Cardinal for Renewal

Sir:

Good luck to Cardinal Gushing and his ideas [Aug. 21]. I hope that other Catholic clergymen will join with him in modernizing the church. It's about time Catholic parishioners realized that it's not true that only Protestants go to hell.

LINDA NELSEN

Chicago

Sir: I am an ex-seminarian who studied for the priesthood for four years, and I ultimately left the seminary because of "chancery Catholicism." This sort of thing sorely hinders a priest's proper Christian ministry in the community. It also hinders the individual Catholic's relationship with God, so much so that he is more afraid of the "System" than he is of his God.

The Catholic faith is not, and should not be reduced to, a legalistic system of detached abstract theology. It should be a living, dynamic, individualistic relationship with God. Conservative Catholic prelates and laymen would do well to listen to Cardinal Gushing and learn something from him.

RICHARD LOUDERMAN JR.

Hometown, Ill.

Sir: It may come as a surprise to Cardinal Gushing and others that there are many Catholic lay people who are not in sympathy with aggiornamento and ecumenism. As for our 20th century Zwinglis, Calvins and other self-anointed "progressives," I suggest they join one of our available crackpot sects where they may indulge their divisive, anarchistic passions without fear of papal or curial restraint.

KARL D. JURIC

Albuquerque

Sir: Your article might give the masses the impression that one person's opinion is as good as another's within the church. This is not true. As a Catholic, I know that true believers attempt to commit themselves to the authority of the church during any apparent conflict between it and their own doubts on some moral issue. The idea of authority in the church is very sublime and beautiful if properly understood. True acceptance of the church's authority should not curtail one's freedom within the church.

THOMAS F. CARLIN

Elkins Park, Pa.

Sir: As a Catholic committed to reform and renewal, I would like to say that we do not really want to "dissent from the Pope." Our devotion to truth is complete --so complete that we reject scholastic formulations that are unintelligible to the modern mind. But we accept mystery as unavoidable in any attempt to understand the workings of the infinite God. We are not asking for a more liberal church, meaning an easier church; we know that all true Christianity must be difficult, for all Christians are called to carry the Cross after our Master. We do not want to change the church so much as we want to see accretions removed that serve only to soil the purity conferred by her Founder.

JUDITH GRABSKI

Broadview, Ill.

Sir: It is unfortunate that you did not explore the opinions of those Catholic laymen who detest the false pride of men like Gushing and the Jesuits. These men are the Bing Crosby and Pat O'Brien type of priests, who use cliches and terribly bold words to express their supposed liberalism. The pseudo-progressive Jesuit colleges send forth a procession of professional security-conscious, noncreative graduates.

JOHN T. LYDEN

New Rochelle, N.Y.

Sir: It is an oversimplification to say that Gushing has been slow to eradicate anti-Negro prejudice in South Boston. The prejudice exists throughout the archdiocese, even among the clergy. The cardinal's pastorals are eloquent indeed, his views on race relations firmly stated, but his pastors and his people have let him down. Incidentally, we do have two Negro priests in Boston, both in Negro parishes.

RICHARD M. SENIER

Arlington, Mass.

Sir: Whether or not I'm "twice as intelligent and three times better educated," I turn to a priest for clarification on matters of faith and church doctrine. Anyone so foolish as to think he should be free to dissent with the Pope had better take a quick review of his earlier catechism classes.

DENIS J. ROONEY

Omaha

Sir: One would hope that these proponents of renewal in American Catholicism are also true members of the church militant, and on occasion come to the defense of their own church. Their indifference to the plight of Catholics in Iron Curtain countries is simply appalling. I think the church can do without these reformers, because one can only look with contempt on people who, while asking for more "freedom within the church," have not manifested any real concern for the freedom of their church.

E. G. BlRBICK

Trenton, N.J.

Sir: The church's next big challenge is to follow the example of virtually all Protestant denominations in making public financial statements.

DAVID E. KUCHARSKY

Arlington, Va.

Sir: The article on Cardinal Gushing is another example of too little, too late. By the time the Catholic Church approves some method of reliable birth control, I shall have reached my menopause. I wonder if I will be able to receive Communion retroactively?

MRS. RICHARD MITCHELL

Buzzards Bay, Mass.

Pacific Admiral

Sir: Your account of the recent difficulties in Viet Nam [Aug. 14] will undoubtedly provoke many points of view. You may be interested in the comment of a recent refugee from Red China, who told me: "I pray daily that the Western world will not be taken in by the apparent lull and seeming inactivity in North Viet Nam. Face saving is still a very important aspect of Oriental thinking, and the red faces, both in Peking and Hanoi, will sooner or later try to avenge the insult of failure."

M. H. SELIG

Tokyo

Sir: I wonder how the Tonkin incident would look if we changed the location and the characters. Suppose that on that sunny morning a North Viet Nam destroyer were proceeding south about 30 miles east of Manhattan. Suddenly three American PT boats came tearing along toward the destroyer, and the Vietnamese sent off three warning shots. The Americans, being in what could loosely be described as their home waters, decided to press on. The North Viet Nam destroyer, thinking that it was about to be attacked, immediately fired off a five-inch shell and sank one of the motorboats. According to the view of President Johnson and that warhorse Senator Goldwater, the commander of that North Viet Nam destroyer was perfectly within his rights. As for me, I am just a bit confused!

S. HIRST

Canterbury, England

Bobby's Ambitions

Sir: If Bob Kennedy were a sincere public servant, he would not kidnap a state that has such an able Senator as Kenneth Keating. Why doesn't he run for Senator in Mississippi? There he is needed.

Jo ANN COLE

Waverly, Iowa

Repetitious Tragedy

Sir: Logic is logic, that's all I can say concerning your "compendium of curious coincidences" [Aug. 21]. Lincoln's nickname contains three letters, Kennedy's four. Abe's wife was Mary Todd, but not Jack's. Whereas Lincoln was shot in a theater in April by means of a pistol, Kennedy was shot in a car in November by means of a rifle. The names John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald have no initial letter in common. An attempt was made to impeach the Tennessee Johnson, but not the Texas Johnson, despite the fact that both were born in states whose names begin with T and succeeded Presidents who were shot in the presence of their wives. "Different cause, different effect." Therefore Goldwater will not be elected. Q.E.D.

VINCENT TOMAS

Providence

> The Tennessee Johnson was actually born in North Carolina. Therefore Bobby Kennedy will not be Vice President.--ED.

Private Wealth of Public Men

Sir: So the Goldwaters are worth $1,700,000, with more to come on the death of relatives. Who in hell cares about how much Barry has? I would be for him even if he had more than J. Paul Getty or Rockefeller. I think your story was designed to discourage little people like me from donating money to the cause.

ANNE STEWART

Chicago

High Standards, Etc.

Sir: Your article about Mods and Rockers [Aug. 14] could cause a false impression. We do not allow any unusual form of dress such as Rockers wear, and we only allow people with ties, etc. The standard of Mecca Ballrooms and standard of dress required is known to all the press, as shown by the enclosed cartoon from Punch.

E. MORELEY

Assistant Managing Director

Mecca Ballrooms

London

See cut. -- ED.

Mississippi Harmony

Sir: On the same day that rioting was going on in two cities of New Jersey [Aug. 21], about 200 white and Negro citizens of Bay St. Louis, Miss., gathered together at a reception to honor a Negro sculptor and painter of international renown, Richmond Barthe, who had returned to his home town for his first visit in ten years. Attendance of both races at the reception was entirely spontaneous and unorganized--so informal, in fact, that for a while it was the chief of police who poured punch at the punch bowl! It is apparently taboo these days to report anything good about Mississippi, but it did strike a happy note to see our Mississippi mayor presenting to a Negro artist the key to our city.

MRS. RENE DE MONTLUZIN

Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Sir: Before going to the polls in November, I hope the names of three great Americans will be remembered: Schwerner, Chancy and Goodman.

STEVE JONES

The Bronx, N.Y.

Sir: The German people pleaded that they did not know that Nazi atrocities were taking place in their country. What is our excuse, 20 years later, when similar horrors stalk our own country? Today the tale of the three slain civil rights workers terrifies me more.

MRS. ALEX J. DRAGT

Princeton, NJ.

Sir: The incredible restraint of the adult population of Mississippi in the face of the invasion by hordes of boldfaced, liberally indoctrinated brats is most commendable. It is unbelievable that the National Council of Churches should sponsor such a flagrant and insulting assault on the rights of the white majority. The people of America will give their answer in November, thank God!

J. STEINBACKER

Sunset Beach, Calif.

Keeping 'Em Out of the Tent

Sir: TIME reported the title of my address at the American Bar Association Convention in New York as "Sex and the Single Premium" and characterized it as a "get-'em-in-the-tent" title [Aug. 21]. Actually, the full title of my scholarly lecture was "Up from the Serbonian Bog, or Sex and the Single Premium," appealing only to those interested in the intricacies of Insurance Law.

WILLIAM HUGHES MULLIGAN Dean, School of Law Fordham University New York City

Heroic Ten Minutes

Sir: I rise hotly to the defense of Tarzan, who is not "conventional claptrap" [Aug. 21], but one of the long line of heroes such as Hercules, d'Artagnan and John Ridd, whom most men and boys have always revered and emulated. Who but Tarzan could have remained motionless for ten minutes while a poisonous insect walked over his skin, including his bare eyeball?

F. BEDDOE

Staten Island, N.Y.

Sir: Though Edgar Rice Burroughs' social values may be archaic, they are far from extinct in contemporary times. The cult of the English gentleman is as much admired in the U.S. as over there. Perhaps we wouldn't want such conditions on our doorstep, but they suit our daydreams. Burroughs creates a homogeneous escape world where many interesting perils are always successfully overcome by the resourceful hero. Everything is pleasant--even the unpleasantness.

LEMAIRE HOWARD

Hobart, Ind.

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