EDITORIALS
CORRESPONDENCE Hither and Yon Knoxville, Tenn. To the Editors: Alas, Norman Cousins was right to lament the current decline of the English language! Even Peter Steinfels has forgotten the...
...It consists in first asking a hypothetical question, or a series of hypothetical questions, to which apparently she could have no way of knowing the answers except by testing the hypotheses...
...To the Editors: Rosemary Ruether has once again made use of a crudely illogical device of tendentious argumentation which has not gone unnoticed by her readers in the past ["Notre Dame's Catholic Character," Apr...
...If I were to suggest that authentic morality may clash with (Continued on page 295) NEWS & VIEWS" 274 CORRESPONDENCE: 275 EDITORIALS: 275 CONTRACEPTION IN GOD'S GREEN ISLE?: John Cooney 276 THE WORLD AS CONCENTRATION CAMP?: Brian Wicker 277 THE CARDINAL AND THE JUNTA: Thomas Quigley 278 THE STRUGGLE IS FOR JUSTICE: Abigail McCarthy 278 THE WEALS AND WOES OF UNIVERSITY PRESSES: Chi/ton Wi/liam~on...
...on the other hand, they do exist, and if they are to be constantly ignored or abused---as historically they have been--then they must be protected in law...
...Noel Browne's mother-and-child welfare plan, the bishops in their 1973 statement acknowledged that it was the right of the legislature to legislate...
...A few weeks later the hierarchy without prior warning issued a statement on contraception which at first sight appeared to be an advance on previous episcopal interventions in Irish political life but which in fact was subtle and effective obstruction...
...The law also was a problem for customs officers, both in searching tourists and Irish people coming in from abroad or from the North, where contraceptives are available...
...An attempt in the Irish Senate, the upper chamber, in 1971 by three young Senators, Mary Robinson, John Horgan and Trevor West, to introduce a bill legalizing contraceptives failed to get a first reading...
...Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...But they added that in 24 May 1974:276...
...The Archdiocese's position drew impressive rejoinders from some 28 members of the Jesuit academic community at Woodstock College, and from the New York-New Jersey chapter of Dignity, an organization of homosexual Catholics...
...it provided further opportunity to clear up some ancient theological ambiguities with respect to homosexuality and the Church...
...Copyright (~ 1974 Commonweal Publishing Co., Inc...
...This feeling of national progress was heightened in February, 1973, with the election of the National Coalition Government on a social reform program: Whatever the basic truth in the theory of progress, in recent months the Irish Government has been in disarray over a packet of durex...
...281 VERSE: Ma Shou-Chen, translated by Kenneth Rexroth & Ling Chung 285...
...In recent years much has been written and said about the "new Ireland"--that the country was now becoming urbanized, efficient, prosperous, independent-minded, an active member of the European Economic Community, and that in the postconciliar Church the myth of the priest-ridden nation had been dispelled forever...
...Amid muffled rumors that the government was considering introducing its own bill, the Robinson bill received a first reading...
...In the hope that official reaction and public opinion had changed since 1971 Senator Robinson introduced the Family Planning Bill, 1973, in the Senate last November...
...Foreign $16...
...00]6 MUrray Hill 3.2042...
...However, since then there have been indications that the climate of opinion was becoming more receptive to change...
...Yet the issues are not unimportant...
...But not before the Archdiocese had provided a rallying point for some of the most reactionary elements in the city, and not before the media had passed to other interests, leaving the Woodstock and Dignity statements relatively unpublicized...
...If the Church, in New York or elsewhere, cannot do this then its thinking is indeed where one dismayed New York Catholic politician said it is: back in the 1880s...
...Consider, for example, the concluding portion of her response to Notre Dame's statement on the Catholic character of the University: Let's get specific...
...A position favoring the civil rights of homosexuals may require a certain courage, particularly since there are those who mistakenly equate a defense of those rights with an oblique sanctioning of homosexual sex as an alternative form of sexual expression--another issue entirely, as was demonstrated at the recent convention of the National Federation of Priests' Councils, which endorsed the civil rights of homosexuals but quashed a report on ministry that appeared to presume that homosexuality was natural and therefore good...
...At present a 1935 law forbids the importation, manufacture and sale of contraceptives...
...Nina Sandrich 285 THE SCREEN: Colin L. Westerbeck, Jr...
...Single copies 50c 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS The unqualified opposition of the Archdiocese of New York to a bill in the New York City Council aimed at guaranteeing the civil rights of homosexuals was perhaps to be expected, given the rigorism of formal theological attitudes and the Church's continuing failure to provide adequate moral and pastoral guidelines whereby homosexual men and women might grow in love and service to God within the formal ecclesial community...
...S|4 a year...
...2841 UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOKS: Literature: Wallace Fowlie 286 History and the Social Sciences: Lou & John Ratt~ 287 Education, Philosophy, Theology: Bernard Murch/and 289 JAMES O'GARA: Editor JOHN DEEDY: Managing Editor RAYMOND A. SCHROTH: Associate Editor ANNE ROBERTSON: Editorial Assistant COLIN L. WESTERBECK, JR.: Movies JOHN FANDEL: Poetry BRIAN WICKER: Great Britain ALAIN WOODROW: Paris HENRY TEN KORTENAAR: Rome JOHN COONEY: Dublin EDWARD S. SKILLIN: Publisher JOHN BRUBAKER: Advertising Manager COMMONWEAL A Weekly Review of Public Affairs, Literature and the Arts...
...To defend the rights of homosexuals is merely to align one's self on the side of social prerogatives that all should have, homosexual or not, as individuals...
...If I were to pursue a line of scholarship that unsettled doctrine, would this be welcomed there...
...An important factor in this was the national debate about relations with Northern Ireland...
...It proposed that the Minister for Health should license the sale of contraceptives in chemist shops and hospitals, while some contraceptives should be available on prescription only...
...Both statements were instructive...
...In fairness to the Archdiocese, it may well be that Intro-2 contains some dubious provisions...
...Yours for a last-ditch stand in defense of the language, ANNE MARIE CAVIGLIA Harsh Judgments Lisle, Ill...
...Then she abruptly anticipates the answers to these questions, without providing any clue as to what justification she might have for doing so...
...This law is backed up by various Censorship of Publications Acts preventing the advertising of contraceptives...
...The Woodstock Commonweah 275 response pivoted on the admonition of the 1971 Synod of Bishops that all members of the Church be prophetic in championing the rights of individuals and groups that are treated unjustly, and cited the Synod reminder that "the Christian finds in every man God himself and God's absolute demand for justice and love...
...Instead, the Archdiocese spoke in tones that betrayed fears and misconceptions from the dark ages of genetic, behavioral and moral understandings...
...Even Peter Steinfels has forgotten the difference between "whence" and "whither" (in his title, "Whence the New Conservatives...
...Whither shall we turn, if even Commonweal fails us...
...The same observation could apply to the so-called "typical Irish situation...
...In the course of several pages he cites various authorities to prove that this "typical Irishman" does not exist...
...However, the first move came not from the government benches but once again from the trio of young senators...
...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 REPORT FROM IRELAND CONTRACEPTION IN GOD'S GREEN ISLE...
...The Dignity statement added that "after centuries of persecution" the time has come for the spirit of Jesus to prevail among Catholics, to love your neighbor, to respect the dignity of every person, and to oppose all forms of oppression...
...With the success of the coalition government, hopes were raised that the laws governing contraception would be altered...
...US and Canada...
...Expectation realized, however, does not lessen distress over the Archdiocese's blanket condemnation of Intro-2, the proposed measure that would ban discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations...
...If I were to point out the male chauvinist character of Roman Catholic theology and institutions would this be welcomed there...
...And finally, on the sole basis of her conjectural answers to her hypothetical questions, she unhesitatingly pronounces singularly harsh and supercilious judgment...
...The civil rights of the homosexual do not transcend those of the general public...
...The Intro-2 proposal presented the Archdiocese with an opportunity to witness, not only to the rights of the homosexual as citizen, but also to his dignity as a person created in the image of God...
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...Despite Humanae Vitae there has been growing demand in the Republic for the legalization of contraceptives...
...For example, doctors estimate that 35,000 women are receiving the pill on prescription each month for medical reasons...
...Considering some of the problems confronting citizens and government these days, concern over a bill like Intro-2 may seem somewhat quixotic...
...In his book The Irish Donald Connery examines the universally accepted image of the "typical Irishman"the gay, drunken, joking, story-telling, illogical figure of fun that is the basic diet of any bad "Irish" theatrical...
...If these laws were widely accepted in the thirties, they have clearly become anomalous today...
...If the Republic wished to help in a solution to the violence in the North and wished to evolve a form of partnership with the North, it must accept the principle of pluralism and alter its laws so that they would not discriminate against anyone of different persuasion, the argument runs...
...But then he adds: "The trouble is that every time I am solemnly told in Ireland that the stage Irishman does not exist, I meet one the next day...
...Unlike the classical 1951 situation when the bishops outrightly opposed Dr...
...The main aim of the bill was to take the question of contraception out of the criminal arena and place it within welfare...
...April 12) and neither your editors nor your proofreaders caught the error...
...But in that case, the challenge was to argue particulars and work for provisions, not hurl anathemas...
Vol. 100 • May 1974 • No. 12
