Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Civilians & war Minneapolis, Minn. To the Editors: If one essential condition for the waging of a just war is lacking, the war cannot be considered just. One essen- tial...
...The concreteness of these soldiers' moral discernment has been matched by the con- creteness of the consequences of their deci- sions...
...Serials Data program No.: [SSN 0010- 3330...
...For two weeks last December, I was part Correction: Joan Dunn Walsh, N.Y., and John E Rieger, Va., should have been listed as Charter Members of the Commonweal Associates for 1990...
...for- eign, $67...
...9document effects of low-intensity conflict...
...In effect, what Sipe demonstrates is that if you describe all the various ways that a person can act out sexually, you can somewhere find priests whose occasional or habitual behavior falls into one or more of these categories...
...bank...
...policy includes plans to bombard Baghdad, a city with 3 million civilians...
...And it is the means to be used which led them to declare themselves incapable of taking innocent life...
...Single Copy, $2...
...They have far too clear knowledge of what they would then have to do in the short run...
...p. 104, photo by Lenka Hatasova...
...BENEFITS: .9contributing to a fair and just Central American foreign policy .9room & board .9major medical health insurance .9monthly stipend .9a week's vacation every four months...
...It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemna- tion...
...Another told of how others in his unit were ready to "blow away" women and children...
...p. 90, Simpson, Rothco...
...p. 98, Picasso, Bottle and Glass, from The Menil Collection...
...9support human rights...
...110: Commonweal...
...When Brian Centa, also a Catholic, submitted his CO appli- cation, he was placed on restriction, not allowed to see a lawyer, and finally forced to appear at formation in leg irons, before (in the words of one eyewitness) being "thrown" onto the plane to Saudi Arabia...
...dollars by International Money Order or by check on a U.S...
...Your editorial on our Gulf adventure ["Patience and resolve," January 11] sadly suggests that bombardments'that "will not spare significant numbers of people, civil- tans and soldiers, from death or life-altering trauma" may be considered "just means...
...Copyright .9 1991 Commonweal Foundation...
...WHERE: .9 in Guatemala/Southern Mexico (Application deadline: April 15, 1991) .9in Nicaragua (Application deadlines: May 30th Non-Spanish speakers, August 1st Spanish speakers...
...and at additional offices...
...REV...
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...He admits that his study covers only men whose sexual behavior came to his knowledge from three limited sources: (1) their psychotherapy sessions with him...
...9host short-term delegations...
...The number of Sipe's informants, totaled fifteen hundred, whereas the number of priests in the United States adds up to more than fifty-three thousand...
...no Vietnam-style civilian sabotage would be tolerated, not this time around...
...TO: .9be a permanent presence with refugees...
...Canada, $61...
...To the Editors: If one essential condition for the waging of a just war is lacking, the war cannot be considered just...
...One essential condition is this: civilians must not be killed...
...These startling figures are plau- sible, in view of Sipe's specialized career as a therapist and teacher who focuses his professional concems largely on the topic of sexuality, and who therefore attracts into his studies people dealing personally with sexual issues...
...In Sipe's effort to supply statistics that give the appearance of a scientific approach, he distracts the reader from the book's loud and clear message that it is time for the hierarchy to make a truly sci- entific study of the sexual life of American priests, so that seminaries and formation programs can become more effective in preparing tomorrow's priests to succeed in living up to their call to celibacy, z CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 82) ally waged by actual people...
...9accompany victims of war...
...Also potentially helpful to seminarians and priests striving to form their attitudes, commitments, relationships, and behavior patterns in line with celibacy is the book's final chapter which deals first with the proc- ess of becoming celibate and then with the essential elements that must be present if one is to persevere successfully in chastity...
...If this neglect is a fact, the author has unquestionably pointed out a defect that calls for immediate repair...
...These spiritual, psychological, and physical needs, as Sipe identifies them, include work, prayer, community, service, physical self-care, security, ordered and balanced life- style, continuous learning, and beauty...
...When Gary Stiegelmeyer, a Catholic, was ordered to carry his M- 16, he refused and collapsed under the emotional strain of disobeying orders...
...It was an error on Sipe's part, in my opin- ion, to point out the limited nature of his study (fifteen hundred priests) and then later in the book make generalized state- ments such as: "At any one time, 2 percent of vowed celibate clergy can be said to have achieved celibacy...
...The central sections of A Secret Worm present an exhaustive array of sexual behaviors that deviate from the ideal of celibacy...
...WRITE TO: Brenda Humphrey, Witness For Peace 2201 P St...
...U.S., $32...
...2) their disclosures dur- ing "meetings, interviews, and consulta- tions...
...Similarly, after describing his work as a "search" which is "related to, but distinct from, research," he exaggerates the applicability of his find- ings by asserting: "My research [sic] h~s generated some light on the question of clerical celibacy...
...are at any one time involved either in a more or less stable relationship with a woman or, alternatively, with sequential women in an identifiable pattern of behav- ior...
...You rightly imply that just war the- ory is often abused, but the editorial itself is guilty of the most common form of such abuse, namely, the use of abstract utilitarian logic to obscure the concrete principle of discrimination...
...I think it would be difficult to per- suade these soldiers that they should employ such means because they have something to do with "the long run...
...When the Army would not accept his application for conscientious objector" status, Robert Chandler refused to cooperate with his unit's deployment to Saudi Arabia, but he was deployed anyway--in hand- cuffs...
...p. 84, Ross, Rothco...
...The point is that they may spare far more than, in the long run, will a policy of capitula- tion...
...Use of these means, you argue, "....will not spare significant numbers of people, civilians and soldiers, from death or life-altering trauma...
...Neither does he describe the painful feelings of guilt, shame, anxiety, and discouragement that must plague the lives of so many of these priests whom he finds acting in ways con- trary to the promise they made to God and the church on the day of their ordination...
...The "long run" perspective was in fact the argu- ment attempted by most of the military chaplains to whom these soldiers first turned for moral counseling...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, M148106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster, Ohio 44691...
...Microfilm from Vol...
...He says, in other words, that he is not looking at the behavior of a sample of priests that adequately represents the Catholic clergy of the United States, or of any specific region within the country...
...What disturbs me about your editorial is that its use of just war theory is so remark- ably impersonal and unpastoraI...
...In doing so, you stand in a long line of theorists who have failed to square the notion of a "just war" by "just means" with the reality of war as it is actu(Continued on page 110) 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...
...I suggest a consideration of the position taken by the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et spes, V, 1, 80): "Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruc- tion of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself...
...He adds, "Approximately 10 percent of clergy...involve themselves in homo- sexual activity...
...Yearly subscriptions...
...NW, Room 109 Washington, DC 20037 textbooks on psychopathology, including pattems of heterosexuality, homosexuality, masturbation, molestation of children, pornography, transvestism, exhibitionism, alcoholism, and several medical disorders that result in abnormal sexual behavior...
...His summary diagram shows that, in his study, half of the fifteen hundred priests were found to be practicing some type of sexual behavior that is con- trary to their promise to live in a celibate manner...
...Frankly, I have much more confidence in the moral judgments of these soldier- CO's...
...of a group of military counselors who went to Germany to counsel U.S...
...Special two-year rate: U.S., $57...
...Or it could be argued that when these CO's walked away from their guns and tanks, they were capitulating in this war of nerves...
...The author selects disguised examples from his study of priests to show that presumably celibate men are engaging in virtually every possible type of sexual activity...
...Canada, $34...
...foreign, $37...
...Sipe makes clear at the beginning that be'has not conducted his study according to the canons of scientific research...
...One soldier told of how his computer skills would be used to call in coordinates for air and artillery fire on entire city blocks...
...and (3) the information provided by priests' "lovers, sexual partners, victims, or otherwise direct observers of it...
...Sipe does himself and the reader a disservice by implying that his valuable, though biased, findings can be understood to represent a sexual profile of the entire American Catholic presbyter- ate...
...To the Editors: In your recent editorial [January 11 ], you assert that the U.S...
...CORRESPONDENCE Civilians & war Minneapolis, Minn...
...Each soldier told a unique and deeply personal story about confronting his or her participation in war...
...But peo- ple who want to make these arguments should first listen to what these CO-soldiers think and feel about using means that, in the words of your editorial, "will not spare significant numbers of people, civilians and soldiers, from death or life-altering trau- ma...
...These soldiers were able to explain in very con- crete and specific ways how their duties would require them to kill whoever gets in the way of "the mission," by whatever means prove most efficient...
...mil- itary has means available in the Gulf crisis that could be put to use without violating just war standards...
...82: Commonweal actually supporting it...
...I have recently been speaking with people who have profound misgivings about this kind of abstract utilitarian rea- soning...
...MICHAEL J. BAXTER, C.S.C...
...It could be argued, I suppose, that these CO's haven't grasped "the big picture," that they are too narrowly focused on one of the criteria for a just war, i.e., just means, at the expense of the others...
...107, 111, Paul Valerry...
...soldiers about conscientious objection...
...None of them harbored any illusions about the means that would be employed in this conflict...
...Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y...
...Graciously undistracted by the big picture, having set aside the Pentagon's numbers games, they have decided that, in the words of Robert Chandler, Second Armored Division (Forward), "I will in no way, shape, or form, participate and contribute in the senseless slaughter of another man or woman...
...Sipe makes the statement that "'about 20 percent of priests vowed to celibacy...
...Tragically, the current U.S...
...HARVEY F. EGAN "Utilitarian logic" Durham, N.C...
...These match the topics listed in VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: .9age range form 21 to retired .9faith-based .9nonviolent .9one year commitment .9Spanish speaking or willing to learn...
...After discussing these elements, Sipe (sur- prisingly to me) complains that there is "no seminary in the United States, training priests, which has so much as a one-semester course on celibacy or on the nec- essary correlative material of human sexual development...
...Illustrations:Cover design, p. 95, Antonucci...
...It displays a much deeper commitment to the strate- gists and policymakers in Washington than to the hundreds of thousands of Catholics and others in the military who may soon be ordered to do horrible things to innocent people...
...He makes no attempt, however, to show how the indi- viduals became prone--whether by nature or num~e-- to engage in their various non- celibate ways of functioning...
Vol. 118 • February 1991 • No. 3
