CORRESPONDENCE:

...MARJORIE MURPHY Mindszenty and Rome Bronx, N.Y...

...Unless they have some such plan in mind, women as priests would still be second-class citizens in the church...

...Garrett Hardin reminded us long ago that human life does not begin at some identifiable point (e.g., conception, viability, etc...

...Who is such a liar as to aver that they deserve such an honor...

...to mediate the Cyprus crisis are: 1) The Mutual Balanced Forces Reduction talks between the USSR and U.S...

...In Philadelphia the Cardinal has yet to permit Saturday evening masses...

...To the Editors: While it is unfortunately true that some pro-free-choice advocates have allowed themselves to be trapped into the mistake of arguing that the fetus is not human life, it is not true that such "forces [incorrectly characterized as 'pro-abortion' by the Berg-ers, Apr...

...To the Editors: The interest of Commonweal during the past year in the ordination of women is laudable, the latest example of which is Sister Donnelly's article [June 20], "Women-(Continued on page 349) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 323) Priests: Does Philadelphia Have A Message For Rome...

...are now in progress, having begun in 1973...

...Different versions of the same story are multiple...

...Hence is it not likely that even in entering the priesthood in large numbers, woman, as in her analogous position in the Soviet medical profession, would still be equidistant from 20th century prestige, creativity, and spiritual astronautics...

...If Philadelphia has a message for Rome, it's "Right On...

...If the attraction to the priesthood is economic, i.e., its material affluence (as measured by real income), its economic security, and the clerical-caste culture, this is at least understandable...

...How could relatives or communities take care of homeless children when relatives had been killed, villages and districts and homes wiped out...

...Such a strategy is likely to get a telephone call to Rome much more quickly than any feminist group's knocking on the door of Cardinal Krol's mansion on City Line...

...She had never tasted solid food, nor mother's milk since her first few days, and her caretakers had been too pressed with supplying bottles and diapers to rows of babies, to offer hugs and play...

...In Mencken's example that meant retrograde clerical inanities directed against the vivid realities of biological evolution...

...Rather it is the case that, with White-head, we remember with amazement the time when a "great man" (in this instance, Berkeley) might also have been a bishop-instead of that more modern probability, portrayed by H. L. Mencken, when the scion of several generations of bitter social struggle assumes a miter only to complacently reiterate with drab gracelessness stultifying dogmas that, at one time at least, had the force of arrogance and the power of style...

...The U.S...

...Two critical items that cannot be overlooked in the apparent inability of the U.S...

...JIMMYE KIMMEY Executive Director Assn...

...Where were our army planes during the past few years when American families who succeeded with agency help in getting through the red tape barriers to adopt Vietnamese children still had to pay sometimes exorbitant commercial air rates, cost of traveling care and a formidable combination of fringe expenses to bring them here...

...Foreign policy decisions on the Cyprus crisis involve more than simply Henry Kissinger's reputation or ego...

...What on a natural plane lies behind the "Holy Spirit...

...the fertilized ovum is human life...

...As you know, the word "priest" is not used in the New Testament to describe ecclesiastical office...

...negotiating team needs the Turkish bases for trading from a position of strength...

...Although the conditions of his safe-conduct, arrived at after prolonged negotiations, were not signed by him but by an official Vatican representative, Mindszenty had agreed to observe these conditions...

...Criticism of the guilt motivation for adopting abandoned children is pernickety...

...CHARLOTTE FINKENTHAL Baruch College Women-Priests Philadelphia, Pa...

...If Turkey withdraws her bases from NATO, it would mean that the U.S...

...The question is, at what point do we choose to recognize that developing life as a person...

...It seems to me that the Pope, in spite of this embarrassment, acted discreetly in not publicly blaming Mindszenty for the difficulties he had caused...

...To the Editors: The strong criticism by Caritas and other spokesmen against wholesale transportation of Vietnamese and Cambodian children for adoption in the United States, reported in News and Views of May 9, seems based on generalizations to the point of abstraction, oblivious to realities in the situation of the war orphans of Indochina...

...To repeat: the personhood of the fetus is a matter of faith, not fact...

...The concept of the univeral priesthood may be practiced in mainstream Protestantism and Judaism, but in Catholicism it is purely nominal...

...bases monitor valuable Soviet telecommunications, aircraft messages, and satellite information...

...His "Memoirs," unfortunately, are not complete in telling these details...

...Department of Philosophy Fordham University...

...Why should the faith of some be made a legal requirement for all...

...The sperm and ova of the human are human life...

...Top priority goes to U.S...

...But the difference between priest and layman in Catholicism has been a substantive one, unlike the difference between minister or rabbi which has been functional...

...Do women really want to enter an occupation which has been for some time in an identity crisis...

...True indeed that the big hoopla about operation babylift was rather shameful exploitation and window dressing...

...interests whenever the State Dept...

...The war babies who have taken their places in American families are important to the beginning of a new one...

...and Soviet troops from European nations...

...These MBFR negotiations are aimed at the phased withdrawals of U.S...

...Signal Intelligence stations in Turkey are under a lease...

...The spiritual leadership of modern Italy has descended upon neo-Marxists, that of England upon a mixed breed of post-Fabians, analysts, and technicians, and in America upon a more eclectic group of secularists still-while Russia and China speak for themselves-but who is so reckless an apologist as to claim for the clergy a position of eminence or esteem in Western civilization...

...It does not seem right, however, to accuse the Vatican of "duplicity" and "shabbiness" in its treatment of Mindszenty...

...If the attraction is psychological, the absence of family responsibility, and the camaraderie of bachelors living together, the induction of women might enliven or spoil all those parties, depending on the parties...

...Indochinese Orphans Saxton's River, Vt...

...for the Study of Abortion, Inc...

...Good old generous, warm hearted patriotism...

...To the Editors: Bernard Bergonzi describes with insight the character of Cardinal Mindszenty in his "Memoirs of a Modern 'Martyr'" [June 6] and points out the distinctive qualities of the Cardinal's personality that prepare a man to be a hero or martyr...

...Should the U.S...

...it is rather unlikely that he will be receptive to women's celebrating Sunday morning masses...

...If they would like to see a change in the Catholic canon permitting only the ordination of men, let them form a national, financial boycott of the institutional church...

...negotiators would have little to trade...

...To the Editors: One possibility that seems to have eluded the author of "Women-Priests" [June 20] but which could reasonably occur to one upon more considered reflection, is that women might be expected, upon the basis of past human experience, eventually to enter the priesthood and even to exercise a considerable influence therein precisely because the clergy have been relegated to a largely secondary and intellectually indifferent role in the evolution of civilization...

...Have we been misinformed that racial pride in Vietnam often prevented acceptance of children with black fathers...

...American families who have adopted in recent years have been prepared for the shocks awaiting them when they went to the airport to meet their new member...

...If women want to become priests, let them declare themselves as such...

...Aren't we all, Right to Life and Right to Choose alike, protected from the undesirable development by the First Amendment...

...The Achilles heel of the women-priest movement, however, is the deification of a man by the orthodox institutional churches, a problem which Judaism and Islam have never had...

...We have a lot to be guilty about and a good way of expressing guilt, rather than repressing it, is to let it motivate something good...

...take a strong pro-Greek position on the Cyprus problem, Turkey would probably cancel these leases...

...ANDREW C. VARGA, S.J...

...But the rising incidence of the so-called hyphenated priests in such full-time occupations as politician, secular journalist, and even circus clown (all white-collar, unlike their mentors' blue-collar occupations, such as carpenter-and fishermen), is not a tribute to their versatility but a blazing sign of their self-deception...

...To the Editors: Demetrios Politis' letter to the Editor in the July 4th issue is interesting because it asserts a commonly held view as to the ego destructive-ness of Kissinger in matters of state...

...Adoption may well be "contrary to the cultural traditions of the Vietnamese people" as stated by Msgr...

...The movement by the Holy Spirit only begs the question...

...CORRESPONDENCE Talking Turkey New York, N.Y...

...disagree on our Turkish policy, perhaps a wider split will result here...

...But those (equally moral, equally decent, equally religious) who do not believe the pre-viable fetus to be a person should not be forced by law to act as if they did...

...2) U.S...

...It should be abundantly clear by now that there is no consensus in answering this question-which is one of values, not of fact...

...We have heard a lot about end of an era during the past weeks...

...In other words, the leadership of society has quite clearly passed by the ministries of any and every denomination...

...considers Cyprus...

...Do the feminists plan to follow the liberal branches of Christianity by de-deifying Jesus...

...One healthy wall climber now twenty months old had arrived at seven months weighing eleven pounds, severely undernourished, anemic, with intestinal parasites and pneumonia...

...Grange, but according to eyewitness reports from agency personnel who have been visiting Vietnam for several years and arranging adoptions, the orphanages and hospitals there were terribly overcrowded and understaffed, with only the most meager care of babies and children possible to keep some of them alive...

...NORMS MERCHANT Fetal Life New York, N.Y...

...but that it began millennia ago and simply continues...

...The explanation that women have not been permitted into priesthood because of a culture-limited history may have some merit, but their exclusion has been rationalized along theological lines, and has current support in Cardinal Krol's weekly newspaper...

...Even the enemies of Mindszenty cannot deny his courage and firmness, and he certainly deserves the respect of all decent men who care about freedom and human dignity...

...In a pluralistic, democratic society the pro-free-choice advocates argue that those who believe the pre-viable fetus (the only one concerned in the medical definition of abortion) is a person should be free to act on that belief.' For example, medical personnel having that belief should not be expected to perform abortions...

...The Vatican was embarrassed by his disregard of the conditions and was accused by the Hungarian government of breaking the agreement, and was consequently put at a great disadvantage in its negotiations for greater freedom of religious instruction in Hungary...

...These S.I...

...I, therefore, would like to offer some relevant facts in the Cyprus matter...

...Since Congress and the State Dept...

...There are to be sure full-time, unambiguous roles for ministry and religious education, and many priests perform these...

...25] have consistently maintained that there is no way to determine when human life begins...

...It seems strange that the objections raised to bringing children from Indochina to America, where some adoptive parents had been waiting for two years, don't mention the fact that many of these children had American fathers...

...the young genius who would opt for physics, art, or literature as a vocation is indeed conceivable, but one of that class who would choose the Christian priesthood has become so improbable as to suggest the ludicrous...

...Isn't even the controversy generated by such a prospect, to most of the world outside the Church, like the most recent great tempestuousness in a quaint teacup...

...ROBERT LYON New York, N.Y...

...It is unfortunate that his very character and firmness put him on a collision course with the Pope and his last days in life became thus saddened and embittered...