Correspondence
DELANEY, EDMUND T. & CORBETT, EDWARD M. & LEBOW, MORTON A. & SIMON, ANTHONY O. & L'ABBE, PIERRE & Marget, Madeline
Antidei on target Chester, Conn. To the Editors: "Variant Views on Abortion," by Nancy Amidei [October 26], was an excellent report, and my own observations confirm the points made by the author....
...Marget's reaction seems to reflect two common prejudices...
...I do not, nor would Vera...
...Apparently domestic inactivity was acceptable in Jacques, but Raissa should have been not only professionally accomplished but an all-around, self-sufficient woman as well...
...To the Editors: Nancy Amidei's comments make an important point that so many of us involved in the so-called debate over abortion often miss...
...To the Editors: Madeline Marget's review...appeared under the title "Too Much Ado about Raissa...
...Similarly, despite the criticism of L'Abbe et al, I am unable to interpret Jacques and Raissa's suicide pact and Raissa's subsequent statements about the positive aspects of illness in anything but a negative way...
...Considering the intimate relationship between the Maritains and Commonweal, they both deserved better...
...Quite to the contrary of Marget's conclusion that Raissa's experience was "too private-too limited to serve as example or inspiration," we find that Raissa's enviable productivity in a life devoted to contemplation makes her a truly "exceptional" person and proves that a life of contemplation can be followed in our times...
...More importantly, Marget fails to appreciate the extreme sense of affliction, and even physical illness, which comes from the contemplative's experience of separation from God...
...Commerce, Tex...
...Marget makes a point of stressing Raissa's inactivity and describes her life as characterized by "nonevents" and "lethargy...
...In comparing her with her sister I meant only to say that Vora's virtue was more apparent to me than Raissa's...
...L'Abbe, Amodio, Doering, Dunaway, and Mancini are incorrect about my prejudices...
...instead, she focuses on what mattered to Raissa, her contemplative vocation and its place in her writings...
...The first is that a person who is active and productive will project these traits to other people...
...Within each of the camps are people with varied opinions...
...and Matthew Mancini, Houston, Tex...
...Abortion proponents bury the reality under a veil of "personhood...
...We came only grudgingly to acknowledge the full humanity of the landless, of blacks, and of women...
...PIERRE L'ABBE Co-signers of this letter are Barbara Amodio, Wilton, Conn...
...Would that every bishop would read this article, as most of them, with a few notable exceptions, seem determined to ignore any points of view which are incompatible with their own...
...MORTON A. LEBOW The writer is associate director for public information, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists...
...Suther chooses not to allow her book to be monopolized by these accomplishments...
...It is, however, the biography of a human being...
...nevertheless, she expresses strong reservations about Raissa herself...
...Her twelve volumes, articles, correspondence, projects with artists, endless editorial assistance offered to her husband Jacques, and unacknowledged contributions to his work, let alone her work with the Thomist study circle (which after twenty years came to involve thousands of people), when added up amount to a rather daunting achievement...
...A simple enumeration of Raissa's accomplishments, however, quickly proves the opposite...
...I simply do not share it...
...Suther's thesis is that Raissa's earthly achievements, including her writing, have meaning only within the context of her spiritual ones, and she failed to persuade me of the latter's reality...
...EDWARD M. CORBETT Divided camps Washington, D.C...
...Here, too, I have a definite prejudice...
...Why are we so slow to recognize that government's role in preventing child abuse must logically extend to abuse of power by pregnant women...
...edmund t. delaney Who is human...
...In our opinion, Marget misinterprets Raissa's mystical language as expressing a "death wish" and her behavior as that of a hypochondriac...
...Of the 13 percent who would not favor abortion under any circumstances, 55 percent referred patients requesting abortion to other physicians...
...I understand the sympathy and admiration Suther-and L'Abbe, Amodio, Doering, Dunaway, Mancini, and Simon-extend to Raissa Maritain...
...The editors are to be commended for their part in "Continuing the Debate...
...She seems not to regard contemplation as a worthy occupation...
...The view science gives us today of the child in the womb negates such an artificial division...
...Rai'ssa remembered Mishawaka, Ind...
...MADELINE MARGET...
...Simon misunderstood my statement about Vera...
...To the Editors: Sadly, Madeline Marget's "Too Much Ado about Rai'ssa" [October 12] totally missed the point...
...The people on either side of the issue do not make up monolithic groups...
...It is true that I most appreciate actions undertaken for the direct, concrete benefit of other people, and that-from Suther's description-I understand Jacques and Vera to have met this criterion more than Raissa did...
...We know from reliable studies that Catholics in the U.S...
...I might be expected to appreciate the suggestion that Vera Oumancoff, my godmother, would be a more appropriate subject of a biography than Raissa...
...John Dunaway, Macon, Ga...
...Marget compliments Suther's work as "elegantly constructed" and "thoroughly researched...
...Many people who have studied the Maritains have long thought there should be more ado about Rai'ssa and are happy that Suther's book has finally dealt with the issue...
...Judith Suther's skillful book is not a biography of a saint but primarily a volume of literary evaluation...
...Marget's second prejudice lies in her attitude toward the contemplative vocation...
...I have great respect for people inclined and impelled toward prayer, and I do not believe women more than men should occupy themselves with domestic detail...
...Reviewer prejudiced Toronto, Ont...
...The author replies: Judith Suther's book is-as I hope my review made clear-well-written, careful, and interesting...
...To the Editors: Nancy Amidei's recitation of abortion viewpoints scants the fundamental issue: What does it mean to be human...
...Bernard Doering, Notre Dame, Ind...
...With reference to Raissa's domestic inactivity, Marget calls her "an over- and self-protected girl" and someone who "expected others to take care of her...
...A study of obstetrician/gynecologists in 1985 showed that although 84 percent favored the option of abortion in some circumstances, two-thirds did not perform abortions themselves...
...Because I met Raissa Maritain in its pages I came to the subject with, I think, an open mind, and formed my opinions on the basis of the presentation offered me...
...Suther's book is neither the documentation of religious experience, as the writers of one letter seem to maintain, nor a work primarily of literary criticism, as the writer of the other claims...
...The so-called anti-abortion movement is split between those who say that abortion and contraception should never be used and those who view responsible use of contraception as a way to avoid the need for abortion...
...ANTHONY O. SIMON The writer is director of the Yves R. Simon Institute...
...use contraception and have abortions at rates that are not dissimilar from those of the rest of the population...
Vol. 117 • December 1990 • No. 22
