Egypt and the failure of the so-called fourth estate

One feature of the on-going epic failure and collapse of our so-called fourth estate, namely the news media, is its penchant for making itself the news even in the midst of something as monumental as the Egyptian uprising, which quickly brought Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule to an end. Of course, I am referring to nothing else except the lamentable assault on CBS News reporter Lara Logan at the hands of some male protesters. Let me be clear up-front, Logan was certainly the victim of a violent sexual assault. Sexual assaults are reprehensible, morally wrong, which is why such attacks are universally condemned and punished by civil laws, as they should be. Before cutting to the chase, it also bears noting that Logan was rescued by members of the Egyptian military, along with some concerned Egyptian women who were nearby. So, without blaming the victim in the slightest, I do not mind stating that I find it a media failure that this became the story in the final days of the uprising and continued to be the story for several days afterwards. Are we really to believe nothing else of this sort went on in the lawless atmospehere during the days of protest?

As he so often does, Peter Hitchens writes very lucidly about this matter. He begins by wondering about a couple of things concerning Logan’s assault, namely why it isn’t always made clear that she was sexually assaulted by protesters, as well as why the fact that her attackers shouted "Jew, Jew, Jew at her" was not much reported. As regards the Western news media’s narcissism, he concludes that certain, relevant details, like the Judophobic taunts of Logan’s assailants, can be left out because they do not fit the approved the narrative, which holds "that the removal of Egypt’s government is a good thing," unequivocally. In the square where the main protest took place, mob rule, "with all the horrible dangers involved," was in effect, but the news media, according to Hitchens, decided that "people power" sounded "so much nicer." The result of this no doubt "strategic" decision was that a "violent sexual assault on a Western woman, tinged with Judophobia, doesn’t fit this picture," especially one carried out by protesters.

As a long-time foreign correspondent, who continues to spend time in the Middle East, Hitchens also goes on to note what anyone who has spent time in this region knows, namely "that a disgraceful and shaming Judophobia is common in that part of the world, even among educated and otherwise civilised people." He is quite correct in noting that only "a very few reports of the Cairo revolt showed posters of the deposed President Mubarak defaced with crude Stars of David reminiscent of Nazi graffiti." "I suspect," he continues, "the men involved also regarded Ms. Logan’s perfectly normal Western dress as improper and sluttish," an honest view that also does not fit the narrative of the "'lovely, warm-hearted' crowd" of the pie-eyed Western media's 1960ish imagination.

I guess all the phenomenon of significant world events turning into stories by the media about the media is simply an indication that this is much easier than finding out and reporting on what is really happening and has the added advantage of appealing to our prurient interests. This is why I am a believer in what is now called the 5th estate- people on the ground, in the action, just tweeting and blogging away. Sure, they have no editors, but this only insures that they are not constrained by ideologically-driven official narrative, even if other motives drive them. Maybe writing from self-declared or obvious viewpoint is more honest than pretending to be objective.

Your present and your destiny

In discussing the relationship most people have to religion, to church, to faith, Giussani likens it to being distracted, to not listening, not learning. He speaks of walking down the street with a friend while passionately making some point, when his friend notices a beatiful woman across the street and becomes distracted, but who keeps mechanically saying "Uh, huh. Yes. Okay..."

Rachel Weisz

Don Gius points out that his replies "are not valid because he did not pay attention to my arguments." "This," according to Gius, "is the offense that the majority of people commit when they face the problems of destiny, faith, religion, the Church, and Christianity because being 'anxious and troubled with many other things,' in these things their minds are 'dead and buried'" (The Religious Sense, 30). Despite this, everyone believes himself capable of pronouncing definitive judgment on these matters, "to have an opinion, partly because it is impossible not to have a viewpoint on these matters" (30). Just as a child cannot help but have an opinion about her parents, no one can avoid "having a view concerning the connection between his or her present and destiny" (30).

Interior of The Cathedral of the Madeleine

While everybody has an opinion, all opinions are not equal, far from it. It is not only possible, but important, to arrive at, to possess, knowledge concerning these matters. For many, their opinions on these issues are rooted in either a preconception or a misconception precisely because they refuse to listen, because listening means turning your attention away from life's distractions, be it a beautiful woman, or paying your monthly bills. Giussani teaches us a method, a way to listen and to judge. Indeed, the more vital and elementary the value of the question that captures your attention "the more nature gives to each of us the intelligence to know and judge it" (30). Hence, either jumping to a half-baked conclusion or taking a powder on life's most serious questions is not a reasonable (i.e., not a human) response to the provocation of reality.

Don Giussani on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

Luigi Giussani's funeral in il Duomo di Milano

Given his complete fidelity to the Church, it seems to me entirely fitting that Monsignor Luigi Giussani passed into eternity on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Apostle. In keeping with this same theme, it also seems fitting that the Successor of St. Peter at the time of his death, Bl. Pope John Paul II, a friend and advocate of Communion and Liberation, sent the future pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who, even as pope, maintains deep personal ties to the Movement, as his envoy to Milan to preside at Don Gius' funeral. As one would expect, the future pope's homily was nothing short of remarkable, meaning wholly fitting for the occasion.

In describing Giussani's "love affair with Christ," Ratzinger noted that this "love story" constituted "the whole of Giussani's life." This love story "was at the same time quite far removed from any superficial enthusiasm or vague romanticism." Don Giussani knew and taught others that "to encounter Christ means to follow him. This encounter is a road, a journey, a journey that also passes— as we heard in the psalm—through the 'valley of darkness.' In the Gospel we heard of the final darkness of Christ’s suffering, of the seeming absence of God, of the eclipse of the Sun of the world. Giussani knew that to follow means to pass through a 'valley of darkness,' to take the Way of the Cross, and all the while to live in true joy.

"Why is this so? The Lord himself translated the mystery of the Cross, which is really the mystery of love, by means of a formula that expresses the reality of our life in its entirety. The Lord says, 'Whoever seeks his own life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will find it.'"

Giussani's grave

Luigi Giussani, on this your anniversary, pray for us.

Tomorrow marks the first ever public celebration of this important anniversary in Utah. A memorial mass will be celebrated in The Cathedral of the Madeleine beginning at 7:15 PM.

Where is Zion?

"It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isa. 2:2-3).

Being a native Utahn and having grown up LDS, we were always taught that the above passage from Isaiah was an ancient prophecy referring to my home state in general and Salt Lake City in particular. Utahns refer to our state as Zion both jokingly, as in "Life behind the Zion curtain," and seriously. Of course, those who do so in a more serious vein see Utah as a kind of promised land, even if a provisional one. Why provisional, you may ask? Because the LDS faithful believe that the New Jerusalem will be established in Jackson County, Missouri, which they also believe to be the location of the biblical Garden of Eden.

Over the long history of its written use, going back over three millenia, Zion eventually came to refer to the Promised Land to come, where God dwells with His people. For Christians, Zion can be anywhere in the world because, as we were reminded at Mass yesterday in our reading from the letter in which St. Paul tells the Christians of ancient Corinth, "you are the temple of God" because "the Spirit of God dwells in you" (1 Cor. 3:16).

What brought these verses from Isaiah to mind this morning was that today's canticle for Morning Prayer, as it is every Monday when we pray the third week of the psalter, begins with this passage. On this glorious winter morning in the mountains of my Zion, I am reminded of a lovely hymn I grew up singing:

"O ye mountains high, where the clear blue sky
Arches over the vales of the free,
Where the pure breezes blow and the clear streamlets flow,
How I’ve longed to your bosom to flee!
O Zion! dear Zion! land of the free,
Now my own mountain home, unto thee I have come;
All my fond hopes are centered in thee."

Holiness, being a fool for Christ

We all have ideas about what holiness means. If we're really honest, most of our ideas about holiness are abstract, having little or nothing to do with reality. In a word, they are sentimental. Many people these days equate holiness with self-righteousness and often put the word in "scare quotes." I would be hard-pressed to think of something more at odds with holiness than self-righteousness. The truly holy person is one who does not think s/he is holy.

In our readings for today there are two exhortations to be holy. The first one comes from the Book of Leviticus, with God telling the Israelites through Moses, "Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy" (19:2). It is necessary to point out that even in this passage from the Hebrew Scriptures holiness is defined by love, culminating in a commandment that later fell from the lips of Jesus: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Ven. Solanus Casey

Today's Gospel concludes with the exhortation- So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48). Jesus makes holiness concrete and real, which means challenging, yet doable. For example, He lets us know that it is not enough to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, but that, as His disciples, we are to "love [our] enemies and pray for those who persecute [us]." In all of this we see that holiness is nothing except loving perfectly, which means to love as Jesus loves.

In light of these readings, St. Paul tells us not to deceive ourselves, namely about what it means to be holy. If you consider yourself to be wise in this, or any, age, you must become a fool in order to be truly wise. Of what does this foolishness consist? It consists of things like loving your neighbor as yourself and, moreover, loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. A tall order, indeed. But, as our Psalm response reminds us again this week, The Lord is kind and merciful.

In words of a song by Michael Card, God's Own Fool - "And so we follow God's own fool and only the foolish can tell/Believe the unbelievable and come be a fool as well."

The remarkable diaconate

Last night I spent some 6 hours revising my literature review for what is called in the master's degree program I am trying desparately to complete, the Integrated Pastoral Research project, which is just a more technical term for thesis. My thesis is about the importance of married permanent deacons in the life of the church, namely their simultaneous and full participation in the sacraments at the service of communion: matrimony and holy orders. I have to say that while I am deeply interested in my subject, my enthusiasm for the project overall is waning given the demands of the rest of my life, including my very active ministry. I am committed to finishing it, however. So, I appreciate all the prayers anyone would care to offer on my behalf as I continue to trudge this road. In order to finish I will spend the balance of this long weekend writing chapter three of this five chapter endeavor.

So, for today I offer a brief passage about the development of permanent diaconate from the late nineteenth century to it's renewal and restoration just a few short years after the Second Vatican Council:

"What is truly remarkable is that it took less than a century between what is viewed as the initial proposal to restore the diaconate, even conferring holy orders on married men, and when the restoration, which was also an expansion, actually occurred. Only seven years elapsed between Pius XII’s declaration that the time was not yet ripe to restore the diaconate and the call of an ecumenical council to restore it. It bears noting that, from the very genesis of the proposal to restore the diaconate as a permanent order of ministry, married men with families, who worked in secular occupations, were primarily the ones envisaged as deacons by those advocating for its restoration, renewal, and expansion."

"If there's Lord above... give me something in to believe in"

It is funny how much blogging becomes part of my life. Not having posted for two days seems like a long time. I think the Friday traditio is a good way to get back in the saddle. Today I do so with Poison's Give Me Something To Believe In. The heavy metal/glam/hair bands of the '80s were nothing if not melodramatic, but many times they struck heart chords. For my money the best songwriter in the group is Brett Michaels.

So-called existential angst is part and parcel of the human condition. As Christians, we attribute this to our fallenness, which is the result of original sin. I recapitulate the original sin each and every time I sin; those times I usurp God and seek to be self-determining, deciding for myself what is right and what is wrong with no reference to God or other people. This usually takes the form of me putting myself first, looking out for number one, as it were. Nothing could be more antithetical to following Christ, who calls me to self-emptying service of others, the most important feature of the diakonia to which I am all called first through baptism and then by ordination.

Writing about Israel to the church in Rome, St. Paul said- "As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all" (verses 28-32 underlining emphasis mine).

God's mercy is Jesus Christ. Hence, I don't need something to believe in, but Someone and not just any old body, but someone who believes in me, not just enough to die for me, but to rise from the dead for me and to remain with me by the power of His Spirit! As Pope Benedict declared at the end of his first Easter Urbi et Orbi message back in 2006: "Christus resurrexit, quia Deus caritas est!", or "Christ is resurrected because God is love." The Gospel isn't free, but it doesn't cost money, it costs me everything, but what I receive is infinitely greater that what, even at my best, I am capable of giving.

Let's not forget the veterans of today's conflicts, especially those traumatized and shaken, wounded physically, mentally, and spiritually, by asking that they come to see and leverage God's love and mercy for them, just as we pray for ourselves. As Brett's heartfelt lyrics remind us, especially when he remembers his friend, experience always trumps ideology.