Walsh Hall and the Navy
I am astonished that the otherwise nice article about Walsh Hall
did not contain any information about the most unique element
in the history of this grand old hall. During World War II Walsh
housed about 150 of us in the Naval Reserve Officers' Training
Corps (NROTC), a full-time active-duty unit at that time. We arose
at 6 a.m., wore uniforms at all times, marched to morning and
evening meals, and had to be in our rooms after the evening meal
until lights out at 10 p.m. We carried a study load of 18 to 21
hours per semester and most of us graduated after 28 months of
college. We were then commissioned as Naval officers and assigned
to warships in the Navy. Because more than 90 percent of the men
on campus during the war wore a Navy uniform, it is very likely
Notre Dame would have had financial difficulty had it not been
for this arrangement with the Navy.
Capt. Robert E. Thomas '45
San Diego, California
Campus drinking
Kudos to Father Mark Poorman, CSC ("Sobering Debate," Summer
2002). It's about time someone addressed the excessive drinking
at ND. As a mother of six grown children, three of whom are ND
graduates, I have watched the problem become more and more excessive
over the years. If the educated adults in our society look the
other way as our young people drink, vomit, engage in date rape
and sometimes die from over-indulgence, we are truly a sorry lot
of cowards. Administration of a university is not a popularity
contest; sometimes we have to protect our children from themselves.
Caryl S. O'Connor
Orland Park, Illinois
My, my, how will those poor kids ever get through college without
binge drinking as a rite of passage? To the student quoted as
saying, "This place will no longer be fun in 10 years," well,
too bad, so sad, what a warped sense of fun. Hooray for Father
Mark Poorman.
Ed DeBoer '53
Signal Mountain, Tennessee
Notre Dame sports
I was disheartened that the article "Can Notre Dame Have It Both
Ways?" failed to mention, whether by design or oversight, Notre
Dame's true mission -- to be the best Catholic university in the
United States. Whether Notre Dame regains its football dominance
or whether it builds on its academic excellence is of no moment
if it continues to lose its identity as the best Catholic university
in the country.
William L. Kallal '66
Cheyenne, Wyoming
It is important to be alert, not fooled or swayed by the article
in the latest issue of Notre Dame Magazine, "Can Notre
Dame Have It Both Ways?" The issues discussed in that article
are not those most important to the Notre Dame family. Integrity,
character, moral values and devotion to the Blessed Mother are
what are most important to Notre Dame students, alumni and friends.
Damaging events over the past five years (the Joe Moore lawsuit,
Kim Dunbar episode, the football program being put on two-year
probation by the NCAA, the George O'Leary hiring and the recent
rape case) have shaken the University's traditional "footings."
The administration is using smoke screens to distract from the
real problem of incompetence, ineffective rule enforcement and
inept management. Strong measures are needed quickly to restore
Our Lady's goodwill and reputation.
James D. Irwin Jr. '58
Buffalo, New York
In the article by Michael Oriard ("It's Not All Fun and Games"),
recounting his efforts to assist his son in finding the right
college, he remarks, "the options to my mind seemed stark: Division
I or Division III, top-level basketball or first-class education."
I have two concerns with this. The first is the implication of
exclusivity: It's either one or the other -- a rather strange
statement for a Notre Dame alumnus who clearly appreciates and
loves his alma mater. The second is that Oriard has omitted a
whole division of NCAA colleges, Division II. Hundreds of outstanding
Division II colleges offer highly competitive athletic programs
along with excellent educational opportunities.
John R. Fortin, OSB, '84, '91Ph.D.
Saint Anselm College
Manchester, New Hampshire
The Catholic sex scandal
John Cavadini's otherwise thoughtful essay ("Levels of Trust")
is tainted by his attempt to separate pedophilia involving pre-
and post-pubescent minors. This is a distinction without a difference.
The "crime," and it is a crime, is not simply the carnal acts
of sexual misuse and exploitation of children, but the abuse of
influence, authority and trust placed in individuals, which is
no less damaging to teens than to preteens. The attempt to even
remotely sanitize such behavior under the banner of anti-Catholic
media bias is emblematic of the church's appalling institutional
arrogance and its emotional isolation from the faithful.
Richard Tredeau, M.D., '77
Longmeadow, Massachusetts
"Levels of Trust" is a demeaning and depressing but not necessarily
unexpected apologia for a church hierarchy involved in the current
morass of sexual scandals. The acts of some priests are certainly
a scandal -- in many cases a felony. The real scandal, however,
lies with the bishops and other leaders of the church who have
used their positions of power to condone, hide and -- by their
actions -- encourage this behavior that, to my personal knowledge,
has been going on for at least 50 years.
The bishops have been so busy protecting the institution that
they seem to have forgotten or ignored the people they are supposed
to be leading. Perhaps the problem is one of self-identification.
The bishops embrace the title "Defender of the Faith," when they
should be embracing the position "Defender of the Faithful," especially
as it relates to those among the faithful who are least able to
defend themselves. Without the faithful to govern, the leaders
are nothing but a small cabal of self-serving shamans with little
power and less relevance. While priests have done great harm to
children and their families, the harm to the church has been done
by the bishops with their "circle the wagons and defend the faith"
mentality. Nothing will change until that mentality is stamped
out.
Furthermore, in their desperate attempt to hide the original
problem, the bishops have created another and equally serious
one (one that the author does not touch on at all): using church
funds to pay off victims and their families to keep them quiet
about what has happened to them.
William F. DeSeta '58
New York, New York
John Cavadini's article represented a thoughtful and logical
treatment of the scandals rocking the church clergy today. However,
I continue to be amazed that the church's rationale for celibacy
ignores a whole segment of society -- men and women who would
make wonderful ministers of Christ both as clergy and as husbands
and wives, moms and dads. I believe there are so many who would
pursue priestly responsibilities that the segment of clergy who
taint the church currently would become nearly nonexistent. How
sad for our church not to recognize it has excluded wonderful
people from service.
G. Mark Seal, M.D. '75
Toledo, Ohio
While Dr. Cavadini's statistics supporting the low ratio of predators
among the total priest population are helpful in forming a perspective
on comparative deviation of sexual misbehavior, the statistics
do not excuse the Catholic church's attempts to keep this scandal
in-house. The church chose to hide the problem within its cloisters.
But the behavior of the priests was not simply immoral, it was
unlawful. What right does the church believe it has to hide unlawful
behavior by its priests?
The Catholic church in the United States is a juristic citizen
of the United States. Under the First Amendment Establishment
Clause the church has certain privileges. These privileges do
not include the right to hide unlawful behavior. If an individual
citizen actively obscures unlawful behavior that has been witnessed
personally, that individual's acts are unlawful. Similarly, a
juristic person aware of unlawful acts behaves unlawfully when
concealing the unlawful behavior. It is not inconceivable that
the terms of the RICO Act apply to the pattern of the Catholic
hierarchy in the United States of hiding alleged perpetrators
from the criminal justice system. It is impossible to believe
that the bishops and other officers of the Catholic church were
not aware of the unlawful behavior of a few of their priests.
For many years the Catholic laity has heard gossip and rumors
about the church's hiding of predator priests. In one respect
the laity is as much at fault as the hierarchy by not taking any
steps to question the bishops' actions concerning the children
abused. Simply because others ignore the problem does not excuse
our own failure to rectify the problem.
Charles G. Ollinger '56
Elizabethton, Tennessee
I, too, am angry at the bishops who in their own arrogance of
power created the crisis in the first place by stonewalling and
demeaning those who were harmed by sexual abuse -- a crime of
great destructive force. By giving their first allegiance to the
priests, they have continued to foster the image of the club mentality
-- us against them. These bishops refuse to understand their responsibility
to the young people involved as having rights just as important
as their priests.
Then the bishops met in panic, running from the negative publicity
and pressure, imposing a policy of Zero Tolerance. It seems that
this policy means that if any priests has ever been accused, they
are automatically guilty, even if these accusations are 30 to
40 years old. In dredging up 30-year-old accusations, founded
or not, priests are automatically forbidden to act as priests
without regard to their lives since that time. This witch-hunt
does not require evidence, except that of a lone accuser decades
before.
Finally, I am reminded of the old axiom of Lord Acton: that
as power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I see this
with the hierarchy of the church when they refuse to listen to
those who live in average homes and try very hard to love one
another and raise their children as best they can. I see the same
process in Washington, D.C., and in the corporate boardrooms where
there is no accountability and questions are ignored because they
are inconvenient or challenging. It looks to me like cardinals
and bishops listen to and speak only with other cardinals and
bishops, just as congressmen and corporate bigwigs speak only
to other congressmen and corporate bigwigs. When the wealthy speak
only to the wealthy, do the poor have a chance?
In the meantime, we have a pope who refuses to discuss such
heretical ideas as women priests, married clergy, responsible
birth control, etc. Our leaders -- the bishops -- are appointed
because they do not dare to publicly challenge the decisions that
come from Rome. Debate is not allowed, and the church suffers
with the self-inflicted pain of blindness.
Charles G. Bolser, CSV
Provincial, Clerics of Saint Viator
Province of Chicago
Dr. Cavadini pointed out that none of the clerical molesters
seemed inclined to beg forgiveness and their bishops did not demonstrate
repentance for concealing or relocating molesters. But his article
completely bypassed the silence of the rest of our Roman Catholic
clergy who were in position to know, or at least suspect, their
fellow priests were molesting children and young people.
Where are our clerical whistleblowers? Weren't there any
those scandalous years their fellow priests committed crimes by
sexually ravaging innocent children and youth? Is the clergy so
closed unto themselves that not one had, or has, the courage to
alert criminal law authorities? Is the vow of obedience so sacred?
The mental and spiritual stability of children and youth so inconsequential?
If but one clergyman had publicly acted by going to law enforcement
authorities years ago, how many young people might have been spared
such detrimental psychological damages?
Clerical child molesters need more than confessional absolution.
They need to do time within the cold arms of prison walls.
James F. Walsh '55, '56M.A.
Culver, Indiana
