The Subversive Family:
Baumann, Paul
thority is both partial and reciprocal......
...Bruno Bet- in an unexceptional little nuclear family...
...Sidney Callahan Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY design, illustrated...
...Box 245, Mr...
...upon another, claims for services, affec- the hostility that Mount claims exists beAnd so on...
...An undergraduate education will your critics by demonizing them...
...X11111 _WWTW , REV...
...in theourselves in and remain vital at the same versities as a challenge, for we are talk- ology...
...But I get to scandalized when, on occasion, it gets Woodward omitted Dorothy Day and know campuses by participating in aca- things wrong...
...that the claims may be different for the two sides SERMON FROM THE MOUNT of the relationship, `asymmetrical' in the modem jargon, does not alter the fact that there are two sides...
...I consider Mr...
...I especially appreciated the The author replies: sition itself in the supermarket of higher example he gave of Frank O'Malley's legLet's see, I've mentioned Franciscan education as a place where obedience to endary classes at Notre Dame in the forUniversity at Steubenville twice in my life the (capitalized) Magisterium governs all ties and fifties, and how Robert Coles is and both times the university's public re- gives further pause...
...this after smugly discourses that focus on the Catholic/Christian sponses...
...519) 824-1250, ext...
...Murnion, Director, NPLC, 299 Elizabeth St., New York, NY 10012 or tax (212) 274-9786...
...CORRESPONDENCE early '50s and now is that in the old days Forty years as a subscriber is a lot of America's liberals knew that it was wrong momentum, I guess, so I'll hang in for an(Continued from page 2) to demonize your enemy, and said so...
...Woodward asks, in the quest to "adapt and remain vital...
...0 mores...
...I can remember many evenings when the future of COMMONWEAL was the number one topic of conversation in our house...
...are teaching, Rembert Weakland rather than nect to Dr...
...ther proof of the popularity and stability quences, and recognize that you have creof traditional family arrangements, not of ated an entirely new world which cannot Paul Baumann their decline...
...The sible parent to lay up treasure for the care The Subversive Family can border on the strong ascetical dimension to Christianity of children...
...This is a great victorymovement discovered it could get away with as much of a victory, I would argue, as attacking its enemies, including the most can reasonably be asked for...
...But he insists we THE SUBVERSIVE FAMILY modern rates of divorce (followed, of not seek the satisfactions characteristic of An Alternative History of Love and course, by remarriage), because they re- intimacy in the larger arena of politics or Marriage flect a devolution of authority from the state society...
...religious belief through an examination of six central symbols of the Christian creed...
...I don't suppose the Magis- Thomas Merton, writers Coles lectures on demic events there...
...When The Secretary, would this be carrying fair play too far...
...Intellectually and spiritually sound than of a spirit facing the reality of crisis nery O'Connor, Cardinal Newman, et al...
...what he judges to be erroneous assump- telheim's elucidation of the shallowness Similarly, if Mount attributes the longevitions about the evolution or plasticity of that besets relationships on the kibbutz is ty of the family to its unique ability to meet the family in Western culture...
...Nor other year and hope for the best...
...course offerings speak to the heart of Father and determined both to adapt to our new are read and enthusiastically discussed, and Schroth's challenge...
...It is a "Look here...
...Disagreement and Fax (519) 767-0994 for "heterosexual...
...Attractive, colorful zen...
...Couchman's point was lost when down and explains away his mischarac- Guelph, Ontario N I H 6J9, Canada Tel...
...and remain vital" is suggested by Patrick eralizations about the institution without JOSEPH A. NORTON Kelly's excellent article on "Schools ever having paid it a visit-although, I'm Worthy of Kids" in that same issue...
...ity," Mount writes...
...Carlin would impose on a'child-free' he disagrees-for example, homosexuals For further information contact: heterosexual marriage...
...MOST REV...
...As feminists remind us, 'our heritage is our power.' But only if we pass it on...
...A hothouse re- Education of the Whole Person...
...Woodward...
...Paulist Press, 997 Macarthur Blvd., Mahwah, NJ 07430 1-201-825-7300 299 Elizabeth St., NY, NY 10012-2806...
...I recommend tii6nilic:n}cc LARIANSf CHURCH magazine, rated by this volume enthusiastically, not only for personal study (W71'11011,1,0 the Catholic Press Association as "the best ut also for college, university, and seminary courses...
...be kept warm by the old love...
...Gift Suggestion FULLNESS "This book is a model of Catholic theology...
...anticipates A year or so ago I initiated an ex- its overthrow...
...Is there no spite their sexuality...
...April 91 answers his own critithe accusation of homophobia...
...Take remarkable survival, he concludes, is the Mount's complaint against Christianity, therefore no thought for the morrow"), and result of the fact that "it has a life of its own, his facile way with a scriptural reference, the more prosaic concerns of any respon- that in some sense the family is natural...
...Catholic culture, belief, Schroth's challenge with telling insights into change of letters with Fathers Edward A. and practice, along with the sincere piety where we have gone wrong, and several Malloy and Theodore M. Hesburgh of of orthodox students, are routinely mocked...
...Though it has not yet attained "I sympathize, but I fear that homosexual its goal of respect for gays and lesbians marriage will cause damage to the family, because of their sexuality, it has at least the most fundamental of all social institu- won nearly universal respect for them detions...
...It told, he has been invited...
...been the norm...
...Nowadays, To the Editors: Kenneth L. Woodward ment...
...It's like don't seem to be bothered by the demo- cism of Catholic colleges in admitting mace...
...Its degenerates into crushing isolation...
...women have en- sentially private, hierarchical, and histor- church of an unparalleled record of hisjoyed equality and authority within mar- ically continuous structure of family life...
...In a mischievous but penetrating re- for...
...Commonweal exciting, but the claims and One significant difference between the arguments have always been fair...
...And if you get uppity with us, we know level of learning, as Woodward surely sympathize, but I belong to a religion which how to put you back in your place...
...For further inforFULLNESS OF FAITH, The Public Significance of mation, send resume to Rev...
...ism" that informs the gay rights-move- as lackeys of the capitalist class...
...The lowed at Franciscan University...
...learned from Frank O'Malley, in a more has always considered homosexual conduct Back to the parable of the wheat and mature setting than discussions of the as sinful...
...Mount attributes the prevalence of For all its verve and clear-eyed analy"myths" about the family's changeableness sis, The Subversive Family, like all famF erdinand Mount's pleasingly to what he calls "simple-minded progres- ilies, has limitations...
...COMMONWEAL is one of the most MON PL authentic examples that the answer to this question is `yes...
...In 1924, the laity did not have a big role in either the church or the society, but numerical growth of the Catholic population in our country between the 1920s and the 1990s has been almost miraculous...
...Nothing Steubenville says about itself suggests that it is other than a sequestered Ad personam review college campus with none of the crossCLASSIFIED winds that buffet real universities...
...The gay-rights movement, like Bookmen and Wranglers...
...era and remain vital...
...I received politely supportive re- to their students...
...If you insist on equality, freedom, Ferdinand Mount and church to individuals, is in fact fur- separation, you must accept the conseFree Press, $24.95, 282 pp...
...Yet, Woodward is unable, or unwillof the teaching I do...
...Another homopho- nowadays...
...But I fully recognize that it has bic religion...
...fax (212) 274-9786...
...in error, the meaning of a passage in a letter DAVID R. CARLIN, JR...
...But incarnational religion, mon for bachelors...
...Each issue offers articles and reviews on `If you have ever longed to see the Church's social teaching fully grounded in theological reflection, this is the book for you...
...munity to find ways to promote Catholic "I wonder how many Catholic universiNot the least of his suggestions is that high school and grammar school educa- ties offer [courses in Catholic literature] Catholic colleges and universities offer tion...
...KENNETH L. WOODWARD a less spiteful person than Kenneth Position Serving Pastoral Ministry...
...Couchman wrote: my disappointment with the tone of some "Let me go out on the limb a little fur- editorials and some columns, particularly September 24-26, 1993 ther and suggest that gays would gladly those written by David R. Carlin, Jr...
...The political stances of Catholics and the witness ministry, Scripture, current theology, spir- of our faith are shown to be necessarily one...
...Mount does not deny the reality or value of a broader sense of community or solidarity...
...He is most impressive, ly powerful affirmations of human life, love, Mount slyly acknowledges...
...The nucle- put to good use here...
...Elizabeth Liebert, S.N.J.M., Professor San Francisco Theological Seminary ent family is a normative social institution To the Editors: Enclosed is my last-minute • Lawrence Murphy, S.J., Provincial, that would be weakened by the legitimation renewal, sent with misgivings because of Irish Province, Dublin of alternatives, Mr...
...Its editorials are the best, in my humble opinion, of any Catholic or secular journal I read...
...With typical and nearly per- tion, respect, and attention which can be tween these two venerable institutions is suasive bravado, Mount even argues that supplied only by that other person...
...they also conUp, my anti-utopian pessimism tends to demned those of the Left, namely, Getting students started maximize it, leading me to see Act-Up as Communists and fellow travelers (the true a logical consequence of the "Left McCarthy- reds and pinks) who dismissed all critics Oak Park, III...
...By the air you To the Editors: Couldn't you have found Position Opening breathe...
...nonviolent personalities can use it nization tactic as long as it comes from the that his intellectualism did not develop in effectively...
...0 tempora...
...published as Thomas Merton and the university regards as orthodoxy...
...Philip J. Theology, Michael J. Himes and Kenneth R. Himes, 0.F.M...
...the tares...
...In listing great literary figures, on-down invites all the time...
...The Center serves ticle ["Catholic Higher Education"] was DORIS R. ASMUNDSSON many networks of people in pastoral ministry...
...Our greatest apolosecular institutions, and today as a professor ideal of education that we inherited in such gists-e.g., Newman, G.K...
...wonderful suggestions on how Catholic ed- Notre Dame, and with Father Aloysius The past three years, however, I have ucation might begin to focus its intellec- Kelly of Fairfield University on the need spent getting an M.A...
...Second, the university's effort to po- right on target...
...Mount's spirited atis hardly a dull page in his sermon on the that can animate the state or the church...
...Hardly a day goes by where I for the most part, accurate, yet it is marred employment...
...disagreeable views have always made Commonweal 18 June 1993: 29 doesn't think that's a big deal, he's missed ing a travel book by Mark Twain, writing Woodward's blind spot something fundamental...
...I think it is one of the finest Catholic periodicals in the United States...
...Franciscan University has My remarks focused on the experience doctoral dissertations on Day (Robert never issued me such an invite, which is of undergraduate Catholic education...
...Does a Protestant say, "I sympathize, but all movements, has its good side and its As to peace and justice, if Woodward every Bible verse I find on the subject ap- bad...
...ing about a crisis confronting the feeder ology and chaplaincy departments) is In the same April 9 issue, Kenneth schools on which a good part of the col- ruled over by those who interpret the leWoodward's marvelous "Catholic Edu- lege admission structure still depends...
...Woodward's ity for promoting and supporting pastoral To the Editors: Kenneth Woodward's ar- entire review an ad feminam attack...
...But it is a ser- to my mind, in his defense of the family's and affection...
...gitimate development of doctrine to mean cation: What Happened...
...Does a Catholic say, "I you...
...They are most applienough to point to the problem...
...As one tells us [Correspondence, April 9] that programmatic, operational, and intellec- who has, in contrast with Woodward, David R. Carlin, Jr...
...COMMONWEAL has played an important part in this extraordinary phenomenon, and I am sure it will continue to make important contributions to the intellectual strength and spiritual depths of Catholic life in this country...
...Ignatius from Max Couchman [Correspondence, Presenters May 211 was altered, not to say mangled...
...What his undergraduate days at Notre Dame but akin to the "red" or "pink" charge in the it boils down to is that the American cul- on the graduate level at several other unidays of Joe McCarthy: a way of silencing tural elite is saying to the great unwashed: versities...
...Tell me, David, and those favoring women clergy...
...Idealistic notions of the human need for intimacy, to what does ar, not the extended family, has always social "brotherhood" and undifferentiated he attribute the longevity of Christianity...
...Perhaps that's an ad hominem church experience and organizational abil- Trappist, Ky...
...1-1 „11,1:H ~ ,'I ,i professional magazine" for pastoral min- -Richard P. McBrien isters, is a welcome gift for pastoral minis- University of Notre Dame ters-newly graduated or long experienced...
...A not untypical comment: al, cultural, and spiritual achievements of Steubenville...
...Given the histhe sharing, "sensitive" contemporary fa- lationship one person makes unique claims torical allegiance of families to the church, ther has a good many historical precedents...
...most ordinary people have equality cannot be reconciled to the es- Here he seems to want to convict the always married for love...
...tack on the church's "threat" to the famimutlifarious virtues of coupling...
...curate) slap at Franciscan University of Catholic tradition...
...Once the won tolerance...
...is quite penetrating and, order to pass a GED exam and qualify for around me...
...SARGENT SHRIVER, Special Olympics International, Washington, D.C...
...statement...
...in this class I caught the The writer is professor of history at "correct" enough for Mr...
...Just $26, published quarterly by the National Pastoral Life Available from your bookstore or Center: (212) 431-7825...
...The Sermon on the Mount proselytizing, and Mount's intellectual en- can easily obscure its reciprocal and equalis a wonderful, intoxicating sermon," ergy rarely flags...
...do you tell the difference...
...February 121 stopped tual problems facing all the Saint Angelas spent the last ten years of my life on short of where we need to go in finding of our Catholic world-whether in inner Catholic campuses, I can vouch for the or restoring what is Catholic in our Catholic cities, affluent suburbs, or rural areas-, truth of his laments about the state of institutions of higher education...
...And so do my stu- history stands among the great intellectu- ing, to see this in actual practice as it is in dents...
...the au- not plausible...
...I have no trouble heed- now doing something very similar at lations officer has invited me to come look ing said magisterium since I know its lim- Harvard in his "Literature of Christian for myself...
...in theology at tual energies and, one hopes, its resources, for the Catholic higher education com- Franciscan University...
...JOHN MALLON 30: 18 June 1993 Commonweal ish...
...The Woodward to review Anna Quindlen's National Pastoral Life Center in New York book ["A Visit to QuindlenIand," May City is looking for an assistant director with O'Malley lives 21...
...Does a nonreligious person say, its good side...
...torical oppression that, when issued as a riage...
...the wider Catholic tradition which I cher- which pass themselves off as universities...
...If I have emphasized the bad, it's bepears to condemn homosexual conduct...
...FULLNESS OF FAITH makes clear the social significance of Deadline: June 30...
...ROBERT S. SMITH, campus minister, ~r,-• State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook ` '`'''' "Why do I send gift subscriptions to COMMONWEAL...
...SIDNEY CALLAHAN, professor of psychology, Mercy College rganization...
...PATRICK HART, O.C.S.O...
...The "homophobic" charge is correct end of the political spectrum...
...How Jackson Heights, N.Y...
...But where Hoyt's utopian optimism did they confine their condemnation to de- ROBERT W. MARRION tends to minimize the significance of Act- monizers from the Right...
...As tion of the church's meddling in family humanity, passion, and wisdom embodied every parent knows, eventually one must life as he is of the more straightforward in the traditional arrangements by which send one's children off into that world rationalistic assaults on the traditional men and women have sought love and af- There is no simply private solution to the family by most Marxists and many fem- fection and in which children are best cared problem of family life-the world comes inists...
...such an education, it is necessary but not (Thomas Del Prete, whose thesis was later Nor would I be, I suppose, given what the sufficient to teach the Christian classics...
...It is not call for thoughtful consideration, debate, Catholic education...
...The litmus test of whether a Catholic college has an enduring impact on its graduates should be the number of alumni who subscribe to Catholic journals of opinion like COMMONWEAL-We need to get COMMONWEAL into the hands of more young people so they know they can live a life of faith with intelligence...
...cause that's the side too little stressed Another homophobe...
...In other words, it has end to these homophobic bigots...
...Gilles Cusson, S.J., Founder, Centre d A problem of tone Responding to an April 9 column by Da- spiritualite tgnatienne, Quebec vid R. Carlin, Jr...
...and writes about...
...Before I knew what hit me I was read- Union County College in New Jersey...
...It offers a marvelous combination of orthodoxy and brains-that's a rare combination...
...266 the word "homosexual" was substituted terization of large groups...
...Gift card included, or buy Paper $14.95 a subscription for yourself...
...If a student feels the need Another area besides course offerings Steubenville...
...It is not the first time he has to read Kierkegaard later on, his books will where Catholic higher education can "adapt done so in print, offering sweeping genalways be available on a library shelf...
...First, its long and trou- dents and professors it may be safe...
...DR...
...in God's earthly providence...
...We regret the error...
...Commonweal 18 June 1993: 31 w JJ1J 1 "I want my children to keep the faith but I don't want them to feel they have to close their minds...
...Mark him down as a homophobe...
...Chestertonof history at a community college, I dear- enriching ways from our parents' gener- show that they are, in fact, essential to that ly prize the Catholic roots and substance ation, an ideal that in the fullness of its life...
...PETER A. ROSAZZA, D.D., Archdiocese of Hartford "I grew up in a COMMONWEAL family...
...In brief, Frank O' Maltion does not mean that Steubenville is tradition, though for some kinds of stu- ley was to Notre Dame what Merton was on the right track...
...He is primitive to higher and more complex a refuge from an otherwise impersonal, as stinging in his condemna- forms...
...Context matters greatly...
...This pervasive bias blinds us to the competitive, and individualist culture...
...we decide what beliefs and at best plant the seeds which may motiManichaean tactic, dividing the world into values will prevail in this country, not vate a serious student to pursue a higher angels and devils...
...Perhaps Franciscan Uni"...The only courses I have taken here the West...
...where it is understood that faith-and, yes, As a product of Catholic education God knows the need is present...
...and social ministry...
...He has also directed not education...
...In my business I get y'all-come- its as well as its necessity, and I am not Reflection...
...confronted by a letter-writer, he backs Loyola House, P.O...
...If I were com- GUELPH CENTRE OF SPIRITUALITY reasonable, as homophobic, it was only a mander-in-chief of the gay rights move- Symposium on Ignatian Spirituality ment (an unlikely eventuality, I realize), The Eighteenth Annotation CORRECTION Because of an editing I would declare victory and go home...
...The Spiritual Exercises of St...
...It addresses NEWLY ASSIGNED PASTORAL MINIS- major theological and social questions in the light of OF FAITH TERS, SEMINARY GRADUATES, JUBI- classically Catholic categories: creation, grace, incarna- "Ihc !' ihlit tion, sacramentality, and community...
...a caring and affectionate attitude "Intimacy always entails personal author- Marxist or feminist indictment, he sensitoward children is not a modern invention...
...arguing that the two-par- Niantic, Conn...
...Salary competitive...
...0 28: 18 June 1993 Commonweal matter of time before Act-Up would emerge...
...this impressive work of synthesis is not ituality, plus practical help with parish or- only original and engaging, but it may change your life forever as a believer and citiganization and staffing...
...higher education is already being folTo the Editors: Raymond Schroth, S.J., But Band-Aid checks will not cut it...
...Hogan's class in particular, or He takes an utterly gratuitious (and inacSoren Kierkegaard, and it is the American history in general...
...we are chal- and a program of action-and their needs cable to the large, well-known Catholic lenged "to adapt to the new era we find should be seen by our colleges and uni- university where I earned my B.A...
...This institution (especially its thetime...
...ED MARCINIAK, Institute of Urban Life, Chicago "It's a great way to keep cross-generational conversation lively (and, perhaps, conflicts, too...
...So too, obedience and submission to legitimate authrough my undergraduate years, with a I believe, are the resources necessary to thority-are not incompatible with the master's and a doctorate from leading find ways of remaining true to the Catholic life of the intellect...
...LAWRENCE D. HOGAN versity is not politically or religiously were pretty basic...
...The ed- Especially telling is his analysis of the ly fails to come to terms with the fact that itor of the Times Literary Supplement, dilution of human feeling inherent in the this supposedly antifamily religion is about Mount covers an enormous amount of search for some sense of fraternity or sol- a God born of a human mother and raised historical territory, briskly disposing of idarity outside the family...
...JOSEPH HYNES, professor o f English, University of Oregon in Eugene "Is it possible to be a genuinely contemporary man or woman and to be a believer...
...prompted me, as I suspect it did many other The chief irony of this is that the preRescuing our heritage readers, to write a check in support of Saint scription Woodward offers for Catholic Cranford, N.J...
...but, thinking now in Raymond missing Franciscan University, where, as body of literature, which ranks among the Schroth's terms, their replies strike me as it happens, those courses are taught, where great intellectual achievements of Western full of images of "death and fire," rather Christopher Dawson, Walker Percy, Flanculture...
...Angela's efforts...
...As Christopher Lasch iconoclastic defense of do- sivism," the modern intellectual assump- demonstrated in Haven in a Heartless mesticity and romance courts tion that basic social institutions evolve from World, the family cannot thrive merely as few predictable allies...
...One to the monastic life, Day to the lay aposbled history with the charismatic move- of my biggest gripes as a parent, howev- tolate, and (thank God) Coles is to the secment does not portend at-homeness with er, is the number of Catholic colleges ular university...
...This is what Catholic colleges don't read or hear something that I can con- by what appears to be a glaring blind spot...
...bug...
...For Ellsberg of Orbis Books) and Merton to say I've never really been invited at all...
...particular and exclusive relationships against after all, is about the consecration of the Mount is hard on bachelors, but there the abstract and universalizing schemes body, not its denial...
...I am proud and a poem about 'Yertle the Turtle,' contemhappy that my children have learned at Saint plating cave art, Gothic art, and New York Steubenville, Ohio Mary's College and Marquette University City `street' art, listening to the genius of To the Editors: Kenneth Woodward's analthe value of volunteering their time to Paul Robeson, Izzy Stone, and the 2,000- ysis in his "Catholic Higher Education: teach deprived adults to read and write in year-old man, and seeing history in the world What Happened...
...my beat, after all, is terium is ever wrong at Steubenville...
...From Christianity to radical feminism, home with us every day...
...Without a meanbuke to the "carefree attitudes of the the family has been the object of concert- ingful larger world to receive us, the freeSermon on the Mount," he presses hard ed assaults by the enemies of individual free- dom and privacy Mount rightly extols on the conflict between faith's call to trust dom and choice, Mount contends...
...COMMONWEAL shows them they don't have to...
...Michael Williams himself and some of the early, great COMMONWEAL editors and writers like George Shuster, Thomas F. Wheelock, and R. Dana Skinner were friends of my parents...
...In a truly intimate re- bly dismisses out of hand...
...is not merely an idiosyncratic grudge...
...He at- LOYOLA HOUSE accept any reduction of social perks which tributes extreme views to those with whom Guelph, Ontario Mr...
...The weapon of choice for even the by contrast, most people who have ap- ["Catholic Higher Education: What Hapmost genteel members of the movement is propriated the title "liberal" for themselves pened...
...Coles also That some Catholic colleges and uni- ligious environment is not the best con- gave the Merton lecture at Columbia versities are lax in passing on the tradi- text for nurturing a Catholic intellectual University last year...
Vol. 120 • June 1993 • No. 12
