Editorials
I I Contents III I II Volume CXIII, Number 8 Correspondence 226 Editorials 227 Attention & ambiguity: John Garvey 230 I HI Abortion & the sexual agenda: Sidney CaUahan 232 Vietnam's...
...How do we decide that such a policy is not working -- and step away from it...
...the public must view training as an ongoing, lifetime process...
...necessary because it discloses anew the saving care of God for every aspect of human life...
...And while liberation theologians will yet be tested, and rightly so, the setting which inspires their reflections is not likely to dissolve soon...
...No one in authority accepts responsibility...
...And it wouldn't be unreasonable if you suspected that the authors of this report were the U.S...
...But in "Freedom and Liberation," it is noted these base communities "are a source of great hope for the church...
...Freedom and Liberation" makes important and useful clarifications on class war and on liberation theology's special option for the poor...
...dislocated and displaced workers will need special (possibly federally subsidized) assistance...
...Terrorism today is protean...
...The document notes that "a theological reflection developed from a particular experience can constitute a very positive contribution to the church universal," and, as if responding to voices of concern raised following last year's special synod, devotes a brief but explicit section to the church as "the people of God...
...What might be the specific components of such a strategy aimed at countering these alarming ills...
...Staff: Karen F. Silva, Harriette Balsky, Patricia Mazzola Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher: Edward S. Skillin I Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330l A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly, except monthly Chrislmas-New Year's and July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, 232 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y...
...Yet for all that, the church today is being led -- not where it may have wanted -- but where it must go...
...Perhaps you have guessed by now that we are not speaking of an imaginary report but of a real one...
...duplication must be eliminated from public and private training institutions, and the overall efforts coordinated...
...Canada, $30...
...At the same time, it must be underlined once again that terrorism has truly become an international plague...
...It reaffirms in strong terms the priniciple of subsidiarity, and notes that while there is a variety of charisms in the church, all are accounted charisms of service...
...Appleyard 253 II Staff Editor...
...25 April 1986:229...
...It is not hard to imagine that the authors of such a report would call for "a new comprehensive strategy" to close the preparedness gap, a strategy based on the premise that "a skilled labor force is a basic requirement for economic growth and productivity" and is therefore a special concern of both business and government...
...That axiom applies not only to the theology of the third world, but to that of Rome as well...
...A wide consensus now exists in the West linking Libya -- but not Libya alone -- to such terrorism...
...Note South Africa, Haiti, Chile, the Philippines, South Korea...
...bombing of Libya...
...Its language is sexist...
...foreign policy and further erodes the remaining restraints against unilateral, military actions in the international system...
...And with "Freedom and Liberation," Rome no longer denies liberation theology its necessary place in the church's search for truth...
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...In fact, its 18,000 words consistentI), suffer the limitations of the ecclesial genre...
...What will be the impact of such a program on our domestic political life...
...Will such a program of military reponses to terrorism have to be consistently and constantly pursued, with the result that it dominates U.S...
...The papers are full of stories but contain little information, in fact, beyond what the president, the secretary of state, and the secretary of defense told the nation last night...
...The bishops, after all, have called for a national commitment to full employment...
...It exists on multiple levels, from independent revolutionary and religious sects to intricate state involvement...
...foreign, $59...
...We Americans are slow to anger," said the president...
...It ought to be, Not simply because it has raised a variety of questions in theological and political circles, but because it continues to wrestle with those brutal realities which choke a majority of this planet's people...
...It refers to the Jews as a people of the past...
...Special two-year rate: U.S., $49...
...Issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) some eighteen months after the congregation's widely discussed and negative "Instruction on Certain Aspects of the 'Theology of Liberation,' " the new document demonstrates a more developed and positive appreciation of liberation theology...
...It appears that whether one begins from the point of human dignity and the value of work to enhance that dignity, as the bishops do, or from the point of national productivity and growth, similar conclusions about policy can be reached to resolve the problems of tomorrow's labor market...
...As if echoing Peru's Gustavo Gutitrrez that "criticism will deepen and clarify liberation theology," the pope told the bishops it is the church's duty to update and deepen this theology which, "when purified of elements which can adulterate it, is not only orthodox, but also necessary...
...It relies on previous papal documents to validate its own conclusions...
...bank...
...To eradicate this disease -- or even severely limit it -- through the "silver l~ullet" of military actions is a program that, on the face of it at least, confronts grave obstacles: from the realpolitik considerations that have kept us from acting against a Soviet-backed Syria to the reverse-psychology effects that make a hero rather than an outcast of Qaddafi defying the colossus...
...governmental support for job creation targeted on the structurally unemployed...
...This acceptability implies and expects accountability...
...Single copy, $1.50...
...schools must teach basic literacy, communications, and problemsolving skills to prepare students for jobs...
...Can we realistically expect that governments subject to such attacks will be weakened rather than strengthened internally...
...But guess again...
...In past such crises, early information has proved to be, well, not exactly false but not the whole truth either...
...foreign, $33...
...One is even tempted to question the order of publication of the two very different instructions...
...To place confidence in a document rather than shoulder our responsibility would be the cruelest outcome...
...Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome but cannot be considered or returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope...
...This morning's New York Times has editorialized that "on the basis of early information even the most scrupulous citizen can only approve and applaud the American attacks on Libya...
...Secretary Shultz fudged on this question at the April 14 press conference...
...It will be important for us to calm, not indulge, that impulse as we go about dealing with this terrible and deep-seated problem of terrorism...
...Bonhoeffer wrote from prison, shortly before his death, that "we have learnt, rather too late, that action comes not through thought, but from a readiness for responsibility...
...It feels compelled to recount not only 25 April 1986:227the whole of salvation history, but to mention every evil in the modern lexicon...
...It accepts liberation theology as necessary: necessary because it responds to the real life and needs of people...
...With "Freedom and Liberation," liberation theology has gained a new legitimacy...
...Can such military actions actually cripple terrorist operations, i.e., by destroying weapons, training areas, and so on...
...Frankly, the lesson of history is that the most scrupulous citizen does well not to approve and applaud -- nor to condemn and denounce -- such a military attack "on the basis of early information...
...The report we have before us was not issued by religious leaders at all...
...expanded job training programs by both government and private sectors...
...Presumably our European allies were privy to the details -- and their reaction was mixed...
...This positive reckoning must not be gone back on...
...We do not have such confidence...
...Such groups as the base communities must remain in unity with the local and the universal church...
...Catholic bishops, or that it constitutes part of the final draft of the pastoral letter on the U.S...
...All Canadian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S...
...But that message can only be comprehended correctly when read in light of the more recent instruction...
...That was the message to be gained from the initial instruction eighteen months ago...
...A good theology welcomes the insights of other theologies...
...We wish, in fact, that he had said, "We Americans are historically vulnerable to self-righteousness...
...But it would have been better had the instruction urged unity not only on these communities, but on the part of the universal church as well...
...To read it the other way round would be foolhardy...
...transit systems must be ready to accommodate changing job centers...
...It is seldom concrete, let alone does it hazard a parable...
...But then one realizes the Holy Spirit might well have been at work...
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...All of this leaves us not with what the Times calls" the sober satisfaction of seeing justice done," but with a gnawing sense of unanswered questions...
...and the formation of local, state, and national coalitions for job creation strategies and expanded job placement services...
...Peter Steinfels Assistant Editors: David Toolan, Karen Sue Smith, Patrick Jordan Production Editor: Anne Robertson Poetry: Rosemary Deen Movies: Tom O'Brien Columnists: John Garvey, J. Bryan Hehir, Abigail McCarthy, David R. Carlin, Jr...
...Such a program also has its own serious burden of costs: material, political, and moral...
...Titled "Employment Policies: Looking to the Year 2000," it is the work of the National Alliance of Business, an independent, business-led, non-profit corporation...
...What is needed is a deeply prayerful continuation of the process of responsibility that has already begun...
...public/private partnerships are needed for adequate job creation...
...It condemns passivity in the face of poverty and injustice, and links unmistakably the salvific and ethical dimensions of the Gospel...
...child care for employees is a national concern that must be met...
...9 Meanwhile, a surge in the number of illegal immigrants is expected to toughen competition for entry-level jobs in particular...
...policy toward the Middle East and its several festering conflicts...
...The best construction on the American action, then, is that it has begun an anti-terrorism crusade with real teeth which, although initiated unilaterally like the British anti-slave trade crusade of the last century, might eventually gain such acceptance as simply to render terrorism something intolerable for states to be involved in...
...If someone disappears or is kidnapped, there is nowhere to seek redress...
...it is not a totally c/ear-cut phenomenon but fades by degrees into fomls of guerrilla warfare wher e targets are no longer bystanders or even enemy civilians but officials Commonweal: 228and military personnel...
...It says the latter, "manifests the universality of the church's being and mission" but warns that option can never be reduced to an ideological category which excludes anyone or any class, either from salvation or their God-given rights...
...It must be purified...
...We wish that were true...
...How does such a program relate to any overall U.S...
...9 The number of female-headed households and twoworkingparent families will increase.- augmenting the already pressing need for child care programs and flexible work schedules -- while the federal government continues to cut spending and shift the burden for job creation, training, and placement to business, states, and municipalities...
...I I LABOR PAINS Imagine that a group of religious leaders became concerned about the widening gap between the economy's need for skilled labor and the preparedness of tomorrow's labor pool...
...Only a short while ago, Mr...
...In the last analysis, it is the poor, not mere documents, who will continue to push the church forward...
...in the earlier "Aspects," Christian base communities, those indigenous groups which have sent a new, if sometimes unsettling, current of life into the church in the third world, were criticized for lacking discernment and "necessary catechetical and theological preparation...
...Canada, $53...
...In so doing they are genuine expressions of communion and instruction...
...It is their wisdom and experience that must provide the final, responsible word...
...That would have reassured us even as we search for answers to our questions...
...Last month in Rome, Pope John Paul II told the Brazilian bishops that liberation theology is "the red-hot question...
...Private employers must train their own workers...
...People are still persecuted for their ideas...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S., $28...
...welfare recipients must be trained for real jobs at standard wages...
...Suppose these leaders warned that unless action is taken quickly to remedy the situation, current trends suggest a dismal forecast for the year 2000...
...It reaffirms that most radical command: to love our neighbor, even our enemies and persecutors...
...It must be developed...
...It would be nice to have full confidence in both the accuracy of the administration's declarations and in the prudence with which it has evaluated matters that are more or less inevitably closed to the public...
...dollars by International Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...Finally, when all has been said, very little that is new has been brought forth from the storehouse...
...Such a development does not, unfortunately, appear to us as likely...
...The Times editorial, in the Libyan case, speaks of "the evidence, now laid out clearly, to the public" -- specifically, concerning the April 5 terrorist bombing of a West Berlin disco...
...This is not to say the new document comes on unbroken tablets...
...economy...
...In fact, it is the poor who "understand best and as it were instinctively.., the liberation accomplished by the death and resurrection of Christ...
...In all, the church has aligned itself with movements for social change...
...What then can we expect as a result of this more positive document on liberation theology...
...The document is simply too long...
...In so doing, it transforms CDF's stick into a more compelling carrot...
...And the reaction to liberation theologians will continue to be mixed -- in Pretoria and Santiago as well as in Rome...
...Telephone: (212) MU 3-2042...
...This is why Bishop Francois Gayot of Cape Haitien, Haiti, could say recently that when the church "has confined its role to announcing the Gospel without grasping the [everyday] reality, it affects no one...
...QADDAFI & QUESTIONS This issue of Commonweal goes to press less than twentyfour hours after the U.S...
...That evidence may eventually be "laid out clearly," but, for the moment, it has not been...
...job information, counseling, and testing is more vital than ever...
...RESPONSIBLE I III I III III I I W IHEN ASKED RECENTLY to describe the present human rights situation in Guatemala, Archbishop Prospero Penados del Barrio replied: "It is very bad . . . . There is no respect for the individual and no regard for human dignity...
...These actions have not and will not be welcome...
...I I Contents III I II Volume CXIII, Number 8 Correspondence 226 Editorials 227 Attention & ambiguity: John Garvey 230 I HI Abortion & the sexual agenda: Sidney CaUahan 232 Vietnam's American children: Joseph Cerquone 239 The force of Cardinal Lustiger: Steven Englund 242 Stage: Gerald Weales 248 I Books Ill Image as Insight: Nell Gifford-Martin 249 The Handmaid's Tale: Tom O' Brien 251 To Be a Revolutionary: J.A...
...I I I I "T, 7 . ' l l l l l l l 9 . I . - - . - - - - I I - . .' " 6 i 9 :II|llI -%" , . . . . - I l l l l "' i ~- m '69696VJ 9 " " " I I II NECESSARY ORTHODOX...
...All this was said as a prelude to the publication at Eastertide of the long-awaited "Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation...
...Disappearances continue...
...older, highly skilled employees will either seek retirement (leaving business without equally skilled replacements) or lateral moves which necessitate in-house retraining...
...9 Youth unemployment will grow, despite the decline in the number of teenagers...
...Reagan went on national television with a talk riddled with what Mark Twain called "stretchers" about the Sandinista government in Managua...
...Sound familiar...
...In some cases, it is motivated by suicidal fanaticism, in other cases by more or less "rational" grievances of the sort that have traditionally grounded warfare...
...At the other end of the spectrum, the workforce is aging...
...Is there perhaps an insecurity in saying everything without taking a breath...
...These religious leaders might underline facts like: 9 The number of high school dropouts and illiterate adults will increase while entry-level jobs will require skills in addition to those possessed by the average high school graduate...
...necessary because it redirects the church's preoccupation away from self...
...But never again can it be dismissed simply as a "theology of the fringe...
...Still, "Freedom and Liberation" marks an important achievement...
...Repeatedly it suggests a dichotomy between creation and the things of the spirit...
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Vol. 113 • April 1986 • No. 8
