Correspondence
Second sight Thanks so much for placing the original "Smile, When You Say 'Laity'" [September 12 ] on your website so that I could take a second look at the basis for all those reactions in the...
...I would give the show's producers some credit for depicting Father Ray's growth in wisdom and fidelity to church teaching in this regard...
...Diana's mourners responded out of an altered context of intimacy, and it is only by understanding this that we can recalibrate our emotional displays...
...The message we are sent to deliver is a message we ourselves need to hear...
...Professor Conn has also written that "it is probably true to say that a pattern of direct hierarchical involvement in Catholic university life is likely to render such institutions suspect and unattractive to talented scholars and, consequently, to talented students...
...on the contrary, the canon entrusted that responsibility to "the authority who is competent in accord with the statutes" (canon 810, par...
...It is perhaps incidental that in his reference to "American law" Professor Conn was referring to the Curran case, and that the decision in that case (Continued on page 22) CORRESPONDEHCE (Continued from page 4) concluded that it was up to the institution itself, not the church, to determine what it would be...
...My rereading reinforced my intention to obtain the anthology that includes it...
...Check the chancery Re: "Starbucks Catholicism" [September 12, November 21]: In rural Iowa lay people are also increasingly enlisted to serve in churches, but not with any freedom to follow their own insights but rather subject to those of clerical archdiocesan planners, who are sometimes incredibly inept...
...DONNA MCNAMARA Metairie, La...
...Wrong on Father Ray Peter Feuerherd cites as one reason he likes "Nothing Sacred" that Father Ray is "prolife" [November 21...
...Yet such knowledge can't help conferring a kind of familial intimacy, however bogus-in the case of people who, like Diana, would otherwise mean very little to me...
...MOST REV...
...ALFRED CAVANAUGH Kenwood, Calif...
...it would be monstrous, though, if he were recommending such restraint within his own family...
...The law simply affirms his undisputed competence to safeguard the church against dangers to faith and morals...
...I believe it does...
...On the other hand, the church has the right, upheld by American law, to determine what a Catholic university is....While a Catholic university must be a university, it must also be Catholic, and it cannot claim to be so if it excludes on principle any legitimate role for the hierarchy to play...
...Structure" (the new god to bow to...
...Now that we lay experts, fluent in our corporate and commercial culture, have invited the consumer ethos into the very heart of our parishes, have we not lost our missionary stance vis-a-vis secular society, as well as our own capacity to hear the prophetic gospel message...
...Alas, the Commonweal citation lists the publisher and title of the anthology but not the author/editor...
...You folks with your "perfect Commonweal articles" were among my reasons for saying thanks this Thanksgiving...
...I enjoy the magazine more with every issue...
...It did not say, as he asserts, that "it was the responsibility of the competent ecclesiastical authority to 'provide for the appointment of teachers...outstanding in their integrity of doctrine and probity of life...
...It is precisely because there are such widely different, and in my opinion irreconcilable, views between the Roman Curia on the one hand and American Catholic academia on the other that I continue to believe that, in the final analysis, "nobody will budge...
...According to Professor Conn, "the object of ecclesiastical authority's vigilance [required by canon 810] should not be limited to theology and related disciplines...
...Second sight Thanks so much for placing the original "Smile, When You Say 'Laity'" [September 12 ] on your website so that I could take a second look at the basis for all those reactions in the issue of November 21...
...Does faith have something to do with that...
...It's not simply an issue of measuring the authenticity of grief by whether it's expressed in the marketplace...
...But I'm working on his moral development...
...PETER FEUERHERD Right on 'Sacred' Thanks very much for your editorial [October 24] and articles [October 10, November 21] on ABC's "Nothing Sacred...
...The church & the academy In "The Vatican, the Bishops, the Academy" [September 26], Paul C. (Continued on page 4) (Continued from page 2) Saunders missed the point of canon 810 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law...
...Nor is the bishop's authority limited only to matters involving the teaching of Catholic theology...
...Although Professor Conn believes, as he has written so clearly for so many years, that American Catholic universities should recognize the legitimate authority of the bishops over their affairs, he does not appear to take issue with my ultimate conclusion that, in the end, they will not...
...Karl Rahner has noted that when "everybody wants to do everything" in the church, the result is mediocrity...
...Gillis has everyone confessing, he is especially endowed...
...The author replies: I cited canon 810, enacted in 1983, as further evidence of the consistency of the belief on the part of the church's central authority that it should control Catholic colleges and universities...
...I had assumed that my graduate work in theology would be relevant...
...Thus, the "judicious obtuseness" urged on physicians by William Osier makes sense in the context of a professional relationship...
...Maybe financial acumen was the reason his bishop chose him as pastor-which otherwise is something of a mystery...
...1), in other words, the internal academic authorities of the college or university...
...True to her calling as a psychologist, Callahan focuses her thoughts about the very public response to the death of Princess Diana on the individual and his or her responsibility for controlling emotional expression...
...Regrettably, I never saw the episode he describes and was unable to enlist the aid of my fifteen-year-old-he's a "Friends" fan...
...Insurance salesmen...
...Lawrence J. Gillis's splendid Last Word, "Forgive Me, Solicitor" [September 26], elicited this response from my friend and attorney (a former president of the Florida Bar Association): "I guess I've handled a hundred criminal cases in my forty-year career, and I don't remember having any of them confess or offer to confess...
...I agree that responsibility and balance are best realized by people themselves...
...Hook's question [Correspondence, November 7], about what purpose an atheist accountant serves in the television series "Nothing Sacred," was provided in the script, quoted in the New York Times (September 18...
...A special charism...
...Asked at a staff meeting "why we have an atheist on staff," the pastor replies: "I don't want a business manager who thinks that God will provide...
...Keep up the great work...
...Ecclesiastical authority is to see that the 'principles of Catholic doctrine are faithfully observed,' a more extensive duty than that of caring that 'Catholic doctrine be faithfully taught,' which seems restricted to the classroom context...
...Camera...
...I agree that this is about the best depiction of the modern (especially urban) Catholic church we're going to see in the media, and that it deserves to stay on the tube...
...SYLVESTER L. STEFFEN New Hampton, Iowa Private goes public Agree or disagree, I always enjoy reading Sidney Callahan's columns...
...Even without a television, I know more about Diana's sex life than I do about some of my wilder cousins...
...After suggesting that we seem to lack today any basic missionary impulse, he added a new note: What we are slow to understand is that we are the culture that we are called to critique and evangelize...
...Donohue's first point, I would cite episode number 4, during which the entire parish staff, including Father Ray, does its utmost to prevent a teenage girl from having an abortion...
...The various accrediting associations that have accredited such universities, not as religious institutions but as true universities, would undoubtedly be surprised to learn that they were now "within the church" and subject to the "extensive involvement" of the local bishop, after having been assured by those universities that they were institutionally autonomous...
...The language and ideals extolled by the committee's lay professionals struck me as alien to a church setting...
...Respect for 'Respect' I found myself reading Alane Salier-no Mason's moving essay "Respect: An Italian-American Story" [October 10] for the second time today...
...The mourning for Diana would not appear so overblown were it contained within a single room, where twenty or forty people are expressing their grief in a funeral involving family and friends...
...More important, I believe that many American Catholic academics would take issue with Professor Conn's contention that "Catholic universities are within the church, indeed at its very heart" [emphasis his...
...it's also that the once-clear lines between public and private space are no longer there...
...Remember the scene outside the woman's door where he says he's reading something to her, and the camera shows he has a blank piece of paper in front of him...
...Bankers...
...Baltimore, Md...
...From the editors: Beyond the Godfather (University Press of New England, $36, 320 pp...
...Also, belated thanks to Sean Callery for his explicit, positive review [August 15] of the Pete Hamill novel, Snow in August...
...micromanagement" (the new mortal sin...
...2) give him unrestricted license, as some observers seem to fear, to micromanage academic institutions, a role no wise bishop would want...
...Father Ray may be a relic of the '60s, but for dealing responsibly with parish resources, he's right on...
...It mirrors both feelings and observations I had growing up in a neighborhood that was then predominantly Italian too...
...Donohue is a more faithful viewer of "Nothing Sacred" than I am...
...Spirit lacking In his review [October 10] of "Nothing Sacred," Frank McConnell's choice of quotes-from a friend, "anyone who thinks that religious life isn't melancholy doesn't know much about religious life," from Karl Rahner on what it is to be religious, "to believe that it is meaningful for a human being to speak into the endless desert of God's silence," and from Graham Greene's disdainful reference to "the habit of piety"-reveals a mindset that shows little evidence of the fire of the Holy Spirit...
...PAUL C. SAUNDERS More on McCarraher Professor McCarraher's acerbic essay [September 12] on the lay revolution makes sense of my perplexity when asked to serve on a parish liturgy committee...
...October 24] I agree, but want to offer an elaboration...
...conveners" (don't call people "directors," they might act that way...
...Recall the commendation, in Luke's Gospel, of the children of this world for being wiser in their generation than the children of light...
...On the other hand, I shouldn't have read the review because it opens with the word-for-word last paragraph of the book, thereby removing the sting and mystery of the work...
...He's wrong, flat-out wrong...
...Indeed, the ABC website says of the infamous abortion discussion, "In the confessional, Ray ignores church policy...
...An example is the effort in recent years to sell "stewardship" (tithing) to, of all people, Iowa farmers...
...Surely these altered contexts help explain what we saw in the mourning over Diana's death...
...was edited by A. Stephen Ciongoli and Jay Parini...
...In the chancery, Father Ray explicitly says that he cannot do (advise against abortion) what he himself does not believe...
...The full information may help facilitate my search in the local bookstores...
...Our pastor's homily last summer on Mark's account of Jesus' commissioning his disciples took a surprising turn...
...Uses of atheism The answer to D.D...
...Donohue's reference to the ABC website is irrelevant: How the network may have hyped "Nothing Sacred" has little to do with the actual episodes...
...The second paragraph of the canon makes that very point directly: "The conference of bishops and the diocesan bishops concerned have the right and duty of being vigilant that in these universities the principles of Catholic doctrine are faithfully observed...
...There can be no doubt whatsoever that this paragraph refers to ecclesiastical, not internal academic, authority...
...I agree with Callahan that there was something that didn't feel right about these events, and I absolutely agree that a reordering of such displays can only grow out of people's getting a personal grip on things...
...Starbucks Catholicism doesn't sell in Iowa...
...Tears...
...If you send copies of your materials to the network and the show's producers, it may encourage them to keep fighting the good fight, and to see that we're not all in the mold of the Catholic League...
...JAMES J. CONN, S.J...
...The writer is dean and professor of canon law at Saint Mary's Seminary and University...
...A character out of Greene, Bernanos, or O'Connor, he's not...
...But as an anthropologist I couldn't help thinking that Callahan missed an important part of the problem...
...JOYCE BIBZAK Park Forest, III...
...There can also be no doubt that this paragraph was intended to confer broad authority on the local bishop and the bishops' conferences over Catholic universities...
...This time ["Lights...
...MICHAEL M. MATTHIESEN Petaluma, Calif...
...But we do agree on one thing: Both of us share Ray's preference for Frank Sinatra...
...I'm also sorry to tell Pete that Father Ray can, in fact, lie...
...I hope they understand that...
...What more evidence can there be...
...I take Professor Conn's point that the phrase "the authority who is competent in accord with the statutes" most likely refers to the "internal academic authorities of the college or university," even though that description does not appear in the canon...
...The writer is president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights...
...Nor do the bishop's "right and duty of being vigilant that in these universities the principles of Catholic doctrine are faithfully observed" (canon 810, par...
...it turned out that business courses would have been more helpful...
...Nevertheless, canon 810 does give further evidence of Rome's belief that the hierarchy should control Catholic universities, despite their desire for institutional autonomy...
...But that is just the point: Catholic universities are within the church, indeed, at its very heart...
...That doesn't make him a bad guy, but it does shoot a hole in Pete's reasoning...
...He can do so most effectively through the proper exercise of his teaching office and through the influence that his moral authority has over Catholic believers and their institutions...
...It is precisely that line between public and private that has been obscured in the case of Diana- and is continually blurred in the media attention to celebrity...
...The Code, the Holy See, and the American bishops, I suspect, are asking for little more and nothing less...
...teams" and "co-leaders" (as if anyone can play any position on the field...
...If Mr...
...Do farmers believe them when they ascend church pulpits...
...Lawyers...
...The apostolic constitution Ex corde ecclesiae does not depart from the honored medieval tradition of the rightful autonomy of universities within the church...
...Talk about shooting oneself in the foot...
...The suggestion that people in the pew must experience "ownership" (a telltale term, surely) of the liturgy strikes me as theologically misguided...
...does the creature ever "possess" what is utter gift from the Creator...
...RICHARD J. SKLBA Milwaukee, Wis...
...The writer is auxiliary bishop of the Milwaukee archdiocese...
...William a. donohue New York, N.Y...
...I should like to add to McCarraher's sampling of the church's new consumer-ethos vocabulary by listing some of the words most bandied about in discussions of parish ministries...
...In this respect the current Code promotes the principle of subsidiarity by placing the duty where it belongs, unlike the 1917 Code which gave bishops the right to make professorial appointments themselves...
...Still, shalomEDWARD F. HAYES Orlando, Fla...
...frank s. de lucia San Pedro, Calif...
...Politicians...
...And who are the lay people the planners engage to preach this good word...
...The very people toward whom many farmers have bitter feeling- and with reason-and blame for their economic hardships...
...Indeed, Professor Conn has elsewhere written [Catholic Universities in the United States and Ecclesiastical Authority, Analecta Gregoriana, Rome, 1991] that canon 810 "opens the door to extensive involvement on the part of ecclesiastical authority by highlighting its role of vigilance that 'the principles of Catholic doctrine be faithfully observed'" [emphasis mine...
...TOM FRICKE Ann Arbor, Mich...
...On his second point: All I can say is that Dr...
...I don't think so...
...But rather than seeing this as a kind of mass loss of control, a contagion of emotions, I see the diagnosis having to do with the media and the marketplace infiltrating and turning to their advantage what were once markers of the private, intimate, and familial...
...This is not a matter of interpretation, it's there for all who have eyes that can see...
...The writer replies: On Dr...
Vol. 124 • December 1997 • No. 22
