Correspondence Sport, sex & sacrament
Higgins, Thomas & RINKOSKI, TOM & WILKIE, RAYMOND & COLE, MARJORIE KOWALSKI & BECHTLE, REGINA & CONNELLY, JOE & NUNZ, ROBERT A.
Go, Packers, go! I thoroughly enjoyed John Savant's "The Saving Grace of Sport" (September 26). I just left Green Bay, Wisconsin (home of the Packers), because of a job change. In "Cheesehead,"...
...As fate would have it, I left Green Bay for Gainesville, Florida, home of the University of Florida Gators...
...Unlike the church, Big Brothers has had in place for decades a vigorous program to prevent pedophiles from reaching our children...
...The burden of proof should be on those who would refuse access to the sacraments based solely on sexual orientation, especially now that there is a growing consensus that such orientation is not a "choice...
...The serious mishandling of pedophilia by priests by our church's hierarchy still boggles the mind...
...Her experience of women religious and priests as encouraging, yet demanding role models probably reflects that of the majority of American Catholics...
...Wasn't that "an acceptable prejudice" as well...
...Plus, Lambeau Field, where the Packers play their home games, was the only place commonly referred to as a shrine...
...I have no difficulty with the perception that men and women are different, but we are all, men and women, both more different and more like each other than science has so far discovered...
...One of the dishes on that table is the promise that you may have beside you, day in and day out, the partner of your choosing, who can help you to be good, to love your neighbor as yourself...
...The damage to the victims, their families, and the church as a whole is deep and will be long-lasting...
...I think we would agree that insofar as civil society is concerned, the state ought not to legislate in ways that invidiously discriminate against individuals based on their sexual orientation...
...rather, reality was a temporary departure from the fulfilling energizing ecstasy of each game...
...The thousands of children whose lives will never experience the change in trajectory that a Big Brother/Sister can provide should be carefully weighed as we Catholics consider how our church should make amends to society for the sexual-abuse scandal...
...JOE CONNELLY Hobe Sound, Fla...
...Pilliod was one of the millions who welcomed Vatican II, with its vision of a church in dialogue with the world's "joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties," open to the transformation of clergy and laity alike...
...REGINA BECHTLE, SC Bronx, N.Y...
...For a true cheesehead, following the Packers was not "a temporary departure from ordinary reality," as Savant indicates...
...To the contrary, meaningful rituals-be they explicitly or implicitly religious-are at the center of every culture and are immensely powerful in giving symbolic expression to a society's dominant values and institutions...
...TOM RINKOSKI Gainesville, Via...
...The writer is national board chair of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America...
...MARJORIE KOWALSKI COLE Ester, Alaska John Garvey responded to letters about his column in the October 10 issue...
...So, let down your defenses, Mr...
...Two people in love can help each other out with this Christian challenge...
...Rituals matter "The Saving Grace of Sport" claims that mass spectator sports have only inconsequential effects on the "real" lives of spectators because, like the semi-religious dramas of fifth-century Greece, they are merely ritualistic...
...Raymond wilkie Lexington, Ky...
...Yet because of the church's failures in dealing with pedophilia (Continued on page 30) (Continued from page 4) and the resulting fear of lawsuits against other organizations serving youth, our five hundred agencies across the country have been hit with outrageously high increases in insurance premiums that threaten to reduce their levels of service...
...THOMAS HIGGINS San Francisco, Calif...
...A year or two of service among those who truly suffer bigotry (say, undocumented Latino farm workers) might produce a more careful approach...
...And inside there is a famous ring of saints' names...
...The church I work for is just up the street from their famed stadium, "The Swamp...
...If I understand his argument correctly, it is that intrinsic to the sacrament, and the mystery therein, is the difference between men and women...
...Our foundress St...
...Those homosexuals who embark upon committed unions deserve the blessings of the church...
...In "Cheesehead," U.S.A., I spent nine years learning more about ritual than my Jesuit education prepared me for...
...McCarraher is right that Jenkins doesn't distinguish between prejudice and criticism...
...How to live her imperative in the twenty-first century remains a challenge...
...I have seen it...
...ROBERT A. NUNZ Los Alamos, N.Mex...
...Jenkins, and others who speak of anti-Catholic prejudice, are clearly spending too much time in the comfortable halls of academia...
...Summer was often described as a trying time between seasons...
...But Jenkins also fails to define prejudice and, for that matter, appreciate what it really means...
...She has recreated a family life that "reflects all that we believe the church is...
...We have a regular Saturday evening Mass, but parking can be difficult on game day...
...Attendance was always better, and the same Catholics who didn't sing at church shouted responses without any inhibition...
...Sports are not always a "saving grace...
...Aren't sacraments almost indispensable to a life filled with grace, especially the lives of a couple together...
...Elizabeth Seton urged (as did Teresa of Avila before her), "Be children of the church...
...It is sacramental In his column, John Garvey grants that same-sex unions deserve legal recognition but not the blessing of the church-as if homosexuals should content themselves with a half-helping of marriage while the rest of us fill our plates...
...There is little doubt in my mind that the love between two partners of the same sex can be as sacred as the love between a man and a woman...
...My congregation shares Pilliod's passion for a church that can speak to the vastly different needs of our globalized, Spirit-hungry world...
...John Garvey's column ("Same-Sex Marriage") was especially thoughtful...
...I know what the Vatican says about this, but I think (Continued on page 4) (Continued from page 2) we have yet to fully understand what the Holy Spirit is saying...
...In America, no communal ritual is a more important unifier of diverse social/cultural groups than spectator sports-nor is there any ritual whose control is more jealously guarded by those who are increasingly using it for commercial and ideological purposes...
...The way it was Barbara Kane Pilliod ("The Way We Were," September 12) deftly captures the spirit of the 1950s when parishes were vibrant and nurtured "rich and fertile" life in the church...
...I don't deny the difference, but I wonder if that is sufficient justification for denying the sacrament...
...A few agencies have even been unable to secure insurance and have had to suspend service...
...This isn't easy for one person...
...I used to tell the diocesan liturgist that classes on liturgical rites and ritual should include tapes of Packer games...
...others will not...
...Some churches will bless same-sex marriages...
...However, I'm not sure I agree with Garvey in his conclusion that Christian churches should not "consider these unions marriages, or bless them...
...What has not been reported or realized is the enormous negative impact of the scandal on organizations that serve youth in this country...
...Jenkins argues that anti-Catholicism is unique because it is directed at an institution...
...I was also disappointed that the article failed to mention the negative effects of commercial sports on young people whose other abilities are often stunted by their single-minded pursuit of athletic success and celebrity...
...I further agree that churches have a right to bless only those unions that conform to their doctrinal beliefs...
...I have promised myself never to overlook such sacramental potential again...
...Big brothers Your recent articles about the church's sexual-abuse scandal prompt this letter from a Commonweal reader of more than fifty years...
...Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies...
...Real bigotry Having recently read Philip Jenkins's The New Anti-Catholicism, I found Eugene McCarraher's review ("Some Things Never Change," September 12) to be gentle at best...
...Garvey, and rejoice that there is more, not less, sacramental love on this planet than you previously thought...
...At a time when sexual-abuse scandals have revealed the church's darkest sins, it is a relief to be reminded of this wider perspective...
...Big Brothers Big Sisters is celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year and has an impressive record of helping children in need with a caring adult mentor...
...Blessing same-sex unions Two issues involving homosexuality and Christianity were addressed in the September 12 issue of Commonweal...
...Couples who commit to each other in a legal relationship should enjoy the same rights and responsibilities whether they are homosexual or heterosexual...
...Her deep sadness because "the change did not take" is apparent...
...But what about the rhetoric and hatred toward the UN before and during the Iraq conflict...
Vol. 130 • October 2003 • No. 18
