Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors It's coming! A sure sign that the Apocalypse is upon us: a movie star on the cover of Commonweal [June 18]. ken hull Oak Park, Mich. The editors reply:...
...DONALD PURCELL Potsdam, N.Y...
...The writer is an attorney with Central American Legal Assistance...
...PHIL JOHNSON Fountain Valley, Calif...
...Now, especially as national election time nears, this moral and economic drain on our national life cries out for the attention of citizens...
...The next issue will be dated August 13...
...So what else is new...
...Our allegedly disengaged seminarians serve the poor in the inner cities of Washington, Baltimore, and Harrisburg, minister to the marginalized in local prisons, care for victims of AIDS in a D.C...
...The editors reply: That wasn't a movie star, it was a fairy queen...
...For example, why couldn't White's article have been written back then, when it could still have saved lives...
...Not by my definition, which is arrogance and disregard for the dignity of the laity, attitudes not tolerated in our seminary...
...The Times article depicts our seminarians as "The Last Counterculture," a perspective of the author...
...Yes, I admit, they reject aspects of our American culture that are contrary to the values of the gospel (and, in this sense, are countercultural...
...Yes, I admit they are passionately committed to the teachings of the church (not just in the area of sexual morality, but in the area of social justice as well...
...I do not pretend to depict our seminarians as perfect, but I have a hard time understanding the harsh criticism of our men still in formation, desirous of following the call of the Lord, preparing to serve the church...
...Lower unemployment figures and a declining crime rate are surely elements that give comfort...
...Clearly, managed care is unable to meet this need...
...the millions who still live in poverty, the minimal wage levels of many new jobs, their temporary status, and the frequent absence of health benefits...
...Hingham, Mass...
...White was in El Salvador in 1980 when the bodies of the murdered nuns and lay missionary were dug up from their shallow graves...
...Yes, I admit, our seminarians are zealous for the faith (but they are not zealots...
...Single-payer basic medical insurance is the way the rest of the developed countries of the world have chosen...
...He has been quoted as saying then, "They won't get away with it this time...
...It is a model of well-backed information and reasoned recommendation...
...Tell that to the HMO managers...
...An ever-increasing number of them are in need of intensive care for the very same reason...
...Just as welfare reform has reduced the number of recipients but left those in need no better or worse off than before, the employment and crime statistics will represent a historic achievement only when every job brings a living wage and when the need of health insurance is met, especially for the millions of children without it...
...only recently has there been a slight improvement in their legal rights...
...media and public...
...Clericalism...
...hospice, work in shelters for the homeless, and spend summers in Latin America learning Spanish for ministry to immigrants in their home dioceses...
...But of course "they" did...
...In truth, our future priests are being formed for the task of the "evangelization of culture," deeply imbued through their education here with the vision and teaching of Vatican II's Gaudium et spes, Pope Paul VI's Evangelii nuntiandi, and Pope John Paul II's many writings on the theme, most recently his apostolic exhortation after the Synod for America, Ecclesia in America...
...Yes, I admit, they are deeply devoted to the Holy Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary (and genuinely desire to be "men of God," dedicated to a disciplined daily life of prayer...
...benedict j. duffy, m.d...
...Jobs alone not enough It's true that "jobs work," as the headline over E.J...
...Continued on page 4) Commonweal 2 July 16,1999 CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 2) Managed care is wasteful In "Money & Medical Care" [June 18], Christopher Koller writes re: singlepayer programs: "European and Canadian systems have shown that universal coverage is not immune from the underlying cost pressures being felt in health care today...
...Our seminary serves over thirty dioceses from across the United States and enjoys the full support of our chancellor, Cardinal William Keeler, and other bishops from across the nation, who visit here regularly and are familiar with our program...
...It is important to understand the U.S...
...legacy in Central America...
...But a focus only on these figures ignores In keeping with Commonweal's usual schedule, only one issue is published each month during July and August...
...ANNE PILSBURY Brooklyn, N.Y...
...Yes, I admit, they intend to wear clerical attire as a public witness to their faith and sign of their vocation...
...the Salvadoran military went on to kill thousands more as the decade dragged on to a close...
...Yes, Homer nods...
...These young soldiers are prepared to kill men, women, children without regard to innocence or guilt—and not for a cause or to protect homes or family but to maintain in power those who pay their wages...
...It is time to listen to what they have to tell us, instead of trying to deport them...
...As he noted, what happened there is "not just about events that took place...[in] the cold war...
...role in prolonging the bloodshed...
...No, Mount Saint Mary's Seminary and seminarians are not a return to the 1950s...
...They are the living witnesses of what we did in Central America...
...The statements characterizing the Mount as "a departure from our enduring practice of open dialogue in discerning our unfolding tradition" [letter, May 21] and suggesting that we are "preparing priests to serve a church in full retreat from the modern world" [editorial] are simply unfair and uninformed judgments...
...myles whalen New York, N.Y...
...It has treated Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees very differently, contesting their right to be here every step of the way...
...From the editors: Ow...
...The real question is what to do about the many millions of the uninsured...
...It is about time that we do the same...
...We constantly see in the news the faces of the victims of war but the troubled faces of young men who bring death to their own countrymen suggest that they are themselves victims of the weapons in their hands—reminders that violence is a self-consuming fire...
...Why this unfounded suspicion of clericalism and fear of a return to the 1950s...
...Sorry, never having written to you before, to come now to point out the repeated typo on page 6 of the June 18 issue: "Iran" twice for Iraq, in the editorial comment "End game...
...MARK FRANCESCHINI, O.M.I...
...but this time he banged his head on the desk...
...The story goes on today...
...The problem with managed care is that it is enormously wasteful...
...A matter of timing Hooray for Ambassador Robert White's "Rethinking Foreign Policy" [June 4], calling for a Truth Commission on United States' actions in Central America...
...Dionne, Jr.'s June 18 column suggests...
...Just look at its duplication—multiple plans each with its gaggle of business school graduates who know not of medical care, full-page newspaper ads and TV blurbs that claim my HMO is better than yours, and on and on...
...They are a sign of renewal in the church, inspired by the teachings of the Second Vatican Council...
...Ready to kill Your issue of June 4 is filled, as usual, with stimulating ideas and insights, but it was the cover that hit me hardest...
...An N, a Q, who cares...
...Continued on page 28) Commonweal 4 July 16,1999...
...And what about the survivors of the Central American civil wars of the 1980s, often ignored by the U.S...
...The United States has treated Nicaraguan exiles generously, granting them legal status...
...A model article A quick note of appreciation for Ambassador Robert E. White's June 4 article on the U.S...
...They run a youth evangelization weekend retreat that attracts over 2,000 teen-agers every year who leave here excited and motivated to practice their faith more fully...
...Denver, Colo...
...Should we not rejoice in these qualities, so evident in this new generation of seminarians...
...A sign of renewal As rector of Mount Saint Mary's Seminary, I feel impelled to respond to your editorial [April 23] about the New York Times Magazine article on our seminarians and to the more recent critical letters [May 21...
Vol. 126 • July 1999 • No. 13
