From New York City to Oświęcim (Auschwitz)

Greetings from Poland!

We arrived here from New York City earlier in the week -- details to follow.  I was struck by this map, which shows the relationship of the city of Oświęcim, Poland, to the rest of Europe.  It is displayed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.  The city and in particular the concentration camp are known as Auschwitz in German, and so today the word "Auschwitz" refers primarily to the concentration camp.

The sites listed in black are "ghettos, transit camps, and prisons from where Jews and prisoners of other nationalities were transported to KL Auschwitz."  Such transportation lines (particularly train lines) to Oświęcim existed before the German invasion.  Notice the well-known Polish cities Warsaw and Krakow on this map.

This illustrates that although Oświęcim is a small town, its location at the intersection of these train lines meant the Nazis sent people from all over Europe.

There is much more to say.  For now, let the simple difference between the Polish and German names for this place remind us that this town existed before World War II and continues to exist today.  The atrocities that occurred here did not require some inhuman, unusual construction of a place unlike any other, a place not capable of any other purpose.  Rather, for the sake of efficiency among other purposes, the evil of the Holocaust, including the killing of 1.1 million human beings, was committed in a place that was previously normal, with its own prior history and with its own present.

The rest of the map, in more distant perspective, shows its relation to other familiar cities, including Rome, Paris, Oslo, and Budapest, though of course this photo is not the best.

Day 1 begins, and three griefs and anxieties of this age

 I write from a bus to New York City, where I will meet the other Fellows and the FASPE staff to begin our program!  Tonight we open with a social event, and tomorrow the academic programming begins.

In addition to learning with my peers, I look forward to tomorrow’s Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Victory in Manhattan’s financial district.  The first time I encountered Our Lady of Victory was as the patroness of my family’s parish in Davenport, Iowa.  She has also turned her eyes of mercy toward many a sport team of mine, although perhaps not according to our narrow ideas of victory!  Cardinal Spellman founded this parish in Manhattan and is quoted on its war memorial.  The parish was devastated by the attacks on September 11, 2001.  Far more than the outcome of athletic events, their experience of such violence presses us to seek and encounter the truth of Christ’s victory, his mercy, which is beyond tallies and even beyond earthly life.

FASPE has invited us participants to reflect on how to integrate the realities we will encounter, into our lives as religious leaders and professionals.  This has got me asking what issues today are most urgent for Christians and people of good will.  As previously noted, the Vatican II document  Gaudium et Spes says how to locate these issues:

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ (section 1).

These are three griefs and anxieties of our age that have been on my mind and heart:

(1) Economy and the environment.  The issues of absurdly high levels of consumption, environmental degradation, and objectification of human beings are related to one another, and currently in such a way that is causing irreversible climate change.  The Church, not simply as an institution but as a body of 1.2 billion members, has immense economic power that we express through our habits of investment, purchasing, and labor.  How can we use this power ethically?

(2) Sexuality.  Our sexuality brings with it a capacity for self-giving relationship, as well as for pain, that is unmatched in human experience.  Because we are embodied, social beings, our relationship to our sexuality has real power to allow us to express our love (our desire for the good of another and others), share the profoundest joy, wound and be wounded, and become enslaved.  It is beautiful and dangerous, and the way we treat our sexuality has effects that cannot be confined to either a private or a public sphere.  Signs that we are not giving one another the fullness of respect and love include: rape and domestic violence, use of pornography, sex trafficking, abortion, divorce, use of artificial contraception, and more.  How can we use this power ethically?

(3) Communications and marginalized people.  I list this because it is a new issue that deserves our reflection.  When many of us use devices that allow us to select who we communicate with, how will we continue to encounter and love the people who carry the death of Christ in their bodies, who are lonely, have disabilities, are poor?

What are the biggest ethical issues of today? (Name three!)

Today's question:

The Second Vatican Council began its document on the Church in the Modern World with the succinct point: "The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ" (Gaudium et spes, 1).  

What do you think are three of the most important ethical issues facing the followers of Christ today?  I'll post mine, soon...

Coming Soon: Reflections on Auschwitz and Ministry Today

Greetings from my friend's porch north of Houston, where I write in the company of two basil plants, warm black tea and its soppy tea bag, and a spider in her tiny round web.  The highway whirrs in the background, and gray clouds carry moments of summer rain from here to there.  The sun, when it shines, is the kind that only lets you stay sitting outside if you don't mind sweating in place.

Today I gladly begin a series of posts on summer months full of what I love: conversations with friends about things that matter, travel to see friends and to learn, and time for writing.  I will be reflecting first on the what Christians did and failed to do during the Holocaust, insofar as it speaks to Christian life today.  In just over two weeks, I will travel to Europe with thirteen other theology and ministry students of many traditions to delve into this question, which is possible through the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE).  These peers and I will travel to New York City, Auschwitz, Krakow, and Berlin for a structured course of study, June 16-27.  I look forward to meeting them and learning together!  (Learn more on the FASPE website.)

As the trip has drawn nearer, a few moments have stood out as offers of grace in advance of our departure.

1. At BC's School of Theology and Ministry, two of my classmates in particular have pointed me toward things to read in advance of the trip.
2. A course on the Church this spring informs my thought about what it means to be the Church, including what kinds of relationships that entails for us with the world and with the Kingdom of God.  
3. In Wilmington, Delaware, I met a friend's high school history teacher who continues to teach a course on genocide.  She inspired me.
4. By praying and breaking bread with the Community of Sant'Egidio in Washington, DC, I learned that in addition to the Community's witness of friendship and peace building, one of the Community's U.S. leaders, Professor Andrea Bartoli, has just published a chapter on "Preventing Genocide" in Civilians in Modern War (Routledge, 2012).
5. A visit to Selma, Alabama, especially the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, reminded that, as during the Holocaust, Christians in the South led efforts to ossify racist social relationships while others actively opposed this injustice.  My friend's community, the Society of St. Edmund, gave great support to the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

A thousand thanks to all of these people and for the ten thousand other moments of grace that have slipped past my attention!

My next couple of posts will include the lenses, goals, and hopes I bring to this experience.  Logistically, know that I plan to (1) share each post on Facebook and (2) send a weekly email to those I think might be interested in seeing links to the week's posts.

I hope to learn from you, too, through this writing, and so will conclude each post with a question inviting your brilliant responses.  I am always glad for your suggestions, questions, and criticisms as well -- thanks in advance!