Correspondence
Welcome to the Web I just checked out your Web site for the first time. Quite well done. You are to be congratulated. I'm looking forward to frequent visits. Thanks for making Commonweal available...
...Don't be out of date Congratulations on your new residence in the virtual space of the World Wide Web...
...For additional information call 212-6624200 or write COMMONWEAL, 475 Riverside Dr., Rm...
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...PATRICIA LEIPER Sacramento, Calif...
...Ministry Program WANT TO BE A PRIEST, RELIGIOUS, LAY MINISTER (MALE OR FEMALE) IN THE CHURCH...
...O'Brien just sit back and relax while his younger colleagues are made into a new class of migrant workers...
...Then he used as the denominator the estimated number of Catholics in Western Washington derived from a 1990 national survey of religious self-identification, which resulted in an estimate that included infants, the very elderly, and those not affiliated with any parish, constituting 17.7 percent of the total population-that is, the largest possible denominator...
...Given a chance, I would have added that parish membership has grown faster than the general population, that parish income has increased 25 percent in constant dollars in the past eight years, and that nearly half of our parishes are building new facilities or expandThe Graduate Program in Ministry at the University of Notre Dame The Master of Divinity program at Notre Dame is a threeyear, academic and professional course of study designed to prepare students for effective ministry in the Roman Catholic Church...
...In determining the percentages for Seattle, Chaves used as the numerator the number we had provided to him: adults attending Mass on a single weekend at regularly scheduled liturgies in parish facilities-the lowest possible numerator...
...Celio's criticisms of the Chaves data with respect to Seattle...
...It takes a little grade-school math to show how Chaves's method of figuring percentages turned inadequate data into something worse...
...clzz~>Y All lay ministry students receive full-tuition scholarships...
...The faces 0 f m I n i s t r r are changing rl //1rr,/oil r3/-niml, n'1' f~ cl 11k'oif1,1' n/~c?lr•ilh, /O r• nNx'l...
...This is a diocese that should not, cannot be lightly dismissed as "the very liberal Seattle...
...I read the Brontes, Hardy, and Conrad long ago...
...12 word minimum...
...only some issues will be reproduced in full...
...World-wide investment up to this time gives little hope that "the mass deprivation associated with underdevelopment might dramatically be reduced...
...Aside from the annual Catholic Directory, which has many lacunae, almost all the important data are derived from special surveys and samples, Gallup polls, and the like, which is ridiculous...
...IRENE P. LEAHY South Bend, Ind...
...Schaechter and I are sure that Commonweal's error was uninten tional...
...In his Commonweal article [March 28] on the expense of a college education, Dennis O'Brien forecasts some "scenarios for greater efficiency"-options that may be resorted to by those institutions that have failed to reach a "philosophical consensus" necessary to avoid the "free-market model" of operation...
...The power of capital is not just money or the speed with which money can move around the world...
...It is felt here that people who have laid out $44 for a subscription should have the first chance to see the product, and that nonsubscribers equipped with computers and modems should have an incentive to join the family...
...Write: Mater Dei, Gonzaga University, 405 E. Sinto, Spokane, WA 99202-1849...
...In a letter [Correspondence, April 25], Jerome Wolbert asks: "Will Mr...
...In reporting Archbishop Murphy's death, the local media all emphasized his outspoken opposition to euthanasia and abortion...
...I would have had to respond, as I am doing now, that the article is very much in the school of "two anecdotes justify a journal-publishable trend, and a third merits a book...
...April, 1991 Lee helps expose the government's torture and execution of irvxocents...
...The article was lively and thought-provoking...
...October, 1978 Recent M. Div...
...Financial help available...
...Mater Dei Institute for Ministry Formation...
...thus the 80-percent part-time faculty noted by Ms...
...some simply estimate "the crowd...
...Both paintings are reproduced in the introduction of Gombrich's book...
...Among other predictions, O'Brien includes the employment of more "adjunct" (that is, part-time) faculty, which he describes as a "costcutting strategy...
...May I suggest that you consider putting your most recent issue on display rather than an older one...
...Thanks for making Commonweal available on the Web...
...A. tlcgrms...
...If they can do it," I keep telling myself, "so can I." For years I was part of a book dis cussion group...
...Is that fair...
...Ir • I!1r Church of lorn,rrm~% T \\~151111li...
...The pattern thus far has been the formation of wealthy elites in poor countries and little improvement for the vast majority...
...I have never met a faculty that did not believe that the grass was cut too often...
...lL • 1\;r>liin lun• hl: aK1l' n - v, '%K[KI ru Ii...
...Contrary to Morris's statement, "the only weekly Mass attendance figures collected on a diocesan basis" are collected in the first instance not by Chaves but by the dioceses themselves...
...So, my thanks to Keen, Swick, Duffy, Finn, Bates, and Steinfels for helping make certain I'll never finish reading all those great books suggested by so many lovers of that stillvery-much-written language called English...
...This exploitation of part-time faculty is one of the means by which Catholic institutions of higher education are being secularized...
...Most people I spoke to in Seattle were proud of, say, the high degree of female liturgical participation, including a number of pastoral administrators like the nun in my article, and the archdiocese's welcoming attitude toward homosexual Catholics, which, by most lights, would place them on the "liberal" side of the diocesan spectrum...
...I don't usually have trouble with the "L" word, but, given the real situation in Seattle, this seems a fairly bold and unnuanced description...
...Would that it were the failure to pay parttime faculty salaries they can live on...
...1-800-695-9599...
...Organizing in this country for a balance of power is possible and necessary to safeguard the social interdependence we've struggled for throughout this century...
...These vague assertions would not merit comment but for the fact that Morris suddenly turned specific when he got to a "test" of the religious approaches used in the dioceses of Lincoln and Saginaw-a test that, unfortunately, relied on research done by Mark Chaves and his colleagues at Notre Dame...
...They weren't 'yentas' I was taken aback by the headline, "Yenta Power," over my review of Nathan Stolzfus's Resistance of the Heart [August 15...
...Emil Antonucci's cover on the same subject has the spirit that Caravaggio's painting lacks...
...t[ n ' 1,11coloincal 'L lll(11 r.rr//: SM...
...The joking tone is inappropriate to the subject, an uprising during the Holocaust, and the use of the word yenta is questionable in any context and incorrect in this one...
...An alternative strategy for the traditional (not community college) institution would be to "cut the frills...
...CHARLES R. MORRIS List me some lists It seems everyone supports summer reading suggestions like those in your issue of June 20...
...As a lay reader of the current situation, I would remind Mr...
...It was commissioned by a church, but the first version was rejected as not suitable (Caravaggio was a bold and innovative artist...
...Where this logic rules, government is expected to "support the market," in part by reducing its role as mediator for the common good through expenditures for health needs, education, housing, in particular for those whom "the market" cannot support: the aged, vulnerable workers without skills, and their families...
...News clips were shown of the archbishop ordaining three new priests only two weeks earlier...
...And, using these data uncritically, Charles Morris reported that the Seattle attendance rates were "close to the bottom of the list...
...405, N.Y., N.Y...
...some don't...
...In short, many Catholic institutions have adopted "free-market practices," a far cry from the "enlargement of heart...
...Manuscripts Wanted MANUSCRIPTS WANTED...
...When Chaves asked me for data from the Seattle archdiocese, I made clear to him that most diocesan Mass attendance data are very "soft" and are used internally to determine trends rather than to measure effectiveness...
...If Chaves had chosen as his denominator the estimated number of Catholics affiliated with the church (calculated according to a formula developed by the Catholic Research Forum and derived by comparing the total number of births with the number of infant baptisms and the total number of deaths with the number of Catholic funerals), the number would have been cut substantially-to 11 percent of the population...
...Along with anecdotes and impressions, Morris makes frequent references to "survey data," with no mention of who did the survey or when...
...Discounts and monthly billing available for repeat advertisers...
...1-800-633-2252, ext...
...No single-year data would tell a complete story, nor would Seattle's data necessarily be comparable with data from any other diocese...
...Ir'1u,1cIII, ;1r, It ;!rnInt n m:,tr..kiIi' IIIr ~II;;L IIu• art of theological I'd ItCitnu 111 Ila• CC ]Ih' .i nl I,I':ILI]C:ll !]1II1i,11' e\Ix9'It'[1cl...
...Archbishop Murphy would have relished reviewing my reply and would have offered helpful suggestions...
...Whether "cutting frills" is an exercise in fiscal realism or the rhetoric of general frustration is one of the great mysteries of colle giate management...
...In his The Story of Art, E.H...
...University and college tuition being what it is in private institutions, there is great resistance to increasing income by higher charges to hard-pressed parents...
...Depending on what denominator he picked, Chaves could have reported the Seattle Mass attendance rate to be 42 percent, 33 percent, or 20 percent...
...Most do what is known informally as an "October count," where Mass attendance is counted in all parishes on one or more weekends in October...
...He confirms that yenta is a derogatory term that applies correctly only to a sentimental, talkative, and highly traditional Jewish woman...
...ANN WHITE FERRIS Hampton, Va...
...Note the consequences...
...Core faculty might well believe they deserve better compensation...
...I know Caravaggio is a great artist but sacred art is not his speed...
...It was educational, and fun...
...DOROTHY RASENBERGER New York, N.Y...
...For more information, please write to: Director, Master of Divinity Program Department of Theology 331-A O'Shaughnessy Hall Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 Phone: (219) 631-5682 Commonweal 44 September 12, 1997 ing what they already have...
...So widespread, accepted, and unexamined is the practice that some community colleges already employ more than 80 percent of their faculties on a part-time basis [Chicago Tribune, June 16...
...10 percent, 6 times...
...Assets deployed for colonization and in the slave trade are the most obvious examples...
...F:1\ 2111 - Y, I-16 not bode well for the future...
...already widely practiced and regarded as 'scandalous' by traditionalists...
...Some count everyone in the church, others count only adults attending the Mass but do not count any liturgical ministers...
...JARLATH QUINN Bronx, N.Y...
...Caravaggio as tout Though Caravaggi's Saint Matthew and the Angel is, in my opinion, an uninspired painting, writers inspired by it turned out an interesting five articles on the nature of divine revelation...
...Discounts 5 percent, 3 times...
...Recent elections in Britain and France indicate some political will to challenge the economic assumptions that have been pressuring the European Economic Union...
...Some times we had a theme for the year-for example, only Russian novelists...
...Chaves assured me (and researchers in other dioceses) that he would only report trends and grouped data, and that no diocese would be identified by name...
...I would admire his painting if he intended to depict a Neapolitan angel giving a tip to a nice old surprised man to bet on Tetra Domino in the third race at the Coloseum...
...grarlu:rte crrtthcaIt-~.:Inrl S,Ihh;I11ca11) rr1 rrrrI nn a kI II•tuui it' pan-Wile I1;L•I' 11tiat1cia :L.~1~I:IIIt'e [~, ;I%alIahlc' \I flit \\ S_1111vllo\ 'hII:I111KiII.uI I \u1\ SEC arc lr;iinir1...
...Students include those preparing for ordained ministry and those who wish to serve the church as lay ministers in placements such as hospital chaplaincy, campus ministry, parish ministry and education...
...No benefits are paid...
...And, with straight faces, some Catholic administrators ask instructors to teach the social documents, including "Economic Justice for All...
...Some include hospitals, Newman Centers, and special ethnic community Masses...
...f[Ir...
...Many reporters noted that the Catholic schools are full and that we have opened three new parishes in the past several years, with three more on the drawing boards...
...He then created a second and more acceptable version, the one illustrated in your article...
...111"(1 1-1 \ Ti I[:' x u:u- l'\lu\ a olferlIn" 1L1]n...
...fiber, 1985 Lay Missioner Lee helps establish Church's first human rights organizat...
...Just what the "traditionalists" consider scandalous is not clear...
...But mass dislocations of people, destruc I F.]1r, ,Ilrlnlt trLic rr1 rtr«i...
...REV...
...Chaves did the Seattle archdiocese and all others a disservice...
...The January 1994 uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, attested to this...
...Prusak had a good idea...
...But disregard for the social and environmental consequences of profit-driven enterprises is all too common among investors...
...I do note, however, that the data appeared in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal, and that I spoke to Professor Chaves to ensure that I was reading them correctly...
...Other periodicals with an interest in "the public [and virtual] square" have taken this approach...
...If he had used the only "hard" number available-the number of adult Catholics registered in our parishes-the denominator would have been less than 7 percent of the population...
...I've been a devotee of book lists since high school-those supplied by the school, Clifton Fadimari s Lifetime Reading Plan, F. Scott Fitzgerald's College of One (the lists he compiled for Sheilah Graham...
...The media gave considerable attention to this report...
...program includes field education, pastoral skills courses, homiletics and religious formation...
...Lee encounters Catholicism...
...He chose the smallest...
...FRANK NIGRA Monroe, N.Y...
...Unfortunately, the colleges and universities-including Catholic institutions where one might expect a "philosophical consensus," at least on the issue of social justice-have creat (Continued on page 4) Commonweal 2 September 12, 1997 (Continued from page 2) ed and are maintaining an educated underclass of teachers with doctorates and master's degrees...
...The cover page and the table of contents of each issue will be posted promptly...
...It's the power of its logic, its idea...
...This is not to say that all efforts toward development have been destructive...
...The women of the Rosenstrasse Resistance, dis cussed in the review, were Gentile...
...Gom brich gives an interesting account of the painting Saint Matthew and the Angel...
...Providing theological degrees and pastoral leadership preparation...
...on in Tacagus, a Caracas slum...
...4,0 (amhndgr...
...MARY BETH CELLO Seattle, Wash...
...C L A S S I F I E D RATES: $1.10 per word...
...I doubt that it is simple wickedness...
...It's good summer reading, mentions many of the artist's works, and sketches his life...
...Compensation can be as low as or even lower than 25 percent of full-time salaries...
...he seems to prefer the rejected version as being more honest...
...Leahy...
...Morris compounded that disservice by repeating Chaves's "findings" without checking them or understanding their limitations...
...MADELINE MARGET A scandal overlooked The issue of part-time employment raised by the Teamsters' strike against United Parcel Service can alert us to a neglected topic in the ongoing discussion of Catholic higher education...
...anti 'I...
...To check my understanding, I called Dr...
...Since adjuncts are not on the tenure track, presumably they do not play as important a role in the longterm plans of the institution as do the full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty who are the core of the institution...
...Understandably, then, we were dismayed when Chaves published the information by diocese, without men tioning any of our cautions, in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion [Fall, 1994...
...If one cannot increase income, one tries to control expenses...
...The writer replies I am no enthusiast for "adjunct" (parttime) faculty, but before ascending the moral heights it is worth wondering why exactly have colleges-even Catholic colleges!-engaged in this unhappy practice...
...the conviction now pervading every aspect of life and every corner of the globe that "everything and everybody is best served by free-market forces" (or, more crudely, "everything is for sale...
...ALL TYPES...
...Community colleges, being dominated by immediate and changing student interests (that is part of their mission), need to maintain maximum staffing flexibility...
...Currently I'm reading the Victorians: Eliot, Trollope, Tennyson, Hopkins, Thackeray, James...
...Of course, one could appoint only full-time, tenure-track faculty, but that does increase expenses and-because of tenure-significantly decreases flexibility in staffing as new fields emerge, older fields succumb to lack of student interest, or the enrollment simply declines overall...
...But is there any evidence on record to support the hope that tenured faculty would vigorously protest...
...Unfortunately, the real scandal is that the exploitation of part-time faculty is not a scandal...
...DENNIS O'BRIEN Numbers can mislead My sorrow over the recent death of Archbishop Thomas Murphy of Seattle was heightened when I reread Charles Morris's article ["A Tale of Two Dioceses," June 26...
...The United States Catholic Conference does its best, but since all reporting is voluntary, there are no consistent data on such basics as finance, sacramental attendance, priestly resignations or censures, etc...
...Caravaggio all over At about the same time as you published your symposium titled "A Message from Caravaggio" [June 20], I bought a paperback novel by Margaret Truman, Murder at the National Gallery, the setting of which is an exhibition of paintings by Caravaggio...
...I as sume that the local well-known institution there in South Bend must have broken the $100,000 mark for four full years of instruction + room + board + football...
...The controversy also points up what a statistical shambles the church is, despite its reputation for monolithism...
...Knowing Archbishop Murphy's phenomenal interest in all aspects of church life, I know he would have asked me about the sources and accuracy of Morris's data on the Seattle archdiocese...
...Continued on page 44) "Experimenting with tradition since 1898...
...Alas, faculty salaries are a major portion of the expense budget...
...close to the bottom of the list...
...I say "unfortunately" because the data quoted in the article were misused by Chaves and misunderstood by Morris...
...BILL BOGEL Saint Louis, Mo...
...For information about the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement and their Associates, contact: Vocation Director *~ Graymoor PO Box 300 Garrison, NY 10524-0300 914 424 3671 Commonweal 4 September 12, 1997 CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) What is important here is that different dioceses use different methods...
...In that case, the painting might inspire me to call my bookie...
...11.4 0?l38.3495 • telephone t617+ Commonweal 45 September 12, 1997 for infermaiion picas Hritc Or Call: Direnur ui adrnicsions • 3 Phillips Placc...
...But it is also a telling example of much that is described in the media as "research" about the American Catholic church...
...I'm hoping he would approve...
...i_' 10 Commonweal 46 September 12, 1997...
...Mandle that capital-money available for investment-has been "global" for WESTON JESUIT School of Theology A Course of Action Gern' Lee • Ciass of 1978 • llaster of Dig-i June, 1973 Working with street kids on the Lower East Side...
...The writer is director of research in the planning and research department of the Seattle archdiocese...
...Mordkhe Schaechter, senior lecturer in Yiddish studies, emeritus, at Columbia University...
...The writer replies: I'm in no position to comment on Ms...
...11 i _11-4-992 2, e\1...
...Advance payment required...
...In other words, all objective measures show an alive, vibrant diocese headed by an archbishop who was fiercely loyal to the church and whose weekly newspaper columns and frequent speeches explored the challenges we face as individuals and as a community in light of the Gospels, the new Catechism, and Vatican documents...
...Dcpt.'' 1 442-N60 . l aA ~d1 ) 492.5833 tion of natural resources, and loss of democratic rights are well documented throughout the world...
...In addition to theological studies with a distinguished faculty, the M.Div...
...10115...
...But she seems also to imply that my characterization of Seattle as "liberal" is somehow pejorative, which was certainly not intended...
...that is, administration, fund-raising expenses, football (or hope for a Bowl bid...
...For whatever reason, Chaves used numerators and denominators that were most likely to result in church attendance figures significantly below those found in self-report surveys...
...voice-overs reported that there are more than twenty-five young men preparing for the priesthood for the archdiocese, reportedly a higher number per Catholic than in any other diocese in the country...
...Chaves then asked some dioceses to provide him with their figures...
...The power of capital Because you've opened up discussion of "The Good Side of Going Global" [Jay Mandle, July 18], I'd like to suggest an analysis that's other than "good side-bad side" but goes to the heart of the matter: the power of capital...
...Some do head counts...
...and mind" called for by Cardinal Newman and by Professor Stephen Pope [Commonweal, March 281, to say nothing of the gospel and Catholic social teaching...
...Celio's letter, however, does not invalidate my point that there is no obvious relationship between sacramental attendance and how "liberal" or "conservative" a diocese is...
...Apart from the injury to my researcher's sense of fair play, what propels this response was Morris's linking of purported low-attendance rates to his characterization of the Seattle archdiocese as "very liberal" (his words...
...The editors reply: These wise words and our feeble answer will appear on Commonweal's web site in about a month, when this issue is posted...
...Along with reductions in government spending for people's needs (often at the insistence of the World Bank for debtor nations), that does centuries...
...Adjuncts are paid less pro rata than full-time faculty...
...15 percent, 12 times...
...graduate Gerry Lee meets returned missionaries with Central America solidarity movement Oscar Ruix, a child of the streets, dies of gunshot woii ds...
...Both Dr...
Vol. 124 • September 1997 • No. 15
