Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 114) on the June 16 demonstration in Boston, protesting Cardinal Bernard Law's views, and the part in that protest of the American Association of...
...The motivating force behind AAUW's participation was the cardinal's active opposition to these issues of individual rights and public education/safety...
...Cardinal Law has chosen not merely to follow his own religious beliefs, but he has taken an active political role in changing public policy--an attempt to deny other people their rights to follow their own beliefs (religious or otherwise), or to live safely and free from unjust discrimination...
...Rev...
...Schwickrath, as well as earlier correspondents, miss the point of my article...
...John Gouldrick, C.M...
...SUSAN TETELMAN HELEN SCHWICKRATH The author replies: Addressing first the particulars, I note: (1) In the call for participants published in the June 10-16 Gay Community News, sixteen (and not fifteen, as I incorrectly counted them) organizations are listed as endorsing the protest...
...We saw no "pelting" or throwing of condoms at priests, and did not hear the swearing chants to which Robert Dawson referred...
...Most of the activity consisted of controlled chants, walking around in oblong circles, then around the cathedral, speeches, and some street acting (lying down on the ground with chalk drawn around bodies to symbolize deaths from AIDS, homophobic hate crimes, and illegal abortions...
...Vanilla wafers were given out innocently and without sarcasm, but probably with eucharistic reference...
...3) All the acts described in my article were mentioned in reports carried by the Boston print and electronic media...
...It is astounding that the myth of some secret Roman Catholic political power continues to survive outside the church...
...During the six weeks that passed before I submitted my text to Commonweal, no objections to the newspaper reports were published, and no one else has questioned the accuracy of my description of what happened...
...ROBERT DAWSON John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family Providence Hospital Archbishop Fiorenzo Angelini Rev...
...Certainly, the cardinal's religious affiliation was not considered as a factor in joining the demonstration...
...I based particular descriptions of two of them (simulated anal and oral sex, the abuses aimed at a newly ordained priest and his mother) on reports of priests who witnessed them...
...Cardinal Law is an authoritative religious figure...
...To our knowledge, there was only one incident in which an individual approached a priest (the one who was walking with his mother...
...True, members of ACT-UP distributed condoms, as they do at all rallies (to promote safe sex...
...Nor did we see any "simulated acts of anal and oral sex...
...Obscene parodies of the Sermon on the Mount and of the Eucharist strike at the heart of Christian faith in Jesus Christ and at the most central act of Catholic worship...
...All but five of the organizations include a reference to gays and/or lesbians in their titles...
...Overall, we thought that the demonstration was peaceful, poignant, and well controlled...
...After last year's invasion of St...
...In fact, that is our belief...
...Read--"Conversation Made Easy"--144 Pages...
...Among the five is the American Association of University Women, which is listed separately and not simply as a member of the Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Rights...
...but the sheer numbers of protesters do not support the assertion that busloads of ACT-UP people were imported from New York for this event, and we suspect that this allegation is without foundation...
...More importantly, Ms...
...A few protestors wore symbolic robes and headdresses, as a statement to remind people that preserving the separation of church and state is paramount in a pluralistic society...
...it was the equivalent of a profanation of the Torah or a desecration of Mecca...
...AAUW is a member of the coalition...
...but the condoms clearly were not used as a substitute for the Eucharist...
...The demonstration was designed to protest"Cardinal Law's attempt to impose his religious doctrine onto our society through public policy" (from a letter by the sponsors requesting endorsements...
...5.00...
...Catholic bishops have as much fight as anyone else to participate in the public debate and to try to shape the public polity, and their efforts are no more impositions than those of, say, the leaders of the civil rights movement or of gay and lesbian movements...
...AAUW's public policy is at odds with the cardinal's views in all these areas...
...Benedict M. Ashley, O.P...
...It remains a mystery to me why any university-related organization would wish to be linked with them...
...Classified payable with order...
...monthly in advance for more than three times...
...COMMONWEAL, 15 Dutch St., NYC 10038...
...effectively to challenge the efforts of Catholic prelates to influence public policy, they might first display greater discrimination in political analysis than is shown in claims that these are attempts to "impose" religious doctrine on others...
...I singled out the endorsement of the protest by the American Association of University Women because one would like to think that such a group might have a certain interest in civil and reasonable discourse to resolve matters of public disagreement...
...Patrick's Cathedral, the AAUW cannot have been ignorant of the tactics employed by ACT-UP, which other critics have not hesitated to associate with brown shirts and gangsterism...
...If only on tactical grounds, spokespersons for the AAUW should be more careful of the company they keep...
...If we thought that the target of the protest was the Catholic religion, then ours very well may have been among the voices raised in outrage against a religious injustice...
...Secondly, if the object of the Boston protest was to persuade Catholics, the demonstrators could hardly have chosen tactics less likely to attract them or more likely to confirm the views of those Catholics who believe the movement for gay rights to be fundamentally antiChristian...
...142: Commonweal It was not to condemn the organization of a protest against Cardinal Law--I agree, as I suspect the Cardinal does, that such protests are to be expected--but that the protest took the form of a vilification of central elements of Catholic Christianity...
...Rev...
...I do not see any evidence that the protest was endorsed by "a wider variety of organizations than one might think from the article...
...Endorsements came from a wider variety of organizations than one might think from the article...
...76r three times...
...Quite possibly, the innocuous and predominantly uneventful nature of the demonstration--and not a lack of respect for Catholics--lay as the basis for fairly limited media attention or public outcry...
...72r six times...
...Lorenzo Albacete Robert Destro Carl A. Anderson A program in cooperation with the KNtGHTS OF COLUMBUS 22 February 1991...
...Tatelman and Ms...
...2) Since media estimates of the size of the demonstration range from three hundred to one thousand, I do not see how "the sheer number of protesters" excludes my point about the participation of New York members of ACT-UP...
...143...
...Confidence Builder FEEL CONFIDENT AROUND PEOPLE...
...Jerry Falwell, the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, and others have met with protest when they have attempted to influence public policy by imposing religious views on an unwilling public...
...CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 114) on the June 16 demonstration in Boston, protesting Cardinal Bernard Law's views, and the part in that protest of the American Association of University Women (AAUW...
...When religious doctrine is used to restrain individual liberty rights, then the active proponents of that conduct open themselves to symbolic caricature in public protest...
...When he (or any powerful cleric) uses his authority to undertake an active role in shaping public policy issues, he must expect to be held accountable...
...But such was not the case...
...In the same way, Rev...
...Specifically, the letter mentioned Cardinal Law's views against AIDS education in public schools, denial of women's right to abortion, and active opposition to the gay civil rights law...
...This was far more than "a lack of respect for Catholics...
...Unless words have lost all meaning, I cannot agree that "the demonstration was peaceful, poignant, and well-controlled," or of an "innocuous and predominantly uneventful nature...
...The individual engaged in a verbal encounter, and the police (not the protesters) surrounded the couple and escorted them away...
...Francis Martin William May Rev...
...Finally, if members of the AAUW want CLASSIFIED RATES: 80r a word, one time...
...My article described the incident as another illustration of the degeneration of public conversation in our country today and expressed wonder that while a"revulsion threshold" has been reached when language and symbolic acts offend other minorities, this does not yet seem to benefit Catholics when similarly assaulted...
...Although the article focused only on the ACT-UP organization, the demonstration was sponsored by Reproductive Rights Network, ACT-UP/ Boston, and the Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Rights...
...This was not a planned activity of the demonstration, and certainly not one to which the AAUW members (or most of the protesters, for that matter) subscribed, despite the fact that we're not even sure what was said...
...However, his views alone are not what prompted AAUW to endorse and participate in this protest...
...REDWOOD HOUSE, 3902 Witherby St., San Diego, CA 92110-2913...
...Having participated in that event as AAUW members, we feel we must clarify certain inaccuracies in the article, and lend a different perspective to activities which took place there...
...Carol Keehan, D.C...
...I was not complaining that the event received "limited media attention"--in fact, it was widely covered~ut that there was no public outcry...
...We cannot attest to everything that went on at the rally, since we arrived a little late and, while there, did not witness everything that each individual may have done or said...
Vol. 118 • February 1991 • No. 4
