Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE A feminist, but... Drexel Hill, Pa. To the Editors: I could easily identify with David Carlin's recent column ["I'm Not a Feminist, But..." January 17]. I know plenty of women...
...KATHARINE BYRNE It's a satire, right...
...Leaving women "high and dry" has a light, comfortable, boys-will-be-boys sound to it...
...The editorial suggests some questions for all Commonweal's readers...
...The feminists I know—social workers, lawyers, psychologists, volunteers at shelters— are more likely to see persons one at a time than systems or institutions as such...
...Surely, church promotion of, say, workers' rights or racial equality was loud and clear before I977...
...Go ahead...
...For example, he subtly yet forcefully clarifies how feminists are maligned for objecting to discriminating norms when their interests are ignored and their contributions are limited by institutions and individuals who insist that their own pseudo-norms be accepted as universal standards...
...You accused the church of ignoring "evidence" of abortion's nonhomicidal character but failed to identify that evidence...
...We know that oft-repeated lies, particularly if they are politically and parochially sanctioned, do deceive the gullible...
...In this case, "the church" is defined as the bishops and the nonessential is their prolife campaign...
...Nevertheless the authority of the teaching of the bishops is not derived from such a process— as Commonweal itself admits...
...Yet, a caveat is in order...
...Worse, the boys may hang around to batter and abuse their families...
...3) I have read Dr...
...But where abortion is concerned she will not grant even a presumption of good will to New York's archbishop or the church...
...To the Editors: May I address only one of the misstatements in David Carlin's recent column on feminism...
...As a public affairs columnist, her opinions are no better than those of one's next-door neighbor...
...He was at the edge of effectively searing feminists, but he redeemed his role as sardonic jester when, after classifying communism and nazism as "other" ersatz religions, he pulled back to admit that feminism is not in the same league with "either of those" ideologies...
...The suggestions will err on the side of bluntness: First, go heavier on the historical perspective...
...Quindlen just doesn't know very much about anything that matters...
...In your Times column of January 29, you acknowledged the "horror" of late-term abortions...
...As a lifestyle columnist, she had a certain gift for light enter: tainment...
...It would be more reasonable, and certainly more coherent, to attempt to challenge the medical reality supporting the church's prolife stance— that a new human life begins at conception— than to dispute something because men say it...
...Father Santora is well on his way to becoming the best in journalists...
...The Teaching Ministry of the Diocesan Bishop: A Pastoral Reflection" will help your readers to answer such questions, while it urges the values both of authoritative teaching and of personal acceptance by the faithful...
...While Playboy's style manual would capitalize church in references to the Catholic Church, in deference to a tradition going back to Lenny Bruce, we note that you avoid capitalizing triumphalism in your reference to "Roman Catholic triumphalism...
...We could live with it at CUF...
...This, however, is no reason to suggest that dogmablind theocrats now roam the land in unprecedented force...
...Carlin's reputation as a worthy commentator...
...Et cetera...
...The final version of the doc44: 13 March J992 Commonweal ument is the result of a consultation of both the bishops and a large number of theologians whose views represent the broad spectrum of positions within the Catholic mainstream...
...However, I am not one of them...
...A capital-T Triumphalism would smack of preconciliar sectarianism and constitute a barrier to ecumenical efforts...
...You might "despair" when a "bishop denies the sacraments to an elected official because of his stand on a public matter"—when, as currently, the matter is abortion...
...In qualifying that comparison his satirical wit exposes the obvious, thereby revealing as transparent nonsense similar arguments put forth in all seriousness by sloppy writers trying to pass their work off as valid analyses of feminism...
...Veteran Thomists among your readers might approve this kind of distinguo, while modish Lonerganians would find it compatible with their "differentiated consciousness...
...I am further confused as to why Quindlen believes it is important for her to communicate with the public on issues she cares about "passionately," but that the church should not seek expert advice on how best to communicate about abortion, an issue the church cares about passionately...
...Commonweal J3 March 1992: 47...
...Hopkins, S.C...
...It lets them know that, while you sport authentic ethnic roots, you harbor none of those ungainly moralistic thorns...
...teach church leaders, that "group of unmarried men," how to discuss this difficult question in a clear, open, and nonconsequentialist manner...
...For me, another heroine, though a minor one, bites the dust...
...What is the authority of the statement on political responsibility in 1992, which the editorial so heartily approved...
...The key reason for your willingness to write about the church, you said, is that "the church has made it its business over the past fifteen years to enter aggressively into public dialogue on some of the most important issues affecting this country...
...Still, peek at some studies on Catholic education and you will avoid offensive lapses into condescension...
...How about years ago when the church excommunicated recalcitrant segregationists in the Deep South...
...church of the hierarchy" ecclesiology is unclear...
...I know plenty of women who feel this way...
...What I found disconcerting about the comment, apart from its general tone, is the fact that Commonweal's critique had much more to say about alleged omissions than it did about the document's positive content...
...Granted, nothing so reassures many nonCatholics and ex-Catholics as hearing a daughter or son of the church lament its supposed antiquarian authoritarianism...
...At last, she's a cover girl...
...For example, but I'm against abortion...
...But I envy the theological self-assurance of Quindlen, or anyone else, who can flatly pronounce: "I know that I am a good Catholic...
...To ignore the fact that problems have occurred in each of these areas, and with some frequency, would have made the bishops' pastoral reflection guilty of even more omissions than Commonweal charges...
...In the I950s, in fact, the bishops (your "church of the hierarchy") backed civil rights so vocally that the general public overestimated integrationist sentiment among a morally lagging Catholic laity (your "church of the people...
...To the Editors: Concerning "Lenny Bruce Lives" [Et cetera, January 31], we would like to offer an opinion on capitalization and religious nomenclature...
...The bishops' document speaks for itself on the issue of theological research, writings or opinions, and the media...
...Ms...
...To the Editors: What a lovely greeting you sent to your subscriber-friends on Valentine's Day I992...
...Luke's tuition rates begin at $8,490 a year) "when people are starving in the streets in the United States...
...The document's comments on the consultation process which accompanied the bishops' pastoral letters on the peace and the economy are in no way intended to diminish the value of the process...
...HELEN M. ALVARE The writer is director of information and planning, Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, National Conference of Catholic Bishops...
...To the Editors: I used to read Ann Quindlen when she was a lifestyle columnist in the Times...
...Likewise, Anna Quindlen is an economic actor and her spending also impacts hungry people...
...In truth, too often men leave their wives and children not "high and dry," but low in funds and wet with tears: poor, abandoned, and helpless...
...But how did German bishops blunder when they forbade Catholic membership in the Nazi party...
...Now that she's been promoted to Commonweal 13 March 1992: 45 issuing pronouncements on Native American affairs and Jane Fonda on foreign policy and today gives us innumerable television personalities and rock stars eager to instruct us on environmental issues and national elections...
...DAVID R. CARLIN (Continued on page 44) 2: 13 March 1992 Commonweal CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 2) Distrust from the start Washington, D.C...
...I'll dig up the citations for you...
...THE EDITORS which all men and women not misinformed by careless writers are likely to agree...
...Thus we avoided jumping totally into the fire...
...What of the Louisiana bishops' denunciations of David Duke's cause last November (or in the four previous Duke races...
...KEVIN M. DOYLE What drives ME crazy Lansing, Mich...
...It was appropriately decorated with "hot pink" designs plus a very good picture of Anna Q., herself...
...JAMES A. SULLIVAN The writer is vice-president of Catholics United for the Faith...
...She must have me mixed up with someone else...
...Quindlen, and the abortion advocacy movement in general, would do well to avoid slipping into the reverse sexism Quindlen demonstrates in Commonweal...
...Our apologies to Mr...
...Just to balance the Quindlen piece, Commonweal owes it to its readers to feature an interview with New Kids on the Block on, say, the Aristotelian theory of virtue...
...I am not able to make that same claim about myself, so it may be said that I have no standing to criticize...
...We feel this is an important nuance, and should be applauded...
...No reasons are given, unless you can make sense out of Quindlen's statements that the unborn could be "neither nonlife nor life," "burgeoning life," and "potential life"—all at the same time—and that abortion, therefore, is really not a destruction of life...
...1) Wini Wolff is correct: feminists of her type are not uncommon...
...Or is it derived from moral and political principles taught with authority by the bishops...
...Contrary to the charge that the document contains "a historical and intellectual hole," I suggest that it does indeed address issues posed by the Enlightenment and modernity...
...but I still believe in God...
...In my reading, the recent social science literature says that Catholic education has, most typically, left its students with both a keen, independent, high-on-theKohlberg-scale moral sense and solid prospects for future academic and professional achievement...
...To the Editors: Trying to find consistency in Anna Quindlen's varied pronouncements about the Catholic church is like trying to piece together a single puzzle only to find out that pieces from several puzzles have been jumbled together in the same box...
...January 31] faulted the document...
...But in this interview I read a woman who is self-righteous (I am a good Catholic), self-important (I would only choose to live at the center of the universe), and self-indulgent (none of the schools around her are good enough for us...
...The reason will be obvious to anyone who gave Quindlen's first few months of op-ed attempts a try...
...Third, no matter how tempted, withhold blanket objection to church exercise of institutional muscle...
...I would encourage your readers to discover for themselves what the bishops had to say about these and many other issues...
...There's something peculiarly American in this business of setting up as arbiters of public opinion people whose talents lie utterly elsewhere—the same logic that a few years ago had Marlon Brando solemnly Quindlen as arbiter Princeton, N.J...
...WILLIAM C. DOWLING Fine interview New York, N.Y...
...Small-t triumphalism New Rochelle, N.Y...
...DOBY Double standard Washington, D.C...
...One final note...
...Commonweal's attempt to read more into the reflection's statement about consultation is itself an example of the hermeneutics of suspicion at work...
...Only a muse-blest social scientist, ultra-wry humorist, and intrepid writer would risk compressing so many stereotypic caricatures, scapegoating techniques, and blamethevictim accusations in a brief, doubleedged piece...
...My fairly mainstream parochial education renders my acumen and independence suspect, of course...
...Careful, though...
...Perhaps the editors wish that this had been done differently or more explicitly...
...Quindlen says, "I know that I am a good Catholic...
...Tips for a pundit Birmingham, Ala...
...But that's my failing...
...And I know plenty of women who feel this way, too...
...Ducker...
...She praises the New York Archdiocese, calling it the best institution "in this city and, in my opinion, in this country" for aiding the homeless, the hungry, pregnant women and their babies...
...46: 13 March 1992 Commonweal Because I know so many people mangled by poverty in our society, one of the things that wealthy Catholics do that makes me crazy is their spending money on multiple homes and huge tuitions for their children's schooling (St...
...Perhaps we might call this moderate triumphalism, or, even, mediate triumphalism...
...To the Editors: Commonweal's editorial comment on "The Teaching Ministry of the Diocesan Bishop: A Pastoral Reflection" ["Behold, a Mouse...
...These women have goals with Correction: We regret that in the February 14 issue, the poet Bruce Ducker's name was misspelled when accompanying his poem, "The Frying Pan in Winter...
...You distinguished yourself from such sad wretches since (a) you grew up with "some sense [that] you were able to tell if something was a sin if you personally thought it was wrong or not," and (b) you enjoyed religious teachers who were "well-educated and intellectually rigorous...
...This is particularly true when the subject is abortion...
...In this, she's the very opposite of Flora Lewis, whose absence from the op-ed page one doubly laments...
...In this connection the reflection itself refers repeatedly to the NCCB's 1989 document "Doctrinal Responsibilities: Approaches to Promoting Cooperation and Resolving Misunderstandings between Bishops and Theologians...
...2) I agree with Katharine Byrne's observations, and I cannot understand why she imagines I would disagree...
...So review the surveys yourself...
...JOAN M. ALTERKRUSE, M.D...
...Second, do complain, but, please, also explain...
...Quindlen lavishes praise on the church for standing with those who are poor and otherwise disenfranchised, but simultaneously insists that the vulnerable unborn are not worthy of concern...
...the op-ed page, I no longer can ["Anna Quindlen," February I4...
...MICHAEL J. WALSH The writer is executive director of the Secretariat for Doctrine and Pastoral Practices of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops...
...Juxtaposing feminism and secular religion almost blew the writer's cover...
...Anecdote and personal experience are a columnist's stock-in-trade...
...It demonstrates the penetrating power of satire to illuminate a complex issue...
...CHRISTINE A.W...
...But I hope the criticism was not meant to imply that the agenda for a bishops' reflection on their teaching office ought to be determined by the agenda of the Enlightenment or modernity...
...WINI WOLFF Carlin too casual Chicago, Ill...
...bishops are economic actors and their spending decisions impact society at large and hungry people in particular...
...Without debating that particular spending decision, I agree that the U.S...
...To be concrete about it, you said: "I was clearly not educated as a classic Catholic school kid...
...Despite the sophistication of Commonweal's clientele, are we not concerned that an innocent or brainwashed reader might take his effort as a straightforward critique of feminism...
...Still, by retaining the term, albeit with a lower-case "t," we cling to the truth "that it is through Christ's Catholic Church alone that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (Decree on Ecumenism, #3...
...The care which the document urges the bishops to take in the exercise of their teaching authority would go a long way to prevent whatever past abuses of that authority the editors conjure up when they allude to "fears of their fellow citizens...
...Further, when theologians' speculative ideas or opinions are reported in the media, they have an obligation to do all that they can to ensure that these are accurately represented...
...Their emphasis is on relationships that respect the needs and rights of individuals, many of whom are oppressed by institutions...
...For me it's the other way round...
...MARY P. BYRNES, S.C...
...it illustrates the negative consequences for the Catholic community of an a priori attitude of distrust...
...but I don't hate men...
...Alterkruse's letter at least half a dozen times, and I still can't figure it out...
...Or you might check with the local education office of the church of the hierarchy...
...It serves as a reminder to theologians that part of their professional responsibility entails the avoidance of fomenting dissent or of calling into question the role of the magisterium...
...That would do disservice to the standing of your publication and, of course, to Mr...
...Fourth, consider the uses of empirical data...
...The very problematic the document addresses and the manner in which it presents the teaching office of the bishops engage questions raised by the intellectual and cultural currents of those movements...
...The author replies: Three brief responses...
...Fortunately, the correct spelling of his name did appear with his "Fragment," a poem which appeared in the February 28 issue...
...Or did the tragedy occur with the 1933 rescinding of the ban...
...No such luck...
...Permit me, however, some suggestions to the gifted columnist so that she can represent not just "many, many Catholics" but many, many, many, many Catholics...
...Today the bishops take some stands that embarrass you (and me...
...To the Editors: For Anna Quindlen, "one of the things that the church does that makes I her] crazy" is the spending of money on what she sees as nonessentials "when people are starving in the streets in the United States...
...God knows you have the ability and the soapbox...
...Unfortunately, they count for little or nothing in the leadership of the feminist movement...
...This point the document makes rather forthrightly...
...The South Carolina satirical style has always eluded me...
...I am disappointed that an intellectual journal such as Commonweal would publish Quindlen's ramblings...
...To the Editors: Thank you for publishing David Carlin's column on feminism...
...Gross generalizations and unfounded claims regarding the church's advocacy for the unborn may sell in the secular media market, but they are fish out of water in Commonweal...
...I am a feminist, but...
...Carlin makes an airy admission that men may and sometimes do "leave women high and dry while moving on to fresh woods and new pastures," whatever that means...
...Is it derived from the fact that the editors agree with its content...
...This made me feel hopeful you were about to explore fetal development and personhood seriously...
...Carlin's revealing use of irony cuts through the ploys of those who deplore inclusivity and who would prevent the loss of closely held controls...
...To the Editors: Just what constitutes a "good Catholic" in Anna Quindlen's "church of the people" vs...
...Such criticism by the professed Catholic puts everyone at ease...
...This interview reminds me of a Quindlen column in which she ridiculed release of a prolife film by celebrity sports figures—right after the prochoice movement (in which she includes herself) had organized Hollywood celebrities to visit Capitol Hill demanding abortion rights...
...REV...
...Carlin's pretense of delivering straight-faced prose while displaying egregious hubris and knuckle-headed insensitivity to legitimate feminist concerns assists the reader in understanding the dilemmas that feminists face...
...The interview was delightful, insightful, well-edited...
Vol. 119 • March 1992 • No. 5
