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In his piece extolling wealth, columnist Robert Royal says, “As someone once said ... it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (NCR, March 16). I think Mr. Royal is being a hypocrite. It wasn’t just “someone” who uttered that fulmination against the well-to-do. He knows it was none other than Jesus himself, who admonished us against love for the treasures of this world. But, obviously, Mr. Royal couldn’t afford to give the Big Guy credit for the saying because writing an apology for wealth within the context of Christ’s teachings and earthly mission would be an absurdity. There’s no way to talk about the virtues of riches while purporting to be a faithful follower of Christ’s ministry. Thus, Mr. Royal’s encomium of pelf is an incongruity.
ANTHONY MARQUEZ
Bear, Del.
John Allen (NCR, March 16) expects too little from environmentalism in the church. As he quotes Walt Grazer, “The train has already left the station.” The church has no choice but to catch up, and its difficulties acknowledging physical realities like overpopulation will not excuse its tardiness. Humanae Vitae appeared around the time I started graduate school. As a biologist studying endangered species, I became aware (decades before global warming hit the headlines) that loss of species and most other environmental ills resulted from human overpopulation; that the single greatest obstacle to rational solution of this problem was my own church; and that the only way to fix this was through reform of church governance. Thus it was ecology that opened my eyes to the problems in the church. Far from being a diversion from environmental concerns, reform of church structures and teachings is the sine qua non of environmentalism for Catholics.
Just as thoroughly as Washington neoconservatives have been discredited by events of the past six years, so have the Catholic neocons been overtaken by the ecological realities they denigrated as “undue concerns.” The unrelated pedophilia crisis has gutted the bishops’ credibility as moral authorities, especially on “pelvic issues.” No one ever saw them as authorities on ecology. Faced with the greatest challenge in the history of the human race, we have no time for neocon quibbles based on flawed pharisaical theology. If our hierarchs neither lead, follow, nor get out of the way, they will lose their status as teachers, perhaps permanently.
DARYL P. DOMNING
Silver Spring, Md.
The Vatican pronouncement about Fr. Jon Sobrino (NCR, March 23) coincided with El Salvador’s observance of the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Jesuit Fr. Rutilio Grande. On March 12, 1977, Fr. Grande was murdered by the military for his strong position on human rights and his homilies condemning the government for its human rights violations. Many of us from the States joined the faithful in El Salvador to celebrate the lives of both Fr. Grande and Msgr. Oscar Romero. We were on hand, on this occasion, for another assassination of sorts. The office of Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle released to the secular press (two days ahead of the Vatican pronouncement) the information that Fr. Sobrino was to be silenced, this to the delight of the media’s right-wing readership. When the exact intent of the Vatican was disclosed two days later, there was no retraction of the misinformation. The memories of the Salvadoran martyrs are very much alive in that country. The distance between the country’s Catholic leadership and the people has never been greater.
BILL HENRIETTA GRIFFITTS
Salem, Ore.
I see where Jesuit Fr. Joseph Fessio just got “Reesed” at Ave Maria University, the traditional Catholic college founded by Domino’s Pizza magnate Thomas Monaghan (NCR, March 30). Remember when Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese was unceremoniously relieved of his duties at America magazine right after Joseph Ratzinger changed his name to Benedict XVI? The only difference is that Fr. Fessio is a conservative theologian and Fr. Reese is a liberal one. I wonder if a pattern is developing here. Is this how theological questions will be settled in the 21st-century Catholic church?
MARGERY K. ENGLISH
Apple Valley, Minn.
Editor’s Note: See NCR, April 6, “Ave Maria rehires fired Fessio.”
Having any church representative, let alone a bishop, chairing an advisory board on the School of the Americas (NCR, March 16) is an affront to God as well as to all those who have lost their lives at the hands of its graduates. It never entered my mind that my church would so offend God by such an action. Shame on you, Bishop Morlino.
CATHERINE MARY HENRY
Havertown, Penn.
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National Catholic Reporter, April 20, 2007