EDITORIAL
CORRESPONDENCE Pious Pi~#? New York, N.Y. To the Editors: My first reaction to Daniel Morrissey's account of the hierarchy's attempt to corner the religious book market was one of anger...
...3) Maguire's argument for quotas, "He who wills the end of justice must will the means necessary to that end," neglects the principle that justice depends upon prudence, the right choice of means to ends...
...John Fandel 719 CHILDREN'S RO01r FOR THE TRAIL: Elizabeth Minot Graves 7116 A SELEC~rED LIST OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS: Elizabeth Minot Graves 728 ILLUSTRATIONS: Front cover: Daily World/Liberation News Service...
...4) Thank God for the reviews...
...lXAY STRUOLIA Pros and Cons Baltimore, Md...
...JAMES O'GARA: Editor JOHN DEEDY: Managing Editor RAYMOND A. SCHROTH: Asset/ate Editor ANNE M. ROBERTSON: Editorial Assistant COLIN L. WESTERBECK, JR.: Movies JOHN FANDtEL: Poetry FRANK GETLEIN: Washington BRIAN WICKER: Great Britain ALAIN WOODROW: Paris HENRY TEN KORTENAAR: Rome DESMOND FISHER: Dublin EDWARD S. SKILLIN: Publisher RUTH E. TAYLOR: Advertising Manager Sta#: LINDA F. KAYLER, PAMELA J. FITZGERALD, HARRIETTE BALSKY COMMONWEAL 232 MkDISON AVE...
...For although the temporal nature of the papal office is both a theological truth and a historical fact, Commonweal: 707 we have been conditioned to visualize a papacy where the religious leader, like a king, endures, powers failing, to the last hour, while courtiers jockey for his favor or his ear...
...I prefer to make my own moral jndgments...
...And for Abigail McCarthy and Saul Maloff...
...Special two-year rate S29.50...
...But now, in a democratic age, it seems rather the reluctance of Roman curial officials to relinquish their power that has kept modern popes hanging on till death...
...When they return, (Continued on page 735) NEWS & VIEWS: 70G CORRESPONDENCE: 707 EDITORIAL: 707 ARE NUKES CRICKET?: Brian Wicker 708 WOMEN PRIESTS: MEDIUM OR MESSAGE?: Marshall McLuhan 709 HUMAN RIGHTS: CONFLICTS AMONG OUR IDEALS: David Riesman 711 CONSTRUCTING LOCAL THEOLOGIES: Ernest W. Ranly 71G FEAR VALLEY, U.S.A.: Russell W. Gibbons 720 TELEVISION: Philip Terzian "122 PRESS: Peacetime: Thomas Powers 7"~3 TRE SCREEN: Colin L. We~terbeck, Jr...
...What can Pope Paul VI do when he retires...
...Paul VI should also resign as his final contribution to the ecumenical movement which, with his encouragement, has already made progress on the understanding of both the eucharist and the ministry...
...Single copy 7Sc...
...14EW YORK...
...Foreign S19...
...Reportedly, Paul VI has argued that he could not resign because of the example of Christ who did not lay down his cross and because as "father" of the church he could not desert his family...
...I see the end of my life approaching," he said last summer...
...DANIEL A. DEGNAN, S.J...
...Look again, Peter...
...For, as a number of articles on the papacy over the last three months in both the secular and religious press, plus the inescapable fact of human mortality, have made clear, Pope Paul V], either by death or retirement, will make way for a successor...
...or because, having looked over the crop, sees no clearly worthy successor...
...he knew that the original church could come into full maturity only when he was gone, when he had ascended to the one and only Father of us all, and when the Spirit was sent forth as Christ's continued but invisible presence...
...To the Editors: My first reaction to Daniel Morrissey's account of the hierarchy's attempt to corner the religious book market was one of anger that those to whom we look for piety practice a form of piracy [Aug...
...REV...
...MicroEIms from Vol...
...000 OOOOO OOOOOOOOOO WHY THE POPE SHOULD RESIGN The closing this week of the fifth Roman Synod of Bishops, with its emphasis on catechesis--or, rather, on the public understanding of the doctrines and traditions of the church--turns our attention again to the general condition of the church, and particularly to the future of its highest leadership...
...Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...moral action demands the application of xeason to particular things in a particular way...
...it is part of every Christian's daily life...
...Worcester has a county cricket ground which still retains some of the atmosphere of a village green...
...Come off your high horse, Daniel, and discuss the means...
...It indirectly highlights an understanding of the papacy that this pope has not emphasized that much before: the pope himself can decide how long he should be pope...
...page 7 1 4 : LNS, adapted...
...Worcester's cricket is a clean and tidy business, almost domestic in its blissful defiance of the encroaching outside world...
...In the same way, resignation for this pope would be particularly fitting--though especially difficult--because he has been so preoccuped with papal authority...
...For the future reunion of Christendom can best take place around the papacy, but in the context of a papacy where the pope himself can give moral and pastoral leadership to our fellow Christian churches without dominating them through a too-exalted notion of his authority and prestige...
...Catholic Periodical Index, and Book Review Digest...
...In a time when men didn't live quite so long that seemed to call for a life-time term...
...48106...
...but, in general, people are reasonable in not wanting important issues in their lives determined by men in their 80s---a fact which Paul himself acknowledged in requiring bishops to retire at 75 and barring cardinals over 80 from voting in the papal election...
...People seem more inclined than elsewhere to dump their disposable tea-cups and sandwich papers in the bins provided instead of leaving them on the terraces to blow about or gather flies...
...You may be one of them...
...Alas, few great men see many younger men worthy of succeeding them...
...On a recent Saturday, on the spur'of the moment, my wife and I decided to pack a quick snack for lunch and drive out of the muck and sweat of industrial Birmingham down to sweet and sunny Worcester to watch the Australian cricket team playing the local county side...
...The Cathedral beams over the rim of the trees with a sort of benevolent smile that only English sandstone can muster on a bright sunny morning...
...924, to date available through University Microfilms...
...Consummate man of faith that he is, Paul VI does not shrink from either the thought or the open discussion of his own death...
...On a more political level, Vatican-watchers argue that the present pope feels he must hang on because he doesn't want to run away from his battle with Archbishop Lefebvre, because he must block some particular reactionary, or unreliable, or too-liberal prelate from gaining power...
...The contemporary attitude toward the aged may be terrible in many ways...
...300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Mich...
...The crowds are modest by football standards, or even by the standards of the big city cricket-grounds like Lords or the Oval in London...
...We are still stuck with a papacy modeled on European monarchy, constructed to meet a real need for an independent and stable religious institution that could maintain the church's political position through centuries of turmoil...
...To the Editors: As a long-time Commonweal subsrciber I'd like to make two suggestions to improve things: 1. make Novak and Steinfels take a few months off...
...National Serials Data Program No.: I$SN 0010-2330...
...Paul VI, now 80 years old and often weak, isolated and depressed, has been pope 14 years...
...Wantagh, N.Y...
...But it is the example of Jesus as much as anything that should lead Paul VI to resign, for Jesus was not afraid to set his apostles free...
...Even in a secular-rationalistic age, Christians must have confidence that the Spirit will aid the talent search today...
...and it is hardly clear that conditions for picking a wise, holy and vigorous vicar of Christ will be better three, or five ormif he lives to 90--ten years from now...
...Indeed, his generous and heroic offer in October to give himself as a hostage to gain the freedom of the 86 hostages held captive aboard the West German airliner in Somalia also indicates not only that he accepts deathwsince to become the hostage of terrorists is virtually to invite martyrdom--but also that he does not see his continued reign as indispensable to the church...
...1001'6 Telatphone: {2|2) MU 3-2042 A review of PuMIc Affairs, Literature and the Arts...
...Finally, Paul VI should retire because the picture of a pope who has enough confidence in his people that he need not hold control until death will communicate a more vigorous, credible, realistic, humble and hopeful message about the church to the same disaffected masses of young unbelievers the Synod hoped to address...
...But, then, in a more charitable mood, I realized how important it must be for bishops to improve their circumstances and perpetuate their pomp...
...As a man who profoundly understands the power of the symbolic act to heighten public understanding of a moral and theological truth, he should now move public appreciation of the papacy onto a new plane by giving the papacy up...
...It is this understanding of his rolemthat his ultimate function is not to impose his will on history but rather to minister in a preeminent way, both realistically and symbolically, to the people of God--that should lead him to retire while his act of voluntarily relinquishing power would still have meaning to the world...
...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 FROM BRITAIN ARE NUKES CRICKET...
...And it takes a lot of royalties to maintain royalty...
...page 7111: variant of sketch by Michael Scurato/LNS...
...725 VERSE: Mary Oliver 710...
...Foreign $23.50 Cemmonweql Is Imdaxed In Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature...
...Paul VI, perhaps the most intelligent of modem popes, knows that he is neither an emperor nor a king...
...But carrying the cross is not the essence of the papal office...
...As Aquinas says: general principles do not direct particular moral acts...
...To the Editors: Comments from a faithful but disgruntled reader: (1) Getlein force feeds us with his moral outrage (and often his hates...
...One tragedy did befall the scene that morning: and this was bad for the visiting team, Greg Chappell, the Australian captain, had to retire hurt with a knee injury after making an elegant hundred 11 November 1977:708...
...He is a servant--like Christ, the servant of servants...
...In a way he can go on doing most of the best things he is doing now: he will always be Giovanni-Battista Montini, a brilliant, warm and, above all, holy man who carries his cross and, in a unique way, bears witness to God's presence among men...
...Printed in the USA and published hi-weekly by Commonweal Publishing Co...
...Nor is the "Holy Father" the father of the church in the manner of a family's father--though the modern idea of fatherhood would make him less physically isolated from his children...
...2) Steinfels' long reply to Novak says that Steinfels can't see any new elite in the Democratic party...
...Copyright ~ 1977 CommOnweal Publishing Ca., Inc.~US and Canada: S17 a year...
Vol. 104 • November 1977 • No. 23
