Outlawing tongues
Carlin, David R. Jr.
personal conduct." When David Prunty, a speaker at the As private speculations led to rumors and rumors to suspi- public rally, criticized the bishop, he was promptly fired from ...
...ROBERT L. SPAETH Speltz's real reasons for his decision...
...the vital process of assimilation...
...In other words, we've been Since Mexico is so near at hand and toward Sacramento to be born...
...families should make it in America right ELA the nodding Hayakawa got the bet- Once upon a time vast numbers of people away, without having to wait for the genter of the scholarly Hayakawa...
...Compulsion lan, and Basque), not to mention the school and on the street, while speaking - at all events compulsion on a scale polyglot empires of Yugoslavia and the the language of the old country at home, which is less severe than the heavy-duty Soviet Union...
...through all this before, although in the since so little of the Mexican influx into It's not that I disagree with the argu- old days the really heavy concentration the United States has been middle-class, ments pointing out the advantages of lin- of foreign-language speakers was in the we mustn't be surprised if the Mexicanguistic homogeneity in the United States...
...DAVID R. CARLIN, JR...
...In New England, for instance, a U.S...
...Where will the St...
...newspaper...
...author of The Church and a Catholic's Conscience...
...numbers of people continue to speak immigrants, determined that their Well, I'm afraid that in...
...John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and the Can the local church have a credible Catholic newspaper...
...Print ruptly to turn off the spigot of public opinion must, in my view, none of it...
...Now, S.I...
...The St...
...troversial issues...
...Of several minds: David R. Carlin, Jr...
...His decision...
...The United States has always southwest...
...third generation is monolingual in Eng- - won't work...
...Could the paper now be accused, as a St...
...In early November Dorn's ordinary, Bishop said the criticism was a "slap in the face" to Bishop Speltz...
...The Highland Scots in the eighteenth century and only to the present day...
...be judged a departure from courage - the courage to print This unilateral closing down of a growing dialogue on opinions opposed to the bishop's decision and the courage to authority, treatment of homosexuals, and the Catholic press trust the Catholic community...
...At had Father Dorn suffered an undeserved personal tragedy, but the rally, Prunty aimed a remark directly at Speltz: "By Bishop Speltz's reputation as a cautious and compassionate naming our God-given orientation as a 'disordered' or prelate had been diminished, and the ability of the St...
...When David Prunty, a speaker at the As private speculations led to rumors and rumors to suspipublic rally, criticized the bishop, he was promptly fired from cions, Father Dorn in late October revealed his own homosexhis part-time job as a parish music director by the pastor, who ual orientation...
...So what's the big deal...
...And middle-class "Even Hayakawa nods...
...But among the luckiest of the generation of foreign-speaking adults to California without English catching on lucky breaks history has thrown our way enter the United States usually retains its among Mexican-Americans, those who is the prevalence of a single language native language as the tongue it speaks believe in the value of linguistic uniover a vast, continental territory...
...to remain bilingual for several generaasleep in the chamber, thus giving rise (if But is there any serious evidence that tion, mainly, I think, because lines of I remember my classical education cor- English is losing its sway in America...
...one doubts this, let the doubter con- linguistic ghetto, acquiring at best an im- Yet if the worst happens, if generatemplate the difficulties experienced in perfect command of English...
...Northeast, whereas now it's in the American rate of assimilation in southern Far from it...
...that certain groups of immigrants (in California, Mexican-Americans especially) are not learning English fast enough...
...California is more like the Frenchbeen a lucky nation, as is borne witness The typical pattern of linguistic as- Canadian rate in New England than like, to by the proverb that holds that God similation in the United States runs its say, the Jewish rate in New York...
...that even if Dom had to be removed, the act not be done in Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch columnist suggested, of having response to a public statement solicited by the bishop's own "sandbagged" a priest...
...California - a rough beast hotfooting it to survive...
...helps to hold society together...
...ought to be listened to with a great deal of to piggyback on the worldwide diffusion There are variations on this pattern, of respect...
...Victor Balke, ordered him to take an indefinite leave of abBut others saw the primary issue to be the church's attitude sence from the priesthood...
...The day they cease this falling in love we'll have problems we won't be able to solve by passing laws telling newcomers that if they can no longer love our ways then they should at least pretend to love them...
...The Visitor's decision abstatements that I have ever gathered...
...and between bishop and priest...
...Before the public reaction had a chance to Visitor acquired some responsibility to stem the tide of disilluget rolling, the Visitor editor, Father Ralph Zimmerman, sionment among St...
...Cloud can be but its effects have extended further...
...Cloud things - silence...
...Cloud Visitor has regularly invited local stood as natural and inevitable...
...Certainly, the Catholic called a halt to the debate...
...at St...
...And this is to confine our where the children commonly serve as compulsion the English visited upon the survey only to one comer of the world translators for the older generation...
...and that OUTLAWING TONGUES such groups resisting linguistic assimilaCALIFORNIA'S ENGLISH LANGUAGE AMENDMENT tion constitute a threat to American social solidarity...
...The Visitor responded to the controversy with - of all Once the decision had been made to fire Dorn, the St...
...The charge of imprudence must be laid at the door A third issue vying for prominence arose because the dioce- of Bishop Speltz, who saw a problem and tried to solve it with san newspaper had invited Dorn to write the article that, the power...
...Hayakawa, in the days belish Language Amendment" Senator from California, argue that lin- fore he had the misfortune to fall into (ELA) that makes English the official guistic uniformity in the United States politics, was a scholar who had won a language of their state...
...Cloud 'pathological constitution,' you, bishop, invite gay and les- Catholic community to resolve disputes through dialogue had bian people . to despise ourselves and be despised...
...that lin- reputation as one of the world's great Commonweal: 648 authorities on linguistics...
...Cloud Catholic homosexual community turn next...
...himself told his parishioners, "My dismissal will only be Why had the whole sorry train of events occurred...
...His October 16 editorial,, entitled gay and lesbian community needed to have its say, as did the with unintended irony "A Concluding Word," said: "Before many Catholics who wished to express their views on the me is the largest stack of letters, newspaper clippings, and proper use of episcopal authority...
...has seriously damaged the credibility of the St...
...overwhelmingly passed an "Eng- Hayakawa, former Republican U.S...
...If any- among family and among neighbors in a formity have little to worry about...
...Prudence would have suggested that Father Dorn's editor later admitted, "became the catalyst for the dismissal of sympathy with the homosexual people in his care be underthe author...
...Its self-imposed silence on the Dom case has ren- homosexuals...
...of courage...
...In the last analysis newcomer groups C learn English for the same reason they assimilate to other American institutions and to American culture generally...
...so anything he the single American language in question language beyond a few prayers and swear has to say on the subject of language happens to be English, which permits us words...
...the case of Spanish while living on California soil...
...Or to put spoke Italian, Yiddish, German, etc., erations of their children and grandchilthis in other words: ELA is a crackpot while living on New York City soil, and dren, master English in the first generaidea whose time has come, at least in the American union somehow managed tion...
...5 December 1986: 649...
...By then, in my judgment, not only toward homosexuals, which they perceived as ambiguous...
...Private speculations now abound: What were Bishop and courage had been ranked higher...
...So looks after drunks, little children, and course in three generations...
...Senator he won a different sort of the heyday of British imperialism in the French-Canadians have often managed reputation: he was famous for falling nineteenth century...
...Is this affair a (Robert L. Spaeth is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences local version of a wider crackdown on dissidents in the church...
...communication with the "old country," rectly) to the poet's celebrated line, Certainly it proves nothing that great Quebec, are so short...
...Cloud Catholics...
...The failure in all dered any public clarification of the issues virtually impossi- three of its manifestations was preventable, if only prudence ble...
...Two interpreted as a victory for those who hold . . . homophobic causes, in my view, can be discerned - imprudence and lack views...
...The second tions do in fact go by without English Canada (between French-Canadians and generation, either born in America or catching on either among Hispanics or the English-speaking majority), Belgium coming here as children, is genuinely any other linguistic group, then we'll (between the Flemish and the Walloons), bilingual, especially during childhood have so much to worry about that a mere Spain (among speakers of Spanish, Cata- and adolescence, speaking English at ELA won't be of much help...
...The ELA is a way of compelling, or at least forcefully encouraging, 0 N ELECTION Day Californians Proponents of ELA, led by S.I...
...guistic heterogeneity might well rend the social fabric of the nation...
...Of course, when Hayakawa was of that language that took place during course...
...that the replacement of Dorn, if Catholics to express themselves on its editorial pages on con- necessary, be achieved through negotiations, not discipline...
...That is, they admire, they are attracted by, they fall in love with - say it how you will - those institutions and that culture...
...The Visitor is the only summarized as a massive failure of public dialogue in the local Catholic newspaper in the diocese, the only outlet for Catholic church - failure of dialogue in the Catholic press, with opinion...
...Cloud Visitor, The case of the bishop versus the priest in St...
...The first unless many generations go by in Americans...
...Dorn been gravely impaired by the Visitor's misguided decision...
...indeed it will have a To make our lucky break luckier still, lish, barely able to say anything in the oldboomerang effect, increasing the victimized group's attachment to its stigmatized language...
Vol. 113 • December 1986 • No. 21
