Correspondence
Correspondence Welcome Clearwater Beach, Fla. To the Editors: "From Immigrants to Emigrants" [January 11] by Mary Jo Weaver made me a member of Commonweal Associates. CONSTANCE R....
...I was not seeking opinions "for attribution" for the simple reason that I then had no idea I would be writing on the subject...
...Can we honestly and rigorously pursue the many serious questions that remain about the morality of abortion — and, yes, about the church's official teachings, too — and yet not allow this very pursuit to be used by lobbyists to minimize the weight of Catholic tradition or to create the impression that nothing much separates that teaching from, say, Beverly Harrison's...
...3. By accompanying my strong criticism of the Vatican's action (to which the Maguires never refer) with frank criticism of the ad, I indicated my conviction that Catholics of a liberal outlook should chart a course on the abortion issue that is independent of both the existing pro-life and pro-choice options...
...At any rate, we rejoice in our guru status...
...What, then, are the major ones...
...First, you guess about what "the moving forces" of the ad "had in mind...
...In addition, when the U.S...
...It is in that light that I read the sarcasm marking their early paragraphs and their attempt to discredit the very idea that serious thinkers ("brave anonymous theologians . . . your approved theologians' ') could refuse to follow their lead...
...Who possibly could...
...These reasons had to do with context and with what the ad omitted saying as well as with what it did say...
...One of Margie's articles was also rejected by Commonweal and published in The Christian Century...
...Rosemary Ruether curiously called them some of "the best and the brightest in the American church...
...The Maguires do not reply to any of these reasons, preferring instead to label them all "guesswork...
...No interest...
...PETER STEINFELS Religion & socialism New York, N.Y...
...You say their reason for not signing the ad was not "out of fear.'' Why, then, did they fear attribution...
...Repeatedly, in that angry editorial...
...I have no idea on what grounds they say this...
...Some of their members actually believe that all abortions are immoral, but agree with the position of CFFC on public policy...
...Considering the fact that most religious Americans equate socialism with "communistic atheism," the discussion about just alternatives to the present injustices of our system is often hamstrung before any serious interchange can take place in the popular imagination...
...Can liberal Catholics reject as unwise and unworkable the pro-life movement's insistence on legally outlawing virtually all abortions, and yet vigorously oppose abortion-on-demand and the moral legitimacy that Roe v. Wade has lent abortion...
...Now we leave to go back searching the editorial for even one tear shed for the twenty-four nuns...
...All we had to do was write two articles each and one small pamphlet...
...Can we resist moral and legal shortcuts from whatever source, including the Zeitgeist — and resist sheer paralysis as well...
...You even guess at a sinister sensus plenior in the text of the ad...
...Moral theologians — mostly men...
...One might not even realize that far from "ordaining" the Maguires as ''gurus," I never mentioned that word...
...The answer to their third point is simply that my editorial could not discuss everything...
...What would the co-deans of Catholic feminist scholarship, Rosemary Ruether and Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza know about all that...
...we would all do well to keep such a possibility in mind...
...For one thing, he doesn't even live on the East coast, and he is certainly not in the Commonweal curia of "eminent theologians...
...When Mr...
...Even on the CFFC board, there are no two identical positions on the morality of discrete abortions...
...In this letter, as in a number of other recent writings, they manifest considerable irritation at the unwillingness of these Catholics, including liberal publications like Commonweal, America, and the National Catholic Reporter, to fall into line...
...Dan has written as much on ethical method and justice theory as any moral theologian in the country...
...While I believe they are somewhat precipitous in declaring Professor Harrison's book "the authoritative work on abortion decisions in a Christian context," the fact remains that the book was thoughtfully reviewed in these pages and I myself appeared with its author to discuss it on a panel at New York's Riverside Church...
...3) what is implied in the very fact that my editorial criticized both the ad and the Vatican's unjustified response to it...
...How we hate to slap the hand of our ordaining prelate, Peter, but even prelates can fall flat on their faces...
...What would they know about the moral maturity of women and their right to be heard on these and other issues...
...MARJORIE REILEY MAGUIRE DANIEL C. MAGUIRE The author replies It is not easy to respond to a letter like the Maguires' directly and dispassionately...
...The honor is all the greater since we are pronounced big-time, Michael-Novak-sized gurus...
...I believe they are three: (1) my criticism of the Maguires...
...Other theologians, with whom I spoke in the wake of the SCRIS action, asked not to be quoted by name precisely because they did not want their names or authority used to complicate the situation of the sisters against whom SCRIS had acted...
...Then there were those twenty-four nuns with their nearly eight hundred years of service in religious life...
...Just vague and unsubstantiated charges...
...I will do my best to disentangle and to reply to what I believe are the major questions behind the Maguires' indignation...
...I offered specific reasons why, in my view and that of several theologians, the ad, despite its minimal wording, "gave a distinctly false impression" of a far wider diversity of Catholic moral thinking on abortion than actually exists...
...They believe that liberal Catholics ought to sign up wholeheartedly with the pro-choice defenders of Roe v. Wade...
...You say that all views on abortion "ought to be argued openly...
...It is entirely their own invention, introduced here to exaggerate and caricature my criticism of them...
...When you take off after Michael Novak, you cite chapter and verse of his writings...
...Let us see: 1. My criticism of the Maguires was, in actuality, rather limited, a fact toward which the Maguires seem to be of divided mind...
...What would Patty Crowley, who was on the papal commission on birth control, know about reproductive ethics...
...The Vatican — all men...
...RALPH DEL COLLE Workers' Defense League 8 March 1985: 159...
...In fact, my editorial carefully noted that "a number of outstanding feminist theologians, including contributors to this journal, were among signers" of the ad...
...Fifth, your ignorance about Catholics for a Free Choice is crass, since easily correctable...
...Instead, Dan was offered a chance to write a 1500-word commentary on a forthcoming piece by journalist Mary Meehan...
...Your guesses were uniformly wrong and insulting...
...But, come, let us end on a happy note...
...This, I believe, is what, as much as anything, irks and frustrates the Maguires...
...2) my criticism of the New York Times ad and its sponsors...
...The editorial did not "imply" anything about whether or not the signers gave permission for "public dissemination" of their signatures...
...She, of course, is a Protestant, and you do not enter into ecumenism when the subject is abortion...
...Wow...
...They have chosen to attack my editorial with sarcasm, exaggeration, patches of self-pity, misleading references to private editorial business, and a flurry of unrelated complaints...
...Finally, every signer of the ad gave permission for the "public dissemination" of their signatures...
...First let me dispatch some of the minor ones...
...CONSTANCE R. MARQUARDT Maguires' ire Milwaukee, Wis...
...You imply otherwise...
...To the Editors: It is no mean honor to be ordained gurus in a Commonweal editorial signed by Peter Steinfels [Jan...
...So much for the minor issues...
...you ignored it...
...And so on with the other dupes who followed us in the peasants' revolt...
...To make guru status, Michael had to work full time at an institute, pour out multiple volumes, and almost monthly encyclicals...
...2. My criticism of the ad did not, as the Maguires claim, consist of "vague and unsubstantiated charges...
...Would this be untoward "guesswork...
...Now we can up our speaking fees (Continued on page 157) Commonweal: 130 (Continued from page 130) to match Michael Novak's as we enter with joy into the land of guru megabucks...
...The ad was not just about moral absolutism on abortion...
...Sixth, your approved theologians admit of direct abortion "in a narrow set of 'hard cases.' " How hard does a hard case have to be and who decides...
...But notwithstanding my respect for many of these individuals, I think it would be a tragic error to accept the ticket to a bandwagon that the Maguires proffer...
...Catholic bishops are branded as socialists and when their presentation of Catholic social teaching is criticized for its inapplicability to the unique American situation, it is refreshing to be reminded of our own humanistic tradition of American socialism...
...In any case, the observation was made to underline the unreasonableness of SCRIS's action...
...Meantime, I have evidently enraged them by simply pointing out, even in a passing way, exactly what they are doing...
...Harry Fleischman's article on Norman Thomas [November 30], marking the centennial of his birth, is just such a tribute...
...Why didn't I name the handful of non-signing theologians with whom I spoke (the Maguires' fourth point...
...Could no others have input here, not even our ragtag band of signers...
...Perhaps from some future vantage point, they will be shown to have been right...
...Dan declined...
...Both of these reminders are not insignificant...
...Reagan attends an election-season spaghetti dinner in a New Jersey parish, do the Maguires conclude that he is out to woo Catholic voters...
...That will keep us busy...
...Certainly I do not believe, nor did my editorial claim, that the Maguires approve of "all abortion decision-making in the world...
...The explanation is not mysterious...
...You do announce a brand new policy for Commonweal...
...Some of these views were offered me in conversations before the SCRIS action had blown this whole issue up...
...And you did...
...At other moments, they apparently believe that Commonweal editorial policy turns on whether their own particular proposals or manuscripts are accepted or rejected here...
...Could you not rise to the standards of the secular press such as the New York Times, which will not quote negative comments without attribution...
...For now, however, I think my only crime was candor...
...The charge they make "secondly," for example, is that I "do not enter into ecumenism when the subject is abortion...
...And bullying is not attractive, whether it comes from them or from SCRIS...
...Fourth, you quote brave anonymous theologians in criticism of our ad...
...Also, as Novakian gurus, we will be invited by Bishop Imesch to testify on the writing of the pastoral on women just as Michael was invited to witness to the bishops' committee drafting the pastoral on the economy . . . even while he was preparing a preemptive strike against the pastoral...
...We could have written more on abortion, but, given the soft-minded quality of the "activists" and others who followed us in signing that "dud" of an ad in The New York Times, we saw no need to put out...
...The Maguires are to the pro-choice movement what Michael Novak is to free enterprise...
...They suggest that only some dogmatic arrogance, some obtuse refusal to recognize the gifts of the "co-deans of Catholic feminist scholarship" or the "best and the brightest in the American church," some disdain for the "moral maturity of women and their right to be heard," some snobbish exclusion of theologians not on the East Coast, some allergy to ecumenism could account for criticism of their ad...
...Unless there is a double stand8 March 1985: 157 ard when the subject is women — and that is just unthinkable — we will be there...
...The Maguires do not see the issue in these terms...
...You do guesswork on our real motives and intentions...
...Will you now be open to other viewpoints on abortion or will you still think an article by' 'feminists for life" gives the other side...
...Thirdly, you ignore what we reported, .that 81 theologians, (57 of them teaching in Catholic institutions) told us they could not sign out of fear of precisely what has happened...
...At moments they would minimize their importance in the Catholic abortion debate...
...Might they reach that conclusion regardless of whatever innocuous explanation the White House issues...
...What would Anthony Battaglia, author of Toward a Reformulation of Natural Law, know about abortion...
...Likewise the editorial did not attempt to evaluate CFFC (their fifth point) or recapitulate the entire abortion debate (their sixth point...
...We announced this in the ad...
...One would hardly suspect, from their account, that the main point of my piece was to criticize, in unmistakable terms, the action of the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes against the signers of the October 7 New York Times ad...
...Where in all of that do you find him blessing the "status quo" of all reproductive choices...
...Even in Commonweal"] Dan tried to interest you in his article — subsequently published in The Christian Century...
...it was also a statement on the nature of conscience and decision-making, on the nature of ecumenism and church, and on religious freedom and trust of women...
...Your guessing led to accusations that we were really out to endorse the ' 'status quo'' of all abortion decision-making in the world...
...Their official position is to oppose the illegalization of abortion and to support funding for poor women who make abortion decisions...
...Rather it stated plainly that some individuals signed it "months earlier, long before its sponsors decided to publish it in the Times.'' The Maguires do not challenge this...
...and (b) assuming that Catholics for a Free Choice, an experienced, professional lobbying operation, knew exactly what Commonweal: 158 kind of impression they were creating...
...The Maguires' final complaint is similarly groundless...
...Some would want to "red-bait" the incorporation of even a " soft'' version of liberation theology's "preferential option for the poor" into the bishops' pastoral letter...
...No citations at all for us...
...Secondly, you seem unaware that the authoritative work on abortion decisions in a Christian context is not our little articles, but Beverly Harrison's Our Right To Choose...
...My "guesswork," in fact, consisted of (a) applying to the ad the same standards of reasonable interpretation that one would apply to any "political" ad, a genre notorious for sending messages based on context, emphasis, and selective data...
...But for some time now, they have systematically striven to maximize the uncertainty about Catholic teaching regarding abortion — to the point where that teaching is rendered easily compatible even with radical pro-choice positions...
...If truth, and not partisan gouging, were your purpose, you could have found the truth...
...To the Editors: It is rare these days that we can celebrate the goodness of our fellow travelers on the "Way...
...The theological struggles and ponder-ings of Norman Thomas reveal not only the implicit theological base of his own humanistic socialism, but unveil to a listening and attentive church the possibilities for pursuit of its vocation to evangelical service and justice in the world...
Vol. 112 • March 1986 • No. 5
