Prayer & the Pursuit of Public Virtue

...And yet, I believe that such equality of respect is a necessary part of what we should be about in the process of llving a good life...

...This phenomenon --of a life caught up in a rapid swirl, and the failure to search for deeper meanings of right and wrong -poses the greatest difficulty for public figures in America today...

...Poor teaching, poor use of instructional time, low expectations, inadequate curricula, and an uncaring atmosphere were all too often defended on the basis of the needs of the system...

...I believe that in many ways our social interactions should give evidence of our belief that we are one community and that God has a very real and immediate closeness to every one of us...

...Instead of protecting children, conventional wisdom often would have us believe that adults must be protected from children...

...We have too little understanding of our potential as saints...

...The requirement of community-building --in family life, in social life, and in our civic life --requires an infusion of personal commitment that combines a strong sense of self-worth with a strong sense of how the larger community must operate in basic harmony...

...This lesson applies strongly as well at home for family...

...deal because of their failure to reflect upon what has the most meaning in their lives...

...The influence of prayer into what I do is basically the same for me as both a public figure and private citizen...

...When religious issues concern Catholic public figures, it is usually because of political friction between them and the church establishment...

...I used them to be my conscience...

...That underlying principle is that you treat people --all people --with dignity and respect...

...For example, this belief in perfectibility has led me to encourage individuals --students as well as my own children --to believe in themselves and in their capacity to know and to do...

...But along comes the party's premier pollster Pat Caddell, to rain on the parade...

...I have been disappointed too often by those who define our church in terms of whom they can exclude...

...I learned at St...

...Few women or minorities had ever been chosen...

...I have learned that spirituality knows no denominational boundaries and that the common experience shared by many of us in America today involves a faith sharing that makes the meaning of a religious community and a church far more inclusive than rules of the organization would suggest...

...This gave me the opportunity to talk to the students, and invariably to challenge them to do more with their lives...

...Indeed, the fullest impact of Catholic faith is really the process by which things political are considered...

...The influence of prayer has been clear to me, and the participation of others in that search for wisdom has been partially responsible for its effectiveness...

...Our home "works" because we depend --all of us --on the presence of God there...

...I have been encouraged by those who, if they cannot share the faith, share its possibilities and its potential...

...We meet God in the things we do, in the way we do things, and in the people that God sends to share in our lives...

...Should we accede to a court order involving the evaluation and placement of youngsters with handicapping conditions...

...It promotes ambition and measures success in terms of potential rather than accomplishment...

...We meet God in the challenge to do good things, in the glory of our successes, and in the lessons of our failures...

...Francis College, from a sociology professor who laterbecame a good friend, of how the concept of true community goes far beyond what we see around us in the various social organizations we loosely term community...

...II I I PRAYER & THE PURSUIT OF PUBLIC VIRTUE FINDING THE COURAGE TO TAKE RISKS ~ ~ ~ z ~ ~ ~ 11 too often our lives are !!:)~ :~: muchUPdo-in caughtso ~!~:: ':i:~il lag-and so little thinking...

...And here is where I have come to value my faith more fully...

...When I was Chancellor of Schools I established a practice of taking two different students with me whenever I would go on speaking engagements or meetings out of the city...

...I felt often that the education community largely refused to understand the basic entitlements of children...

...Another assumption that I have come to operate on is that most people (and society itself) do not understand the difference between things trivial and things consequential...

...I believe that by fashioning an inclusive church we will evangelize in the most fitting way for twentieth-century America...

...Often it is the only way I get them to broaden their own horizons or to accomplish what they consider the unattainable...

...Prayer has been a part of my adult life, and it has often led to a change of mind and a different course of action...

...In these situations we confuse the importance of a job with the importance of work...

...We think that leadership is only a function of those endowed with leadership roles in complex organizations...

...Our relationships become almost automatic...

...Should we implement a promotional program that might hold back tens of thousands of pupils...

...Caddell's views have been laid out in a widely discussed ninety-two page memo written by Caddell for IMPAC, a group of big-money contributors to the Democratic party looking for guidance in how to place their political bets/investments...

...Too often we are afraid to draw on this relationship and to acknowledge that our work with students is not only a job, but serious and fundamental work that is related to our own basic responsibilities as Christians...

...On the human dimension, the suffering...

...Right" means those who agree with us, "good" is what we support...

...I relied on my key Staff to speak not on the basis of the bureaus which they administered...

...I mean, how we as Catholics ask questions about public issues...

...We take others for granted and ourselves too seriously...

...The most difficult thing I have had to do as a public official in pursuit of the "public virtue," justice, has been to remind myself that enemies can be right and that their point of view might even be better than my own...

...The best phone calls I have ever gotten have been on Father's Day, from youngsters who thought it was appropriate to call...

...It is the power of prayer, as well, that affords us courage to do things that are filled with risks...

...Frequently, as Schools Chancellor, I called upon my staffto discuss what we should do on matters affecting our 440: Commonweal youngsters...

...At the same time that we trivialize the important, we make important the trivial...

...Prayer has occurred oftentimes because I needed to make many tough decisions: choosing among candidates for appointment, determining priorities, of the organization, deciding what the possibilities could be, whether the setting has been reflective enough, and whether the discourse has been focused on right doing...

...It is this belief in children, when acted upon in the classroom, that reflects the tangible evidence of a faith at work...

...He had seen that he had a place at the table with the city's "big shots...

...They deserve a close look...

...Discussions about prayer are usually reserved for public figures who seem to trade on the direct relationship of their views and God's...

...about what it is that we do --that when we do reflect, it's usually because some outside force in our life brings us to a moment of truth...

...Why not regard real success in terms of the broader view of work, and appreciate and honor those wo do well all manner of work...

...This prayer frequently has been at weekday Mass, but not always...

...how we frame the discussion...

...I have come to understand better the meaning of political arrogance and the real limits of political power when I have taken time away from the pace of business to think, to reflect, and to pray...

...Where is our focus ultimately...

...In public life we define a life of success in terms of higher office...

...Such a respect for power is, I believe, misplaced...

...Another youngster whom I met by chance in Manhattan, told me that the trip he accompanied me on --just a breakfast meeting at Gracie Mansion (residence of the mayor of New York) --gave him a greater sense of himself...

...My wife, Mary, whose home I have shared for more than seventeen years, has taught me wonderful things about how faith that runs deep can be so beautiful...

...It is this faith in humankind that, I believe, represents my own personal contribution to others when I am operating most effectively in Christian witness...

...Very often, those who have prayed with me have not even realized that I considered what we were doing to be prayer...

...at what level we enter the debate on issues like integration, nuclear weapons, abortion, racism, and sexism...

...That context is, unfortunately, a troublesome one, for it seems to put matters of conscience and faith into the swirl of public issues that are immersed in church-state conflict...

...For me, prayer with others has been most meaningful as part of a dialogue in which the search for a sense of fight doing has been a central part of the endeavor, where the search for an answer has shaped the effort to do the very best we could...

...They thought the military ought not to be a presence in school...

...Having despaired of the ability to discover truth because we cannot be scientifically certain of things, we all too often abandon the search...

...And I believe that the failure to understand our capacity to be good is at the core of our failure to perform as successfully as we might...

...At certain times I have felt quite lonely pursuing what I thought was a basic part of the community's value system only to find out that many people were unaware of what I was talking about or what I actually meant...

...Every staff person at the meeting opposed it...

...Modern life sweeps us along, and often our family and colleagues as well...

...Where once they were reduced to waiting for a severe recession in order to recapture the presidency, the victories in the '86 mid-term election lifted them out "of the morass of depression" and the Iragua affair promised to produce a presidential victory in '88...

...I brought a law suit against the board of examiners --I was on the board --and won the point that found discriminatory the BABY-BOOMERANG WHY THE DEMOCRATS CAN'T COUNT ON GENERATIONAL POLITICS he wheel of fortune has smiled on the Democrats of late...

...I needed them to affirm their belief in youngsters...

...I can't really explain why I made these decisions or what the process was that led to them...

...I 'tried to start a junior ROTC program in high school because I thought students should have that option...

...Such a context ignores a more significant role for faith, in the way, for instance, that prayer shapes the process of politics...

...Our enemies become the "evil-doers...

...FRED SIEGEL Caddell, they have to realize that the long-term trends in presidential voting are running against them...

...We become accustomed to seeing matters of "fight and wrong," and "good or evil," in personal terms...

...People suffer a great...

...The ability to do things that I believe in --to push for a program, to advocate an unpopular cause (like integration, in a world that rewards elites) --has required the insight and strength that prayer affords...

...We have, in short, missed out on much of the practical beauty of faith...

...Many teachers' success with children stems from a belief in the youngsters' dignity, in their God-like qualities, and in their understanding that God expects saintly things to come from them...

...And I treated the honesty of my staff with great respect...

...Another of my basic assumptions has been that most people are unaware of how wonderful they are or can be...

...For example, on several occasions when I served as Chancellor of the New York City Public School System, I was forced to rethink positions I had taken --on issues such as confidentiality of student records, high school admissions policy, and testing --when student advocates took exception to the bureaucracy's policies and practices...

...Indeed, anyone in public life who searches for kindred spirits limited to one religious denomination is defeating his or her own purpose...

...These meetings I considered prayer...

...I challenged one girl, who ranked third in her high school class, to choose a college that would stretch her intellectually, and not to settle on her initial choice...

...Before long we are acting out of instinct...

...I decided as well, that my faith in God had to be lived in every experience and in every way possible, and that distinctions between public and private standards were wrong for me...

...I found myself having to fight the tendency to refuse to listen because I took exception to the speaker, or to the way in which the case was being pressed...

...I believe that the modem world encourages and supports the development of lives without reflection...

...Five years later, as a Wharton School graduate, she attended a speech I gave to a group of accountants in New York City and reminded me of a trip she and another student had taken with me to Washington, D.C...

...Caddell's analysis of these trends and his strategy for overcoming them, are already exerting a major influence on the Democratic primary race...

...I believe that my faith in God has mattered a great deal in the quality of the work I do...

...I believe my administration of the schools had its credibility because these persons had provided it through their own integrity...

...I needed the answers of my staff to such basic questions, and I needed those answers to be based on honest judgments about what the staff thought was right and wrong...

...The introduction of things prayerful into matters of public concern seems, I know, to be rather unusual for a Catholic...

...In public life we become consumed by ourselves and by the significant power that comes with an office of public trust and responsibility...

...Our 14 August 1987:441 society regards dealings with others as trivial affairs...

...However much comfort Democrats want to take from short-term events, says 442" Commonweal test for supervisors in the public schools...

...The idea that people can do a great deal more than they are doing, that they can be saintly, is something that is strange to far too many people...

...The tendency to blend the "good" with my own position, and the "fight" with my own beliefs and values has been a problem I have sought to overcome...

...I decided many years ago --when I became an adult --that public and private life were one, and that virtues I sought to practice would be the same for me whether I was alone, with my family, or with the larger community...

...But I have spent a great deal of my life trying to figure out what is the right thing to do, and I guess it seemed easier, and certainly better, to have one set of guiding principles that I could apply in all situations...

...Caught up in the politics of the possible, the professionals of public education seemed too willing to defend the fact that the school setting frequently denied students some of their basic rights as individuals...

...And nothing has been more antithetical to the position that I believe is correct than the political axiom that has become a standard of political action which reflects the arrogance of power: "Don't get angry, get even...

...In highly structured corporate or political cultures 4t.seems virtually impossible to give as much respect to the receptionist and clerk as to the vice president, chief executive officer, or chairman...