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Regarding “Ethics and the fog of war” by Paul Winner and the related Editor’s Note by Tom Roberts (NCR, Jan. 12): As a retired Army officer and deacon, I applaud the recognition of the important issue of the legitimacy of force. This is a message that I believe many, if not most, of NCR ’s readers need to hear and learn. Thoughtful consideration of this issue in the military is not new but has never been fully appreciated by the broader society outside the military, and admittedly by many within as well. The Naval War College has always taught such courses, the best of which was a course created in the late 1970s by Admiral (and former prisoner of war) James Stockdale, who brought in philosophy professor Joseph Brennan to team-teach with him.
West Point’s social sciences department, where I taught in the 1970s, has been the intellectual “nursery” and source of officers such as Maj. Gen. David Petraeus whom Paul Winner credits with the thoughtful curriculum at the School of Advanced Military Studies. Gen. Petraeus is a fellow graduate alumnus of Princeton where university leadership has consistently supported ROTC in recognition of the critical importance of educated, service-oriented young men and women in the military. Like Paul Winner, I learned from my father that soldiering is a noble profession. The Christian dimension of this nobility was best expressed for me by Bishop Fulton Sheen in his 1976 homily at West Point when he told Vietnam-era cadets not to allow public sentiment against soldiers to discourage them. Descriptions of Christ’s encounters with soldiers in scripture are all favorable, something the bishop mentioned that cannot be said about members of any other profession.
As is always the case with scripture, this is a critical point of departure for reflection by both soldiers and pacifists as we grapple with our common concern over violence and force.
(Col.) DOUG LOVEJOY
Princeton Junction, N.J.
A recent medical study found that about 15 percent of pregnancies ended in miscarriages during the first 20 weeks. But the study further said, “The actual percent is probably much higher because most miscarriages occur early in pregnancy, by the 12th week, before they are detected.” Might this scientific finding be a significant indication that such embryos/fetuses are less than human beings? Such was the teaching of renowned theologian Thomas Aquinas. He thought that before “the quickening” or perceived movement of the fetus at around 16 to 20 weeks, it was not yet human and aborting it was a moral option.
If embryos/fetuses are “persons” as some claim, does that mean that nature, or God, is a rampant abortionist? If such organisms have “souls” as some claim, are those millions or billions of souls deprived of heaven because they are not baptized? That surely could make limbo highly populated, perhaps rivaling heaven and hell in numbers.
CLARKE MILLER
Bloomington, Ind.
The headline “85 percent of U.S. dioceses have detected embezzlement” as reported by Joe Feuerherd is not an accurate statement (NCR, Dec. 29). The cited study by Zech and West stated that only 45 percent of U.S. dioceses participated in the study. Eighty-five percent of 45 percent is 38 percent of U.S. dioceses, not the sensational headline of 85 percent.
KATHERINE HUGHES
Hobe Sound, Fla.
Your editorial, “Planning a day of fasting and penance” (NCR, Dec. 29), was one of the most meaningful articles I have yet to read on the sex abuse scandal in the church. Once again, your paper has lifted my spirits. I think without your kind of reporting, I would be in total despair about my church. In a previous issue, a priest was quoted as saying, “that he wasn’t around at the times that these things took place and therefore he couldn’t judge the people who were involved” (NCR, Nov. 10). I could hardly believe my eyes when I read that sentence, coming from a priest. Contrast Fr. Tom Doyle’s commitment from the time he first learned of the breaking scandal to the present day. I pray that the church will take your advice to call on Fr. Doyle and use his expertise to begin to heal the wounds of our church. I also would love to see an article about Fr. Doyle, though I have read about him often and have praised God for him each time. Rather than advance his career, he did the right thing. He is a true follower of Christ.
JOAN KENNEKE
Bethesda, Md.
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I appreciate the unhesitating way you keep the sexual abuse scandal before us. Your unstinting focus will, please God, bring us sooner rather than later the cultural change the scandal demands. One of the most perceptive diagnoses was the article by Sidney Callahan (NCR, March 21, 2003). In another place the most encouraging sign we are indeed on the threshold of cultural change is the final statement of the laity from Daejeon, South Korea, where they took to task the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference’s working paper on the family “as too passive and condescending.” The laity’s response referenced Lumen Gentium, declaring marriage an “ordo” in the church as much as the priesthood, “constituting in its own way the ministry of engagement as a community of love and human intimacy ... rather than merely a receptacle. ... The family can be understood as a concrete actualization of the one reign of God ... All approaches that tend to picture family life as inferior to religious or priestly life need to be resisted and avoided.” Their new vision and paradigm on family is prescient, bold and encouraging.
MATT TUMULTY
Portland, Ore.
Mary Gail Frawley-O’Dea’s spirited defense of plaintiffs’ attorneys who sue the Catholic church for sexual abuse (NCR, Dec. 29) was confused. Her thesis is that bishops who complain about attorneys are simply trying to pass off their own responsibility. But isn’t it possible that the bishops could accept responsibility and yet be right that the attacks on the church, especially by attorneys who stand to make a great deal of money, have now become excessive? In fact, this seems to be the case. Ms. Frawley-O’Dea is just wrong when she asserts that attorneys are only involved because victims first approached bishops and got no response. In California, for example, a law was passed that lifted the statute of limitations on sexual abuse suits against Catholic schools while not lifting it for public schools (an obvious unfairness because the number of cases of sexual abuse in California public schools has been, by reasonable estimates, hundreds of times what it has been in California Catholic schools). Following the passage of that law, hundreds of new cases -- cases that dioceses had never known of before -- were brought against the church. It is in the public record that the very lawyers who crafted that law were, in fact, plaintiffs’ lawyers who then turned around and filed their cases against the church. If Enron or Halliburton engaged in such behavior (manipulating the legislative process to their own advantage), NCR would be outraged. Has your own disdain for the bishops grown so blinding that you cannot see that a massive, and excessive, money grab is going on against the church -- not by victims, but by powerful lawyers?
AUGUST TICAN
San Diego
Letters to the editor should be limited to 250 words and preferably typed. If a letter refers to a previous issue of NCR, please give us that issue’s date. We reserve the right to edit all letters. Letters, National Catholic Reporter, PO Box 411009, Kansas City, MO 64141-1009. Fax: (816) 968-2280. E-mail: letters@ncronline.org (When sending a letter via e-mail, please indicate "NCR Letters" in the subject line. We've installed a new spam filter on our letters e-mail account. If it's not clear to us that yours is a letter, we might delete it.) Please be sure to include your street address, city, state, zip and daytime telephone number
National Catholic Reporter, January 26, 2007