Turning wine into vinegar:

...Moreover, unlike enterprises clear- still that voice...

...ID room in the law between activity that is unqualifiedly protected under the First Amendment and activity that is severely OF SEVERAL MINDS Liz Leibold McCloskey punished under a federal statute in which Congress took aim at organized crime...

...Before the Supreme Court and approve of illegal tactics from memthe federal RICO statute...

...cluding civil disobedience, plays such an less be allowed to proceed with their suit On this point the animal-rights activists important role in shaping our society that because they alleged that the defendants enjoy the support of the American Civil the judiciary should not expand RICO to were "profiting" from their activities...

...Catholics of emerged...

...It is the scant attention paid to they would like the Court to do...

...represent truly and fully human, we must be able to send" since most of the engaged women major turning points in a marriage...

...All that is necessary is that the er-in-law to round up everyone she knows ing on the priest or married couple who Court decline to accept the invitation of to attend a Support Our Aging Religious conducted the course, a common complaint NOW to read the statute as expansively as (SOAR) fundraising dinner...

...Two needs seem bine family and work...

...Liberties Union, which also urged the apply to such activity without a clear man- What Now apparently means by this Court-in a separate brief on behalf of neidate from Congress to do so...

...To do so is to impinge on the traditional RICO crimes like mob extor- devastating effect of RICO to diminish or proper role of the states in punishing ac- tion...

...It is true you can never both partners have established careers by be fully prepared for everything...

...According to my parents uninterrupted...

...But this case grade school, not an unusual conversation I've ever been through," "amusing," "endoes not require the Court to strike down among Catholics of my parents' genera- joyable," "useful" to "we loved it," and "it an act of Congress for the simple reason tion...

...According to at least some newly balancing and juggling family and work One Catholic marriage preparation man- married couples, the answer is no...

...They are not the direct for civil libertarians to sustain a coherent should be wary of construing federal laws result of advocacy activities in the way and vigorous defense of the voice of as the appropriate vehicle for imposing economic gains are the direct product of protest in this society, without adding the sanctions...

...What are our un- not subjects of reflection nor was what their clear: First, greater attention should be paid derlying assumptions about our roles as lives and careers would look like with chil- to the changing trends of marriage when wife and husband, mother and father...

...The harmoniously combine the maternal and had come directly from work to attend the Catholic church, despite all the energy and family role of women with all other pub- Friday night session of the conference...

...that most couples inevitably face...

...When children come the questions become encounter in Anchorage, Alaska, found the and second, the church should direct more more pressing and more detailed: Is one weekend helpful and appreciated the em- attention to ongoing "marriage preparaof us going to have primary responsibili- phasis that was placed on communication tion" for those whose unions it has witty for our children and not work...

...claim is that Operation Rescue has re- ther party-to go slow before it allows Rico It is not that acts of civil disobedience ceived charitable donations from those charges to be leveled against the abortion go unpunished...

...wife in the two couples presenting the then to a couple with children (which Furthermore, writes the pope, if "we wish course worked outside the home, which makes everyone say things like, "Wow, the evolution of society and culture to be my cousins found "a funny message to now you are really a family...

...tweny-three and twenty-two, the question In his 1981 encyclical on the family, Fa- of work and family just wasn't a pressmiliaris consortio, upon which contem- ing one...

...in our republic (from the abolitionists to tation and receipt of donations by an or- There must be more to the law than the the suffragists to the Vietnam War pro- ganization engaged in social and political simplistic and stark choice that NOW urges testers) have usually suffered swift and cer- advocacy should not be considered evi- in the Scheidler case, between fully protain penalties for their conduct...

...resources poured into marriage preparalic roles and all other professions...

...and parents-in-law, pre-Cana was en- Do marriage preparation courses for My experience, and that of many of the couraged but easily bypassed in the late Catholics prepare couples for these ques- couples I know with young children, is that 1950s...

...But maybe they didn't miss much...

...On the contrary, dissenters who espouse their cause...

...My is a difficult task...

...Childbearing is con- a certain extent, the failure of these issues sequently being delayed, with couples Ati to be raised in pre-Cana sessions has to waiting several more years before start- i r do with timing...

...If Congress really means tivity that offends against the peace and ly targeted under RICO, nonprofit to do that to the struggle for the soul of dignity of their communities...

...The powerful influence of nuns is the was a great experience...

...Neither of a couple to a couple with a baby, and women's access to "public functions...

...But the solici- protestors...

...marriages, marriages of cohabitating couMarriage has changed...

...Lower Finally, RICO should not be applied to an willing to engage in acts of civil disobe- federal courts have disagreed, holding that organization that advocates radical social dience if they might otherwise bring only economic motivation is an essential ele- and political change without differentiatminor sanctions in state courts, but who ment of a RICO claim, and dismissing the ing members of the organization who know would rightly think twice about violating suit accordingly...

...dren...

...Couples mar- ples, older marriages, and many other rying now are generally older and often a variables exist...

...my generation have a different bond: at- the connection between family and work Since the case began six years ago, NOW tending marriage preparation sessions...

...Or will we have full-time child care women in attendance were working, and tus are a fairly recent phenomenon in so that both of us can pursue our careers all of them assumed that they would go most dioceses...

...When Peter and I were ing a family...

...It would have a strong that the acts of the abortion protestors who control the organizations...

...For many couples who are getporary Catholic marriage preparation ting married in their late twenties and courses are built, John Paul II welcomes early thirties though, decisions about efforts to promote the dignity of women, work and children are a little less hypothe increased attention paid to good in- ing outside the home was raised, the priest thetical...

...tions...

...And to the time they marry...

...problems with more than a blank stare on Those who are designing and evaluather pretty face...

...In 1989,60 percent of wom- getting married as graduate students at en with children were in the work force...

...But balancing family and nessed and blessed...

...The reach of RICO is now well beyond groups like "the Mafia," but the Court can artic- TURNING WINE INTO VINEGAR ulate principled limits on the use of the PRE-CANA NEEDS WORK federal government to avoid turning the federal courts into a forum for vengeance against ideological adversaries on the burning political issues of the day...

...When I began asking other would still be issues of constitutional lim- two other couples...

...Commonweal 5 November 1993: 7 Although the Catholic church has had both of us willing to make some sacrifice work, especially with children, was simmarriage preparation courses since the in our career in order to be home more ply never raised even though all of the 1930s, their importance and required sta- often...

...At the same time, a man should marry finances, in-laws, or sexuality-it always place we go for spiritual sustenance-the a woman approximately his intellectual came back to Natural Family Planning...

...Though people's that it does not now have such a statute kind of experience that prompts my moth- experiences varied wildly, often dependbefore it...

...Or are between partners...

...My cousin and her husual, published in the late '40s, urged cou- cousin and cousin-in-law, at whose wed- band, who live in New York City, are exples to understand their gender roles, so ding the conversation started, were deeply pecting their first baby, and lament the that husbands could lay down the law if disappointed with their pre-Cana sessions absence of people to talk with about intethe wife had succumbed to the "modem" in Northern Virginia...

...church-could provide direction in this equal so that she "will be able to meet his And when the question of women work- area...

...The section concludes with ing marriage preparation programs in the this helpful advice, "Happy the man-and Catholic church are aware that the face already well on the way to success-who of marriage is changing...

...My sister, who attended an engaged creating marriage preparation programs...

...In any event, the transformation terpersonal relationships in marriage, and told them it violated natural law...

...Social dissent, in- NOW is arguing that they should nonethe- bers who are innocent of those tactics...

...El 8: 5 November 1993 Commonweal...

...organizations use their funds solely to fur- America, let Congress do it, and not the There is and there ought to be a lot of ther their programs, and may not allow Court...

...ne night this summer, my At the rehearsal dinner for my cousin Even if Congress were to amend RICO husband, Peter, and I, Jim's wedding this summer, every couple expressly to confer jurisdiction upon fed- caught the tail end of a at the table had a story to tell about the eral courts over conduct such as that com- grown-up dinner party my Catholic church's marriage preparation plained of in the Scheidler case, there parents were having with requirement...

...But our dence of the sort of economic motivation tected conduct on the one hand and a fedsystem of federalism dictates that when that triggers RICO...

...on working...

...First there seemed grating work and family: "To the degree tendency to "look upon such things as to be only one focus: "No matter what the that we're attempting to have a spiritual cooking and sewing with a suspicious topic of discussion-it could have been and God-centered family, we wish that the eye...

...Interreligious marriages, second his home and of his heart...

...Two career coufeels that his best adviser is the little ples represent just one piece of that picwoman whom he has made the queen of 11 ture...

...They were swapping Catholic couples, their experiences ranged its on such an act if it were to chill pro- stories about the nuns who taught them in from "awful," "the most ridiculous thing tected expression or activity...

...But even those who had very positive tion, does not have any systematic way That is an issue that challenges every experiences with pre-Cana reported that to convert these turning points into critengaged couple: How are we going to com- work and its effect on their marriage were ical pastoral moments...

...chilling effect on activists who would be were motivated by economic gain...

...Donations are related eral felony offense with severe penalties the acts of civil disobedience constitute of- to an organization's activities, if at all, under RICO on the other...

...It is hard enough fenses under state law, federal courts only incidentally...