National Catholic Reporter
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February 23, 2007
 

Letters

Boomer returns to the box

Ed Conroy’s feature on the “disappearing” sacrament of confession (NCR, Feb. 9) recalls what most Catholics remember about the confessional, that it is a place to confess sins. However, he fails to mention what most of us forget: Confession is both a devotion and a means of spiritual growth for the ordinary person. How many Catholics are out running around the religious countryside looking for just such a spiritual opportunity when it is right here at home in our churches? A brief reading of the sections in The Catholic catechism that deal with the sacrament of penance will have us lining up to participate, as it did for me, a baby boomer who has returned to the box. And how about this for an incentive not mentioned in the article? The penitent is implicitly drawn to reception of the Eucharist. Take a number; the line forms here.

JAMES K. HANNA
Venetia, Pa.


Burden on soldiers

I commend Paul Winner for his thoughtful, sensitive article on “Ethics, orders and the fog of war” (NCR, Jan. 12). His reporting on the exchange among student officers in Timothy Challans’ office was particularly important. It sheds light on the dilemma faced by many conscientious soldiers today. Like Mr. Winner’s father, I am a West Point graduate (1945) and served my country for many years both in and out of military service. All West Pointers are very conscious of the Academy motto: “Duty, honor, country.” They know that duty means: “Do what you’re told/Follow orders.” But this duty -- and this is very important -- is conditioned by “honor,” which means, “Do the honorable, right and morally correct thing.” Your conscience is all important. Unfortunately, there can be a conflict. Yet it’s encouraging to me to hear that some of our young officers moving up in the profession are willing to discuss these questions openly with each other. I suspect that Timothy Challans was an important catalyst. I suspect, too, that their experience in Iraq has sensitized them to this issue.

My concern is that there shouldn’t have to be a conflict. It’s a terrible burden to place on our soldiers in addition to the task they are already doing. I concur with Mr. Winner when he says: “I wish more Americans could be present behind these doors for this current internal debate.” Thanks to NCR for sharing it.

ANDREW G. FAVRET
Bethany Beach, Del.


Don’t kill enemies

It was appropriate to print Col. Doug Lovejoy’s letter on the “nobility of soldiering” in the same edition as your review of Michelle Goldberg’s book (NCR, Jan. 26) on Christian nationalism. While the colonel was reflective in his comments, it seems clear that like most people who struggle with the contradiction of their profession and their faith, he has interpreted Gospel passages to support his state in life, seeing “Christ’s encounters with soldiers in scriptures as favorable.” At another level, this is Christian nationalism, or where the “cross and the flag intersect.” Somehow he, along with many, has forgotten that we are called to be peacemakers and to “love our enemy.” This is the essence of what it means to be Christian. As the bumper sticker developed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation says, “When Jesus said, ‘Love your enemy,’ I think he probably meant, ‘Don’t kill them.’ ” The day is coming when the community at large will recognize that to be a Christian is to be a nonviolent peacemaker and that there is simply no criteria for a “just” war. There are many things to grapple with in our faith, as Col. Lovejoy mentions, but if we call ourselves faithful followers of Jesus, the one thing that we don’t have to grapple with is the understanding that militarism, war-making, making weapons and so on, are wrong and not what Jesus either preached or lived. That said, reality suggests that people aren’t going to quit their jobs. But if there is a healthy discomfort, we may then be on the path again as we were in the third century, to building the kingdom on earth that Jesus taught us.

JACK McHALE
Burke, Va.


Antiabortion vote

The review of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism (NCR, Jan. 26) by Michelle Goldberg reminded me of a religious pamphlet I once read that declared it a mortal sin to vote for a pro-choice presidential candidate and, by extension, demonstrate the hold of conservative candidates on the Catholic vote. Abortion has become a divisive issue. The current administration offers a tradeoff. In exchange for our antiabortion vote, it demands complete submission to its Machiavellian agenda.

With this submission, we acquiesce to a bloody preemptive war, reduction of services to the poor, tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, endangerment of Social Security, giveaways to corporations, wholesale exportation of jobs, inadequate funds for education, disregard for the environment, unprecedented national debt, and estrangement from the international community.

Moreover, our submission emboldens a manipulative atmosphere of fear and threatens to erode the Bill of Rights. In creating international enmity, our submission contributes to a misunderstanding of our identity: We are becoming known as a nation of military might rather than law. While even the Vatican opposes the war and unbridled capitalism, we continue to endorse these policies by our knee-jerk reactions at the polls. The world is racked with multiple humanitarian crises and poised on the brink of global war. Faced with these bleak prospects, might not voters employ the ethical principle of double effect and vote for alternative candidates? Or must American Catholics remain crippled by the parochial imprimatur that demands that we vote for any antiabortion candidate, regardless of a mountain of dire moral consequences?

CHARLES BUTERA
East Northport, N.Y.


Like father, like son

Fr. Richard McBrien’s review of Donald Cozzens’ Freeing Celibacy (NCR, Feb. 9) mentions that not one but two married popes in the church’s first 600 years were succeeded on the papal throne by their sons. This obscure bit of history brings to mind Jesuit sociologist Joseph H. Fichter’s studies of the families of former Catholic priests, members of CORPUS (later the National Association for a Married Priesthood). One of the most striking among Fichter’s interesting findings was the fact that 28 percent of the teenage offspring of these former clerics were “considering” a church vocation versus less than 1 percent of their peers in a control group of first-year students at a Catholic college. Fichter concluded in his report in the July 12, 1991, Commonweal: “With the proportion of children of married priests showing an interest in the church vocation higher than any other category of youth outside the seminary, one may ironically suggest that the best source of vocations to the priesthood may be among the children of priests who are not allowed to function as priests.” On the basis of this revealing sociological study, consider the possibilities for priestly vocations if celibacy were scrapped.

SUSANNE WASHBURN
Dorset, Vt.


Women’s ordination

While I agree with much of what Karen O’Brien wrote in her article, “Ministering ‘where the girls are,’ ” (NCR, Jan. 19), I do believe Ms. O’Brien is operating from a particular premise with which I disagree. Ms. O’Brien’s article sees the ordination of women as serving the purpose of advancing women’s role in the church and questions its appropriateness in that context. In contrast, I believe ordination of women is about vocation, a call from the Spirit, the same call some men receive, not about advancement. I believe there are women receiving that call. The matter of women’s ordination in the Roman Catholic church seems to be about who is considered capable of hearing the Spirit accurately, who is mistaken, and who decides. I for one cannot accept the notion that only certain men can determine who the Spirit is calling. I do not believe a Spirit that loves our church would leave us with a shortage of priestly vocations, although it is possible that priestly vocations are facing a transformation. Either way, I believe there are many vocations being rejected and a church that is all the poorer as a result.

ROSEMARIE PACE
Middle Village, N.Y.


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National Catholic Reporter, February 23, 2007