Correspondence

...Of the Salvadoran Catholic martyrs, toward whom I still feel as a brother, I stand in awe and human sadness at their suffering...

...It would seem likely that they believe the American interest is better served by a policy more supportive of Israel than that favored by the president and the State Department...

...Pawlikowski proposes an "agenda" including steps to "move the Carmelites to an intermediate site...

...Gaibel says, oil companies and arms manufacturers do have clout in Washington...

...How shameful...

...From whence this sudden concern for national rights...

...A good many of Israel's staunchest supporters represent districts with a negligible Jewish vote...

...Paul Dinter's article, "Standing in the Way of Worship" [June 16...

...As far as the Discalced Carmelite nuns are concerned it is extremely objectionable...

...John Pawlikowski's commentary ["A Sign of Contradiction," September 22], which barely mentions the Carmelite women at the center of the controversy, would be extraordinary for that fact were it not so common...

...Shamir and Rabin not to lobby Congress against the deal, and that, to boost their powers of persuasion in the matter, they offered new financial and military arrangements valuable to Israel, at some cost to the U.S...

...Your concern about people leaving the church (I am now an Episcopalian) stirred feelings quite poignant in light of both the movie and the news...

...Music, dignity in liturgy and word, beauty in sound, sight, smell, and movement are not mere sound and sight but the stuff of this life-the "eschatology of the ordinary" that I read about elsewhere recently...

...Since in the Roman Catholic church nobody, not even a cardinal, is above the law and since canon 616 demands a formal decree of the Apostolic See when a convent of contemplative nuns is involved, one shouldn't be surprised about Cardinal Glemp's doubts whether "four cardinals" were really competent in this matter...

...Indeed the Congress has over the years blocked some, but by no means all, executive branch proposals that Israel opposed...

...There seems to be no question among the religious leaders, both Catholic and Jewish, of their right to decide for the women where they should be...

...Catholic bishops have rightly called "cries for justice...

...A great many areas of the world, including Manhattan and Chicago, do indeed represent the ill-gotten gains of conquerors and colonizers who used violence and deceit to gain control...

...That alone is of far more consequence than the noises made by Palestinian Arabs and their allies...

...So I have felt about the grace/gift of the local Episcopal church over the local Roman Catholic church...

...Or did I miss that statement...

...Rather than squabbling among themselves the Catholic and Jewish leaders might better join forces for they seem cut from the same cloth, natural allies in the struggle to preserve male control in religious affairs...

...I thought of the anima (nondualism...

...Jews lived there and exercised sovereignty in those areas centuries before the first Arab arrived on the scene during the Islamic wars of conquest in the 700s...

...support are rooted in history and ethics, not in power equations...

...What were the bishops doing when tens of thousands of Ibo died of starvation or from Nigerian bombardment when the Ibo people sought political nationhood...

...To the Editors: In the current controversy over the ownership of Auschwitz one thing seems startlingly clear...

...BRUCE MARTIN RUSSETT Why the Middle East...

...Moreover, the last Jews did not leave until the Arabs threw them out in 1948, culminating a campaign of violence that started with anti-Jewish rioting in 1920...

...In brief, why is it that the struggle of the Jews and the Arabs has caught the fancy of the American church...

...So much else is animus, respected: the organization needed, the formality of opposition within the church...

...But those Palestinians who are willing to acknowledge Israel's de facto existence and to negotiate demonstrably fair security arrangements for both peoples, and who in return ask for recognition of themselves as a nation, for their own courts and schools, for control of the land they live on and the water they need-in short, for civil, national, and human rights-are uttering what the U.S...

...In the more serious game for our souls we cling to a combination of faith and hope that something, not founded on illusion, lasts forever and can ultimately bring us home...

...As a fellow beer-drinker, I cannot disprove some significance for that additional correlation which he mentions, but I am convinced there is another reason...

...In this quarrel, to assert as you do that there is no "right of conquest followed by colonization," is simply irrelevant...

...But it has not shown that there is less justice on the side of the latter...

...And it isn't hard to see why: the presence in the Middle East of a pro-American democracy able to defend itself has made it unnecessary to station American troops in that part of the world at enormous cost, as we still must in Europe and Southeast Asia...

...Unlike the Jews whose historical claim on Palestine antedates that of the Arabs by centuries, the white settlers had no comparable prior presence on this continent...

...It is hard to believe that the opinions of the religious resident at Auschwitz would be so irrelevant or the community so anonymous were they men-male Carmelites or another group of male con-templatives, like Trappists...

...Commonweal obviously prefers the former options...

...policy that such settlements are questionable legally, and in any case serve to hinder progress toward peace and security in the region...

...but they don't get that kind of attention...

...Apparently not...

...To the Editors: Your editorial on U.S.Mideast policy [October 20] assumes many things that reasonably call for proof...

...Priests too had understood for many years before Vatican II that there's more to the liturgy than that awesome moment of consecration...

...But it does not follow from that fact that the president and State Department defended the American interest while the Congress acted as Israel's errand boy...

...One validates either the Arab conquests of the past or the Jewish reconquest of the present...

...Upon my return, I was astounded by some erroneous statements on the subject in the Catholic press, including Commonweal's "A Sign of Contradiction" by John T. Pawlikowski [September 22...

...DANIEL J. LEER Invisible women New York, N.Y...

...Catholic bishops find it necessary to promulgate a statement on the Middle East [November 3] and, in particular, to address Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza...

...Baker and Cheney found it necessary, before discussing a proposed sale of tanks to Saudi Arabia, to ask Messrs...

...But until you renounce your share of the benefits from the ill-gotten gains with which the American pioneers endowed this country, your moralism with respect to Israel can be taken no more seriously than that of an animal-rights advocate who continues without embarrassment to chomp down his prime rib...

...ZALMANGAIBEL The editors reply: Our editorial made two points, which we reaffirm: 1. It was unseemly and revelatory that Messrs...

...Yet Commonweal has not to my knowledge advocated that the American people give back so much as an inch of this country or otherwise cease to profit from that great land grab...

...Considering that Auschwitz was originally built by people who had agendas for other people, the controversy seems sadly ironic...

...Are they nonpersons...

...BOB MASS...

...geostrategic interests is open to a debate which we will not here join, beyond saying that in our view Israel's most valid claims to U.S...

...The reality was so obvious that the animus of the other prisoner, though respected, could not be engaged with body and soul...

...And times change...

...Many are now doing a creditable job and I'm glad that Burkhart is doing her share in the Sunday celebrations...

...Does the U.S...

...need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game...

...Commonweal and its editors live on land wrested from the Native Americans...

...Marine Corps base," there was an outcry from people living near the base which caused former Marine Corps Commandant P.X...

...behind the pastor's refusal of Mart's eucharistic bread and our pastors' failure to be imbued with the spirit and power of the liturgy lies the model of sacramental power still operative in priestly circles...

...Kelley to reverse the base commander's decision and to order that the cross remain...

...Although not a Catholic, A. Bartlett Giamatti understood it...

...The claim that Israel more than repays the cost through its service to U.S...

...Do they even have names...

...Whoever the owners are, they are men...

...John Pawlikowski's suggestion "to move the Carmelites to an intermediate site until the design for the interreligious center can be completed and financing secured" is rather surprising...

...But where I live in this one small suburb, I fall before God in one Episcopal church's glory...

...WACLAW ZAJACZKOWSKI St...

...The very names Judea and Samaria (and I congratulate you for using those names instead of "West Bank") testify that the territories that Israel now holds are historically Jewish lands...

...It is, however, about as feasible to restore the Americas to the descendants of the original inhabitants as it would be to revoke the Norman conquest of England...

...Apparently, many priests are still overly pleased with the sacramental power of speaking and believing that something wonderful happens when they speak...

...Nowhere do you even hint at the possibility that the corporations standing to benefit from arms sales to the Arab world (after all, a billion dollars' worth of tanks for Saudi Arabia is real money even to General Dynamics) or from oil concessions in the Persian Gulf area are also diligently looking out for their interests through all the standard tactics of the industrial-military complex...

...THE EDITORS Martyrs, music, dignity St...

...russ sullivan Soul games Hamden, Conn...

...And what about Basque independence...

...If the feelings of the local population and the commandant's decision were not branded as "anti-Semitic" in the U.S., mere is no reason to raise such an accusation in Poland where people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds have the right to mourn their losses as do the Jews....There will certainly be no protest if the Jewish people erect a menorah at the Birkenau site (part of the Auschwitz complex), where the unique Jewish tragedy took place...

...Maximilian Kolbe Foundation A creditable job Dayton, Ohio To the Editors: A caveat needs to be offered over the letter of Marian Burkhart [November 3] regarding the Rev...

...In his essay, "The Green Fields of the Mind," he began by noting "the game's deep patterns, three strikes, three outs, three times three innings, and its deepest impulse, to go out and back, to leave and to return home," and concluded: "It was meant to foster in me again the illusion that there was something abiding, some pattern and some impulse that could come together to make a reality that would resist the corrosion...

...Given the long, ugly, and shameful history of anti-Semitism in our church, one obvious answer suggests itself: only the actions of Jews merit criticism and comment...

...No word from the bishops...

...I realize it's a lot easier to tell somebody else to surrender a piece of their country...

...oscar wald Israel's influence Chicago, 111...

...The contemporary view-and we are talking about now, not then-is that the sins of our fathers are to be regretted rather than repeated...

...For in discussing the issue no one, so far as I have been able to tell, is concerned about the rights of the women religious...

...of the gay prisoner in the movie: his ability to savor the sensuous in life and in imagination, the sacramental, the incar-national...

...2. Israel's request for loan guarantees from the U.S...

...Do they have any rights...

...Eros...

...To the Editors: Your editorial on Middle East policy, "Ties That Blind" [October 20], merits little more than a snicker when it asserts that "there is no right of conquest followed by colonization...

...bishops' foreign policy not extend to the Kurds, or did word of the Iraqi government's use of nerve gas in Kurdistan not penetrate the corridors of Catholic power...

...To the Editors: Your editorial "Onward" [November 17] was read juxtaposed with the Kiss of the Spider Woman on television that night and the news of the sad death of the recent martyrs in San Salvador...

...No doubt some Palestinian and other Arab factions are making what might be called "noises" about their situation...

...Any archaeologist can verify that for you even if you deny any biblical basis of Israel's claim...

...To the Editors: How is it that the U.S...

...It only supports the proposition that the Congress made its own judgment as to the merits of the proposals in question...

...Davids, Pa...

...Archaelogical and historical evidence of Jewish links to "Judea and Samaria" is indisputable-and is overborne by demographic and historical evidence supporting the claims of the present inhabitants, who are, despite the settlements, overwhelmingly Palestinian, and whose progenitors have tilled the land for centuries...

...For this reason, however much the needs of the active apostolate demand it, members of these institutes cannot be summoned to aid in various pastoral ministries...

...to help build housing units for Soviet Jewish Emigres, some or most of them in the occupied territories, was inappropriate in view of stated U.S...

...As Mr...

...DAVID K. O'ROURKE, O.P Nuns at Auschwitz Washington, D.C...

...to treat them like inanimate objects, to barter away, to move them around, and to assign them duties at the "interreligious center" which are not compatible with their specific religious vocation...

...Berkeley, Calif...

...Did I miss the bishops' statement on the rights of the peoples of the southern Sudan to self-determination-or could it be that the starvation and death daily visited upon the black Southerners by a Moslem government in Khartoum has escaped the bishops' notice...

...Our correspondents raise other points worth discussing: -Israel's ability to defend itself and to sustain its economy rests heavily on assistance from the U.S...

...Marian Burkhart believes she's arguing against Dinter, but she's agreeing with him when she writes...

...Treasury...

...Though some people may still believe in a "right" of conquest and colonization, very few are willing to assert it...

...not to mention the "immediate removal of the cross" from the site where $22,000 Polish Catholics, and no Jews,were executed and which does not stand on convent grounds and is outside of the proper Auschwitz death camp...

...none has been other than humble when he allowed himself to be the means by which the bread and wine become Christ-the miracle at the center of the liturgy and my faith...

...To the Editors: I have just returned from Poland where, in addition to several on-site inspections, I had an opportunity to discuss the Auschwitz convent with the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Glemp, Cardinal Macharski, and the Carmelite Superiors...

...To the Editors: Keating Holland's report ["Who's First?," November 3] on Catholics' disproportionate attachment to baseball did not surprise me at all...

...It sounds like a bill of lading...

...You imply that the major factor in formulating our Mideast policy is the influence of Israel's American supporters, which in your view often overrides the judgments of even the executive branch of our government...

...Also the selection of a site for their "future convent" in a marshy area, which may be cheap to purchase but very unhealthy, should be at least discussed with the sisters...

...This article absolutely disregards the law of the church, codified in the new Code of Canon Law (674), which defines the nature of an institute of consecrated life such as the convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Auschwitz: "Institutes which are wholly ordered to contemplation always retain a distinguished position in the mystical Body of Christ...

...I have seen them described by religious leaders of all stripes only as "those nuns," "that convent," or simply "them," as in "Let them pray elsewhere...

...Later on comes a final solution...

...for they offer an extraordinary sacrifice of praise to God, they illuminate the people of God with the richest fruits of their sanctity, they move it by their example, and extend it through their hidden apostolic fruitfulness...

...Dinter reemphasized his point in the September 22 issue...

...A few years ago in our own country, when "Jewish war veterans" demanded and obtained from a judge a favorable opinion on "the removal of a sixty-five-foot-high wooden cross overlooking a U.S...

...Commonweal, Rahner, Merton, a non-Catholic father-all made change possible...