Correspondence
Correspondence Harsh judgment given Detroit, Mich. To the Editors: After reading the three articles on SALT II [Dec. 7,1979], I was disappointed to realize that faith in Jesus's word does not...
...Franck does'indeed utilize some obvious rhymes here and there, but it seems perfectly clear to me that their purpose is to drive home a point with hammer-like insistence...
...The humanity of the fetus is real...
...Nathanson's book...
...Perhaps Hoyt has over the years developed some emotional "resentiment" to anything pushed strongly by Catholic bishops...
...It would take more space than is available to explain why I prefer murkiness to clarity on the abortion issue...
...He has seen this issue more clearly than most of his colleagues atC & C and yet he has expressed his distress at what he calls the single-issue politics of the Catholic bishops...
...His gratuitous allusion to ex-Communist fervor is considerably more than "somewhat invidious...
...In response to Mr...
...Worse yet, Culbertson manipulates quotations so that they distort and misrepresent Franck's meaning...
...To re-borrow Bernard Lonergan's terms: Given enough selftranscendence all around, I think a concrete and efficacious policy could be achieved that would not coerce women but would greatly reduce the incidence of abortion...
...Everyman is a splendid and timeless text, whether or not one subscribes to its medieval conceptual structure...
...It is one of the few things that really annoy me—the blaring radios in public places...
...I have the distinct impression that Hoyt both appreciated Nathanson and yet regrets Nathanson...
...I also think he was wrong both times and in a consistent or characteristic way...
...And certainly he uses some cliches, putting them into the mouth of Everyone before the trauma that awakens him/her to the condition of being human, and especially putting them into the mouths of "Friends," "Family," and "Treasure," three of the supposedly secure havens which prove treacherous in the moment of extremity...
...DONALD L. MUENCH Franck defended Wayne, N.J...
...Franck for failing to be what he has never attempted to be, a "playwright...
...That would be victory...
...Eliot...
...Now my question is this: Why does Hoyt lead off this insightful objection by putting it on the lips of Nathanson ("Nathanson might reply") rather than this own lips...
...ROLLINS E. LAMBERT Bankruptcy exposed Commerce, Tex...
...Nathanson's understanding of abortion, like everybody else's, is a moral conclusion based in part on biological data...
...that it is simply a result of his rejecting as he did in C & C both the positions of the A.C.L.U...
...Finally, Culbertson fails to mention the resurrection and celebration sharing of the Bread of Life which concludes the EveryOne liturgy...
...But then again Hoyt seems not sure, for he suggests that "Nathanson might reply, logically enough, that the injustice borne by some women is less than the one imposed on an aborted fetus, and that a permissive or neutral stance encourages the choice of abortion for the flimsiest, most selfish and anti-social reasons...
...Corbett: First, Dr...
...If police and other "authorities" (bus drivers, park rangers, etc...
...His own past writings on the subject indicate to me that he is dialoguing with himself...
...REV...
...Ditto for "fanatic...
...At one point in past writings he is correcting writers in his own Christianity and Crisis (of which he is executive editor) for their failure to deal with abortion from the perspective of the fetus and from the perspective of a social problem rather than merely the individualist perspective of the woman's dilemma...
...On the political aspect, the record suggests to me that partisans on either side who go for total victory invite passionate backlash and other unintended consequences...
...Secondly, Culbertson judges Franck" s poetic prose to be ' 'verse'' and then pronounces the verse "execrable" and "full of wearying cliches...
...Vowed celibacy historically was not associated with the priesthood but with the religious life and even today is so regarded insofar as the vow of a priest who belongs to a religious community is antecedent to, and independent of, his priestly (or diaconal) ordination...
...9] by Thomas Powers...
...Surely anyone who sets out to review a book ought to be able to recognize the deliberate use of trite phrases to achieve deliberate effects...
...Second, what the review discussed was not motives but mindset...
...My own fear is that Mr...
...Why is he so reluctant to deal straightforwardly with the reasoning advanced...
...Death, when it comes to EveryOne, is not real, because "All is Life...
...Culbertson's achievement of such an error was no mean feat, for both in his title and in his preface Franck identifies what he has made as "myth re-visioned," and its enactment as a "rite," a "celebration of human life...
...BISHOP THOMAS J. GUMBLETON Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit Wisdom gap seen Washington, D.C...
...For the other category of priests, it is not necessarily so...
...At one point he must say what he perceives and feels regarding not merely one woman's agony but millions of the human beings in the womb—the key issue of...
...It seems to me that citing the positive without citing the balancing negative concerning youthful tendencies is downright dishonest...
...For such religious, celibacy, along with poverty and obedience to a rule, is the direct object of their minds and wills...
...I suggest the very term single-issue and the fear of such alleged politics has a curious and interesting sociological history...
...This is the opposite of policies in some parks, where there is frequent patrolling and the ranger enforces the quiet as part of his duty as a ranger...
...do not see it as their duty to Commonweal: 28 assist the public's desire for quiet, without waiting for a complaint, I fear that little will be done to stop this assault on us...
...To the Editors: Why does Robert Hoyt insist on probing Dr...
...What we (or, at least, I) aimed at was the priesthood...
...SOPHIA YEH Noise assault decried Pittsford, N.Y...
...Also, I lauded Abigail McCarthy's article which appeared several months ago, praising Carter for what he did right—at a time when he was standing very low in the polls...
...9], there seems to be some "kicking against the goad...
...and the Conference of Catholic Bishops, that it is simply the necessary dialectic of a nuanced sociolegal position regarding the relation between law and morality...
...People do not have to go out of their way to register a complaint...
...Bernard Nathanson's motivation for writing Aborting America [Nov...
...7,1979], I was disappointed to realize that faith in Jesus's word does not seem to be a dimension of this discussion...
...I wonder whether Culbertson would fault Shakespeare for putting platitudes into the mouth of Polonius...
...I am especially bewildered by Culbertson's sneering at Dr...
...John Garvey in his article on celibacy [Oct...
...Is it because Nathanson ha^s exposed the bankruptcy of the argument that abortion is essentially a moral problem...
...EDWARD M. CORBETT Goad kicked Philadelphia, Pa...
...And I have to be forgiven the impression that Nathanson's terribly real and graphic description of what is really going on in this country in abortion clinics has reminded Hoyt too squarely of what he has always known...
...Cliches, yes: to embody the fatuous peril of false values...
...To the Editors: Rarely have I seen a review as hopelessly off target as Diana Culbertson's review of Frederick Franck's Everyone: The Timeless Myth of 'Everyman' Reborn (September 28...
...At another point he is rejoicing in a Catholic Sister's view of her church's regulation on abortion as obsolete...
...To the Editors: Walter Donway's "Testing ear drums" (Oct...
...Hoyt reports Nathanson's desire to change the Supreme Court's '73 ruling, but he (Hoyt) is not pleased with this idea that only when a woman's life is threatened should there be legal recourse to abortion...
...To the Editors: When Robert Hoyt reviews Nathanson's Aborting American [Nov...
...Franpk's focus upon "NOW'as "presumably a holie tense," since the entire mystical tradition celebrates the Eternal Now and the holy instant, what T.-S...
...26] made no reference to the fact that the celibacy of diocesan priests is not a matter of a vow but of a law of the church...
...His political-legal thinking has been similarly uncompromising—once he fought against criminal sanctions for abortion, now he wants them restored for all but life-endangering pregnancies...
...She states, for instance, that EveryOne is a White Protestant in order to accuse Franck of "another slur at the beleaguered Wasps," whereas the text indicates that EveryOne is not only White and Protestant but also a Jewish high priest, and Pilate, and all the Caesars, Napoleons, Hitlers, and their insane followers, and even the Pope of Rome, EveryOne is exactly what the name implies: everyone...
...Hoyt would like to reply that this back and forth is simply in function of being in a " middle'' position...
...Charles Borromeo Seminary The author replies Mr...
...But just before Everyone confesses to Insight that she or he has been guilty of squelching youthful ideals in the name of Christian principles, EveryOne has also confessed to narcissistic mockery of the old during his or her own youth...
...For what it's worth, I think Dr...
...I suppose that Mr...
...Hoyt's back and forth is less a critical dialectic and more a dialectic of the spectator...
...My celibacy was not my "gift to the church" (to borrow Mr...
...Ultimately, EveryOne comes to see that his or her face is simply ' 'the human face"—so self-hatred melts away, and with it all the angry rejection of others...
...To the Editors: At a time when it's fashionable to down the president, I was gratified to find "Kind Word for Carter" [Nov...
...In the first place, Culbertson discusses a liturgical drama in terms of theatrical "success," castigating Dr...
...He finds Nathanson impressive in his awakening as to what was happening in the abortion clinic but less impressive "in discussing what is to be done...
...Nathanson was in good faith when he performed abortions and is in good faith now, when he wants criminal penalties for women who have abortions and doctors who procure them...
...DIANA CULBERTSON Commonweal: 30...
...Nathanson delineates the biological and political dimensions of the issue...
...I wish Culbertson well in all her future strivings, but my own tastes run more toward the timeless myth reborn...
...Franck bear comparison with Mr...
...Why exclude any "member of the human community" from society's responsibility...
...Hoyt has demonstrated that he knows better than most that in the social issue and the sociolegal issue on abortion there is simply no neutral middle ground to speak of...
...EveryOne discovers love and gratitude, and finds that "the kingdom/ and the power/ and the glory/ are my very core...
...To the Editors: As a secular or diocesan priest, I find it strange that Mr...
...Two specific instances come to mind...
...That God resurrects the divine nature "eternally . . . deep in the human core" and that the Holy Spirit "makes One AH" may mean little or nothing to Culbertson, but it means a great deal to many people around the world, including thousands of American Catholics, Protestants, and Jews...
...The discipline of celibacy was accepted, not vowed, when I silently took one step forward in the ordination ceremony of subdiaconate...
...rather, I accepted the gift of Christ, given as it is according to the present discipline of his church...
...Our solution was to move elsewhere (a rather timid response, I'll admit...
...She states a preference for the medieval Everyman, which concludes with death and an exhortation to do Good Deeds in order to hope for heaven...
...Instead Hoyt wishes to remind us that in "this economy and this culture . . . some pregnancies that do not threaten health are genuinely catastrophic...
...But, again, the police patrol does nothing about ensuring public peace, unless there's a complaint...
...Knowing that celibacy has never been an essential element of the Christian priesthood, I accepted it as something required at this time and in this society...
...Culbertson further accuses Franck of giving a "stereotypical view of idealistic Youth...
...It is an important distinction...
...For my understanding of time and mysticism, see my article "Process Theology and Western Mysticism," Listening 14 (Fall 1979), 204-222...
...He is also right in seeing that I have been in painful dialogue with myself on the subject of abortion (I'm glad that it shows...
...Nathanson has achieved clear and simple ethical conclusions...
...Courage is one quality Commonweal does not lack...
...Culbertson accuses Franck of "excessive romanticism" and "simplistic con-demnation .of money," citing as proof Treasure's remark that "My job is that/ To KILL man's soul...
...In social issues to be a spectator and to remain a spectator is ultimately to affirm the status quo...
...But the context indicates that Franck indicts not money as such, but rather absolute reliance on it or on any other aspect of superficial ego-constructs, those "trivial aims . . . and . . . violent futilities" which constitute sin...
...He cannot simply object that "sound morality and sound law must (Continued on page 28) Commonweal: 2 (Continued from page 2) take account of what people feel and are able to perceive...
...Hoyt's writing seems somewhat tortuous—dare I say tortured...
...Perhaps her greatest violation of the EveryOne liturgy is Culbertson's pronouncement that identifying God's Son with those who "see" God in this fashion, is "quite pretentious and ultimately deceiving...
...Meehan is obviously right in principle in suggesting that the content of my unconscious had something to do with the content of my review...
...FRANCIS X. MEEHAN St...
...By ignoring or denying the moral significance-of the first reality in his early thinking and by granting it overwhelming significance now, Dr...
...26) was right on target...
...Neither in idiom nor in insight can Mr...
...But I am daring to push him to that form of moral judgment that Bernard Lonergan speaks of—a judgment that is terribly concrete (no longer academic), terribly efficacious (includes the political and sociolegal implications) and terribly selftranscending...
...Acceptance of the law of celibacy was a necessary condition for reaching that goal...
...That is why I am daring to suggest that his review represents a kicking against the goad in the Biblical sense of the term...
...The other instance was in Rochester during a 4th of July fireworks display where the big speakers from a van's stereo system drowned out the fireworks' noise...
...Eliot calls "the intersection of the timeless with time.'' Can it be that Culbertson has nsxzxheard of that reality...
...It has tado with a shaky insight that no one of the classic modes of ethical reasoning can alone accommodate the realities...
...This may seem a harsh judgment, but even after a careful re-reading of the articles I find no indication that Jesus came to call us to "repent, and believe the Good News," or that if he did, it could possibly have any bearing on our response to the nuclear arms race and our position on SALT II...
...Why shouldn't he "offer a societal remedy...
...Is he only dialoguing with Robert Hoyt...
...One was last summer in Banff National Park where the authorities do nothing about silencing radios and loud late-hour parties in the campgrounds, unless there's a complaint...
...The blight that pregnancy imposes on some women in some circumstances is real...
...VIRGINIA RAMEY MOLLENKOTT Professor of English, The William Paterson College of New Jersey The author replies EveryOne: The Timeless Myth of 'Everyman' Reborn, whether poetic prose, drama, or liturgical rite is quite simply an ill-conceived and badly written 18 January 1980: 29 text...
...Garvey's phrase...
...Whatever else I might say about psychological components of my judgment would be suspect and/or boring...
...ROBERT G. HOYT Carter praise lauded Lexington, Ky...
...I have the impression that the back and forth is more in function of a deeper crise-de-conscience of an upright mind that is open to being disturbed...
...Garvey shared with us readers some valuable insights into the value and meaning of a celibate priesthood, but his omission of the above distinction left a gap which diminished my own appreciation of his wisdom...
Vol. 107 • January 1980 • No. 1
