Editorials

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...Commonweal: 675 Thir tradition, its tensions and ambiguities included, will continue at Commonweal...

...Indeed, the critique of liberalism has been pushed' back to the individualism and atomism that grounded classical liberal thought...

...to keep the church very much alive under a Communist regime...

...Monsignor Higgins's reaction and public statements have been most charitable and understand- ing, and with this inspiration we keep telling ourselves that there must be some rationality in such behavior, but we are unable to detect it...

...Single copy, 75r Serials Data Program No.: ISSN 0010-3330...

...Monsignor Higgins has served for 34 years with the administrative agency of the U.S...

...The secu- lar realm, Commonweal insisted against this view, had its own proper degree of autonomy...

...At the same time, this tradition contains an element--utopian, if you will--that would judge all things by a fierce standard of perfection, that believes something new can be created upon the face of the earth, and that refuses to confuse what Emmanuel Mounier called the "established disorder" with some natural and unal- terable state of humankind...

...He may have taken the name of his immediate predecessor, but it is already clear that this election marks, in several ways, a new beginning for the church...

...The~marks of this new era could be discussed and debated almost: endlessly...

...A journal like Commonweal will have to respond to this fact...

...In part, this tradition developed in reaction to an earlier view that had the church possessing authoritative, detailed prescriptions for all matters political and cultural...

...It is in this foggy and choppy sea of political indentity, as well as of religious identity, that Commonweal now must sail...

...Contents Volume CV, Number 21 Editorials 675 Two Jerry Browns: E.J...

...An obvious master-stroke...

...In one sense, of course, the change is only skin-deep...

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...Whatever one's judgment on this situation, it is one that will not disappear tomorrow...

...How different will be the ones you will read in years to come...

...The struggle for racial equality and the war in Vietnam raised challenges to the optimistic, middle-of-the- road, pragmatic liberalism that had dominated Washington I I I A s he clasps his factory-workman' s hands before him or lifts them in an uncomfortable wave, his very presence exudes serenity and strength...

...We will take that as a little parable about the kind of dialogue he is inviting with the whole church and world...

...But two of them deserve to be noted now--a change in Catholic religious identity and a change in liberal political identity...

...and Canada, $18...

...The magazine comes in a new design that we hope will be more attractive, more .readable, more capable of immediately directing readers' attention to whatever articles especially interest them...

...Commonweal is not a pacifist journal, but it believes that international affairs do not escape ethical strictures nor can American power be exempt from that critical scrutiny we regularly apply to the ambitions of other nations...

...This endeavor expressed at once a deep commitment and a deep discontent on the part of editors and readers--a loyalty to both the past and the future of their church and their society, and a conviction that the best of the past could be nurtured into a better future only by the exercise of a critical, inquiring spirit...

...By now, not only conservatives and radicals, but liberals, too, have mountedieffective critiques of many of the interventionist programs, domestic and foreign, that had their roots in the New Deal...

...Or take their more recent action, terminating the services of Monsignor George G. Higgins in 1979, two years before his scheduled retire- ment...

...Commonweal's conception of the basic conditions for human dignity and freedom has led it and its readers to hold positions generally recognized as "liberal," occasionally as "radical...

...Catholic bishops and is generally considered its foremost social action expert...

...It has supported government intervention to overcome poverty and counteract exclusion based on race, religion or sex...

...Dionne 677 The African Pope: Lois Spear 678 Land O'Goshen: Frank Getlein 679 The real peacemaker: Thomas Powers 680 Death of a humble prophet: John Ahem 682 The pulp of the matter: James M. Rawley & Robert F. Moss 685 Screen: Ars Gratia Artis: Colin L. Westerbeck, Jr...

...it has insisted on the value of open discussion and free speech...

...The very step of changing our appearance, however, does signal a larger concern with what seems to us a new era in both church and society...

...I GETTING THE liX Sometimes, in our darker moods, we think bishops must be made of different stuff from the rest of us--or maybe it's just committees...

...For over half a century, Commonweal has been the independent voice of lay Catholics who wished to foster the dialogue between their religious perspective and the contemporary world of politics, literature, economics, and art...

...The tradition that Commonweal represents is not without tensions...

...The change in liberal political identity also dates from the last decade...

...He asked the people of Rome to correct his Italian if he makes a mistake...

...Given this situation, what do you do if you're the NCCB's Committee...

...We welcome John Paul H. since the New Deal...

...As- similation, combined with the frequent failure of church in- stitutions to live up to the high standards of Vatican II, often led, paradoxically, to a new isolation, a loss of contact with Catholic tradition--or, on the other hand to a muscular effort to maintain ties by reasserting ethnicity or stressing those cultural or political elements that presumably make a special Catholic contribution to American life...

...You ignore the fact that the cost of Monsignor Higgins's operation is minimal in the overall budget, you ignore 34 years of service, you don't worry about the effect on the NCCB's social justice commitment...

...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...

...27 October 1978:676...

...Meantime, heaven save the rest of us from committees...

...In short, how different is the Commonweal you are reading...

...The themes of "responsibility," "community" and "returning power to the people" through decentralization have been widely sounded on all points of the political compass...

...There is still a chance that the budget- cutting Committee will be overruled by the general bishops' meeting in November, and we like to think that this is what will happen...

...to make sure the church is understood as the "people of God...

...If there is no going back to Franklin De- lane Roosevelt, there ought als6 be no going back to Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover...

...The new design is more than a change of attire, however...

...foreign, $36...

...Politics, for instance, involved prudential judgments that arose not from principle alone but from a close attention to the facts of the matter and the concrete consequences of a political decision, and that recognize the inevitable compromises, as well as failures, of all institutional and communal existence...

...For many Catholics, the result has been a reassess- ment of the most basic aspects of the faith, a flowering of diverse positions within the church, and a blurting of the previously clear-cut definitions of Catholic identity...

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...Edward S. Skillin Commonweal, A Review of Public Affairs, Litera- ture and the Arts, is published biweekly by Com- monweal Publishing Co., 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...

...Where educated Catholics had once experi-enced a sense of common identity arising from their minority status in the church and the suspicion with which they were often held in academic or liberal milieus, the collapse of old barriers now removed further points of self-definition...

...689 I Books Inventing America Robert V. Remini 691 A Revolution in Taste Robert Phillips 692 Foundations of Christian Faith David Tracy 693 Celibate Passion MichaelZeik 696 The Whimsical Christian Barbara Grizzuti Harrison 698 An Ethnic at Large Saul Maloff 700 Nine American Film Critics Steve Lawson 702 Staff Editor: James O'Gara Executive Editor: Peter Steinfels Associate Editor...

...What was once black-or-white about being a Catholic will remain grey for an indefinite period to come...

...Raymond A. Schroth Editorial Assistant: Anne Robertson Columnists: John Garvey, Frank Getlein, Abigail McCarthy, Thomas Powers Movies: Colin L. Westerbeck, Jr...

...In the U.S., the process was intensified by the extensive assimila- tion of American Catholics into the ranks of the educated middle class...

...The magazine has opposed authoritarianism, religious as well as political...

...Confronted with this situation, what does the Committee do but abolish the Secretariat for Human Values which dealt with such questions on an on- going basis...

...muunnllU ". ~ _" n. 'm, Vj,~'l v, .9 .--,.sapNEW LOOK FOR A NEW ERA I -T IS OBVIOUSLY a different Commonweal you are reading this week...

...Any design provides the framework in which both editors and readers operate issue after issue, and altering this framework necessarily provokes reflec- tion on the direction of Commonweal and the purposes the journal serves...

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...It will have to find a place in its pages for exploring the dilem- mas of the theologian, the church reformer, the social ac- tivist, the searching layperson, the "cultural Catholic...

...In the day O f Karen Quinlan and the test-tube baby, the increasing urgency of all biomedical ethical questions is obvious...

...Poetry: John Fandel Correspondents: Brian Wicker (Great Britain), Desmond Fisher (Dublin), Alain Woodrow (Paris) Staff: Linda F. Kayler, Harriette Balsky Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher...

...A vet- eran labor mediator and expert on Catholic social action, Monsignor Higgins is highly regarded beyond Catholic cir- cles for his dedication and expertise...

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...Copyright .9 1978 Commonweal Publishing Co...

...How he will use that strength we cannot predict...

...In fact, there is a grave danger that an often justified criticism of liberal programs will do nothing more than provide a rationale for dismantling the welfare state, not to the benefit of the poor and vulnera- ble, but to the gain of other concentrations of power like the giant corporations...

...In Poland, at the Synod of Bishops, and at Vatican 11 he has used it to fight for the rights of workers, for religious liberty and collegiality...

...It is by now a commonplace that Vatican II had conse- quences going far beyond the original notion of aggior-namento...

...But so far little positive has emerged from this flux...

...For thousands of people, priests, religious and laity, his name has become synonymous with a strong church commitment to social jus- tice...

...foreign, $20...

...you just terminate him...

...it has advocated civil liberties, economic rights, and the widening of equality and democracy...

...Take, for example, the recent behavior of the Committee on Research, Plans and Programs of the United States Catholic Conference...