Correspondence Commonweal's move & content

...All in all, Commonweal has made a contribution toward introducing its readers to Islam and to Muslim goals and problems...

...We did think about moving out of Manhattan, but there was a commuting problem: Several staff members are married with children and working spouses, and we don't favor divorce, even for a great cause...

...Voters aren't stupid...

...The writer replies: Readers will judge for themselves whether New Ways Ministry made the right decision in giving press credentials to The Wanderer...

...The paper's reports this year were once again inaccurate, unbalanced, and inflammatory...

...today the violence there is directed mainly against Muslims, who are the minority...

...Steinfels's column alludes...

...RICHARD C. CARROLL Bala Cynwyd, Pa...

...It will be much harder for you to disgree publicly with the mainline Protestant churches if you move into their building...

...The Wanderer, in its reporting on many issues, far exceeds the limits of the "scrappy" mode of journalism, to which Ms...

...In a recent address at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Xavier Gorstiaga, S.J., rector of the Central American University in Managua, Nicaragua, added a dimension to that question...

...As for finding space under a Catholic roof, we had one generous offer from a parish and another from a religious order, but neither space would have met our needs...

...If you can't afford a market rent anywhere, surely there must be some space available in one of the many large Catholic institutions around New York...

...Our democracy cannot be restored unless and until the undue influence of money in the political process is curtailed...

...After twenty years of dealing with a sensitive and controversial issue, we do not shy away from criticism...

...At our last symposium (1992), we had credentialed The Wanderer, and it published a distorted and accusatory account...

...The Constitution protects free speech, not simony, even if it buys not the office but access to the puppets elected with the help of simonists...

...Alice Gallin asked a good question...

...Thus, Iran, Algeria, and the Sudan do not represent or embody Islam...

...Does an irresponsible voice ever deserve a place in the dialogue...

...Rose Sullivan [Correspondence, April 11 ] has a point when she suggests that parents try harder to control children during church services, but perhaps middle-aged couples and women with "bony, unsmiling knees" need also to remember that Mass is a communal act, and that even children are part of the community...

...But what is one to say about Bob Dole, who hungered so badly for tobacco funds that he declared, on the Senate floor, as I recall, that there was no proven connection between cigarettes and cancer...

...There must be dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims, but it must not be based on the corrupt nature of misnamed "Islamic" governments...

...Past experience with The Wanderer led us to believe that it would not report the gathering objectively...

...It should certainly be easier to speak the truth on controversial issues from a building owned by the Catholic church than from one owned by or affiliated with Protestant churches...

...To begin with, he assumes, as many do, that there are "Islamic states" when in fact there are no governments based solely on the Qur'an and the Sunna (the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad...

...Islam & Freedom (II) In rebuttal of Peter Riga's letter on Islam [Correspondence, April 11 ], I submit that his comments reflect the demonization of Islam and Muslims evident in the media...

...FRANK E. HOWARD Washington, D.C...

...That statement, together with the accompanying photo, was filled with innuendo...

...The greatest scandal of our age, he went on, is that more than 70 percent of the women, men, and children in Central America live in poverty and 50 percent in economic misery, and these percentages rise yearly...

...Rainier, Md...

...Furthermore, party loyalty has declined largely because candidates no longer rely on their party organizations for campaign funds...

...FRANCIS DEBERNARDO Mt...

...I respect our Protestant brothers and sisters, but I don't see why a Catholic lay magazine should have them as its landlords, especially if you will be paying below-market rents...

...MARIAN BURKHART New York, N.Y...

...In planning the symposium, we struggled with the question of granting press credentials to The Wanderer...

...A strictly secular office building would be a better choice, perhaps two or three miles from Manhattan if the rents there are too high...

...At least some of the 51 percent of Americans who do not vote might be persuaded to do so if such manifest iniquity were curbed...

...After much discussion among our staff, we decided to credential The Wanderer again this year...

...But the Supreme Court's ruling that putting limits on political contributions contravenes the First Amendment is simply perverse...

...Muslims must contend with that issue for themselves...

...The writer is executive director of New Ways Ministry...

...This was a particular concern since a number of our speakers were Catholic academics whose careers could be damaged by misinformation and reckless reporting...

...Fact is, Commonweal has been living with a Protestant landlord-the Collegiate Church Corporation, an arm of the Dutch Reformed Church-for eleven years, and has never felt pressure from this source to modify any of its opinions about anything...

...We were concerned that we would be legitimizing a news organization which, in our judgment, was neither reputable nor professional...

...Of many things Some comments on your issue of April II: (1) David Carlin ["Taming the Big Bucks"] is indubitably right that no law, but only the practice of real democracy, will defeat the oligarchy that money creates...

...A way must be found to limit campaign contributions and campaign spending, and to shorten our endless, mindless political campaigns...

...A country with a majority of Muslims is not therefore an Islamic state...

...To the extent that candidates for office are dependent on, and beholden to, the economic oligarchy for their election, our democracy is diminished...

...We had invited a wide spectrum of Catholic, religious, and secular media representatives to attend...

...In India, Hindus and Muslims coexisted for centuries until the appearance of the Western imperialists with their divide-and-conquer tactics...

...The concern that guided the matter for us was to live in a spirit of "common ground" and open dialogue...

...TONY DISTEFANO Alexandria, Va...

...Criticism was not a problem for us...

...The New Ways Ministry symposium was held on the same weekend as the first meeting of the Common Ground Initiative...

...For example, one detail in its description of the closing liturgy reported that the bishop-presider "busied himself talking to the altar boy...

...The sheer stupidity of his campaign practices boggles the mind...

...Catholic universities can produce graduates who acquire millions of dollars and zillions in stock options, but does that really matter...

...This situation, he said, requires "nonconventional university programs, different ways of training professionals, who will not reproduce and intensify the present system but instead assume responsibility for transforming it" through a process that will allow the university to be both "science and conscience" for humankind, as the pope asked in Ex corde ecclesiae...

...Our concern was for accuracy and balance in reporting, standards The Wanderer does not respect, as Ms...

...Indeed, its advance story about the symposium was highly critical...

...Rather the purpose was to allow members of a newly constituted group to speak openly and candidly with one another in the process of refining the group's aims...

...Steinfels's column acknowledges...

...But the discussion must also take account of the detrimental impact of the West on the Muslim world...

...3) I found "Green Eggs & Ham & God" [February 14] a charming comment on the difficulties inherent in raising children and pursuing one's spiritual life as well...

...Let them rave I read Margaret O'Brien Steinfels's column, "The 'NCR' Accuses" [April 11], with great interest because of the press work I did for a recent national symposium on lesbian/gay issues and Catholicism...

...I suggest that we pray hard for candidates with character and even harder for an electorate that can recognize (Continued on page 4) (Continued from page 2) such candidates when they appear- McGovern and Dukakis for starters- and hardest of all that we may have sense enough to grant a second term to someone with as clear a claim to character as Jimmy Carter...

...He was well ahead in the polls, so why besmirch his reputation anew, put his second term at risk, and cloud Gore's career with practices both questionable and not really necessary...

...From research, we discovered that The Wanderer is not a member of the Catholic Press Association (though it is listed in the CPA directory...

...2) Re: David McCabe's reconsidering of his vote for Bill Clinton ["Character Yes, Bill continues to disappoint...

...Continued on page 30) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) Making colleges Catholic Toward the end of her report [March 28] on efforts by the hierarchy and the academy to carry out the intent of John Paul II's apostolic constitution on Catholic education, Ex corde ecclesiae, Sister Alice Gallin puts a good question, whether the institutions in question "really want to be Catholic...

...That won't change...

...And if Clinton's conduct with women may prove unseemly, the discarded spouses of the family-values claque, beginning with Dole and Newt Gingrich, might have a word to say about their ex-husbands' proclivities...

...Voter turnout declines in lock-step with the rise in contributions from special interests...

...This scandal, he said, shouts out to us that something is "profoundly wrong and sinful in our civilization...

...SHAFEEQ ABDULLAH MUHAMMAD (Juan Alvarado) Bronx, N.Y...

...I would suggest that Commonweal examine this and related questions in an article or series on the role of the Catholic press in church discussion...

...Otherwise, our vaunted "democracy" will be a word without meaning...

...Though I mention the possibility of misreporting in my "Notebook," that was not the reason the Common Ground Initiative held a meeting closed to the media...

...In both Central America and Africa, he said, people today experience "quality of life" levels that are lower than those of five hundred years ago in the same areas...

...MARGARET O'BRIEN STEINFELS Big bucks buy power David R. Carlin, Jr.'s prescription for "Taming the Big Bucks" [April 11] of campaign finance is at best a placebo and at worst a diagnosis that blames the patient (the American electorate) for being sick...

...The editors reply: Not to worry...

...Riga also assumes that separation of church and state, or of religion and politics, somehow guarantees a superior form of government, without alluding to the two world wars in our century and the attempted genocide of the Jewish people launched by secular Western governments, or to the democratic election of the Caliphs of Islam stretching back 1,400 years, or to the Islamic tradition of settling problems among differing schools of thought by discussion, or to the existence of many minorities in Muslim countries-the Alawis, Bahais, Druzes, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, and many others-stemming back hundreds of years...

...Though I am happy to renew my subscription to Commonweal, I want you to know that your proposed office move to 475 Riverside Drive [headquarters of the National Council of Churches] strikes me as a bad idea...