CORRESPONDENCE

...We've got enough of that sort around now, we don't need any more-male or female...

...Not having been present when this incident took place, not knowing any of the principals (other than by name), and having no knowledge other than your report and similar reports in the press, I am really "sticking my neck out" in calling any of it into question, but that is precisely what I want to do...

...If this is the case, and I have no reason to call it into question, their charade of the eucharist can only be regretted by anyone who has any love or understanding of what the eucharist really is and what it means to any believing Christian, The fact that they stopped short of the "consecration" or "institution narrative" is prima facie evidence that, in spite of their liberal stance on current issues, they are as "old hat" theologically as the worst Neo-scholastic in their "physical" approach to the eucharist...

...I presume that these women are intelligent and have more than a passing knowledge of the theology of eucharist...

...REV...

...To say this is in no way to be interpreted as denying the injustices imposed on our sisters by an insensitive ecclesiastical leadership, but simply to state that Jesus in the eucharist is not a plaything, not a club with which to beat the enemy...

...Furthermore, if they really knew what they were doing (deliberately aborting the eucharistic prayer-which, I might add, is considered by most theologians to be integrally consecra-tory), their act of protest, right as their point may be, was at best sacrilegious...

...Other than "universal redemption" I cannot think of any circumstance so gross that could justify a like approach to the eucharistic sacrifice of the "flesh and blood of the Son of Man...

...JAMES D. SHAUGHNESSY...