Here is a scenario that most Americans and most Jews don’t want to contemplate, but John Mersheimer’s analysis in a recent speech deserves everyone’s attention.

“The story I will tell is straightforward. Contrary to the wishes of the Obama administration and most Americans – to include many American Jews – Israel is not going to allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own in Gaza and the West Bank. Regrettably, the two-state solution is now a fantasy. Instead, those territories will be incorporated into a “Greater Israel,” which will be an apartheid state bearing a marked resemblance to white-ruled South Africa. Nevertheless, a Jewish apartheid state is not politically viable over the long term. In the end, it will become a democratic bi-national state, whose politics will be dominated by its Palestinian citizens. In other words, it will cease being a Jewish state, which will mean the end of the Zionist dream. Let me explain how I reached these conclusions.”
Available in audio, video, and transcript:
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/10418

Today I will plant my garden. I’m a horticulturalist-come-lately; for the past two years I’ve gardened in pots on apartment decks, but today I will plant my first-ever garden in the actual ground. I’ll rototill, I’ll rake in extra “organic matter,” (featuring bat guano, apparently the queen of manures. Who knew?) I’ll carefully select the hardiest-looking prospects at the garden store. Optimistically, I might even put big tomato cages over tiny tomato plants, hoping that they’ll see that as a sign of encouragement rather than a sign of oppressive expectations. I already worry about squirrels and their savagely herbivorous ilk, who I suspect are already evilly plotting to nosh tender young produce.

We bless people and relationships at their outset–we baptize children barely dry from birth, we celebrate marriages and ordinations even though everyone knows that those blessed haven’t really done anything in those new roles yet, and, heck, don’t even really know what those roles will ask of them in time. We pray our hopes into them.

But as far as I know, we only bless agriculture when it produces–we celebrate first-fruits, not planting. And while I will certainly rejoice when the first tomatoes and peppers (salsa!!) and cucumbers and such come to the table, I worry most about them now, when they’re young and tender and especially vulnerable, like babies and newlyweds and the newly launched in any endeavor.

So how shall I mark the time of the planting? (From another thread, I know better than to sing “On Eagle’s Wings,” even though, let’s face it, an eagle or two would put the fear of God into those squirrels.) Is there a blessing of the sowing, when every hope is still possible, and every danger seems magnified?

I hope that the many church officials who are embracing the idea of turning failing Catholic schools into taxpayer-funded charter schools read this interview Sam Freedman did with education expert Diane Ravitch in The New York Times today:

Her criticism of charter schools … arises partly from a desire to protect Catholic ones. Already reeling from a shortage of priests and members of religious orders as teachers, already losing enrollment because of rising tuition and falling aid from parishes, urban Catholic schools face direct competition from charters, which as public entities are free.

“Where charter schools are expanding, Catholic schools are dying,” Ms. Ravitch said. “But charter schools can’t do the same things. The Catholic schools have a well-established record of being effective, and they’re being replaced by schools that have no track record.”

Ravitch was interviewed  in connection with her new book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.”

While some charter schools are very good, charter schools overall have had mixed results, which demonstrates that they are not, in and of themselves, the solution that their proponents claim them to be. And one public-policy consequence of creating charter schools is the jeopardy they pose to  inner-city Catholic schools.

Those who are funding charter schools – the Obama administration, major foundations, and others – should make sure that they don’t inadvertently assist in the demise of inner-city Catholic schools.

Freedman, a journalism professor widely known for his books on religion and education and who, like Ravitch, is Jewish, also has some excellent insights on what makes Catholic schools worth saving. One point I’ve heard him make elsewhere is that Catholics don’t contribute enough to their schools … which is why bishops convert the schools into public/charter schools.

But the bishops ready to make such a move should give close consideration to what Diane Ravitch has to say.

A recent statement by Father Jenkins–it seems very fair to me.

Via John Allen at NCR: the Vatican’s statement on the findings of the “visitation” of the Legion of Christ. I find it puzzling in parts, but I’m guessing that has to do with the translation. Here’s a key excerpt:

The Apostolic Visit was able to determine that the conduct of Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado has caused serious consequences in the life and the structure of the Legion, which requires a path of profound revision.

The extremely grave and objectively immoral behavior of Fr. Maciel, which has been confirmed by irrefutable testimony, takes the form of true crimes and demonstrates a private life without scruples or authentic religious sentiment. That life was hidden from the great majority of Legionaries, above all because of a system of relationships constructed by Fr. Maciel, who was adept at creating alibis for himself and winning the trust, confidence and silence of those around him, reinforcing his role as a charismatic founder.

By discrediting and pushing away those who doubted the correctness of his behavior, as well as through a mistaken desire not to undercut the good the Legion was doing, they created a mechanism of defense around [Maciel] that made him immune to attack for a long time, consequently making an awareness of his real life extremely difficult.

The big question this raises, at least for me, is: have the other participants in that “system of relationships” been identified, and what will be the consequences? (And will we ever hear about it?)

As for what’s next for the LC and Regnum Christi, the statement says:

The Church has a firm determination to accompany them, and to help them in the path of purification which awaits them…. The Holy Father…has taken it upon himself to indicate very soon the form this “accompanying” will take, beginning with the appointment of a Delegate and a commission of study of the order’s constitution.

Sounds like they’re planning to maintain the order in some way. But stay tuned for details.

The St. Louis Beacon published the other day a remarkable and riveting memo written eight years ago by the vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, David Spotanski and read aloud to its then Bishop, Wilton Gregory.

Reading the ten pages is both anguishing and cleansing for its honesty and passion for truth and for Christ’s Church. I am grateful to the Roman correspondent who sent it to me. And I recommend it and the cover article to your attention. Here is a portion of the memo:

You went out on a limb, Wilton, as Bishop O’Donnell had in the Archdiocese of St. Louis before you, when you placed a lay person in a traditionally clerical job, I went out on a limb when I accepted it. I have happily tagged along as you’ve restored faith, hope and pride in the traumatized families of the Diocese of Belleville, and I never balk at an opportunity to share with people that you exude the same pastoral presence away from the crowds and the cameras as you do before them. For whatever reason I have found myself in a special place at a unique and difficult time in the Church, and I do not take that lightly. I have been blessed with the freedom (and, I believe, the obligation) to share daily with the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a perspective to which he cannot relate. I can speak as a parent.

You should know by now that our children are more important to Sharon and me than anything in the world. Let me repeat that in bold Italics: Our children are more important to Sharon and me than anything in the world. With all due respect, though you probably come as close to understanding the significance of that statement as any bishop in the Church, you don’t. You can’t. No priest, no religious, no lay person who is not a parent can truly appreciate the incredible weight of that single sentence any more than I could before Erin was born. Three children later, I’m not sure I fully grasp it yet, and I know I can’t adequately articulate it for you in a simple memorandum. Similarly, I could never hope to fully comprehend how your pastoral ministry is the most important thing in the world to you. I can witness your vocation and try to appreciate the extraordinary commitment you have made to the Church, but I am not and will likely never be a priest. I may work in your chancery, but I am, above all else, Sharon’s husband and Erin, Jonathan and James’ dad.