Correspondence: Birth control & more
WI1,yr.kD +SC NI ,S ••n,:M .E171,;''Mft frOM, .._C3 t'LR7i;S g 'Y'i'rSD1~YAST.rt?Sd~fl',W^W:Tr3?'nGM2F C O R R E S P O N D E N C E The problem with NFP In a letter in the April 23 issue of...
...MIMI MAHON Bryn Mawr, Pa...
...As to individual morality, that can be left largely to parental, educational, cultural, and of course religious sources—all of which shape the (Continued on page 4) Commonweal 2 Mai 21, 2004 C OKR~'SPO$DE$C~ (Continued from page 2) "well-formed conscience...
...That kind of nuance was markedly absent from the pope's re-cent statement...
...WILLIAM DORNBURGH, Cooperstown, N.Y...
...STEPHANIE FRENCH Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Got rhythm...
...Discounts 5 percent, 3 times...
...Charles, Ill...
...What a shame that decades of human beings (women, of course) were rarely asked to discuss a problem so personal to them...
...15 percent, 12 times...
...The church's teachings on human sexuality are a misinterpretation of natural law imposed by a celibate mindset...
...Bernard G. Prusak teaches humanities at Boston University...
...There has already been harm done by the pope's statement...
...The writer is an advanced practice nurse in palliative care and ethics and a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics...
...Would she care to share my experience...
...Family members are demanding tube feedings for dying patients, "because the pope says we have to...
...JUSTUS GEORGE LAWLER St...
...People have changed their advance directives...
...rather, I find the kind of mutuality present in her marriage admirable...
...More than simply stating their "position," I asked them to examine what the criteria for their judgments were...
...Ahead of his time Kudos for the perceptive, exquisitely titled "A Bitter Pill" by Leslie Tentler...
...and, after the Holocaust, the very thought seems repulsive...
...Is there a vice pope...
...it seems right to say that we have an obligation to put our beliefs to the test...
...Tender's analysis is brilliant and reflects the attitude of most of the Catholic laity on this very sensitive and personal topic...
...We should never start an intervention, whether antibiotics, assisted ventilation, or feeding tubes, that we are not willing to discontinue...
...Further, according to these myths, the gift was given illicitly...
...And it's certainly not the case here...
...And we both love our children very much...
...To be sure, in traditional Catholic thought, God's "demonstrability" has been considered, in Aquinas's terms, to belong not to the "articles of faith" but to the "preambles to the articles...
...Ignoring women I have just finished Leslie Tender's engaging account of the church's struggle with the issue of contraception...
...To have a family member die is almost universally difficult...
...For additional information, call 212-662-4200 or write COMMONWEAL, 475 River-side Dr., Rm...
...After consultations with my confessor and another priest, I had a vasectomy, thus relieving my wife of both moral guilt and biologicommonwealmagazine.org cal anxiety...
...In our first class, I asked my students to share, in small groups, their thoughts on the war in Iraq and the "war against terrorism...
...MICHAEL W. HOVEY Detroit, Mich...
...Daily prayer, reflection or Mass...
...Christians are admonished to at-tend to "the signs of the times...
...The large majority of persons living in poverty are women...
...Sadly, in much of the world, that kind of relationship is rare...
...Conspiracy theory I am sure the Vatican and the pope have anticipated the following scenario: the pope has a massive stroke and is left in a persistent vegetative state...
...One young woman spoke first: "Professor Hovey, I hope you don't get upset with me, but, well, I consider myself a good Catholic and everything—I go to Mass every Sunday—but I don't really care what the pope said about the war...
...Faculty In-Service...
...10 percent, 6 times...
...Both PVS and dementia represent changes in brain structure and function...
...Analogously, it may be claimed that human beings must play with fire—must dare to talk about the first and last things—in order to be human...
...Those who don't play the game shouldn't make the rules...
...WI1,yr.kD +SC NI ,S ••n,:M .E171,;''Mft frOM, .._C3 t'LR7i;S g 'Y'i'rSD1~YAST.rt?Sd~fl',W^W:Tr3?'nGM2F C O R R E S P O N D E N C E The problem with NFP In a letter in the April 23 issue of Commonweal, Pamela Pilch gave a glowing account of her experience with Natural Family Planning (NFP...
...We have five children...
...Name: Address: City: Alma mater ^ or other choice ^: Number of subscriptions I will sponsor at $18 each (minimum of 5 please): ^ 5 ^ 10 ^ 15 ^ other May we identify you as the donor...
...BARBARA SORIN Harrisburg, Pa...
...After that, twin beds...
...Finally, PVS patients are, in fact, dying...
...He has a feeding tube and hydration tube—and continues to exist for five or ten years...
...but do we want to say, then, that God allows suffering for this purpose...
...but at the same time we can-not wholly be trusted with it...
...Could the fact that she and her husband used contraception for the first eight years of their marriage have anything to do with it...
...While I disagree with the editorial policy of Commonweal more often than not, it is articles like Leslie Tender's that sustain my subscription...
...Please bill my credit card ^ Card type: Amex ^ Mastercard ^ Visa ^ Card no Commonweal • 415 Riverside Drive, Room 405 • New York, NY 10115 • phone: 212-662-4200 • fax: 212-662-4183 • e-mail: circulationmgr@commonwealmagazine.org Commonweal 4 May 21, 2004 that Evangelical Christianity is growing at its greatest rate...
...CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) jured patients, we know this is often impossible...
...In August 1986, however, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger pronounced apodictically that Curran could "no longerbe considered suitable or eligible to exercise the function of a professor of Catholic theology...
...First, official teaching regarding personal sexual morality has been more and more ignored...
...Is there a plan of succession...
...Perhaps a few additional points will help those who may some day be confronted with this situation, either as providers, patients, or family members...
...Currently, a woman must choose between the guilt of birth control and the guilt of not being able to feed or educate her children...
...I must have missed something...
...405, New York, NY 10115, or e-mail copy to Malena Seldin at: circulationmgr@commonwealmagazine.org (e-mail is preferred...
...Yes ^ No ^ Check enclosed...
...There is no difference between withdrawing and withholding any intervention...
...Second, the term Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) cannot be applied before three or six months, depending on the cause of the brain damage...
...Both "signs" suggest that the moral mission of the church must focus primarily on such planetary issues as human rights, economic justice, protecting the environment, overpopulation, and AIDS...
...Traditionally, Catholic theologians have considered physiology as well as theology in their writings on endof-life care...
...July 21, 2002), which, paradoxically, only the Jerusalem Post recognized as a book about church reform, not about the Holocaust...
...www.sabbathretreats.org Ecclesiastical Art RARE, ORIGINAL ECCLESIASTICAL ART—Custom-order a hard-to-find saint...
...3-line mini-mum...
...Ancient myths teach that fire was given to us by the gods...
...For human life to be properly human, the myths suggest, we must have fire...
...However, our sex life was very limited, fraught with stress, and therefore, not very satisfying...
...Who will speak for the pope...
...For example," I told them, "some of you might support the war in Iraq or against terrorism based on your feelings of patriotism...
...But if, as Aquinas claims, faith presupposes "natural knowledge" of God, just as grace presupposes nature, it likely shouldbe added that this natural knowledge presupposes, though it is not strictly built upon, at least some disposition to-ward faith...
...At the time, Rev...
...So Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical letter Fides et ratio, affirms the First Vatican Council's confidence in "the natural knowability of God," that is, the power of "natural reason" to know God through the world...
...There was always the fear of another pregnancy and the extra physical and financial strain on the family...
...My wife was not comfort-able with the pill for moral and medical reasons...
...Neither diagnosis is easy...
...Advance payment required...
...My wife and I faithfully practiced the rhythm method...
...C L A S S I F I E D RATES: $1.20 per word...
...Were all Catholics to live in privilege, NFP might be feasible...
...But as Tentler points out, that hasn't been the case for many Catholics in the United States...
...She has been courageous, careful, compassionate, scholarly, and candid...
...It was a decision for which I have no regrets...
...Here in the Dominican Republic, machismo is a major obstacle to NFP...
...I was less enthusiastic about the letter by Pamela Pilch...
...I hope Pilch doesn't consider Tender's piece "negative, dismissive, or knee-jerk...
...JACQUELINE RAFFERTY Seattle, Wash.Macho men I was happy to see Leslie Tender's article in the April 23 issue...
...Ironically, only two years ago a group of distinguished scholars at home and abroad honored Curran with A Call to Fidelity, a collection of essays for his contributions to the field of Catholic ethics over the past forty years...
...Others might op-pose the war in Iraq, knowing that Pope John Paul II has said that war is 'a defeat for humanity.'" Following the small-group discussions, I asked the students to share their comments...
...E. LEO MCMANNUS Venice, Fla...
...Second, the church has become the only truly global religious institution in recorded history...
...Her doctor outlines the basics of family planning...
...I don't blame the divorce entirely on our poor sexual relationship...
...Visit www.sacredartwork.com EPS Rome Pilgramage ROME PILGRIMAGE: Explore the rich legacy of the papacy through daily lectures and walking tours of the ancient city where saints, popes, and martyrs have trod...
...In 1968, Tentler writes, "nothing was as devastating to the church's credibility as Humanae vitae and the paralysis it generated...
...Charles Curran was making the same argument at The Catholic University of America...
...NFP works well for some, but we are not all alike physically and it does not work for all...
...Further, should couples want to practice NFP, there are no centers that teach it...
...A second child is born seventeen months later...
...This was the thesis of my book Popes and Politics (see "Where's the Beef...
...For we are liable then to think ourselves much more powerful than we are...
...Leslie Woodcock Tender's article ("A Bitter Pill," April 23) tells the story well...
...The condition is irreversible...
...Two such signs stand out during the reign of the present pope...
...I mean, he's not even an American...
...While we often wish for a cure for our severely ill or in(Continued on page 30) The Unfinished Universe Is God at Wor;.r 1 agree that Catholic college students need a magazine like Commonweal to help them understand the issues facing contemporary society...
...John Paul II's call for "awakening centers" contradicts medical realities...
...Yes, Job came to deeper knowledge of God through his suffering...
...Tentler must be commended for her fine research...
...I don't want to dismiss her experience...
...A naive, virgin couple—ages twenty-one and twenty-three—marry in the church...
...It is difficult here to suppress the feeling, however uncharitable, that the man knows no shame in the service of his faith...
...Sponsored by Education+Parish+Service and the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas...
...Eventually, there is a divorce...
...End-of-life care Many good points were presented in the editorial, "Allowing to Die II" (April 23...
...In any event, it is worth remarking that neither philosopher says a word about Christology in discussing the significance of suffering...
...Not only is the desire to know basic to who we are...
...The recent Vatican statement increases these burdens in-appropriately and unnecessarily...
...They have their first child ten months later...
...In a society where more than a third of women are victims of domestic violence, it is very unlikely that husbands will consent to periodic abstinence...
...I can't wait for the conspiracy novel based on this plot...
...www.annerice.com Dynamic Creative Preaching PARISH MISSIONS, RETREATS FOR RELIGIOUS...
...Commonweal 30 May 21, 2004...
...According to Craig and Sinnott-Armstrong, the God of Christian theism can apparently be understood without having to consider the Incarnation, crucifixion, and Resurrection...
...When the mother goes to purchase literature explaining the method more fully, she is told she must get a note from her pastor authorizing the Catholic bookstore to sell it to her...
...the brain cannot recover...
...a third in thirteen months...
...MIKE MURPHY Milwaukee, Wis...
...Even the book of Job does not...
...Young & ignorant Concerning John C. Cavadini's "Ignorant Catholics" (April 9): Last fall I taught a course titled "Contemporary Peacemakers" at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York...
...Call EPS at 202-884-9021 or e-mail jolliffec@trinitydc.edu...
...It is just telling us how it was and is...
...Contemporary philosophy gives some reasons to think that this confidence is not groundless: though the incredible complexity of the universe and the infinitesimal likelihood that there would be creatures like us may not prove God's existence, they might well be taken to point to it...
...litmus tests are a failure—even limiting sex to two days a month fails, and she has six children after eight years of marriage...
...What a shame that such a personal issue received so little honest and compassionate treatment by the Vatican...
...At the least, we can hope to learn humility...
...A global power I would like to add a twenty-first century postscript to Leslie Tender's fascinating historical survey of contraception and twentieth-century Catholicism...
...Three babies make it a problem to keep accurate temperature records...
...First, there was an implication in the editorial that discontinuing a feeding tube is somehow different from not starting a feeding tube...
...After seven years of very little sex, there is a seventh child but the marriage is seriously dam-aged...
...Visit http://eps.trinitydc.edu for details...
Vol. 131 • May 2004 • No. 10
