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Colman McCarthy is a scratch golfer but he triple-bogeyed his last column (NCR, Aug. 3). He called Tiger Woods a “giver” not a “taker.” Mr. Woods took home $1,260,000 recently for 12 hours of walking through beautifully landscaped terrain while hitting a ball with a stick. He takes home about $100 million every year. I would call him more accurately a thief. The average U.S. worker earns about $30,000 a year for mostly tedious, dirty or dangerous work. Anyone taking home more than $200,000 -- what six average American workers would earn -- is an overpaid thief. We have quite a few such thieves in the United States -- David Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, the Walton family, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and their ilk. The U.S. news media calls them businessmen or celebrities, but the media have been bribed by corporate advertising dollars.
JOHN HARRIGAN
Springfield, Mass.
In response to your article on the growing phenomenon of evangelical Catholicism (NCR, Aug. 31), for Jesus, our faith was never a matter of “right beliefs,” except possibly for the belief that we are all one in God. If we follow Jesus and his blessed mother in the Gospel accounts, we would see them living the simplicity, inclusiveness and humble trust in God depicted in the beatitudes, the essence of Jesus’ teachings. Evangelical orthodoxy and its association with institutional supremacy and exclusivity simply do not fit well in this equation. The beatitudes invite us to enter a rather different kind of life and relationship with God and others.
Jesus demonstrates over and over that institutional supremacy and doctrinal correctness were never meant to eclipse the promptings of God’s love, which always lead to the acceptance and inclusiveness of each encountered human being, especially the outcast. Ironically, the orthodox/evangelical mindset of right beliefs and practices is precisely what led to Jesus’ arrest and brutal crucifixion. Truly, then, Christ’s love and submission to our common creator, and Christ’s love and acceptance for each of us, would be the prominent transforming message of our Catholic faith.
(Sr.) CLARE JULIAN CARBONE, OSC
Chesterfield, N.J.
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I disagree with John Allen’s Pollyanna-like interpretation of Catholicism’s relentless reentrenchment. Supposedly it’s evangelical, not fundamentalist -- because limbo has been dropped. But with Fr. Feeney’s 1953 excommunication for proclaiming “outside the church there is no salvation” and Vatican II’s broadening of the realm of salvation beyond Catholicism, Christianity had already allowed salvation without baptism. In contrast, the recent motu proprio, although verbally retaining this Vatican II teaching, shifts the emphasis back toward the preeminence of Catholicism.
Bible fundamentalists have dropped biblical teaching about slavery, usury and a flat earth, yet conveniently oblivious to facts, they remain fundamentalist. Moreover, to brighten their image with political astuteness they cloaked themselves in the broader and less ominous name, evangelical. Most self-proclaimed evangelicals today are Bible fundamentalists. The Vatican’s insistence on unthinking obedience, its policing of official teaching and its determined disregard for all opposing evidence -- regarding women, sex, medical procedures, liturgy, hierarchical institution, response to abuses -- not only violate Vatican I’s teaching that reason and faith cannot be in true opposition but also, perforce, evince nothing other than fundamentalism. Why does Mr. Allen insist on minimizing these sad realities? So that the “non-fundamentalist, non-totalitarian” Vatican won’t bar him from his reporter’s sources?
DANIEL A. HELMINIAK
Atlanta
Thanks to Jim Douglas for reviewing The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years by David Talbot (NCR, May 20). Two years ago Mr. Douglas gave a weekend seminar to Pax Christi members in Houston and helped us understand that we can perceive what is occurring right now in Washington through the lens of what happened to John and Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm X and Dr. King. Mr. Douglas outlined the reasons for the CIA murdering these four men. I will mention only John F. Kennedy, who said, “I want to take the CIA, smash it into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.” He was the last president to challenge the CIA.
Mr. Douglas believes a coup took place the day of Kennedy’s murder. Michio Kaku is a tenured professor from New York University whose graduate study thesis indicates every president and presidential candidate since Harry Truman either “got the nod” or got disapproval from the National Security Agency, a body so secretive that the insider joke is NSA means “No Such Agency.” Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr was approached by a worker from the Los Alamos nuclear testing facility who told him, “Even during the Cold War we regarded the CIA and the FBI as our worst enemies. After those two came the Soviet Union.”
VIC HUMMERT
Lafayette, La.
What touched me most in your publication recently was a letter written by Mr. Joseph Nuzzi (NCR, Aug. 17). He eloquently stated feelings that are within my own heart.
My own baptism as a Catholic did not occur until age 32. I was going through the catechumenate at a time when the abuse scandals were so often front page news. With all that was going on, the dear sister who was instructing us asked why I would choose to become Catholic. Without thinking, my response was simply that I didn’t choose to become Catholic. It chose me. Jesus called me and I was fortunate enough to be paying attention. The beaming smile on her face only assured me more that it was God’s will.
As was noted, in the midst of the shame and turmoil that wounds our church, we still have the responsibility to fulfill God’s mission to serve our brothers and sisters every day. To lose sight of that is an even greater tragedy.
STEVE WHITE
Belleville, Mich.
Thank you for your editorial in support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the new dual language (Arabic/English) public school in Brooklyn, N.Y. (NCR, Sept. 7). As an Arab Catholic, I’ve been horrified by the racist opposition to the school and was acutely distressed to learn that the Catholic League joined the chorus of ill-informed voices bent on bringing the school down. It was refreshing to read a balanced view of the issue in your paper.
DAVE HALL
Brooklyn, N.Y.
In her letter, Lisa Reardon (NCR, Sept. 14) deludes herself if she believes that the culture of clerical celibacy has nothing to do with the rate of sexual abuse amongst priests. It is fairly clear that at least some subset of young men entering seminary have done so in an effort to avoid confronting and resolving issues around their sexuality and identity. Since expression of the sexual feelings I have will always be a sin, reasoned the devout Catholic man, I may as well become a priest and avoid the issue entirely. Not only did seminaries do a poor job of evaluating sexual adjustment and maturity, they provided what may have been the worst possible environment in which to sort such issues out. The only form of therapy they had to offer was prayer and repression. The result was that sexually maladjusted seminarians became sexually maladjusted priests.
Unfortunately, most such problems eventually bubble to the surface. The resources for providing help to priests in trouble without severe career implications were limited. Clerical culture made it difficult to ask for help. The now-defunct junior seminary system didn’t help. Adolescent males were offered stilted views of sexuality in the classroom and in religious formation activities. Certain of the junior seminaries were hotbeds of sexual abuse by clergy who themselves learned inappropriate sexual outlets during their own juniorates. Celibacy may not be the direct cause of sexual exploitation of children by clergy. However, it is reasonable, given what we know about the priestly formation process, to contend that it has been one link in the chain.
GREG BULLOUGH
Doylestown, Pa.
Regarding “The feminization of the church” (NCR, Aug. 17): So the definition of a good Christian is someone who’s nurturing, tender, gentle, receptive and guilt-driven, and this is disturbing the comfort level of men whose religious instincts are sports, soldiering, fraternal organizations, fascism, the Knights of Columbus and Promise Keepers? And women are to blame for this? Maybe Jesus is to blame for this. If John Allen thinks “a form of affirmative action seeking to hire more men” in ministry is necessary to cleanse the church of these disturbing feminine themes, he’s been spending too much time listening to Vatican logic.
LOUISE WEBER
Swannanoa, N.C.
Regarding Kathy Boylan’s letter (NCR, Sept. 7): While there has been some controversy surrounding the District of Columbia’s mixed-use, mixed-income redevelopment plans for the area as to what the majority of our neighbors want, this much at least is certain: Many, if not most, view the redevelopment positively, or at least as a necessity. In any event, the city is seeking not to turn anyone out on the streets but to relocate residents, at least temporarily, while new housing is built. Whatever the merits of the city’s plans, however, Gonzaga High School forced no one to move and destroyed no homes.
Gonzaga High School, either before my tenure or during it, has done nothing immoral, let alone illegal. It has stayed here in this Washington neighborhood through good times and bad, not in “peaceful coexistence” but as an active partner. This is true first of all through its financial aid program, offering this year $1.6 million to almost one out of three of its families who cannot afford to pay tuition; second, through our extensive community service program, whereby students, faculty and parents get involved with helping our neighbors, including the new “Campus Kitchen” project, making us the first high school in the country to have this previously college-only program. Gonzaga intends to remain an active part of its community. To do that, we have to plan for its future viability, not in a way that ignores those around us but in a way that enhances our ability to help those on our campus and close by.
(Fr.) ALLEN P. NOVOTNY, SJ
Washington
[Fr. Novotny is the president of Gonzaga College High School.]
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, September 28, 2007