Correspondence

...I make no such claim, although I point out that the numbers involved in the Sterling cases are small relative to those which she ignores...

...Are U.S...

...He asks me what alternative I have to the use of statistics and numbers in human rights work...

...Washington, D.C...

...women religious or their participative and colleg-ial manner of decision-making processes...

...Mansour's job involves disbursing money to abort the poor...

...WILLIAM F. SCHMITZ Vocations & fairness Annapolis, Md...

...I had one important reservation about Mel Piehl's book which I found to be well done...

...He ignored the CW's stance on interracial justice, which for the 1930s and early 1940s was highly radical, antedating even the Catholic Interracial Councils, Father John LaFarge, the Interracial Review, and, later, the civil-rights movement...

...This strikes me as yet another form of Roman domination which seems not to respect the particular experience of the U.S...

...Sterling also ruled off the agenda state terrorism, such as that carried out by Lucas Garcia and Rios Montt in Guatemala, and even the terrorism of all rightist groups like the Cuban refugee CMA, the Turkish Grey Wolves, and the Italian Armed Revolutionary Nuclei (authors of the Bologna railway station bombing...

...It is startling that Kolbenschlag does not see the obvious contradiction in Ms...

...It might be the only intellectually honest thing to do...

...That is like a state official saying that he/she finds slavery morally repugnanat, but as long as it is legal in ante-bellum Alabama, he/she must assist poor whites in buying slaves so that not just the rich will have them...

...Moreover, the choice was foisted on her by confrontation, also unnecessary, after she and her order had taken the precaution of seeking, and receiving, permission for her to take a position with the State of Michigan...

...Has the lack of a formalized system of due process influenced your decision...

...In short, he followed Sterling without question in selecting definitions and vague numbers that made the Soviets the sponsors of terrorism, the United States, supporting Botha, Pinochet and the Guatemalan generals, the antiterrorist force...

...This is consistent with the widespread belief that Sterling is a conduit for rightwing intelligence disinformation, and that no rational person should assume that what she says is true...

...Observing women religious in local and state politics and serving on boards and commissions it is clear that a strong community support is essential in order to keep on struggling for justice in the midst of overpowering forces and constant defeats...

...If the survey could be run and the responses tabulated by early fall (perhaps with the assistance of the National Opinion Research Center), the results could be released for the consideration of the bishops at their next semi-annual meeting in Washington in November...

...If these points have any validity, discussing them, even with the assistance of "numbers," would seem essential to formulating a meaningful human rights perspective...

...From a careful appraisal of the present, we need to project future images of realistic and positive growth phases for individuals and communities...

...Consistent with his present position, in his review of Claire Sterling's Terror Network (Commonweal, Sept...

...My attention to numbers was dictated mainly by the desire to show that people like Sterling were focusing on a select and small group of terrorists for political reasons, to distract attention from other (approved) victims, thereby making it easier to kill them or have them killed...

...Of course, had that been her position, she probably would not have been offered the job in the first place...

...Sterling complained that many intelligence services did not accept her Soviet network theory, possibly because of KGB infiltration...

...To the Editors: I found James O'Gara's recollections of the early days of the Catholic Worker in Chicago far more accurate than mine would ever have been [May 6...

...Here's my proposal: any pregnant woman who qualifies for aid, should be given a cash grant equal to the cost of an abortion - say, $150 - with no strings attached...

...Rochester, N.Y...

...As adult women we have looked sorrowfully and critically at structures which oppress and are currently engaged in trying to change them...

...As Sister Kolbenschlag so well states, religious life is integral to the movement of church and state in this country and its historical effects cannot be denied...

...What the bishops must face up to is, whether in the light of their practices and the lack of due process: -Catholic parents are likely to recommend a religious vocation for their children...

...For him this was serious scholarship, not the "rightwing fairy tale" seen by most reviewers...

...Are the rightist and state terror ignored by Sterling "extensive" and "significant...

...Joseph, Ohio To the Editors: I want to voice my gratitude to you and to Madonna Kolbenschlag for the very timely, sensitive, and thorough analysis of the Mansour case in your June 17 issue...

...In a similar way Herman is using the human rights issue to attack American domestic society and American foreign policy...

...To the Editors: Ernest Evans criticizes my Real Terror Network (May 6, 1983), among other reasons, for its preoccupation with "numbers" and comparisons of numbers, and for thus reducing human rights to "the level of statistics.'' What is the alternative to a careful assessment of numbers...

...she also wants to provide State services equitably...

...In March 1982 Sterling lost a slander suit in Paris, based on allegations in her book that Henri Curiel was a KGB agent...

...If Mansour is really "unwavering" in her stance against abortion - presumably because abortion means the destruction of innocent unborn boys and girls - would it not make more sense for her to declare her intention to stop the killing of unborn children of the poor, should that be in her immediate administrative power, and then to work to save unborn victims of the rich as well...

...If you have left the religious life to rejoin the blessed state of the laity, was lack of due process a major factor in your decision...

...CAROL COSTON, O.P...

...Note the use of the word "demonstrated...

...The problem most disturbing to Catholic parents, however, was not treated...

...Ambiguity and a disregard of numbers served there to obscure a political agenda...

...These allegations rested as usual on "confidential intelligence sources," but in this case the French courts were given access to French security files on Curiel, none of which showed any KGB connection...

...To the Editors: Most of the issues that arise from the forced resignation of Sister Mansour were well described by Madonna Kolbenschlag [June 17...

...Admittedly this is a tricky area, but apart from the fact that Evans offers no alternative criteria, he simply refuses to address the issues that I raise...

...Because it is important that the bishops no longer ignore the problem I would ask Commonweal to run a survey of its readers and ask them questions such as the following: - As a parent or a teacher do you recommend the religious life to your children or your students...

...Besides my preoccupation with "numbers," Evans criticizes my book on the ground that I regard terrorism by revolutionary movements as an "insignificant" issue...

...Do the Soviets have Argentina "on their side" after the Falklands war...

...The State would thus empower women with many more choices...

...for maternity/baby expenses...

...would avoid moral complicity by providing no money to abortion operators directly...

...Correspondence (Continued from page 450) from the LCWR and other self-serving, "progressive," "Catholic" organizations...

...It is the terror within our orbit and potential control that is kept under the rug...

...Evans raised not a single question about the quality of Sterling's sources and proofs...

...EDWARD S. HERMAN The author replies: Mr...

...Much of the re-evaluation and experimentation in religious life which led women religious to choose various ways in which to serve came from the challenge in Ecclesiam Suam in the '60s...

...The dilemma: in a State which deems it a "service" to kill the offspring of the poor before birth, how do you provide services "equitably" and at the same time halt (or at least curb) the killing...

...As the National Coalition of American Nuns put it, "A lone woman stands up to an incredibly powerful institution and simply says, 'No.' " JEANNINE GRAMICK, SSND By the numbers Philadelphia, Pa...

...Evans never tells us how we determine "significance," it is just that numbers are OUT...

...It is so easy for the emotionality and the conjecturing around the experience to cloud the real issues at stake...

...If enough individuals cynically misuse the human rights issue the result will be that most people will start dismissing this issue as a facade concealing hidden political agendas...

...This new generation of Cold Warriors see human rights as an effective tool with which to attack the Soviet Union and its allies...

...And whose side are countries like Poland and Iran on these days...

...To the Editors: The article on Sister Agnes Mary Mansour by Madonna Kolbenschlag [June 17] deserves careful reading and wide circulation for presenting an excellent analysis of very complex issues...

...To readers who are current or former members of the clergy or of religious orders, have you or your friends experienced treatment from your superiors or the hierarchy that resembles what Sister Mansour received...

...Both Sister Mansour's bishop and the papal representative exerted unfair pressure, circumvented her order and her superiors (thereby undermining legitimate church authority), ignored due process, and forced- her to unnecessarily choose between two valid commitments...

...Who opposes this sort of proposal...

...Herman's letter is excessively polemical, and hence has had the effect of obscuring my arguments as to why many of the ideas he puts forward in his book are dangerous to the cause of human rights...

...To the Editors: With due respect I believe it is Sister Madonna Kolbenschlag who misunderstands the Mansour case [June 17...

...Has the treatment of Sister Mansour come as a shock to you or did it confirm your previous impressions...

...But Evans's only reservation was that perhaps Sterling did ot give adequate weight to the "local causes" of terrorism, as opposed to Soviet plotting...

...and would both save lives and enhance the "quality" of those lives...

...In those years the CW planted many seeds which flowered during the civil-rights era two decades later...

...One can legitimately ask whether they wish to serve Christ or themselves...

...To the Editors: There was a time when your publication could be counted on to provide balanced coverage of topical ec-clesial issues...

...Involvement in politics on many levels is one of the ways and thus we are angered at situations which dictate - "stop serving in this way or leave your religious congregation...

...Is Rios Montt a terrorist...

...He asserted earlier that Sterling "has demonstrated the extensive assistance given by the Soviet Union to terrorists" and the importance of terrorism (undefined by Sterling or Evans...

...He analyzed in detail her proof of the KGB domination of the Irish Provos, which he showed to be not merely wrong but also foolish...

...In the New Republic, the Irish intellectual and politician Conor Cruise O'Brien devastated Sterling for her gullibility, her naive assumption that anything told her by western intelligence sources is true, and her faulty logic...

...When John Paul II spoke at the United Nations in 1979 on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights he defended' 'the right to political participation and the right to participate in the free choice of the political system of the people to which one belongs...

...It seems ironic that we have to be in conflict with the institutional church in order to work for justice through politics when the teachings of that same institutional church were part of the original motivation...

...local church and the U.S...

...In his 1981 review Evans described the United States as opposing terrorism and carrying out a pro-human rights policy...

...Many women religious today are prepared, and willing and capable of addressing the deeper concerns of a struggling church and society...

...The fact that Arthur G. Falls, a Negro physician, was the first "leader" of the Chicago group and its correspondent with the New York-based CW is not to be minimized...

...So, in light of his letter, I would like to make a few comments on these arguments...

...Perhaps my most fundamental concern about Herman's book is its using the human rights issue in the same way that the new Cold Warriors are...

...The ones to be killed were in client states, like Guatemala, Argentina, and Chile, where the numbers eliminated since 1970 were greater in each than the CIA total for victims of "international terrorists" on a worldwide basis over a longer time span...

...JOHN J. ROCK, S.J...

...Anyone doubting this minimization of suffering has only to read some of the articles by people on the left about Cambodia (Remember all those critiques of "exaggerated" reports from "unreliable" refugees about mass graves and torture centers in Cambodia...

...Do the bishops suspect that, perhaps for a long time now, Catholic parents have not been urging their children to take up a religious life (in fact, they might have even discouraged them...

...proceed to redefine obedience according to their wishes so that they can proceed to tear away at the fabric of church unity, while simultaneously thumbing their noses at the Vicar of Christ...

...political realities such as the various levels of the system, the pluralism, the competing interests, and the citizen's role...

...Mansour's stance on abortion...

...If one can say extensive, why is relative extensiveness not meaningful...

...This "politics of body counts" is immensely destructive of human rights because it leads people to minimize the suffering of the people in those countries that are "on our side...

...Isn't extensiveness a matter of numbers...

...So those of us who took these challenges seriously, and in many cases made work and living choices in order to respond fully, feel particularly upset by the Vatican's attitude toward Sister Mansour and earlier toward Father Robert Drinan, S.J...

...but no such reservations were expressed by Ernest Evans...

...I never said I was opposed to the use of statistics and numbers per se but a specific statistical technique...

...Having spent eleven years as the director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby, trying to influence public policy from a justice perspective, I feel angry and betrayed by the Vatican's actions toward Sister Mansour...

...Those who have a financial stake in the abortion business...

...or some of the articles by neo-Cold Warriors about Argentina (Remember all those accounts about how there was some violence after the 1976 coup, but that it was merely "defensive violence" directed against leftwing terrorists...

...Those who belittle the suffering of individuals in one country make it much harder to defend the rights of individuals in other countries...

...25, 1981) Evans was perfectly content with her complete avoidance of numbers and total reliance on individual episodes, dramatically related, often based on un-verifiable alleged information from intelligence sources...

...Public reaction might lead to some interesting conclusions as to who's "pro-life," who's "pro-choice," and who's truly pro-abortion...

...Department of Philosophy Wheeling College A lone woman New York, N.Y...

...equally or more abused individuals and groups in Indonesia and Brazil are not able to attract sustained attention...

...Many women would spend their grant on the downpayment for an apartment...

...Evans simply dodges these questions...

...The clear challenges to transform the world order by confronting unjust political, economic or military systems are particularly evident in the post-Vatican encyclicals...

...To the Editors: In response to Madonna Kolbenschlag's article on Sister Mary Mansour, RSM,[June 17] with which I agree, I want to comment from my experience as a Catholic social activist...

...Whatever one may believe about the content of the issues involved in this case, it seems imperative that the process used in the church for dealing with dissent and for exercising authority must be marked by that justice and truth which the church's own best teachings enjoin upon all of us...

...This technique consists of analyzing the human rights records of different countries by "counting the bodies," comparing the totals, and then declaring who is the worst offender...

...The issue is simple: what parents are going to recommend a religious vocation to their children after reading how the hierarchy has treated one of the church's most faithful daughters...

...I also show by many case studies that extreme violence - systematic torture and numerous executions - in client states like Guatemala and Chile is facilitated and protected by an aggressive focus on other terrorists and enemy villainy...

...He asserts, however, that Sterling shows "extensive" Soviet support of terrorists...

...HELEN FLAHERTY, S.C...

...There seems minimal acceptance of the collective and lived experience of U.S...

...CHARLES NATHANIEL DAVIS New awareness Mount St...

...Your recent lead article on Sister Mansour is an intellectual and theological travesty, to say nothing of imbalance [June 17...

...religious women and men to be denied these same rights...

...i.e., the "politics of body counts...

...JULI LOESCH Disown our experience...

...There is precious little relationship between Sister Kolbenschlag's convoluted theological aberrations and the splendid name of her religious order (Humility of Mary...

...I agree with Sister Kolbenschlag's four concerns as possible serious resultants from this case and believe they must be addressed cor-porately by all of us who call ourselves church in the United States...

...and those who, for reasons of their own, think it would be better simply to abort poor and minority people...

...But the Vatican's recent actions make membership in a religious congregation a jeopardy...

...MR...

...They must be taken seriously and allowed to exercise the prophetic role which this generation and culture needs so desperately...

...Can the United States be said to be giving "extensive aid to terrorists...

...Evans closes his review with a a reiteration of the idea that a focus on body count and numbers is destructive of effective human rights policies...

...In all probability vocations will continue at a low level until the bishops deal equitably with their flock: a fair system of due process would assist this...

...for a myriad of choices other than abortion...

...NETWORK Board Malcontents...

...Finally, I stress that the enemy violence capable of generating sustained coverage in the United States is often entirely outside of our orbit of control, suggesting that the true purpose of the propaganda outpourings is ideological mobilization, not succor of the victims...

...What I would like the hierarchy to realize is, there is a direct connection between such activities and the decline in vocations...

...Hopefully this unfortunate incident, which has stirred the hearts and minds of so many, may be the turning point of a new awareness - an awareness of the very profound and extensive effects and implications of an almost twenty-year serious renewal process for women religious in this country...

...President - Leadership Conference of Women Religious Abortion contradiction Wheeling, W. Va...

...To those parents who are aware, such actions by the hierarchy are not new...

...Mansour's position, she might have had grounds vis a vis church authorities for accepting the agency post under the principle of material cooperation with evil...

...I also show that carefully selected "terrorisms" become hot topics at certain phases of history, when, for example, weakening unions or a forward external policy are high on the elite agenda...

...for a trip to distant relatives or friends...

...Evans failed to point out or criticize this hugely political selectivity...

...The accumulated social justice teachings contained in the encyclicals were and continue to be an inspiring motivation for NETWORK...

...Sisters Mansour, Kane, Kol-benschlag, et al...

...If, in fact, there are so many malcontents in the ranks of women religious feminists, they are certainly free to exercise the same option as Henry VIII and Martin Luther did...

...She opposes abortion...

...I show that in case after case, major human rights campaigns in the United States are structured by domestic power interests, so that Soviet dissidents and victims in Cambodia and Poland are capable of eliciting intensive coverage and concern...

...Incidentally, had that been Sr...

...It is, of course, very hard to say who is "on our side" these days...

...ERNEST evans Early seeds Chicago, 111...

...The CW masthead, with its black and white workers, boldly proclaimed the Catholic Worker's opposition to racial discrimination and segregation...

...Why do we have to use precious energies fighting for our right to make ministerial choices based on the world's needs, our own talents and the mutual reflection within our religious congregations...

...of Social Services...

...Having accepted Sterling's principles of selection in 1981, Evans now criticizes my use of statistics, my "body count mentality," on the ground that it may involve "belittling and minimizing the suffering of people under brutal regimes that are 'on our side.' " Is it possible that this is not audacity but merely a reflection of the depth of Evans's bam-boozlement...

...Mansour holds that abortion is morally evil, but that she, as head of an agency, should see to it that the state subsidize poor women who wish to procure abortions so that not only wealthier women can have them...

...For thousands of women religious in the United States, Agnes Mary Mansour has become the Rosa Parks of religious women...

...ED MARCINIAK...

...and now are we expected to disown the results of our experiences...

...Sister Kolbenschlag, for all her feminist, anti-papal rhetoric, failed to confide to your readership that the entire Mansour episode was no doubt willfully and pre-meditatedly fomented by the more militant members of her order in collusion with a coterie of sympathizers (Continued on page 475) us than assessing the complex and greatly changed framework of our present understanding of the world at various stages of individual life...

...We should at least be grateful that they are not in Catholic classrooms...