Editorials
Contents Volume CXIII, Number 5 Correspondence 130 Editorials 131 Still the gauntlet: Barry Hillenbrand 133 On naming the moon: David R. Carlin, Jr., 1'35 Rights, economics, & the...
...Those who speak and act dally for nonviolence in that blood-soaked land are a prophetic, diminishing minority, assailed on all sides...
...The intervening months have not improved the text nor lessened the confusion...
...I HAGGLING PRO & CON The war against the Nicaraguan government is escalating, and President Reagan's request for $100 million in aid for the contras -- nearly four times the allocation Congress approved last year -- doesn't begin to tell the story...
...For victory, the contras would need not only more American military advisers and the new airfield now being built in Honduras -- the sixth constructed by the U.S...
...Understandably...
...or to an auto manufacturer's interest in boosting its own products...
...The model of the Philippines, one of prayer and action, should be emulated elsewhere...
...With effort, risks, and costs," he concludes, it is possible for people "to make themselves politically indigestible . . . . That process has already begun...
...The month began with Pope John Paul II praying at Raj Ghat, the tomb of Mohandas Gandhi...
...foreign, $33...
...When the current advertisement failed to appear as originally scheduled last October, we noted the criticism its widely circulated text had received from sources like the National Catholic Reporter and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious...
...Can newspapers prohibit their political reporters from endorsing presidential 14March 1986:131candidates...
...dollars by International Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...But they are not made easier by broad-gauged slogans and an unwillingness to admit distinctions...
...On the divinity of Jesus...
...On the centrality of Scripture and sacraments...
...The example is only offered to suggest the problem about a claim like this one from the Times ad: "We believe that Catholics who, in good conscience, take positions on the difficult questions of legal abortion and other controversial issues that differ from the official hierarchical posilions act within their rights and responsibilities as Catholics and citizens...
...orto a newspaper's need for credible neutral reporting...
...A very strong weapon...
...AQUINO BEGINS TO GOVERN T HREE DAYS AFTER the February 7 election, the speaker of the Batasan Pambansa, the Philippine National Assembly, swung his game leg up the several steps which led to the podium elevated high above the floor of the Assembly, and with a heavy bang of his gavel declared that the Batasan was convened for its constitutionally appointed task of 14 March 1986:133...
...I wish to reaffirm the conviction," he said then and there, "that with the help of God, the construction of a better world, in peace and justice, lies within the reach of human beings...
...But what is at stake here has virtually nothing to do with a right to free speech in the First Amendment sense...
...Just what is the longrange plan for U.S...
...Commonweal: 132He says that the aim of nonviolent civilian defense is to make a society unrulable to would-be tyrants and aggressors by applying massive, selective noncooperation and defiance...
...Instead, Mr...
...So strong it surrounded and protected the army itself...
...It is the open-endedness of this scenario that should lift every American eyebrow...
...the differences between scholarly discourse or searching dialogue, on the one hand, and public advocacy or lobbying, on the other...
...The administration must be made to answer the question precisely, and before one penny of aid is considered for transfer from the defense budget this year...
...Shultz, "We pay special tribute to Mrs...
...If the church is a community of disciples, it must foster discussion and not close itself to dissent -- for disciples are learners...
...How much more of what...
...Certainly not because we underestimate the importance of free speech and responsible dissent within the church...
...Doesn't this proposal deserve the serious attention now being devoted to the plea for increased contra aid...
...Secretary of State George Shultz is worried that we (the U.S...
...freeze the region's military buildup...
...These goals sound like those Mr...
...We have repeatedly insisted -- and at least some of the hierarchy have agreed -- that Catholic pluralism in regard to the legality of abortion must be considerably wider than in regard to the morality of it...
...Said Mr...
...as well as the Soviet Union...
...Otherwise, how will the story differ next year when the president begins his fundraising...
...We cannot possibly soon forget the valor of the Filipino people, and the democratic revolution they accomplished by the most striking nonvio.lent means...
...Reagan has simply misplaced his effective haggling skills: they belong not on national television, to swell public sympathy as pressure against Congress, but at the bargaining table...
...What is good for General Motors is not, of course, what is necessarily good for the Catholic church...
...Even stronger criticism was expressed here at that time about the Vatican's heavy-handed and counter-productive response, demanding that women and men in religious orders who signed that ad had either to retract their signatures or face expulsion from their orders...
...advisers, maneuvers, aid, and arms as well...
...They clearly need both our prayer and substantive action...
...Responding to them will demand courage, but also intelligence and loving fidelity...
...The Caraballeda plan would prohibit U.S...
...It is obvious to everyone that tossing $70 million to the contras for military assistance won't bring about a Sandinista defeat -- the administration's still unstated, but transparent, goal...
...Clearly, something must be done, but what...
...Can General Motors dump an executive who starts advertising Volkswagons...
...When tens of thousands of Filipinos responded by forming a nonviolent human wall between Marcos and rebel troops, it was evident that, as one observer at the time put it, "The people have become a very strong weapon...
...But that is only half of what worries many Latin American nations...
...But as Catholics...
...will have to live with a dangerous "Soviet and Cuban bases on the mainland of Latin America...
...On genocide...
...Aquino had shown so often in her campaign for the presidency...
...foreign, $59...
...Sandinista strength is not responsible for these problems...
...It should be taken to heart by the people of Chile...
...Yet it must also retain the capacity to affirm convictions and give a corporate witness -- for disciples are faithful to a teaching...
...When your average Times-readers come upon a tabloid-style headline about "Catholics whose right to free speech is under attack," they naturally think of something involving the First Amendment and government power...
...Gene Sharp points out how techniques similar to those used so successfully in the Philippines can be employed not only to oust tyrants, but to dissuade potential attackers from abroad...
...The Caraballeda plan (named for the city in Venezuela where it was signed January 12) calls for negotiations: to remove all foreign military advisers...
...l l l O l , . l . . . - - - - I I ~t WalL~ 4v: "1-'111i', e m - . - ,6vav6v 9 - ' - " I I 'RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH' I I ~ll~l~ WORST, THE MOST corrupting lies," wrote Georges Bemanos, "a~ / problems poorly stated...
...On top of the "calculated ambiguity" of the first ad on pluralism and abortion, the second one heaped a new layer of confusion about Catholics' "right to free speech," a phrase which, we wrote, "covers everything from serious questions of academic freedom to much fuzzier issues of canceled lectures...
...And, "This means active resistance of evil by peaceful means -- in the manner Of Christ...
...Catholic dissent and free speech should be defended on grounds that are defensible...
...Then February 1986 will not have been just a remarkable interlude but, like Lent itself, a fertile plateau from which there is no turning back...
...The $27 million in nonlethal aid designated by Congress last year left most of the contras hovering demoralized in Honduras, still undisciplined and answerable to charges of torture made by Amnesty International...
...It should cause those outside South Africa to increase their pressure on the apartheid government...
...Why do we make these points...
...Secretary of State George Shultz welcomed those events aptly: "The new government has been produced by one of the most stirring and courageous examples of the democratic process in history...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S., $28...
...Is it as unspecified and subject to prolongation as it seems...
...Anne Robertson Poetry: Rosemary Deen Movies: Tom O'Brien Staff: Karen F. Silva, Harriette Balsky, Patricia Mazzola Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher: Edward S. Skillin Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly, except monthly Christmas-New Year's and July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...
...Why not...
...Certain starting points are helpful: the traditional principles of academic freedom...
...Shultz dismissed the proposal made to him in February by eight Latin American foreign ministers -- endorsed by thirteen Latin American nations, the European Economic Community, and Japan...
...Quite the contrary...
...All Canadian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S...
...This is a disservice because the crisis is real...
...Can the army order its generals to refrain from criticizing U.S...
...That is the coraztn, the heart of the matter...
...Such a problem is the question of free speech and responsible dissent in the Catholic church...
...The administration's argument is not without substance: the Sandinistas have moved closer toward the Soviets...
...suspend foreign military maneuvers...
...Within two weeks of that prayer, and inspired by a modem but nonviolent Joan of Arc, the Philippines' national conference of Catholic bishops called on the Filipino people to resist tyranny nonviolently...
...We are not going to effect the change we seek by doing nothing . . . . Now is the time to speak...
...POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Commonweal, 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...
...10016...
...And such a poorly stated version of that problem was the full-page advertisement that (finally) appeared in the New Fork Times on Sunday, March 2. "WE ~ OUR sot~rrY wrm ALL CA~OUCS WHOSE mGm" TO ~ SP~CH IS UNDER ATTACK," the ad declared in a three-inch-high headline...
...Twenty years after the Council, the Vatican is still acting on a top-down theory of church authority and ideological conformity...
...bank...
...the distinction between central beliefs or fundamental moral teachings and prudential judgments in the legal or policy orders...
...We do not pretend that these issues are easy to resolve...
...We may, alas, have plenty of practice...
...Pe~aps they are speaking of Cardinal Obando y Bravo, whose radio station has been regularly put off the air by the Sandinistas...
...HEART OF THE FLATTER February was again the shortest month...
...end support forguerrilla armies...
...Undoubtedly the many individuals who have signed that ad feel strongly about free speech and dissent -- most strongly, probably, about the heavy penalties threatened against nuns and the apparent readiness of some bishops to demand uniformity on the abortion question from Catholic political candidates...
...The theologian's right to dissent is meaningless without the church's right to proclaim...
...They fear the rampant militarization of Latin America and the encroaching intervention by both superpowers: the U.S...
...Single copy, $1.50...
...Or of Father Renato Hevia, the Jesuit editor of Mensaje in Santiago, arrested by Chile's Pinochet, threatened by death squads, and harrassed in his work by police censors...
...Telephone: (212) MU 3-2042...
...In a provocative new book (Making Europe Unconquerable: The Potential of Civilian-based Deterrence and Defense, Ballinger, paper $14.95, 250 pp...
...10016...
...They might, yes, be within their rights as citizens...
...The Philippines STILL THE GAUNTLET MRS...
...This sentence has the merit of limiting its reference to abortion (which is where, after all, this whole brouhaha began) specifically to/ega/abortion...
...It is the New York Times ad which underestimates that importance...
...But February 1986 will live long in our memory as one of those remarkable interludes that leaves us forever different...
...Especially, one might add, when those problems are real and pressing...
...army in the last three years -- but a whole lot more . . . . More...
...the time to repair the wrong...
...Finally, the accomplishments of the Philippines' bishops, speaking in concert for human rights, and unrestrained by the Vatican's mediating caution, should become a model for other such episcopal bodies...
...In each case, the reasonableness of the restriction on "free speech" depends on its relationship to the nature of the organization -- to the military's subordination to civilian control, for instance...
...So are we...
...Aquino for her commitment to nonviolence, which has earned the respect of all Americans...
...Special two-year rate: U.S., $49...
...and respect political pluralism and human rights...
...the need for consultation and subsidiarity in ecclesiastical decision making...
...The new government explicitly decreed that there be no" looting, vandalism, lynching, public humiliation or the like of any person for whatever reason...
...This is as it should be...
...involvement in Nicaragua...
...The case for theological and political pluralism in the church will certainly involve recognizing legitimate differences over abortion, but the case cannot become a mere appendage to the American abortion debate...
...But it offers not only the highest gains -- regional peace -- but requires the least monetary expenditure and toll of human life...
...Canada, $53...
...On racism...
...But the ad they have signed presents no case for free speech and dissent that is sustainable, not only by standards special to the Catholic church, but by standards pertinent to any organization...
...And when they learn that this "attack" is coming from "segments of the institutional Roman Catholic Church," they may well conjure up the Spanish Inquisition or the Syllabus of Errors...
...The army uses Soviet-made helicopters and other supplies, and depends heavily upon foreign military advisers, 7,500 of them from Cuba...
...This is an ad supporting the signers of a previous ad, and if its sponsors are at all lucky, it may just provoke enough controversy (and cash con~bmions) to justify a further ad . . . . Dear reader, you may be weary of this...
...A thought that no doubt crossed the minds of those who designed that headline: hit 'em where it hurts...
...Shultz listed in his talk to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, March 2, but his goals would only limit Nicaragua and its allies...
...But do the ad-signers really mean to suggest that Catholics conscientiously differing from official hierarchical positions on any controversial issues whatsoever would still be within their rights as Catholics...
...Diplomacy has its risks...
...respect the selfdetermination and territorial sovereignty of each country...
...And after Marcos had fled, the prescribed bloodbath of violent overthrows did not ensue, but rather a remarkable calm akin to the composure Mrs...
...Contents Volume CXIII, Number 5 Correspondence 130 Editorials 131 Still the gauntlet: Barry Hillenbrand 133 On naming the moon: David R. Carlin, Jr., 1'35 Rights, economics, & the Trinity: Michael J. Himes & Kenneth R. Himes 137 The White House goes condo: Nicolaus Mills 142 , i Fashioning the wanted child: Eileen P. Flynn 148 Screen: Tom O'Bnen 150 Books I Reinhold Niebuhr: Dennis P. McCann 151 The Collected Prose of Elizabeth Bishop: Margaret Wimsatt 153 A History of Architecture/ American Architecture Now II: Jamake Highwater 154 Collected Stories of Tennessee Williams: Robert Phillips 156 Theology for a Nuclear Age: Joan D. Chittister 156 Staff Editor: Peter Steinfels Assistant Editors: David Toolan, Karen Sue Smith, Patrick Jordan Production Editor...
...But the leaders of peoples and all men and women of good will must believe and act on the belief that the solution lies within the human heart...
...foreign policy without civilian clearance...
...Canada, $30...
...We should listen to their concerns...
...Perhaps we are overly pessimistic, but actions by Rome that would reprove dissent in even the most painstaking and faithful of theologians seem a distinct possibility...
...Over a year ago, misgivings were expressed here about the original advertsement, a "Statement on Pluralism and Abortion" that appeared in the Times at the height of the '84 presidential campaign...
...Likewise, the reply to authoritarianism cannot simply be "anything goes...
...It has, instead, everything to do with the conditions of belonging which any association may or may not properly ask of its adherents...
...But no...
...The Nicaraguan government has taken recent repressive measures against the Roman Catholic church (including closing its radio station) and against the press and the public -- by reinstating "emergency" powers...
Vol. 113 • March 1986 • No. 5
