural' religious. 2° "'Whether sound doctrine and good morals have suffered in. any way." This clause expresses an~application of subjection to the Ordinary not as religious but in the manner of the ordinary faithful. The local Ordinary is the guardian of the purity of faith and morals in his diocese. Misu'nderstanding of matters of faith and erroneous moral principles can be avoided by a competent course in Christian doctrine during the postulancy~ and noviceship and by further and highly desirable theological courses after first profession. 3° "'Whether there have been any violations of cloister." The Ordinary has the 6bligation of exerting .vigilance that cloister is ob-served in all religious congregations and of taking appropriate meas-ures to correct any habitual, notable, or scandalous Violations.13 Canon law imposes cloister on all congregations of men or women. This law places in cloister the parts of the house reserved for the ex-clusive use of the religious and determined by higher superiors. It forbids the entrance into the cloistered section of any person of the opposite sex except for a reasonable cause. The particular law of some .congregations forbids the entrance likewise of those of the same sex. The law of cloister also demands the observance of the pre-scriptions of the constitutions on going out of the house and 6n the rec~eption of visitors. 4° "'Whether 'the sacraments are, dul~t and regularlt.t received." The Ordinary is to inquire whether the religious receive the sacrament of Penance weekly, as universally prescribed by the constitutions. This is also the appropriate occasion for an investigatibn into the following canonical matters: the competence and regular fulfillment of their duties by the ordinary and extraordinary confessors; the-availability of supplementary confessors; abuses in the matter of special confessors; interference in 'internal and external government by confessors; interference with the rights of subjects regarding the 13Can. 604, § 3. 127 JOSEPH F GALLEN Reweto for Rehfltous suplblementary and occasional confessors and also the confessors of re-ligious women who are seriously ill; the exercise" of these rights in Conformity with right .reason, prudence, and religious discipline; the important directive of the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments on the opportunity for confession before daily Mass; and any violation of the prohibition of obliging to a manifestation of conscience. The frequency of the reception of Holy Communion is not prescribed by the constitutions but is left to the devotion of the individual ~eh-gious. It is not beyond the power of the Ordinary to inquire about the general frequency of the reception of Holy Communion. If he finds a situation unusual in a religious house, he may be able to sug-gest o'r actually to effect a solution that will render the 'situation normal. 5° Remedial action of the local Ordinary. The defects in reh-gious discipline of lesser moment that the Ordinary has discerned and judges worthy of mention should be communicated to the siapiriors It will be sufficient to advise the local superior of such matters, unless , he judges that an effective correction can be attaihed only by inform-ing the superior general or provincial. If he has found abuses of serious moment, that is, continued or repeated violations of the laws o~ God, of the Church, or of.religious discipline in matters of greater importance, he is to admonish the superiors to correct the abuse. The gravity of these matters will frequently demand or at least cdu,.nsel that the higher superior be informed. If the abuse is not corrected within a reasonable time, the Ordinary himself is to take means to eliminate it. If he has discovered any serious matter that demands immediate correction, the Ordinary himself is to take direct corrective action but in this case he is obliged to inform the Sacred Congrega-tion of Religious of his action.14 5. Financial matters in pontitical congregations. Cation law here asserts the practical restriction of the authority of the local Ordinary to the two following matters:XS a) Dowries. The dowries, which are proper to institutes of women, are under the vigilance of the Ordinary of the habitual resi-dence~ of the higher superioress who is administering them. This right of vigilance demands that the consent of the Ordinary be obtained 14Can. 618, § 2, 2*., lSCan. 618, § 2. 1 °. Only the two financial matters here listed.are ordinarily found in constitutions approved by the Holy See. Cf. can. 533, § 1, 4"; 1515-1517, 1544-1551. 128 Mag, 1953 VISITATION OF ORDINARY for any investment or change of investment of the dowries; he is also to exert care that the dowries are maintained intact and invested in safe~ lawful, and productive securities; finally, he is to exact an ac-count of the dowries un'der these headings at the time of the canonical visitation or even oftener, if he thinks the latter necessary,lg A state-ment should be prepared for the visitor sho~ving the number of dow-ries, their 'value when given, the securities in which they are invested,' and the current value of the securities. b) Funds for divine worship or charitg~. The rather obscure and complicated funds here intended are those: (1°) donated or be-queathed to a house of a religious congregation; (2°) and motivated at least primarily and directly for divine worship or works of charity in favor of externs and to be carried out in the same. village, town, or city in which the religious house is located. Money given for main-taining a scholarship can be an example of such funds. The consent of the local Ordinary must be. obtained for any lnvestment or change of investment of these funds, and he also has.the right of inquiring into their administration. The manner, frequency, and time of the inquiry are left to the decision of the Ordinary.lz The canonical visitation is an opportune tim~ for this inquiry. These same rights of the Ordinary do not extend to such funds given to a province or congregation, nor tO those given solely or pri-marily and directly for the benefit of the religious, nor when the di-vine worship or works of charity are to be performed outside the lo-cation of the religious house or when the choice of the place of their performance is left to the religious. The primary and direct purpose of the gift of funds for a scholarship may be to provide an education for a poor youth or to bestow a gift on the religious who conduct the school; only in the former case would these funds be subject to the norms of vigilance quoted above. 6. Visitation of diocesan cofigregations. The general principle of canon law is that diocesan congregations are completely subject to the local Ordinaries. However, the Code immediately limits this sub-jection by stating that it is such as is described in law.is The prin-ciples that restrict the jurisdiction of the Ordinary over these congre-gations are as follows: (a) he must observe the particular canons that limit his power, for example, the higher superiors of the institute, 16Can. 549; 550, § 2; 533, § 1, 2°; § 2; 535, § 2. 17Can. 533, § 1, 3°; § 2; 535, § 3, 2°¯ ISCan. 492, § 2. 129 JOSEPH F. GALLEN Reoietu for Religioas not the Ordinary, are competent tb admit to the professions; (b) his authority must be exercised according to the apprgved constitutions; (c) the Ordinary of the motherhouse enjoys no primacy of author-ity, since the Code subjects the houses in each diocese to the jurisdic-tion of the Ordinary of that diocese; (d) a diocesan c~'ngregation is a legitimately erected moral person in the Church, with its own proper internal life and field of action: the superigrs possess independent au-thority and are obliged to recur to the Ordinary in matters of inter-nal government only when this is demanded by the Code or the con-stitutions; (e) the Ordinary is not to be considered as a religious su-perior who directly governs the congregation but as an external ec-clesiastical superior, whose authority is that of vigilance over the proper observance of the Code and the const~itutions, of correcting abuses, supplying for defects, and of guiding and aiding the co'n-gregation during the relatively brief probationary period of acquiring the strength and stabili_ty necessary in a petition for pontifical ap-proval. The Ordinary thus acts as an external ecclesiastical superior in the canonical visitation of these congregations. The Code places no limitation on the Ordinary's right of visitation of the houses of congregat!ons. He visits these houses'in everything, internal government, the whole field of discipline, all financial matters, per-sons, and places. Here also the Ordinary is obliged to interview the individual religious only to the extent that he judges necessary for the attainment of the purpose of the visitation.19 The visitation of the semipublic oratories and sacristies of dioc-esan institutes includes an examination into the fgllowing matters: cleanliness; freedom of the oratory from profane uses and its security against sacrilegious thefts and profanations; the conformity of the altar, the t~bernacle, and their furnishings with canonical and litur-gical legislation; the cus, tody of the Eucharist; obedience to instruc-tions on the custody .of the tabernacle key; all the sacred vessels; tl~e sanctuary lamp; the conformity bf the vestments and other furnish-ings with liturgical law, ecclesiastical tradition, and the laws of sacred art; observance of the laws on divine worship and sacred music; fidel-ity to the list of days on ~hich Exposition and Benediction bf the Most Blessed Sacrament are permitted; the admission of priests to the celebration of Mass; and the proper custody of the holy oils. The confessionals in these institutes are examined in the follow- 19Can. 513, § 1. Cf. 4. c), 1° above. 130 Matt, 1953 VISITATION OF ORDINARY -ing respects: their location in' institutes of women in an open and conspicuous place and generally in the chapel: suitability and per-manent accessibility of the place of the confessional; the danger of being overheard, especially ih a confessional in the chapel: a suitable place for the ~onfessions of the deaf; the presence of a narrowly per~ forated grating between the confessor and the penitent; and observ-ance of the law that forbids the confessions of women outside the confessional except in cases of sickness or for other reasons of similar import. The Ordinary always has the right of taking direct and imme-diate action to correct defects and abuses that he has discovered in di-ocesan congregations. However, for the efficacy of the government of superiors and the peace of the members of the institute, it would be better to follow the order of correction described above for pontiff-cal congregations. A diocesan generalate or provinciaiate and the general and pro-vincial superiors and officials, even if the institute or province has houses in several dioceses, certainly fail, under the quinquennial visi-tation of the Ordinary as a local house and members of a local com-munity, The administration of all the dowries i~ also' subject to this visitation of the Ordinary. It is certain that the Ordinary is not obliged to make a ~canonical visitation of the general and provincial houses, superiors, and officials as "such, nor of the general and pro-vincial government and material administration, even if all the houses of the congregation or province are located in his diocese. The argu-ment for this statement is found in the law on the canonical visita-tion, which speaks only of the visitation of houses, not of provinces or institutes.~° It is likewise certain that the Ordinary may make such a visitation, provided all the houses of the province or congrega-tloia are located in his diocese. This right follows from the general subjection of diocesan congregations to [he Ordinary and is in con-flict with no canonical principle. It is more probable that the Ordi-nary may not make such a visitation when the congregation or prov-ince includes houses located in other dioceses, unless he has been com-missioned to do so by the Ordinaries of all these other diocesesl- The principal arguments for this doctrine are that sfich a visitation would affect the entire congregation or province, would contravene the can-onical principle that the Ordinary of the motherhouse enjoys no primacy-of authority, and would thus be obstructive of the rights of 20Can. 5 1 2. 13 t JOSEPH F. GALLEN Reoieu~ for Religious the other Ordinaries. Some canonists oppose thi~ doctrine and hold with solid prob-ability that the Ordinary may make a canonical visitation Of such a generalate or provincialate. Their position is founded on the general subjection of diocesan institutes to the local Ordinary and they deny that this visitation, whose purpose is to promote the observance of the Code and the constitutions, would of its nature conflict with the authority ~r rights of the other Ordinaries.22 In this diversity of opinion, the Ordinary may licitly maintain the right of visitation, since the exclusion of the visitation of such a generalate or provi'ncial-ate from the general principle of subjection to the local Ordinary has not been certainly proved. The controversy should now have a. negligible practical applica-tion. The Sacred Congregation of Religious stated clearly in the new quinquennial report that a diocesan institute actually divided into provinces should have petitioned the status of a pontifical con-gregation before such a division. The Sacred Congregation also ex-plicitly affirmed that any diocesan congregation should.~petition pon-tifical approval as soon as the necessary conditions are verifiei:l. These are practically alwa~rs verified in a diocesan congregation that has spread beyond the diocese of origin. It cannot be repeated too fre-quently that the .diocesan status of a religious ifistitute is not per-petual and definitive but only temporary and probationary and that pontifical status, when the necessary conditions are verified is not optional but mandatory according to the practice of the Sacred Con-grega tion~. ~ II. Monasteries of Nuns Not Subject to Regular Superiors Canonically. nuns are the members of an institute of religious @omen in .which solemn vows at least should be taken according to the prescription of the particular law~ of the institute. Only simple vows are still taken in most monasteries of nuns in the United States, but the injunction of the apostolic constitution Sponsa Christi should soon reverse this condition,24 Some orders of nuns, for example, the 21Bastien, n. 137; Jombart, IV, n, 1323, 7, but cf.'I, n. 827, 2, a); Larraona, CpR, X (1929), 368-377: XIV (1933), 417, and nora 777; 418; Muzzarelh, nn. 145-147; Quinn, 842'90; Schaefer, n. 744, d), but of. n. 745. 22D'Ambrosio, Apollinaris, I (1928.), 417-422: Reilly, 91-97; apparently also Brys, n. 631, IV, 3°; De Carlo. n. 206, III: Vermeersch-Creusen, n. 660, 3, Vromant, De Bonis Ecclesiab Ternporalibtts, n. 238. 23Review forReligious, March, 1950, 57-68; January, 1951, 22; January, 1952, 13-14. z4Statuta, Art. III, § 2. 132 May, 1953 VISITATION OF ORDINARY Carmelites and Dominicans, are subject by the law of their constitu-tions tothe supeiiors of orders of men; others, for example, the Vis, itandines, are not. Monasteries of only simple vows are most rarely in fact subject to order~ of men, even though their constitutions pre-scribe such subjection. The first category of nuns with regard to the canonical visitation of the local Ordinary is of monasteries of solemn or simple vows that are not in fact subject to orders of men. The local Ordinary is obliged to visit all such monasteries every five years35 He may do so more frequently, since these monasteries are subject to him also with regard to the religious life. The consti-tutions also may prescribe a greater frequency of visitation. He viS'its these monasteries in everything, as described above for diocesan con, gregations. All monasteries of 'nuns, whether of solemn or simple vows, are now to have papal cloister.~ The local Ordinary or his " delegate, accompanied by at least one .cleric or religious man of ma-ture age, enters a papal cloister of. women only for the-visitation of places. The rest of the visitation is carried out at the grille37 III. Monasteries of Nuns Subject to Regular Superiors , The distinctive note of this category is that th~ monastery is in fact subject to an order of men. A~ stated above, it may be of sol-emn or'simple vows. The local Ordinary is obliged to visit such a monastery "every five years concerning the observance of the law of cloister and he may make such a visitation as often as he judges it opportune.~ On the occasion of his q~inquennial visitation he also inquires'into the administration of the dowries,a9 The Ordinary alsb has a suppletory duty with regard to a monastery, of this category. If the monastery has not been visited within five years by ~he regular superior, the 1,ocal Ordinary is obliged to visit it in everything, as ex-plained above for diocesan congregations.3°, Other Pertinent Canons abd Principles Canons 513; § 1 and 2413, as also the principles on the. field of c6nsciende, denunciation of the conduct of another, and use and se-crecy concerning.matters learned in a visitation, explained in the pre- 2SCan. 512, § 1, 1" 26Sponsa Christi, Statuta, Art:'IV. 27Can. 600, 1" 28Can. 512, § ~, 1". 29Can. 5 5 0. ~30Chn. f!l2, § -2, 1". 133 JOSI~PH F. GALLEN vious aiticle on the visitation of higher superiors, a~ply similarly the canonical visitation of the local Ordinary.3',32 31Concerning the subject of the penalty of can. 2413. cf. Jombart, Larraona. Muz-zarelli, and D'Ambrosio. as cited in notes 21-22. and Reilly, 173-176. 3ZThe authors cited are: Abl~o-Hannan. The Sacred Canons, I: Bastien. Directo~re Canonique; Brys. duds Canonici Compendium, I: Chelodi, lus Canonicum De Per-sonis: Ciacio, De, Oratodis Semipublicis: Coccbio Commentarium In Codicem lur,s Canonici, IV; Coronata. lnstitutiones luris Canonici, I: D'Ambrosio. Apollinar,s:. De Carlo. dus Religiosorum; Fanfani. ll Diritto Delle Religiose, De lure Relioioso-rum: Farrell. The Rights and Duties of the Local Ordinar{l Regarding Congrega-tions of Women Religious of Pontifical Approtml; Goy6neche. Commentadum Pro Religiosis, De Religiosis; JomlSart. Traitd De Droit Canonique, I. IV: Larraona, Commentarium Pro Religiosis; Muzzarelli. De Congregationibds furls Dioecesam; Pruemmer. Manuale luris Canonici; Quinn. Relation of the Local Ordinart, t to Reh-gious of Diocesan Approval; Raus. Institutiones Canonicae : Regatillo. lnstitutiones luris Car~onici; Reilly~ The Visitation of Religious; Schaefer, De Religiosis; Sl~f-kosky, The Canonical Episcopal Visitatiori of the Diocese; Toso. De Religios~s, Vermeersch-Creusen, Epitome furls Canonici, I: Vromant. De Personis: De Bores Ecclesiae Temporalibus; Wernz-Vidal. De Rdigiosis. "10,000 GOLD FRANCS" MEANS "S,000 DOLLARS" AcCording .to a decree of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation, duly 13, 1951, religious institutes need the permission of the'Holy ¯ See t6 alienate property or to incur a debt when the amount exceeds 10,000 gold' francs or lire. In an article in-this REVIEW (November, 1952, pp. 301-304), we att'empted to translate this amount into American dollars, and we reached the~ tentative conclusion that the approximate amount would be 7,000 dollars. Our estimate was based on sound economic calculations; hence, we suggested that 7,000 American dollars Could be taken as the norm until some more specific norm would.be given by the Holy See itself. On danuary 29, 1953, the Sacred Congregation of Religious pub-lished the official equivalents of 10,000 gold francs or )ire for the principal countries of the world. The equivalent for the United States is given as 5,000 dollars; for the equivalents in other countries, see page 150. As matters now stand, therefore, the permission of the Holy See must be obtained to alienate property or to incur a debt when the amount exceeds 5,000 dollars in our ordinary currency. It should recalled that this permissidn may be obtained through the Apostohc Deldgate, in Washington,if the sum does not exceed 500,000 dollars 134 Conl:ession before Communion Gerald Kelly, S.3. '~N THE FIFTEENTH of Jun, e, 1520, in a memorable docu- . ~ ment which begins with the words, Exsurge Domine (Arise, O Lord), Pope Leo X condemned a multitude of errors of Martin Luther. Among these errors was Luther's teaching on the preparation, required for Holy Communion. According to him, pr~yers~and other pious works, as well as contrition for mortal sin and even confession itself, are useless; all that is required is to .be-lieve, to have confidence that one will obtain grace in the sacrament, and this alone will make one pure and worthy. Thirty-one years later, fin its thirteenth 'session' (October 11, 1551), the Council of Trent considered this same errdneous teaching, and,stated the true doctrine in a chapter and a canon. Chapter VII, "On the preparation to be given thht one may.worthily receive the sacred Eucharist," runs as follows: "If it is unbeseeming for anyone to approach to any of the sadred functibns unless he approach holily; assuredly, the more the holiness and divinity of this heavenly sacrament are understood by a Chris-tian, the more diligently ought he to "give heed that he approach not to receive it but with great reverence and holiness, especially as we read in the Apostle those words full of terror: He that eateth and drinketh unworthil! , eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, Wherefore, he who would communicate ought to recall to ~ind the precept of the Apostle: Let a man proue himself. Now ecclesiastical usage declares that necessary proof to be, that no one, conscious to himself of mortal sin, how contrite .soever he may seem to himself, ought to approach to the sacred Eucharist without previous sacra-mental confession. This the holy Synod hath decreed is to be,in-variably observed by all Christians, even by those priests on. whom it may be incumbent by their office to celebrate, 16rovided the opportun-ity of a confessor do not fail them; but if, in an urgent necessity, a priest should celebrate without previous confession, let him confess as soon as possible." (Waterwotth, The Canons and,Decrees of the Sacred and Oecumen&al Council of Trent, pp. 80-81.) " The eleventh canon :of the same session makes explicit reference to the Lutheran error. It reads: 135 GERALD KELLY Reoiew for Reli~lious "If anyone saith, that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most. holy Eucharist; let him be anathema. And for fear lest so great a sacrament may be received unworthily, and so unto death and conddmnation, this holy Synod ordains and declares that sacramental 'confession, when a confessor" may be had, is of necessity to be made beforehand, by those whose conscience is burtl~ened ,with mortal sin, how contrite even soever they may think themselves. But if anyone shall presume to teach, preach, or obstinately to assert, or eveh in public disputation to de-fend the contrary, he ~hall be thereupon excommunicated." (Water-worth, p. 84.) The foregoing teaching of the Council of Trent is the principal source of our present canon law: namely, canon 807, which concerns the celebration of Mass, and canon 856, which concerns the reception of Holy Communion. .An English translation of the latter canon runs as follows: "No one, whose conscience convicts him of mortal sin, no matter how contrite he thinks himself, may approach Holy. Communion without l~revious sacramental confession. If there is urgent neces-sity, and no oppoitunity of finding a confessor, he must first elicit an Act of Perfect Contrition." (O'Donnell, Moral Questions, p. 270.) This law is of the greatest moment. It should be clearly under-stood by religion teachers, catechists, and frequent communicants. Properly to understand it, one must have a grasp of these three propositions: (I) It is always, necessary to be in the state of grace When receiving Holy Communion. (II) It is ordinarily necessary to confess before receiving Holy Communion if one has committed a mortal sin since one's last good confession. (III) In certain extra-ordinary circumstances it is sufficierit to regain grac~ by a'n act of per-fect contrition before receiving. Holy Communion. The purpose of the present article is to explain these three propositions and (IV) to call attention to some precautions to be. taken in order to safeguard the ordinary observance of the law and, to avoid sacrilegious Com-munions. I. It is alwol~s necessary to be in' the State of grace when receiving Communion. One reason for this is that the Holy Eucharist is a sacrament of the living. A sacrament of the living supposes its recipient to be already supernaturally aliventhat is, living the divine life of grace--- 136 Ma~, 1953 CONFESSION BEFORE COMMUNION and its function is to increase this divine life in the soul. A second reason is found in the special purpose of the Eucharist, which, is to r~ourisb. We do not speak of nour.ishing a corpse; nourishment sup-poses that life ~lready exists. The conscious receptiOn of Holy Communion while in the state of mortal sin is a grave sacrilege. It is to receive the source of sal-vation unto one's own condemnation. No one, therefore, should receive this sacrament unless he has a reasonable assurance that he is in the state of grace. I say "a reasonable assurance," because when there is question of our interior state of soul it is not possible for us, apart from ~ special divine revelation, to have an absolute certainty that we are in the state of grace. All that God. expects of us in this and in similar matters is a practical, or working, certainty that we fulfill various conditions established by Himself or the ChurCh for His honor and our own spiritual welfare. For ordinary people there is no difficulty in this.matter. They go to confession; do what they can to fulfill the requisites of a good confession, and leave the con-fessional in peace, sufficiently confident that their sins are forgiven and that they are in the state of grace. And the same is true of them when they make an act of perfect contrition: they are reasonably, or practically, sure that through this act they are restored to God's friendship,' in case they had lost it through mortal sin. (Contrition, said the Council of Trent, is perfect through charity. Hence, perfect coritrltion is sorrow for sin based upon a motive of charity, that is, sorrow because one has offended God, who is the supreme good and worthy to be loved above all things. It is not difficult for those who are accustomed to think of God to make an act of perfect contrition and to mean it. The formula for the act of contrition, as ordinarily taught in catechism classes, contains both imperfect and perfect contrition. This is appropriate, because sorrov~ for the perfect motive does not exclude sorrow for lesser motives.) Some people, such as the scrupulous, have great difficulty in these matters. They alw.'ays feel spiritually insecu~re. No matter what their reason might tell them of their state of soul, its calm judgment is stifled by their fear; and this fea.r makes them feel that they are not, or,may not be, in the state of grace. If such people were to follow their feelings, they would very likely never receive a sacrament of the living, especially the H61y Eucharist. For them~ it is necessary to fol-low sound direction in spite of their feelings--lall the while working towards the goal of being able to make quiet judgments for them-selves, judgments based on facts and not on fea~. 137 GERALD KELLY As is the case with other sins, one must realize what he is doing in order to be guilty of a sacrilegious Communion. Consequently, one who is actually in the state of mortai sia but does n~ot advert this when he receives Holy Communion does not commit a sin: fact, it may be that he receives sanctifying grace through the Eucha-rist itself. Many erfiinent theologians hold that. a sinner (i.e:, in the state of mortal sin) who receives Holy Communion ifi good faith and with imperfect contrition for his sins is restored to grace through'this sacrament. Knowledge of this opinion may be a con-solation to those who are apt to worry about being deprived of grace because of unsuspected unworthiness when they communicate. The case of receiving Holy Communion without adverting the fact that one is in the state of mortal sin can hardly be very common. But it is certainly not an impossibility, especially for some people whose devotions' aie governed by routine. For example, sup-pos~ that a layman is accustomed to receive Holy Communion first Sunday of every month and to go to confession, the day before It might happen that something unforeseen.would prevent his going to confession, and then, following his routine pattern, h~ would communciate Sunday morning without realizing at the time that had been unable to make his usual confession. If he had committed a mortal sin and had made only an act of imperfect contrition'he would still be in mortal sin at the time of communica_ting. Being unconscious of this, he would be in wh~t is called "good faith Communion would proba.bly have the same effect for him as an of perfect contrition~namely, give him sanctifyi.n.g grace, though would still be obliged to confess his sin.' II. It is ordln~rily necessar~.l to confess before receiving Communion ~f one has committed a mortal sin since one's last good confession. To say that one must be in the state of grace when receiving sacrament of the living is not the same as saying that a sinner must go to confession before receiving one of these sacraments. It is pos-sible to regain sanctifying grace either through actual confession through perfect contrition, which includes the intention to co,nfess the proper time. Nothing in the nature of a sacrament of the living makes actual confession a necessary prerequisite; nor is there any special law which makes confession necessary, except for the Holy Eucharist. For instance, if a young man who is to be confirmed tomorrow commits a mortal sin today, he is certainly obliged regain sanctifying grace before receiving confirmation, but an act 138 ¯Ma~, 1953 CONFESSION BEFORE COMMUNION perfect contrition would suffce for ¯thpis rup !o s e .~ A . nd this would" be true also of matrimony, holy~orders, and e~xtrem¢ unction if these sacraments were received apart from Holy:Communion,or the cele-bration of Mass. | ~ . . The Holy Eu~charist, therefo.re, is govern~ed by°an entirely special law~. As we learn from the Council of "l~rent arid the Code, the regaining of grace through perfect contrition.is not normally suffi-cient for the reception of this sa~cramsaecnrat;m Ie ~ntal confession' is ordinarily required. The reason for this seems to be the entirely special .character of the Holy Eucharist. it is the most excellent of sacraments, and it is to be safeguarded as much fis is humi~nly possible against the clangerof abuse. ~ ] Is this law prescribing confession beforle Comrfiunion a divine law or a law made by the Church? The answer to this question is not clear. Some of the greatest of'post-Tr~dentine theologians ex-plain it as a divine law promulgated through St. Paul: St, Alph'onsus Liguori, writing in the eighteenth century, ~dheres. to this explana~ tion as being by far the more common and th~eonlv true one Never-thele. ss, eminent modern theologians express ~lissa~isfa~tion with the arguments that the law is of divine origin arid hold that ~he words of the Council of Trent are sufficiently verifi~ed if the law is consid-ered to be of ecclesiastical origin. In either case--whether divine or merely ecclesiastical the law is strictly binding, and the only excep-tion to it is offcially declared by the Church[ to be a case in which Communion is necessary and confession is impossible, as will be ex-plained in our next section. ~Who are obliged by this law to go to cofenssion before receiving Communion? Only those u:bo are certain tb ~at tbe[j.have committed a mortal sin since their last gUod confession. T~erefore, one who inculpably failed to tell a mortal sin in an otl-lerwise good confes~io~h is ~iot obliged to abstain from Communion u~nti~ he makes another c~nfession. ~'He bus already regained grace thr~ough co~nfession. It is true, of course, that the omitted sin must still be confessed; but it is not necessary to advance one's ordinary time of confession in order to do this, and in the meantime one may receive Holy.Communion even daily as long as ~he commits no further m~0rtal sin. " , It is clear that- if one who knows he forgot to tell a mortal sin in. confession may receive Holy Communion, then one who merely doubts whether be forgot to tell a sin has the~ same privilege¯ BUt what of one who knows be committed a mortal sin and doubts 139 GERALD KELLY Reoieto for Religious whether~ he has been to confession at all since then (not a yery com-mon case), or~,.of one who doubts whether he has sinned mortally (e.g., by sutficient reflection or full co.nsent) since his last confession~ Regarding these cases there would be some difference of opinion among xheologians; but a sound practical rule covering all .such doubts is this: th~ sole obligation is to take some available means of removing the doubt so that one will be reasonably sure of being in the state of grace when receiving HolyrCommunion. ¯ Sometimes what is called a doubt is not a doubt at all, but merely a scruple or a sort of hazy" fear. The best treatment for such ~orries is to pay as Iittle heed as possible to them, even though they accompany the holiest of actions. In other instances, a doubt is a sort of temporary state of mined that can be corrected by the applica-tion of a sound rule of presumption. For instance, one who Wonders whether he gave full consent in some very disturbing temptation, mig~ht' realize in his calmer moments that in similar' situations he never, or practically never, gives in to the temptation. Thus the presumption of not consenting favors him, and he may use this pre-sumption to dispel his perplexity and to form the practical judgment 'that heDis still in the stare of grace. In such cases neither confession nor r~erfect contrition is strictly required before Holy Commun.lon But it may happen occasionally to anyone that his doubt whether he has committed a mortal sin is too solidly-founded to be ignored and that the circumstances of the temptation are so unusual that the ordinary presumptions are not helpful. In other ~ ords. one might have a really sincere and insoluble doubt whether he is here and now in the state of mortal sin. Even in this case confession is not obliga-tory; but if one does not wish to go to confession one should make an act of perfect contrition before receiving Communion. Ac~ording to some good authors even the act of perfect contrition is not str_ictly necessary; but it is hard to find any sound reason for this opinion and I viould-not sponsor it. On the. other hand. many, if not most. authors think that confession is generally advisable in these cases of insoluble doubt. For myself. I would be very slow to recommend the special confession of doubtful sins except to persons who might need this'as a means of corr.ecting a proneness to laxity. III. In cdrtain extraordinary circumstances it is'su~cient to regain grace before receit)ing Communion by making an act of perfect con-trition. A problem proposed to Father Michael O'Donnell (Moral Ques- 1:40 Meg, 1953 tfons, p. ,2,70) can aptly introduce the pCrOeNs~eEnSt$ 1sOecNt BioEnFO. TREh CeO pMrMobUlNeImON concerns a person who d d an impure action and was heartily sorry for doing so, and wanted to keceive Our Ble'~ssedLord the following morning," This person evidently had no opportunity to go to con-fession: hence be made an act of perfect cqntrltlon 'and promised Our Lord he would go to confession'at the first opportunity and tell that sin of impurity and fulfilled that promis~e a few days later." He now wants to know whether he did wrong an going to C6mmunion. This is a very human problem. One can almost feel the anxiety of the questioner. Father O Don-_ewl rlgbtllv sets b~ m:nd at r~st by saying that. since he acted in good faith. He has n6 need to worry. It is one thing to decide wh&her one has beech guilty of sin, another thing to tell one what to do in the future. I~ cannot be repeated too . often that past actions arenot to be judged by present knowledge. Many of us have done things in perfectly gobd faith which we later learned were forbidden. In acting thus we ~ere not guilty of sin: in fact we may have been highly pleasing to God because we ~lid what we thought was righf under the circumstadces. So, too, we may have done things in a sort of perplexed state i~n which .we did the best we could to decide what was right and then d~d it. but with a sort of vague anxiety. This is not ,what aut, bors referIto when,, they coffdemn acting "in practical doubt.' The °practica1~lldoul~ter is not merely troubled by a vague worry or perplexity; he is one who has a serious reason, for questioning wh~tber what he is about to do is sinful and then, witl~out forming his conscience, be does' it Xnyway. I call attention to this principle that pas~ acti6ns are n~t to be judge.d by present knowledge, because it is n~t entirely unlikely that some readers of this article may have had an experience similar to Father O'DonnelI's questioner. Lacking a ~lear knowledge of the law of confession before Communion, they may have received Co}n-reunion without previous confession in some. instance in which, ac-cording to the explanation given here, they were not justified in doing so. Let them be content to use the new knowiedge as a guide for the future and not make it a cause of anxiety abou~t~tbe past. Many laws admit of exceptions by reason of some extraordinary circumstances or combination of circumstances[ Thus, a mothek who must care for a sick child is excused from Slunday Mass; the "poor who live on what they receive from others are excused froin tb~ law of abstinence; and so forth. The law pr~scri'bing cbnfession before Communion also admits of exception; but the" Church considers ~bis 141 GERALD KELLY Reoteto [or Rehgtous matter of such importance that she officially declares just what cir-cumstances constitute the exception. For a legitimate exception there must be a combina~tion of two extraordinary circumstances: (1) im-possibility of going.to confession; and (2) necessity of receiving Communion. Both conditions must be verified. And both need some expla~nation. 1. Confession lmpbssible. Authors generally illustrate this matter with the example of person who is0 already kneeling at the Communion rail before he realizes that he should have gone to confession. It is clear that if he is to receive Communion now (whether 'that is necessary will be ¯ treated later), then coflfession before Communion is impossible. He ~annot stop the priest.at the altar rail and say: "Will you please bear my confession before giving me CommuniorL" " F~ther Edwin F. Healy, S.2., in Christian Guidance (p. 105), uses the example of a father of a family who has planned on receiving Communion with his children on their mother's anniversary. ,He intends to go to confession before Mass, but when they reach the church they find that the onlh, priest of this parish is already begirt-ning Mass. As Father Healy points out, it would be out of the question for the man to leave the church and go elsewhere to con-fession if he is to receive Communion with his family at this Mass'. Example~ of inability to get to confession are not limited to these last-minute cases. The impossibility might last for some tihae, espe-cially in a small town when the pastor is absent and when inclement weather or lack of time would prevent one from going to another town. Moreover, there can be cases in which a priest can be reached yet, confessi6~ is impossible: _for example, if the priest Would not hear the. confession, perhaps because of scrupulosity. Or the only available priest might be one without tl'ie faculties to hear confessions. This would not be very common in our country; but it could happen, for instance, in the case of'a priest who would be outside his own dio-cese. And it would be more common in some countries where it is customary to,limit the jurisdiction of young priests to a certain class of persons. At the time of the Council of Trent the limitation of confes-sional faculties was not at all uncommon: hence cases in which an available priest migh~t b~ able to hear one's confession were not rare This seems to be one reason for the rather strange wording used by the Council in declaring the law of confessing before Communion 142 May, 1953 CON~ESSION BEF(~RE COMMUNION / Confession is necessary, it says, if one has a i'co/~ia confessoris." The Code preserves the same expression, "copia ~onfesarii?' The literal meaning of copla is 'a plenty, an abundanc~e," an,d the very use of the expression implies that it might be possible to have a priest pres-, ent, yet no confessor would be available, VaI r.ious authors try to press this idea by saying that confession is neIcessary: if a confessor is present to whom one is obliged to confess: if a suitable confessor is present: if there is an available priest to wh6m one could go to con-fession without grave inconvenience. The foregoing are various ways of sayin~ is present or can be reached confession may bility. I have aI~eady cited two examples cannot hear the confession, and the priest Another example of this practical impossibil case in which confession cannot be made privacy. Still another case, very clear in tF. that,even when a priest be a practical impossi-af this: the priest who who will not hear ~t. ity of confessing is the without the necessary eory but not nearly so clear in its application, is that in. which the very going to confession would create suspicion in the minds of others that one had s~nned seriously. I say this is clear in theory becaus~e such a danger to one's reputation is certainly an extraordinary inconvenience that would, make confession morally impossible. And I ladd that Jr'is not clear in its practical application bechuse the dangelI is more likely to exist merely in the minds of,certain oversensitive in~lividuals than in actual fact. It is sometimes said that this kind of sltuat~on is not uncom-mon in communities of Sisters, so that a Sister1 who would go to con-fession before Mass would be open to suspicion. Perhaps there~are some communities in which such gross unkindness and injustice pre-vail, but we can at least h'ope that they a.re ~ery rare and that they will soon reform. " I Theologians discuss and dispute over what they call "invincible repugnance') attached to goin~ to con~fession to a certain individual. All agree, of course, that the mere d~flicultyI of confession, or the mere humiliation of confessing a serious sin-~iifficulties inherent in "confession to some extent for most people~,w.ould not constitute a moral impossibility of going to confession. The debatable case con-cerns repugnance or embarrassment that arises ?from some kind of special relationship with the confessor. This might be blood rela-tionship.: for example, the confessor 'is one's son or brother. Or it might be a relationship of work: for example, the confessor and peni-tent are working intimately together day after day. Or it might be a 143 GERALD' KELLY Review for Religipus relati0nshipZwif I may use the term--of dislike., For instance, sup-pose that a certain priest clearly dislikes me and loses no opportunity of~showing it l~y bein~g rude,.ridiculing me, and so forth. It is easily seen that I might have a repugnance to confessing a serious sii~ that priest which would be entirely special, entirely different from the difficulty ndrmally experienced in confession. No one holds that these relationships always create "invincible repugnance." But many theologians believe that this psycho!ogical effect is experienced in some cases and,that in these cases there is truly extraordinary inconvenience which amounts to a moral impos-sibility of confessing to that priest. Hence,,the~r wo~Id say that such a priest were the only one ~vho could be reached, confession would be a practical impossibility. I am convinced that these theo-logians are c~orrect: and I believe that St., Thomas. Aquinas would agree with them, too. With reference to a similar question--the ne-cessity of making" the annual confession "to 6ne's own priest"-- St. Thomas recommended great liberality in alldwing people to to other confessors, "because," he said, "many are so weak that they would rather die without confession than confess .to that priest." (Suppl., q. 8, a. 5, ad. 6.) A few otheb cases generally cited by authors as constituting impossibility of confessing are these: the danger of scandalizing t, priest: the danger that confessional secrecy will be abused; the danger of revealing one's accomplice in a sin. Granted that such ~onditions existed, they would make confession morally'impossible: but I think their actual existence would be rare. 2. Communion Necessarg Because" of the variety of situations which mak~ confession moral impossibility, the first condition for the exception to the .of confession before Communion is not entirely uncommon. But second condition is also required--necessity of going to Communion --and this is seldom gerified. To illustrate this condition we might reconsider three of the cases previously mentioned. In the problem presented to Father O'Donnell the questioner apparently had no opportunity of going to confession. But his only reason for going to Communion was that" he "wanted to receive Our Blessed Lord the following morning." This desire, though it may be very strong and though it is very laudable, does not. make Com-munion a necessity. There is a necessity of going to Communion Ma~, 1953 CONFESSIO,N BEFORE COMMUNION' only when abstinence from Communion would be accompanied by' some very extraordinary incorivenience. Another case is that of the person who is. already kneeling at the Communion rail when he realizes that be should have gone to Con-fession. Clearly, as we pointed out, confession is now impossible. And if he could not leave the rail without exposing himself to suspi-cion, there would also be a necessity of communicating: that is, ab-stinence from Communion would be akcom13anied by the extraordi-nary inconvenience of danger to his reputation." Granted that this circumstance existed he could legitimately receive Communion after having made an act of perfect contrition. A third example was taken from Father Healy's Christian Guid-ance. Since Father Healy uses this particular example primarily to illustrate a necessity of communicating, it may be helpful to quote it in its entirety: "It has been the custom for some years, that the whole Baxter family receive Holy Communion on December 12, the day on which Mrs. Baxter died. Mr. Baxter had received Holy Communion the d~ay be, fore at the Sunday Mass and now he comes to church with his grown children. Unfortunately, he committed a serious sin ~he pre~ vious afternoon, and he i~ counting on going to confession before Mass. However, when' Baxter arrives he finds that Father Treacy, the only priest at this church, has already begun the prayers at ~he foot of the altar. Baxter cannot pretend that he violated the Eucha-ristic fast, for his children know that he did not. ' He cannot feign sickness, for he is obviously in the best of health. Unless he receives Holy Communion, his family will conclude that he is in the state of mortal sin." Father Healy comments: "Given these circumstances, Mr. Baxter may make an act of perfect contrition and licitly go to Holy Com-munion at this Mass." I believe that theologians would generally agree with this solutidn because the drcumstances all build up to an entirely exceptional situation--a situation which not only excludes the possibility of confession but also .makes abstinence from Com-munion a source of extraordinary inconvenience. And if the case were changed so that the children were young, instead of grown up, there might be the added factor of danger of bad example if the father were to abstain from Communion in the cir~umstances de-scribed. A case in which similar circumstances might prevail would be a wedding, when the bride and groom had planned on receiving GERALD KELLY ~ Review for Religious Co.mmunion together it the NuptialMass. It may be taken as a sound working 15rinciple that if abstinence from Communion would jeopardize one's reputation or give bad example, then Communion is necessary, in the sense of canon 856. But as I suggested,with reference to confession, it is easier to enunciate a principle like this thin to-judge its practical application. It is sometimes said, for instance, that these inconveniences are apt to ex-is't in a convent, or when Sisters go to Communion daily in the parish church, or when they receive Communion with the children on special occasions, such as the First Friday. We are dealing here with a question of fact, and I certainly would not want to be dogmatic m affirming or denying the existence of the conditions. If they exist, they constitute a necessity of communicating. But clearly the Church d6es not want them to exist; and there is no valid reason why they should exist, because occasional abstinence from Communion is cer-tainly not a ~ound basis for either suspicion or scandal. All theologians say that the mere desire to receive Communion does not rfiake Communion a riecessity. In other words, the sorrow felt by a devout person who is deprived of Communion is not an extraordinary inconvenience in the sense of canon 856. This is un-doubtedly true when the omission of Communion would be required foronly a day or two. But I think there is room for an easier judg-ment in the case of a devout daily communicant, e~pecially a reh-gious, who might have to omit Communion for a rather l~ong time. I am thinking 15art~cularly of an earnest religious who might very rarely commit a serious sin and who on one of these rare "occasions might be in circumstances in which confession would be impossible for a week or so. I believe that abstinence from Communion during all that time would constitute an e~traordinary hardship for such a religious a hardship of such an exceptional nature as to constitute a justification for receiving Holy Communion after regaining grace through perfect contrition. This case is admittedly rare; but it can happen, especially in some rural districts. Throughout this present section I have tried to~ stress two points: first, that the combination of circumstances demanded by the latter part of canon 856 ~should be seldom ~erified; and secondly, that it can be verified occasionally, even in the case of religious. But when-ever a religious finds that these exceptions are frequent, there is some-thing radically wrong a situation which should not exist andwhich must be corrected. In this regard, I should.like to refer to a question 146 ! May, 1953 ~ONFESSION BEFORE COMMUNION answered inan earlier number'of this REVIEW (V, 70-71) that con-cerned a young Sister with aproblem that called for frequent con-fession. She was in a islace where such frequent confession was prac-. tically impossible and she thought that "frequent abstaining from Communion. especially as this might often be for several days a~ a time, would enable others to suspect her trouble." I believe that the answer we published at that time bears repetition here! "It is not easy to answer a problem like this in a few words; but we can give a general idea of the points that must be considered. An occasional emergency when Communion is judged necessary and con-fession is impossible is understandable and might occur in the life of almost anyone. But a state of affairs that makes such emergencies more or less habitual ought to beremedied. Ii~ the case referred to in the question, the religitius should ask for a change of reside~ace that .would enable her to confess when necessary and to obtain competent dire. ction concerning her problem. If she cannot bring herself to ask for the change and is unabld to cle~ar up the problem, she ought seri-ously to consider whether she has the requisite qualities for leading the religious.life. Decisions like this ought to be made while religious are still young. If some problems are not faced, and settled in the early years of the religious life they can eventually reach a point where a satisfactory solution is practica'lly impossible." , The change of residence suggested in this answer can hardly be made jtidiciously unless thesuperior is given some information as to the nature of the problem. (Cf. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, VI, 242- 47.) Humility, therefore, is a requisite for the ~eligious: but need-less to say a religious who is unwilling to practice such humility when salvation itself might be concerned has lost his sense of values. On the other hand, the superior should be approachable, sympathetic, and very careful to observe, strict secrecy. IV, Precautt'ons to be taken to avoid the unnecessary use o[ excep-tions to the ordinary law o[ con[ession be[ore Communi, on and to guard against sacrilegious Communions. Under date of December 8, 193 8. the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments issued an instruction for local ordinaries and majo~ reli-gious superiors which called attention to the fact that frequency of Communion could le]d to diminished esteem, for the Blessed Sacra-ment and that reception in groups could lead to sacrilegious Com-munions. The purpose of the instruction was to outline a number of steps tobe taken to preclude these evils. There is a complete English 1417 GERALD KELLY version of this instruction in Canon Law Digest, II, 208.-15; an out-line in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, III, 268-270. In the same number of the REVIEW (pp. 252-67), is a commentary on the instruction by Father I~mile Bergh, S.2., together with some notes by the editors and some references to other commentaries. Since these various ref-erences cover the matter completely, I shall conclude the present article with only brief references to some of the main precautions. The first precaution is t~ give proper doctrinal and ascetical in-struction regarding the Holy Eucharist. This kind of instruction should engender a profound esteem for the Blessed Sacrament, a de-sire to communicate frequently arid worthily, and a wholesome abhorrence of sacrilege. Through such instruction one would see that daily Communion is a great privilege, but not a necessity Moreover, though Communion is not reserved to the saints, it does suppose a minimum disposition of freedom from mortal sin, and nothing justifies its conscious reception in this state. And although One need not have tl~e most perfect motive, such as disinterested love of God, one should have a supernatural .motive, such as the desire to avoid sin, preserve grace, grow in grace, and so on. Should instruction be given, not only about the necessityof re-gaining grace through confession, but also about the exception which permits .the reception of Communion with only an act of perfect cbn-trition? If one were to judge from some of the religious texts I have seen, one would conclude that the faithful are to be told only about the necessity of confession, and nothing about the exceptions men-tioned in canon 856. This does not seem ~air. If the faithful are obliged to keep a law, they are entitled to know what the law means, how seriously it obliges, and wh~t are at least the more common legitimate exceptions. I admit that this has to be adapted to the age of the people. Yet surely even a child can be taught that if he com'- mits a mortal sin he should go to confession before receiving Com-munion, but if he cannot avoid going to Communion and cannot get to confession, then he should make an act of perfect contrition before Communion. He migh~ also be told that if ever he should have to do this, it would be well for him to explain the case in the next confession and see.whether the confessor would want to 'give him some advi~ for the' future. A second precaution is to provide ample opportunity for confes-sion before Communion. For religious in particular this means safe-guarding the liberty of confession as granted in the canons: and for 148 May, 19~3 CONI~SSION BEFORE COMMUNION parishes, schools, institutions, and religious houses,, it means that whenever it is feasible a confessor-should be available before Mass. This latter provision should certainly be very helpful in larger con-vents, but I do not clearly see how it would be either convenient or effective in some very small convents. A third precaution is to avoid practices that make it difficult for individuals to abstain from Comfiaunion. It is ordinarily not pru-dent, for instance, for ateacher to say to a pupil, or a superior tb a subject: "What's the matter--are you ill? I noticed you didn't go-to Communion this morning." Also, if a "general" Communion is bad, it should be in such a way that no one feels obliged to go or tl~at no attention will be called to those who do not go. So, too, prizes are not to be given for frequent Communion, and contests that highlight ¯ the reception of Communion by individuals should not be had. As regards circumstances that make it difficult to abstain from Communion, the instruction, referring especially to the effect of these things on young people, said there should be "no rigid and quasi-military "or~ter in coming up, no insignia to be worn by those who receive Communion, etc." Some commentators have inferred from this that communities of religious women ought to abandon their custom of approaching the Communion rail in a certain order. Some have put this rather strongly, ~as if the instruction demanded it. One of the milder comments runs as follows: "It would certainly be praise-worthy and accord.in.g to the spirit of the Instruction if the rigid and almost sacrosanct order of aproaching, the communion rails (Mother Superior, the Assistant, the senior nuns, etc.) were abolished: in con-vents human respect may do more mischief than in men's communi-ties." No doubt, good might come from dropping the order of preced-ence; but I do not shar the great enthusiasm of some writers about its possible good effec.ts. For one thing,1 a large number of otir ~reli-gious are' in small communities, where abstaining from Communion wouldbe noticeable no matter what order or lack of order prevailed, And even as regards larger communities, I wonder how long it would take, after the prescribed order of precedence had been dropped, for the religious to establish their own order. Most. of us are confirmed routinists. Give a community .enough time--and I doubt whether much time would be requ.ired-v-and one would note that the same ones go to Communion first, the same ones go las~, and of course the" same ones are'in the middle. Perhaps I am wrong. But if I am 149 GERALD KELLY .right, then the best precaution is notin the "mechanics" of going Communion, but in the general cultivation of a mental attitude which allows everyone liberty of spirit, both in going to confession and in abstaining from Communion. NATIONAL EQUIVALENTS FOR."I0,000 GOLD FRANCS" According to the announcement of the Congregation of Religious (see p. 150) the official equivalents of l O,O00 gold francs or lire for the principal countries are North and Central America 5,000 American dollars Argentina 100,000 Argentine pesos Belgium 250,000 Belgian francs Brazil 150,000' Cruzeiros Canada 5,000 ~ Canadian dollars Colombia 15,000 Colombian pesos Egypt 2,000 Egyptian pounds France 2,000,000 Franch francs Germany 20,000 German marks Great Britain' 2,000 Pounds sterling India 25,000 Indian rupees Italy 3,000,000 Italian 1ire Netherlands 20,000 Dutch guilders Philippines 15,000 Philippine pesos Portugal 150,000 Portuguese escudos Spain 200,000 Spanish pesetas Switzerland 20,000 Swiss francs Turkey 20,000 Turkish life Uruguay 15,000 Uruguayan pesos Venezuel~ 15,000 Venezuelan bolivars Countries not listed above should take as their norm the value of a neighboring country which is found to be in analogous conditions. :PROCEEDINGS OF CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 'At the seventh annual convention of the Catholic Theological Society of Amen'- ca, which was held at Notre Dame, Indiana, 3une 23-25, 1952, the following sub-jects were presented: "On the Essence of the Sacrifice "of the Mass," by Emmanuel Doronzo, O.M,I.; "The Common Good and the Socio-Economic Order," by Ger-ald Kelly, S.3.; "The Problem of Theology for the Laity," by Charles E. Sheedy, C.S:C. : "The Physician's Duty to Preserve Life by Extraordinary Means," by ,John A. Goodwine; and "The Current Protestant Critique of Catholicism in the Umted States," by Msgr. Thomas 3. McCarthy. Copies of the Proceedings are available to clerical non-members at $2.00 per copy. Older from: P. O. Box 24, 3amaica N.Y. 150 The Mys!:ic l Pr yer ot: h' argaret: Mary . A. Herbst, S.3. ST. MARGARET M~RY is one of the great mystics, oi i'fiodern times. On the visions and the revelations she received from Qur Lord is based, historically speaking; Devotion to the Sacred Heart in its modern form. This article will try to illustrate each of the degrees of mystical prayer from her own life and. writings. It should be noted that it is not easy to do this in such a precise manner that the quotation might not also apply to the other degrees. Let me preface a few remarks. ,In the first place, we ought not look askance at, be suspicious of. or afraid of the mystics.There really is nothing wrong with them nor with mysticism.'. Those who are humble and obedient, and keep in touch with their spiritual director need have no fear of becoming_psychopathic or of being deceived by the devil. Secondly, visions, levitation, and the like are merely acci-dental phenomena of the mystical life. They are not at all necessary to a life of infused prayer. Thirdly,, one who has lived a fervent re-ligious life for a.period of years ought to be ready for infused or mys-tical contemplation if God chboses to raise him to it. It is the "logi-cal," but not the necessary, sequence of acquired contemplation. Father Poulain, the author of the well-known work, The Graces of Interior Pra~ler, defines infused contemplation: "Those supe~- natural: acts or states which no effort or labour on our. part can suc-ceed in producing, even in the'slightest degree or for a single inst~lnt, are called mystical." They are.infused, poured into the soul as a pure gift of God, without our being able to attain them by our own efforts. 'This .is higher, ex, traordinary contemplation. We cannot soar to'these heights without the wi,ngs God furnishes. He determines when, how, and for how long it is to be given. It is passive prayer: the soul no longer takes the initiative, but God fastens its attention lovingly onHimselfl The s0ul is not idle though. It is intensely active under the operation of grace. It is a special kind of knowledge of God which lies somewhere between the knowledge of faith and the b~atific vision and shares in faith's obscurity. It really baffles descrip-tion and has in it mysterious suffering and intense happiness. It is an intellectual experimental knowledge of God. 151 C A HERBST Reotew for Rehg~ous St. Margaret Mary describes it: "I felt Him always near me, as one feels himself near another at night but cannot see him because of the darkness. The pdnetrating eyes of love make me see and feel Him in a most loving and certain way, and under various aspects . .This infinite grandeur encompasses me with its power and so takes posses-sion of mine and of my whole body and soul that I think I can say that I no longer have any power over myself." (Letter 1~3.~) The first degree or state of the mystical union is the Prayer of Quiet. Here God takes over the higher faculties of the soul, the will and the understanding, but leaves the imagination and the exterior senses free. Therefore there can be distractions. The soul experiences God's presence and reposes joyously in it, but only f.or very brief pe-riods of time. As an initial stage of this prayer of quiet there is the First Night of the Soul, or Night of Sense. In this the one domi-nating thought or idea of the prayer of simplicity is intensified, there is habitual aridity and a great, anxious y~arning for God. The dis-taste for things of sense grows and God works gently and almost un-noticed on the soul in a special way. A characteristic of this Night is inability to follow set forms of prayer. St. Margaret Mary says: "I did my utmost to follow the method of pray, er and other practices which were taught me, but I was not able to retain anything. It was in vain that I read my points of meditation, for all variished from my mind, and I could neither learn nor retain anything except what my Divine Master taught me." (Autobiography, No. 47.) The second degree of mystical prayer is the Prayer of Full Union. Now God takes over not only the will and the intellect but also the imagination and interior senses. Therefore there are no more dis-tractions. The soul is fully occupied with God. St. Margaret Mary describes it well when she says that God "presented Himself to me in the mystery in which He desired me to consider Him, applied my mind so closely to it, and kept my soul and all my powers so ab-sorbed in Him that I felt no distraction . . . being then so absorbed in prayer that I never felt weary" (Ibid., No, 12). , Any doubts or fears of being deceived are gone now. God's presence is ?xperienced "in a manner so real and sensible as to be beyond all doubt, by reason of the.effects which this favour produced in me, fearful, as I always am, of deceiving myself, in anything that I say of what passes in me" (Ibid., No. 53). .In this degree there is "profound peace, joy, and satis{action" (Letter 133). It is sometimes called the semi-ecstatic union. The exterior senses continue to act and one can, therefore, 152 Ma~ , 1953 PRAYER OF MARGARET MARY though with great effort, cease from prayer. Th third state of infused contemplation is the Ecstatic Union or Spiritual Espousals. Now not only the interior faculties are absorbed in God but the activity even of the exterior senses is suspended. .The whole person, body and soul, is taken over by God. The body be-comes fixed and rigid as though dead. ,Communication with the ex-terior world is all but severed. The power of voluntary movement ¯ is gone. One cannot emerge from this state at will, but only when God determines or at the command of a superior. Since St. Margaret Mary was a great ecstatic, she can describe this state for us. "I felt myself wholly penetrated with the Divine Pres-ence, but to such a degree that I lost all thought of myself and of the place where I was, and abandoned myself to this Divine Spirit, yielding up my heart to the power of His love" (Ai~tobiography, No. 53). "On orie occasion . . . feeling wholly withdrawn within myself by an extraordinary recollection of all my senses and powers, Jesus Christ, my sweet Master, presented Himself to me" (Ibid,, No. 55). "After such a signal favour which lasted for a long time, I remained for several days,.as it were, on fire and inebriated (with divine love) and so completely out of myself, that I had to do my-self violence in order to utter a single word" (Ibid., No. 54). "I lost all cor;sciousness during that time and I no longer knew where I was. When they came to withdraw me, seeing that I could make no reply, nor even stand except with great difficulty, they led me to Out Mother. On seeing me thus, as it were, completely beside myself, all burning and trembling on my knees before her, she mortified me to the utmost of her power, which pleased me and filled me with incred-ible joy" (Ibid., No. 58). Let it be remarked that the Pray.er of Quiet, the Prayer of Full Union, and the Prayer of Ecstatic Union are but three degrees of the specifically same grace of supernatural prayer. In the Prayer of Quiet the .union is incomplete, weak, doubted, obscure. Inthe Prayer of Full Union there are no distractions and the whole interior is taken up with God. In the Prayer of Ecstatic Union even the exterior man, the senses, are captured and absorbed in God. These are three degrees of infused contemplation: weak, medium, energetic. The transitions b.~tween them are imperceptible, much like the colors in the rainbow. It is different with the fourth and highest degree of infused prayer, the Transforming Union or Mystical Marriage. This differs 153 C. A. HERBST Reoieto for Religious specifically, not merely intensively, from the other three. Before entering it the soul must go through the Second Night, or the Night of the Spirit. ' Since mystical marriage is permanent whereas the th~ree preceding stages are transient, thesoul must be profoundly and ~adi- . tally purified from all its habitual, and actual imperfections. The poor, weak soul is dazed and pained by the bright light of God much ag the eyes of the body are by looking into the sun. Green wood must be dried out and blackened by fire before it itself will become inflamed. The sufferings of this Night are terrible. St. Margaret Mary says: "His sanctity is in~xorabl~, and it seems to me there is no suffering more exquisite than that through which He makes a soul pass when'He wants to purify it in order'to corn-, muica.te'Himself to it" (Letter 132). Yet the soul is not disturbed and is perfectly conformed to God's will. ""Yet I suffer all this with perfect serenity, content to cling to His holy will. If only He is con-tent I am satisfied" (Letter 135). The mind and will, the whole soul, even the body, is in anguish. "My whole being, body and soul, is plunged jn suffering., desiring only what is pleasing to my Sovereign Who is sacrificing me, before Whom I am a sighing victim immolated to divine justice" (lbid). But the soul has a great Sense of security. "I sometimes think that all hell is let loose against me to annihilate me, so fiercely am I attacked on all sides. But I am not afraid, deeply intrenched as I am within my strong fortress which is the divine Heart of my divine Master" (Letter 136). The soul is strong, too, and all aflame with the love of the Divine Spouse. But to return to the Transforming Union. Being a mystical marriage, it is most intimate. "I felt myself .wholly penetrated w~th that Divine Presence, but to such a degree that I 'lost all thought of myself and of the piace where I"was, and abandoned myself to this , Divine Spirit, yielding up my heart to the power of His love. Her made me repose for a long time upon His Sacred ~Breast, where He' disclosed to me the marvels of His love and tbe inexplicable secrets of His Sacred Heart, which so far He had concealed from me." (Auto-, bioqrapby, No. 67). The soul is serene in its perfect enjoyment of, God. "My heart is so centered there that it finds repose only if it can enjo, y Him continually: [ was made just for that" (Letter 133). .And, like marriage, this union is indissolul~ie. "And when you com-mit some fault, I shall purge it away with suffering if you do not do 'it yourself with penance. I shall never.deprive you of My presence on that account, but I will make it so painful for you that it will, M~, 1953 take the place of every other torment" (Ibid.). These are the char-acteristics which put thi~ highest degree of infused contemplation in a class by itself. Habitual imaginative visions of Christ may occur in this state. St. Margaret Mary narrates one. "Feeling wholly withdrawn within myself by an extraordinary recollection of all my senses and powers, Jesus Christ, my sweet Master. presented Himself to me. all resplend-ent with glory, His Five 'Wounds shining like so many suns. Flames issued from every part of His Sacred Humanity especially from His Adorable Bosom. which resembled an open furnace and disclosed to me His most loving and most amiable Hefirt, which was the living . source of these flames. It was then that He made known to me the ineffable marvels of His pure (love) and sho(ved me to what an ex-cess He had loved men." (Autobiographg, No. 55.) Visions'of the Blessed Tr.inity are in place here, too. "The Three Persons of the Adorable Trinity presented themselves to me and filled my soul'with inexpressible'consolation. But I cannot well explain what then occurred, except that it seemed to me the Eternal Father presented, me with a very heavy cross beset with thorns and sur-' rounded with various instruments of the Passion and said to me: 'See, My daughter, I make thee the same present which I made to My Beloved Son.' 'And I,' said Our Lord Jesus Christ, 'will fasten thee to the crbss as I Myself was fastened to it and will bear thee faithful company.' The Third Adorable Person then said that, being Love Itself. He would purify and consume me thereon. My soul was filled with unutterable peace and joy, and the impression made upon it by the Divine Persons has never been effaced." (Ibid., No. 59.) This highest form of prayer here on earth brings with it an in-satiable thirst for suffering. St. Margaret Mary had this, too. "I will only sa~; that it has given me such an intense love of the cross that I cannot .live a moment without suffering, but suffering in si-lence, without consolation, alleviation or compassion, and in fine dying with the Sovereign of my soul, overwhelmed .by the cross of every kind of opprobrium, of sorrow and of humiliation, forgotten and despised by all." (Ibid., No. 50.) To sum up. After purifying the soul b~r habitual aridity and an anxious yearning for ,God in the Night of Sense, God takes over the highest part and makes it repose joyously' in Himself in the Prayer of Quiet. In Full Union the imagination and interior senses are also 155 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS l~eotew ~or l~eltgtous taken so that ~here are no more distractions and the soul is fully oc-cupied qcith Him. In E.cstatic, Uriion the outer senses, too, are wrapt in God, and the whole person, body and soul, is united with Him Finally comes the indissoluble bond of Mystical Marriage, in wh,ch the soul enjoys the mbst intimate union with God possible in this life, a foretaste of the beatific vision. II In an institute in which the. novitiateiasts for two years~ may the first profession be made on the recurring date (two years later) of admission to the novitiate, or must it be postponed for an additional ,day7 For example, a novice is admitted to the novitiate on August 15, 19S3. May he /hake his profession on Au~cjust IS, 19SS, or must he wait till August 16, 19S57 I understand that if there were question of a one-year novlt[ate, profession could not be made till the lapse of one year plus one day. If the same rule does ;not hold in the case "of the two-year novitiate mentioned above, what is the reason for the discrepancy7 A general rule is that the provi.gions of the constitutions are to be observed. Sometimes a provision touches upon the validity of an action. If the constitutions explicitly require two complete years of now-tiate for t~alidit~, then such provisiqn 'would have to be observed for the validity of subsequent profession. In that case, if the novitiate is begun on August 15, 1953, first vows could not be taken until Au-gust 16, 1955. The reason is that entrance to the novitiate is not made at midnight. Consequently, according to canon 34, § 3, 3% since the day of entrance is not counted, the two years of novitiate .would be completed (provided there had been~no canonical inter-ru]~ tion nor suspension of the novitiate) only at midnight between August 15 and 16, 1955. Hence first vows could not be taken until the day following the anniversary date of entrance to the novitiate. Aside from such particular law, the common law as expressed m canon 555, § 1, 2° of the Code, requires only one complete, unin-terrupted year of novitiate for validity. ,Just as in the supposition above, first profession therefore cannot be made onthe anniversary of entrance to the novitiate, but the novice midst wait until the follow-ing day, under pain of an invalid profession. 156 Ma~, 1953 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS If the constitutions of an in~stitute prescribe more than one year of novitiate, the extra time is notrequired for the validity of the pro-fession, unless the constitutions expressly declare otherwise (canon 555, § 2). The added time (in Our case, one year) would be for licitness but not for validity of subsequent profession. Custom and superidrs then would' be the best interpreters of the requirements of the constitutions on the point of whether first profession is to be made on the recurring second anniversary of entrance to the novitiate or not until the following day. In either event in this last supposi-tiom neither ~ractice would affect the validity of the profession. This explains why first profession after a two-yea,r novitiate often'might be made on the anniversary of reception into the noviti-ate, while it cannot be made thus after a one-year novitiate. --12m Some religious are of the ol~inlon that certain community prayers, such as the rosary, meditation, and the like, are to be interrupted to say the Angelus as soon as the Angelus bell is rung. Must this be done, or would not the mere recitation of the Angelus prayers three times a day suffice to gain the indulgences? The 1952 edition of the official collection of indulgences, the Enchicidion Indulgentiarum: Preces et Pia Opera, states that the faithful may gain the indulgepces attached to the .recitation of 'the Angelus if 'they recite the prayers at dawn, at noo~n, anal at eventide, or" as soon after these times as they can (no. 331). It is not necessary to~interrupt the rosary, meditation, and the like, in order to say the Angelus as soon as the bell is rung. Is it proper to seat the st,',dents at Mass according to whether they will receive Holy Communion or not? It has been the practice to designate certain sections for those who are going to. Holy Communion and other sections for those who are not. Thereason for such procedure is to obtain order. In its reserved Instruction on precautions to be taken against abuses in the daily reception of Holy Communion (the complete English text is in the Canon Law Digest, .II, pages 208-215), the Sacre~d Congregation of the Sacraments in 1938 remarked that "the danger ofreceiving Communion unworthily.is increased when the faithful, especially the young, approach the Holy Table; not singly but generally and in a body a.s. .happens.frequently 157 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Reuteto [or 'Rehgto,,s in colleges and institutions for the training and education of Chris-tian youth." (Canon Law Digest, II. 209). Again, "When Holy Communion is being received, all those things are to be avoided which create greater difficulty for a young person who wishes to abstain from Holy Communion, but in such a way that his absti-nence will not be noticed: hence there should be no express invita-tion, no rigid and quasi-military order in coming.up, no insignia to be worn by those who'receive Communi6n, etc." (ibid., 214). The observance of order is, of course, a worthy motive. How-ever, the purpose of the Sacred Congregation, as manifested in its Instruction, is to safeguard the worthy reception of Holy Commun-ion by discouraging anything which would make communicants con-spicuous. Seating communicants in a special place makes them con-spicuous. ml4-- "The Mother General holds the first place in all the houses of the Community. Then follow the Members of the Council in the order of their election; ~hen the Secretary General, unless she is a member of the Coun-cil, and the Adminlstratrix General, in the Motherhouse: in other houses these latter take their rank after the Superior ,of the house." What is meant by these latter? Does it refer to the last two Offices mentioned, or does it refer to the Council Members also? Ira Council Member visits one of the houses where the Sisters are stationed, does she take .precedence over th'e Local Superior who is only an appointed person while the Council 'l~lember was elected? In part canon 106 says that: 1. One who represents another enjoys the precedence that per.son has. But anyone who is in a council or similar me~ting as a proxy yields precedence to those of thesame rank wh~ are personally present. , 2. A person who has authority over other physical or moral persons has right of precedence over them. These are general norms. The highest superior of the institute, therefore, always and everywhere has precedence over all his subjects If someone represents him, that person likewise enjoys the precedence of the superior represented. Provincial and local superiors have pre-cedence in their territory or houses, unless a higher superior or h~s proxy is present. In regard to other officials, there is great divergence among different religious,institutes. "In ~ach case the constitutions or else legitimate custom will have to be considered. 158 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS In our specific case, the general councillors are being considered in their proper role, and not as proxies. Do the constitutions give them precedence over local superiors in the latters' houses?' It is not clear that.they do, since the ouestioned words these latter might be inter-preted as ~ivin~ or denying such precedence. (As a matter of fact, in some institutes b~r a clear provision of the constitutions general coun-cillors have such precedence, especially in more recent congregations; in others they do, not.) Since the constitutions do not seem t6 settle the matter clearly, the solution would be sought in legitimate cus-. tom, which in this case~ would mean the way in which the,disputed phrase of the constitutions has been habitually interpreted, If 'no such consistent interpretation exists, it seems that the" words these latter refer to the secretary general and theadministratrix general, so that councillors general would take precgdence over local superiors even in the farters' own hoi~ses. ! Is it absolutely necessary that the entlre'concjrecjatlon turn and face each station of the cross in order to obtain all of the indulcjences attached to that pious exercise? Ordinarily a person making the stations of the cross must movg from station to station ai part of the requirement for gaining the in-dulgences attached to that exercise. When t.here is question of a large group of people, however, confusion or disorder might result from so many moving about. The Sacred Congregation of Indulgences on August 6, 1757, decided that in that case the method proposed by St. Leonard of Port Mafirice for making the stations is to be used. According to this method the people remain'in their places, while a priest.with two acoly'tes moves from station to station, stopping ~it each to recite the customary prayers to which the faithful reply. This decree was reaffirmed in a response from the Sacred Penitentiary, March 20, 1946.(A.A.S., XXXVHI [1946], 160). In connection with the foregoi.ng method of making the stations, the Subsecretary for the Section on Indulgences in the Sacred Peni-tentiary, Serafino de Angelis, in his book De lndulgentiis (1946): n. 341 b, remarks that the' people are to be advised, while remaining in their places, to face each station, rise, genuflect, and recite the pray-ers. From this one would conclude that, when the way of the cross is being made according to the method of St. Leonard of Port Mau-rice, it is not absolutely necessary for the.entire congregation to face each station in order to gain thedndulgences. 159 . QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS The use o~ St. Leonard's method has b~en extended by several official pronouncements (one of these: the reply of the Sacred Peni-tentiary mentioned above) to the members of religious institutes in like circumstances in their chapels. In such circumstances only'one religious, man or woman as the case may be, moves from station to station. By its response of March '20, 1946, the Sacred Peniten-tiary recognized this method also for use in boarding schools and the Will you kindly tell me how many votes constitute an "absolute major-ity" in a house of thirteen vocals7 Also how many votes constitute a "rda-tlve majority" in the same house? When there are thirteen valid votes, seven of them constitute an absolute majority, since such a majority is effected by any number exceeding one half the number of valid votes. A relative majority is had by a candidate who receives more vahd votes than any other candidate, but less than all the others taken to-gether. Thus in our case if three'candidates received respectively six, four, and three votes, the candidate with the six votes would have a relative majority over the other two candidates. What five scapulars comprise thefivefold scapular? The following scapulars are popularly known as the "fivefold scapular" or the "five scapulars." 1) The brown scapular of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel: proper to the Carmehtes, the best known of all the scapulars. 2) The wfiite scapular (with a blue and red cross) of the Most Holy Trinity: proper to the order of Trinitarians. 3) The red scapular of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ: pr6per to the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists) 4) The black scapular of the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary: proper to the order of the Servites of Mary. 5) The blue scapular of the Immaculat~ Conception: proper to the order of Cler,cs Regular (Theatines). HOSPITAL CONFESSION CARD A plastic-coated Confessio'n Card for the sick, with prayers before and after ,I confession, has been designed by the Rev. Thomas Sullivan, C.S.V., chaplain of St. Luke's Hospital, Aberdeen, South Dakota. It is similar in size and design to the Communion Card (REVIEW, Sept., 1952, p." 248) by the same author, now m use in more than 250 hospitals. Both cards bear the i.mprimatur of Bishop liam O. Brady of Sioux Falls. Each sells at 20 cents and may be ordered from the Presentation Sisters, Aberdeen, South Dakota. 160 Book "Reviews THE SACRED CANONS. By John A. Abbo, S.T.L., J.C.D., and Jerome D. Hannan, A.M., LL.B., S.T.D., J.C.D. Pages in Volumes: I, xxll -k 871~ II, 936. B. Herder Book Company, Sf. Louis, 19S2. Two-volume set, $19.00. "Amon~ other objectives, the work, was begun to answer in some degreeothe spontaneous demand for a better knowledge of ecclesiastical law that has arisen in English-speaking countries among religious who are not clerics and among laymen, especially in the professions.'.' It is from this standpoint that this book is reviewed. After a brief his-torical introdtictioh the learned authors give a statement of the law as contained in the canons of the Code, together with a running commentary. The order of treatment and the division~ of the work are identical with that of the Latin Code, and the numbers of the canons are used instead of paragraph numbers. In the distribution of the matter the authors have made their book especially .useful to non-clerical religious and to the laity. Of the 1800 pages of text con-rained in the two volumes, over 1500 are devoted to the commentary on the three first books of the Code of Canon Law, whereas books four and five of the Code, which are of lesser interest to non-clerical readers~ are taken care of in little more than one hundred pages. Of particular importance is the treatment given tothe seven sac-rament~, which is usually omitted in whole or in part in treatises on Canon Law and transferred to the writers on Moral Theology. 209 pages are devoted to the canons dealing with "Religious" and will" be of great use for religious Brothers and Sisters. All the latest decrees of the Holy See are reported, and there are numerous references to American civil law/especially in the titles concerning church property, An index with over 4500 references, which makes it easy for the reader to find any particular subject, concludes the work. The publisl~ers plan "to keep this commentary up to date by adding, at each reprinting, a supplement containing decisions of the Holy See issued subsequent to the first edition, and these will be available' to purchasers of earlier printings at a nominal cost. The only defect in the book is the lack of a table of contents. While the clerical reader~ will easily follow the canon numbers with which he is familiar from the Latin Code, ,the non-clerical reader has no way of getting a bird's-.eye view of the entire field in order to b~- 161 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS ' Re~Jieto fbr Religiou~ come acquainted with it, so that he may choose certain parts for reading and study. Su~ch a table of contents should be added to the next printing, and copies made available to all purchasers of this first edition. , We recommend this book to all religious---especially to religious Brothers and Sisters who will find it a great help in solving personal problems as religious, as well as a source of information in preparing classes in. religion and church history. Not only higher superiors, but every religious communify should have a copy of it. --ADAM C. ELLIS, S.J. BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS [For the most part. these notices are purely descriptive, based on a cursory examina-tion of the books listed.] BENZIGER BROTHERS, INC., 6-8 Barclay St., NewYork 8, N.Y. The Burning Flame. By Francis Beauchesne Thornton. The story of Guiseppe Sarto, the peasant boy who became the saintly Pope Plus X, told in popular style by Father Thornton, an associate editor of the Catholic Digest. " Pp. 216. $3.00. BRUCE PUBLISHING CO., 400 N. Broadway, Milwaukee 1, Wisc Dear 8istec. By Catherine de Hueck, Brief letters to help Sisters train lay leaders. PI~. 80. $2.00. BIBLIOTHEQUE DU SCHOLASTICAT, L'Immacul&-Conception, 1855,, rue Rachel Est, Montreal .34, Canada. La Virginitd Chrdtienne. ~ By Francois Bourassa, S.J. A full treatment of the subject of Christian virginity, showing its oppor-tunities for full ahd harm6nious development of persgnal perfection. Pp. 174. $1.25. CATECHETICAL GUILD, St. Paul 1; Minnesota. Pocket book editions of You Can Change the Worl
Issue 15.2 of the Review for Religious, 1956. ; MARCH ]5', 1956 VOLUME XV NUMBER 2 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS VOLUME XV FEBRUARY, 1956 NUMBER 2 CONTENTS MOTHER CORNELIA CONNELLY--Mother Mary Eleanor, S.H.C.J.57 THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE-~--Bernard Leeming, S.J .6.9. SUMMER SESSIONS . 90 SISTERS' RETREATS--II--Thomas Dubay, S.M .9.1. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- 9. Entrance Fee for Postulants and Novices . 97 10. Residen~ Chaplain as Confessor . 98 11. Legal Protection Against Remuneration for Services . . . 99 12, Correspondence with the Vicar Also Exempt .100 13. Washing of Purificators, Palls, and Corporals ., . .: . . . :. 101 14. New Rubrics for Little Office of the B.V.M .1.0.1 15. Sending Letters to Superior General .102 16. The Meaning of a Plus Book . 102 BOOK REVIEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS-- Editor: Bernard A. Hausmann, S.J. West Baden College West Baden Springs, Indiana . 103 CATHOLIC ALMANAC, 1956 . 112 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 112 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, March, 1956. Vol. XV, No. 2. Published bi-monthly: January, March, May, July, September, and November, at the College Press, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas, by St. Mary's College St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as second class matter, 2anuary 15, 1942, at the Post Office, Topeka, Kansas, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editorial Board: Augustine G. Ell~d, S.3., Gerald Kelly, S.3., Henry Willmerlng, S.3. Literary Editor: Edwin F. Falteisek, S.J. Copyright,'1956, by Reoieto for Religious. Permission is hereby granted for quo-tations of reasonable length, provided due credit be given this review and the ahthor Subscription price: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a .copy. Printed in U. S. A~ Before writing to us, please consult notice on inside back cover. The Myst:ici m of Obedience Bernard keeming, S.J. ALL great things are simple. God is great and God is simple. If we are united with God's will, we are uiaited with God,. because God's will is" God. And if we are united with God, we are united with F~ither, Son, and Holy Ghost; for the Trinity is simple also. Obedience is a great thing and obedience is simple. "If you love me, ke~p my commandments" (John 14: 15). If you wish to be perfect, just~ do as y~u are told. "He that keepeth my commandments, is he th~at loveth me, and he that loveth me, ~hall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him" (John 14:2.1). In obedience we truly receive a revelation of Christ. St. Teresa gives several rexamples Qf what she thought sim-plicity or ":innocenc'e" in obediende. At Avila, she, says, "One thing I remember, which is this: once'in the refectory we had cucumbers given us'for our portions, and to me a very small one, "rotten within. Pretending not to l£e aware of. thi), I called a sister, one of the most able and sensible in the h'ouse, and, to try her'obedi-, ?nce, told her to go and plant it in a .little garden we had. She asked me Whether it was to be planted endways or sideways. I told her sideways, She went and planted it, without thinking that it could not possibly fail to die. The. fact that she was acting under obedi-ence made her natural reason blind, so that she believed that what she did was perfectly right" i( Foundations, ed. Lewis, p. 6). And, probably at Toledo or Mailagon, she narrates: "To a prioress came a nun, and showed her a very large worm, saying, 'Look how beautiful it is!' The prioress in jest replied 'Then go and eat it,' She went and fried it. The Cook asked her why she fried a worm, and she answered, 'To eat ;it,' and would have done so. Thus thro,ugh a great carelessness of that prioress that nun might have done herself much barni" (ibid., p. 161)." For my own part, fear I wonder if the two nuns in question were quite so simple as St, _Teresa imagined they were! However, not to delay on planting cucumbers or frying worms, there are four considerations we make about obedience which show that there is a great mystery in it, and a great reality' Of union with God. , 69 BERNARD LEEMING Review for Religious 1. Our Saviour's obedience to His Father reveals to us some-thing of the eternal relations of the Blessed Trinity. 2. Through obedience we attain union with Christ and with His Father in the Holy Ghost. 3. Our Saviour's obedience sums up the mystery of the Re-demption of mankind. 4. Through obedience likewise we "cooperate with Christ, in a true sense make one with Christ, in His redeeming and saving mlSslon. CHRIST'S OBEDIENCE AND THE BLESSED TRINITY Nothing is dearer in the Gospels than that Christ is one with the Father in understanding, willir~g, accomplishing, and in very being. Christ's teaching was at once His own, and yet in a sense, not His own but the Father's: "My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me" (John 7:16), that is, the teaching is not Christ's alone, but'equally the Father's: it is not' Christ's as separated from God. "He who sent me is true, and the things I have heard of Him, these same I speak in the world . I do nothing of m;fself, but as the Father has taught me, these things I speak" (John 8:26, 28). Even the Father does not judge alone: "Neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22); and yet the Father does judge with the Son: "Arid if I do judge, my judgment is true: because I am not alone,but I and the .Father that sent me" (John 8:16). Hence it is that acceptance of Christ is acceptance of the Father: "He that believeth in me, doth not believe in me, but in him that sent me . I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me com-mandment what I should say and what I should speak" (John 12: 44, 49). Incidentally, the same is true of the Hol~ Ghost: He, too, "shall not speak of himself: but what things soever be shall hear, he Shall speak . . . he shall glorify me, because he shall receive of mine" (John 16:13). Only the Father has knowledge without origin; the Sod and the Holy Ghost bare the same identical knowledge, but from the Father. In the same way, Christ says that He did not come to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him. None can doubt that Christ's will was for the salvdtion of men: "I am~ the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep . . . therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life 7O March, 1956 THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE that I may tak~ it again" (dohn 10:il, 17). And yet He says: "I came down from heaven not to do my own w, ill, but the will of Him that sent me" (3ohn 6:38 andcf, v. 30). The heart of Christ is not more compassionate nor more tender than the heart of His Father: "For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him,' may not perish, but may have life everlasting" (John 3:16). The will of the Father and the will of the Son for the salvation of the world is the same, "for God sent not his "Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world might be saved by, him" (John 3:17). This unity of will is touchingly manifest.on the death of Lazarus. Jesus had wept, "and the Jews said, "Behold bow be loved him." And when the stone was removed, lifting up his eyes, He said: "Father, I give thanks that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always; but because of the people who stand about I have said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." Then He cal.led the dead man out of the tomb. He knew His Father's will was to do what He wished. They willed the same, and Christ's human will was perfectly in accord with His Father's divine will. Christ's power is the same as His Father's. "The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things so ever he doth, these the Son Mso doth in like man-ner. For as the Father raiseth up the dead and giveth life: so also the Son giveth life to whom he will" (John 5:20). "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not" (John 10:37). The works, of course, referred pri'marily to the miracles: stilling the storm, feeding the five thousand, giving sight to the blind man, raising Lazarus from the dead;, but they include all that Christ did. "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself. But the Father who abideth in ,me, he doth His own works" (John 14:10). But the unity of power is most clearly showia when Christ speaks of protecting His sheep: He knows His sheep and they follow Him and He will give them life everlasting. "No man shall pluck them out of my hand." Whence this absolute confi-dence that no created power can steal away His sheep? "No one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one" (John 10:29, 30). His power is the same as His Father's All that Christ'has is given. Him by the Father; and the Father holds nothing back from the Son, not even His own life. His dis- 7.1 BERNARD LEEMING Review /:or Religious ciples wh~ weke,faithful to Him were given Him by His Father: "Thine they were, and to me thou gavest them" (John 17:6). deed, all the Father has, is the Son's: "All my things are thine, and thine are mine" (John 17:1Q). "The Father loveth the Son, and he hath given all things into his hand;' (John 3:35). And . before the washing of the feet, perhaps surprisingly~ St. John tells us: "Knowing that the Father had given him all things into 'his hands, and that he cache from God and goeth to God: he "riseth Trom sup-per, and layeth aside his garments, and having .taken a ,towel, girded himself'" and put the water into a basin and began to wa~sh ¯ ,the feet of the disciples (John 13:3 ff.). His knowledge that all He had was of the Father is perhaps the very reason why He wished to inculcate humility; since the Father kept back nothing from Him, He in turn wished to give His service and to show that such humble service is a reflection of the very life of God. But the Father gives even His own life: "As the F'ather hath life in himself, so be bath given to the Son also to have life in himself" (John 5:26). "The living Father has sent me and I live by the Father" (John 6:58). "Philip, he that seeth me, seeth the Father also. How sayeth thou, Shew us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?" (John 14:9, 10.) Hence it is that Christ is the Utterance of God (John 1:1), the Image of God (II Cor. 4:4), the Radiance of God's splendour and the very expression of His being (Heb. 1;3), the Light of God (John 1:9), the Way to God: "No man cometh to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). Yet in spite of this perfect equality, the Son is sent by His Father, and receives commands from His Father. "Do you say of him whom the Father. hath sanctified and sent into the world: Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John 10:36.) "Thou hast sent me into the world" (John 17:18). After the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, the apostles urged Him to eat: "But he said to them: I have meat to eat; which you know not. The disciples therefore 'said one to an-other: Hath any man brought him to eat? Jesus said to them: M_y meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that~I may perfect his work"' (John 4:32-35). His very life, His sustenance and strength consisted in d, oing His Father's will and work. The Father even commands Him; at the very end of the discourse about the Good Shepherd, our Lbrd said: "This commandment have I re- March, 1956 THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE ceived bf my father," (John 10:18), and the commandmbnt ap-pears to be that He should be the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for His sheep. Just before going, to Gethsemani, He said: "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given me commandment, so do I: Arise let us go hence" (John 14:31). And Of his whole sojourn in the. world, at the end He said: "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gav, est me.to do" (John 7:4). Now, of course, the giving of a command can only be because Christ is man; and. yet the commandment, like the sending, reflects the eternal relation between Father and Son. It is the Son who is sent, not the Father: not sent as a servant by a master, nor even as a king might be sent to war by advisers and counsellors; but sent somewhat as a flower is sent forth by a .plant. The temporafl sending, with its resultant presenc,e in a different way--f.6r Christ as God is present everywhere, but as man only in Palestine--re-flects the eternal relation of origin from the Father (St. Thomas, Summa, 1, Q. 43,-a.1). The Father could not be sent, because He is Father; and, although all that He has is the Son's, neverthe- .less that "all He has" and even the divine being is the Son's, al-ways with the relationship of originating from the Father. As of the sending, so too of 'the obedience. That too arises naturally from the eternal relationsh'ip between Father and Son; for as the 'Son originates from the Father in very being, so too do all His thinking and His willing. What our Lord wanted was what or-iginated in the Father, and He could not want anything whatever' which did not originate in the Father. Thus His obedience reflects his eternal relationship to ,the Father and is a manifestation to us of that. mysterious unity of being and nature which yet admits distinctive of persons. Through our Lord's unity with God by obedience in his incarnate life, we are led on to know his unitY with God in His divine life. , OUR OBEDIENCE AND OUR SHARE IN THE LIFE OF GOD Very often obedience is thought of as a matter of our owrl effort, something we must do, and do with striving and resolution. We must, indeed; nevertheless, obedience is a gift of God. As the Father gave all things to His Son," even t6 having absolutely the same will, so, too, if we are to have absolutely the same will as our Father and as Christ, we must receive it of the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. For to have the same will "as God 73 BERNARD LEEMING Reoiew for Religious means that we become sharers in God's nature, as Christ our Lord truly was God and showed it by doing the works of His Father, -while yet remaining a distinct person. There was unity of nature, ot: doing and accomplishing: they willed absolutely the same and tl~is willing the same reflected the unity of being which was theirs. So too our, coming to bare the same will as God can only arise from a unity of being. God's will" IS Himself: He does not change, to-day wanting one thing, tomorrow another; but from all eternity He is His will; and, 'though in time His will is accomplished in different acts, those acts only reflect the will that was unchanging from eternity and conform the changing to the Eternal. "The Father who abidetb in me, He dotb the works" can become true of us, likewise, but only because of the gift of God of Himself, the gift of His abiding in us. And that God should abide in us, surely that is His free gift to us, which no effort of our own could at-tain and no prayer of ours--apart from His desire told to us-- could aspire to ask. God is God and man is man, but His surpass-ing gift is that we should truly become sharers in the divine nature (II Peter 1:4) and hence sharers in His divine will, sent forth from Him as Son and Holy Ghost are sen,t forth, yet completely and utterly one with Him always. This is one of the greatest gifts that God gives us in our vo-cation as religious, to enable us~ to share in that complete self-giv-ing which is the life of the Blessed Trinity, to be enabled to give to Him our last self-possession, our own will and judgment, and by giving it to Him, to receive it back from Him glorious, and divinized,.part even of Himself. "And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one" ~Jobn 17:23). "To leave the world and give up exterior pos-sessions," says St. Gregory, "is possibly easy to some; but for a man to give up himself, to immolate what is most precious to him by.surrendering his entire liberty is a much more arduous task; to forsake what one has is a small thing: to forsake what one is, that is the supreme gift" (Horn. 32, MPL 76 col. 1233). And it isthe supreme gift, because it most reflects the life of the Blessed Trinity. Our obedience is grounded upon faith. Military obedience-- aport from the subjective motive of individuals--is based upon practical necessity and utility: someone must decide, and there is not. time to explain the reasons for the decision to each soldieL Without obedience, there would be confusion and defeat. Never- 74 March, 1956 THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE theless, military obedience has its limits. Of certain soldiers who refused to obey it was said that "they were to~ intelligent to get themselves killed just to prove that some general was a fool." That is one reason why General M~ntgomery in his book on generalship declares that "it is part of the art of command to inspire and main-tain confidence in the soldiers, and why in his battles he explained a great deal of his plans to the soldiers. But religious obedience has a different basis. It is true that obedience does make for efficient work, for order, for unity. But this is not the reason ultimately why religious obey. We obey because we belieoe, believe that it is God who speaks to us in the person of our superior, and that, consequently, when we do the superior's will, we do God's will and hence are united to God. In this sense, obedience is not a means to an end; it is an end in itself; for by faith we believe that in uniting ourselves to the superior's will we unite ourselves to God's own will, and unity with God is not a means to anything else. This, naturally, supposes that we obey from love of God, git)ir~q ourselves to God in obedience; and thus the utility of doing what we are told to do does not enter in; whatever the effect of what we do, here and now by obeying I am united to God; and, in the absolutely ultimate result, the effect must be good, no matter what the immediate effects. Obedience is like faith. Often, though we know it is fully reasonable to believe, the obscurity of faith comes home to us: hoto can it be that Christ is present beneath the appearances of a wafer? How can a good God permit so many evils? Neverthless, this ob-scurity does not shake our faith, though it may afflict the imagina-tion and the power of reasoning. We know that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and that His dwelling is in unapproach-able light; no human eye has ever seen Him or can ever see Him (I Tim. 6:16). We know that "my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways: for as the heavens are ex-alted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts" (Isaias 4:8, 9). Nothing could shake our faith, because it is God whom we believe. Now, similarly, our obedience like our faith involves obscurity. How could God be represented by one so ignorant, prejudiced, and unlikable? How could God ratify so stupid a policy, one based on complete ignor-ance of the conditions? How can God permit this situation to con-tinue, when His own interests are at stake? Such obscurities may indeed trouble our imaginations and even our powers of reasoning; 5 'BERNARD LEEMING Review for Religio-s nevertheless they cannot shake the deep conviction that in obeying this superior, in this policy, in this mariner of proceeding, I am obeying God Himself; I am doing His will, arid notthe ignorant, stupid, or prejudiced will of any creature. My obedience rests on the faith that believes God does act thro,ugh creatures, that He is immanent to creatures and-not afar off. St. Margaret Mary had revelations from our Lord, revelations approved by the Church afterwards; and yet our Lord said to her that she should prefer th'e will of her superiors to a'fly command of His. W~e' look with ey,es of faith, not upon a weak creature, but upon the infinitely holy and infinitely wise God of all consolation, who acts in and through the creature. Blessed Claude de la Colombi~re once wrote: "A Superior may 'govern badly, but it is impossible that G~d should not govern you well by means of him. My dear Sister, let that be your deepest conviction. For if you do not', base yourself firmly on this prin-ciply, you are losing your time in religion: for your whole life is nothing but obedience, arid this obedience.is meritless unless offered to God in the person whom He has put in place of Himself. A:nd we certainly do not turn our gaze on God when we undertak'e to judge, examine and above all to condemn what is commanded us. When it is the Holy Ghost who possesses us, He inspires us with the simplicity of a child who finds everything good and everything reasonable; or. if you prefer, with a divine prudence which discov-ers God in everything,' and recogmzes Him in. all those who rep-resent Him, even in those who are poorest in virtue and in natural and supernatural qualities." (Oeut;res, VII, 109-10, 1853 ed.) = ,In those words Blessed Claude expressed part of the gift of obedience: the inspiration of the Holy Ghost to make us simple, to give us supernatural prudence to see God truly in superiors. St. Catherine of Siena, in her delightful Dialogue ot~ Obedience (trans-lated by Algar Thorold). insists greatly on faith being the means of obedience and teaches likewise that we may progress in obedi-ence. God speaks and says to her: "Now I wish thee to see and know this most excellent virtue in that humble and immaculate Lamb, and the source whence it proceeds. What caused the great obedience of the Word? The love which He had for My honour and your salvatiofi. Whence proceeded this love? From the clear vision with which His soul saw the divine essence and the eternal Trinity, thus always looking on Me, the eternal G6d. His fidelity obtained this vision for Him, and most perfectly, ~ which vision you 76 March, 1956 THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE imperfectly enjoy by th~ light,of holy faith" (Ch. 135). And thig vision both comes through obedience and fosters obedience. "Does the weight of obedience," she asks, "cause the obedient man pain? No, for he has trampled on his own will and does not care to ex-amine or, judge the will of his superior, for with the light of faith he sees My will !in him, believing truly that My clemency causes him to dommand according to the needs of his subject's sal-vation" (Ch. 140). "Obedience gives a !ight in the soul, which shows whether she is faithful to Me and her order and superior, in which light of holy faith she forgets hersel£; for by the obedience which she has ac-quired through the light of faith, she shows that her will is dead' to its own feeling, and seeks the advantage of others and not her own. Just as the disobedient man who examines the will, of his superior, may ju.dge~it according to his own low opinion and dark-ened knowled~ge instead of judging his own perverse will which' gives him death, the truly obedient man, illumined by faith, judge's ~the will of his superior to be good, and therefore does not examine it, but inclines his bead and nourishes his soul with the odour of true and holy obedience. And this virtue increases in the soul in proportion to the shinin~.l of the light of fhith, with which the soul knows herself, and Me, whom she loves, and humbles her-self; and the more she loves Me and humbles herself, the more obedient she becomes, for, obedience, and her sister patience prove whether the soul is in truth Clothed with the nuptial garment of charity, which is necessary to enter into eternal life" (Cb. 44). St. Teresa of Avila also declares that obedience is something like a treasure in a mine, Which can only be. dug out gradually and progressively. Speaking of the treasure of complete union with God, she says: "Bellevue me, then there is no better way of finding this treasure than that of toiling and digging so as to draw it forth from the mine of obedience; for the more we dig the more we shall find, and the more we ,subject ourselves to men, having no other will but that of those who are over us, the more we shall master our will so as to conform it to the will of God:' (Foundations, Ch. 5).,~ St. Ignatius of ~oyola puts three degrees of obedience: the first, when wi actually do what we are c6mmanded; the second, when wedo it willingly; and the third, when we submt.t our understandL ing to the superior's and come to have the,lsame judgment as bis: Now these are not necessarily stages through iwhich we hi~ve to pass, 77 BERNARD LEEMING Review for Religious though indeed they.may be kinds of stages through which we pass; but they clearly indicate divisions into which obedience may fall. It is possible to do what we are ordered but to rebel interiorly, or even to grumble and complain and yet carry out the order. It is possible also to cajole a superior into agreement with what we want. This is indeed a certain kind of obedience. Then there_is willingness ,in obedience: to do the thing promptly, perseveringly, and putting our best efforts into it to make it suc'ceed. But the highest degree is' had when we agree with the superior's mind and have the same view and ~outlook on the thing aS he has. It is clear that this last most closely approaches to the obedience of'Christ to His Father: His docffine, was not His own, but His Father's. He judges with the Father; He does not speak of Himself, but as the Father gives Him to speak; and He is the very word of the Father, the expression of the Father, the very mind of the Father: He and His Father are one. If the superior represents God for us, then no lower standard than our Lord's obedience to His Father can content us. How is it possible to be united in mind with a superior who is stupid," unwise, and imprudent in his commands? Christ could obey His Father absolutely because His Father was absolute truth; absolute wisdom; but how can we conform our minds to one who is by no means absolute truth or wisdom? The answer is that where the superior commands, we unite our wills and minds with his exactly insofar as he commands, not necessarily insofar as his command is designed to attain a particu-lar purpose. The purpose of the command is not part of the com-mand. For instance, a provincial superior may order a local superior to be indulgent, or to be severe, with a particular s, ubject. The local superior may on natural' grounds be convinced that i.ndulgence, or severity, is injurious to the subject, that the provincial superior is mistaken in his estimate of the method required. It is here, partly, that the mystery enters; for the theory of obedience holds that the judgment about success or failure is irrelevant: who can tell what, in God's eyes, is success or failure? The order must be obeyed, and in the spirit, with trust in God's over-riding providence: He will bless the obedience, although we cannot see how. For me, I see Christ in the command and that is enough. What does it matter, in the last analysis, about the "success" or "failure" of the policy? God must look to that; and I can leave it to Him, doir~g so the ¯ more trustfully the less I see how He can draw good out of it. 78 March, 1956 THE ~MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE How do we progress in obedience~? Ver~y gener1a1 y at the be, ginning of our religigus life obedience on theI whole is not difficult; there may be strange customs, repugnances to be overcome in ac-commodating ourselves to different points of the Rule. But on the whole, obedience is likely to be taken more or less for granted as part of the religious regime. Nevertheless, sooner or later trials are likely to arise. A superior may not understand us, ol may dis-approve of us; and then obedience can be a very arid affair indeed. There is small comfort in it; and, if one takes literally the superior for God, one is inclined to imagine that a superior's disapproval means God's disapproval. This is not, of'course, strictly irue; for a superior is not judge of our spiritual state, but takes the place of God in telling us what to do. Nevertheless, a superior's disapproval may be a searing trial, especially for some characters; and it is then that one must walk by blind faith, hoping against hope, as it were, that God will bring all right, possessing our soul in patience and bending our minds and wills as best we can. This may be only a purifying trial: to wean us from our purely natural obedience, to prevent us thinking obedience is within our own natural power. Then we can only be faithful, be patient, andtrust God: believing still that He is acting in the superior. But, if we are faithful, the light will surely break through: there can come a certain sense of reverence for God, even in this superior: a sense that we are really held captive by God, and so a certain peace in obeying which is not upset by surges of feeling, whether of depression or of irritation or of rebellion. God is there in spit~ of everything; and somehow fears begin to vanish: in sick-ness or in.health, in success or failure: "For I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day" (II Tim. 1:12). Our trans-formation into Christ proceeds; and His obedience begins to seem a reality to us, and self-will, self-settlement, self-judgment begin to fade away. The memory, the imagination, and even the reason-ing powers may play tricks; but the calm conviction remains that it is good for me to cleave to the Lord, and that at the head of my book it is written that I should do Thy Will, O God. And here it may be well to return to another aspect of Christ's obedience; an aspect which shows how obedience made Him our °saving Victim, and how obedience will unite us to Him in a u~nion truly trarisforming. , 79 BERNARD LEEMING Reoiew for Religio'us CHRIST'S OBEDIENCE AND.THE REDEMPTION OF MANKIND Our Saviour's obedience was neither negative nor passive; He did not merely abstain from forbidden things, nor-did He, as it were, merely wait on events and allow Himself to be governed' by them. It w, as not the case that He came to endure death, and in consequence merely waited for the Jews to come and kill ,Him. On the contrary, His obedience was positive and active. 'He knew in-deed the inevitable end, but He knew that end was to come only as'a consequence of His active obedience to His Father's command to be the Good Sh.epherd. He journeyed from Nazareth to Caphar-nauru through Galilee, up to Cesarea Philippi, nearer Damascus than Jerusalem, and to Bethsaida, and through Sar;aaria, and to Jericho and Jerusalem, probably more than once. Pharisees were attracted to him from every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem (Luke 5:17). He gathered twelve apostles and seventy-two d~isciples and instructed them. He ,taught the people in the synagogues, in the tqwns, in the fields, on the mountain sides, by the lake sides, His energy and His force, the power he had, roused the fear of thd chief priests and the Jews, and they said: "Do you" see that we preva, il nothing? behold the whole world is gone after him" (John 12:19). He rebuked their hypocrisy fiercely and fearlessly. He drove the buyers and sellers from the temple, "and the disciples remembered that it was written 'The zeal of thy house hath eaten meoUP' " (John 2:17). The Jews put spies to report His words, and to lay traps for Him (Luke 20:19-20). "This command 'have I received'frdm my F'athe~," a command to spread the truth and the charit,y of His Father, even if in ful-filling that command He was to provoke the enmi'ty of the wicked and to draw down death unto Himself. About ,this obedience of Christ, St. Thomas puts the objection: ,"The will of God is not for the death Of ,men, even of sinners, but rather for their life, as Ezechiel ~ays:'I will not the death ofthe sinner but tl~at he should b~ converted and live. Much less then could it have been thd will of God the Father that the most perfect of .all men should be sub-jected to death." And ~he answers: "Although the will of God is 'not for the death of any man, nevertheless God-wills the virtue by which a. man bravely endures death and from charity exposes him-self to the peril of death. And in this.sense was the will of God for the death of Christ, in as much as Christ incurred the risk of death from charity and bravely endured death" (Contra Gentiles, 4, 55, ad 15). "As the Father has given me commandment, so 80 (¢larch, 1956 THE MYSTIC.ISM OF ~)BEDIENCE do I." Christ incurred the risk of death-not by passivity,' but by an activity which provoked opposition, by an actiVity which upset the whole of 3udaea and Palestine. Thus our Lord's obedience was vibrant with energy and was most complete.ly in accord with the mind and intentions and desire of His Father. He and the Father were one, in very being, though not in person; and when the Son became man among men there was One who gave to the most loving God the rndst energetic and loving service and praise, and gave it not on.ly for God's sake, but. for man's sake. It was by His obedience that Christ redeemed the world: "for as by the disobedience of one man," says St. Paul, "th~ many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one, the many shall be made just" (Rom. 5:19). Surely a great mystery, that the destiny of us all should be so linked with the obedience or dis-obedience of two men: a mystery reflected in minor degree by the mysterious fact that we are all to some degree dependent upon one another in so many ways. It was because of obedience that Christ received the name Jesus. St. Paul tells us" that God in his fore-knowledge of the obedience unto death had given Him the name above all names (Phil. 2:8, 9).; and the angel ordered St.Joseph "and thou shalt call Hi~ name Jesus, ~for He shall save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). Because He was obedient unto death, therefore He has that name above all names: Jesus the obedi-ent, Jesus the Saviour. And because of that same obedience He is a priest forever. Our redemption was accomplished by the sacrifice of Christ, pr.ecisely because that sacrifice was an expression of the 'most ab-solute submission of the will of the Incarnate Son of God to the will of God. St. paul puts it in chapter ten of his letter to the Hebrews: "For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Hence he saith When entering into the world: Sacrifice and offering thou hast not desired. But thou hast pierced ~ars for me (a body thou hast prepared for ine). In holocausts and sin-offerings thou hast taken no pleasure: Then I said: Behold I am come (In the volume so it is written of me) To do, O God, thy will. In virtue of this 'will' we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all" (Heb. 10:4 ff., Boylan's, transla-tion in the Westminster versiorl). The line quoted by St. Paul from Ps. 39: "thou has pierced ears for me" is given thus in the Hebrew and in the Douay: but St. Paul probably quoted from the Septuagint. The piercing of ears 81 BERNARD LEEMING Review for Religiod's means the power of listening to God and hence of obeying Him. We find the same usage in English. Children are told by their mothers, "You will not listen to me"--you will not accept my advice nor do what I want; and children in turn think it wrong "not to listen .to me muther." What pleased God in Christ was the complete acceptance of His divine will: the highest offering to God is the offering of the whole b~ing to do His will; and, because it was a divine Person who made that offering with the uttermost perfec-tion as a man on earth, and made it for our sakes, to fulfill God's will that we might be .sanctified, we therefore all receive the power of being made holy through the sacrifice of Christ. There is yet another m~stery in this obedience of Christ: al-though He was God's own Son and knew perfectly His Father's will and loved that will, nevertheless He feels repugnance in the actual carrying of it into effect. One might perhaps imagine that' one so infinitely holy as our Lord would be so lifted up that there would be no feeling of recoil or repugnance from whatever His loving Father willed. Yet we know it was not so. When He was riding to Jerusalem just before the last Passover, certain Gr.eeks wanted to see Him, and He spoke of the underlying mystery of His life and death: "Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal" and then, mys-teriously, "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I sa.y? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause I came unto this hour" (John 12:27). How can He pray His Father to save Him from the pain and suffering and death, when it was precisely to endure them that He came? And yet, His very soul is distressed; it is an anticipation of the agony in the garden, when He "began to fear and t6 13e heavy, and he said to them, 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death' . . . and he fell flat on the ground; and he prayed, that.if it might be, the hour might'pass from him. !~nd he sayeth, Abba, Father, all things ar~ possible, to thee: remove this c~halice from me; but. not what I will, but what thou wilt" (Mark 14:33-35). What His Father willed was not to be fulfilled directly between Him and His Father, but through people like Judas, Annas, Caiphas, Pilate, the Jewish mob, and the Roman soldiers; and it means not only physical suffering but denial of justice, denial of a fair bear-ing'of what He had to say, and. to say not so much for Himself 82 March, 1956 THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE but for His Father, for God; 'it meant acceptance of that humanly mysterious providence of God which_ permits so much evil. Our Lord was a real man, with all a man's feeling, instincts, natural reactions: His divinity did not derogate in the least fro'm the full-ness of His humanity. Consequently, He experienced the ifistinc-. tive recoil of the feelings against pain and against death; further, even His natural reason and intellectual choice judged that death and rejection were hateful and in themselves to be avoided, and so His prayer was "if it be possible; let this chalice pass." St: Thomas tells us that our Lord prayed so to show us the reality of His human nature and to show that it is permissible, according merely to natural impulses to wish what God does not wish ("ut ostenderet quod homini iicet secundum naturalem affectum aliquid velle quod Deus non vult," Summa, 3, (~.21,a.2). Nevertheless the absolute choice; when all is conside.re.d, goes out straight to God's will, however repugnant to instincts and feeling and merely natural judgment (Summa, 3, Q. 18,a.6), and is in a sense the more united to God's will, because with His human will He ap-proves the instinctive reluctance of human 'nature, is glad to find it hard; and thus He can make the offering .of submission most truly as a man and with the fullness of His manhood. Not, in-deed, that these natural recoils against the horrors of the Passion in any way divided Christ in Himself, or lessened His glorious ac- ¯ ceptance of His Father's will, or blurred in any way the clearness of His vision--as fears and hopes and emotions do in us; never-theless, He felt the difficulties, even mental, just as acutely and more acutely than we could do, just as He could suffer physical pain as we do, and feel it more acutely. St. Paul spea.ks of Christ's obedience in a,way in which per-haps we might hesitate to do; he says: "Christ during his earthly life, offered prayer and entreaty to the God who could .save him from death, not without a piercing cry, not without tears; yet with. such piety as won him a hearing. Son of God though be was, he learned obedience in the school of suffering, and now, his full achievement reached, he wins eternal salvation for all those who render obedience to him" (Heb. 5:7-9, Knox tr.). St. Thomas, in his commentary on this text, makes this ob-jection: "To learn things, presupposes that one is ignorant of them. But Christ from all eternity~ being God, and even a's man from the first instant of His conception knew everything and had the fullness of knowledge. Consequently, since He knew every- 83 BERNARD LEEMING ~ Reoieto for Religious thing, how can it be said that He learned ,things?" . St." Thom, as answers': "There is a double kind of knowledge, the first being simple awhreness of the truth, and in this sense~Christ was ignorant of nothing. But there is also the knowledge begotten of experience, and according to this Paul says 'He learned from what He suffered [or in the school of experience]',' that is by actu-ally °experiencing. And the Apostle speaks thus because he who learns anything must willingly put himself in a position to learn it. Now Christ willingly took to Himself our weakness; and hence Paul says 'he learned obedience,' that is, how hard it is to obey, becauseoHe obeyed in most onerous and difficult matters, even to the death of the cross. And here he shows how difficult it is to attain the good of obedience. Because they who have not experi-enced obedience and have not learned it in difficult matters, believe that to obey is very easy. But in'fact to grasp what obedience really is, one has to learn to obey in difficult affairs, and he who has'not learned by'obedience to be subject, never knows how to command well and be a superior. Christ, therefore, although from eternity he knew by simple awareness what obedience was, nevertheless learned by experience obedience from what He suffered, that is, in. actual difficulties, through suffering and death" (Cornmentartl in Hebrews, ad loc.). But there is yet a greater myster~ here. The prayers of Christ, His tears, His entreaty to God who could save Him from death, these are not merely individual: they are His as head of the body, as forming one with us. He prays, entreats, weeps, ~uffers .for us and with us. S~. Gregory~Nazianzus says that w.hen Christ prayed upon the cross: "My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?'" He spoke in the person of all mankind; and adds that this text about learning obedience must be understood in the same way: ':Having taken the nature of a slave, He condescends to enter fully into the life of His fellow-slaves and of slaves generally; and assumes a form different from His own, bearin'g the whole of me and all that I am within Himself, in order that in Himself. He may melt away my lower self, as fire the wax and the sun the morning mists, in order that I, through fusion with Him, may take in exthangeall that is His. Hence in very deed does He honour obedience and make trial of it in suffering. For the mere intention was not enough, just as it is not enough for us, unless we 'carry it out in act. For the act is the proof of the intention. Nor would it be far wrong to" understand that. He experienced our obedience and measured all 84 March, 1956 '~. THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE human things by, His own sufferings, and did so because of ,His affection and love for men: so that He.can estimate our experiences by His own, and reckon by suffering and weakness how much to demand of us and how much to yield to ,our infirmity" (Oratio Theologica 1, n.6; Migne Patres Graeci, 36, col. 109, 112). It was not He alone who was saved from death, but,the whole Of mankin~l who are united to Him, for whom He prayed, for whom He obeyed, "and offered His sacrifice. St. Leo says that the cross was the altar on ~vhich "through that saving victim the of-fering of the whole of ,human nature was a, ccomplished" (Sermo c.3; M.P.L. 54, 324). He ,bears "the whole of me and"all that I am within Himself" and offers His obedience for me to make up for my failures, to transfuse my dull and murky obedience with the radiance of His infinitely glorious obedience; and to* do the same for the, whole of mankind, becoming "hostiam. puram, hostian~ sanctam, bostiam immaculatam'" a sacrifice wholly sincere, holy, immaculate, and hence utterly acceptable to God for all of us. OUR OBEDIENCE AND OUR UNION WITH CHRIST THE SAVIOUR Our Lord is very explicit that "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me." .It is only Christ who sends the iSpirit of God (John 16:7) and even the Spirit of God "receiveth of Christ's and shows it to us (John 16 : 15). "And because you are sons God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts'" (Gal. 4:9). "God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we may live by him" (I John 4:9). There is no way in which we can go to God except in. Christ. There is no right manner of praying which neglects the Incariaate Word, or so tries to dispense with images or use of the imagination 'that-it passes over Jesus of Nazareth. There is no true mysticism save that Which is based upon faith in Jesus Christ. Now our Lord greatly commends obediencd to us. "Whoever shall do "the will of my Father, 'that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Matt 12:50). Even His own dear~other was dear to Him most of all because she "heard the word of God" and kept it (Luke 9:28). "Fie that bath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be lox)ed of my Father: and I will love Jaim': and will manifest myself to him." Our Lord could not make us a greater promise than to be~loved of His-FatheL to be Ioved.by Him, and to receive a manifestation, a re;celation of our Lord" Himself. BERNARD LEEMING Review [or Religious Based~upon these promises, to our Lord, the saints most strongly commend obedience to us'. St. Teresa says: "I believe that since Satan sees there is no road that leads more quickly to the highest perfection than this of obedience, he suggests many difficulties under the colour of some good, and makes it distasteful: let people look well into it, and they will see plainly that I am telling the truth. Wherein lies the highest perfection? It is clear that it does not lie in interior delights, not in great raptures, not in visions, not in the spirit of prophecy, but in the conformity of our will to the will of God, so that there shall be nothing we know He wills that we do not will ourselves with our whole will, and accept the bitter as joyfully as the sweet, knowing it to be His Majesty's will" (Fodndations, ch. 5). The reason for this statement, that our, union with God is in ~vill rather than in any perceptions that belong to our intellectual fac.ulties, seems to be this: anything that we know, we know accord-ing to our o.wn mind; the object known comes into our mind and necessarily to some extent takes on the shape of our mind, and hence shares in the limitations of our mind. The mind assimilates to itself the object known, and in so doing limits the obje'ct in some way. Consequently, we can only know God by means of comparisons, indirectly: in this life we cannot see God directly as He is, because be is too great for our minds to take in. -But the will is different from the intellect in that it does not ~bape the object by drawing the object into itself, but ,rather goes out to the object as it is in itself; the will therefore does not limit the object by its own limitations as the mind do~s. It follows from this, tb_at, although we cannot know God, in this life, exactly as He is, nevertheless we can love God Himself exactly as He is, be-cause our minds can get to God truly ~nd hence our wills can go out to God insofar as He is truly represented in oflr minds, and not insofar as the mind obscures God by imperfect, indirect knowl-edge. I can love a person, even though I do not knov¢ him thor-ougbly: I can know him enough to love him, and it is he himself that I love, and not my own imperfect conception of him. Hence, in this life our union with God is primarily a uni6n of will, although since man is one whole, that union of will reacts upon the intellect and upon all the powers of the soul, and bell~s to greater perception and awareness. One cannot be united to God in will without somehow coming to be aware of that~ fusion of wills and thus coming into almost direct contact with God Him- 86 March, 1956 THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE self. St. Catherine of Siena was told that "the truly obedient man , always retains the desire of submission, and that this desire is like an inward refrain of music" (quoted by Marmion from the Dialogue~ on Obedience : Christ the Ideal of the Monk, p. 262). In this way, obedience is really a form of contemplation, simple, easy, and effective; and not wearisome to the bead. "This is what I am or-dered to do. It is God's will for me. I do it. That is God. That is all." Nor is this hindered if our obedience is very active, even if in obedience we must use initiative and ingenuity and resource. It is then that the very powers of the mind are given to God, wl~at intelligence we may have, what force of character, what gift of imagination, even what magnetism we may have to attract others. These are given to God, through the hands of the human beings who represent Him, and used gladly as we are directed~ because there is great security in using all our gifts as the mind of God, represented by a human superior, directs. Nothing could be m6re mistaken than to take the comparisons 9ften used by the saints, of a d~ad body, or an old man's staff, and apply them beyond their real application. They are not used to indicate complete passivity, but to indicate that we make no resistance to being moved from this house to the other, from this post to the other, or, even, that we are content if obedience makes no use of our talents at all. They in-dicate that we are completely dead and nothing but a walking stick as regards our own peculiar ideas when they clash with the su-perior's. Perhaps if the saints bad known of bose pipes, with a strong and full pressure of water in them, they might have used the comparison of a hose pipe which could be turned in this direc-tion or that, made to'give a heavy stream of water or a narrow jet, according as the bands holding it directed. The comparisons mean that the force and power which God may- bare given us is placed utterly in the control of the superior, as representing God; and that by faith we believe that the only good result will come from the union of that force and powe.r with the will of God as interpreted to us by His representative. . Here, too, enters what is called blind obedience. Now to inter-pret blind obedience as unintelligent, stupid obedience would be itself unintelligent and stupid. The more intelligent people are the more they must use their intelligence in order to obey well. The blindness only comes in after all due representations bare been made --and it is part of the duty of obedience to make reasonable repre- BERNARD LEEMING Review for Religious sentations, even to make them forcibly on .occasion-- and the su-perior orders us to do something with which our natural reason does not agree, for which we cannot see the reasons or the reason-ableiaess. It is then that we must be carried by an impulse of the will, blind to natural reasons, desirous only of conforming the understanding to the mind of the superior. And mtich can be done in this way: to close our mental ears to contrary reasonings, to look at it from the superior's side, and to make ourselves well af-fected to our superior. We cannot, of course, assent contrary to the known truth; but often the truth about the wisdom of a course of action can be perceived differently according to the antecedent state of mind in which we train ourselves, and according to the way we allow our minds toact. If we have opened our minds to the reve-lation of 6ur Lord beneath the deficiencies of the human agent, then it is easier to see God's will in what may naturally only look like ignorance, prejudice, favouritisrri, or vanity, So often it happens that lack of the spirit of obedience leads to narrow and restricted views. Obedience can and does take the ,long view. God's providence works oddly. Perhaps God sometimes 'wishes a poor superior, an incompetent superior, in order to use them as a lesson for subjects, or perhaps one special subject, a lesson to teach them what to do, and ~hat not to do, when they themselves are superiors! And to oppose that superior, to magnify his defects, to allow feelings to become ruffled, or depression to take possession of the 'spirit--this is Clearly to oppose God Himself, contrary to what we have promised Him." Perhaps God wants a certain 'work to fail, and to fai.1 precisely through our most obedient efforts and strivings, in order'to obtain some greater good of which we cannot be aware. In this sense, it is perfectly true that obedience, although. its proper fruit may seem to be to perfect the will, :nevertheless also perfects the understanding: it gives the understanding length and breadth and depth, conforming it to the infinite wisdom and knowl-edge of God. Often only in retrospect are we able to see that it was not only virtuous to obey, but was very wise, also. "Because you are conscious within yourselves," says St. Ig-natius of Loyola, "that you have undergone this yoke of obedi-ence for the love of God, to the end that you might, in following the Superior's will, more assuredly follow the divine, will; doubt not, but that the mgst faithful charity of our Lord continually directs you and .leads you in the right Way" by the hands of those whom He gives you for Superiors.''~ 88 March, 1956 THE MYSTICISM OF OBEDIENCE This yoke of obedience: it can indeed bear heavily, it ban chafe and sometimes cut, and force us to go on and on dragging a weari-some burden. Christ Hirhself'felt the burden, and even prayed that it might be lifted from Him. And yet to Him, His Father's charity was faithful, most faithful; and even through the hands of Annas and Caiphas, of Judas and of Pilate, that faithful charity of His Father led Christ in that right way that led to our salvation. Christ obeyed for me. Christ }rusted His father for me. Christ loved me and delivered Himself for met delivered Himself for me not only that my sins migh}: be forgiven, that grace might come to me, but als'o that to me might come the honour of sharing His obedience with Him, of offering the noblest part of me to His Father with His offering, even of making myself one with His self-giving for the redemption~ of mankind. Nothing so unites us to Christ as Obedience;. for perfect obedi-ence gives to Him our liberty, our memory, and our very under-standing. What more" have we that we can give? And this giving is the most perfect charity: if you love me,. keep my commandments. Yet we give them in such simple, often almost commonplace, ways: doing what we are told, be it great or small, be it important or un: important, be it hard or easy. Nevertheless, if we do gi.ve our whole selves to Him in this simplicity of obedience, be sure that His most faithful charity does stay~ with us. Gradually He ta.kes us all: our remnants of self-contentment, our rags of pride, our dirtiness of devious self-seeking; of all these and suchlike His faithful charity gradually strips us: a pain at once and yet a joy, He is meek and humble of heart, even in His purifying of us to make us more fit to share with Him in His unutterably pure sacrifice to God. ,,He fills us with His own love of His Father. He gives us sometimes to feel something of that. joy with which He went to His Father. He allows us sometimes to see that His saving work goes on, even thrbugh me, even through me: but yet not through me, only through Him, and I spoil it, and yet He does not let me Spoil it quite, because it is truly He who obeys in me, and His obeying is of infinite love, even God's own love, The mystery of obedience: it is the mystery °of Christ; the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, in whom all is one, even to the blessedness qf giving of the WhOle and yet" receiving, of the Whole". And yet, it is quite simple: "If you love me, keep my command-_ ments. BERNARD LEEMING To conclude, then: ! 1. Obedience is a good in itself, and not for any utilitarian purpose, because obedience in itself unites me to God; and unity with God is an end in itself. 2. Obedience reflects the unity of Christ with His Father and reflects the divine life in Him. So it does likewise in me. 3. It is through obedience, as such, and not through human advantages secured by obedience, that Christ redeemed us. It is through obedience that we share His redeeming mission, share His power to save souls. 4. Progress in obedience means progress in union with Christ and means, too, greater accomplishment in our redemptive union with Him. With Christ we are co-workers in redemption; but that co-working (s, first and middle and last, union in His obedience. 5. Conkequently, let us pray for opportunities of obedience: that we may do each task because God commands it, that we may find our love and our life in doing His will. If the commands are simple, thank God; if they are difficult--perhaps removal from an office, perhaps subordination to an uncongenial senior--thank God more, for what else" are we for but to obey? SUMMER SESSIONS The Institute for Religious at College Misericordia, Dallas, Pennsylvania (a three-year summer course of twelve days in canon law and ascetical theology for siste.rs), will be held this year August 20-31. This is the first year in the triennial course. The'course in canon law is given by the Reverend 3osepb F. Gallen, S.2'., that in ascetical theology by the Reverend Daniel 2. M. Callahan, S.2., both of Woodstock College, Woodstock, Maryland. The registration is restricted to higher superiors, their councilors, general and provincial officials, mistresses of novices, and those in similar positions. Applications are to be addressed to the Reverend doseph F. Gallen, S.2., Woodstock College, Woodstock, Md. Gonzaga University offers three summer institutes for religious women only. These institutes were inspired by the recent emphasis on the religious formation of sisters. The topics and dates for the institutes are: moral direction for others~ dune 19-30; understanding human nature, 2'uly 2-13; personal holiness, 2.uly 16-27. Gonzaga also offers two institutes for priests only; one on sacred eloquence, the other on-the psychology of the adolescent. For further information write to the Reverend Leo 2". Robinson, S.3., Gonzaga University, Spokane 2, Washington. 90 Sist:ers' Ret:reat:s--I I Thomad Dubay, S.M. APPROACH TO SUB3ECT MATTER |N this second article on our sisters' retreat survey, we will discuss I the retreat master's approach to his subject matter. The first of the questions asked the sisters dealt with the technique the re-treat master uses in setting forth his tea.ching. We can convey what is here meant~ in no better way than by, reproducing the question just as it was asked.To avoid needless repetition, we will indicate the sisters' choices together with the statement of the survey question. Which of the following emphases in meditation exposes do you usually prefer? __many quotations from Sacred Scripture . 27 4.0%) __intellectual explanation of doctrine, principles, etc .115 16.9 %) __emotional approach (stress on beautiful images, language, etc.) .o . :'. . 4 .6%) ____combination of first and second . 195 (28.6%) ¯ __combination of first and third . 16 (2.3%) __combination of Second and third . 28 (4.1%) __mixture of all three . 297 (43~.5%) Further comment: (space p.rovided) From this data several conclusions seem unavoidable: 1. Almost none of the sisters (.6%) want stress placed on the emotions alone. 2. The group of sisters who want any notable stress placed on the emotions is decidedly small (7%). This conclusion is reached by combining categories 3, 5, and 6. 3. The vast majority (91.3%) want emphasis placed on solid intellectual content whatever the combination of emphases might be. This con, clusion is obtained by combining groups 2, 4, 5, and 7. 4. A large minority (45.5%) prefer no emotional appeal mixed in with the intellectual. This can be seen by uniting the results from categories 2 and 4. 5. The frequent use~of Sacred Scripture follows the intellectual approach in popularity among the sisters. The comments of the sisters on this problem are both interest-ing and enlightening. All three, but the emotional element ought to be relatively small. If the intellectual explanation is ignored, women's piety tends to becom~ soft, enervated, spineless. A thought-provoking, solid presentation with enough of the emotional to make it spiritually palatable appears best to me. 91 THOMAS DUBAY Reuieu~ for Religious I believe that principles for religious life should be based on .Holy Scripture. It is only too late that one finds the beauty and worthwhile passages in Holy Scripture. Personally, I have, found myself living in close union with God by just one passage studied in the New Testament at meditation or spiritual reading. Let's have intellectual explanation. If the priest has the ability to express his ideas well so much the better. The use of Scriptu.re must be an overflow from the medi-tative life of the speaker. There has been too much emphasis on' the emotional approach, so why not get meditation on a solid basis for a change? Intellectual and emotional--I don't mean sentimental. God made things t0 be beautiful. Why not~ talk about those beautiful things? A balanced mixture with no excess in any one. Flowery language annoys more than appeals, I think, Father; however, a correct, flfient style helps much--language from the heart to the heart--without being dramatic or emotional. Mixture of all. A retreat group made up of different personalities, characters, men~ talkies, etc. needs meditation exposds that will to a certain extent reach all. Beautiful thoughts stay in the memory much longer than cold cut and dry ones. Women love beautiful things, why not give them to us? I dislike retreat masters who key their meditations to the emotions. Probably they do this because they have been led to think women prefer this. I do not find the e~otional approach "stands up" under the r~alistic test of a year in the religlous life, Exposition of the Sacred Scriptures appeals to me as most fruitful for meditation. (Texts on Public Life of Christ.) Some emotion has its place, undoubtedly, but I think to be effective it requires the most complete sincerity on the part of the retreat master--otherwise it only makes one uncomfortable. Some emotional stress helps, but I resent having my emotions obviously played upon. Besides, the emotional effect is most iikely to wear off. I would like to add emotional approach in the original meaning of appeal to the emotions or affections, not sentimentality, but with much intellectual and doctrinal support. Never emotional. ,Meditation becomes more fruitful, more satisfying as knowledge, of the Scriptures and doctrine increases. Quotation from Scriptures is fine IF that quotation is explained. Content thoroughly intellectual. Manner of presentation depending on the indi-vidual's broad reading, conversations, and own conviction and realization (we need some variety here!). Structure stemming from Scripture. All three. ~owever, oratory (?), (shouting, whispering, and dramatic pauses) can be omitted in ALL exposes. God forbid! (emotional approach) It is amazing how all three sprinkled in can provide the "oil" for my own "ma-chinery"-- in other wolds, "the Holy Ghost can work through all three approaches to fit the individual--don't limit the approach and.keep 'em happy! and thinking. 92 March, 1956 SISTERS' RETREATS "---II IX view of the sisters' observations just given and the numerical data previously noted, it appears that retreat masters should attempt to tailor their techniques accor~ling to the conclusions we have al-ready indicated. AMOUNT OF THEOLOGY We approach now a much-bandied-about question in the circles of sister formation interests: theology. Here we shall view the problem from the vantage point of retreat content, which, of course, touches upon in-service sister f6rmation. The amount of theology desirable in a retreat and the degree in which the sisters un'derstand it were the objects of two questions, the first of which follows: Do you think that the amount of theology ordinarily presented in retreat meditations is __ekcessive '.2__~too little __about right Further comment :__ A notable majority, 486 (72.6 %), of the sisters are well sails-fled with the amount of theology they ordinarily receive in their rdreats, although a sizeable minority, 171 (25.6%), decidedly think they hear too little. A v~ry small gr0ui~, 12 (1.8%), feel that too much theology is presented. The pres~ent writer has the impression from reading the many replies that the more completely educated sisters tend in greater ,.numbers to want more theology in their retreats, whil'e those with less formal training tend in greater nu~nbers to feel satisfied with the status quo. These tendencies are not, however, universal, for there are sister-teachers in college who are satisfied with retreat theology as it stands and some domestic sisters who desire more. The sisters offered the following comments on' their answers: Representative of those who think the theology is excessive: Excessive because of mixed groups of domestic sisters, etc.; otherwise it would be about right. Sisters who think the theology too little: ' Too much "dry" repetition of elementary data on the fundamentals., Religious should be mature and treated as such. o ¯ The more the better. We need it for .our teaching preparations. I have found it of great advantage when theology was much presented, since I only had an elementary education. Superiors should be advised to give books of theology to read to their sisters, if the confessor appr6ves of it, when a sister desires .it. ' 93 THOMAS DUBAY Revieu~ for Religious \ Many sisters are starved for real spiritual meat which can be satisfied only through theology. For many of the sisters retreat time is the only time they get a chance to get some theology. I don't think xve can get too much! Much too little. In some God is hardly mentioned except as author" of this or that law. And the Holy Ghost not so much as heard of. "Religious who think the amount of theology about right: Some tend to overdo it, but I think it appears excessive only if the retreat master uses too many abstract technical terms. I like points of theology brought out since I never studied it as such. Although it is not too little, there could be more as a number of us have the oc-casion to use it daily, Depends on retreat master. I find retreat masters about right; too little usually. Also depends on individual. It differs from a great deal to too little. Perhaps it could be more in most cases. I am satisfied with just the Personality of Christ according to Gospels. Retreat days ought not be a course in theology. If necessary, this should be taken care of otherwise. Some give more, others less, so that on the whole I'd say it evens up about right. As far as I am concerned, a deep theological retreat would be out of place. The mental training of our sisters is too varied to admit of excessive technicality in meditations. Sound, simple explanation of dogma is always welcome. Rather excess than defect. Sisters need solid dogmatic principles always. Do much harm a,mong those taught if they lack principles. Sometimes it is very excessive, but usually about right. However, they often presuppose more theological knowledge on our part than many of us actually possess. For our younger sisters who have had many courses in theology, it may be about right. For our older people and those who because of the work they do, do not continue.their education, it is probably excessive, except where the retreat master takes the trouble to clearly explain his points. Distinguish: amount of theology usually presented--O.K.; skill in bringing out theological implications, e.g., in a meditation on the Passion, without getting dry and classroomish--tbis is rarer. Too much, I believe, would dishearten the less intellectual; too little would make it impossible to form a foundation for the convictions necessary in living a spir-itual life. In coming toa satisfactory conclusion on this whole problem of theology it seems that the retreat m~ister must keep two cardinal points in mind: the sisters' background and his own treatment. March, 1956 SISTERS' RETREAT'S--II Both of these points are so relative that no possible suggestion to be adopted by all retreat masters can be given here. What is excessive for one community (or for one group of. sisters within it) may be too little for a second and about right for a third. Likewise, the same theology in the mouth of one priest may be excessive; in that of another, too little. To adjust the first relative element the retreat master might conduct a careful investigation of the sisters to whom he is going to give his retreat. He could write the provincial superior requesting information on the education and works of the sisters making the retreat and then adapt his methodology accordingly. An appraisal of the second element (the priest's treatment of theology) could be effected by. a simple, one-page questionnaire given by the retreat master to the sisters after his retreats. He could ask whether he had given enough theology, whether his e~planation was simple and clear, and any other question that might contribute to greater efficiency. This information would not benefit the sisters who furnished it, but it could be most helpful in subsequent retreats given by the retreat m~ister. /SISTERS' UNDERSTANDING OF THEOLOGY The sisters were next asked if they thought that the theology that was presented in their retreats was understood. Do you think that the sisters can understand the theology that is presented at least fairly well? __.most of them "do __some do __few do Further comment:__ The breakdown of the answers to this .query is percentage-wise quite close to that of the preceding question. The presence of too many diverse factors, however, prevents us from asserting that this correlation is really significant. For example, on this question some of the sisters answered in an unexpected way. These few indicated that the amount of theology discussed in retreats is too little and then in the present question chose the response ""some do" rather than "most do." Of the sisters ans.wering this question, 517 (76.2%) "think that most understand the theology, 153 (22.5%) that only some grasp it, and 9 (1.3%) that few sisters understand it. For this question it does not seem necessary to divide the sisters' further comments into categories, for their meaning is clear enough as they stand. 95 THOMAS DUBAY I'm not anything when it comes to brain power, but 1 can say. that I understood everything I've heard so far. Most sisters with high school or. colleg'e education can understand. Sisters with elementary education who have grown old with hard manual labor in homes or seminaries cannot. All in my community understand what is presented,, and most do it better than "fairly well.'~ I don't know how other sisters feel about it, but I like it. I think perhaps most of the priests think we have had more theology than we really have had. I certainly feel the sisters would be capable of receiving more if it were given. Before retreat begins we are able rather accurately to predict the outline of the con-ferences, if not .the matti~r of each conference. No challenge! ,. Very poor foundation in theology obtained in thee novitiate. Since most sisters either have a college education or are receiving it, they can under-stand considerably more than is usually offered, i believe. The fact that they might not [understand] would seem to indicate a further need for it. Too often I feel that the retreats are directed prima,rily to the teachers and the others find it difficult to follow ot:' gain much from it. Most' of them do, but not all like it. There is a certain type of nun who likes simple retreats. I do not believe it is a case of sisters failing to understand theology, but a case of retreat masters failing to present theology. Sisters have often gone through retreats without deriving much practical help. All sisters do not have a high inte!ligence and need more explaining. Much depends On the master's ability to make theological truths clear and mean-ingful, A retreat master should conduct the retreat on as high a theological, philosophical,. ascetical, and even mystical a plane as he is able. He should give sisters exactly the same substantial content as he would give to other priests. He need have no fear that they will not be able to understand and live what he himself understands and lives. He should deliver his message however without scholarly verbiage, Latinisms, and all the other .trappings~which' serve to impress rather than to clarify. Through no fault of 'their own, sisters do not have the information to cgpe with this. It is a great m'istake however--and sad to say a common one--to confound a sister's lack of technical theological learning with a lack of intelligence. It is the priest's task to make the technical comprehensible to the non-theologian. This of course demands much more unde~rstanding than does a presentation in the language of the manu'als. Most retreat masters present a very thin spiritual gruel by comparison with what they could give if they. had greater respect for the potentialities of the sisters. ~ The suggestions appended to our discussion of the immediately preceding question would appear to apply to this present problem with equal validity. 96 ( .uesHons and Answers [The following answ,ers are given by°Father Joseph F. Gallen, S.d., professor of canon law at Woodsiock College, W, oodstock, Maryland.] tI,t 9 ' Ih our concjrecjatlon of :sis ers here is a fee c~harcjed for the expenses of the postulancy and noviceshipI. Recently a novice had to have an op-eratlon for append|c,tls. Are tile expenses of th,s operat,on included ~n the fee, or are her parents obl,cjed to pay them? As permitted by can. 570~ § 1, and found at least frequently in all types of religious institutes', the constitutions of nuns and sisters ordinarily d~mand that the ca!ndidate brin~ prescribed clothing and personal effects with her to the postulancy and pay an established sum for the expenses ofthe" Ipostulancy and noviceship. The ex-penses for which payment mawr be demanded are only the ordinary and common expenses of food and clothing. The cost of the medi-cines and similar personal necessities that are usually required may be included under food. The I . ~ordmg of the canon does not permit an exaction for lodging nor for the cost of formation. Much less does it permit that the sum be~ established also for the profit of the institute, as if the,subject wer,e a student of an academy or college. The spirit of the canon is rather that nothing should be demanded if such a polic3r is a practical conform to this spirit at least readiness to grant necessary di Extraordinary expenses, e. g., serious illness, are not inciucJ The institute may rightfully that such expenses be borne b3 cases can readily and frequent'~ dent or inconsiderate to urge possibility~ Superiors should and do the extent of a prompt and cheerful pensationL whether whole or partial. those of :a surgical operation or of a '.d in this fee for ordir~ary expenses. demand, as in the present question, the subject or her parents. However, ~" occur in which it would be impru-his right: If the postulant or novice leaves or is dismissed, the insti}ute is entitled to payment of ex-p~ nses only for the time spe~nt in'the institute. 'Some aspects of the practice should be studied for possible re-vision. The list of things thalt the candidate is to bring with 'her should ,not be so massive as to]dismay a~ay-girl. Perhaps this is male ignorance, but it does not seem efficient to have each candidate bring such objects as towels, sheets, blankets, napkins, and silverware. I should think that uniformity of size and quality would be desir-" QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Re~iew for Religious able in such objects, that the institute could purchase them at a lower price, and that it would be more efficient to increase the fee somewhat. Despite any ancient authority that may be cited for this and similar.practices, I cannot see how personalized silverware contributes to speed in setting up a large refectory and much less to the supposed simplicity and humility of the religious life. Although extraneous to the present question, I would hold the same for a train on the religious habit, which appears to me to be neither simple nor humble and to be at least dubious in the field of hygiene. The customary practice of requiring that parents continue to supply during .the postulancy and noviceship things such as soap and toothpaste and articles of clothing that have been exhausted or worn out is the deceptive economy of money saved, but with un-noted spirit, ual depreciatiofi. The practice does not manifest a gen-erous spirit on the part of the institute and is not apt to engender a spirit of devotion and loyalty in the subject. It may also be the primaryreason why so many professed secure necessities from ex-terns. The psychology of religious infancy can be more lasting and tenacious than that of human infancy, and the usual correlative of stinginess of superiors is stubborn infidelity of subjects to. the ob-ligations of the vow and the laws on poverty. It is evidently con-trary to the quasi-contract of profession for an institute to exact payment from parents for expenses incurred after profession. Free gifts may be accepted. Expenses for food and clothing should not be charged for any period in which the postulants and novices are 'fully applied to the external works of the institute, e. g., as full-time teachers or nurses. It is conservative to state that few parents of religious are wealthy. Many have exhausted their financial capability in giving a son or daughter a high school education. They have sac-rificed any return on a child's earnings by the entrance into religion. Further exactions should not be imposed on them without at least careful and considerate thought. Finally, it is always to be remem-bered that it is extravagance, not~generosity, that is incompatible with religious poverty. ~0 Is it true that a resident chaplain should never hear ÷he confessions of ~'he sisters of the convent of which he is chaplain'? A chaplain as such is not the ordinary, extrhordinary, nor a sup-plementary confessor of the community. He may be appqinted as such. I believe that many would agree with me .in the statement that it is better not to appoint him as the ordinary" or extraordinary 98 March, 1956 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS c~nfessor of the c6mmunity. Anything alSproaching authority, mere friendship, and frequent soc"la 1a1n d b u s'iness contacts can be harmful to the greater efficacy of confeIs s. ion. It is therefore bettek not to ap-point a priest such as a chapla~in or one teaching in the school' with the sisters as their ordinary or extraordinary confessor. Since the confession will be the choice of the individual sister, no such reason exists against his appointment as the special ordinary of a sister or as a supplementary confessor of the convent of which he is,chap-lain. In the latter case he is evidently obliged in virtue of this ap-pointment to hear the confession of any sister 6f the convent who approaches him for confession when there is a just reason and for as long as the just reason continues. There is no question that he will be willing to hear'the confession of a sister in danger of death¯ Inasmuch as he possesses confessioIial jurisdiction for women, he can be both an occasional and a confessor of seriously sick sisters¯ As such he is obviously not to usurp the duty of the ordinary confessor of the community, but he should be willing to hear the confessions of sisters who reasonably request him to do so. He cannot be un-mindful of charity, and his study of moral theology and can6n law should have convinced him that cases of real spiritual necessity occur in all states of life. Furthermore, the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments has emphasized the principle with regard to the members of any type of community: ". what is especial, ly important, that they should have the opportunity to make a confession also shortly before the time of Communion . . . where frequent and daily Com-munion is in vogue, frequent and daily opportunity for sacramental confession, as far as that is possible, must also be afforded¯"' (Bous-caren, Canon Laco Digest, II, 210.) The Sacred Congregation could not have been unaware of the fact that the only priest who is cus-tomarily present in a house of lay religious daily, especially immedi-ately before Mass, is the resident chaplain or the priest who says the daily Mass. II We are a diocesan concjregation. Sometime in the past we had a particular sister who left; if she had not left, we would have tried to dis-miss her. She was a most difficult and peculiar subject. On leavlncj, she threatened to sue us for the work she had done in the concjrecjation. How could we have protected ourselves.'! Relig'ious progression contains two elements, the taking o;f the vows and a quasi-contract between the subject and the institute. One of the elements of this quasi-contract is that the religious gives 99 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERff Review for Religious over all her. labor to the institute. For. this reason can. 580, § 2, logically declares that anything given to a religious for his work belongs to the institute~ With equal logic can. 643, § 1, declares that a professed religious who leaves or is dismissed may not seek com-pensation for services rendered to the institute. This Canon is in-serted in constitutions approved by the Holy See. It is also under-stood that the same dedication of services applies to postulants and novices. The Holy See in approving constltut~ons adds a provision to can. 643 § 1. This provision enacts'that aspirants on their admis-sion to the postulancy must signa civilly valid document in which they dechlre that they will not demand any remuneration for serv-ices given in .the institute if they leave or are dismissed. The Holy. See of late has also been requiring that this declaration be renewed at the time of perpet[~al profession. It is understood that this pro-vision applies also to the postulancy and noviceship and is to be so wprded. To avoid any future difficulty, "such a provision should be made, even if it is not prescribed in the constitutions. The reason for the renewed declaration prescribed at the time of perpetual pro-fession is to make certain that the declaration will be made at a legal age, since .perpetual~ profession cannot be validly made until the day after the twenty-first birthday (c. 573). -12 Is correspondence'with the vicar for religious exempt from the in~pec-tion of superiors? Canon 611 exempts from inspection correspondence °with the local ordinaries to whom the religious is subject in matters in which the religious is subject to the ordinaries. It is probable that this same exemption extends to corresigondence with the priest delegated by l;h.e local ordinary to take care of the affairs of a igarticular community or of some or all communities of the diocese, since in fact such a priest i's handling the matters that appertain to the ordinary. It can be objected that the canon does not say, "to the local ordinary or his delegate," and fi superior could licitly deny that the exemption is proved.' However, it would be the part of prudence at least' not to subject such mail to any inspection. Religious ~bould be instructed not to be quick td write to the Holy See, the cardinal protector, " the apostoli~'deleg~ite; or the local ordinary, or his delegate. Such letters derriand a serious m~itter that cannot be resolved by recourse to one's own religious, suPeriors. °External authorities and dignitaries'should. 100 March, 1956 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS n6t,be annoyed by, needless a'nd extraneous correspondence; and do-mestic grievances, especially if purely personfil' or subjective, are to be confined by the family walls. How many "washings must alprlest do of the puHficators, palls, and corporals? Purifactors, palls, and cor~orals~ used in the sacrifice of the Mass are to be washed by. a cleric in major orders ,before being laundered by lay persons. The water of thls first w, ashing is to be poured into the sacrarium. The cleric in m~jor orders is obliged to only one ritual .washing; he may'do three if l~e wisbes to do so. The first washing may not be done even by rehglous women without an indult from the Holy See. The local ordinaries in mission countries have the power of granting such perm~ssmn to religious women. Cf. c. 1306, § 2; Cori3nata, Institutiones Iu~is Canonici, II, n. 887, 2*; J. O'Con-nell, The Celebration of Mas's, 256; Collins, The Church Edi[ice and Its AppOintments, 219-2~: Britt, Church Linens, 32; Murphy, The Sacristan's Manual, 12-13; Winslow, A Cornrnentarg on the Apostolic Faculties, 61. " Does the general ~decree on ~he simplification of the rubrics apply to the Lfffle Office of the ELV.M.? The decree of the Sacred [Congregation of Rites is confined to the rubrics of the Divine Office, and Mass, but from analogy the norms on the beginning and ~nd of the hours nSay be licitly used in both the choral and indivi~tual recitation of the Little Office of the B. V. M. The following, is a summary of the ~.ertinent parts of the decree. In beginnin~ both the pub(ic and private recitation c~f the canoni-cal hours, the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Apostles' Cr~ed are omitted; and the hours begin~ absolutely as follows: Matins from Domine, labia mea aperies; Cc~mpline from Iube, dorone benedicere; all others from Deus, tn adtut~orturn. In both public and private recitation, the canonical hours end as follov~s: Prime with Dom~mus nos benedicat; Complin~ with Benedicat et custodiat; all others,including Matins if recited pri-vately, with Fideliurn anirnae.~ The office ends after Compline with the recitation of the ,custo-mary antiphon of the B. V-. M., which is said here only, and Divinum auxiliurn. The indult and indulgences granted for the recit'ation of QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Sacrosanctae are attached to this same final antiphon 6f the B, V, M. Cf.~ M.'Noir0t, L'Arni du C!erg~, August, 1955, 512, note 2. 15 I wished to send a letter ,÷o ~he superior general, and I believed there was a serious reason why'th~ sehdincj of this letter should hive remained completely unknown to the local superior. How c,oulc~ I have accomplished this without violating our regulations? Correspohden~e with-higher superiors is exempt in virtue of c. 611. Exemption means the right to send and receive determined let-ters without permission, to receive them u~aopened, to send them uninspected, and probably the right to send and receive ttSem com-pletely unknown to the superior. Therefore, a superior is not to open sfich letters; and they are to be sealed before being presented to a s'uperior. The probable right o.f sending and receiving them com-pletely unknown to the superior is founded on the wording of c. 611, which states that exempt letters .are subject to n6 inspection. Article 180 of the Normae of 1901 aflir;ned that th~se letter~ were free of any inspection. It can be argued, at least with probability, that they would be subject to some inspection if they had to be presented to or received by the superior. Ordinarily there will be no special reasons against transmitting these letters sealed through the local superior. However, it should be possible to obtain a stamp unknown'to,the.superior; e." g., by having some stamps in the custody of the local.assistant or another religious. If a subject cannot so ob-tain a ~tam. p and wishes to send an exempt letter free of all inspec-tion,° he may obtain a stamp from other sources. He is to avoid all disedification in such.an act. It is not necessary to go to the ex-treme of having the porter separate all exempted envelopes and hand them immediately to the individual religious. ~16~ Our constifutlons state that the reading at table is to be from a pious book. What is the meaning of a pious book? This article of the constitutions is based, on article 182 of th~ Normae of 1901, which specified that the reading was to be from "some 16ious book." This does not demand that. the .reading be always from~ a ~spiritual book; the interpretatior~.is that the reading should be spiritual or useful. Therefore," the reading mgy be also from su{h book~ as" ecclesiastical histories, histories of'religious in-stitutes, e~clesiastical biog~aphies,'etc.,, and, also from instructive and hppropridte secular works. Cf. Battandie'r, Guide Canonique, n. 303. 102 90o! Reviews [All material for this department should be sent to: Book Review Editor, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, West Baden College. West Baden Springs, Indiana.] THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST AS THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF SPIRITUAL,LIFE. By F~iedr[ch Jurcjensmeler. Translafed by Harrier G. Sfrauss. Pp. 379. Sheed and Ward, New York. 1954. $5.00. If ever there was a work of love; it is Father Jurgensmeier's The Mystical Bod~l of Christ. This is flue not ~nly of its subject matter but also of its authorship" an4 translation. The author, rector of the Archiepisocpal Seminary of Paderborn from 1938 to 1946 and martyr of necessary overwork, wrote only this one book, spending years on it and seemingly integrating his whole life, thought, and reading in it. The translator, Harriet G. Strauss, a convert, worked intermittently for five years under 'the direction of Provost Heinrich Seidler of Dresden putting the book into English. The first part of the book. is a comprehensive synthesis df Pauline "texts concerning the Mystical Body, a synthesis which both leads "the reader to the conclusion that the living union with Christ in the MysticalBody is the core of St. Paul's message and makes him anx-ious to read through the Epistles of St. Pa'ul to discover for himself ,their.wealth ~of meaning~ This section is followed' by a difficult dogmatic_ exposition demonstrating that whether one traces the dogmatic path leading from man to God or the one leading from ¯ God through grace to man, one nevertheless ends up at the same place, union with Christ in the Mystical Body. Thus the Mystical Body dogma, because of its central and fundamental position in dogmatic theology, ,is also the basic prificiple for the ascetical life. The last and most rewarding part of the book shows how the Mystical Body doctrine, 'as the fundamental principle of the as-cetical life, not only balances the roles of grace and human effort in" asceticism, but centers attention on Christ rather than on peripheral matters. It does this because it clearly-shows union with Christ as the center and source of all spiritual life; because it focuses atten-tion on the'sacraments as forces integrating us into the structure of the~Mystical Body of Christ and uniting us more closely with Him; because it regulates private devotion and'the liturgy,: and co-ordinates them into .the sacrificial action of Christ the High Priest;- because without neglecting the moral virtues it emphasizes the the- 103 BOOK REVIEWS Review for Retigiou~ ological as uniting with Christ, because it reveals suffering as the finest living of Christ's life and charity as the chief duty in one united with Christ; because it spotlights the fact that each one of us, no matter how insignificant, has a unique and important personal work to accomplish' in Christ's Mystical Body. ° If there are three strata of knowledge in theology, the topmost for the experts, the middle for eager students, and the lowermost for the average Catholic, then Father 3urgensmeier's work would be on the second level sinc,e it demands concentration and study. The translator-edftor is to be lauded for her work in bringing this book into conformity with Pius XII's~M~stici Corporis, but sh~ has not succeeded in all respects. For example, Father Jurgensmeier's errors concerning the extent of and conditions for incorporation in the Mystical Body, though removed in mor.e evident passages, still persist in less noti.ceable ones. Nor are the quotations from M~stici Corporis always apt in selection and textual integration. Father Jurgensmeier himself has complicated the task of the translator by using the same terms in two senses, sdmetimes within the same sen-tence, wiihout warning the reader. Further, in praiseworthily en-deavoring to clarify the meaning of that special mystical identifica- 'tion with \Christ, he has ambiguously described it as a personal character. But these,qualifications, though meant as a warning of caution too the reader, are not intended as derogatory to this magnificent work. Rather it should be considered, as Archbishop Cushing notes in the Foreword, o"a spiritual masterpiece" which can be reread and reread always with g~eater profit. DAVID d. HASSEL, S.J. I AM A DAUGHTER OF THE CHURCH. A Practical Synthesis of Car-mellfe Splrifuality. Volume II. By P. Marie-Eucjane, O.C.D. Trans-la÷e~: l by SMer M. Verda Clare,: C.S.C. Pp. 667. Fides Publishers, Chicacjo 10, Illinois. 19SS. $6.75. In 1953 Fides Publishers produced the first part of a synthesis of the teachings of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross (with examples from the life of the Little Flower) under the title 1 Want to See God. The present work brings to a close this bril-liant and compendious study, explaining as it does the; soul's prog-ress from the beginning of supernatural contemplation in the fourth" of the Teresan.mansions to ~the~ ultimate union °with God in the seventh, .104 March, "1956 ." BOOK REVIEWS Anyone interested in the various stages of supernatural and mystical prayer will find this work of great assistance. The author's genius for synthesis--abundant quotations woven together "with commentary into an orderly development--is evident as he treats in turn supernatural recollection and the prayer of quiet, contem-plative dryness, the dark night of sense, union of the will, the dark night of the spirit, and, finally, transforming union of the soul with God in perfect love. His deft reconciling of apparent divergences in the doctrines of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross is especially notable. Two short sections of the book stand out significantly for souls whose vocation is to be apostles in the modern world, whether or not God has raised them to the higher mansions. The first is Chap-ter X of Part IV, "The Mystery of the Church" (pp. 186-201). Upon reaching a state of union of the will with God (fifth man-sion), Teresa says that the soul is seized with an intense concern for the salvation of other souls. Its eyes are opened to thee.mission it must fulfill in' the Mystical Body. This is what Fath'er Marie- Eugene terms the soul's "~iscovery of the Church." At this point, tvhaetnio, nh eto s kbeet cehffeesc atend e bxyc e~lltehnet usnuimtimnga royf oafll t mhee dni vtoin Ce hprliasnt, oinf sthale-. Mystical Body--a program which dominated' St. Paul's thinking, and which he called the mystery. In Chapter IX of Part V, "The Saint in the Whole Christ" (pp. 606-62), the author b.egins by stressing the exalted and im-perious demands the lov~ of God makes on the soul raised to the sixth and seventh mansions to help in saving other souls. Then in a section'which is almost wholly original, though strictly in har-mony with Teresan spirituality, Father Marie;Eugene discusses the place of contemplation in the lives of modern apostles. It is this section of the book which, he says in the introduction, "he was tempted toe expand. What he has written is most valuable; we may hope that he is able to develop his ideas in their fullness in a future work., Among other sections which may attract special interest., are those on extraordin.ary.favor~ (pp. 243-97), which a.mounts to,a concise treatise on the~subject, and the. lengthy explanation of the dark night of the spirit (pp. 300-506): The publisher .has rendered a distinct .service to American read-ers by presenting these books in English, The typography is well chosen (save, I would say, for the title page and table of contents). 105. BOOK REVIEWS Review [or Religious A handy summary of Teresan spirituality, according to, the char-acteristics of the seven mansions, is printed inside the front cover. The inclusion of a combined index for both volumes would have enhanced the book's value even more. A final word of congratulation must be reserved for the trans-lator, who has produced as smoo.th and' forceful a translation as if the work had been written originally in English. May she turn her hand to other works where less skilled translators" fail to tread! --THEODORE W. WALTERS, TRUE MORALITY AND ITS COUNTERFEITS.' A Critical Analysis of Ex-is÷en÷ialisfic E÷hics. By Diefrlch yon Hildebrand wi÷h Alice Jourdaln. Pp. 179. David McKay Co., Inc., New York. 195S. $3.00. This book, after a brief introduction in which the author clearly states his object and method, contains nine chapters dealing mostly with "circumstance ethics." An appendix, "Allocution du St. P~re d la Fdd~ration. Mondiale des deunessbs "F~minines Catboliques'" (April, 1952) forms the conclusion. As far as can be seen, the book is the work of Von Hildebrand alone. We have ~here a vigor-ous attack both on "situa~tion or circumstances ethics" as well as on "sin m~rsticism." The former, already analyzed and condemned by the Pope in the allocution above referred to, is subjected to a ldnger analysis here. The results are the same--a ringing condem-nation of "situation ethics." The author grants the complexity ~of the individual moral situation, details the pertinent f~ctors'at play therein, but insists with the Pope upon the primacy of universal moral laws. Th~ exaggerations, even the unchristianity, of "~itu-ation ethics" is shown.- The final chapter is a positive statement of Christian ethics. Of more interest and originality, perhaps, are the parts which deal with "sin mysticism," a phrase taken from the German the-ologian, K. Rahner, S.d. This is a.kind of lived .application of some of the principles of "situa~tion ethics" manifested especially in liter-ature. It con'sists in the exaltation'of the tragic~ sinner over the self-righteous, mediocre, or merely conyentionally moral man. Von Hildebrand fi, nds traces of this tendency, in varying~ degress~ in' Catholic writers like Mauriac, Greene, Gertriad~ yon Le Fort and others. Since these Catholic authors~ are read by our students on the college level, at least, teachers of literature will want to read the indictment. Von Hildebrand is certainly not unsympathetic 1.06 March, 1956 ' " BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS towards these writers; he admits~ what he considers the truth they contain, recalls several necessary dtstlnctlons from Catholic ethics, but, in the end, is driven to condemn this tendency in them. --JAMES d. DOYLE, S.J. BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS )kVE MARIA PRESS, Notre Dame, Indiana. Spirituality for: Postulate, NoOitiate, SchoIasticate, l~y Jar~es F. McElhone, C.S.C., is a book on the spiritual life written ex-plicitly fo~ beginners. It !is not a complete treatise on the religious life but alms to lay a solid foundation for such a life. It fills a need long felt by directors of young religious. Pp. 196. $3.00. THE B'RUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Milwaukee 1, WiSconsin. Helps and Hindrances to Perfection, by Thomas J. Higgins, S.J., is a sequel to the author's Perfection Is.for You. The readers for whom it is intended'are all ~he members of the Mystical Body of Christ, for each is bound to tend toward perfection. All can find in these pages help and inspiration. Houses where closed lay re-treats are conducted would do well to add both these volumes to the r~treatants library: .Pp. 258.$4.50. CARMELITE THIRD ORDER PRESS, 6415 Woodlawn Ave., Chicago 37, Ill. Mary and the Saints of Carmel, By-Reverend Valentine L. Boyle, O.Carm. This is a book of meditations on the feasts of our Lady and the saints of the Carmelite Order. Each meditation con-sists of a hundred-word biographical sketch, a one-sentence appli-cation, and the prayer of the-saint from the Carmelite missal. It is profusely illustrated in black and white. Pp. 185. $1.50. Carmel--Mary's Own. A History of the Carmelite Order. Part I. The Elian Origin o? Carmel. Pp. 64, 25c. Part II. The Golden Age of Car~el. Pp. 70. 25c. Part III. Carmel in Modern Times. Pp. 68. 25c. CLONMORE AND REYNOLDS, LTD., 29 Kildare St., Dublin. The Spiritual Teacl~ing of Venerable Francis Libermann. By Bernard J. Kelly, C.S.Sp. Founders of religious orders and con-gregations receive many. special graces from God to enable them to guide wisely in the paths of perfection those ,whom God gives them as followers. That is why the writings of. such founders are esteemed and treasured. The Venerable Francis Libermann, founder. 107 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Review for Religious of the Congregations of the Holy 'Ghost and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, left his followers many valuable documents. Father Kelly has put these in the framework of a treatise on the spiritual life and so has made the wise counsels of the founder of his congrega-tion available to a wider circle of readers. Pp. 201. 13/-. DAUGHTERS OF SAINT PAUL, Old Lake Shore Road, Derby," N. Y. In The Daily Gospel we bare a harmonization of the four G~s-pels due essentially to Father Szczepanski, S.J. A portion of the Gospel is presented for each day of the year. Each selection is fol-lowed by a pertinent quotation from the fathers of the Church and a reflection. The reflections were compiled by John E. Robaldo, S.S.P. The text of the Gospels is the Confraternity version. Keep this book hand~; on your desk and nourish your soul with the Words of Life. Pp. 495. Paper $3.00. Cloth $4.00. Bible Stories for Children. Written and illustrated by the Daughters of' St. Paul. The book contains twenty-six stories from the Old Testament and fifty from the New. Each story is illus-trated with a full page attractive picture in four colors. Pp. 165. Soft cover $1.75. Cloth $3.00. St. Paul Catechism of Christian Doctrine. Prepared and illus-trated by the Daughters of St. Paul. There are six books in the set, one for each grade from one to six. They are richly illustrated in four colors. "Each lesson is divided into three parts: Catechism, Sacred Scripture, and Liturgy. Single copies retail for from 30 to 60 cents. DESCLEE COMPANY, INC., 280 Broadway, New York 7. A Short Histoql of Philosophg. By F. J. Thonnard, A.A. Translated by Edward A. Maziarz, C.PP.S. This is an excellent philosophical presentation of the major trends, schools, and leaders of Western philosophic thought. The intrinsic connection between the presuppositions, basic principles, and doctrines of the major philosohers is emphasized and their thought is briefly evaluated in" the light of Thomistic principles. The. work has excellent bibli-ographies and a valuable doctrinal table. This Efiglish translation, though faulty, will be welcome. Pp. 1074. $6.50. DOYLE AND FINEGAN, Collegeville, Minnesota. The-Simplilication of the Rubrics. Text of the Decree toitb Commentar~.1. By Annibale Bugnini, C.M. Translated by Leonard J. Doyle.~ Father Bugnini's commentary is by far the best that 108 March, 1956 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS has appeared so far and will do much to give a better understanding of the new rubrics. Pp. 131. $1.50. Order for Office and Mass, 1956. This is an English Ordo written for those who say the Divine Office in Engllsb. Pp. 115. $1.25. FELICIAN SISTERS, 600 Doat .St., Buffalo, N. Y. Magnigcat. A Centennial Record of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Felix. The appearance of this book announces the happy completion of a century of growth and progress of the Felician sisters. All religious will find this book both interesting and in-spiring. To learn what others have done and are doing for the love of God is an external grace which stimulates to greater and more generous efforts in the following of Christ. It is a .valuable his-torical do.cument that every Catholic library should have. Pp. 155. GRAIL PUBLICATIONS, St. Meinrad, Indiana. Religio Religiosi. By Aidan Cardinal Gasquet, O.S.B. Though published in England in 1923, this little volume is not very well known in this country; and it should be better known. If all who have to face the problem of a choice of a state in life 'would read this book, vocations to the religious life would be multiplied. Pp. 120. $2.50. True Christmas Spirit. By Reverend Edward J. Sutfin. Here is a °book on the Christmas liturgy written at the request of edu-cators to assist them in teaching liturgy to children. It draws on the treasury of world literature and custom. Religious devoted to teaching will find this book most helpful. Pp. 154. $3,00. The Help of His Grace. The Storg of a Benedictine Sister. By Sister Jean Marie, O.S.B. This booklet is a new addition to vo-cational literature. Girls who wish to decide whether they have a vocation to the Benedictine way of life will find it most helpful. Pp. 108. $.50. ~ B. HERDER BOOK COMPANY, 15 South Broadway, St. Louis 2, Mo. The Names of Christ. By Louis of Leon, O.S.A. Translated by Edward J. Schuster. The author of this book was a professor of the University of Salamanca and a contemporary of St. Teresa of Avila and of St. John of the Cross. His spiritual doctrine is well summed up in the present volume. It is the sixth in the Cross .and Crown Series of Spirituality. Pp. 315. $4.75. The Church Teaches. Documents of the Church in English 109 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Reoiew [or Religious Translation. By the Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary's College, St. Mar~;s, Kansas. The gratifying growth of the departments of religion in our-Catholic colleges and universities makes bool~s like the pres.ent volume a necessity. The argument from tradition will always be a major argument in all religious questions. Hence the necessity of translating the documents enshrining this tradition into English, since a knowledge of Latin and Greek can no longer be presupposed in tb~ students of religion. This book is a "must" for teachers of "rel'igion. Pp. 400. $5.75. :" Introduction to the Philosoph~t of Animate Nature. By Henry J. Koren, C.S.Sp. Teachers of philosophy will welcome this ne~i addition to Catholic texts on rational psychology. There is more 'than enough material for a three-hour one-semester course. An ap-pendix .contain~ a list of review questions and suggested readings. Pp. 341. $4.75. An Introduction to the Science of Metapbgsics. By Henry J. Koren, C.S.Sp. This clear, understandable, and orderly textbook, giving the traditional Thomistic doctrine of being, is divided into two parts: being in general (,its nature, its transcendental properties and its limitation), and finite being (its nature and multiplication, its categories, and its causes). For a three-hour one-semester course some selection of material will be necessary. Pp. 341. $4.75. THI~ NI~WMAN IaRI~SS, Westminster, .Ma'ryland. An Hour with Jesus. Meditations for Religious. By Abbe Gaston Courtois. Translated by 'Sister Helen Madeleine, S.N.D. Religious women whose work is education will find enlightenment, encouragement, and many practical, suggestions in this volume. Used as an aid for meditation, the book should do much to advance its users in. the art of mental prayer. Pp. 161. $3.00. :'"Cleanse mg Heart. Meditations on .the Sunda~t Gospels. By Vincerit P. McCorry, S.J. Readers of America will be familiar with Father McCorry's liturgical column "The Word." They will be pleased that one year's offerings have been given a more permanent form in the present volume. Pp. 179. $2.75. Graceful Living. A Course in the Appreciation of the Sacra-ments. By John Fearon, O.P. This is a book on the theology of the sacraments written in a popular vein to catch the interest of the ordinary Catholic and so help him to a fuller Catholic life. It was a selection of the Spiritual Book Associates. Pp. 160. $2.50. Leauen of Holiness. Conferences for Religious. By Reverend 110 March, 1956 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS Charles Hugo Doyle. Those who have read Father Doyle's first book of conferences for religious, In Pursuit of Perfection, will find in this volume the same freshness of style and vigor of presentation. Pp. 242. $3.50. Meditations Before Mass. By Romano Guardini. Translated by Elinor C. Briefs. Despite the title, this is not a book of medi-tations. It is rather a collection of conferences given originally before Mass to enable the congregation to enter fully into the divine action. Its purpose is to teach a greater appreciation of and participation in the holy sacrifice. Pp. 203'. $3.00. THE PRIORY PRESS, Asbury Road, Dubuque, Iowa. Beginnings: Genesis and Modern Science. By Charles Hauret. Translated and adapted from the 4th French edition by E. P. Em-mans, O.P. and S.S.Prolyta. There can be no conflict between faith and science since God is the author of both. Yet there may be ap-parent conflict. Father Hauret, a scientist in his own right, squarely faces the problems posed by the account of creation in the first three chapters of Genesis and the findings of modern science. If you teach religion, this is a book you should read. You will learn much about the Sacred Scriptures as well as about modern science, and you will be in a position to give satisfactory answers to modern doubters. Pp. 304. $3.25. SAINT CHARLES SEMINARY, 209 Flagg Place, Staten Island 4, N. Y. Father to the Immigrants. dohn Baptist Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza. By Icilio Felici. Translated by Carol della Chiesa. On June 1, 1905, John Baptist Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza died a holy death. He was a remarkable man, and his memory is honored particularly for his heroic labors in behalf of Italian immigrants in both Americas. He came to their aid by founding the Society of St. Raphael, a lay organization, to alleviate their material wants; by founding a society of missionary priests, now popularly known as the Scalabrinian fathers, to care for their spiritual needs; by starting a congregation of sisters to care for the orphaned and the sick among them. It. was be who came to" the rescue of the Mis-sionary Zelatrices of the Sacred Heart, when it seemed that they must disband, and interested them in work for immigrants. It was he too who urged Mother Cabrini to choose America rather than the Orient for bet field of labors. This is the first full-length bi-ography in English of this saintly bishop, a milestone on the way to his beatification. Pp. 248. $3.00. BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS SAINT PAUL PUBLICATIONS, 2187 Victory Blvd., Staten Island 14, N. Y. The Perennial Order by Martin Versfeld is a book on Catholic philosophy which is not a textbook. It will be read with interest and profit even by those who have had the usual courses in philo-sophy, for it deals with many topics not mentioned in the conven-tional courses. It is an apostolic book in the sense that it is written also for non-Catholics. It should do much to answer many an in-tellectual difficulty of the sincere inquirer and so prepare the way for conversion. Pp. 250. $3.00. SHEED AND WARD, 840 Broadway, New York 3. Su)ift Victory. Essays on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. By Walter Farrell, O.P. and Dominic Hughes, O.P. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that most Catholics know so little of the gifts of the Hoiy Ghost that they cannot even name them all. The reason possibly is that they are not something to strive for, but something freely granted to those who love God. Every Catholic should know more about these treasures which are his. Pp. 211. $3.25. In Soft Garments. A Collection of Oxford Conferences. By Ronatd A. Knox. This collection was first published in 1942. The present reprint is in response to popular demand. Pp. 214. $3.00. TEMPLEGATE, Springfield, Illinois. Loue of Our Neighbor. Edited by Albert Ple, O.P. Translated by Donald Attwater and R. F. Trevett. This book is the report of a symposium on charity in which this virtue was dealt with from many angles. Part one deals with charity and Revelation. Part two treats of the theology of this virtue. Part three has such chapters as "A Philosophy of Relation to Others," "Psychoanalysis and Love of One's Neighbors," "Love of Our Neighbor and the Economics of Giving." Part four consists of an outline of what a complete treatise on the love of our neighbor must be if it is ever to be written. Pp. 182. $3.95. CATHOLIC ALMANAC, 1956 The 1956 National Catholic Almanac, a very valuable reference book, is now available at the St. Anthony Guild Press, 508 Marshall St., Paterson, New Jersey. Cloth, $2.50; paper, $2.00. OUR CONTRIBUTORS MOTHER MARY ELEANOR teaches at Rosemont College, Rosemont, Penn-sylvania. BERNARD LEEMING is a professor of theology at Heythrop College, Oxon, England. THOMAS DUBAY teaches theology and homiletics at Marist College, Washington, D. C. 112 InJ:orma!:ion [or Subscribers BUSINESS OFFICE ADDRESS: REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas. SEND ALL RENEWALS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS TO: REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas. NOTICES OF EXPIRATION have been mailed to all sub-scribers whose subscriptions expired with Jan., 1956. We hope that those who have not yet done so may find it convenient to renew at an early date. When renewing please return the postal-card notice sent to you. It is of great assistance to us in making prompt and ac-curate identification of renewals. EARLY RENEWAL of subscriptions enables us to prepare our ~-~.mailing list for tl~ next issue and avoids delays incurred by later additional mailings. 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The impact of infectious diseases on populations all over the world has long been recognized as an imminent global crisis.[1]The 21st century has seen an increase in outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases ("EIDs"), which threaten the health and safety of citizens all over the globe.[2]EIDs are diseases that have "recently appeared in a population or have already existed but are rapidly increasing in incidence or geographic range,"[3]which explains the widespread fear such disease outbreaks can incite. However, despite how many times EID outbreaks have made global news headlines in contemporary history, the international community has struggled to adequately respond, leaving vulnerable populations at risk. Many factors contribute to the disproportionate impact of EIDs on vulnerable populations, including those stemming from disparities regarding poverty and gender. Socioeconomic status influences health, to the point where "poverty breeds disease and ill health leads to poverty."[4]Data on gender differences in infectious disease outbreaks also show that disease does not affect everyone equally.[5]Although both men and women suffer from different diseases due to biological inequalities and social differences,[6]women are particularly vulnerable due to the lack of attention and integration of women in global health policies and management strategies of EID outbreaks. One case study that demonstrates the disparate impact on vulnerable populations during EID outbreaks is the current Ebola Virus Disease ("EVD") outbreak in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ("DRC"). This outbreak began in August 2018 and has grown to become the second largest EVD outbreak on record.[7]As observed in the 2014–2016 West African EVD outbreak and other large-scale EID outbreaks such as Zika or SARS,[8]the 2018 Eastern DRC EVD outbreak has had a significant impact on women. While research has been conducted on "diseases of poverty" and the vulnerability of women in EID outbreaks, the preference to deal with the immediate outbreak instead of addressing more systemic societal concerns forgoes the focus on the individual and their human rights. As a result, little has been done to bring in a human rights perspective to the management and response mechanisms of such outbreaks. A human rights perspective not only brings to the forefront these core issues of inequality, but also introduces supplemental and useful tools for considering how to achieve the most effective response to these emergencies. The first section of this paper provides an important background to the relationship between poverty, women, and EIDs by considering both legal and public health perspectives. The second section analyzes the role of women in global health, particularly in responses to EIDs, by examining how women have been impacted in past EID outbreaks and the current 2018 Eastern DRC EVD outbreak as a case study. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of how global health policymakers and healthcare professionals can address this gap by applying a gendered lens to EID outbreak management. Background The human right to health as a foundation for addressing inequality in poverty and gender As human rights have developed throughout history, the issue of health has consistently been regarded as a core, fundamental human right.[9]Beginning with the United Nations ("UN") Charter (1945), this emphasized the need for international cooperation in Chapter IX, particularly for finding solutions to health problems.[10]In 1946, the World Health Organization ("WHO") Constitution declared that the objective of the WHO is the "attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health."[11]In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ("UDHR") referenced this same objective for health in Article 25(1): "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care, and necessary social services . . . ."[12]In 1966, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ("ICESCR") stated in Article 12: "The States Parties . . . recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health"[13]and to achieve this, highlighted the "prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases"[14]as a vital prerequisite for success. The drafting history of this provision demonstrates that the object and purpose of this provision was to obligate States to address the prevention of disease and malnutrition, two major factors which pose obstacles for achieving health for all.[15]Additionally, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ("CESCR") General Comment 14 further explained ICESCR Article 12(2)(c), stating that "The right to treatment includes the creation of a system of urgent medical care in cases of accidents, epidemics and similar health hazards, and the provision of disaster relief and humanitarian assistance in emergency situations"[16]and "[t]he control of diseases refers to States' individual and joint efforts to . . . make available relevant technologies, using and improving epidemiological surveillance and data collection on a disaggregated basis, the implementation or enhancement of immunization programmes and other strategies of infectious disease control."[17]With these core international instruments, basic standards of health, treatment, and particularly disease management all set the stage for a baseline of States' obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health. Currently, the Sustainable Development Goals ("SDG") also highlight the right to health. In SDG 3.3, States' target to end "the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases . . . ."[18]is particularly relevant because neglected tropical diseases ("NTDs") are a subset of EIDs and mainly affect the poorest populations in the world.[19]SDG 3.c to "substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries . ." and 3.d to "strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks"[20]are both also important goals for addressing the disproportionate disease burden on States that currently lack the capacity to respond to health crises such as EIDs. These goals, voluntarily assumed by States, continue to build upon the human rights foundation of the right to health and further solidify the importance of addressing health through a human rights framework. Just as the right to health has been established through international treaties, women's rights have also been protected through Article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ("CEDAW"), which "obligates States Parties to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care and to ensure women access to appropriate services in connection with pregnancy."[21]Like the CESCR, the CEDAW Committee further explained the importance of protections for women's health through its General Recommendation regarding CEDAW Article 12, stating that the "duty of States parties to ensure . . . access to health care services, information and education implies an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill women's rights to health care."[22]Additionally, another CESCR General Comment addresses women's health in particular by articulating "State obligations as including identifying how gender roles affect health and removing legal restrictions on reproductive health, among other things."[23]These international treaty provisions demonstrate the importance of protecting the right to health especially as it applies to women. Poverty as a determining factor of health outcomes in EIDs Poverty is a main determining factor of EIDs in communities[24]because "poor health and poverty are intertwined in developing countries. Poverty breeds disease and ill health leads to poverty."[25]With almost 900 million people living in extreme poverty[26]across the globe, understanding how poverty and disease are related is urgent.[27]Poverty is an important factor which contributes to more opportunities for infectious diseases to impact humans.[28]NTDs are a subset of EIDs which particularly thrive and persist under conditions of poverty.[29]One disease example is tuberculosis ("TB"), which is often described as a "disease of poverty" because it is "significantly associated with poor housing, low literacy and nutritional status, and lack of access to health services."[30]NTDs are often called infectious diseases of poverty and are the result of the "complex interaction of biological, social, and environmental factors [because they] disproportionately affect poor and disadvantaged populations in which the poverty context reinforces risk and vulnerability."[31]This is compounded by the fact that disease "control tools such as drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics often do not reach the populations that most need them because of social issues . or because they are ill adapted to the cultural, social, and economic realities in which people live."[32] Another connection between poverty and disease is that since EID outbreaks such as the 2014–2016 West African EVD outbreak, the 2015–2016 Zika outbreak, and the current 2018 Eastern DRC EVD outbreak can have a very significant impact on a community, they can essentially reach the level of a crisis or disaster. When disasters hit, people living in poverty are much more vulnerable.[33]On top of this, women make up approximately 70% of people living in poverty worldwide, so this indicates that overall, women are more likely to be affected by disasters in poverty-stricken areas.[34] Gender as a determining factor of health outcomes in EIDs Another key determinant of health is gender.[35]The term "gender" refers to societal and cultural factors that are different between traditional male and female roles.[36]Studies on the relationships between sex and gender to infectious diseases have been conducted across a variety of disciplines, which has actually acted as a barrier to application of this research in outbreak settings because each discipline tends to work in isolation.[37]Thus, to fill this gap, it is important to integrate a gendered lens into outbreak response and management. Disease does not affect men and women equally.[38]Women are a particularly vulnerable group because they "disproportionately bear the burden of poverty and disease."[39]Thus, vulnerability is deeply gendered.[40]Not only do over 80% of women in the world live in low- or middle-income countries,[41]putting them at higher risk for more EIDs, women also live longer in general. Over a lifetime, the "social context of women's lives place exceptional burdens on the quality of life lived." Understanding the pre-existing biological and socio-cultural conditions in which women live is an important foundation for understanding their vulnerability in crises and disasters. Risks related to health concerns from cooking fumes in the home and complications with pregnancy "overlap with developing countries and are exacerbated in the contexts of poverty combined with conflict . [and] such risks are further aggravated in situations of humanitarian crisis."[42] State and international core obligations to protect health for all Although there are international instruments protecting health, given the vulnerabilities of those living in poverty, especially women, it is not surprising that many States lack the capacity to "progressively realize and ensure that a minimum core of a properly functioning health system and infrastructure . exists for people to gain access to health services."[43]While States are required to "take all appropriate measures subject to available resources,"[44]to prevent diseases, the States that experience the most NTDs "are least able to counter the existing imbalance in disease prevention research and development."[45]The lack of capacity in many States in the Global South has been attributed to "historical vulnerability from slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism, bad governance, and neoliberal reform policies like structural adjustment."[46]In addition to States' obligations, there is also an "obligation of international co-operation under the right to health."[47]If a State lacks capacity, the international community is called upon to address this problem via a 'collective responsibility.'[48]The ICESCR addressed collective responsibility, stating that States should realize the rights in the Covenant "individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical."[49] Case study on the 2018 DRC EVD outbreak The most recent EVD outbreak began in August 2018 in the eastern region of the DRC, originally concentrated in North Kivu and Ituri provinces.[50]It has since grown to be the second largest EVD outbreak on record, the largest being the 2014–2016 West African EVD outbreak.[51]Although this is the tenth EVD outbreak to take place in the DRC, there are many factors which differentiate this outbreak from those in the past.[52] First, past outbreaks in the DRC have not been concentrated in the eastern region of the DRC. This region has been a conflict zone for decades and violence continues today.[53]Compared to the 2014–2016 West African EVD outbreak, North Kivu province houses an even denser population than Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone combined, and also shares borders with four more provinces and two other countries.[54]This subregion of the DRC has a history of insecurity and presence of well over one hundred active non-state armed groups,[55]which still remain in the region after conflicts such as the DRC independence in 1960, the bordering 1994 Rwandan genocide, and the civil war that established the regime of recent President Joseph Kabila.[56] In the broader context, the history of the DRC has not provided a backdrop conducive to effective management of deadly EIDs. Centuries of colonialism led to decades of armed conflict, which continues today and has spread deep-rooted mistrust for the government across the country, especially in the Eastern DRC.[57]The DRC is also one of the three poorest countries in the world, despite its rich natural resources, so while colonialization may no longer be an issue, there is still an ongoing presence of exploitation.[58]These elements all contribute to the context in which the current 2018 Eastern DRC EVD outbreak is taking place, which is important to understand for the purposes of analyzing the impact of EIDs on women in poverty. Women play an integral role in global health and applying a gendered lens in all levels of EID responses provides better protections for women and more effective management strategies of EID outbreaks The role of women in global health Informal caregivers The 2014–2016 West African EVD outbreak began in December 2013, but in just eight months, data reported that "55-60% of all Ebola fatalities in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone were women."[59]Additionally, news headlines asking "Why Are So Many Women Dying from Ebola?" revealed that "women in Ebola-hit countries do not enjoy the promise of equality called for under human rights law."[60]Since increased risk in transmitting EVD comes from basic day-to-day interactions, traditional gender roles put women in especially vulnerable positions.[61] One role that women in many societies fill is that of the caregiver in the home. This societal expectation for women to care for the family greatly contributes to the disproportionate impact that EIDs such as EVD and HIV have on women.[62]For especially fatal diseases such as EVD, women are not only caring for more individuals, but the work is also laborious and dangerous because the disease is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.[63]This is a particular challenge because often the intensity of the care given at home is equal to that given at a health care facility, yet not all women are formally trained health care professionals.[64]There is a gap in education and important information for women as informal caregivers, which further perpetuates the disparate impact of EIDs on women. As caregivers and due to traditional gender roles, women are also often heavily involved in the mourning and burial rituals once their loved ones have died and they are the "ones to perform funeral rites such as washing bodies and preparing them for burial."[65]During the 2014–2016 West African EVD outbreak, one area of Sierra Leone reported that as many as 365 deaths were connected to one funeral, and when the outbreak first began in Guinea, approximately 60% of all EVD cases were connected to traditional burial practices.[66]Since EVD is still transmissible after death and women play such a prominent role in these rituals, their gender role as caregiver and mourner puts them at a disproportionately higher risk of infection.[67] Additionally, while women in many societies are seen as the primary caregivers in the household, when they fall ill the roles are not reversed. Instead of the men taking care of the women, other women in the community are responsible for caring for each other.[68]This is partially due to socio-cultural aspects of what are appropriate roles for men and women, and also contributes to women being more vulnerable to EIDs. Nevertheless, while the role of women as caregivers is clear, in past EVD outbreaks it is shown that "men dominated informational meetings on the disease,"[69]leaving out the key voice of women and putting them in a vulnerable place without adequate information or agency to voice their concerns during these discussions. Health workers The healthcare workforce is also a vulnerable population during EID outbreaks due to the nature in which the disease is spread, such as EVD. Since EVD is spread through contact with bodily fluids once the patient has started to show symptoms and even after death during burial, the level of close contact that healthcare workers have to infected patients puts them higher risk of transmission. Healthcare workers are between 21 to 32 times more likely to be infected with EVD than the general adult population during an outbreak.[70]Especially in countries where the healthcare workforce is already scarce (i.e. West African countries during the 2014–2016 West African EVD outbreak), losing healthcare workers to EVD is especially challenging for effective management of the outbreak.[71] While men often perform higher-level healthcare positions such as doctors due to gendered differences in education levels, women also play a very important role in the healthcare workforce. In almost all countries, the nursing staff is predominately female, and nurses make up a considerable amount of the healthcare workforce.[72]For example, during the 2014–2016 EVD outbreak in Sierra Leone, 70% of the healthcare workers were nurses and midwives.[73]The work conducted by nurses differs from doctors because nurses are often the healthcare workers who are in direct contact with the most patients, making them more vulnerable to contracting diseases.[74]The WHO reports that "nurses and nurse aids account for more than half of all health worker infections."[75]As a result, since nurses are overwhelmingly female and the duties of nurses put them at higher risks of contracting diseases, "the occupational exposure of nurses can be considered a gender related exposure."[76] Another important consideration related to the high infection rates of healthcare workers is that a decrease in healthcare workers also results in a decrease in availability of health care services for women.[77]This is especially significant in States that already lack adequate health infrastructure and resources. Because women already experience many health inequalities, disasters such as EID outbreaks only exacerbate them further.[78]Especially given the specific provisions under international law to protect women's health, the lack of available health care services for women due to a decrease in healthcare workers is a serious concern. Global health security requires a gendered lens to adequately address the disparate impact of EIDs on women Global health security recently emerged in the 21st century. It expands upon the definition of public health security[79]and also includes "the health consequences of human behavior, weather-related events and infectious diseases, and natural catastrophes and man-made disasters . . . ."[80]Also, "public health emergency preparedness" brings in an additional legal aspect, in both a proactive and reactive manner to best prepare and respond to such emergencies.[81] Because women play such an integral role in global health and are greatly and differentially impacted by EIDs, it is important to consider these issues with a gendered lens. The CESCR recognized this by recommending that States "integrate a gender perspective in their health-related policies, planning, programmes and research in order to promote better health for both women and men [because] a gender-based approach recognizes that biological and sociocultural factors play a significant role in influencing the health of men and women."[82]Thus, women are a key voice that should be "included at all levels of planning and operations to ensure the effectiveness and appropriateness of a response."[83] However, though these recommendations have been made by many international actors, little has been done to integrate women into global health security responses. During the 2014–2016 West African EVD outbreak, women were "invisible" at every point of international response.[84]It is clear how women are closely intertwined in EID responses, "yet they are invisible in global health strategy, policy or practice . [and] only made visible through motherhood."[85]When it comes to addressing gender during a disaster such as an EID outbreak like EVD, the tendency is to focus on "Ebola first, gender later," as if gender concerns are an optional add-on that others can address after the outbreak has ended.[86] However, not only do women play important roles in global health security, but particularly in societies like the DRC's North Kivu province, women are often leaders and heads of households. They are not only responsible for caring for their families, but their position gives them social power as well, and they care for entire communities.[87]This is especially important for EIDs like EVD because community fear and distrust of governmental and international actors in recent outbreaks have greatly complicated the EVD management response. In just seven months after the start of the 2018 Eastern DRC outbreak, studies reported "low levels of trust in government institutions and widespread belief in misinformation about EVD,"[88]which has led to "reduced adherence to EVD preventative behaviors" such as vaccinations.[89]To combat these challenges, it is vital to build up community trust by "engaging locally trusted leaders and service providers . . . to build trust with Ebola responders who are not from these communities."[90] One example of how the WHO has tapped into women as a resource[91]to address this is through a partnership with Mama Mwatatu, a woman so well known in her community in North Kivu she earned the nickname "Mother Counsellor of Beni."[92]Listeners of her radio show are mostly female, so the impact she has had on the EVD management efforts in Beni has been significant.[93]On her broadcast, she answers her listeners' questions about EVD, emphasizing the reality of the disease. If she is unable to answer a question, she "carefully notes it down and consults with WHO experts,"[94]thus forming an invaluable partnership between the WHO and the local female community. Julienne Anoko, a social anthropologist for the WHO has also proven the power of women by collaborating with the Collectif des Associations Feminines to educate 132 women leaders about EVD and send them out to their local communities to conduct a two-week information campaign, explaining EVD vaccines, treatment, contract tracing, and the vulnerability of women and children to EVD, ultimately reaching over 600,000 people that would not have otherwise been reached due to fear and stigma.[95]These are just a few examples of ways in which women can contribute to the management of an EID outbreak. They are a key connection to the local population, and at a time when trust of authority figures is low and belief in misinformation is high, it is vital to reach all corners of affected communities. Conclusion Gender might not be the first element global health policymakers and healthcare professionals responding to an EID consider, but it should be. Applying a gendered lens to EID outbreaks reveals the disproportionate impact of EIDs on women, due to their higher rate of living in poverty and susceptibility to disease as a result of gendered roles in many societies. Women's rights in health have been codified in many provisions in international law, but the connection between gender and EID response has not yet been developed. Due to women's heightened susceptibility and integrated role in EID management, empowering women to do global health work in their communities and supporting them is an extremely effective way to combat not just this current EVD outbreak, but to strengthen global health security as a whole.
1 IntroducciónEn el año 1971 apareció en Estados Unidos un libro titulado A Theory of Justice, cuyo autor era un profesor de Harvard que hasta el momento había publicado unos pocos artículos en revistas especializadas y su nombre era ciertamente desconocido en la primera plana del pensamiento filosófico de la época. A pesar de ello, nada impidió que esta obra se convirtiera en un best seller, vendiendo cuatrocientas mil copias tan sólo en inglés y siendo traducida a una treintena de idiomas (Pogge, 2007). Más aún, la obra de Rawls se ha convertido en una parada ineludible para cualquiera que desee trabajar en el ámbito de la filosofía política, manteniéndose vigente hasta nuestros días.A diferencia de muchos de sus colegas, Rawls dedicó su carrera al desarrollo y perfeccionamiento de un proyecto de investigación que, junto a la publicación de varios artículos, tuvo dos instancias decisivas entre 1971 y 1999. En 1993, el autor publicó Polítical Liberalism, texto en el que pretende "bajar a tierra" su teoría de la justicia y aplicarla en una democracia liberal, mientras que seis años después, en 1999, vio la luz su más polémica obra: The Law of Peoples. En ella, Rawls plantea su concepción de un sistema internacional justo, regido por principios universales que ofrecerían un marco de paz a las relaciones entre Estados e introduce una controvertida doctrina de los derechos humanos.Sin embargo, y como cabría esperar, la obra de Rawls no ha estado libre de críticas y polémicas. Por el contrario, su relevancia para la filosofía política le ha valido un sin fin de comentarios, suscitando encendidos debates y acaloradas discusiones. En el presente trabajo, se pretende realizar un aporte a la comprensión del pensamiento rawlsiano, identificando lo que podría calificarse como una ruptura de la concepción liberal a lo largo de su obra.Más concretamente, argumentaremos que así como A Theory of Justice y Political Liberaism representaron una redefinición del liberalismo desde el foco del igualitarismo, The Law of Peoples – donde se desarrolla una teoría normativa de las relaciones internacionales – no se corresponde con el universalismo moral kantiano que domina su teoría de la justicia. Por el contrario, Rawls muestra una faceta que, sin ser muy exigentes, deja mucho que desear si es vista desde una óptica liberal igualitaria. En este sentido, pondremos mayor foco en el concepto de "decencia" que Rawls deja entrever en su derecho de gentes y veremos cómo los individuos tomados como un fin en sí mismos dejan de ser el núcleo central, como lo eran en la Teoría de la Justicia, para ceder el lugar a los "pueblos" en el Derecho de Gentes.2 Rawls y su teoría de la justicia"De ahora en más los filósofos políticos deberán trabajar dentro de la teoría de Rawls, o bien explicar por qué no lo hacen"Robert Nozick (1974, 183)."No one concerned for social justice can afford not to study it closely"Thomas Pogge (2007, vii).Es ineludible, para la cabal comprensión de la obra que aquí pretendemos comentar y criticar, el desarrollo previo que tuvo la obra de Rawls. En este sentido, es importante destacar que la publicación de A Theory of Justice significó un antes y un después en la filosofía política contemporánea. Bajo un título aparentemente anodino, Rawls desarrolla una ambiciosa teoría de la justicia social mediante la cual pretende aportar una justificación sistemática a los que Michael Lessnoff ha denominado la síntesis sociopolítica contemporánea: una mezcla entre la democracia liberal, la economía de mercado y el Estadio distributivo del Bienestar (1999, 329). El aporte de la obra de Rawls a esta área del conocimiento ha sido muy importante desde varios puntos de vista, aunque es posible, sin ser exhaustivo, resaltar algunos de los más importantes como forma de comprender la relevancia de su pensamiento.En este sentido, la obra de Rawls se caracteriza por dos aspectos fundamentales. El primero de ellos es que retoma el contractualismo como estrategia para la fundamentación de su teoría de la justicia; y el segundo, que su argumentación se erige en respuesta al utilitarismo que hasta el momento había dominado la filosofía política anglosajona.2.1 El neocontractualismo rawlsianoQuizá el rasgo más distintivo de la obra de Rawls es el retorno a la teoría del contrato social, un dispositivo teórico largamente en desuso, con el cual echará las bases para la construcción de su teoría. Es posible afirmar que con A Theory of Justice, Rawls inaugura lo que se ha denominado como el neocontractualismo contemporáneo (Mejía, 1996), retomando así una tradición iniciada por Thomas Hobbes en el siglo XVII y continuada por John Locke, Jean-Jaques Rousseau e Immanuel Kant, aunque destinada al ostracismo durante el siglo XIX y parte del XX.Como bien lo establece Oscar Mejía (1996, 15-22), el contractualismo hobbesiano tiene su génesis en la interpretación que Santo Tomás de Aquino hizo de la obra de Aristóteles1. El giro tomista a la filosofía política aristotélica, dice el autor, radica en abandonar la idea de que la "la política [forma] parte de la filosofía práctica y [el Estado es] una comunidad que habilita a los ciudadanos para acciones virtuosas". Hobbes, que retoma esta concepción, logra diseñar una justificación tan innovadora como revolucionaria para la legitimidad del poder político y las instituciones que se crean para ejercerlo en una sociedad determinada (Da Silveira, 2000). Para este primer planteo del contrato social, la sociedad política es el producto de un acuerdo entre los hombres, que deciden depositar su derecho natural de gobernarse a sí mismos en una entidad superior, con el fin de abandonar el estado de naturaleza, en el cual la total libertad de cada individuo resulta un flagelo, dado que nadie está a salvo de la arbitrariedad en su utilización.Vale destacar que si bien Locke, Rousseau y Kant utilizan también esta herramienta conceptual para dar una justificación a la construcción del poder político, sus planteos no tienen mayores puntos en común. Sin embargo, lo que sí es cierto, es que todos exponen el acuerdo entre las partes como una ficción y no como un hecho histórico que haya sucedido en el pasado. El estado de naturaleza, del que los contratantes pretenden apartarse, no es entonces una realidad histórica, sino una construcción abstracta que nos permite "evaluar la legitimidad de las normas y los arreglos institucionales que nos hemos dado" (Da Silveira, 2000, 155). Es así que Locke, por ejemplo, plantea la situación anterior al contrato como un "estado de paz, buena voluntad, asistencia mutua y conservación", que luego deriva en un estado de guerra causado por la falta de un juez que dirima las controversias entre los individuos. Rousseau, por su parte, plantea una instancia pre-contractual definida como estado mutuo de inocencia, regido por la solidaridad y la mutua comprensión (Mejía, 1996), el cual se verá desvirtuado por el surgimiento de la propiedad privada, madre de todas las desigualdades.Este breve repaso nos sirve como guía cronológica para llegar a Kant, último eslabón clásico en la teoría del contrato social, cuya influencia en la Teoría de la Justicia de Rawls es explícita2. Advirtiendo las falencias de los teorías contractualistas que lo precedieron, el filósofo prusiano buscó una solución a una diversidad de problemas que tuvieron como resultado la fijación de la legitimidad del poder estatal en la autonomía moral de los individuos, que asumen autónomamente como propios los mandatos de la mayoría, siempre y cuando estos satisfagan las exigencias de racionalidad y universalidad necesarias para conciliar la voluntad general con la individual. Este no es un tema menor, dado que Rawls le otorga un papel central a la sentencia kantiana "obra de tal modo que uses la humanidad, tanto en tu persona como en la persona de cualquier otro, siempre como un fin al mismo tiempo y nunca solamente como un medio".Pero si bien Rawls recoge los frutos de toda la tradición contractualista, el filósofo se propone rediseñar este dispositivo teórico. Para ello, deberá subsanar varios inconvenientes presentes en los planteos antes mencionados y adaptar la teoría del contrato social para construir sobre ella su Teoría de la Justicia.Uno de los principales aspectos que Rawls busca superar es el iusnaturalismo subyacente al planteo de Hobbes, dado que liga moral y política a un nivel indeseable que el autor busca evitar. Si bien la sustitución del derecho divino como justificación del poder político fue un avance revolucionario en el siglo XVIII, la fijación de dicha justificación en el derecho natural, o sea, en un conjunto de normas y valores externos e independientes al individuo – y por ende pre-contractuales – no se ajusta a la solución que Rawls ofrecerá para el establecimiento de sus principios de justicia.Algo similar sucede con los planteos de Locke y Rousseau, que justifican el poder político en el consenso mayoritario, pues si bien este avance teórico es un hito central en la construcción histórica del liberalismo y la democracia liberal tal cual la conocemos hoy día, adolece de un problema de gran importancia, y es que no da lugar al disenso, dado que "la decisión de la mayoría se legitima por encima de los intereses del individuo" (Mejía, 1996, 27).Nuestro autor se inclinará, finalmente, por un planteo "altamente kantiano", como él mismo lo califica (1999, xviii). En este sentido, "Rawls retoma explícitamente la idea kantiana de autonomía, percibe a los individuos como fines en sí mismos y no como medios para la realización de fines ajenos, describe los principios de justicia como imperativos categóricos y la posición original como una situación ideal en la que agentes autónomos actúan siguiendo exclusivamente este tipo de imperativo" (Da Silveira, 1997, 71). Como bien lo define Da Silveira, el objetivo final del planteo contractualista de Rawls no es otro que establecer principios de justicia universalmente aplicables.Para tales objetivos, A Theory of Justice presenta un planteo sumamente innovador. Rawls no propone un estado de naturaleza del cual las partes busquen salir mediante la realización de un contrato, sino que ve en este último la mejor forma de solucionar lo que llamará el "problema de la justicia". Si la sociedad es una "empresa cooperativa para la ventaja mutua", dice Rawls, los integrantes de dicha sociedad tendrán intereses en común, pero también conflictos de intereses, y como ninguno es indiferente a cómo se distribuye la riqueza creada con su colaboración, cada uno – persiguiendo fines personales –buscará una mayor participación en la distribución de dichos beneficios. Entonces nos enfrentamos a un problema central: cómo llegar a principios de justicia universales, con los que cada integrante de la sociedad (cualquiera que esta sea) esté de acuerdo, y que al mismo tiempo eviten proyectar las desigualdades ya existentes. Si la solución fuese la negociación, el resultado estaría condenado al fracaso, pues las partes harían uso de un desigual poder de negociación, lo que terminaría por imponer los intereses de los grupos con mayor poder en la estructura social.La principal preocupación de nuestro autor pasará a encontrarse entonces en la estructura básica de la sociedad, que es definida como la forma en que las principales instituciones sociales distribuyen los derechos y obligaciones fundamentales, al tiempo que determinan la división de las ventajas resultantes de la cooperación social3. Rawls reconoce que en dicha estructura básica las desigualdades son inevitables pero, como bien lo resume Lessnoff, "la cuestión es definir sí y en qué medida las desigualdades pueden ser justas" (1999, 335). La posición original será, junto al velo de ignorancia, el primer paso de la teoría rawlsiana para echar luz sobre esta interrogante.Imaginemos, nos dice Rawls, una asamblea en la que todos los miembros de una sociedad se reúnen para elegir las instituciones básicas que organizarán su vida económica y política. Estas personas tienen conciencia de que las decisiones que tomen condicionarán no sólo su vida, sino además las de sus hijos y nietos, por lo que las decisiones que tomen no serán coyunturales, sino que deberán representar reglas de juego profundamente estables. Más aun, deberán comprender los intereses y preocupaciones de cada uno en base a un acuerdo generalizado.A esta "asamblea" es a lo que Rawls denominará la posición original, una construcción metodológica que le permitirá asegurarse que los principios de justicia sean elegidos por las partes de forma contractual y con todas las garantías necesarias para que dicho contrato sea realizado "por hombres racionales y morales que no contaminen con sus juicios egoístas la imparcialidad" de dichos principios (Mejía, 1996, 43).Puestas las partes en una situación inicial, en la que se caracterizan por ser mutuamente desinteresadas – persiguen su propio interés desconociendo el de los demás – al tiempo que razonables y racionales, aún hace falta eliminar cualquier factor de desigualdad entre ellas. Para esto, Rawls impondrá a las partes situadas en la posición original un velo de ignorancia que tendrá como consecuencia importantes restricciones de información4. A la hora de elegir los principios de justicia que determinarán la estructura básica de la sociedad, las partes carecerán de información sobre cuál será su posición en la sociedad e incluso sobre sus propias cualidades personales. La intención de Rawls es clara. Nadie debe tener ventajas o desventajas derivadas de las circunstancias sociales o incluso de la suerte a la hora de elegir los principios de justicia, lo que asegurará, en última instancia, que nadie intente conseguir beneficios para una determinada posición en detrimento de otra (Rawls, 1999, 16). Los individuos, por tanto, ignorarán cuáles son – o serían – sus intereses particulares y por lo tanto deben llegar a un acuerdo sin saber qué es los que los beneficia o los perjudica. En última instancia, lo que Rawls consigue mediante la imposición del velo de ignorancia es obligar a las partes a "negociar bajo la perspectiva del universalismo moral" (Da Silveira, 2003, 26)5.Teniendo en cuenta las condiciones de igualdad y restricción de la información planteadas anteriormente para la negociación de los principios de justicia, Rawls cree que los individuos en la posición original optarían por los siguientes:"First: each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for others. Second: social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage, and (b) attached to positions and offices open to all."Es aquí donde se consagran los pilares de su teoría liberal igualitaria. Rawls complementa dichos principios con lo que denomina reglas de prioridad, estableciendo que la libertad siempre primará por sobre la igualdad y la justicia – el primer principio sobre el segundo –, y que la justicia primará en todo momento por sobre el bienestar –, anteponiendo la segunda parte del segundo principio sobre la primera. En otras palabras, la distribución sólo será posible mientras se produzca en total respeto de las libertades individuales, mientras que las desigualdades – bajo el entendido de que estas beneficien a los más desfavorecidos –, sólo serán aceptadas si antes se produjeron en un marco de igualdad de oportunidades para acceder a los cargos de responsabilidad de la sociedad en cuestión (Da Silveira, 2003, 38).Los principios de justicia a los que las partes en la posición original llegarían, pueden ser comprendidos si vemos la estrategia que seguirían teniendo en cuenta su racionalidad. El autor considera que ante las restricciones de información impuestas por el velo de ignorancia, maximizar los posibles beneficios sería un error, por lo que las partes se preocuparían por "maximizar el mínimo" (hacer que la peor situación sea lo mejor posible), un estrategia que ha sido denominada como maximin, y que consiste en reducir al máximo el riesgo que correríamos en caso de encontrarnos en la parte menos favorecida de la sociedad. De esta manera, argumenta Rawls,lo racional no sería tampoco eliminar toda forma de desigualdad en la estructura básica – dado que muchas de estas podrían ser beneficiosas – sino aceptar solamente aquellas que mejoren la situación de los menos aventajados.A los efectos del presente trabajo, es importante rescatar las pretensiones universalistas que se encuentran en A Theory of Justice, teniendo en cuenta que los principios de justicia podrían ser aplicados en cualquier momento en y en cualquier sociedad sin que su validez se vea erosionada. La posición original, como afirma el propio Rawls, nos obliga a contemplar la situación humana desde todos los puntos sociales y temporales posibles. A pesar de lo anterior, este "kantismo ortodoxo" se irá diluyendo con los años (Da Silveira, 2003, 87) dando lugar luego a un segundo y hasta un tercer Rawls, que perderá sus aspiraciones universalistas y sucumbirá en un relativismo que desconcertó hasta sus más fervorosos defensores. Diremos, en este sentido, que el Rawls universalista realizará un lento pero sostenido peregrinaje hacia las huestes del realismo político en el plano de las relaciones internacionales.2.2 Rechazo al utilitarismoEl segundo aspecto fundamental que debemos resaltar en A Theory of Justicie, es su respuesta al utilitarismo, una teoría de la justicia que, desde el liberalismo, había dominado en los últimos dos siglos la discusión en el ámbito de la filosofía política anglosajona. Rawls resume su propósito de la siguiente manera: "My aim is to work out a theory of justice that represents an alternative to utilitarian. (…) The main idea is that society is rightly ordered, and therefore just, when its major institutions are arranged so as to achieve the greatest net balance of satisfaction summed over all the individuals belonging to it." (1999, 20). Como bien nos dice el autor, es imposible negar el atractivo inicial que nos genera esta concepción de la justicia, por lo que, para combatirla, es necesario no sólo aportar sólidos argumentos en su contra, sino que al mismo tiempo presentar una alternativa viable.Una de las principales razones por las cuales el utilitarismo gozaba de tan amplia aceptación es su claridad frente a otras teorías que, aunque no menos interesantes, carecen de una ventaja fundamental: el utilitarismo ofrece un criterio general de decisión y al mismo tiempo permite una tecnificación de las decisiones morales y políticas. Si todos aceptáramos el criterio de maximizar el bienestar, sería relativamente fácil implementar mecanismos matemáticos para la toma de decisiones (Da Silveira, 2003). Kymlicka, por su parte, agrega otras dos ventajas importantes del utilitarismo frente a otras teorías. Por un lado, el autor reafirma su secularidad. Las metas que el utilitarismo persigue no dependen de la existencia de un Dios, un alma o cualquier otra entidad metafísica y, por lo tanto, no importa que tan seculares seamos, todos sufrimos y somos felices. De esta manera, no podemos negar que la felicidad (o el bienestar) es un valor que todos perseguimos en nuestras vidas. Además, y sumado a lo argüido por Da Silveira, el autor resalta lo que denomina como "consecuencialismo", y que puede ser resumido como la capacidad de contrastar el resultado de las políticas públicas aplicadas a una sociedad determinada con respecto al bienestar que generan. Si todos utilizáramos este mecanismo, entonces no nos enfrascaríamos en discusiones acerca de los aspectos morales de temas como la homosexualidad o el aborto, y se evitaría una infinidad de prohibiciones morales arbitrarias (Kymlicka, 1990, 10-11).Pero a pesar de sus bondades, muchas de ellas muy persuasivas como el mismo Rawls admite, el autor elabora una crítica demoledora de la teoría en cuestión, sobre la que erige una alternativa indiscutiblemente sólida. Rawls ataca al utilitarismo en sus puntos más débiles, valiéndose de una artillería que en su mayoría proviene desde el universalismo moral kantiano y pude ser resumida en una frase que ha pasado ya a la historia: "Utilitarianism does not take seriously the distinction between persons" (1999, 24). Esta crítica, en apariencia inofensiva, socava al utilitarismo desde su base más liberal. Como sentenciará Rawls, esta teoría no toma a las personas como fines en sí mismos, sino como meros medios para la consecución de ciertos fines, lo que da pie al viejo ejemplo de la esclavitud: si por alguna razón la esclavitud de una parte de la población maximizara el bienestar total de la sociedad, entonces no habría razones para no hacerlo6.Pero esta no es la única crítica que Rawls realiza al utilitarismo. Por el contrario, el autor arremete contra el mecanismo de "justicia social" que la teoría propone, afirmando que el hecho de buscar la maximización total del bienestar sólo permitirá que la sociedad reproduzca las más extremas formas de desigualdad, dado que, ver la justicia social como un promedio de bienestar, evita el hecho de preocuparse por la forma en que dicho bienestar es distribuido. En respuesta a estas dos críticas será que Rawls creará una alternativa que no sólo se preocupe por la distribución de los beneficios obtenidos de la cooperación social, sino que además respete a ultranza las libertades individuales de todos y cada uno de los integrantes de la sociedad. Veremos que, a pesar de todo lo anterior, en el Derecho de Gentes se priorizará la estabilidad por sobre la libertad y la igualdad, algo difícil de imaginar para los lectores que en 1971 revolucionaron su pensamiento con una Teoría de la Justicia. 1 - Según Mejía, "Hobbes rompe la concepción aristotélica en tres sentidos: primero, la política deja de ser derivación de la ética y se desliga de la moralidad y la legalidad; segundo, la política deja de referirse a la práctica y comienza a ser referida como técnica; y tercero, la política deja de ser sabia comprensión, phronesis, y se convierte en ciencia, episteme" (Mejía, 1996, 16).2 - "What I have attempted to do is to generalize and carry to a higher order of abstraction the traditional theory of the social contract as represented by Locke, Rousseau, and Kant. […] The theory that results is highly Kantian in nature. Indeed, I must disclaim any originality for the views I put forward. The leading ideas are classical and well known." (Rawls, 1999, xviii).3 - "For us the primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation" (Rawls, 1999, 6).4 - "It is assumed, then, that the parties do not know certain kinds of particular facts. First of all, no one knows his place in society, his class position or social status; nor does he know his fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, his intelligence and strength, and the like. Nor, again, does anyone know his conception of the good, the particulars of his rational plan of life, or even the special features of his psychology such as his aversion to risk or liability to optimism or pessimism. More than this, I assume that the parties do not know the particular circumstances of their own society. That is, they do not know its economic or political situation, or the level of civilization and culture it has been able to achieve. The persons in the original position have no information as to which generation they belong. These broader restrictions on knowledge are appropriate in part because questions of social justice arise between generations as well as within them (…)" (Rawls, 1999, 118).5 - Es importante recodar en este punto la relevancia que Rawls otorga a lo que él llama el "merecimiento moral". De forma resumida, el autor argumenta que en última instancia, nadie puede aducir que su situación en la sociedad pueda ser justificada desde un punto de vista moral. Nadie merece moralmente las ventajas o desventajas que le hayan tocado en suerte, ya sea desde una inteligencia prodigiosa o una deformidad física hasta una habilidad deportiva o artística. De esta manera, el velo de ignorancia eliminará este tipo de diferencias, por lo que nadie es capaz de saber cuáles serán sus ventajas o desventajas (1999, 273-277).6 - "Si lo que cuenta es la utilidad total o promedio, la satisfacción o el sufrimiento de cada individuo no tiene otro valor del que agrega o quita al conjunto. Y esto supone de instrumentalizar una parte de la sociedad" (DA SILVEIRA, 2003, 53) *Este artículo fue presentado en la 4° sesión el Seminario Interno de Discusión Teórica 2014, organizado por el Departamento de Estudios Internacionales de la Universidad ORT Uruguay.Andrés Riva Casas es estudiante de la Licenciatura en Estudios Internacionales.
