Mad banana disease
Mad banana disease m In Commonweal's editorial, "Taxing Rhetoric" (February 9), we suggested that the new Bush administration think twice before drastically cutting taxes. Apparently they are not...
...Each time we gather at the Lord's table, I see in his eyes, lo these many years later, the struggling wisdom that is so evident in Johnson's words...
...The documents issuing from Rome and diocesan offices come across as totally abstract and divorced from real life...
...Bush, more banana inspectors, please...
...Chicken, lettuce, bananas—you name it— can be dangerous to your health...
...How long can we afford to lose this critically important segment of the Catholic church in favor of a moral theology of sexuality that appears so rigid and static...
...Both of these Commonweal articles are priceless and full of wisdom from men who have actually "been there and done that...
...Salmonella, once a major cause of food poisoning, is now a minor culprit compared with a dozen newly identified pathogens, some of them fatal to infants, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems...
...REV...
...But, alas, people like him who try to introduce fresh ways of looking at such questions, while preserving the deep values of our faith, often find the welcome mat snatched out from under 23 them...
...Is anybody listening to them...
...Oh well...
...But as far as food dangers go, those turn out to be high-end, hypothetical problems...
...Apparently they are not listening to our ideas about what needs doing by the government...
...What we had in mind was preventing "mad cow" disease in the United States (the American Cattlemen's Association agrees with us) and monitoring genetically altered plants as they enter the nation's food supply...
...To be sure, Luke Timothy Johnson will not be joining Avery Dulles at the next consistory...
...In light of this onslaught, Brody (lovingly referred to as Calamity Jane by her faithful readers) goes into great detail about precautions needed in the kitchen, including washing your hands at least as often as Lady Macbeth...
...and washing, washing, washing—even items already "triple washed," by the producer...
...segregating meat, raw and cooked, with Jim Crow stringency...
...ANDREW GALLIGAN Tracy, Calif...
...At the low end, things are real and far worse than even we imagined...
...6 (Continued from page 4) Lived wisdom Luke Timothy Johnson's persuasive article on John Paul II's theology of the body is perhaps the finest article of its kind I have read in forty years...
...No red hat Luke Timothy Johnson's incisive critique of John Paul II's pronouncements on love, sex, and pleasure should be studied and openly discussed in every Catholi college and Newman Club in the nation—together with Paul Baumann's humorous reflections on George Weigel's biography of our pope ("Crossing the Threshold," December 3, 1999...
...So Mr...
...In my congregation there is a man who left his position as an active priest in the wake of Paul VI's Humanae vitae...
...Most of them have long ago put aside church teaching on birth control...
...Brody even advises washing bananas: "The skin could be contaminated and when the fruit is cut, food-poisoning organisms could spread to the flesh"— even if we peel instead of cut them...
...Over the past decade, the Food and Drug Administration has warned that systems to ensure the safety of imported foods are inadequate to the volume, and that domestic food products aren't always properly inspected...
...MOST REV...
...The writer is Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Catholic Church of America...
...24...
...incorporate it...
...On different planets Luke Timothy Johnson's critique of Pope John Paul II's reflections on sexuality was the most theologically cogent and pastorally persuasive commentary I've read in years about Catholic sexual teaching...
...Maybe that's why there is such massive apostacy among young people of marrying age, as well as so many who are married...
...Jane Brody, the New York Times's health writer, set us straight with a series of articles on the danger that globalization, food variety, and increased fruit and vegetable consumption are bringing to our digestive systems (January 30 and February 6...
...GEORGE R. FITZGERALD, C.S.P...
...I must admit, sadly, that in my thirty-six years as a priest, most married persons—and those to be married—with whom I have spoken feel that the church doesn't really address the complex problems couples face today...
...It's exciting to read something like Johnson's refreshing insights...
...Vail, Colo...
...Of course, both will be decried by those who believe Catholics should all walk in lock step with any current papal teaching, especially in matters of sexual ethics...
...E. BRIAN CARSTEN Angola, Ind...
...Have they ever had any firsthand, practical experience with marriage...
...Rather, it is about the church learning from the lived wisdom of her members and having the courage to (here is that word...
...One wonders in what spatial reality their authors live...
...Maintaining "a secure food supply," we suggested, was one area in need of more money...
...The entire issue of human sexuality and the gospel tradition is, it seems to me, not so much a matter of church versus individual conscience...
Vol. 128 • February 2001 • No. 4
