Correspondence
Correspondence Write the pope Sacramento, Calif. To the Editors: Re your editorial, "Disappearing Priests" [Aug. 13]: Some weeks ago, our pastor gave us the news that probably in ten years our...
...13]: Some weeks ago, our pastor gave us the news that probably in ten years our growing parish will have only one priest, instead of three as at present...
...These are the sort of statistics that bring the problem close to home...
...When one considers how far the Germans have come along the road of democracy since the end of World War II and looks back at German history, one can appreciate better what the postwar Germans have achieved...
...had a "relative necessity" to become an independent nation...
...Emer., Hebrew Union College, N.Y.-Cincinnati...
...JOHN GOLDBERG New Outlook Scandalous article New York, N.Y...
...When I discussed the matter with him later, I gave the opinion that the man who is a deacon in our parish would be a fine priest...
...O'Gara's article also helps to balance the sarcastic and sneering comments on the Germans presented so often by your former Washington correspondent, Frank Getlein-he almost caused me to cancel my subscription...
...A "grassroots movement" can be effective...
...I only learned of their existence after composing my plea, and am grateful for his correction...
...ALFONS BEIL...
...My judgment about your country is ambiguous...
...Father Burrell's anticipation of "nasty retorts of anti-Semitism" by no means disarms me...
...One of my colleagues at Notre Dame, who happened to be in Israel, called that to my attention, as has another friend at a recent meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education...
...How does he expect me to characterize his reluctant acknowledgment of the Jews' need for a state, or his monumental double standard vis-a-vis Jewish and Arab conduct...
...Martin has not changed his mind about Roncalli...
...How true: the most horrible news of recent days from U.S...
...New Outlook has, since the days of its ties with the late Martin Buber, endeavored to serve as a platform for voices such as these, who would seem to represent the best in Judaism...
...As a student of comparative liturgy (one of my books is the Sacred Bridge) I am, almost by definition, an advocate of ecumenism, also as contributor to the Journal of Ecumenical Studies...
...His criticism of the so-called "autonomy" plan for the West Bank echoes what various members of the Israel peace camp have been claiming ever since the plan was first unveiled by the Begin government...
...I am sure he does not...
...The first is an answer to the question which serves as a subtitle to Father Burrell's critique of Israeli policies...
...delivered West Germany from the National Socialist terror, and helped us up with CARE parcels and Marshall Plan, but on the other hand during the de-Nazification your officials were very indulgent with prominent Nazis and promoted their rehabilitation in the new Federal Republic, up to and including high jobs...
...Then came my question: "Why are the requirements given by Paul to Timothy and Titus not good enough for us?'' The pastor told me to ask the pope...
...Goldman trade, and which make the latter minimize the aspirations of Palestinians for independence-an aspiration one would hope he could well understand...
...For those who would like our English-language materials, I would invite them to write to us at P.O...
...DAVID BURRELL, C.S.C...
...He wrote: "The first thing to emphasize is that a good part of the German peace movement should be stamped 'Made in Washington.' Every time a high U.S...
...Paul's "huge betrayal and neglect" in failing to check heterodoxy have left the church on the brink of utter collapse...
...The vast majority of those identified as the religious establishment, and its political representatives, are whole-hearted supporters of the present government...
...Correspondence (Continued from page 482) he may realize that he deserves them...
...The more was I shocked by David Burrell's article, "Israel's Scandalous Course" in your issue of June 4. I propose only three arguments ad rem, and one ad hominem...
...It is that task of recalling a nation and a state to its own ideals which is so clearly evident in the work of Oz veShalom, and the reason why it deserves our support...
...In Jewish tradition, it is what you do that counts, not so much what you believe...
...But these voices, to the extent that they are heard, are given expression outside the political sphere (on principle), and so they have little prospect of really being listened to as a Zionist critique of Israeli policy...
...anti-Reaganism: yes...
...True enough, one letter will not make the needed changes take place, but at 400 air-mail postage for each letter, sacks of mail would make Rome sit up and take notice...
...Readers of Three Popes and a Cardinal will know better...
...ROBERT B. GOLDMAN Basically hostile New York, N.Y...
...Therefore anti-Americanism: not at all...
...Or the Fiji islands...
...Prophetic truth speaks through the words and deeds of "secularists" as well as "traditionalists" in Israel...
...By defeating the PLO militarily, Prime Minister Begin hopes, it seems, to weaken the movement's support in the Occupied Territories and thus pave the way for acceptance for his "autonomy" plan...
...PATRICIA M. LEIPER Relevant & correct Tel Aviv, Israel To the Editors: David Burrell's article on "Israel's Scandalous Course" [June 4, 1982], seems especially relevant when read in the context of the latest events in the Middle East - namely, the Lebanese war...
...It also helps to correct the biased and unfair picture one of your contributors presented a couple of years ago after he accepted a free trip to Europe from the German government and returned to deplore what he claimed was the lack of democracy in Germany because the government did not want to hire Communists in its judicial system...
...There are two points I feel obliged to raise for the benefit of your readers...
...Some of them express their views through the movement I am associated with, Oz ve Shalom, which means "strength and peace" in Hebrew and comes from the last verse of Psalm 29...
...And who may decide if and when a "nation is engaged in forfeiting that right...
...REV...
...We know, of course, that the basic issue is not the aspiration of Palestinians for independence, but their objective to destroy the Jewish state...
...And speaking of "paternalism," with which Father Burrell charges Israel in the administered territories, what does he think a free post-World War II Jew should call his thinking...
...In the future, we will continue to include those of the religious community in our efforts to achieve dialogue and peace in the Middle East...
...He applauds a Wojtyla who "will condemn a Hans Kiing for subjecting Christian revelation to contemporary anthropology and psychology...
...But it is Paul VI who bears the brunt of Martin's contempt...
...What is most unfortunate about the overkill is that it feeds the very fears on which both Professor Werner and Mr...
...In fact, in many cases, they are at the forefront of unacceptable acts such as the settlement of the West Bank...
...To the Editors: David Burrell's article, "Israel's Scandalous Course," in the June 4 issue is more scandalous than the Israeli policies he labels with this word...
...My deepest concern has been that Israelis have allowed a short-sighted leadership to wheedle them into lowering the standards which they have long expected of themselves...
...About the German-German question: Since the concentration of economic and military power in middle Europe contributed to two World Wars, it would be against the welfare of mankind to permit a restoration of that concentration...
...WALTER J. MARX American Consul to Hamburg, Ret...
...Does he think the U.S...
...Today, such dovish, humanist views are represented by the Oz ve Shalom group associated with the Peace Now movement, certain elements with the National Religious Party, and a number of leading religious intellectuals such as Professor Yeshayahu Leibovitz and Professor Assa Kasher...
...Naturally, I was given all the standard reasons why this was not possible...
...This, O learned colleague, is a well-known fact ever since the destruction of the Temple under Titus in 70 C.E...
...An analysis of the invasion of Lebanon seems to point to a close connection between the military actions to Israel's north and events on the West Bank...
...John is the new Celestine V who in his innocence opened the floodgates to ecclesiastical democracy and doctrinal anarchy...
...The other phrase is a gross overstatement, and rightfully draws Professor Werner's fire and ire: asking whether Israel, under its present leadership, "is not resolutely engaged in forfeiting that right and respect...
...Where are the religious voices of protest...
...We Jews, with due respect, do not recognize any authority that may "bind or loose" any of our rights or privileges in Israel...
...YEHEZKEL LANDAU The author replies: I am happy for the opportunity to respond to the voices on behalf of Israel, as they reacted to my June 4 piece...
...Paul's failing is that he lacked "the ruthlessness of greatness isolated," the ruthlessness that would have made Humanae Vitae effective papal teaching...
...What chances did a pacifist organization have under such circumstances...
...My original title had been: "Israel on Masada Course...
...That recognition must dawn on Israelis and Palestinians sooner or later, and the next elections may well decide when that awareness will be made the cornerstone of official policy...
...The church that Martin seeks would seem to be a church that transcends not only political powers but the world itself...
...How well it will go with Hollywood is another matter...
...My second point reinforces and extends the first...
...Certainly, it did not begin in the palaces of kings and high priests...
...It is in striking contrast to much of the material we read today in the American press on our key ally in Europe...
...I asked that question as a supporter of the Zionist enterprise, and in the throes of my disappointment with those noble objectives, but it makes no sense, in the language of political science, so to question a nation's right to exist...
...Remember 1948/9, when armies of six Arab nations invaded Palestine, just because Israel had declared its independence...
...The rise of a new party such as the "Greens" - whether or not it remains a permanent part of the political scene-is a demonstration in itself of the robust nature of German democracy...
...Were it the former, the problem would long ago have been settled...
...Allow me to focus on the title and on two phrases which drew fire...
...In my opinion the Reagan administration and its German satellites, i.e., the Christian Democrats, who blasphemously misuse the Christian name, are, by their primitive anti-Communism, now the principal world danger...
...3) What is a "relative necessity" (of the establishment of the state of Israel...
...The challenge is constructing a majority coalition from both Zionist camps that will chart a new course in Jewish-Arab relations...
...I did, and I suggest others do the same...
...Jewish policy in the administered territories is condemned as if it were a capricious expression of Israeli brutality, rather than a response to the explicit, thirty-five-year-old refusal of all Arabs to accept Israel as a neighbor...
...There is a political opposition in Israel that has nearly defeated the governing coalition on recent noconfidence resolutions...
...is that repeated assertion a nuclear war can be won...
...Tel Aviv University Echoing the prophets Jerusalem To the Editors: My friend Father David Burrell encouraged me to write this letter, responding to his article in your June 4 issue...
...91-107...
...Given his thesis, one would expect that Martin would give high marks to John XXIII for his aggiornamento...
...REV...
...2) All Arab members of the "B'rit Shalom'' mentioned above were exiled or killed by their respective governments...
...More than a month...
...Or Zimbabwe...
...He speaks of the "relative necessity" of the establishment of the state of Israel...
...ERIC WERNER Prof...
...Box 4433, Jerusalem, Israel...
...1) Make a mental experiment: suppose Israel were as peace-loving as Father Burrell" desires, and its army were weak: how long would it survive...
...John Paul I intended to reassert control and begin a process of authentic reform (How he is able to fathom the explicit intentions of a pope who reigned scarcely more than a month escapes this reviewer...
...Paternalism would be an understatement...
...It rather tells me that on some level of consciousness (Continued on page 509) tonelli and makes them both Secretaries of State...
...Similar sentiments were voiced by Gershom Scholem in an article nearly two years ago in the New York Review of Books...
...Everything else flows from this basic perception...
...It is a most vital American interest to foster and encourage the Germans on their present path...
...To the Editors: The writer of these lines has been a personal disciple of Martin Buber and a member of the B'rit Shalom, the long defunct pacifist organization for a binational Israel (or Palestine...
...official in the Reagan administration talked about the possibility of winning a nuclear war or engaged in similar loose talk, the ranks of the peace movement in West Germany and indeed all over Europe swelled significantly...
...He is mature, married with a fine family...
...Two of our supportive members are even vocal in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament: Rabbi Menachem Hacohen of the Labor Party and Avreham Melamed of the National Religious Party...
...In acknowledging receipt of his copy of that letter, the bishop assured me that careful study of the letter would be made in Rome...
...I am saddened that Professor Werner should have read my piece as "basically hostile," for it was indeed a critique written in love and concern, and was so read by many to whom I distributed it in Israel...
...a Raymond Brown for subjecting the Gospels to the findings of linguistics and archeology...
...I shall never forget that the U.S...
...Father Burrell's comments on the lack of religious opposition to the government's immoral policies are, on the whole, correct...
...Furthermore, he said, that it was important for the people to write their views...
...Perhaps the provocative title and the limitations of (my) written words contributed to such a tonal miscommunication...
...Or France...
...If any more evidence is needed to reveal this man's feelings toward Jews, I don't know what it might be...
...The opposition leaders have already promised that, wher the shooting stops, their voices will be audible at high decibel levels...
...I spent six years in Israel as professor at the Universities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem...
...The insistence of some in West Germany upon the reunification renders more difficult, too, the normalization between the two German states...
...Nevertheless, segments of the religious community have taken an opposite stand to that of the majority...
...The phrase "relative necessity" for Jews to establish the state of Israel is taken whole-cloth from the 1970 Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church-the only Christian document forthright enough to take up the issue of the state of Israel, and refers strictly to the fact that (abstractly speaking) Zionism need not have required the apparatus of a state to pursue its goals, but needs them in the current nation-state world...
...Since it still is (hopefully not for too many more decades) the latter, it can't be settled until this objective is abandoned by the Arab world...
...The next step being de facto annexation...
...On the "double-standard" issue, I repeat in season and out that I ask no more of Israel than I would of my own country or of any of those with which Israel would want to be associated...
...It gives an amazingly accurate and fair picture of today's Federal Republic of Germany...
...The changes which John inaugurated through Vatican II according to Martin have been no less disastrous than those for which he holds Sylvester I accountable...
...And grass-roots movements like "Peace Now'' and OZ VeSHALOM will certainly support those political leaders who recognize that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute can only be resolved through a compromise that strives for the maximum achievable justice in a tragic, agonizing situation...
...I think not...
...One must begin, by acknowledging that there are in Israel a considerable number of non-Zionist Jews who are critical of government policy across the board, out of religious convictions that tend toward a view of the state as a blasphemous institution, inherently, because it was established without Messianic directive...
...This opposition is now fuming over the way the war in Lebanon was conducted, but its criticism has been muted as long as Israeli soldiers have been in action...
...German achievement Edgewater, Maryland To the Editors: This is just a note to compliment you on James O'Gara's article, "The View in Germany" [July 16...
...the defenders of birth control and homosexuality and sexual permissiveness for subjecting men and women to utility values...
...but to John Paul II has fallen the immense burden of attempting to do what no pope for the past sixteen hundred years has been able to do: assert authority on the basis of spiritual power alone...
...But when it comes to the Jews, even after the Holocaust, their need for a state is "relative...
...Unconscious prejudice comes close...
...That will play well in Little Rock...
...Within the Religious Zionist sector, there are, in fact, voices which try to echo the prophets in their calls for just and humane treatment of Arabs, and for a political-territorial compromise within Eretz Israel/Palestine...
...It could be said that Christianity itself was such a movement...
...Not in its present form, not within the 1967 lines, not even in the context of the UN-recommended partition that would have given the Palestinians the state they now say they crave...
...Ad hominem: Are you, Father Burrell, not abusing the privileges of hospitality by writing a basically hostile article, while enjoying a privileged status at the Hebrew University...
...Made in Washington Heidelberg To the Editors: As a German, I read the article by James O'Gara, "The View in Germany" [July 16], with special interest and full agreement...
...The entire Dutch statement can be found in Helga Croner's compilation: Stepping Stones to Further Jewish-Christian Relations (New York: Stimulus, 1977), distributed by B'nai B'rith, pp...
...The one invented by the editors, "Israel's Scandalous Course," set people up, I'm afraid, for an adversary reaction...
Vol. 109 • September 1982 • No. 16
