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The Right Man for the Job? The Nomination of Samuel Alito | Valerie Schmalz | October 31, 2005
The stakes are high.
For if the U.S. Senate confirms federal appeals court Judge Samuel Alito as a Supreme Court justice, the dominant judicial philosophy of the nation’s highest court would probably shift.
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Now available: Six new book reviews from the latest issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review,
Meditations on the Catholic Priesthood, by Charles P. Conner
Young And Catholic: The Face of Tomorrow’s Church, by Tim Drake
Deception: Catholic Education In America, by Steve Kellmeyer
(This title is now being marketed as Designed to Fail: Catholic Education in America)
Aelred of Rievaulx: Pursuing Perfect Happiness, by John R. Sommerfeldt
The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God, by George Weigel
How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, by Dr. Thomas Woods, Jr.
People have been asking that question since Archbishop Levada was announced as Joseph Ratzinger's successor as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It may seem disrespectful to ask such a question, but remember that Benedict XVI had the whole world's bishops to choose from. Why did he pick the Archbishop of San Francisco as opposed to, say, the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna?
We could speculate on why any particular bishop wasn't chosen--including Cardinal Schoenborn. But that doesn't explain why Archbishop Levada was chosen. Here are some media items that may help answer the question.
1. The AP has a story here: http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/34418.html.
2. Vatican radio has an audio file of an interview with Archbishop Levada here: http://www.vaticanradio-us.org/105live/audio/10_31_hear1.ram.
3. A transcript of the interview can be found here: http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?id=54168.
The November 7th edition of Newsweek has a piece by George Weigel about Benedict XVI and how the new pontiff "has proved to be more complex and charismatic than many expected." Weigel writes:
Interpreting the coming papacy accurately is going to require a determined effort to get beyond the "liberal/conservative" taxonomy of all issues Catholic. The Vatican is at work on a document concerning candidates for the priesthood who wrestle with homoerotic temptations and passions; should Benedict approve a policy requiring that such candidates have demonstrated a capacity to live chastely, the conventional impulse will be to interpret him as a persecutor of homosexuals. The truth, however, will be more complicated: at heart and in practice, Benedict is a reformer who wants all candidates to demonstrate the ability, with God's grace, of living the challenge of celibate chastity. Chastity, Benedict will likely remind the church, is a virtue for everyone—gay or straight, clergy or laity.
Unfortunately, I doubt that many in the MSM here in America will get past the "liberal/conservative" taxonomy anytime soon. Fortunately, many people who are looking for truth and authentic spiritual depth are seeing it in B16. This isn't that surprising to people familiar with his writings of the past decades. But, of course, the readership of those writings was rather small prior to this past April. Thankfully, the readership has grown vastly, exposing hearts, minds, and souls to the thought of a man who is a vibrant disciple and vicar of Jesus Christ.
Constitutional scholar (and Catholic), Princeton Professor Robert George calls the nomination of federal appeals court Judge Samuel Alito "exciting":
"He is a true constitionalist judge, a practitioner and not just a preacher, but a practioner of the idea of judicial restraint--the idea that judges should defer to legislatures where the constition has not autorized judicial intervention in the legislative process.
"That’s exciting because a lot of Supreme Court nominees, including most Republican nominees, have not been faithful to that principle in case after case after case and Alito’s record has been one of fidelity to that principle."
Watch for an upcoming IgnatiusInsight.com story on the nomination of what would be the fifth Catholic on the Supreme Court. In the meantime, check out this newly posted IgnatiusInsight.com interview with Robert George: "What To Look for in Nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court?"
"Five out of our nine!" is what your high school civics teacher used to shout, sticking out the five fingers on his right hand and waiving it through the air. His point: it takes five out of nine Supreme Court justices to decide a matter one way or another.
If the newly nominated Judge Samuel Alito is confirmed, the U.S. Supreme Court will have “five out of nine” justices who are Catholics—Alito, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, and Roberts. What does that say about the state of things?
Well, in one sense it says something we all already know. Socially and politically, Catholics have “arrived.” It isn’t simply, as it was in John Kennedy’s day, that a Catholic could get elected President of the United States. Catholics can actually be in the majority at the highest levels of what is perhaps America’s most powerful branch of government.
But what kind of Catholicism do the Catholics on the Supreme Court exemplify? We can’t be sure. And that’s part of the problem.
By that I don’t mean that a Catholic justice’s position on any or most cases likely to come before the court should be predictable. Not at all. We can suppose that on a number of issues two or more well-informed and well-formed Catholic justices might differently interpret and apply the Constitution. In theory, the Supreme Court decides cases, not issues. And cases often involve fact patterns about which reasonable and thoroughly Catholic judges may differ in judging the law's relevance to them.
Nevertheless, we should be able also to suppose that on the major issues—issues touching literally on matters of life and death or on the nature of marriage—a Catholic justice’s position should be fairly easy to guess, at least when it comes to his general principles.
SCOTUS veteran Catholics Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy have made their judicial philosophies clear enough. Those of Scalia and Thomas, if not mandated by a Catholic worldview, are at least generally in sync with it, although some Natural Law folks will quibble with this or that element of Scalia and Thomas’ approaches. Reagan nominee Justice Kennedy’s decisions are all over the map—often contrary to Catholic teaching, to be sure, but even contrary to sound constitutionalism. Of course, it’s too soon to say where the newly confirmed Chief Justice Roberts will come down. And no one knows about Alito, should he be confirmed.
The point is, we should all know where anyone identifying himself with the Catholic Church stands on basic issues. There is no judicial philosophy worthy of a Catholic jurist that would allow any reasonable person a moment’s hesitation regarding where, as a justice on the Supreme Court, a Catholic jurist would generally stand on the Constitution and such matters as, say, the right to life for unborn children or the nature of marriage.
If clarity would make it harder for Catholics to be confirmed as Supreme Court justices, by even supposedly Catholic senators, that’s a pity. But better to be rejected for being a genuine Catholic than to be confirmed as an ersatz one. Blessed is he who is persecuted for righteousness' sake.
How many justices does it take to render a decision of the Supreme Court? Five out of nine, as your high school civics teacher insisted. But, how many Catholics does it take? And what kind of decision will they render? Right now, no one but God knows.
Protect Our Daughters: Support Proposition 73 | Valerie Schmalz | October 30, 2005
Harlon Reeves didn’t learn his 13-year-old daughter had received two coerced abortions–or that she had been repeatedly raped by her mother’s live-in boyfriend–until Texas child protective services notified him.
This is a situation that is not confined to Texas - as a series of call-in radio interviews in California this fall show, parents whose daughters are coerced into abortions are apalled, saddened and helpless.
In the Reeves family case in Texas, the abortion clinic had contacted the state with its suspicions after performing the second abortion on the developmentally delayed young girl, who was brought to the clinic by her molester.
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The latest issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review is now online... or rather, the table of contents, Fr. Baker's editorial, and two articles:
Your Christ is Too Small, by Roy Abraham Varghese. An excerpt:
We note here that the fundamental flaw in modern New Testament studies and the numerous “searches” for the “historical Jesus”—from Reimarus to the Jesus Seminar—may be described as the “fish out of water” syndrome. There are two ways to study a fish: either as it swims around in its natural habitat or when it is taken out of the water and set on a dry surface. Both ways of studying it will yield radically different results. In the first instance, the fish is alive and acting in its natural mode. In the second, it struggles to survive, then dies and finally rots. The contention here is that the search for the historical Jesus—especially as practiced in the last two hundred years—belongs to the second category where the subject of study is a fish out of water. A historically legitimate study of the New Testament is possible only if it is carried out within the context of the community that gave it birth—and it is in this context that we should consider the Jesus of history.
Also available: The Da Vinci Code: Conspiracy or Communion?, by Stephen F. Brett. An excerpt:
Some are inclined to dismiss the furor about The Da Vinci Code, claiming that it’s merely fiction. Sadly, it’s so much more than fiction: it’s blasphemy, heresy and crudity powerfully packaged for maximum sales and maximum injury to the Catholic Church . It’s not merely theology produced by P.T. Barnum; it’s thuggery masquerading as theology.
I'll be posting the November book reviews soon... happy reading!
Jeff Grace
Managing Editor, HPR
"God’s Little Trojan Horse on Crutches": Raymond Arroyo on Mother Angelica | An Interview with Valerie Schmalz | October 28, 2005
"When she launched into cable, she was 58 years old with diabetes,a bloated heart, a twisted spine and two lame legs and $200 in the bank. The woman had everything going against her…Surely God moved in some incredible way through this life."
Raymond Arroyo is best known as host of "The World Over" on EWTN. His new biography on the founder and driving force of Eternal World Television Network, Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles, hit the New York Times best-seller list the first week it was out, and sits there still. 
Arroyo
calls Mother Angelica "God’s little Trojan horse on crutches." He
attributes the success of his biography of her to God’s grace and to
the remarkable story of the feisty former Rita Rizzo of Canton, Ohio. Mother Angelica is the story of the founder of the largest religious broadcasting network in the world, of a women who in 2000 gave away all control to a lay board rather than leave it open to the takeover attempt she believed was brewing among some in the USCCB.
That brawl was just one found the fascinating story of EWTN and Mother
Angelica. Arroyo’s book is a page-turner–an unauthorized biography that left full control in Arroyo’s hands but written with the full cooperation of Mother Angelica. It is clear he deeply respects and loves the outspoken 82-year-old cloistered nun who is now nearly silenced by a stroke and cerebral hemorrhage.
As Arroyo recounts, "One evening, before shooting her live show, she gave me but one instruction, which has haunted me to this day: ‘Make sure you present the real me. There is nothing worse than a book that sugarcoats the truth and ducks the humanity of the person. I wish you forty days in Purgatory if you do that!’"
Arroyo himself has been on a roller coaster. His family’s home was flooded in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and his wife gave birth to their third child within a few days of the book’s launch. He says he is not sure where the family will land permanently. Prior to the hurricane, he had commuted weekly from New Orleans to Birmingham, Alabama. Read interview.
