Correspondence
Burris, Keith & EGAN, (MSGR.) JOHN J. & RYAN, DAVID & LADD, MARY & AUMAN, MICHAEL & BECKER, (THE REV.) MICHAEL R.
Is nothing sacred? Chicago, 111. To the Editors: Congratulations and gratitude for the special section "Regenerating Catholicism" [September 14]. You were gracious to give a unique form of...
...No respect for law, for peaceful dissent, for the ballot box, just: "You'll do as we say or you can't live here in peace...
...The cardinal sins Wilmington, Del...
...after all, this was the ritual which joins these men to the ranks of those who officially speak for the church...
...She was forty-one when she died last July after a long battle with cancer...
...Similarly, her dedication to civic affairs was such that the size of the stage mattered less than the action she took upon it...
...They honored a great teacher, but more, a great person, who remained true to the clear idealism of the sixties without the crutch of nostalgia...
...Rather than giving up when the decade ended, she grew up...
...The word was much abused and, sadly, began to seem somewhat silly...
...They thought of it first...
...At the same time, I am confused as to what tactics ought to be employed...
...DAVID RYAN The editors reply: In "The Human Rights of Homosexuals" [Commonweal, September 8, 1989], Gordon Zahn concluded: "Any religious community that chooses to support [denial of housing and employment rights to homosexuals] must accept a significant share of the guilt for permitting and perpetuating that terrible injustice...
...Detroit, Mich...
...To the Editors: Back in the bad old 1960s one of the great mantras was "relevance...
...who was committed to her community (not just Yale, but New Haven) and her times...
...THE REV...
...Hers is not a name known to many Americans, but she was one of the finest products of the 1960s...
...Auden might have had her in mind when he wrote...
...It may still seem a sappy standard to some but in the afterglow of the eighties perhaps not to all...
...They must be proud...
...But there's something remarkably familiar about it: A group of people, with bullhorn blaring, marches in front of a large hospital, disturbing the patients and the neighborhood, because they cannot accept the law of the land...
...Author Robert Dawson [September 14] doesn't tell us whether arrests were made, but there certainly should have been...
...ACT-UP & friends Dallas, Tex...
...There were speeches, tears, music, and a crowd of perhaps five hundred...
...They saluted a practical feminist and do-gooder who also loved travel and laughter...
...The behavior of dissenters at the cathedral in Boston was a perfect example of the spread of the right-to-lifers' mentality...
...Equally despicable, however, is Cardinal Bernard Law's fight against any legislation which would punish housing and job discrimination against homosexuals, housing and jobs being matters of fundamental human rights...
...She was one of a number of practical activists of the sixties who have infiltrated the establishment and are making a difference today...
...Dialogue seems to have been banned by the church hierarchy itself...
...I might even subscribe if it did...
...As a member of the clergy of a church (Episcopalian) which, in the half-century during which I have been involved in its ministry, has never produced a periodical worth much more than the paper it was printed on, I have relied on your publication almost from its beginning...
...McCarthy didn't mope around waiting for a new mass movement...
...private and public happiness were bound together...
...every day they die/ Among us, those who were doing us some good,/ And knew it was never enough but/ Hoped to improve a little by living...
...Somehow, staging the protest at this event makes sense...
...she worked on a smaller scale at what could be done...
...After college and law school she became a public defender and then a professor of law at Yale...
...Dawson appears surprised and disturbed that the Boston media minimized the irreverent methods used by ACT-UP and that public officials withheld criticism...
...an individual career should bear upon the public good...
...In spite of what to someone of the Anglican persuasion seems an overabundance of articles on abortion, there just isn't any other religious publication that can come close to Commonweal...
...The head of that group is still its head, and its members are still arrogantly confronting women who try to enter clinics...
...Still, ACT-UP's choice of this particular event seems somewhat appropriate...
...KEITH BURRIS Keith Burris is an editorial writer for the Hartford Courant...
...She was supportive of the civil rights cause as a college student and came naturally to the antiwar movement...
...To the Editors: The scene described in Robert Dawson's "ACT-UP Acts Out" is sad and disgusting...
...THE REV...
...She was codirector of Yale's legal clinic, where students are immersed in the actual practice of the legal craft...
...Is that so surprising when church officials have so insensitively attacked public servants who support abortion rights or equal justice for gays and lesbians...
...MSGR...
...Granted, ACT-UP's methods undermine its message...
...MICHAEL R. BECKERmmonweal...
...JOHN J. EGAN Relevance still relevant Hartford, Conn...
...On the other hand, how they could have scheduled it for the Saturday that Notre Dame will be playing Stanford is something I will never understand...
...You were gracious to give a unique form of coverage to the forthcoming meeting here in Chicago...
...MICHAEL AUMAN No comparison Philadelphia, Pa...
...The last time the works of Jefferson or Tom Paine were widely circulated was in the sixties-the decade wasn't all bad...
...Her father said that her commitment to law was incidental to her commitment to justice...
...Her associates said they admired her gallantry as much as her mind and dedication...
...On Saturday, September 8, the Yale Law School held a memorial service for Mary Abigail McCarthy...
...To the Editors: Robert Dawson's report [September 14] expressed justifiable revulsion for the tactics of the protestors during the recent ordination celebration in Boston Cathedral...
...Few of them knew that she had a famous father and mother-Eugene J. McCarthy, the former senator and presidential candidate, and Abigail McCarthy, the writer and Commonweal columnist...
...MICHAEL R. BECKER...
...MARYLADD Why be surprised...
...There is equal irony in the hierarchy's homophobic and antifeminist stance...
...Commonweal does well to publish articles like Dawson's, but it would be a more honest journal if it were also some time to publish an article on the subject of homophobia in the Catholic church...
...they still lie down on the streets, behaving like ill-mannered children, spoiled and rebellious, unfit to live in a democracy, where there must be tolerance, civility, obedience to law, respect for opinions other than one's own...
...To the Editors: ACT-UP's acts of desecration at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston were despicable...
...Without personal knowledge of any of the ordinands, I suspect it would be safe to assume that none of them have concretely challenged the church's official position on sexual issues...
...If they had, they would likely not be celebrating their ordination at this time...
...They came to praise an academic who was not detached...
...To the Editors: From my point of view, Commonweal gets better with each issue...
...Her interests were legal services for juveniles, the disabled, prison inmates, immigrants, and the indigent...
...It is the death of Mary Abigail McCarthy, noted in your issue of September 14, that prompts these comments...
...Also despicable is a church which from bottom to top tends to treat homosexuals of whatever variety as trash...
...The important part of the "relevance" ethic was the concept of public service...
...She was one of a handful of national student leaders who persuaded her fellows to try ballots rather than burning flags and draft cards...
...Regretting the actions and verbal violence directed toward my church, I am convinced that the hierarchy will continue to experience these attacks as long as it refuses to address the issues in question adequately...
Vol. 117 • October 1990 • No. 17
