Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Theology for laity Littleton, Colo. To the Editors: Your editorial ["Lecturing (Sigh!) the Laity," March 10] captured in lucid prose and apt metaphor the essence of the latest...
...His objection is one the editorial anticipated...
...For example, there is the recognition of the power of small communities of faith within the parish...
...There can be no denying the legacy of the bath houses and casual pick-ups, especially with the specter of AIDS...
...Karl Lehmann, Mainz: The undersigned members of the Society of Catholic Women and Men in Freibourg, regard developments in our church with great concern...
...To face repeatedly the same arguments and assumptions from one of O'Donohoe's qualifications is terribly disheartening...
...The school could either seek recognition as "a full-fledged American university" or continue to put a higher value on its "special relationship with the Holy See...
...THE EDITORS Lament from Germany Rochester, N.Y...
...I read John Paul II admitting UHhe loss of a meaningful Christian character in the contemporary world...
...The dispute over the nomination of the archbishop of Cologne is the occasion for our writing this letter...
...Robert Imbelli is not only a long-time friend of Commonweal but a valued contributor to its pages...
...After the comment by Congar, the subsequent failure of the church "to move ahead from there" is both painful and pathetic...
...Any ideas...
...189-90), Judge Weisberg wrote that Catholic University "had to wrestle with its own ambivalence" in making the choice it faced in the late 1960s...
...The full text of the opinion and order of the court appears in Origins, Vol...
...Granted too, its occasional quaint phraseology can get in the way...
...The language was different, but the ideas the same...
...To the Editors: Your editorials in the 10 February issue, "Gottwald's Cap" and "Gone with the Wind," were trenchant in their critique of our collective "airbrush-ing of history...
...We observe that there is a [similar] systematic policy...in Holland, Austria, and Switzerland...
...WILLIAM J. BYRON, S.J...
...His specific criticism of McNeill's assumptions, while personally distasteful, seems to be correct in the hair-splitting vocabulary of moral theology...
...To the Editors: I really must take issue with James O'Donohoe's review of the work of John J. McNeill ["Pilgrims of Conscience," February 10...
...Church leaders will count the cost when it is too late...
...We ask you and all of the German bishops to work together so that the way opened by the council will not be closed...
...Before returning to Germany, Dr...
...Now, having both won its case and shown its loyalty to the Holy See, the university wants to amend the record...
...ANONYMOUS Clear & committed New York, N.Y...
...His reference to homosexual promiscuity "...which studies show to be more prevalent than fidelity among members of the gay community...
...What we presently have is more like an analysis of "space" as in where do we fit...
...One wonders...and hopes that the void may bear the configuration of ar\ empty tomb...
...Remmar gave me a copy with the request that I send it to the "best" Catholic journal in the U.S...
...His quotation of Richard McCormick is further disturbing with its call to "norms...which invite to a better humanity...
...They appear to hope that by denying long enough and loud enough what the university did and said, they will somehow make their minimizing interpretation become the reality, and thereby make the harm done to academic freedom at CU disappear...
...271) more benignly suggests...
...May I, in turn, wax sententious...
...If, indeed, our reading can be labeled predictably liberal, perhaps it is the case that even predictable liberalism still has something to say to the church...
...ROBERT IMBELLI The editors reply: Commonweal's editorial neither misquoted Judge Weisberg-the impression conveyed by William Byron-nor misinterpreted him, as Mary Collins (p...
...the Laity," March 10] captured in lucid prose and apt metaphor the essence of the latest papal pronouncement on us, the laity (Christifideles laid...
...No doubt, the university would take years and volumes to provide a "complete" definition of the church...
...Thank you for helping us reestablish these crucial dichotomies...
...In particular, his statement that McNeill fails "to articulate his pastoral approach sufficiently within the context of the traditional Christian understanding of the human person and the nature and purpose of human sexuality that have been historically developed by the church and staunchly defended by the Second Vatican Council" must be addressed...
...New Haven, Conn...
...Ergo...
...Perhaps "the university wanted it both ways," the judge added, and on most issues that was possible...
...But the one we cited is the one it provided to the court in its "Findings of Fact"-and, as our editorial noted, the one hammered home throughout the trial...
...All of the above were recommended by -the NCCB delegates to the synod...
...President Byron protests that only "bias" would make us quote the description that Catholic University provided the court as the school's "complete" understanding of the church...
...There is a reaching out toyouth, an invitation to intergenerational dialogue...
...While no one can dispute the accuracy of the legal language, no fair observer would even consider offering the excerpt Commonweal quoted as a complete statement representing CUA's understanding of the church...
...For myself what is lamentable about the issue, dated at the midpoint of the paschal triduum, is the absence of any reference to the central mystery of orthodox Christian faith...
...MICHAEL P. CONLEY Gay fidelity Washington, D.C...
...To the Editors: Just a note to thank you very much for the directness of your two editorials: "Gottwald's Cap" and "Gone with the Wind" [February 10...
...A greater challenge is how to bring the overriding theme of Christifideles laid, namely the re-evangelization of society, onto the pastoral agenda of the local churches...
...The Church and the Homosexual, in particular, is carefully footnoted and its arguments are presented within the context of historical scripture studies...
...President The Catholic University of America The missing mystery Newton Centre, Mass...
...I am, however, a homosexual and am troubled by an underlying conclusion that O'Donohoe implies: that the homosexual is somehow a lesser person...
...To the Editors: Granted, Christifideles laid is lengthy ["Lecturing (Sigh...
...The closest this reader could espy was the title of Nicholas Lash's book, Easter in Ordinary, splendidly reviewed by Michael Himes...
...yet, O'Donohoe suggests a deficiency in.the capacity of gays to be faithful, as if their natural disposition is one of instability and promiscuity...
...What's needed, I submit, is the approach of "time," which would result in a description of our activity which can transform the world (acknowledged in the papal document) and the church (unmentioned...
...40 (March 16, 1989...
...Shallow criticism New York, N.Y...
...A good number of Catholic University's officials and supporters are primarily engaged in damage control...
...The events are a disappointment for many Christians because they expected...
...I was unaware of this...
...We protest the ugly manipulation of the selection...by changing the modus operandi while the process was underway...
...Christifideles laid affirms pastoral councils (parish and diocesan) as well as diocesan synods, and episcopal conferences are urged to find ways of consulting and collaborating with the laity...
...I'm impressed by the clarity of Commonweal's commitment and immensely grateful for it...
...We had hoped that the development...of a centralized and absolutist regimen of the church, dating from the beginning of modern times, could be reversed...
...In sum, at least when it came to academic freedom in the area of theology- and our editorial carried this specification in its next sentence-Catholic University had stopped short of deciding to be "a full-fledged American university...
...The entire point of The Church and the Homosexual is that new approaches to understanding and meeting the needs of Catholic lesbians and gay men are required because the church has not dealt honestly with this issue in the past...
...Again, the American bishops said as much...
...I also hear him addressing the laity as those who can alter this situation...
...As active and engaged members of the church, we have experienced the consequences of papal measures that abandon...
...I would suggest that O'Donohoe examine the statistics on divorce, which do little to affirm a greater fidelity among heterosexuals...
...statements of Vatican II, which [had given] us air to breathe in our church, and which we need in order to develop our convictions freely: ...the discrimination against women, the refusal to laicize priests, the uncompromising position on Humanae vitae, the prohibition of lay preaching during the eucharistic celebration...
...Have the editors, like the selected poet of "Hubris in March," chosen "void over Word...
...It is incumbent upon the church and Catholic educators to study this issue from points of view outside of traditional tenets...
...That is "Lash" and not "Lasch" as your cover mistakenly headlined...
...It may even be the case that the underlying conflict can be papered over repeatedly...
...In the Currah case, however, the conflict was unayoid-able, and the university had never so clearly decided for the first option that faculty members could assume their contracts honored academic freedom over "unwavering fealty to the Holy See...
...Participation is underscored as a value...
...Upon reflection we note that Commonweal has closely followed the Curran case not out of a prurient interest in any struggle with authority, but in recognition that the conflict between CU and Charles Curran was a benchmark in the way in which the post-Vatican II church might respond to legitimate disagreement within its body...
...Both of McNeill's books are well-written and well-reasoned...
...The following letter to the president of the German Bishops' Conference was signed by members of their group...
...The pre-synod consultation in the United States sparked thoughtful reflection and imaginative dialogue all over this country...
...But there is so much more...
...I yearn for nourishment of faith...
...Even more lamentable is the contempt shown for the local church, which is supposed to have been particu-(Continued on page 284) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 258) larly strengthened according to the teachings of Vatican II...
...To argue that McNeill's pastoral approach fails to convince O'Donohoe because it moves outside of traditional teaching really begs the question...
...DAVID M. THOMAS Holy Smoke Washington, D.C...
...I expect more from Commonweal than incisive institutional critique...
...18, No...
...Does a "better humanity" include a world made safe from these promiscuous creatures, restrained by an "...apparently(I) severe disciplinary church teaching" or one in which those who genuinely seek God are able to do so in expectation of honoring their true selves, hopeful of becoming more loving and compassionate people...
...I also love the church and all that it stands for, but I find it increasingly agonizing to realize how unwelcome I am in it...
...Can it ignite our collective will to provide necessary resources for spiritual and religious formation so essential for re-evangelization...
...Instead of attempting to read Judge Weisberg's mind, the editors should have opened their own minds to an unbiased reading of his opinion in Curran v. CUA...
...is well taken...
...The laity's mission in the work place and in civic communities is held up...
...The judge invited lawyers for both the plaintiff and the defendant to file post-trial "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law...
...P. DAVID FINKS Downtown Community Forum To Bishop Dr...
...DOLORES R. LECKEY Secretariat on Laity & Family Life National Conference of Catholic Bishops The editors reply: If the synod on the laity in Rome had been organized by Dolores Leckey, who organized the pre-ynodal consultation in the U.S., it too would have "sparked thoughtful reflection and imaginative dialogue...
...THE EDITORS...
...Your lead editorial on the "Curran Case" is a sharply written, but predictably "liberal" reading of the issues involved, culminating in the somewhat sententious: "What is lamentable about the Curran case is not that the university sacrificed the good of Father Curran out of its concern for orthodoxy but that it sacrificed the good of orthodoxy out of its concern over Father Curran...
...We do not doubt that the pope is acting according to his deepest convictions, but we are convinced that our church will suffer serious damage as a result of these procedures...
...I don't know anyone else who is writing on issues surrounding the lesbian and gay Catholic person from perspectives outside of "traditional Christian understanding...
...Nowhere does Judge Weisberg's written decision state, as your editorial has him say, that "Catholic University has never decided to be 'a full-fledged American university.'" Nor are the premises there in the decision for you to say, "hence his refusal" and "hence his observation," on the way to your own editorial conclusions...
...Though they have been raised by parents who are convinced Christians and have grown up in homes with strong Christian values, which they have learned to appreciate, our children and grandchildren are leaving the institutional church...
...To the Editors: James O'Donohoe's review of John McNeill's two books, The Church and the Homosexual, and Taking a Chance on God, [February 10] startled me because his criticism was so shallow...
...He and his wife, now in . their seventies, have been members and supporters of a German Catholic youth movement that has some 10,000 members...
...Nothing short of bias can explain Commonweal's selectively quoting from the document prepared by the defendant's lawyer, in its editorial quest for "Catholic University's definition of the church...
...Careful readers can draw their own conclusions...
...The challenge is how to get these ideas, now bolstered by the papal exhortation, into the main stream of church life...
...They also anticipated that the curia would be confined to the role which is appropriate for that office...
...I hope we can, because if the world experiences a tad more of Gospel-inspired transformation, think what might happen to the church...
...Can Christifideles laid keep those reflective fires burning...
...It seems that such stylizing of reality, as you perceptively illustrate, has been in vogue particularly during the Reagan years, when appearance and reality, style and substance, have been collapsed in mainstream political discourse...
...But, each time, the intellectual losses to the church will grow deeper and more permanent...
...If Christ be not risen, our preaching is vain...not to mention our polemics...
...It was the operative definition, the one that governed policy choices...
...Commonweal can help both Catholic theology and Catholic higher education in the months and years ahead by fostering awareness of "the principles of correction and development as well as continuity," of which your editorial speaks...
...To the Editors: Commonweal's editorial "Verdicts Yet to Come" [March 24] distorts the record and is quite unfair to The Catholic University of America...
...How can we pass on to them Christian belief and an appreciation of the church if instead of fraternity and charity, power is exercised, if instead of love and tolerance, the opinions of others are ignored...
...STEPHEN B. SCHARPER Distorted & unfair Washington, D.C...
...I am not a moral theologian so I am unqualified to debate the finer points he raises...
...To the Editors: As an appreciative reader and long-time friend of Commonweal, I confess to some dismay on reading your March 24 issue...
...But the editorial itself missed a good opportunity to take a step in that direction...
...There is a call to close the gap between theory and practice regarding the equality of women: search canon law and become aware of how much is already possible, says the pope...
...Perhaps the administration will be able to make its view prevail...
...What do we really need as an adequate theology of the laity...
...I can assure O'Donohoe that nothing would bring this homosexual greater joy than the opportunity to enter into faithful relationship in which my commitment to another man was not only riveted, but strengthened, by a joint commitment to God...
...What exactly would these be...
...I hope so...
...I found little of the latter in your March 24 issue...
...For that reason alone, McNeill's books deserve to be studied by anyone interested in this issue...
...In the relevant passage of his decision (Commonweal, March 24, pp...
...Herbert Remmar, a visiting professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center (and a visitor to our parish during his stay) is very concerned about Rome's interference in, the episcopal selection process in Germany ["The Cologne Declaration," February 24, 1989...
...the church, according to its apostolic tradition, to be directed by a college of bishops, presided over by the pope...
...THE EDITORS even predictable liberalism still has something to say to the church...
...To the Editors: Dr...
...That someone with his moderate views and normally temperr ate expression should be dismayed at our reading of the Curran case gave us pause...
...COLIN GREER The New World Foundation Mirror, mirror...
Vol. 116 • May 1989 • No. 9
