CORRESPONDENCE:
Greeley, Andrew M.
CORRESPONDENCE Kung, Rahner, Rome Chicago, 111. To the Editors: In Adolph Schalk's characteristically balanced and sensible article about Hans Kiing [May 23] there was a phrase about which I...
...But it is doubt-ful...
...Schalk's ex-lample is set into a very long document with a range of more or less important statements...
...The example that Schalk uses to prove his point makes a logical jump, excellent for journalistic purposes, but a poor tactic for dialogue in theology...
...To the Editors: In Adolph Schalk's characteristically balanced and sensible article about Hans Kiing [May 23] there was a phrase about which I would like to raise some objection...
...KEVIN M. DOYLE Birmingham, Mich...
...It was then vetoed by then Governor Malcolm E. Wilson...
...Clearly, up until now there has been no one constant Catholic position on either the question of abortion and the law or on abortion itself...
...May 9], Congressman Drinan speaks approv-ingly of the reprehensible HEW argu-ment that refusal to allow Medicaid payments for abortions would cost the American taxpayer between $450 and $560 million in one year alone "if those women . . . carried their pregnancies to term and received the usual medical care and welfare payments...
...And I could agree with studies which show errors in church teaching, apart from the essence of my faith...
...By labelling a "Catholic position" any view subscribed to by a majority of Catholic legislators, we re-duce Catholicism from a set of moral imperatives filled with social potentials to a political harlot...
...Biology informs us at what point in-dications of humanity appear in fetal life...
...Or in adoption of the arrogant and questionable premise that the ethics and conduct of the rich must be emulated by the rest of the population...
...While I am grateful for your posi-tive position, may I correct for the record what seems to be an error in the historical evolution of the amnesty policy of the Church...
...Now in light of the Christian con-cept of human rights, we ask ourselves if there exists an obligation to protect these seemingly human beings or if the dependency of these fetal creatures ex-cuses us from the institution of any legal safeguards on their behalf...
...As a result of the input and agreement of this meeting, the United States Catholic Conference developed a position statement on amnesty...
...And it is my impression that only Laetentur caeli of July 6, 1439, in the Council of Florence, was consider-ed infallible...
...If this example is used to show a shift whereby one infallible statement was substituted for by another, it is wrong...
...But this is not the case, at least as far as the Christian concept of social justice is concerned...
...Even if the example is used to show a shift from one solemnly denned stance to another, the example limps...
...On February 11 and 12, 1975, ap-proximately 30 Catholic religious lead-ers from various parts of the country met in Washington...
...I do not believe that Vatican II had any definitions which were promulgated in the technical sense of infallible...
...May 9...
...Particularly impoverished blacks...
...This statement was presented to a hearing of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and International Law on March 13, 1975 by Monsignor George G. Higgins...
...During a debate a Yale on April 17, 1975, physicist William Shockley argued "that society should develop anti-dysgenic methods" and promoted his tenuous thesis that blacks possess a statistical I.Q...
...Both terms, of course, admit of different meanings, but Rahner was never Kong's teacher, and I would be at a loss to think of any way in which he has been Kiing's mentor...
...At any rate, the statement of Mr...
...REV...
...But I find it difficult to accept an arti-cle which has an implied premise of a very broad definition of infallibility in order to knock down a straw horse...
...I could agree with statements which precisely discuss misuse of church au-thority...
...On March 11, 1972, Father Tomasi of the Center for Migration Studies, Monsignor Murnion of the Archdiocese of New York, and I, as Director of the Migration Office of the Diocese of Brooklyn, testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Naturalization...
...Furthermore, anyone who has read Rahner's criticism of Kiing or has . observed the deep resentment that he unaccountably feels for the younger theologian would be forced to observe that with a friend like Rahner, Kiing doesn't need enemies...
...I can assure you that in no way was the Vietnamese refugee problem the stimulus for the promotion of amnesty for unauthorized aliens...
...In May 1974, the Bishops of New York State took a strong stand against the Knorr-Field "Illegal Alien Bill" passed by the New York Legislature and which would have created great suffering among unauthorized aliens in the State...
...Amnesty for Allen Brooklyn, N.Y...
...To the Editors: Adolph Schalk's article on Kiing's "Brush with Rome" in your May 23, 1975, issue, has within it the too easy journalism which negates theology...
...Thank God for those Catho-lics prepared to take a radical social stance without the blessing of the lib-eral establishment...
...The author of the article simplifies to the point of error by using journalistic theology and clouds the whole discussion of infalli-bility...
...I am tired of blushing liberal Catho-lics willing to jeopardize human rights in order to avoid any appearance of theocracy...
...The following day, March 14, 1975, after several months of planning, a sym-posium on the question of unauthor-ized aliens was held at the Center for Migration Studies...
...REV...
...Pearl River, N.Y...
...Should either be the case, we indeed owe the Supreme Court decision full support...
...Let the record speak for it-self...
...It was in that testi-mony that the Brooklyn Migration Of-fice, with the full support of Bishop Mugavero, first proposed amnesty for unauthorized aliens...
...While I am mainly acquainted with the activities of leaders in the Northeast dioceses, I am sure equally effective action on behalf of amnesty has taken place in other affected regions of the country...
...Are human rights determined on the basis of either viability or social liability...
...The definition of papal infallibility in Vatican I was very limited...
...Fulgentius, De fide, ad Petrum, raised into a teach-ing pronouncement of the Council...
...The above represents a brief schema of constant activity on the part of many leaders in the Church for the past three years on behalf of amnesty for unauthorized aliens...
...Finally, if the example were to be used to show an error in church teach-ing and a shift in church teaching, I could agree, but then only...
...We welcome the refugees from South Vietnam...
...Father Drinan seems almost relieved that there is no "Catholic position...
...One of the Bulls which came out of the Council of Florence and which was also lengthy took pains to recognize a range of material within the document (D 695, n.l...
...It is a relatively short document and it does not contain the material on salvation of those outside the church...
...The courts and budget obsessed, eugenically-minded legislators seem deter-mined to cut welfare costs by en-couraging the elimination of the off-spring of those troublesome welfare recipients who stubbornly continue to procreate...
...The sudden influx of Vietnamese refugees was in no one's imagination before April 1975...
...If Representative Drinan feels compelled to display his opposition to the deadly Church-State Combo, I might suggest that he do something of less harmful nature such as foregoing his clerical collars, and borrowing some of John McLaughlin's business suits for Congressional weal...
...While I appreci-ate that a "Catholic position" has ofttimes found itself unthinkingly imposed on a non-Catholic society, I suspect that a coherent moral approach to a social policy is more often an asset than a liability...
...Abortion on Medicaid...
...The example is taken from Cantate Domino, the Decretum pro Jacobitis which occurred late in the Council of Florence (D 714): Firmiter credit, profitetur et praed-icate, 'nullos intra catholicam Ec-clesiam non existentes, non so-lum paganos, sed nee Iudaeos auto-haereticos atque schismaticos, aet-ernae vitae fieri posse participes (and the statement gets worse-I should interject that I am not writing to defend this statement but to protest my faith that the Church will not fail in its essen-tial mission, of which a limited defini-tion of infallibility is a part...
...Hie question of viability may be relevant to the ethics of Social Darwin-ism, but it seems alien to Christian Morality...
...ANDREW M. OREELEY Los Angeles, Calif...
...The statement is apparently simply a quotation from St...
...But Professor Shockley needn't worry...
...To the Editors: Although Representa-tive Drinan deals primarily with the multi-faceted Bartlett Amendment, he does stress the division among Catho-lic members of Congress on this abor-tion-related question and thereby con-cludes that there is no "Catholic posi-tion" regarding the issue of abortion and the law...
...Just to give one exam-ple: The doctrine of the unattainability of eternal life for pagans, Jews and heretics solemnly defined by the Coun-cil of Florence (1438-45) was com-pletely annulled by Vatican II, which declared that salvation is open to all men everywhere...
...After then and continuing through 1973 and 1974, press conferences and frequent meetings were held by re-ligious leaders of the Northeast dio-ceses promoting the concept of uncon-ditional amnesty...
...deficit based on geneti-cally-inherited factors...
...However, with the data provided us by secular science and the application of Christian values, we might now develop, at least, a general "Catholic position" on abor-tion...
...Note: For more on this, see page 258...
...Schalk takes a broad negative position, stating Kiing's position as "no papal pro-nouncement is totally free from the possibility of error . . ." and put posi-tively, apparently makes it his own position that every church teaching is subject to error...
...The example is: "But throughout the centuries this rule [regula fidei] has in fact undergone frequent and even dras-tic alterations...
...We also know that brain ac-tivity, readable by EEG, is present at this early state...
...In other words: better to abort the children of the poor than to give them the same, sometimes expensive, opportunities for a decent life which the rich already en-joy...
...It seems to me that to base the definition of what is Catholic on the consensus of a group which happens to be made up of Church members is a risky business...
...It is tough to say what a proper "Catholic position" might be, but it is safe to say that the viability-based approach that Father Drinan would let reign is definitely not it...
...In this symposium, 150 priests, religious and lay leaders of Northeast Dioceses endorsed uncon-ditional amnesty and proposed a pro-gram on how to assist the unauthorized aliens...
...ANTHONY J. BEVILACQUA Brooklyn Diocesan Migration Office Ed...
...A "Catholic" Position...
...And the paragraph does not contain the word "definimus-we de-fine-which is used in Laetentur caeli...
...Father Drinan apparently sees no irony or ugly implications in court and legislative decisions which link Medi-caid maternity care with abortion care, thus equating government-supported procedures which produce death with those which foster life...
...He refers to Karl Rahner as "Kiing's close friend and mentor...
...The important thing is that all of this activity took place before April 1975 and before there were any Vietnamese refugees...
...Not surprisingly, he also spoke with approval of eu-thanasia and abortion and claimed that since the neurological capacity of a human fetus is similar to that of a "trout," aborting a fetus "can't be of more concern than catching a trout...
...To the Editors: Not once but twice, in his commentary on the recent Senate defeat of the Bartlett Amendment ["Abortions on Medicaid...
...To the Editors: The June 20 News and Views column indicated its sup-port of amnesty for unauthorized aliens in the United States...
...We know that by the eighth week, all organs (including the cerebral cor-tex) are present in their rudimentary stages...
...Further, we know that for months to come, the fetus is totally reliant upon its mother for life sup-port...
...It considers neither the fallibility of individual judgment nor motivation...
...The speed and zeal with which the senators acted to assure federally-funded abortions have been noticeably absent in their efforts to secure other constitutional rights for low-income women...
...I would suggest that a "Catholic position" is one which reflects the values found in scripture and in the experience of the Judeo-Christian community...
...PATRICIA NIXON...
...Deedy stated in his column: "Maybe this concern for the illegal aliens would have cropped up without the stimulus of the Vietnamese influx...
...At the same time, we will continue our Christian concern for the thousands of unauthorized aliens al-ready here for, equally with the Viet-namese refugees, they are our brothers and sisters...
...PAUL J. GODA, S.J...
Vol. 102 • July 1975 • No. 9
