|
Inside
NCR Your
20 greatest Catholics (et al) of the century
Late last year, we asked readers to nominate their 20 greatest
Catholics of the century. The response has been enormous, interesting,
inspiring and occasionally amusing. I originally promised to be scientific,
assigning 20 points to the number one on your list, 19 to the next and so on.
Sorry, its too complicated. But I can tell you whos the most
popular Catholic of the century: Pope John XXIII, by a landslide, with 17
firsts.
Others who headed readers lists: Fr. Karl Rahner (3), Fr.
Thomas Merton (2), Dorothy Day, Pope John Paul II, Gandhi, Fr. Teilhard de
Chardin, Mother Teresa, Sr. Teresa Kane, Marion Mancoske (the voters
mother), Cardinal Joseph Mindzenty and Dr. Jonas Salk.
One first, it may be said, is no match for three seconds, or for
sneaking in on the ground floor of everybodys list. Perhaps, then,
its better to leave the counting loose and go with the flow.
Then there is the tricky matter of defining greatness. There was
no chance a bunch of NCR readers would play fast and loose with the
concept. Great is such a nondescript term, wrote Hubertine Mog from
Wilson, Kan. I have used the criteria of having contributed to the
welfare of many through their positions (apart from the usual suspects,
Mogs choices include Maria Von Trapp, Helen Hayes, Fr. Eugene Teahan, an
ebullient Irish priest, beloved by all, from Ellsworth, Kan.)
Explains Frank Cole of Manorville, N.Y.: Greatness is that
something that has a positive and lasting impact on a society that
is attributed to a particular individual. Cole, too, includes Salk, as
well as Babe Ruth, Golda Meir and, in a grand gesture -- at number 20 -- his
grandparents.
I was guided by several factors, adds Rosemary T.
Devine, who offers a good blueprint of Christianity: What persons
represent vision, compassion, social justice and prayerfulness? I considered
which people have had the greatest impact on the universal church -- not the
institution but the people of God -- not only in this country but in the world
... with special attention to those who have willingly given their lives either
in defense of others or for the faith.
Devines choices include Archbishop Oscar Romero, the four
women martyrs of El Salvador, St. Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein.
Robert J. Sipos of Little Silver, N.J., began with 40 names, then
realized I was drawn to single out those who had struggled with the
implications of being Catholic and catholic in our time. His list
includes theologians Yves Congar, Leonardo Boff, Bernard Häring, Ivan
Illich, Charles Curran and John L. McKenzie.
Frequently the list says as much about the writer as about the
century or its greats. Im glad you didnt define
greatest, writes Damiana Chavez of Los Angeles, who has an
offbeat list. Nor, it seems, did we define Catholics, which may explain why
some who do not profess the ancient faith made the lists. Chavezs mix:
Pope John XXIII, John F. Kennedy, Archbishop Oscar Romero, Eleanor Roosevelt,
Franklin Roosevelt, Cesar Chavez (no relation, she says), Paulo Freire, Jonas
Salk, Mikhail Gorbachev, Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Dorothy Day, Helen Caldicott, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa,
Toni Morrison, Nadine Gordimer, Charlie Chaplin and Che Guevara.
Equally beguiling is that of Sr. Rose Marie Dischler from Portage,
Wis.: Pope John XXIII, Sr. Joan Chittister, Archbishop Rembert Weakland, Pope
Paul VI, All martyrs of El Salvador, Precious Blood Sisters slain in Liberia,
Henri Nouwen, Members of Call to Action, gay Catholics and those who speak for
their rights, Mother Teresa, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the staff of NCR
(would I make this up?), Pope John Paul II, silent voices of the mentally ill,
homeless, abused, sick and dying.
Its hopeless: It would take a month of NCRs to list
the greats in order. On the other hand, it would be a sin to leave anyone out,
seeing that so many thought so long and creatively about the subject; and
seeing that these relatively few were chosen from the millions who drew breath
on the earth this busy century. Here we go. Apart from a few adjustments in
spelling and minor clarifications, we will try to stay true to the names on the
lists as we received them. That the lists/paragraphs get shorter shows the
extent of duplication.
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, the Berrigan brothers, Bishop Raymond
Hunthausen, Fr. John Courtney Murray, Cardinal Leo Suenens, Sr. Katherine
Drexel, Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams (Northern Ireland Nobel Peace Prize
winners), Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.
Franz Jaegerstatter, the Salvadoran martyrs, Hans Küng,
Bishop Samuel Ruiz García, Lech Walesa, Fr. Leonardo Boff.
Cardinal Everisto Arns, Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Augustine Bea, Fr.
Damien the Leper, Paulo Freire, Archbishop John Quinn.
Fr. Michael McGivney, Bishop Andrew McDonald, Bishop Joseph
McNicholas Is St. Phillipine Duchesne in this century? this reader
also asks.
Flannery OConnor, Fr. Virgil Michel.
Clare Booth Luce, Mother Reginald Leahy. This entry, from the
Presentation Sisters in San Francisco, notes they would have liked to
include some of other faiths, such as Gandhi. Many other voters paid no
such attention to denominations.
Dom Helder Cåmera, Henri de Lubac, Msgr. Jack Egan, Benigno
and Corazon Aquino, Bertrand Aristide, Rigoberta Menchu, Patty and Pat Crowley.
I have another 50 who should be on the list, adds Bertha Haas, who
got in her 20.
Cardinal John Dearden, Fr. Raymond Brown, Fr. Godfrey Dieckmann,
Fr. Carl Stuhlmueller, Fr. Raymond Bourgeois, Tip ONeill, Fr. Eugene
LaVerdiere, Bishop Jacques Gaillot. It was a good exercise, adds
Sr. Dorothy Jonaitis, of Denver, Colo.
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Lanza del Vasto, Peter Maurin, Molly Rush,
Jean Vanier, Charles de Foucault, Penny Lernoux. This anonymous reader wisely
comments: The rankings are of course rather arbitrary. Moreover, some of
the greatest and most inspiring people are those common people who put their
lives on the line for their faith in various ways and whose names we will never
know.
Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Msgr. Reginald Hillenbrand,
Fr. Josef Jungmann, Charles Peguy, Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, Italian President
Amintore Fanfani, Mary Daly, John Noonan, Lady Barbara Ward. Adds David P.
Efroymson of Philadelphia: If fame or celebrity is a big factor, Joe
DiMaggio would probably be there somewhere. He also would have loved to
include Joseph Cunneen, John Cogley et al, but that would be cheating.
Fr. Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Martin Luther King Jr., Bishop
Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Terry Waite (Anglican cleric imprisoned in
Beirut), Rosemary Radford Ruether, Fr. Andrew Greeley, Matthew Fox.
Fr. Anthony de Mello, Sr. Mary Luke Tobin.
Albert Einstein, Princes Diana of Wales, FDR, Winston Churchill,
Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, Sr. Thea Bowman.
Billy Graham, Red Skelton. (Perhaps it should be noted, again,
that this list -- just for example -- had 15 names, beginning with Gandhi and
Dorothy Day, but all had previously been mentioned except BG and RS.)
Eugene Debs, Jackie Robinson, Linus Pauling, Walter Reuther, Rosa
Parks, George McGovern, Edward R. Murrow, Jessie Jackson. Their lives and
deeds inspire us still, adds Tom Sciamanna.
Mother Cabrini, Founders of Maryknoll, Graham Greene, Eugene
McCarthy, Gov. Al Smith.
Stephen Hawking, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Madame
Curie, Drs. Crich and Watson, Dr. Alexander Fleming, Susan B. Anthony, Marian
Anderson.
Hanna Ashrawi, Barbara Jordan, Steve Biko, Victor Frankl, Pablo
Casals, Pablo Picasso.
Fr. Flanagan of Boys Town.
Fr. Edward Schillebeecks, Fr. Garrigou Lagrange, Reinhold Niebuhr,
Gerard Phillips, Gabriel Marcel, Albert Schweitzer, Jacques Ellul, Fr. Bernard
Lonergan. These latter were among the entries of Spencer Stopa from Alamagordo,
N.M., who suggested the idea in the first place.
Tom Dooley, Fr. Richard Rohr, Padre Pio, Therese Neumann (of the
stigmata), Robert Kennedy, Catherine De Hueck Doherty.
The Argentine Madres/Mothers, Jim and Kathy McGinnis, Agnes Mary
Mansour, the Vietnam martyrs, Rose and Joseph Kennedy, Cardinal James Gibbons,
Fr. John A. Ryan, Mev Puleo, Sr. Madeleva, Sic (no one said it was a perfect
century), Gen. Omar Bradley, Adlai Stevenson, Saul Alinsky, Hubert Humphrey,
Pavorotti, Lawrence Welk.
Frank Sheed and Maisie Ward.
Fr. Patrick Lofton, Sr. Kathy Farrelley, Katie Quigley, Sr. Helen
Prejean, Brian McNaught, John ONeill, Sr. Lucy, OSF, Fr. Richard
McBrien.
Louis Armstrong, Seamus Heaney, Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Stewart,
Romano Guardini, Ed Sullivan, Mahalia Jackson, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin,
Rabbi Abraham Heschel.
Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Jean Donovan, Dorothy Kazel and all
religious who died as martyrs in Latin America, Fr. Jon Sobrino, Fr.
Ignacio Ellacuría. It is interesting to attempt to name our
centurys greats, but any listing fails, notes Rosemarie Gorman of
Bethel, Conn.
Thats everyone. Except, of course, for the millions who in
various more quietly heroic ways took their greatness with them to the grave.
The lists, such as they are, bring back memories, help put things in
perspective.
This got me thinking about things important, Ron
Mancoske wrote. Thanks so much for asking me to think about the
significant influences upon my life, Sr. Eleanor McNichol wrote.
These are people who inspire me, Peggy Saunders noted at the top of
her list. May the Lord send more like them. And Dennis Fleming:
Thank you for this wonderful chance to realize, despite all the evil
thats occurred, there were many instances where the Spirit was very much
alive this century.
Our deep gratitude to those who wrote. We hope no lists got lost
by the wayside. NCR hereby promises to repeat this exercise every
hundred years.
National Catholic Reporter, February 27,
1998
|
|