Journal 2: Why Read Gaudium et Spes in Travel Writing?

"Travel is fatal to prejudice," Mark Twain once said (Cahill xvi).  Cahill explains that travel writers help to bring about a better understanding of humanity among the world's peoples, or at least they attempt to do so.  When you can read a story about traveling, according to Cahill, you experience it more personally than a factual account of a foreign place.  Cahill jokes, "the fact that cultures are still in mortal conflict and that world peace is yet a fantasy suggests that either we are dead wrong, or that we still have a lot of work to do" (xvi-xvii).  Either travel writing does not help to foster understanding and communion between different cultures, or travel writers have much left to do.  I believe that travel writing can be used as an instrument for social change. We read Gaudium et Spes in a travel writing class because the Church, through papal encyclical and other statements, attempts to affect this social change.  By traveling, one can recognize the commonality of all humans, and the dignity inherent in each person that the Church continues to assert, decade after decade. 

In this section of Gaudium, athiesm in all its forms is condemned; however, the Church helps to remove prejudices between athiests and believers by declaring that believers are part of the problem of athiesm.  Whenever believers "neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion" (Gaudium et Spes, 19, paragraph 3).  We cannot continue to condem nonbelievers, especially in the sense that believers are part of the problem.  Just as travel kills prejudices, and breaks down barriers between people, the Church hopes to break down barriers in the area of athiesm.

Countless other papal encyclicals break down these barriers between humans in almost every other sector of life.  To cite a recent example, Caritas in Veritate from Pope Benedict XVI speaks of solidarity with the poor and the elimination of world hunger, along with the establishment of peace within peoples and interfaith dialogue.  All of these are areas in which barriers need to be broken down between people.  Without travel, we can't discover the people that we need to reach out to and what their needs are.  In this way, travel writing can be used to make people aware of the social changes that should take place, as well as influencing them to truly care about people that are different from themselves. 

When one comes into contact with a person, through travel writing or actual traveling, I believe it is much easier to affirm that person's humanity than simply reading facts and statistics about a given group of people.  The story that Cahill extols in travel writing helps us to truly meet a person.  Gaudium et Spes can be applied to a travel writing class because it shares the same mission that travel writing sometimes claims: to break down barriers between people and to promote solidarity in the world.  In the area of athiesm specifically, Gaudium strives to break down barriers between believers and nonbelievers.  In many other papal documents, the Church seeks to remove prejudices in other areas of life.  Both travel writing and Gaudium can break down barriers between humans, allowing them to recognize their common dignity.       

Comfort the Afflicted; Afflict the Comfortable

I have already written in Rabbi Spitzer’s blog about my very first impression of Rome- a peace that came and settled into me the moment I arrived. It rests somewhere between my rib cages, and is present almost whenever I am outside in Italy.


However, in this journal I would like to talk about my trip to Assisi. I felt a very spiritual connection to this town because St. Francis is associated with his advocacy for the poor in around the 13th century A.D. I have, as you know, continued to feel a calling to work on behalf of the poor. I sat and prayed in the Basilica di San Francesco for a half an hour, just being in the presence of this saint’s spirit.

I really enjoyed the Rick Steve short because he opened with a version of this line: “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” (paraphrase). He advocates breaking down our ethnocentrism and to use traveling to challenge our perspectives. Though I didn’t think that this trip would do that, because it’s not in a third world country, I did get to meditate on the devotion of St. Francis this weekend. I asked God to show me where he wants me to go in my life. You never can be sure what the answer was, but all I could keep thinking was: “Keep going. I will show you.” Sounds feasible to me. Like Rick Steve, I want to help people (including myself) to be “active Christian citizens mobilized to make our country a positive force.”

Gaudium et Spes (21) is a similar call to action: “faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by penetrating the believer’s entire life, including its worldly dimensions, and by activating him toward justice and love, especially regarding the needy.”

Tim Cahill’s “Introduction” is very funny because he makes fun of his own writing and other professionals in his field. Cahill posits that there is a recent rise in the demand for travel writing. Without the story, however, travel writing is simply “a ship’s log” (Cahill xviii). I especially love his description of the so-called “ecological Armageddon” (xix). He indicates that instead of reprimanding people for what they did or did not do, one can use a story in travel writing to persuade people to care. I am able to use this storylike approach in my career to engage people in social justice, instead of presenting bland facts.

Though Assisi had many other attractions, such as picturesque landscape views (especially from the castle at the top of the hill Assisi rests on) and cobblestone roads, I felt personally connected to the city by remembering the life and dedication of St. Francis.