The Man in the Pew

Sir: As one of the former priests about whom you so realistically wrote [Feb. 23], I wish to affirm your findings. The ordinary "John Doe" Catholic, educated by the structure, has had very little understanding of the problems within his ecclesiastical home. His approach to the priest has been obsequious, only because that is the way we trained him. He has looked at the priest as a celestial magician, and cannot fathom the exodus as anything but the work of the devil.

With the help of articles like yours, the man in the pew may be able to see that the problems of the church today are his problems. He is the church.

RICHARD T. MCDONALD

Elizabeth, N.J.

Sir: Your "Catholic Exodus" article was right on. We especially concur with the comments you published concerning secular employment. The former clergymen we have placed are indeed highly qualified, and the jobs they obtain are an important part of the transition process.

In the area of sexuality, however, we have found that it is a much more vital factor than you imply. In fact, for 80% of our Catholic clergy clients, sexual involvement is, as we have labeled it in our study, the precipitating cause of their departure. Not so for the Protestant clergymen. Contrarily, it is often the lack of sexual involvement--in terms of marital tension and divorce--that triggers the minister's move. On the surface, this seems to back up Pope Paul's present position on celibacy. But as you point out, the problem is more complex than that.

MICHAEL DONAHOE

EARL BLUE

Co-Authors of the Earl Blue Report on Clergy Disaffection

Earl Blue Associates

San Francisco

Sir: In 1966 I was internationally classified as "the most defiant priest" for having declared my marriage. My wife and I never dreamed that so much would happen so soon. Today, as "father" of the fathers who have married, I can only say, "How sweet it is." Vindication, that is. (THE REV.) ANTHONY J. GIRANDOLA

President

National Association of Married Priests

Annapolis, Md.

Sir: You ask: "And just as a practical matter, how could the church today provide the funds to support the families of priests?" Surely you must be kidding. Income from the Roman Catholic Church holdings could keep it solvent if it never passed the collection plate. Could be that the church no longer needs the people.

CHRIS ROFER

San Diego

Sir: My departure from the Protestant parish ministry made many wonder if I had "given up on God." Quite the contrary. I simply wanted to go where the action is, not remain where it used to be.

(THE REV.) WALTER SMITH

Atlanta

Sir: John opened the door slightly to let in the light. Shannon and Caspary and their ilk have made off with the hinges.

E. L. OWEN JR.

Valhalla, N.Y.

Sir: I can understand to some extent the exodus and the reasons you ascribe for it. I cannot comprehend the utter rejection of the ancient church in bitterness by those who formerly served it. It's almost like renouncing one's mother just because she's a bit behind the times.

F. J. CUANA

Norwalk, Conn.

Judging the Judge

Sir: Federal Judge Julius Hoffman's handling of the trial of the Miserable Seven in Chicago [Feb. 23] deserves a great deal more than passing praise. His patience, his wisdom and his refusal to be intimidated by a group of anti-Americans stamp him as a truly great man.

Judge Hoffman's actions have given me, along with millions of other Americans, a spark of hope that maybe all is not lost. We need more Hoffmans. We need more people who have the fortitude to tell the unwashed minority that it's time to take a bath.

E. I. H. BENNETT

Pittsburgh

Sir: The political credos of the individuals being tried by Judge Hoffman are so diverse that the charge of conspiracy must be viewed as the Government's paranoid fantasy.

The political tendencies of the defendants converge upon one point: they are all disdainful of Government policy. I urge all who are guilty of this crime to turn themselves in.

STEVE MILLIGAN

Boulder, Colo.

Sir: Nobody comes out of the Chicago Seven trial with clean hands. The defense histrionics were almost as bad as the judge's suppressions.

I think that liberals and conservatives alike are now supersaturated with the violence on both ends of the political spectrum. We are equally sickened by right-wing atrocities (such as civil rights assassinations) and left-wing atrocities (such as the San Francisco police-station bombing). Eventually liberals and conservatives will have to join forces to freeze out extremists on both ends.

NICK NICHOLL

Pueblo, Colo.

Swatting the Cow

Sir: Vice President Agnew again swatted the liberal news media [Feb. 23] which so long have made Richard Nixon the butt of their abuse.

It's like the Quaker farmer whose fractious cow kept overturning the milk bucket and kicking him. His patience at last exhausted, the farmer said to the cow: "Thou knowest, as a Quaker, I cannot beat thee. Nor curse thee. So I will sell thee to one who can do both."

The President has now succeeded in transferring title to the ill-tempered cow.

EVELYN CRANE

Hollywood

Character Analysis

Sir: Boy, that letter of Mrs. Onassis [Feb. 23]! Not its content, but its chirography: stubborn, insecure, self-centered, secretive, ungenerous and frigid. Ask any handwriting analyst.

VERA TASS

Colonia, N.J.

Sir: Poor Jackie! It makes one wonder if one should not be penning notes on self-destructing stationery--just in case.

LYNN AZZAM

Bridgeport, Conn.

In Dresden, Too

Sir: Your article, "Dresden Rebuilt," [Feb. 23] condemns what you call the pointless air raid on that city. Any young cadet with the war plans of early 1945 in his hands could point out that this city was the hub of all communications between the German armies in the Balkans and the rest of the Reich, and also with the Eastern front, where the Russian armies had just broken into eastern Silesia and were rushing forward toward Berlin. As the maps will show you, there, was no rail link of any importance between Czechoslovakia, at that time named Boehmen-Maehren, and the other side of the Riesengebirge; and the rail between Cracow in Poland and Bratislava in Czechoslovakia had been cut by the Russian advance. The Germans desperately tried to get equipment up from the Southeastern front, which was already collapsing, to throw against the Russians. I know. It was in the last days of September, 1944 that I was transported as a slave laborer, supposedly to go to work in Riesa's (a small town a bit farther north) Hermann Goring steelworks. We went in three trams, 60 to a wagon, 50 wagons to a train --east to Auschwitz to be gassed. Of my fellow prisoners, only a few may live today.

We went through that lovely Florence on the Elbe. The train passed the last great railway-engine repair works m Germany still working full blast to repair the engines the brave boys of the Royal Air Force had riddled with bullets. They were working desperately there, as the transport system of Hitler's Reich was on the verge of collapse.

The "few light industries" you mention made specialized equipment for the German army, especially aircraft instruments and other precision parts for planes.

Militarily speaking, the bombardment was very necessary. It cut the enemy's transport system, hit vital instrument and small-arms factories, and destroyed the railway repair yard.

They began the war, they killed millions, and they got what they wanted to bring others. In Dresden, too.

EDGAR S. WEINBERG-WYVERN

Laren, The Netherlands

Self-Contradictory?

Sir: As an Indian woman, I must strongly protest the statement that harijan women are "paraded nude through the streets and then raped" for the offense of forgetting their station [Feb. 16].

The report is self-contradictory, for presumably men guilty of such conduct would pride themselves on their "high" caste; such men would hardly risk their standing by raping a harijan woman publicly. I have spent three decades in Indian villages, and never once heard of such an incident. Women are raped in India, as they are in other countries (after all, I do read Washington newspapers), but the social level they come from has nothing to do with it.

We in India do have our problems, political, social and economic. But if we have one thing to be thankful for in the past two decades, it is the progress that has been made in removing the traditional disabilities of the harijans.

(MRS.) PROBHA GHOSHAL

Washington, D.C.

Clean Sweep

Sir: The article, "Soviet Portrait of America" [Feb. 23], states that the Russians Strelnikov and Shatunovsky are disseminating misinformation wnen tney describe Negro women sweeping up in front of the White House.

The claim may be inaccurate, but no Soviet reader would impute any negative intent to it. To the Western visitor, the majority of Moscow street sweepers appear to be women--and the older the better. Babushka seems to have only two choices: baby-sit with the grandchildren or help sweep the streets. The circumstances of this exclusively geriatric female occupation is not completely lost on the Russians, however. During the Khrushchev regime (remember him?), the following joke was current in Moscow: It was rumored Khrushchev had an argument with a woman member of the party Presidium. "I'll have you sweeping streets!" he threatened her. "You can't," came the cold reply. "I'm not old enough."

CARL EDWIN LOVETT JR.

Diplomatic Courier

American Consulate General

APO New York

How to Get the Bugs Out

Sir: Here is what Henry Ford should do if he really wants to compete with Volkswagen [Feb. 23]. Send Mrs. Ford, suitably disguised (good luck), with the ailing family car to a dealer for repairs. If her luck is like mine, she will be ignored or treated like an idiot. Nothing will be covered by the warranty.

When she recovers from the shock of the bill, she will find the original ailment still there plus a few new ones (iatrogenic mechanical failure?).

Then let Mrs. F. take a "Bug" to the Volkswagen agency for service. What a difference. At the risk of sounding like a shill for VW, I have made the comparison. Never have I received anything but prompt, courteous and competent service at the dealers. The work is often covered by the warranty, and the bills are reasonable.

The name of the game, Henry, is service!

LEAH LEDDON

Philadelphia

Sir: Henry Ford II's observation: "New models every year and all this hoi polloi about introductions and all that are becoming passe," outdoes Mrs. Malaprop at her best.

J. W. ROCKEFELLER JR.

Consulting Engineers

Elizabeth, N.J.

Sir: Well, if he wants us hoi polloi to continue buying his automobiles, he had better stop confusing us with that well-known auto color, hulla blue.

JAMES A. WOODS

University Park, Pa.

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