Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE Hold that baby! Newport, R.I. To the Editors: Neville Braybrooke's "A Christmas Alphabet" [December 20, 19911 was a charming piece. And I loved the sketch of the Old Year...
...Athens, wonder...
...but even if we carry out such a program, we do not thereby avoid using a language that originated outside Catholicism...
...In the midst of an ice storm, she appeared at my door, dressed in tennis shoes, raincoat, no hat or gloves...
...DONALD KRAUS The writer is a senior editor with Oxford University Press...
...Christiane was full of miracles...
...and no appropriation of "New Age" symbolism is more extreme than, for instance, the European Christian appropriation of mistletoe and fir trees at Christmastime...
...CATHERINE CLARKSON Christiane, counselor Boston, Mass...
...The news of Christiane's death came to me the night I was sitting down to complete the final draft of the last chapter of a book—a chapter on the themes of death, resurrection, and hope...
...This is a different issue...
...It is a testimony to Christiane's pastoral gifts and sensitivity that she worked with me in a way that both respected the path I had already traveled and revitalized an ancient tradition to welcome me into the Catholic Christian family...
...William Shea raises the question of a specifically Catholic theology's use of materials from the wider culture, for instance, current philosophical understandings, political analysis, or cultural matters such as "New Age" thinking...
...First, when Christiane met me and initiated the catechumenate to which the article refers, I was not a "Harvard undergraduate" but a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, where Christiane was a visiting professor...
...Second, our RCIA process did not last three years but about six months...
...ADE BETHUNE Be fair to Bush Huntington, N.Y...
...Summit, N.J...
...The effort to go behind Aristotelian Thomism to the "great tradition," the "thought of the first millennium," is important...
...Christiane traveled with many books and few personal things...
...Her death and her struggle with depression will always remain poignantly related in my heart to her belief in the Resurrection, her love of God, and the energetic hope she conveyed to so many of her "children...
...Nothing was half-measure for her...
...We know that biblical language contains images, ideas, phrases, and concepts from Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Canaanite, and other ancient Near Eastern cultures...
...James Parker on Christiane Brusselmans moved me to tears...
...You should now make the same offer to George Bush, provided he pledges not to run...
...Her blue eyes, rosy cheeks, glorious smile, and "alien talk" had us all enthralled...
...Where does this leave us...
...And ain't that the truth...
...REV...
...Kent, Conn...
...Given these facts, the objections of Cardinal Ratzinger and others to such appropriations now are based, not on the fact that they are foreign to Catholic traditions, but rather that they arc new...
...I am stimulated enough to wish to advance the argument further...
...For the sake of historical accuracy, I must offer some corrections to Mr...
...Virtually all the technical language of patristics is of Greek philosophical origin (or Latin translations of it...
...That baby is going to slip right through...
...Shea urges us to converse about the two approaches and thereby prejudges the discussion...
...I wish and hope for abrogation of the legal requirement of priestly celibacy in favor of voluntary and charismatic celibacy...
...She managed to get to Maine to say goodby to Ellie, who died too young a year ago...
...To the Editors: Your offer to extend Mario Cuomo's subscription to Commonweal four more years if he runs for president is indeed generous ["Mario...
...I saw her last about two years ago...
...WILLIAM M. PETERSEN Theology issue: Onward...
...no support under his little bottom...
...To the Editors: The January 31 issue of Commonweal is splendid...
...To the Editors: 0, bless you and James Parker for the consoling, splendid memorial to Christiane Brusselmans ["The Mother of Christian Initiation," January 31 ]. Christiane was a big part of my life 30: 28 February 1992 Commonweal in CCD days in Washington, D.C...
...To the Editors: Leo Strauss once wrote that Jerusalem represents revelation...
...Parker's moving essay...
...Meantime, keep nudging Cuomo...
...New York, N.Y...
...To the Editors: Congratulations on producing an issue [January 311 with really first-rate reflections on the dialogue between theology and the world...
...Reasonable people will differ, and (as we should know from study of past theological conflicts) there is probably no way to arrive at a definitive answer without the passage of time...
...Third, I did not "ask Christiane to help me enter the church" but rather shared with her a journey of several years and the decision I had already made and to which I had not yet given shape, delaying my entrance into the church while I wrestled with questions related to the role of women in the church and with my own ministerial vocation...
...And I loved the sketch of the Old Year lovingly holding the baby New Year in his inexpert arms...
...But, as he knows, such appropriations are not unique to our century...
...To the Editors: Thank you for publishing James Parker's tribute to Christiane Brusselmans, my teacher, godmother, and friend, whose memory is blessed and whose life work is cherished by Christians around the world...
...the influence of Roman and medieval political forms on the development and shape of the papacy should be obvious...
...I think of her meeting with her dear parents, the likes of Thomas Merton, Ellie, so many others...
...another, obedience to an enduring tradition...
...It was and is the "glorious freedom of the children of God" Grieving with certainty of hope and faith, I will remember her joyous voice on the phone from the airport: "Katrin, c'est Christiane...
...BROTHER AELRED SETON Theology issue: Slanted...
...Please," January 171...
...In fact, at no point in the history of the development of biblical tradition is there a time when the "great tradition" was not appropriating material from its surrounding culture...
...William Shea's piece is clear, helpful, and irenic...
...Surely, where we have always been: with the responsibility to test new formulations, to see if they make sense of our religious experience, if they are in accord with our reasoned thought about God and the world, if they are consonant with (not identical to) the formulations of Scripture and tradition, if they bring new light to our understanding...
...Thanks for all your labors week after week...
...JANE REDMONT Commonweal 28 February 1992: 31...
...The same applies to Father Joseph A. Komonchak's wonderful essay on Henri de Lubac...
...Christiane, catechist Charleston, W. Va...
...Aristotelian or neo-Platonic language forms a large part of the traditional Christian vocabulary of theology...
...THOMAS E. MADER Charismatic celibacy Heidelberg, Germany To the Editors: With reference to the exchange of views on the question of married priests ["Ecclesia Semper Reformanda," October 11, 19911, I am a priest, age ninetysix years...
...It may be that some of the new material is inimical to Catholic or generally Christian faith, but one cannot point to its source outside the Catholic tradition as evidence against it without calling into question (Continued on page 30) 2: 28 February 1992 Commonweal CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 2) much that now exists inside that tradition but originally came from elsewhere...
...Thanks again for one of the best issues of theological reflection that I have ever seen...
...Now the weight of glory is on the other side...
...Nor does the effort to go back to a biblical language help us much...
...While she was doing theology at Catholic University and teaching at Trinity, she brought some students to help prepare my fourth-grade class for the Eucharist...
...Elinor Briefs, poet-hermit, who lives above the Shenandoah and Berryville Trappists, and who often gave rest and rescue to Christiane, had the mot juste: No one is as free as Christiane...
...ALFONS BEIL Theology issue: Great...
...I thawed her out and phoned a colleague of hers to come fetch her, bringing boots, etc., to deliver her to a conference in Brookland...
...Then Lawrence Cunningham's reviews—always helpful...
...But much that is being done against the ecclesiastical order, partly without the bishops' knowledge, partly with their tolerance, is a cancerous affliction of the church...
...He said that one admires both and wonders which to choose—and by that very wonder one chooses Athens...
...In the same way, William Shea ["Dual Loyalties in Catholic Theology," January 31 1 describes two approaches to theology, one favoring free conversation among many human experiences...
...She and her artist-roommate, Ellie Landreau (Pavlov), stayed up more than one night preparing pictures, songs, vestments for those astonished little black catechumens...
...we met in the fall and I was received into the church at Easter...
...Faithful courage is required on the part of both the church's leaders and her sacred people...
Vol. 119 • February 1992 • No. 4
