Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Quinn's sins Washington, D.C. To the Editors: In your issue of May 4 you published a series of articles relating to the legal and ethical predicament of Nancy Cruzan. One article...
...As the executive director of Camp Fire, Inc., a national organization serving over 500,000 children, observed at the same hearing at which Mr...
...Note in particular the language of Attorney Chopko's penultimate paragraph, where he describes "the legal result sought in this case...
...Nancy Cruzan's capacity for living a human life has been destroyed (not merely impaired...
...foreign, $67...
...GREGORY A. LOKEN Dated, disproved New York, N.Y...
...Senate Caucus on the Family later republished in Representative American Speeches in which he described the "disintegration of families and the environments in which they once prospered" and urged substantial welfare and tax reforms to address their plight...
...For the Redmonds to characterize Covenant House as ineffectual is contrary to my experience, and contrary to the experience of the kids it has served...
...To the Editors: It is a sad state of affairs when the bloodlust for a fallen hero extends to the point that Commonweal seeks out disillusioned former volunteers to vent their political agendas, with self-righteous disregard for the truth, in "The Paradoxes of Covenant House...
...Copyright © 1990 Commonweal Foundation...
...We are left to ponder the best meaning of loyalty in the tragic situation that exists for Bruce Ritter and the inspired program he created...
...In cases of the removal of food and water, the brief offers the common On June 25 the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in the case of Nancy Cruzan, the subject of the accompanying exchange...
...These groups describe the effectiveness of and unmet demand for federally supported efforts to mitigate child abuse, assist medically frail and emotionally disturbed children, provide counseling and support to troubled families, expand Head Start and day care programs for young children and programs to keep teenagers in school, and to increase job training opportunities and the supply of affordable housing...
...Therefore, this is not a case about stopping bodily intrusions or ceasing medical treatment...
...James Kennedy, director of Covenant House Youth Services, is one of the nation's leading authorities on HIV infections among underclass adolescents, and one of the strongest proponents for national action...
...To the Editors: No "objective" coverage of the Covenant House scandal could possibly have explained as much as the "subjective" coverage Commonweal has offered by finding a sympathetic pair of Covenant House insiders and letting them speak at length on their own...
...Cruzan's eastrostomy tube...
...Therefore, even under Attorney Quinn's analysis, this case does not present the issues he postulates...
...For more than two decades, Father Ritter championed the cause of America's street kids like no other advocate...
...Continued on page 426) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 402) To understand our brief, one must understand the legal result that is sought in this case...
...Covenant House played a key role in passage of the Child Protection Act of 1984, as well as other federal laws that drastically reduced the market for "kiddie porn" in this country...
...Do we fail to live up to this high ideal...
...it embraced them...
...During the last decade I have testified before congressional committees and published articles supporting legislative change in virtually every area crucial to street youth urging, e.g., major welfare reform, massive educational assistance for at-risk youth, broad substance-abuse prevention and treatment efforts, stronger state laws on child prostitution, street-violence prevention efforts, and long-term programs for older homeless youth...
...We filed briefs in the U.S...
...The institution did not, as is suggested, abandon these basic values...
...One article ["The bishops misstep," by Kevin Quinn, S.J.] was harshly critical of the brief filed by the United States Catholic Conference [USCC], on which I was counsel of record...
...Senate subcommittee during which I presented lengthy testimony supporting far greater federal efforts against child abuse...
...Instead of implicitly conflating the interests of fetal life with the radically different interests of PVS patients, they could have argued for a decision reflecting the circumstances of this case, recognizing the rights and interests of all concerned (including the state's interest in protecting life), and requiring state regulation of the procedures to be followed in cases raising the possibility of a decision to terminate treatment...
...I, too, came to the faith community as a naive young crusader in 1981, but stayed on to work at bettering Covenant House, instead of writing it off because it wasn't perfect...
...Alone among organizations serving children, we entered all the landmark cases before the U.S...
...Therefore this case does not present a question of "allowfing] her to die naturally...
...Regrettably, you failed...
...What, then, were their reasons...
...By a 5-4 majority, the Court upheld the right of the state of Missouri to require continuation of artificially supplied nutrition and hydration of a patient in a permanent vegetative state, absent "clear and convincing evidence" that the patient, while she was still able to do so, had expressed an intent to decline such treatment...
...Now with the revelations of serious misconduct I feel as though a significant part of my life history is being rewritten and I have no control over that process...
...BERNARD j. MURRAY The authors reply: In writing our piece we followed a simple rule: discuss only facts and circumstances of which we had direct personal knowledge in describing the workings of Covenant House, and acknowledge only those disclosures and charges which have been widely documented in the press since December and to which the agency has failed to make an effective or reassuring response...
...In that address, as in countless other writings and speeches, Father Ritter urged national action against child abuse, home-lessness, poverty, and social decay...
...This is hardly an absolutist position...
...Covenant House, because of its influence under the leadership of Father Ritter, could have been a powerful force for justice...
...It is particularly ironic that James Harnett offers protest, as he has been prominent in acknowledging in the press, albeit reluctantly, the dubious financial and management practices of which we wrote...
...Supreme Court during the 1980s that established the right of states to prohibit child pornography: Ferber (1982), Oakes (1989), and Osborne (1990...
...She served on the board of directors of the faith community in 1982-3, was senior staff attorney from 1982-6, and founded the Covenant House street outreach vans...
...I plead guilty to fighting for more shelters for street kids...
...If the Court reaches the result urged by Nancy Cruzan's parents, it will adopt a fundamental privacy interest so rigid that it will resist any consideration to the contrary...
...In addition, her guardians do not seek permission for "the removal of Ms...
...The USCC endeavored to do what any amicus curiae is supposed to do, i.e., be helpful to the Court...
...I worked at Covenant House as a member of the Covenant House Community and a paid staff member from 1979 through 1985, and witnessed its growth as ahaven for troubled youths...
...Paul a. gualano Bloodlusl & bias Hollywood, Calif...
...Given the state of the ethical question, it was not incumbent upon the bishops to insist that her treatment be continued...
...Single copy, $1.50...
...With respect to these matters, we are not the ones accusing Covenant House: the reports and charges are the subject of ongoing investigations by the New York State Attorney General and others...
...Because from 1982 until recently I was executive director of the Institute for Youth Advocacy at Covenant House, I must take at least partial responsibility for what the Redmonds characterize as failures in this area...
...Her parents are not arguing in their own name in an effort to vindicate their own constitutional rights and interests...
...Candid, compelling Baltimore, Md...
...The tube would stay in and would be used for the administration of just enough fluids and anticonvulsion medicines to reduce seizures while she slowly dies...
...The analysis provided by the Redmonds is of value to all agencies and ministries...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...And in the one area covered by their article of which I have direct personal knowledge the advocacy efforts of Covenant House on behalf of homeless and runaway kids I know that their contentions are uniformly distorted and more often than not wholly false...
...The author replies: Mark Chopko criticizes me for not doing what I had no intention of doing, namely, of writing a legal brief responding to the one he filed on behalf of the U.S.C.C...
...Author's query Great Neck, N.Y...
...How easy it is to tear someone down...
...And for Commonweal to publish such a piece without either meticulous fact-checking or a side-by-side response is, quite simply, a disgrace...
...I admit as well that we fought child pornography...
...Others in Covenant House were equally forceful in confronting the cruel realities facing street kids...
...Supreme Court supporting federal efforts to prevent teenage pregnancy (1988) and opposing abortion on demand (1989...
...This growth was not the result of a "misguided preference for large-scale operations and publicity over less glamorous alternatives...
...To Anne Donahue's bizarre claim that Bruce Ritter and Covenant House were undermined by some "Macchiarolian" plot, we suggest that the circumstances of Mr...
...The criticisms are more sincere and more fully informed...
...The hopes of Commonweal and the Redmonds that Covenant House will now become a better place are shallow and misguided...
...But whether the tube is removed or left in place does not remotely touch upon the central question: whether this equipment should be used to supply nourishment...
...That Covenant House has provided important services in a compelling way, particularly through its policy of "Open Intake" (Gualano) "[its] doors were always open to young people in need" (Redmond) was one half of the paradox described in the article...
...their comments, written prior to the Court's announcement, are published without change...
...In reviewing the development of the privacy doctrine from its jurisprudential origins in the nineteenth century through important constitutional law developments in the early part of this century, the Conference argued that such an interest is not encompassed within what had been historically understood as the realm of personal privacy beyond the reach of the state...
...bank...
...On the legal question, Attorney Quinn does not address the central theme of the brief: whether the U. S. Constitution guarantees, under the rubric of fundamental personal privacy, a liberty to end one's life...
...Loken testified in 1983: "It is ridiculous to assume that private support can fill the gap left by an elimination of public support...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...JAMES J. HARNETT The writer is executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Covenant House...
...and, in my view, they would have been more persuasive...
...The Redmonds and Commonweal have suggested that Covenant House take advantage of Father Ritter's forced resignation as an opportunity for righting its course...
...It was not the amalgamation of absolutes and fears offered by Kevin Quinn to your readers...
...They have left that task to others and Commonweal is to be commended for being really the first to focus light on the situation, which Frank Macchiarola wanted to do back in January...
...Serials Data program No.: ISSN 0010-3330...
...And they keep coming, voting with their feet as to how crucial Covenant House is to them...
...As the Redmonds state, perhaps the greatest failure of Bruce Ritter and Covenant House was the unwillingness to challenge the systems that cause young people to be trapped in homelessness...
...The Redmonds' impressions are dated...
...My intent was, rather, to ask why (as opposed to how) the bishops argue as they do...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster, Ohio 44691...
...Ultimately, that is a legacy more valuable than all the hindsight in the world...
...What seems to have escaped many of these writers is that our very purpose in reflecting on the paradoxical nature of Covenant House was to acknowledge the many extraordinary aspects of the agency amidst its difficulties...
...The rest of Counsel Chopko's letter his lecture on the constitutional aspects of the case confirms my belief that the bishops adopted the position taken in their brief not on the merits of the case at hand but out of a fear that the Supreme Court's decision in Cruzan v. Hanson might solidify or extend the exaggerated and unbalanced emphasis on privacy rights contained in (or read into) its Roe v.Wade decision...
...The address is 50-10 Concord Avenue, Great Neck, N.Y., 11020...
...In future applications, such a rule would dictate that the choices of one person should be given primacy over the views of other family members, the medical community, other persons in relationships with that person, and other interests, including the interest in life...
...Not only did Covenant House fail to support the legislation as advocates for New York's homeless argued the case all the way to the state's highest court, but it was actually a plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the moratorium...
...Canada, $34...
...In his response, General Counsel Chopko appears to be contending that the question need not be asked...
...MURRAY POLNER CORRESPOHDENCE PARADOXES OF COVENANT HOUSE Focused & convincing Pasadena, Calif...
...The public record, as Mr...
...THE EDITORS sense view that there should be a presumption favoring such basic means for human life...
...Thus the undefined charges made by some writers of: "numerous inaccuracies and misrepresentations" (Harnett), "instances of disregard for the truth" (Donahue), "(dis)loyalty to the truth" (Loken), and "well-crafted distortion" (Gualano) appear more the product of wishful thinking on the part of some supporters of Father Bruce Ritter than substantive complaints...
...They know they will find at Covenant House caring, dedicated, and capable volunteers and staff who want to help them turn their lives around...
...This article has painted a picture of Father Ritter and Covenant House full of evil intent and effect...
...Thus, on a difficult personal and painful question, which admits of a debatable answer, we concluded that the better public policy view, and indeed the better constitutional view, was to argue against the precise jurisprudential result urged by Nancy Cruzan's parents...
...But the surest indication that our best efforts are on track are the thousands of young men and women who continue to come to us throughout this crisis...
...Covenant House exists to serve street kids because Bruce Ritter had the ability and foresight to bring a lot of talented and dedicated people together to serve hurting kids...
...The bias is accentuated by the Redmonds' personal friendship with Frank Macchiarola, the person who protected his political interests by betraying Covenant House in fear of embarrassment after he failed so badly as interim president that the [Covenant House] board asked for his resignation...
...Canada, $61...
...Since the lengthy Redmond attack was so one-sided, received such extensive play in Commonweal, and was the basis for an editorial, it is blatantly unfair that equal space is not given to alternate, more qualified viewpoints...
...The Redmonds and Commonweal no w join that regrettable collection of individuals and organizations who, acting on hidden agendas under the guise of constructive commentary, have implicated themselves in a great human injustice and in the destruction of a work of good...
...We feel our judgment confirmed by the critical letters above, which contain a high proportion of blanket assertion and denunciation and with the exception of Gregory A. Loken's letter, which the Redmond's effectively refute an almost total absence of specific facts...
...Would that those closest to him and most invested in the agency's work had acknowledged in the volatile nature of what Ms...
...Rather, most scholars agree the Court will examine the development of privacy jurisprudence in this context...
...The "intrusion" of the tube and the medical "treatment" would both continue...
...In all instances these charges are identified as reports and allegations...
...Thank you for the compelling challenge which pervades what could have been a spiritless expose...
...It would have been useful if the articles in Commonweal had conveyed the same sense of concern and sensitivity, and a basic understanding of constitutional jurisprudence...
...To be frank, I think what they wrote was frequently vicious and thoroughly unnecessary...
...ANNE B. DONAHUE The writer is executive director of Covenant House California...
...It is the Redmonds' perspective that the good that took place at Covenant House was almost incidental, and its supporters willing dupes...
...To the Editors: For a biography of Daniel Berrigan, S J., I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has recollections, memorabilia, letters, etc., relating to his life and experiences...
...In our judgment the decision does not significantly affect the issues discussed here by Mark Chopko and Kevin Quinn...
...To the Editors: For many months, I have felt frustration when trying to respond to people's questions about the crisis at Covenant House questions put to me because I worked at the agency from 1982 to 1986 and spent my first year there as a member of the Covenant Community...
...And this statement comes from an organization whose backbone is built on volunteerism...
...Donahue describes as the "arrogance, and vision, and singlemind-edness" driving the agency, the potential for ill as well as good, and monitored that threat more responsibly...
...jack miles Vicious & evil Bronx, N.Y...
...foreign, $37...
...Accurate & balanced Minneapolis, Minn...
...In the view of the medical and ethical authorities I cited, however, the treatment does not serve a useful medical or human purpose...
...Greg Loken's reference to the SRO moratorium law bears elaboration...
...Commonweal''% lack of initiative in verifying the facts or seeking out an alternative perspective is a classic example of yellow journalism...
...The Redmonds' article has made my response much easier...
...I salute the editors and the Redmonds for the courage, honesty, good taste, and compassion shown in your editorial and article on Covenant House...
...Loken points out, is available and all too clear as to the nature and scope of Covenant House's advocacy efforts during the 1980s...
...We, too, initially doubted the charges raised against Father Ritter and Covenant House...
...Rather, the brief uses the more carefully chosen word of legal art, "presumption...
...From the legal perspective, Attorney Quinn confuses the word "presumption" with "rule...
...I simply hand the questioning person a copy of Commonweal and tell them to read this frank account of what happened to a ministry which many of us will never stop loving...
...The underlying concern is more convincing and more focused...
...It is, therefore, all the more painful to read in its public statements Covenant House's implicit endorsement of the supply-side social policy that justified the virtual abandonment of poor and troubled families and children during the 1980s...
...When the matter is a public scandal, should one say, "I am innocent until proved guilty in a court of law...
...dollars by International Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...In January 1984, Father Bruce Ritter delivered a major address to the U.S...
...It is indeed sad to feel the pain and disillusionment, particularly of those young people like the Redmonds who once identified as much with the man as with his message...
...Surely the Archdiocese of New York, the Coalition for the Homeless, the City of New York, and other supporters of the law did not consider themselves the losers in this effort, but rather mourned and mourn the real victims: the elderly, mentally ill, and other economically marginal adults who have been forced to the street as SRO's have been demolished or converted to higher-priced housing...
...Their candor was almost painful to read because it calls us all to self-examination of our commitment to represent the needs of the poor underclass of our society...
...Or they could have picked up the phone and given me, or other friends familiar with this aspect of Covenant House's work, a call...
...Distorted & false Bronx, N.Y...
...But the time is long past for letting personal or tribal loyalty preclude a mature, thoughtful review of Covenant House's work, which is what the Redmonds provided in their original essay and now in their response...
...To determine whether Nancy Cruzan's case could justify termination of food and water, it is essential that one first understand the facts of the case...
...Macchiarola's departure seem more analogous to Richard Nixon's dismissal of Archibald Cox...
...No one doubts their sincerity or the depth of their feelings...
...However, the case has not been accepted by the U.S...
...CURTISS PAUL DeYOUNG The writer is pastor of the First Church of God, Minneapolis, Minn...
...They could have acknowledged that the SRO law they blamed Covenant House for not supporting was declared flatly unconstitutional by New York's highest court during the past year...
...bank.dian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S...
...Let's face it, in joining with the moneyed real estate interests in the city on this issue, Covenant House had economic, not constitutional interests in mind...
...But your readers should not be left with the impression that [the Redmonds'] article tells much of the story of Covenant House or the young people we serve...
...I was asked to cut my one-page [ 1,300-word] response to a mere 500 words, and could barely scratch the surface even in the original...
...In order to overturn the public policy of the state, which is carefully crafted and requires a balance of various factors before a termination decision can be implemented, they contend for a principle which admits of no exceptions...
...Nancy Cruzan's situation presents a most difficult and perplexing personal issue for her family...
...To their great credit, the staff and volunteers, who truly make Covenant House what it is, have not lost sight of Father Ritter's vision and our mission...
...Thus when Rosanne was working in the Institute in 1983, she attended a U.S...
...We stand by the accuracy of our article...
...Their report contains numerous inaccuracies and misinterpretations which neither the Redmonds nor Commonweal's editors bothered to check with anyone in a position of responsibility at Covenant House...
...I am grateful for the courage shown by Rosanne Haggerty Redmond, Mark Redmond, and Commonweal in presenting us with this article...
...Thank God for all the children who have been helped, but thousands more have taken their place because the greater issues have not been addressed effectively...
...In the agency's testimony before the Senate in 1983 and 1984, and in its communication with HUD Secretary Jack Kemp in 1989, events cited by Mr...
...To the Editors: It is fair to say, as Commonweal did in introducing their recent article on Covenant House, that Mark Redmond and Rosanne Haggerty Redmond owed the organization no "loyalty" and so were guilty of no "betrayal" of any person in describing their experiences there...
...I cannot be a party to the repudiation of Father Bruce and his vision that Covenant House now chooses as the means of attempting to survive the half-truths, misrepresentations, and hearsay reported by the mass media...
...Father Ritter and the Franciscans should have said more than they have said...
...This is not a result which is likely, in our judgment, to result in favorable legal or social developments for the country...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S., $32...
...The Redmonds claim, essentially, that Covenant House confined its advocacy efforts to the "needs....for more shelters like Covenant House and stronger antipornography legislation" and engaged in "deliberate obfuscations" of the "real circumstances and needs of homeless and runaway young people...
...Because the article is extraordinarily misleading in its characterizations of the facts, law, and philosophy embodied in the brief, I take this step to correct the record...
...Through direct lobbying and in published articles the Institute fought during the 1980s for substantial expansion of the scope and scale of the federal Runaway and Homeless Youth Act...
...ROSANNE HAGGERTY REDMOND & MARK REDMOND The editors respond: Commonweal does not re-research in detail every article we publish...
...why they opposed the termination of medical treatment that serves to keep Nancy Cruzan physiologically alive but that can never restore her to consciousness...
...Indeed, the brief recognizes that there might be such exceptional circumstances in which food and water artificially supplied might be removed in cases where the treatment itself is overly burdensome and painful to the patient or plainly useless...
...In so doing it has abandoned the very principles that made Covenant House the unique ministry of which so many of us were proud to be a part...
...We think the better view of the privacy doctrine is to the contrary...
...We drafted state statutes to make crisis shelter available for homeless and runaway youth...
...In a misguided attempt to salvage its image, Covenant House has sacrificed Father Ritter to the court of public opinion...
...Ron Williams, executive director of Covenant House New Jersey, has played a major role in educating Congress and colleagues in the "runaway" field about the needs of older homeless youth...
...Nancy Cruzan is not terminally ill...
...instead, the problem became an opportunity for profit...
...she is not dying...
...We do our best to ascertain the authors' knowledge and fairness, and to scrutinize carefully any particularly sensitive charges...
...It was Father Bruce's arrogance, and vision, and singlemindedness that kids should not be bought and sold, that there should be a place where they can go that made Covenant House into an extraordinary place where thousands of kids could get some respite from the streets, and maybe even turn their lives around...
...On occasion, we do...
...What the Redmonds' article misses most strikingly is the core mission of Covenant House...
...To the Editors: In their article, Rosanne Haggerty Redmond and Mark Redmond have contributed a vicious attack filled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations on Father Bruce Ritter and all aspects of Covenant House...
...KEVIN P. QUINN, S.J...
...It is primarily a ministry, not a social service agency...
...Your stated objective in publishing this article was to "go beyond the stereotypes of the newspaper and TV coverage...
...If the brief had focused on "rules," Attorney Quinn would be correct: the brief would indeed be staking itself to an absolutist position on a moral principle...
...In fact, the brief preserves the ultimate question for moralists and ethicists to continue the debate on moral, theological, and ethical grounds...
...In a time of turmoil and crisis, they have heroically continued to accept every young person who comes to us and to treat them with "the absolute respect and unconditional love" we promise each of them...
...In the courts we have also tried to be effective advocates for these kids...
...Rather, they are arguing in the name of their daughter...
...Rather, it was the result of Father Ritter's unwavering commitment to the cardinal principle of Open Intake...
...As my article demonstrated, the bishops were not compelled to adopt this position out of fidelity to Catholic medical ethics...
...It was also painfully accurate...
...The statements appear particularly strange and self-serving when read in the context of contemporaneous testimony and statements by other charitable groups working with these families and children...
...Nothing a reporter could have done talking to people on "both sides" and stitching excerpts together would have gone nearly so far as this moving and revealing statement...
...concerned more with works of mercy than with institutional social work...
...As a "Selected Bibliography" published by the Institute for Youth Advocacy at Covenant House documents, fully two-thirds of the agency's statements were devoted to child pornography and prostitution, an emphasis observed in our article...
...We have been schooled from earliest years that when we have done wrong we should make an act of contrition, confess our sin, and receive absolution...
...Had they done so, they would have more truly served as friends of the Court and faithful exponents of the Catholic moral tradition...
...Covenant House has been a tremendously forceful and effective advocate on these very important issues...
...How tremendously more difficult is the process of creating, and building, and leading...
...By contrast, the Supreme Court is presented with a legal case...
...That the moratorium was not upheld is hardly a measure of its moral urgency...
...dollars by International Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...I was also a member of the faith community while the Redmonds were there...
...Our brief takes no final position on whether Nancy Cruzan should be (depending on one's outlook) compelled to live or forced to die...
...These statements graphically describe the street life and desperate circumstances of homeless and runaway young people, yet assure legislators and officials that private donors, churches, and volunteers could nicely address the needs of troubled families and young people, given a few more tax incentives to encourage gifts and investment...
...I am leaving after nine years, but in sorrow, not bitterness...
...Presumptions, by their nature, can be overcome in appropriate circumstances...
...I hope that everyone who worked at or contributed to Covenant House has the opportunity to read it...
...Commonweal is indexed in Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Catholic Periodical Index, Index of American Periodical Verse, Book Review Digest and Book Review Index...
...His detractors can spout about where he failed, but none have equaled what he has achieved...
...They did, however, owe loyalty to the truth...
...Deplorably, the Redmonds have ignored the centrality of Open Intake to the development of Covenant House programs, and as a result completely distorted the nature of its growth...
...The Institute in 1988 filed a brief on behalf of Covenant House and three other charities defending our right to provide emergency services to undocumented young citizens of other countries...
...His imperfections were the strengths that made it possible...
...For the 28,000 young people who will come to Covenant House this year, 3,000 staff and volunteers, and tens of thousands of supporters, Father Ritter's departure has also been very painful and tragic...
...Because all of this is in the public record, Mark and Rosanne could have kept abreast of it...
...But to write it without the most careful attention to the truth is a far greater betrayal of the public, and of the kids, than any failures of Covenant House...
...But Mark and Rosanne must know that they failed the truth in saying that our "legislative agenda" was "almost exclusively" limited to those areas...
...I was at his side in March 1989 when he urged Jack Kemp to undertake major housing initiatives on behalf of disadvantaged youth an encounter fully reported in New York newspapers...
...The Redmond article is full of distortions and outright falsehoods...
...In 1985 we, alone among child-care organizations, filed a brief defending the constitutionality of providing crisis services to such youth in a major New York case...
...It reflects the narrow view of two young people who came to Covenant House with fuzzy-eyed idealism, discovered human flaws, and turned to the protective haven of self-justifying disillusionment...
...All Canadian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S...
...We did both these things in the case of the Redmonds' manuscript...
...To the Editors: In the resignation of Father Bruce Ritter from Covenant House, many people acutely feel the tragic loss of a hero...
...This principle prescribed that no young person asking for help could be turned away...
...neither this nor any other treatment can make her capable even of sense perception (not to speak of higher functions...
...JOHN S. SCHWARTZ Honesty & compassion New York, N.Y...
...To the Editors: "The Paradoxes of Covenant House" was well written and balanced...
...Supreme Court to resolve this personal dilemma...
...Special two-year rate: U.S., $57...
...The question of moment, however, is whether a group's virtues in some areas can possibly justify or excuse a pattern of improper conduct in others...
...Loken, the agency explicitly minimizes the centrality and urgency of direct governmental involvement in shaping and funding basic supports and services for these individuals...
...and at additional offices...
...On the contrary, Covenant House, with Father Ritter at its helm, was a place of remarkable good work in which young people were treated with dignity, respect, and love...
...Here as elsewhere he fails to mention that, regardless of any arguments made by any other parties to the case, the bishops did not have to rise above the sufferings of the Cruzans and others similarly situated in order to warn the Court against translating privacy rights into a doctrine of complete personal autonomy...
...In other words, it would set all persons as law unto themselves against all other interests, including any express or implied consideration of the common good...
...MARK E. CHOPKO The writer is general counsel for the United States Catholic Conference...
...My time serving at Covenant House was a life-transforming experience...
...In short, they could have "agonized" as much about telling the whole truth as they say they did about writing their piece in the first place...
...Reading the Redmonds' article proved therapeutic...
...I worked at Covenant House in child care and in corporate administration during 1981 and 1982...
...Such treatment, the Missouri court said (and Counsel Chopko appears to agree), is not useless since it maintains a life...
...Covenant House's history and its size and growth have been defined by the constant need to play catch-up with the kids, because Father Bruce wouldn't turn them away...
...Covenant House's record as landlord of the Times Square Hotel was particularly shameful: in the years it operated the hotel, 200 permanent tenants were displaced, according to records kept by the Westside SRO Law Project in Manhattan...
...After conceding that artificial delivery of nourishment may properly be suspended in cases where such treatment "is overly burdensome and painful to the patient or plainly useless" [my emphasis], he seizes on my mistaken reference to the "removal" of Nancy Cruzan's gastrostomy tube in an effort to show that I've got the issues wrong...
...Thus, the theme of the brief addressed the central privacy issue presented by the case...
...Covenant House and the kids can only lose from the absence of Father Bruce...
Vol. 117 • July 1990 • No. 13
