Correspondence
FISHER, EUGENE J. & BRUNDAGE, JAMES A. & DELANEY, EDMUND T. & FASSLER, MARGOT E. & HEATH, DEBORAH M. & Powers, J. F.
Limping on Israel Washington, D.C. To the Editors: Carroll C. Estes's letter, on "Israel's Disgrace" [March 10], is itself, in my personal opinion, something of a disgrace. Certainly there is much...
...To the Editors: Father Philip Kaufman distinguishes between authority and autocracy as some of the Holy Father's advisors and critics evidently don't...
...That very capacity to adapt to changing circumstances has enabled Catholicism to survive over the centuries...
...J.F...
...JAMES A. BRUNDAGE History & hope Chester, Conn...
...Yet, time and again, extreme authoritarianism has ultimately led to weakening of the papal office, and an even greater loss of power and respect than was originally feared...
...Now, the word has come down to parish priests to begin to emphasize the (doctrine in their ministries, at a time when a recent study of low morale in the priesthood cites unrealistic pronouncements on human sexuality as a major cause for alienation between priests and laity...
...Today we have a more complete realization that the church encompasses more than just the hierarchy...
...They were contrived to shield the church from what nineteenth-century pontiffs perceived as the threats of liberalism and democracy...
...It is clear that the present pope is continuing the process of centralization and ignoring local authorities in the selection process...
...The closing decades of the second Christian millennium might be an opportune time to return to the ancient practice of episcopal election...
...EDMUND T. DELANEY What authority isn't Collegeville, Minn...
...Only men who completely share his cqncepts of orthodoxy will be chosen for the episcopate and the litmus test seems to be an unqualified adherence to Hu-manae vitae...
...Yet one deafening silence echoed throughout the article: Harris's support of abortion...
...Estes's analogy more than limps...
...These are dark days for those who had rejoiced when John XXIII threw open the windows...
...DEBORAH M. HEATHof oppression...
...The papacy need not be modeled in the image and likeness of a minor baroque despotism, nor is the pope's autocratic control over the selection of bishops either a necessary or even a particularly long-standing feature of the church's constitution...
...DEBORAH M. HEATH...
...Slowly the institutional church is reverting to the centralized control of Rome, developed under the four Piuses, IX, X, XI, and XII, when the word was Roma locuta, causa finita...
...The point was repeated only last month in the German theologians' protest "The Cologne Declaration" (also in the February 24 issue...
...But I wenty years later, and to a great extent lecause of Humanae vitae, dissent has >ecome a way of life for many American Catholics...
...In the United States, the consultative process established by the former apostolic delegate Jean Jadot, with such excellent results, has now been swept aside and authoritarianism has taken over...
...The clergy and the laity have the right to be heard and to have a part in the process by which their bishops are chosen...
...Certainly there is much room for criticism of Israeli policies on the West Bank on both moral and international legal grounds...
...Episcopal appointments are in effect now made by the papal nuncio, Pio Laghi...
...EUGENE J. FISHER Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations NCCB Jesus & the papacy Milwaukee, Wis...
...In my view, it is morally obscene and historically Vacuous...
...MARGOT E. FASSLER March 10...
...The papacy and the church's mechanisms for choosing bishops have changed numerous times, usually in response to changes in the secular world...
...To the Editors: Philip S. Kaufman's article ["Autocracy Isn'tthe Catholic Style," February 24] makes a point that deserves to be underscored: No responsible historian nowadays would maintain (at least not with a clear conscience and a straight face) mat the present model of church government was established by Jesus or die apostles...
...POWERS Threats to power New Haven, Conn...
...The pregnancy dyad presents us with two patients...
...Kaufman's timely book offers a history for beleaguered Catholics who dissent from a range of authoritative teachings, yet who want to remain within the church they love...
...The promulgation of Humanae vitae and the subsequent hard line on artificial birth control taken by John Paul II is a well-known case in point...
...And it is in times like these that such people are needed, in return, by the very church that seems to spurn them...
...Failure to do so represents one more face of oppression...
...The election of bishops by the clergy and people of their dioceses is a far more venerable and authentic Catholic tradition than the present procedure...
...For centuries, popes have acted the most autocratically when they felt the most threatened...
...But to accuse Israel of "hideous practices.of genocidal destruction" betrays both an ignorance of the events of the Shoah and a willingness to allow one's rhetoric unbridled license...
...Certainly Paul VI went against the recommendations of his own birth control commission because he feared that change would cause faithful Catholics to quest Ion the authority of the magisterium...
...Our inclusive community must embrace both mother and unborn child...
...and Remain a Faithful Catholic [February 24] points to the self-defeating nature of attempts to consolidate papal power...
...To the Editors: Your excerpt from Philip Kaufman's Why You Can Disagree...
...These patterns of church government, far from being venerable traditions, are relatively recent innovations...
...The result may well be strict adherence by some but a loss of credibility by more...
...It is high time that the so-called "magisterium," which considers itself to be infallible, should be confronted with a little history...
...Let us hope, however, that the Catho- . lies of today will not be as docile as those who in the years before Vatican II either would not or could not speak up...
...TotheEditors:" Autocracy Isn'tthe Catholic Style" [February 24] brings out important historical facts which have either been forgotten or, more probably, never known by many Catholics, both clerical and lay...
...In those days instead of protesting, they just left the church...
...Priests and laity have protested the lack of consultation in the early years of this decade in the Netherlands and more recently in Spain, Austria, Germany, the United States, and, believe it or not, even in Ireland...
Vol. 116 • May 1986 • No. 10
