Correspondence
Correspondence Easter recollection Syracuse, N.Y. To the Editors: Peter Skarga's Easter recollection, "Babcia" [Apr. 9], was profoundly moving. How much it said in small compass! Can we have more...
...He is the author of Literary Democracy (Viking) van A. HARVEY, the author of The Historian and the Believer, teaches at Stanford University...
...BERNARD COOKE teaches in the religious studies department at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts...
...But unless we also propose more positive structural alternatives, along the lines of work which has been underway for some time now on world order institutions, we run the risk of continuing to polarize our constituencies into "hawks" and "doves," and of not reaching the frightened middle...
...Finally, a freeze at the current level would provide no incentive for the Soviets to negotiate on nuclear arms reductions...
...12] he mentions political action, but he looks only toward political action within the United States...
...However, as the Misches have been pointing out, the peace movement must go beyond denunciation of the arms race (important as that remains) to the annunciation of alternatives...
...Bishop Mahony may have in mind this deficiency of the peace movement when he implies the need for "new institutions that could further delimit the possibilities of war...
...We must turn away from religion altogether...
...my spine...
...Thirty-one of us, including clerics, seminarians, and other theology students, were arrested on March 1 for briefly blockading two entrances to the Lawrence Livermore Lab, thirty-five miles east of Oakland, in protest against the design and development of nuclear weapons there...
...Many share his conviction that "the present arms policy of the United States . . . must be effectively challenged and changed...
...We have insisted (rightly) that the escalation of the arms race makes us less secure, and that its reversal will lessen the danger and make more resources available to deal with hunger and other problems...
...Nations would then be free to promote more vigorously the well-being of their own people...
...I wouldn't mind if you put "religion" in quotes, perhaps...
...Peace will not come through one-sided disarmament...
...That is a beginning, but only a beginning, for any lasting peace will require international cooperation, which means international political action...
...As this issue does not lend itself to a decision based upon theological faith, and the fact that I find the bishop's arguments supported by error, I remain morally convinced that the current U.S...
...Tough...
...9] brought back fond memories of growing up in an ethnic neighborhood...
...policy is designed for counterforce and first-strike strategy rather than deterrence...
...HUSTON SMITH Holy chills Syracuse, N.Y...
...neither will it come through one-sided political action...
...Find a way to carry the peace movement to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union...
...SMITH REVIEWERS WILLIAM v. SHANNON, formerly of the New York Times editorial staff, political correspondent for Commonweal, and United States Ambassador to Ireland, is presently teaching at Boston University MICHAEL E. SCHILTZ teaches in the graduate program of urban studies at Loyola University in Chicago...
...Rather than detail the many other areas which contain erroneous information (plans for indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations, the fallacy of counting warheads to prove our destructive power, and abandonment of deterrence and arms control, ignoring the need for computerized accuracy to ensure deterrence, that we were "systematically misled" concerning the missile gap of the '60s, that we are in a "war economy," the "guns or butter" argument, that we are trying to achieve military superiority), let me address the essential area of rational disagreement...
...The peace movement as a whole has failed to address this basic human and political need...
...As he and his people help one another in the months ahead to find new approaches to becoming a church of peace advocacy I hope they (and all of us) will look to the world order movement for suggestions...
...To the Editors: Peter Skarga's Easter Recollection of his "Babcia" [Apr...
...but the harsh fact is that there is no other way...
...What more need be said...
...ROBERT M. BOWE Away from 'religion' Torrington, Conn...
...The opposite of counterforce is countervalue or city bombing...
...Also, contrary to the bishop's statement, advances in new weapons have led in the past to significant arms control measures, e.g., the ABM Treaty (President Reagan's current proposal for a "zero option" in Europe has again brought the Soviets to the negotiations table because of a new weapons capability in the possession of NATO: Pershing II and the cruise missile...
...A month earlier 170 protesters were taken into custody for the same sort of civil disobedience...
...REV...
...KENDRA SMITH Troubled conscience St...
...but she was right...
...The crucial issue here is the basic human need for security in a world made insecure by unregulated competition among sovereign states over balance of payments and scarce resources as well as balance (or superiority) of weapons...
...Finally, Bishop Mahony need not apologize for entering this debate...
...So world peace means world political action...
...There is no longer any need to list the horrors of war...
...It is a story for the heart, not for hermeneutics...
...Of course...
...9], by Peter Skarga, made the holy chills run up and down...
...Hall), and a forthcoming study of Auden, Carnival of Intellect (Oxford University Press...
...nuclear policy of strategic deterrence is morally, diplomatically, and militarily justifiable...
...The bishop is in error when he states that the current U.S...
...A.B...
...The case in NATO is the best example...
...EDWARD CALLAN teaches at Western Michigan University...
...But it troubles the conscience too, since so many grandmothers still live there, forgotten "amidst the boarded-up shops, the burned-out houses...
...His books include Yeats on Yeats, a new edition of his Alan Paton (Twayne/G.K...
...In my opinion, the Catholic church is the only institution capable of doing this...
...A global system is necessary in which national sovereignty is subordinated to international security in key military, monetary, and resource matters...
...The point now is how to achieve world political procedures to banish war...
...MARGARET WIMSATT is currently teaching at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque...
...JOHN DOEBELE Against the freeze Newport, R.I...
...It is not just a matter of faith, however, and those proposing new solutions which could lead to disaster as well as success are obliged to become informed on the issues and think through the logic of their conclusions...
...The original Peter Skarga was a Jesuit preacher famous in Polish history for his eloquence...
...To the Editors: Congratulations to Bishop Roger Mahony...
...I am also firmly convinced that the New Abolitionist Covenant calling for a nuclear weapons freeze endangers world peace and, in fact, makes it more likely that in the event of war nuclear weapons will be used indiscriminately by both sides against cities and large segments of civilian populations...
...To the Editors: In Bishop Roger Mahony's peace message [Mar...
...Let me close with a challenge to the New Abolitionist Covenant: Accept the logic of your conclusions and support an increased conventional arms buildup especially in NATO...
...Can we have more from him...
...NEIL L. DOHERTY, S.J...
...So it seems time for the peace movement to enlist the services of the world order movement, and for the latter to clamor for the public attention and support it deserves...
...And laws require politics, of one sort or another...
...We still have John XXIII's statement on peace, so recently reaffirmed by John Paul II, but it, like any other ad hoc outline, needs supplementation for later application, that is, for today...
...The supplementa-(Continued on page 318) Correspondence (Continued from page 290) tion is best done, I believe, by reference to Pius XII's words on world government...
...It will never be otherwise...
...It also left me with twinges of regret, and perhaps some guilt, for my own substitution of intellectual sophistication for profound simplicity...
...The lesson of history is that peace requires law, whether it be the law of tribal chieftains or of modern democracies...
...If the Catholic church is not a pacifist church, and yet wants to deter war, it must accept the responsibility, and the costs and risks, of replacing our reliance on nuclear deterrence wherever possible with conventional weapons...
...See Gerald and Patricia Miscfoe, Toward A Human World Order...
...nuclear deterrence strategy I am compelled to respond to Bishop Roger Mahony's pastoral letter [Mar...
...If our strategic nuclear force is vulnerable to a Soviet first strike (and that is the only way the strategic exchange can start), then our current strategic nuclear force (not just numbers) cannot act as a deterrent because, given their present program of strategic nuclear force modernization (payloads, accuracy, survivability), the Soviets can become convinced that they can win a nuclear war...
...Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley World politics Chicago, Ill...
...Also, the recent proposal to develop a non-nuclear ballistic missile defense system, both in the atmosphere and in space, should be given serious consideration...
...RONALD MODRAS World order Berkeley, Calif...
...the Editors: The Easter recollection "Babcia" [Apr...
...LARZER ZIFF teaches in the English department at Johns Hopkins University...
...The pseudonym was well chosen...
...REV...
...And thanks to you for publishing his pastoral on peace advocacy [Mar...
...It is time to get back to basics...
...To the Editors: As a Catholic who is cooperating in the planning and execution of the U.S...
...Stop "demonizing" those in your government and American industry who are sincerely working for nuclear arms control and reduction...
...This statement alone reveals that Bishop Mahony is totally misinformed about the complex issues involved in nuclear disarmament...
...A nuclear freeze at the current level is not a matter of giving up military superiority...
...practical, cooperative action...
...Although I agree with Bishop Mahony's goal of peace, his arguments on how to achieve that goal are neither reasonably convincing nor morally persuasive...
...Also, if that war does take place at our current level of capability then we will most likely be driven to carry out a launch-on-warning strategy which is exactly what those in the new peace movement want to prevent...
...To the Editors: According to your apparently-male editorialist, quoting in the April 23 issue, Elizabeth Cady Stan-ton said, "All religious structures posit man as the living godhead with woman as his obedient servant...
...Louis, Mo...
...As in the issue of abortion, the nuclear arms race is obviously a moral issue of the highest order...
...We know them...
...As the author wrote, if you have to explain a symbol it is not a symbol...
Vol. 109 • May 1982 • No. 10
