Correspondence
McCRABB, DONALD R. & KENNEY, WILLIAM & DAILEY, ED & STARKEY, JOHN RICHARD & DOLAN, GERALD M. & MAHON, JOHN W. & FREILAND, BERNARD & POWELL, JAMES M. & POPCAK, GREGORY K. & McGUIRE, JOSEPH W. & KOVACS, RONALD & LOVELL, RICHARD A. & SAUS, STEVE & PHILLIPS, (REV.) RANDALL R. & HONEYGOSKY, STEPHEN & ROTTINO, TONY & CAVALLI, DIMITRI & Mullarkey, Maureen
Woodward vs. Cuomo I was disappointed in the articles by Kenneth Woodward and Mario Cuomo ("Catholics, Politics & Abortion," September 24). A much-needed opportunity for dialogue was lost. Woodward...
...The history of the church is replete with popes who ignored Canon Law or made new law to conform with their needs at the time...
...Would that be in the common good...
...to Jo McGowan for her delightful column in the September 24 issue ("Kerry, Our Erring Brother...
...Yet I disagree with her that mental deficiency inevitably leads to a life of abject helplessness and tortuous dependence...
...TONY ROTTINO Racine, Wis...
...His arguments against the "deal-breaking offenses" of Bush and Kerry reflect my own concerns and, I'm certain, those of many other Catholics...
...A wise retreat master, in one of my early years of monastic formation, defined love as "sacrificing in joy...
...Of course Nader was and is staunchly prochoice...
...Mario Cuomo disagrees, as he did when, as governor of New York, he believed there to be no public consensus for antiabortion legislation...
...Right now, however, those at the "top" aren't willing to listen...
...BERNARD FREILAND Columbia, Md...
...STEVE SAUS Dayton, Ohio In & out of love Clearly, Fr...
...Perhaps such a targeted boycott could help the nation envision the formation of another political party prepared to challenge the unacceptable policies of the Republicans and Democrats...
...Telling incongruities Mario Cuomo argues that most people are not convinced that life begins at conception, therefore arguments based on this presumption are moral...
...So he is old enough to know that what he has written is largely an apologia for emotional promiscuity...
...I was outraged by Paul Griffiths's argument against voting in this presidential election...
...Huzzah for a brilliant insight and witty delivery-would that all essayists had such talent...
...McCormick penned this essay many years ago, but Cuomo has still failed to address his concerns...
...Randall Phillips ("Gift or Curse...
...DIMITRI CAVALLI Bronx, N.Y...
...Cuomo, for his part, fails to acknowledge that his party's rigid pro-choice views prevent serious discussion of these issues...
...Very early in his political career, Mario Cuomo was prolife and opposed Governor Nelson Rockefeller's decision, in 1970, to sign legislation that legalized abortion in New York State...
...Joseph w. mcguire Mt...
...Gregory k. popcak Steubenville, Ohio Prolife Democrats John Garvey's column ("None of the Above," September 10) highlights the difficulties facing prolife voters in the upcoming presidential election...
...If a brand new pope were presented with a ruling from the cardinals, what would prevent him from saying, "Thanks, but no thanks...
...I hope the editors invite them back for another round of conversation on these questions...
...I served with the governor and saw how serious he was about his Catholicism...
...So it has been since 1992 when Governor Robert Casey was silenced and exiled...
...John Garvey's protest vote for Ralph Nader in 2000 shows how well his blinders have been working...
...I wonder what Cuomo would make of the recent survey of 217IVF clinics which report the elaborate rituals-including prayer services, quasi-funer-als, and other suprisingly reverential ceremonies-that attend the disposal of embryos...
...It is simply a mean-spirited, personal attack...
...Cuomo's logic in insisting that he cannot impose his personal religious views on his fellow citizens who are not members of his faith implies that Catholics are the only Americans who oppose legalized abortion...
...As far as I can tell, Cuomo has done little to change society's attitudes about abortion...
...For not only bishops need to listen openly to theologians, but priests (especially pastors of parishes) and laypeople as well...
...He insists on making this a one-issue election...
...STEPHEN HONEYGOSKY, OSB Latrobe, Pa...
...The medical staff in the late 1950s advised my parents to institutionalize him, claiming he'd be unmanageable...
...Sage advice While reading the exchange between Kenneth Woodward and Mario Cuomo, I could not but recall the article written by the late Richard Mc-Cormick, SJ, "Theology in the Public Forum" (from The Critical Calling: Reflections on Moral Dilemmas Since Vatican II, Georgetown University Press...
...Falling in love is easy...
...It is nourished and supported by religious sources, but is available to human insight and reasoning without such sources...
...Woodward is correct that it is possible to construct an argument against abortion that does not depend on religion, though I would hesitate to grant the strength of some of his arguments...
...That vote sure showed somebody something somehow...
...Cuomo and Woodward miss other important points as well...
...Gillis states that "the cardinals should consider instituting a plan for the retirement of future popes...
...Don't Catholics have a responsibility to consider what is best for society at large...
...Yet nowhere in Canon Law is it written that a pope must do what he doesn't want to do...
...Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) is a national organization with chapters in thirty-two states...
...Most of all, he is the perfect companion for my recently widowed father...
...Smart and witty too "Brava...
...But Griffiths's most offensive statement is in comparing voting for Stalin and Hitler with voting for Bush and Kerry...
...RANDALL R. PHILLIPS Abortion & retardation I sympathize with Claudette Kane, the mother of the mentally deficient child who committed suicide (Correspondence, September 10...
...william kenney Whitestone, N.Y...
...There is a difference between falling in love at various times in one's life and doing so as often as possible...
...We are faced with two miserable alternatives: (1) fight back the nausea and pull one of the levers, or (2) sit this one out, as Garvey suggests...
...It is not a rebuttal or an independent argument or an exegesis...
...GERALD M. DOLAN, OFM Cape May, N.J...
...RICHARD A. LOVELL Lancaster, Pa...
...September 10) seems to raise more questions than it answers...
...The mystery is Why...
...Elect Nader...
...For shame...
...The Republican economic policy is hurting the middle class, and its foreign policy has been disastrous...
...He further explains that the best time to accomplish this would be during an interregnum-that is, after a pope's death and before the cardinals elect his successor...
...Woodward did not advance a prolife stance...
...Catholics who share Griffiths's disabling doubts about both candidates should not boycott the elections on November 2; they should go to the polls and cast a vote in every race except that for president and vice president...
...More information is available by writing 1667 K Street, NW, Suite 520, Washington, DC 20006...
...Today, though disabled because of musculo-skeletal weakness, he continues to be highfunctioning-reading, cleaning, modestly exercising...
...No one-least of all his friend Woodward-would dispute that Cuomo was and is a man of conscience...
...The bishops have gone to great lengths to warn Catholics not to make the election a single-issue affair...
...But, no, he is a pastor...
...Like Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Jim Florio, George Pataki, Rudolph Giuliani, and the Rev...
...In the ten years since he has been out of office, one would think that Mario Cuomo, who is now a private citizen and free of any political pressures, would follow the example of his mentor and predecessor as governor, Hugh Carey, and renounce his prochoice views and finally stand up for the rights of the unborn...
...Why did Cuomo change his mind...
...MAUREEN MULLARKEY Chappaqua, N.Y...
...On the other hand, a dissenting prolife voice is exerting some influence within the Democratic Party...
...I don't believe that aborting a severely retarded child is ever the right or loving thing to do...
...Theologians & bishops Dennis O'Brien's clarion call to the bishops ("Listen Up," September 10) was more than well written and insightful...
...Would women and doctors be arrested...
...Man of conscience Kenneth Woodward contends there's a "moral consensus...now tilt[ing] toward the prolife position...
...James Dobson, Jews such as Rabbi Jacob Neusner and Rabbi Marc Gel-man, and even atheists such as Nat Hentoff and Christopher Hitchens who are prolife...
...What Woodward fails to take into account is that, in a pluralistic society, public policy can be based on Catholic teaching only when that teaching has been made acceptable to non-Catholics...
...Commonweal could have done much better...
...We would have to provide rational, scientific, and philosophical grounds for insisting that conception is the critical moment...
...My brother Kevin was born with Down syndrome...
...If enough citizens do this, then surely the discrepancy between the total votes cast for president and the total number of voters recorded at polling places would send a message to the major parties that much of the electorate seeks a significant change in presidential politics...
...The logic leaves me dizzy...
...But neither is there a clear record against this course...
...I have so far been unable to come up with such an argument, and Woodward certainly does not provide it...
...If a husband says he loves his wife but smacks her around, that incongruity says something...
...Cuomo writes that as governor, he "strenuously advocated a series of programs to reduce abortions by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies...
...An art, really, that takes a lifetime to perfect...
...He even seems to suggest it is his due, given the long hours he puts in...
...JOHN RICHARD STARKEY New York, N.Y...
...Until somebody does, I can find no basis for insisting that Mario Cuomo or John Kerry, or, for that matter, George W. Bush, is bound to follow Woodward's instruction...
...If Cuomo was serious in wanting to reduce the number of abortions, then why did he insist that the State of New York should provide public financing of abortions for women who could not afford them...
...In his response to Woodward, he continues to insist that the church's argument against abortion is primarily religious in nature, when plainly it is not...
...The Democratic Party, meanwhile, remains intransigent on just about all of the right-to-life issues, with the exception of the death penalty...
...In fact, there are Protestants such as the Rev...
...He appeared to be severely retarded, not even knowing how to swallow...
...As a therapist, I am trained to note and interpret incongruities...
...Cuomo, meanwhile, was defensive...
...Theologians can help deepen our understanding of complicated topics such as the Eucharist, Christol-ogy, original sin and redemption, evolution, and gospel feminism...
...Jesse Jackson, however, Cuomo abandoned his prolife convictions and became prochoice...
...This he does not hear...
...Most adults work twelve-to-sixteen-hour days-ask any working parent or conscientious professional...
...The abortion question is so complex that it is possible for both sides to be right and wrong at the same time...
...Not an argument I am troubled by and disappointed with Kenneth Woodward's challenge to Mario Cuomo...
...Cuomo also ignores the fact that many prolifers are motivated not by their religious views but simple biology, believing that unborn children are human beings who are entitled to legal protection...
...September 10) likes falling in love-and as frequently as possible...
...What we need, if our belief is to inform policy, is an unassailable argument that will convince those who do not fully share that belief...
...He did not outline what a pro-life Catholic politician should do, given the complexities of the political landscape in the United States...
...Right & wrong The articles by Kenneth Woodward and Mario Cuomo illustrate an important point...
...It is a relatively small voice, however, and it needs to grow louder...
...In developing such an argument, sentences beginning "The church teaches" would be of very little use...
...JOHN W. MAHON Stamford, Conn...
...For these reasons, and for those clearly presented by Woodward: How can the governor's position be considered anything but spurious...
...Yet we manage to do it without rewarding ourselves with the titilla-tions of "mutual longing...
...But with consistent attention, Kevin got stronger, gained weight, and eventually attended school...
...JAMES M. POWELL Syracuse, N.Y...
...In his opening paragraph, McCormick referred to Cuomo's famous Notre Dame speech as "theological...
...The statements on behalf of George W. Bush and John Kerry by Robert Royal and Thomas Higgins, respectively, provide thoughtful arguments in support of their candidates...
...As O'Brien indicates, we should not be afraid of dialogue on these issues...
...ed dailey Newton, Mass...
...Shortly before Cuomo began his public career, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote that "Above the pope as an expression of the binding claim of church authority stands one's own conscience, which has to be obeyed first of all, if need be against the demands of church authority...
...By contrast, in 1989, Cuomo's fellow Catholic Democrat, Governor Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, signed into law numerous restrictions on abortion...
...But Paul Griffiths resonates powerfully with me when he writes that he will vote for neither candidate, and he is right to "suspect that increasing numbers of Catholics are feeling an uneasiness of this kind...
...he simply attacked Cuomo's record...
...Continued on page 42) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) For the prosecution The exchange between Kenneth Woodward and Mario Cuomo ignores several facts...
...It was, it is, prophetic...
...No to the Democrats because of abortion rights, and no to the Republicans because of the war in Iraq...
...What an insult...
...Unfortunately, Cuomo continues to turn a blind eye to this great evil...
...Mandatory celibacy, however, prevents that growth from taking place...
...Shame on Griffiths...
...When we oppose abortion in that forum, we do so because a fundamental human right is at stake-the right to life of the unborn child...
...Only God knows how things will turn out for people like my brother...
...We must accept God's plan for us, not assume divine right and spin a script...
...Loving is quite another matter...
...At first reading, I assumed Phillips was a callow butterfly, newly hatched out of seminary...
...He completed all twelve years and then some...
...So, to protest the prochoice position of the Democratic Party, Garvey voted for a prochoice third-party candidate...
...Papal power Chester Gillis's article "Papal Term Limits...
...In fact, in his twelve years in office Cuomo adamantly refused to support any reasonable restrictions on abortion such as waiting periods and parental consent and notification for minors...
...Woodward fails to address what would happen if abortion was prohibited...
...whereas everyone believes that a forty-year-old murderer is alive and therefore more deserving of political consideration...
...Targeted voting Kudos to Commonweal for publishing three advocacy statements about the upcoming presidential election, "Right, Left & None of the Above" (October 8...
...During the last year, Dad, while thankful for my sister and me, confesses time and again that, "I just don't know what I'd do without Kevin...
...I urge Commonweal readers to view the DFLA Web site (www.democratsforlife.org) and join in its efforts...
...Not a bad concept for our age-and parents of all the less desirable unborn-to ponder afresh...
...And it is one that does not habitually seek objects who, in turn, provide that New Age anodyne: affirmation...
...Lef s stipulate that we share the belief that life begins at conception...
...McCormick goes on to quote Bishop James W. Malone, then president of the bishops' conference: "We seek, however, not only to address Catholics and others who share our moral convictions, but to make a religiously informed contribution to the public-policy debate in our pluralistic society...
...Did he develop doubts about the humanity of the fetus or was he eager to have a political future in the New York State Democratic Party, which remains committed to the prochoice cause...
...He did not address what, in my mind, was the most serious question raised by Woodward-namely, is there room for a prolife Democrat in the Democratic Party...
...If IVF clinic personnel verbally deny the person-hood of an embryo, but then hold a funeral for it, that incongruity says something...
...RONALD KOVACS Kenilworth, N.J...
...I wonder how many other families have benefited from the love and attention of one who was once diagnosed as hopelessly dependent...
...In fact, sometimes it ends up working the other way...
...and so it is understandable that Garvey is very frustrated with the former party of choice...
...Laurel, N.J...
...The author replies: Apparently I struck a vein of pain and resentment with this reader that reaches beyond my article...
...DONALD R. MCCRABB Washington, D.C...
...I agree that one must move from falling in love to loving: to giving and receiving love fully...
...Cuomo is correct that the church has no clear record of seeking to enshrine its position on abortion in secular law...
...McCormick had two criticisms of the speech, which he conveyed to the governor in a letter: "The first touches the usage of the terms 'religious beliefs,' 'religious values.' I believe that the church's position on abortion is not precisely a religious one, that is, one dependent on religious (that is, revelation) sources...
...For the defense In their debate on abortion, Mario Cuomo rightly points out that Kenneth Woodward's position would oblige Catholic politicians to work actively to make Catholic teaching on abortion the basis of public policy...
...REV...
...Let's face it, many of us who started out as Democrats are hamstrung and don't know whom to vote for...
Vol. 131 • October 2004 • No. 18
