Correspondence
MARTIN, RITA M. & LINK, MARYJANE & Segers, Mary C. & McCarthy, Abigail
CORRESPONDENCE Abortion politics Bridgewater, N.J. To the Editors: Having been quoted as a source of information in Mary Segers's article, "Semantics and Style in the Abortion Campaign" [January...
...In addition to providing security and stability, the homes have the advantage of keeping siblings together...
...Segers credits me with saying "pro-life groups are pleased with the assembly elections because only 70 percent of the Choice-PAC's 67 endorsed candidates won...
...Canada, $61...
...She also criticizes the fact that the priest "coerces conscience" at Mass...
...Indeed, is that not what he is supposed to do...
...Abortion policy must balance the conflicting claims of different interests (believers, agnostics, atheists) as well as the competing values of freedom, order, equity, justice, and privacy...
...All Canadian and foreign subscriptions must be paid in U.S...
...in New York, subsidy equals at least 75 percent of the foster care stipend, and a continuing medical subsidy is also available...
...4. Like Ms...
...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...
...Speaking to our legislators is every American's right, Catholic or not...
...Lawmakers should know that prolife commissions may claim to represent all the state's Catholics, but in reality almost three-quarters of New Jersey Catholics oppose restrictive abortion laws...
...RITA M. MARTIN The writer is Prolife Director, Diocese ofMetuchen, N.J...
...Which is why the church takes a position only on principles, never on candidates...
...Special two-year rate...
...Copyright © 1990 Commonweal Foundation...
...Since the first Sunday in October has for many years been designated Respect Life Sunday by the bishops of the United States, what better day to focus people's attention on the problem, and ask for their help...
...I would never say I was "pleased" with the election of any pro-abortion candidates...
...3. If prolife commissions wish to mobilize congregants to make public policy more congruent with church teaching, then the proper way to do this is to invite parishioners to attend an organizational meeting apart from Mass time...
...There are no automatic answers in Christian theology and Catholic teaching to the vexing ques(Continued on page 302) (Continued from page 274) tions of public policy raised by the abortion issue...
...The group homes we advocate and there are models here and abroad house children in family-size groups and are staffed not by rotating eight-hour care-givers but by residential "substitute parents...
...To the Editors: Having been quoted as a source of information in Mary Segers's article, "Semantics and Style in the Abortion Campaign" [January 12], I feel I must clarify some of the points she made...
...has proved impossible to attain...
...Life Roll is a legitimate tool, and in no way suspect because it occurred in the middle of an unsettled election...
...Contrary to Ms...
...If she looks closely, she will see prolife legislators come from all political backgrounds...
...The people who signed Life Roll cards (only adult Catholics, children were not asked to sign) will be asked to contact their legislators when pertinent legislation is pending...
...It is not a liability to be a prolife candidate in New Jersey...
...the Life Roll list facilitates keeping the signers aware when prolife legislation is under consideration...
...To the Editors: Two articles by Abigail McCarthy [December 1,1989, and January 26] advocate a return to the days of the orphanage as a solution to the growing problems of families who do not appear able to raise their children properly...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...The author replies: 1. It seems naive to insist that Project Life Roll was not politically motivated since its stated purpose, according to Rita Martin, is to mobilize New Jersey Catholics to lobby state legislators to support prolife legislation...
...Martin, I want to defend the rights of all Americans to shape public policy in accord with philosophically deduced or religiously derived moral convictions...
...These, along with some of the undecided, will provide the votes necessary to pass life-protective legislation...
...There is no single Catholic solution to this policy dilemma just as there is no single Jewish or no single Methodist answer...
...bank.r or by check on a U.S...
...Segers criticizes the "appearance of partisanship" at Mass...
...The discussion was of group homes a better term for the modern equivalent than "orphanage" not as a substitute for adoption, but as a currently overlooked alternative "if adoption is not feasible" (January 26 column...
...bank...
...McCarthy's statement that the administration offers little practical help, federal law allows foster care payments to be continued as adoption subsidy...
...Many who did not sign want only to be the prayers in the background...
...I must leave any further substantiation to him...
...Intensive home-based services have proved effective in preventing the need for placement...
...Rather than turning to congregate care, as a first step we should be investing more in strengthening biological families...
...But in a pluralist, religiously diverse society, this is not easy...
...Children need to form stable relationships to develop into healthy adults, and staff that rotates in eight-hour shifts, no matter how well trained or caring, can never take the place of a traditional family, be it biological, foster, or adoptive...
...If we have wandered from Jesus' way, shouldn't our conscience be pricked, or "coerced," back to the right path...
...dollars by International Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...I strongly disagree...
...Abigail McCarthy 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...
...The people who signed Life Roll are willing to be the up-front folks...
...It is reassuring that "orphans" of yesterday have pleasant memories of their childhood, but this is not the solution we should be seeking to today's problems...
...Long before the Webster decision came down, long before anyone knew the character of the New Jersey elections, it had been decided to ask the Catholics of New Jersey to sign a statement in support of the unborn and others threatened by a lessening of respect for life in our society, and to indicate their willingness to take a more active role in prolife work...
...This is her interpretation of my remarks a pro-abortion bias coming through...
...As to the adequacy of the commitment of the administration to adoption, my source was Reagan-Bush presidential assistant Bruce Chapman, now Hudson Institute senior fellow...
...The Catholics of New Jersey, and the many others who share our prolife position, are united in efforts to protect both mothers and babies from abortion and its aftermath...
...Certainly every effort should be made to increase that number, but the best of efforts will not meet the crisis of the abandoned "boarder babies" overflowing hospital nurseries, and the uncounted thousands of homeless, hungry, neglected, and abused children in this country today...
...Segers's characterization of the Life Roll project conducted on Respect Life Sunday as politically motivated...
...At a cost of only $5,000 per year per family as opposed to $ 13,500 to $35,000 per year for each child in foster care, these services rehabilitate families and reduce traumatic separation...
...Canada, $34...
...Also, in my view, the article presents an obvious bias in favor of the pro-abortion position...
...Isn't he charged to use his homily time to remind the faithful of the teachings of the Gospel...
...One cannot be prolife and partisan...
...The author replies: Reader Link has misunderstood my intent and the intent of the authorities cited in the columns to which she refers...
...Martin speaks of "the Catholics of New Jersey" and seems to assume a Catholic consensus on the wisdom of restrictive abortion laws...
...What I really said was: "Every prolife candidate who maintained his/her prolife position was elected some in the face of major campaigns against them, well-organized and well-financed by pro-abortion groups...
...Moreover, the archbishop's statement read immediately before the Life Pledge specifically instructed Catholics "to uphold our moral position [on abortion] with our vote...
...U.S., $57...
...However, public opinion polls show that a large majority of Catholics (73 percent) agree that the decision to have an abortion is a private matter that should be left to the woman to decide without government interference...
...Plans for Life Roll began almost a year before it happened...
...I also feel the new assembly may present more of a challenge, but prolife supporters still represent the largest single bloc of votes...
...Unfortunately "the idealistic goal of providing a place in a stable family for each and every child...
...I take strong exception to Ms...
...foreign, $37...
...There is no intent to use the list to contact candidates for office...
...As things are, of the probable nine hundred thousand children born out of wedlock each year only fifty-one thousand are adopted...
...MARY C. SEGERS Caring lor orphans Rochester, N.Y...
...Serials Data program No.: ISSN 0010-3330...
...and at additional offices...
...This preserves the freedom of individual parishioners and also promotes dialogue...
...maryjane link The writer is chair of the Adoption Action Network, a New York state coalition of child care professionals and advocates of improved adoption services...
...Instead of dismissing adoption as an impossible goal, advocates across the country should work to remove financial disincentives to adoption...
...Single copy, $1.50...
...The cost, both in dollars and in human potential, is far too great...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...2. Ms...
...Yearly subscriptions, U.S., $32...
...foreign, $67...
Vol. 117 • May 1990 • No. 9
