Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Madeline & Ernie Park Ridge, Ill. To the Editors: In Madeline's reflections about life with Ernie ["Madeline & Ernie," September 23], Ms. Marget made a perceptive insight: "[Jews...
...The one to be pitied is the brute who operated the gas chambers...
...Do we really feel that we have unlimited material resources and defects can always just be thrown away...
...The Jew, in rejecting Christ, is ever conscious of the injury inflicted by the followers of the Jew Christians revere and who died on the cross to redeem all...
...Even now we find ourselves unable to talk intelligently about these issues in a public way in the church...
...To the Editors: I want to raise a question about your editorial "A Better Course" [September 23...
...JOE GOSSE Correction: The word "without" was mistakenly omitted from M. Cathleen Kaveny's letter to the editor [October 21] regarding Eric Jorstad's article on religion in public schools...
...Indeed, it's hard to see how the new arrangement significantly reduces the supposed "tension...
...Outside the pale...
...The problem is their desire to be honest about it...
...Would I, like Elie Wiesel, have held God accountable...
...If we took surveys of the leaders of national organizations of lay Catholics concerning their views on artificial contraception, we would probably have the same sort of problem on our hands...
...You apparently do make this demand, or at least require his silence...
...Forgiveness is not easy to one who knows history and must constantly be reminded that history often repeats itself...
...This took some courage, some faith...
...It was in this context that some honest men and women founded Dignity several years ago...
...The first sentence in paragraph four should have read: "In contrast to Justice Berger, Jorstad tends to depict religious belief as a matter about which one's head can reason, without influencing the sentiments, habits, and attitudes of one's heart...
...ROBERT J. EGAN, S.J...
...For if there is a compassionate God, the victims of the Holocaust now rest in the bosom of God who chose them for a special destiny...
...Local chapters of Dignity have created opportunities for theological education, counseling and spiritual direction, involvement in ministry, and involvement in projects concerning issues of social justice...
...For centuries the church's practice and teaching concerning homosexuality have, to a very considerable extent, been based on ignorance, prejudice, hypocrisy, and contempt...
...As one of the GIs who was in Buchen-wald three days after the death camps were liberated, I have often wondered how I would have handled not only the anger but the anxiety had I been Jewish...
...EDWARD F. HALPIN Church & Dignity San Francisco, Calif...
...PAUL GIURLANDA Successful cooperation Allentown, Pa...
...It has been the main institution providing them an intelligent ministry and it has attracted large numbers of people who care deeply about their faith...
...It's becoming the "Solidarity" of American Catholic gay people...
...Creativity on an auto line-that is a challenge...
...The Catholic shares a belief in everything the Jew believes concerning Scripture...
...Should all those who have thus publicly dissented from non-infallible Roman Catholic doctrine-divorced [and remarried] Catholics, users of birth control-be similarly denied access to the Eucharist...
...To the Editors: Your position on the Dignity case in Chicago, in which the cardinal refused to allow Dignity to continue sponsoring its weekly liturgy, is surprising and wrongheaded ["A Better Course,'' September 23...
...It's made up of real men and women in dozens of different cities...
...Eighty-five percent of the plant's old work force was rehired-no one was employed with the plant sitting idle...
...A marriage which bonds Jew and Catholic offers an unusual challenge...
...The church is itself responsible for much of the widespread hatred of gay and lesbian people in Western societies and for most of the rationales that excuse violence against them...
...In 1983, Toyota and GM, in conjunction with the UAW, reached agreement on the establishment of a new joint venture, the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc...
...THE EDITORS...
...I refer in particular to the article, Wentzville Strikes Out [September 9...
...Your strange claim that "the welcome mat [is] firmly in place" should more honestly read: "Accept the church's teaching or at least shut up...
...And would we, then, have to turn them out of our buildings...
...It's hard to ignore this, but shouldn't something be said about it...
...Dignity is a national organization...
...Why shouldn't a worker on the line feel pride about a correction that she/he sees for a product that an engineer simply cannot envision...
...In most cities Dignity was the first and remains the only organization of gay and lesbian Catholics...
...I do think successes can also be studied and the idea of a philosophy of quality is vital...
...But your editorial ignores another issue which is also relevant and needs to be addressed...
...To the Editors: The anatomy of a failure can lay a solid groundwork for the type of building that should be going on...
...In many cities its liturgies are well known for their quality and spirit...
...Downs did a good inside job of explaining what went wrong and what should go wrong if quality and worker empowerment are not understood properly and effectively...
...Why do even moderates now have to ban this organization...
...The long-term policies developed fostered stable, cooperative relationships between labor and management, suppliers and the community...
...There must be an eternity...
...This vague observation may be true, but it doesn't lead you to conclude that all such Masses, including those at convents or at ethnic churches, should be immediately discontinued...
...Its leaders and its members probably hold views on the subject of sexual morality that are well within the mainstream of current Catholic discussion...
...I don't think GM and Toyota have solved the world's problem with quality...
...The real reason comes later: "the increasingly critical stance on the part of Dignity's national leaders toward the church's teaching on homosexual practice...
...Commonweal owes it to all of us, whether heterosexual or homosexual, to state clearly whether it truly does regard Dignity's bare affirmation of a right to a responsible sexual life for gay people as putting it outside the pale of Catholic discourse and liturgy...
...And I agree that the kind of solution sought in Chicago (and Seattle) is preferable to the sort of thing that happened in New York...
...For years now it's grown and flourished throughout the country...
...Marget made a perceptive insight: "[Jews carry] a fear of annihilation and a conscious pride in having survived the centuries with dignity and humanity...
...What would be wrong with a maintenance man noticing a pattern of waste that seems excessive and identifying its source...
...Should we really say this to a person with AIDS who wants to worship God with his lover...
...Apparently, Dignity's claim that a (Continued on page 638) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 610) gay or lesbian person can exercise his or her sexuality in a way consonant with Christ's teachings represents intolerable dissent...
...Oakland, Calif...
...You argue that ' 'there is a tension inherent in all interest-group Masses...
...But if there is a merciful and just God, there is only one logical conclusion...
...Does Christ really demand that a dying man tear himself from the arms that hold him through the terrifying night...
...I agree that there is a tension inherent in all interest-group Masses...
...Isn't there, somewhere, also a question of justice here...
...Don't these people deserve our gratitude and respect...
Vol. 115 • November 1988 • No. 20
