Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors What's in your name? Perhaps I am revealing my ignorance of the church I was born into, but could you print an explanation of the name of your journal? I'd be...
...DAVID O'BRIEN Worcester, Mass...
...He also notes Goldhagen's dishonesty in changing his argument for German audiences...
...CAROL A. PROKOP Chapel Hill, N.C...
...Although, as a tax-exempt organization, we do not attempt to "lobby" for specific measures, we have written favorably of approaches like the Hatch Amendment, or a reconsideration by the Supreme Court that would return abortion law to the states-recognizing the drawbacks of uneven legislation that would result...
...Another: "The general welfare...
...It is also true, as our correspondent points out, that Commonweal has never spelled out its own legislative program or proposal...
...The writer is president of the National Council for Adoption...
...A week later a federal judge sent Berrigan, Tom Lewis-Borbely, and four others to jail...
...The writer is Loyola Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross...
...Matchmaker Moy Moy I've had the pleasure of spending some time in India and have been concerned about the huge number of orphans there 55.5 million under fourteen so I was very pleased by Jo McGowan's "Moy Moy Seals the Bargain" [May 9], and want to thank you for publishing it...
...As for Weimar, I was citing established scholars such as Istvan Deak, Harold Poor, Walter Laqueur, and Paul Johnson, and I wrote, "These writers are not 'blaming the victim' when they note the ways in which the victimizer was able to exploit the reality and exaggerated perception of Jews in Weimar....In the absence of [this] history it is impossible to explain the rise of Hitler...
...This also must be said, especially in our time...
...India's current laws and regulations have the effect of depriving children and would-be parents alike of the joy that could be theirs...
...If you believe in the moral equivalence of fetuses and persons, do you believe that the penalties should be the same as those for murder...
...That was no canard Discussing Daniel Goldhagen's account of the Holocaust ["The Goldhagen Riddle," May 9], Lawrence Douglas writes: "In an apoplectic review in First Things, Richard John Neuhaus railed against Hitler's Willing Executioners as an 'incoherent, hateful, and dishonest tract/ faulting it for its claim that 'anti-Semitism has nothing to do with Jews' and for failing to acknowledge the reasonableness of the perception of Jewish responsibility for Weimar's culture of 'defeatism and decadence.'" Other critics, says Douglas, "fortunately have not used the book as a pretext to revive, however unwittingly, such canards...
...WILLIAM PIERCE Washington, D.C...
...I'd be pleased...
...The writer is coordinator of Catholics Speak Out...
...I am sure that these writers also knew exactly what they were saying, and that what they said is true...
...For just as Neuhaus has taken my words and given them his own polemical twist, he has similarly appropriated the works of outstanding historians such as Paul Johnson and Walter Laqueur to support his offensive argument...
...We have also published debates-for example, Sidney Callahan vs...
...We saw in these admittedly marginal measures at least some public recognition of the moral gravity of the abortion decision, and some reversal of the abortion-on-demand momentum created by Roe v. Wade...
...Well, multiple nuclear dangers in fact remain, ranging from "loose nukes" to possible strikes with low-yield weapons against "outlaw" states...
...Now that the nuclear danger is past, why persist in protest, one might ask...
...LAWRENCE DOUGLAS Ordinary heroes Daniel Goldhagen's study [Hitler's Willing Executioners, reviewed by Lawrence Douglas, May 9] has the effect of condemning a whole people, because it ignores the Resistance (Wiederstand...
...Commonweal editorials on the topic regularly treat law and morality as distinct but overlapping categories, and find the decision in Roe v. Wade both morally and legally indefensible...
...Many thousands were executed, some for even the slightest appearance of resistance...
...The protesters' target, the USS Sullivans, one of fifty-seven Aegis-class destroyers scheduled to be built at a billion dollars each, carries "enough firepower to incinerate a continent," as Philip put it...
...The difficult cases, as Commonweal has editorialized since Roe v. Wade [February 16,1973], occur when a pregnancy threatens the life of a mother or results from rape or incest, or when a fetus is grievously damaged...
...The editors reply: Sister Maureen Fiedler is right: Commonweal has published a great deal on abortion...
...The criticism was entirely witting and is entirely true...
...Douglas's judgment and mine I am quite prepared to split the difference, if there is one...
...Douglas's evaluation of the book itself employs language such as "maliciously overblown," "strident self-righteousness," "crucially flawed," and "inflammatory rhetoric...
...RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS New York, N.Y...
...I also did not claim any "dishonesty" on Goldhagen's part in "changing his argument for German audiences...
...These points might be minor, as Neuhaus seems to think they are...
...It is one thing to chronicle the cultural and political contributions of Jews to Weimar as did the authors cited and another to claim, as does Neuhaus, that "Hitler was able to exploit the perception of Jewish responsibility for defeatism and decadence because the perception was there to be exploited, and was not unrelated to reality...
...Where do you stand...
...A journal of opinion typically responds editorially to the questions at hand-the bills before Congress, the cases before the Supreme Court, the events grabbing headlines...
...If you do not want to recrimi-nalize all abortions, which ones would you like to see legally permitted...
...Between Mr...
...And arms in general provide a high-profit industry in which we now have many competitors in this exciting global marketplace...
...I criticized Goldhagen for paying no attention to Jews except as the objects of irrational German hatred...
...Changes in the legal status of abortion, even of a fairly restrictive kind," we warned [May 5,1989], "may not greatly reduce the number of abortion 'procedures.' The struggle over abortion is moral and cultural, social and economic, at least as much as it is legal...
...One wishes the grandmother's experience as recounted by Ms...
...While politically ineffective, thousands upon thousands of ordinary (and extraordinary) Germans did resist Hitler until the final moments of the war...
...Sounds like blaming the victim to me...
...First, what are the "difficult cases and possible exceptions" in which you apparently believe abortion is permissible...
...It is lonely without Tom...
...There are, of course, very real and legitimate concerns about religion and other factors, but these can be addressed...
...Instead, I observed that during the German book tour, Goldhagen made a point of emphasizing the difference between today's Germany and the Third Reich, an argument mentioned in his book only in a footnote...
...We may have been remiss, however, in not dealing over the years with the topic of penalties...
...We welcomed restrictions of federal funding for abortions, again recognizing the ambiguities involved...
...Joan Callahan (no relation), and Daniel Maguire vs...
...Yet they are emblematic of Neuhaus's style of argumentation, and in this respect shed light on our more serious disagreements...
...A canard is a false charge...
...Nuclear dominance, not abolition, seems the operative objective...
...all face sentences of up to fifteen years in prison and $500,000 in fines...
...The writer is president of The Institute of Religion and Public Life and editor-in-chief of its journal, First Things...
...From the editors: The definition we like best is: "The public good...
...Which ones would you prohibit or, perhaps, restrict...
...And we have given favorable notice to a variety of other restrictions, such as the provisions for informed consent that the Court upheld in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, parental notification, waiting periods, and, most recently, the proposed ban on partial-birth abortions...
...Brentwood, Md...
...Meanwhile, Commonweal has urged the prolife movement not only to spurn violence and rhetorical excess but to link its concerns with demands for changes in the social and economic conditions that propel so many women toward abortion...
...Tom Borbely-Lewis and his family, Andrea and five-year-old Nora, live in Worcester, where they share themselves and their art with their poor neighbors at Emma House, 136 Austin Street, Worcester, Massachusetts 01609...
...With your publication editorializing frequently on abortion and criticizing others' positions, it seems crucial to your own integrity that you go on record with your own position and live with its ambiguities and difficulties...
...I fear I may have left readers with the feeling that courts have grown benign in dealing with antinuclear protesters...
...I was intrigued to read in your April 25 issue that, in regard to abortion, you believe "there are difficult cases and possible exceptions...
...On May 7, after a brief trial in which they were not allowed to present their necessity defense, they were found guilty of damaging government property and of conspiracy...
...But we believe it suffices that we have gone on record defending any number of concrete alternatives as better (Continued on page 29) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) than the status quo...
...I described the book as incoherent, hateful, and dishonest...
...On this subject most of the centrist prolife leadership has been extremely moderate, clearly eschewing any penalties for mothers and never suggesting penalties for abortionists comparable to penalties for murder...
...Others died because they sought to overthrow Hitler and establish a democratic regime...
...Considerable treasure is still being spent to keep the nuclear arsenal up-to-date and ready for use...
...Some people who don't greatly admire us spell it "Commonwail," and those who have never heard of us spell it "Common-wheel...
...MAUREEN FIEDLER, S.L...
...In any case, what better way to summarize how adoption melts hearts and barriers, whether in India or elsewhere, than by describing Moy Moy's impact on one elderly lady...
...The group can be reached through Prince of Peace Plowshares, c/o Peace and Justice Office, 1 Pleasant Street, Portland, Maine 04101...
...Is it necessary for the integrity of our position, as Sister Fiedler suggests, that we go further, specifying restrictions, exceptions, and penalties in some model statute or Court decision...
...Commonweal has published a great deal on abortion over the years, but I have never seen you state clearly how you believe the law should read...
...Douglas's article is apoplectic but, with respect to my criticism of Goldhagen, it is, however unwittingly, a serious misrepresentation...
...James Burtchaell-and many other articles, columns, book reviews, and letters that the editors felt made a serious contribution to the discussion, whether the editors agreed with them or not...
...That might be useful, and individual writers in these pages have made attempts in that direction...
...Protest still costly I began my review of Disarmed and Dangerous, Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady's book on Daniel and Philip Berrigan [April 25], with the story of a February 1997 Plowshares action in Maine, after which a state court judge called Philip Berrigan "a moral giant, the conscience of a generation...
...I look forward to your response...
...There are prochoice rhetoricians who rejoice when abortion opponents apply their principles in an "absolutist" fashion, without distinctions, exceptions, or readiness to compromise, but who, when faced with more nuanced positions, seize them as opportunities to make debaters' points about inconsistency...
...So much for canards...
...The reviewer replies: The small matters first: I did not, Richard Neuhaus's selective quotation to the contrary, characterize the argument of Hitler's Willing Executioners as "maliciously overblown...
...Abortion is a complex and difficult issue, so it seems important that you answer the questions your statements left dangling...
...Is this view incoherent, or in keeping with a sound awareness of the limits of the criminal sanction...
...We hope that Sister Fiedler's questions are not offered in that spirit...
...Why or why not...
...Yes, ordinary people were executioners, but ordinary people also did all they could to end the slaughter...
...One posted bond, the others remain in jail...
...What penalties would you suggest for the ones you would criminalize...
...Prayers, letters, and material support are welcome...
...rather, I wrote that critics of the book, such as Father Neuhaus, have made this claim...
...One mother who wrote to her soldier son on the Eastern front, "I wish this awful war would end," was executed for undermining the war effort...
...What we said in the April 25 reply to two letters, one from Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice, contained nothing new nor, in our view, anything very intriguing...
...But our attention seems to be elsewhere...
...McGowan could be replicated for people all across India, particularly those in leadership positions...
...Nothing could be further from the truth...
...You also took the position that "more restrictive abortion laws would better serve to protect human life and dignity...
...REV...
...Paul K. chapman New York, N.Y...
...The discussion in the Catholic community on this subject has been wide-ranging and diverse, and our coverage has tried to reflect the serious moral and legal debate, to acknowledge the personal agonies occasioned by some pregnancies, and to make clear the cultural danger that abortion-on-demand presents...
...So some choose to pursue this particular truth, and the cost is still high...
...I do not say that Mr...
Vol. 124 • June 1997 • No. 11
