|
|
|
|
|
Links |
Web Extra: Letters to the editor Kind words Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn, D.D. Peace and blessings on each of you for a ministry of the Lord well done! As a retired priest and still carrying responsibilities in our parishes, the Cursillo Movement etc., I make time to read our magazine. Most of the articles being well written, giving me considerable food for reflection and action. Be assured of my continued support (esp. spirituality) for all your fine efforts!! Father Frederich M. Brand It is with humble pride that I want to thank you for the wonderful article
on our home for the terminally ill in Cleveland. We are already seeing
responses from this article form as far away as Puerto Rico. The senior
editor of EWTN wants to do a story for 60 million cable subscribers from
around the world. Also, I received a letter yesterday from a lady in Wisconsin
who is interested in starting a home. This proves that our goal worked
to spread the ministry elsewhere. Walt Collins did a superb job in summarizing the warmth of this home. When I read the prefix to the magazine that you wrote in the recent issue, I was so honored to be chosen. I felt undeserving of the tasks due to the fact that there are so many alumni that do greater work and remain unseen and unheard. It is to them that I dedicate a true thank you, and to you, my sincere hope that their work will also be recognized in some way. Daniel B. Cotter '75 Political thoughts A June 4 New York Times article describes Bush's "Catholic strategy for 2004" and begins by mentioning the Notre Dame honor and speech. The Bush agenda is obviously antagonistic to the Notre Dame mission. This holds true on everything from its model of Scalia and Thomas as the type of Supreme Court judges it wants to appoint to its internationally embarrassing position on Kyoto to its policies on domestic programs and much more. I hope that the reason relatively few students and alumni signed on is that they did not know of the Petition. Your magazine has previously (1984) recognized how politicians like Mario Cuomo represent views consistent with Notre Dame's philosophy. Please report on what Father Malloy was thinking of. James Stoepler '73 I wholly and completely agree with the letter from Joseph M. Coleman, Class of '51, which was printed in the Spring 2001 issue and which referred to the speech given by Senator Joseph Lieberman at the University. Mr. Lieberman went around the country speaking about "religious values." He used the University as a platform in his campaign. If he really believes in what he says, he should make such a speech to the Democratic Party but he would be afraid to do so. The man is not genuine and, as corny old adage goes, "actions speak louder than words." Thomas J. Kelly '49 Call to nonviolence What disturbs me, beyond O'Brien's complaint, is the total absence of any semblance of the kind of rigorous exercise of critical intelligence one rightfully expects in a major university publication. Kerry Temple mocks that responsibility with his uncertainty about whether it is good "to question the use of killing." John Monczunski substitutes opinion for thought: "The pacifist stance has never been strongly held in American Catholicism." The Gospel command to peace? "The wrangling is likely to go on." Do the editors have no contact with the Kroc Center faculty? Brig. Gen. Wakin's apology for the U.S. military is embarrassing in its
lacunae and misrepresentations. "The military does good things well"?
Flood and earthquake relief, yes, because no other agency in human history
has had a fraction of its resources. But the carpet, fire storm, and nuclear
bombings of World War II (I remember Father Simonitch, in Morals, keeping
veterans after class to deal with that), the indiscriminate slaughter
in Vietnam; the indiscriminate killing of thousands in the Panama drug
bust; the destruction of water and sewer facilities in Iraq and boasted
turkey shoot fleeing conscripts there; and the high altitude bombing of
civilians in Serbia to avoid risk to bombing crews -- not to mention our
military-manipulated proxy terror in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua?
"Does good things well"? Yes, the military acts for society, and the state may argue its responsibility to police its citizens. But where Ambrose recognized that the state can justify defense and Augustine that force may be necessary to achieve "the tranquility of order," Augustine believed that the individual Christian must be faithful to the Gospel, which demanded nonviolence, even to martyrdom. Who, in "Onward Christian Soldiers," even acknowledges that Ciceronian just war theory, from Augustine to George Weigel and Brian Hehir, attempts no Gospel justification? (Jesuit Scripture scholar John McKenzie insisted that there is none.) That Paul VI declared "War no more!" and that John Paul II has yet to see a war in his pontificate that he could approve? Who would guess from these four pieces that before the Constantinian compromise with state power, the Christianity rejected violence as directly contrary to the Gospel's call to unconditional love? That U.S. military might is predicated on nuclear weapons the Church finds immoral and the World Court outlaws? Instead of honoring Presidents who are war criminals and agents of Empire,
Notre Dame should be celebrating successful nonviolent conflict resolution,
such as the Filipino ouster of Marcos, and often heroic and life-sacrificing
resistance to the global economy's corporate war on the poor -- which
would bring Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia to campus as a commencement speaker
graduates might recognize as a witness for faith. William H. Slavick '49, '51M.A., '71PhD. (Prof. Slavick is author of the war and peace chapter in Rome Has Spoken.) |
||
| © Notre Dame Magazine |
|