National Catholic Reporter
Subscribers only section
January 19, 2007
 

Letters

False labeling by Bruskewitz

It would seem to be evidence of a poverty of thought when one of our bishops resorts to name-calling and false labeling in an attempt to silence members of his flock (NCR, Dec. 22). When Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz says his Call to Action members are “closely linked to and cooperate with abortion providers and virulent abortion supporters,” he stoops to a new level of untruth. Since he has no solid reasons for opposing their call for women priests and for married men as priests and for the people of God being able to choose their own bishops, he strives to discredit them by characterizing them with names that good Catholic people abhor. Shame on him.

JOHN W. McNALLY
Estero, Fla.

* * *

What is wrong with Bishop Bruskewitz and the Vatican as well? Sr. Joan Chittister would call the bishop’s action the use of exploitative power, directing with absolute authority, bringing down the weight of the system on the group without responding to them in dialogue. If the group is burdened, a Jesus-like shepherd would try to lift the burden. The Vatican, rejecting the thrust of Pope John XXIII’s Vatican II, further condemned them for their complaint. Since when has penance become a “public renunciation”? This sounds political to me and a more brutal than benign treatment of the faithful.

J.M. ZATLUKAL
Fern Park, Fla.


Living with Muslims

I am deeply disturbed by Robert Royal’s recent column (NCR, Dec. 15). He sounds reasonable and practical in questioning the ability of people with another Abrahamic religion to assimilate to this country. But what he is actually saying, in a newspaper with “Catholic” in its title, is that Jesus is wrong, that some people are inherently unsuited to live among us, that, we, like Mr. Royal, cannot and should not accept in this country any of the some 1.2 billion persons whom our faith tells us were created by God the Father.

BILL HAY
Capitola, Calif.


Pope’s stylish shoes

Pope Benedict’s Christmas picture in his magnificent gilded vestments, his Vatican’s 109-foot Christmas tree and his liking for “stylish sunglasses and bright red shoes made by Prada” belie his call to turn from “unbridled consumerism.”

FRANCIS W. ROGERS
Rensselaer, N.Y.


Episcopal dissembling

Your editorial “Planning a day of fasting and penance” (NCR, Dec. 29) points to the importance of the Vatican requiring bishops to tell the truth about the sexual abuse scandal in order for healing to occur. I also believe that would be a step in the right direction. But it will never happen. I submit neither the Vatican nor the bishops will ever participate in any action that forthrightly acknowledges the depth of their complicity and culpability. To that extent, the editorial is naive and too trusting. No bishop has been held accountable beyond promotion to higher office. The hierarchy will always and everywhere protect itself first, placing power above principle, its reputation above justice. When bishops acknowledge the plain, simple truth that they lied to survivors, covered up abuse and criminally endangered children, then I will listen. But from chanceries we get only bleached language about “mistakes” and “harm” usually rendered in the passive voice. Turn to any deposition at www.bishopaccountability.org to see episcopal dissembling at its slickest.

I believe Fr. Tom Doyle’s continuing experience of legal hardball by bishops confirms their willful blindness: blocking the release of documents, bogus First Amendment claims of all sorts of fanciful immunity, vicious attacks against survivors and their lawyers, unconscionable delays, obstruction at every turn, and worn out charges of anti-Catholicism. More spin is not the answer and that is all we will get.

CAROLYN DISCO
Merrimack, N.H.

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Sadly a day of fasting and penance will not get the job done, Pope Benedict’s personal preacher notwithstanding. It is past time for that. What is needed now is the same process that’s been needed since the church’s mishandling of the sexual abuse problem became front page news in Boston and led to Cardinal Bernard Law’s stepping down as spiritual leader. The church simply does not have time for any more external ceremonies and prayer services. Such contrived happenings are meaningless media events orchestrated by diocesan public relations teams.

The “Witness to Sorrow” program recently held by the Philadelphia archdiocese was one such event. It may have shaken a few comatose priests awake to the reality of what has been going on in their rectories and elsewhere during the last 50 years, but otherwise it was virtually meaningless. Cardinal Justin Rigali did not use that service to make any truly pastoral remarks to victims of childhood sexual abuse by priests. The cardinal also passed up a similar opportunity at the prayer service that followed in the seminary’s chapel. What is needed is the removal of the “enablers” among upper-level clergy and bishops who, it would seem, we will always have with us. What is needed is contrite acknowledgment of the part prelates like Cardinals John Krol and Anthony Bevilacqua played in the cover-up, the conspiracy of silence and the intimidation of victims. What is needed is a public acknowledgment of all the priests who were ever known to be sexual abusers in our local churches.

CATHERINE M. HENRY
Havertown, Pa.


Praying to different Gods

A small article sent chills through me. Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne with the support of the German Council of Bishops has denounced multidenominational religious celebrations for children (NCR, Dec. 22). To add insult to injury, he suggested that Pope Benedict XVI and Muslim religious leaders did not pray together but to different Gods. Where in Jesus’ name do these hypocrites come from? He is the archetype of the “good German.” Has he learned nothing from the recent history of Germany?

SUSANNE JONES
Springboro, Ohio


Putting God to the test

The letter from Mary Collingwood (NCR, Dec. 15) continuing the debate on appropriate family size suggests that God’s plan for humankind puts no limits on how many times a married couple be allowed to exercise their procreative powers. I would like to remind all that the devil asked Jesus to defy natural law and jump from a high building so angels could catch him (Matthew 4:5-7). Jesus answered that one should not put the Lord your God to the test. It is also natural law that when any species multiplies to the extent there is not enough food, water or space to reasonably live, individuals will begin to kill each other. There will be violence, pestilence and disease. Purposefully defying this law of nature puts God to the test. It is surely not God’s desire that we should fight and kill each other for water, food and land. In the Vatican II document, “The Church in the Modern World,” there is reference to the parents’ responsibility to the children and to the human race when one defies laws about overpopulation. It would seem that natural law and thus the church’s teaching should be to have voluntary, non-abortive family planning, keeping to the number of children that can be afforded food, shelter and basic education.

JEROME KOSLOWSKI
Bay City, Mich.


Haiti bill is hopeless

Regarding your editorial “Congress gets it right on Haiti” (NCR, Dec. 22): Sweatshop workers in Haiti have a message for justice advocates who pressed for the passage of the “HOPE” (Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement) bill in the last hours of the last Congress: “Save us from this enslavement. ‘HOPE’ is only for the sweatshop owners.” Religious justice advocates helped pass this measure giving Haitian clothing manufacturers a break in getting cheaper cloth so that they could keep their businesses running and “save jobs.” They felt self-righteous that they stood down the opposition from the U.S. textile lobbyists. But did they ensure that workers rights would be enforced? No.

Your editorial uses the hack phrases about the “poorest country in the Western hemisphere,” “life expectancy is 53 years.” It sanctifies Mike DeWine as a selfless savior of poor Haitians. I think not. Check out the critique by Tom Ricker at the Quixote Center’s Web site to learn how this act has been around for several years and is just a bad model for just development in Haiti. The women workers at Wilbess & Co. earn less than $2 per hour, work beyond eight hours a day, often are denied bathroom privileges and are at risk of being shot if they cause trouble like trying to organize. Last month they contacted AUMOHD (Association of University Graduates Motivated for a Haiti with Rights), a Haitian human rights advocacy group. It’s the only credible human rights agency they could find to help them demand redress. “HOPE” is no hope for long-term development in a place where the United States has ruined agriculture and sabotaged democratic rule.

TOM LUCE
Berkeley, Calif.

Tom Luce is president of Hurah, Inc., Human Rights Accompaniment in Haiti.


Pinochet’s funeral

In the Dec. 29 NCR, Sr. Maureen Turlish mourns the “spiritual blessings of the church” received by Chile’s former military ruler Augusto Pinochet at his funeral Mass on Dec. 12.

I would never refuse a funeral, even for the worst of murderous sinners. I believe that the funeral is a gift and statement from God, whose love can never be overcome, whose light the darkness can never put out. At a funeral we look upon a fellow human being with the eyes of God, who created that person with many gifts, intended to be used after the image and intention of God. God receives the worst sinner with sorrow and a parent’s love. Surely we can do the same at a funeral, embracing even the saddest life in a re-creating love that is of God.

(The Rev.) BILL OLEWILER
Charlottesville, Va.

Bill Olewiler is pastor of Mount Moriah United Methodist Church in White Hall, Va.


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National Catholic Reporter, January 19, 2007