Inside
NCR
Ive mellowed since the time
when the thought of needles puncturing skin to inflict permanent markings made
me cringe. Just the thought of it. Part of it is simple exposure. Everywhere,
it seems, people bear yard after yard of marked-up skin. Some of it is witty,
artistic, thought-provoking, even.
I know a young woman, an Olympic gold medalist, who had the
Olympic rings tattooed on the small of her back. Consider hers hard-earned. It
was a team thing.
One of the more thoughtful and engaging young men I know has
tattooed around his forearm the phrase, The sun shining and all the stars
aflame. It is a line from a letter of James Baldwin to his nephew.
Baldwin is saying, in short, that for white America to acknowledge that the
American power structure essentially perpetuates racism would be akin to waking
up and finding the sun shining and all the stars ablaze.
The young man calls his tattoo a string around his finger, a
constant reminder of racism and his part in it.
Though all tattoos are not destructive or offensive, some can be.
As is clear in Arthur Jones story on page 14, tattoos can seriously
interfere with life, even threaten it.
So we salute Sr. June Wilkerson for her resourcefulness and
concern in helping victims of youthful indiscretion find a reprieve. Thanks to
her efforts, they need no longer be marginalized or placed in jeopardy by the
markings on their skin.
Recent discussions about shoring up
Catholic identity at our institutions of higher learning have often focused on
concerns about doctrinal orthodoxy in theology departments. Robert
McClorys story about the demonstration by Pax Christi members against
military presence at the University of Notre Dame, page 3, raises essential
questions about Catholic identity in other areas of campus life. Questions
about Catholic teaching as it relates to war and weapons, so much a part of
public discussion in the 1980s, have, unfortunately, been pushed to the
sidelines since the end of the Cold War.
I think we have completely overlooked, in our assessment of our
institutions Catholic character, the danger of breaching Catholic
teaching by those who teach students to become modern warriors, not to mention
by those departments receiving federal funds to underwrite research for the
nations various military pursuits.
Pentagon money is a far greater threat to Catholic identity than
the occasional theology professor who might breach the boundaries of what Rome
considers orthodox today.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, April 27,
2001
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