Correspondence
FERRY, W. H. & GRAHAM, SUSAN & COOPER, JOAN M. & FITZGERALD, (REV.) MAURICE & DOERFLINGER, RICHARD & BUONCRISTIANI, JOHN F. & MURPHEY, (DR.) GRIFFIN T. & Riesman, David & Editors, The & Garvey, John
Correspondence What the married know Washington, D.C. To the Editors: John Garvey writes [Mar. 27] that "the consensus of millions of lay people and clergy is simply that the members of the...
...To the Editors: John Garvey's complaints about the pope's "two voices" [Mar...
...but we believe, as Joan M. Cooper also argues in her letter, that a far greater degree of oppression would have resulted if the Third Reich had been permitted to complete the Holocaust, subjugate or eliminate the "inferior peoples" of Poland and Eastern Europe for purposes of lebensraum, and lead a Nazified West in what surely would have been an even more brutal and ruthless effort to maintain domination over the colonized world...
...Ferry is correct in pointing to the total illogic of actually destroying civilization in order to save it...
...We have not sat down, as author Jo and Ravi did, to analyze the activity going on in a wedding, but her expression of the community involvement of the event has been very helpful in keeping perspective at this time...
...2) that furthermore it stands a good chance of preventing the actual use of such weapons...
...That is what, it seems to us, Professor Riesman has been doing in his decades-long advocacy of feasible steps toward nuclear detente and sanity...
...and that "thinking" equals "knowing" when enough people think the same thing...
...It is, however, the threat posed by these weapons-which has indeed prevented direct conflict between the superpowers for over three decades-that leads us to say, with obvious qualification, that they "make some kind of military sense...
...and (3) that finally it buys time for the only realistic escape from the dangers of nuclear weapons, a process of mutual nuclear control and disarmament...
...27] you assert that ". . . justice has sometimes been achieved through force of arms, and peace preserved by the balance of power.'' I wish to point out the invalidity of such an assertion...
...27] that "the consensus of millions of lay people and clergy is simply that the members of the hierarchy who back Humanae Vitae are wrong...
...Garvey's refusal to appreciate the consistency of this synthesis must be due to a refusal to listen, for the connections which the pope sees among the various issues are drawn very clearly in each of his talks...
...There are powerful voices around the world who still give credence to the old Roman precept - if you desire peace, prepare for war...
...You agree with Secretary Haig that "there are some things that are worth fighting for...
...The Vatican decided to act as if this were all beside the point and issued Humanae Vitae...
...One contributing factor to the West's failure was the denigration, by pacifists among others, of notions of "justice" and "honor'' as always and entirely ideological masks for material interests...
...that one-time use equals consistent use...
...Does this mean that marriage is, for him, a part-time job...
...Although there was terrible suffering involved for millions of innocent people, far more was at stake than the sovereignty of Poland...
...Doerflinger's argument that marriage would turn the priesthood into a part-time job doesn't quite square with his defense of marriage as a vocation...
...For global safety, there is an immense difference between the policy of having the minimum of secure nuclear weapons as a deterrent, with its all too apt acronym of MAD, namely, mutual assured destruction, as against the policy of first strike, which invites pre-emption on both the Soviet and American sides...
...27] remind me of the secular columnists who continue to find John Paul II an enigma: "How can he be so liberal on social justice," they ask, "and so conservative on things like contraception and abortion...
...I was there . . . Mr...
...The use of time to prevent conception is as much a use of something physical (unless you want to ignore physics in talking about the physical) as the use of a rubber membrane...
...We knew this was one time we could not surrender...
...Father Fitzgerald goes from my statement of fact to his conclusion that I take morality to be subjective...
...Worth, Tex...
...We know that we are marrying to establish community - "a mutual society," as it is described in Anglican marriage services - and that means bringing all that "we are and all that we have" - friends and family together - as the community of our nurture and support...
...outside its gates, the students and faculty who took this position would naturally be regarded as pro-Communist, if taken seriously at all...
...One has to make difficult judgments on such issues as human rights in the Soviet Union, previously discussed by me in these pages, the dangers of linking every objection we have to Soviet behavior with objections to the SALT II treaty which would provide both symbolic and substantive assurance of a continuing dialogue with those we now term barbarians, not realizing the degree of humiliation we impose on leaders of a country whose aristocracy once spoke French, on a society of whose evils we have become more aware thanks to the liberalization which has allowed some people to leave who would once have been killed or sent to the Gulag in silence...
...27] you say that nuclear weapons "make some kind of military sense," without offering support for your opinion...
...Polls are less to the point than the well-documented history of the encyclical itself...
...Because we disagree with that denigration, we admitted that Secretary Haig was right in the simple statement that "there are things that are worth fighting for...
...Mr...
...I agree with his conclusion regarding the First World War - it could have been avoided and the situation of Europe at its end was far worse than before it was fought...
...However, even that war, with all the grave injustices committed in its course and in its conclusion, need not have been fought if the Western democracies had succeeded in maintaining the balance of power, through force of arms when necessary, in the late thirties...
...Thank you for your observations...
...Garvey may not understand why I oppose his idea as an attack upon my vocation, but then he probably wouldn't understand how tired I am of a celibate clergy assuring me of the joys of contraceptive intercourse either...
...DR...
...The war against Nazi domination of our civilization was a just war...
...Garvey's refusal to appreciate the spiritual and personal force with which this consistency is being presented is perplexing to me, because I find John Paul II to be a very appealing and charismatic leader indeed...
...I said they make no military sense...
...W. h. ferry Justice & war Cambridge, Mass...
...But what of running the risk of such a terrible conflagration in the belief (1) that this is, at the moment, the only way to preserve crucial values (like freedom...
...Instead, gun collectors and dealers have been shot, beaten, and their guns confiscated by federal gun agents often acting on little more than hearsay...
...Leaving aside the question of so-called tactical nuclear weapons, Mr...
...Garvey is referring to the famous Westoff survey cited by Archbishop Quinn at the recent synod, in which it was apparently shown that 70 percent of married American Catholics in 1975 had used a contraceptive at least once...
...To the Editors: Thanks to writer Don B. Kates for pointing out what gun owners have been saying for years: That gun laws are, inevitably, enforced against the law-abiding almost exclusively [Mar...
...The commission, which included conservatives as well as liberals, leaned towards a change in the teaching...
...JOHN GARVEY 'A mutual society' Port Hope, Ontario To the Editors: At this moment in preparing for marriage we are struggling with many of the peripheral concerns about our wedding described by Jo McGowan in her article, "Marriage versus Just Living Together" [Mar...
...Oppression has remained, despite the defeat of Nazism and its allies in World War II...
...Garvey might explain to me why the most articulate defenders of Humanae Vitae in the U.S...
...As far as I can tell, the pope's statements on morality, politics, and social justice all flow from a synthetic grasp of a few fundamental Christian principles: the sanctity of human life and of married human love, for instance...
...Only two hundredths of one percent of handguns are used in crime...
...those who do speak about it tend to support the teaching of Humanae Vitae, though there are some exceptions...
...kathryn MARSHALL, a novelist and journalist, has written about South Africa for The Boston Globe and The Texas Observer...
...Secondly, I also invite you to test the validity of the second half of your assertion against the historical facts...
...According to this statement morality is subjective, and that is not the Catholic morality I learned in theology...
...That type of thinking and belief in fact bring to mind Machiavelli and the War Department's (alias Department of Defense) repeated lamentations...
...The most distressing thing to me personally about Mr...
...FATHER ROBERT F. DRINAN, S.J., is a professor of law at Georgetown's Law Center...
...Clearly such altruistic motives as justice and honor mask subtler "forces" of conflict: material gains and power (ephemeral ends of mortal beings...
...I presume he earns a living at something...
...Fully forty-five things and activities, including stairs, bikes, basketball, and football, are listed as "more dangerous" than handguns by the Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission...
...unlike him, I do not find John Paul's views on celibacy or contraception persuasive...
...Doerflinger is just plain wrong when he says that the most vocal defenders of contraception are celibates...
...Joseph l. walsh is associate professor of philosophy at Stockton State College in New Jersey...
...I also take issue with his statement "Britain had no hope of winning in June, 1940...
...conflicts among the military services as to who is to possess what weaponry and detection...
...REV...
...MAURICE FITZGERALD, C.S.P...
...It is glaringly evident that our poor, oppressed sisters and brothers have remained so in spite of war...
...In your rubric, "More on Weaponry" [Mar...
...Wars cannot be fought with nuclear weapons...
...SUSAN GRAHAM The war of 1939-45 Brooklyn, N.Y...
...When has peace been preserved by the balance of power...
...Michael schudson is associate professor of sociology and communications at the University of California, San Diego...
...are married laymen (e.g., William May, Germain Grisez, Joseph Boyle, John Kippley), while its most vocal opponents are celibates...
...I realize now that they are not insignificant but give the wedding its total shape...
...Buoncristiani bases an apparently absolute pacifism on his reading of history...
...In any case, Mr...
...As an example, all felons apprehended carrying guns could be prosecuted under the 1968 Gun Control Act...
...If he has time left over, Mr...
...Like him I find John Paul II appealing and charismatic...
...How politically and morally tenuous it is can only be judged in comparison with the alternatives...
...Abortion is another matter...
...Just before his death, Admiral Lord Mountbatten said: As a military man who has given half a century of active service I say in all sincerity that the nuclear arms race has no military purpose...
...Garvey need only demonstrate the truth of all his unspoken assumptions: that this situation has not improved during the last six years, at a time when use of the Pill has dropped drastically in the U.S...
...Garvey's article, however, is that he seems to be putting words into my mouth...
...There is likewise a difference between further technical advances in nuclear weaponry and instead a policy of emphasizing the importance of showing our own people that we are willing to make sacrifices to defend our country, by re-instituting the draft and improving the quality of our now semi-mercenary and concededly incompetent military, who cannot be trusted to handle the intricate problems of command and control of the nuclear weapons that will be placed in their possession under some of the more aggressive strategies now being contemplated for NATO...
...Garvey plans to run another thumbnail survey on what "married people know" about his proposal for a married clergy, I would like to place my vote now against such a step - not so much because it would diminish the priesthood (though it obviously would, since the demands of family life would necessarily make the priesthood into a part-time job), but because it would diminish matrimony...
...JOAN M. COOPER Embattled on two fronts Cambridge, Mass...
...I mean his comment that "married people know that he [the pope] is wrong when he talks about contraception...
...they have been food for our thought...
...So Humanae Vitae is wrong because these people think it is wrong...
...That was the turning point for US...
...Several weeks go, a friend of mine at a liberal arts college in New England invited Admiral LaRocque, a knowledgeable critic of our strategic policies vis-avis nuclear weapons, to speak at the college...
...The pure pacifist position is simple and requires little investigation of alternatives...
...that 70 percent of married American Catholics make up all the married people in the world...
...Powers wasn't...
...To the Editors: It appears that the editors of Commonweal have not carefully pondered historical evidence...
...Scarsdale, NY To the Editors: In "More on Weaponry" [Mar...
...the point is rather that Humanae Vitae, like the assertion that Jews and Orthodox Christians are damned and the condemnation of usury (both of which were asserted with more solemn force than Humanae Vitae), is a temporary bad idea, one which is being ignored by millions...
...However, I cannot agree that the same argument can be used for the conflict of 1939-1945...
...and there is something quite artificial about timed intercourse...
...Most celibates have the good grace to be silent on the subject...
...To show that his claim about what "married people know," then, Mr...
...GRIFFIN T. MURPHEY...
...Can you describe a situation in which it would make sense to use these weapons...
...Incidentally, just in case Mr...
...If Hitler had conquered Britain he would have moved on to the Western Hemisphere and his policy of genocide would have wiped out millions more Jews, non-Caucasians, and other so-called "undesirables...
...It would imply that the married state is a mere condition of life rather than a distinct personal vocation in its own right, with its own spiritual meaning and responsibilities...
...We read history differently, including that of the 1930s and 1940s...
...It should have been pointed out that by far and away, the majority of pistols are used lawfully and in the best interests of public safety...
...That is the case for deterrence...
...The essential point is that unless a married clergy is permitted in at least some parts of the world, Catholics will not be able to attend Mass...
...We expected a miracle and it came . . . the Battle of Britain...
...and interest in natural family planning has grown dramatically...
...This was certainly a sign that the traditional teaching was far from settled...
...It does not occur to them for a moment that it might be their own ideological labels that are inapplicable or incoherent...
...He is completing a book on Byron and homosexuality in nineteenth century England...
...I simply cannot imagine the pretext or provocation that would warrant the undisputed civilization-shattering costs of nuclear warfare...
...REVIEWERS LOUIS CROMPTON, professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, has published numerous essays on homosexual history...
...I said there is nothing worth fighting a nuclear war...
...This very dedicated man was repeatedly assaulted from the audience by the purists who thought of themselves as on the righteous Left, attacking him as a murderer since he had once been in the military, and as a war criminal since he did not share their absolute pacifism...
...Too few have taken seriously Cardinal Hume's point that married people alone have received the grace of the sacrament of marriage, and should be consulted on matters pertaining to marriage...
...To the Editors: Re: Your editorial, "More on Weapons" [Mar...
...My friend was attacked by some generals who attended the lecture and sat in the rear to hear the heresies of Admiral LaRocque, who has a long record of activity as someone who knows the danger of weapons from having been in the service...
...THE EDITORS Register footballs...
...Any departure from it requires that one inform oneself concerning the changing nature of weaponry...
...JOHN F. BUONCRISTIANI The editors reply: Mr...
...Their existence only adds to our perils because of the illusions which they have generated...
...Humanae Vitae was issued only after a commission had been appointed to look into the question of the church's traditional ban on artificial birth control...
...This married person knows nothing of the sort...
...that consistent use equals a conviction that Humanae Vitae is objectively wrong...
...27]: The situation of being embattled on two fronts and seeking to prevent the destruction of the planet by all-out nuclear war has been my experience from the beginning of my involvement in these matters shortly after Hiroshima and Nagasaki...
...Doerflinger and I are very far apart...
...This is absolute nuclear nonsense and I repeat-it is a disastrous misconception to believe that by increasing the total uncertainty one increases one's own certainty...
...Since you are so positive on this point, you must have clearly in mind some situation that would warrant our participation in such a cataclysmic encounter...
...Since he presents no new evidence to support his claim, I assume Mr...
...DAVID RIESMAN Department of Sociology Harvard University Worth nuclear war...
...internal politics of the Soviet Union and of the United States, as each is affected by the behavior of the other...
...Given the balance of opinion in the country as a whole, which the Commonweal editorial properly indicates, to demoralize the few people like Admiral LaRocque who are willing to take exposed positions may be comforting, but of course Admiral LaRocque would not have been in the situation at all had he not shared the concerns of his critics but differed from them, as I do, in his judgment as to what is feasible and hence genuinely moral...
...FATHER JOHN A. COLEMAN, S.J., is a Fellow of The Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C...
...That's one pistol in five thousand...
...The problem is that he only considers the actual use of these weapons and the waging of such a war...
...In the climate of such an encapsulated institution, this view could have hegemony...
...RICHARD DOERFLINGER The author replies: Obviously Mr...
...To the Editors: I read with interest the article of Thomas Powers on "Spasm War" [Mar...
...Finally, Mr...
...He would have used the British Isles and Ireland as a springboard from which to mount his attack on Canada and the United States...
...As far as the attitude of married people is concerned, all the evidence points to the conclusion that most American Catholic (Continued on page 349)Correspondence (Continued from page 322) couples use contraception in good conscience...
...Again an illustration of what you have in mind is in order...
...A discipline which even conservative defenders of celibacy admit can be changed should never become more important than one of Christ's commandments...
...The major flaw in the traditional argument came with permission to use natural family planning: a contraceptive mentality was allowed here, because while natural family planning may theoretically leave sexual intercourse open to the transmission of life, the people practicing it obviously hope with all their hearts that this transmission won't happen...
...When in the name of God, has justice ever been achieved through force of arms...
...But few if any have been prosecuted...
...Ferry considerably, and legitimately, complicates these questions by referring specifically to nuclear war and nuclear weapons...
Vol. 108 • June 1981 • No. 11
