Editorials
Contents Volume CXIII, Number 15 commonweal Correspondence ...
...dollars by International Money Order or by with his own alternatives and suggest that students or readers are free to "take their...
...For all the Catholics distressed and confused by (c) the commentaries that treat Catholic institutions as the coexistence of contending views in the church, there are as branch offices of the Vatican, and Catholic thinkers as sales many or more who are dismayed and repelled by a church that representatives...
...Scandal...
...The Vatican's conserva- and morals are going to be posed, like it or not...
...I tried to get you a used tions cannot be reformulated lightly...
...such weaknesses indicate a need for change in the teachings `'Going out of town...
...Publisher: Edward S. Skillin Father Curran's defenders, for instance, need not dramatize (and thereby banalize) the problem by loose and exaggerated references to the Holy Inquisition or freedom Commonweal, (ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of of conscience...
...Equally misleading are: York, N.Y...
...Nine years ago he had signed Against Silence: The Voice and a letter from the Jesuit School of Theology faculty at Berkeley questioning the Vision of Elie Wiesel: Vatican's reasoning in the matter of women's ordination...
...Art knows my psyche themselves...
...Within the past several months, what Michael K. Launer 472 might be called the "Curran effect" could be seen operating in two other widely How Does Analysis Cure?/ publicized cases...
...Narrow restricthe only way this process of change can be kept from turning tions on Catholic theological discussion will only assure that into anarchy is to require that direct questioning of official BMW doctrine be conducted sotto voce...
...At least, that is, when the children are listening - when the debate might escape the SUMMER BREAKDOWN confines of the theological community and have reverbera- ON BEING TAKEN FOR A RIDE tions among the faithful generally...
...10038...
...A little rubber ing of the Gospel which the church hands on from past genera- ring on the piston was worn out...
...servatives should be as aware of the reasons as liberals: • Sin...
...Janice Gates Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor By comparison, a number of other popular arguments are only distractions...
...The appointments were both accomSmith, Patrick Jordan panied by ambiguous statements which seemed to deny the legitimacy of public Production Editor: Anne Robertson Poetry: Rosemary Deen theological disagreement with official church teaching...
...Second, it seems to respond "Two hundred and thirty-eight dollars...
...bishops' committee on doctrine Michael Eigen 474 was met with fierce attacks...
...All either in the classroom or in his writings...
...What realistically to the problem of maintaining church unity in a was wrong...
...The Books decision was not surprising...
...bank...
...That happy solution being strange lands and finding disguised places like airports no longer possible, it would be prudent for theologians to and interstate highways, I hate wnrrirtg about whether my express themselves in extremely oblique or obscure terms...
...456 The faces of global competition: THE CURRAN Lance Compa 458 On dissent in the church: EFFECT Charles E. Curran 461 Screen: Tom O'Brien 470 B Y THIS TIME every Catholic in reach of a newspaper or television knows that 1 the Vatican has declared Father Charles Curran no longer "suitable nor eligible to exercise the function of a professor of Catholic theology...
...Interpreting Cardinal RatMovies: Tom O'Brien zinger's position in the Curran case, Hickey declared that there is no right to public Staff: Karen F. Silva, Harriette Balsky, dissent by Catholic theologians...
...Sotto voce can mean different things...
...They were preceded by Columnists: John Garvey, J. Bryan Hehir, Archbishop James Hickey's abrupt, unilateral dismissal of the American bishops' Abigail McCarthy, David R. Carlin, Jr...
...Father Buckley's offense...
...ously underestimates the problem of the church's own failings, (b) the expressions of undifferentiated outrage from those its hardness of heart in both hearing and living the Gospel...
...Obviously the understand- "No, two dollars and thirty-eight cents...
...Shootdown: Flight 007 and the American Anyone who believes that the action against Curran pertains only to one troubleConnection: Marilyn J. Young & some priest is whistling past the graveyard...
...In all cases, what when it does...
...would appear fearful of truth, hostile to inquiry, guarded However polemically attractive, these arguments all swerve against experience, suspicious of imagination...
...Contents Volume CXIII, Number 15 commonweal Correspondence 450 Editorials 451 Summer breakdown: Robert H. Bell 452 As the synod nears - II: Abigail McCarthy 455 Leviathan at large: David R. Carlin, Jr...
...church in which they were trained...
...culture dominated by mass media...
...which might weaken the legitimacy of established positions Many times I've called Art with €rouble...
...Or car will make it...
...The restriction of open theological discussion seriis dealing with non-infallible teaching...
...In another case, Father Jack Riemer 476 James H. Provost, a former president of the Canon Law Society of America, was Freedom at a Price: Dick Howard 478 scheduled to lose his post at Catholic University after the Vatican expressed reservations about his application for tenure...
...voce...
...foreign, $59...
...Both men ultimately secured their appointments, largely because a number of U.S...
...The basically (and sometimes rightly) appalled by today's sexual church's history is marred by teachings that were denials of standards and ready to lay responsibility for them at the feet of Christ's redemptive revelation, not embodiments of it...
...a) the belief that the Curran camp claims "anything goes" as long as a theologian 12 September 1986: 451 severe testing which should greet whatever proposes to be Commonweal has moved its editorial, advertising, and fuller and truer recastings of the truth the church must subscription service operations...
...Fill her up, Art," I say, "and you buttressing current teachings without ever concluding that better give her the usual once-over...
...15 Dutch Street, 5th floor, New York, But the realism of a sotto voce theology is spurious...
...Telephone: (212) 732-0800...
...Yet the media readily one but couldn't match it, so we had to .buy you a new inflates whatever is new or singular in theological discussion, one...
...Perplexing and pressing problems of faith controverted theological questions...
...own 1968 norms for public dissent as "unworkable...
...assures me, and starts to work...
...often stirring premature enthusiasms rather than the sober and Commonweal: 452...
...Special two-year misrepresents the official hierarchical teaching or passes off his own in its place, rate: U.S., $49...
...Nor does he simply line up official teaching, Canadian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S...
...It has two things going for it...
...Phone: (212) 732-0800...
...for instance, then debate might go boldly forward, behind closed doors as it were, until some T His St1MMER proved a universal point: the only thing indeterminate moment in the future when either the old views more trying than a vacation is a vacation with your would be roundly affirmed or a revised consensus could spring car...
...Why any theologian who has ever dared deviate from Father Kelly's believe that this history is entirely behind us...
...ConN. Y. 10038...
...Canada, $53...
...Catholic tives know that non-infallible teaching can change, indeed that teachings will be debated, by Catholics and non-Catholics even infallible teaching can be rethought...
...He gets my before new ones can be constructed and tested in the wings...
...Here, then, is the key issue...
...10038...
...An hour or so later It is easy, perhaps too easy, to dismiss the doctrine of sotto he's fixed it...
...vosTMASTrs: Send address pick," as though whim or mere preference rather than serious theological reasons changes to Commonweal, 15 Dutch St., New were the basis for decision...
...Single copy, $1.50...
...bishops, being essentially the practice of the pre-conciliar "Two thirty-eight...
...from the central issue: the legitimacy of public discussion of • Abdication...
...Canada, $30...
...On the other hand, Father Curran's critics are flat wrong when they Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly, except monthly propose innocently that Rome's position is no more than a concern for "truth in Christmas-New Year's and July and August, by advertising": someone labeled "Catholic theologian" ought to be dispensing cerCommonweal Foundation, 15 Dutch St., New tified Catholic theology and not some substitute variety of his and her own creation...
...But they believe that alike, at both the popular and scholarly levels...
...Commonweal...
...Our new address is: safeguard...
...check on a U.S...
...If theologians could dispute in a sufficiently unknown language (Latin...
...I'm the kind of guy for whom able support: once the pope or Roman congregations have those Delco radiator belt ads were invented: `' You never insisted on a teaching, theologians should do no more than know when your belt will wear out - and where you'll be circulate their doubts or objections privately...
...York, N.Y...
...In one, the announcement that Father Michael J. Buckley, S.J., Self Psychology and the Humanities: would be appointed theological advisor to the U.S...
...Art asks...
...bishops (including, it should be Staff noted, some known for their conservative instincts) took a firm stand against what Editor: Peter Steinfels would have been serious injustices done to two loyal and distinguished scholars...
...car...
...Modern Youth and Chastity...
...foreign, $33...
...Cut to forlorn pilgrim trekking through cannot be tolerated is the kind of open and clear discussion the Sahara Desert...
...if that proves unduly penetrable, then perhaps discussion When I absolutely have to make a trip, I take the Subaru might restrict itself to hinting at weaknesses in the arguments to Art at B&L Gulf...
...The Assistant Editors: David Toolan, Karen Sue "victories" were won at a price, however...
...First, it is familiar to many "What's the damage, Art...
...There is a stricter view yet, but one with consider- better than most anyone...
...full-grown from Rome - and the understanding or practice of Besides the awesome responsibility of navigating the church be modified accordingly...
...Yearly subscription's, U.S., In fact, no one, not even Rome, has suggested that Father Cun'an slights or $28...
...That does not make it any the less shocking...
Vol. 113 • September 1986 • No. 15
