Aristotle Atomic Theory

Reagan v. Freud, science v. religion, population and Islam

There’s much to be learned from detective stories, including that the solution to any mystery usually lies in finding the right question to ask. At the moment, a gripping Vatican mystery centers on the Congregation for Religious, and here’s a nominee for the right question: Is Ronald Reagan or Sigmund Freud the better template for Benedict XVI’s management style?

Obviously, a bit of background is in order.

When Reagan took over the White House in January 1981, he insisted that “Personnel is policy.” He meant that an administration’s direction is determined by who holds its key jobs, so there can be no casual choices. Freud, on the other hand, is supposed to have said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Applied to governance, it suggests that not every personnel move has to be the Rosetta stone. Sometimes it’s just about who happens to be on the bench.

What makes this relevant vis-à-vis the Congregation for Religious -- technically, the “Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life” -- is that it has undergone a fairly stunning sea change in leadership over the last twelve months, begging the question of whether that metamorphosis is the result of chance or choice.

The new regime is composed of Brazilian Archbishop João Bráz de Aviz, appointed in January as prefect, and American Archbishop Joseph Tobin, tapped five months earlier as the secretary, or second-in-command. They replaced a team led by Slovenian Cardinal Franc Rodé, named during the twilight of the John Paul years in 2004.

Now 76, Rodé famously was a hero to some and a bête noire for others. He repeatedly decried a “crisis” in religious life fueled by what he saw as disobedience, moral relativism, and the inroads of secularism. The Apostolic Visitation of American sisters was launched under Rodé, and he strove to insulate the Legionaries of Christ from fallout produced by damaging revelations about their founder, partly because he found their traditional approach to the disciplines of religious life inspiring.

The difference between then and now is unmistakable. In raw political terms, both Braz and Tobin come off as more centrist, stylistically, the two men see themselves as listeners and reconciliation rather than lightning rods.

Tobin is in the bottom of the current of religious life following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). By temperament and theologically, it reflects the spirit of this world: practice self-criticism, surprisingly non-clerical, and sensitive to gender and power. Among other things, he’s gone out of his way to acknowledge the “hurt” caused by the investigation of American sisters and to send signals of rapprochement.

TommyKeith: Atomic Theory

žThe Bohr Model is an approximation to quantum mechanics that has the virtue of being much simpler. He postulated based on quantum theory that electrons travel around an atomic nucleus in a stationary orbit. His work also led to the theory of different energy levels in atoms that is if an electron drops from a higher to a lower orbit, it must release energy.

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