CORRESPONDENCE.

Another take

I respectfully disagree with your March 24 editorial assertion that The Cider House Rules is a propaganda film for abortion. Yes, I heard a John Irving's homage to Planned Parenthood and NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) at the Academy Awards ceremony. But consider this: the apparently kind and gruff Dr. Larch is no poster boy for any cause, abortion or otherwise. The film makes it clear that he is a manipulative s.o.b. who nightly etherizes himself to sleep, and eventually to death.

Then there is Homer. His initial refusal to perform an abortion, on the grounds that it is illegal, is hardly morally profound. When he does terminate Rose's pregnancy, Homer becomes aware that abortion, in and of itself, cannot secure a livable future for those who undergo one. It certainly does not for Rose. She stabs her father and runs away to what kind of life? We can only guess.

I would venture that when Homer returns to the orphanage, he will not perform abortions. His reasons for not doing so now extend beyond the legalities and personal queasiness. I realize this is an idiosyncratic, and possibly overly benign, interpretation of the film, with which few will agree. But I'm sticking to it.

gerald p. cohen, c.s.c.

Middletown, Conn.

The writer is Roman Catholic chaplain at Wesleyan University.

A bonanza

Here's a raised pint of Guinness to Commonweal for the splendid issue of March 10. By coincidence, your articles underscored, in one way or another, the major themes of many recent curmudgeonly railings: the giftedness of John XXIII's beatification, the deplorable state of Irish Catholicism, the politics of canonization, the infuriating blandness of NPR's "Fresh Air," the good old days of the Young Christian Students, and, yes, even the quality of "West Wing's" Catholicism.

Unlike other publications of its genre, the topical appeal and the continued quality of Commonweal's format and writing always inspire.

j. murray elwood

Strafford, Pa.

Wear the collar

Correspondent John Hazard asks [March 10]: "...Catholics may wonder why any kind of [clerical or religious] garb...should be thought of as evangelism." In principle, Hazard ought to be right. But he fails to consider the age in which we live. For the average unchurched contemporary North American, clerical or religious garb observed in public places may be the only form of physical Catholic witness she or he will experience outside a largely negative media.

It can be persuasively argued that some sign, any sign, indicating to the world that "we are among you" has evangelistic value. Next time you walk through an airport or mall, judge for yourself how easy it would be to conclude that the Catholic church is virtually absent from everyday modern life. Then ask yourself again if clerical garb serves no missionary purpose, especially in a culture that evangelizes ubiquitously through the power and suggestibility of the visual image.

john david

Alexandria, Va.

Medical issues

A few observations on your excellent issue of February 25. Clark E. Cochran's recommendations in "Another Identity Crisis" should have included an explicit affirmation of Catholic ecumenical commitment since Vatican II. Fundamental to being "Catholic" now is to welcome the many participants (doctors, nurses, and other employees) whose commitment to care for the ill derives from their non-Catholic or nonreligious (agnostic or atheistic), but deeply held, moral commitments. Catholic identity in health care should be understood not primarily in terms of "sectarian" emphases.

Second, as an expression of devotion to patients as persons, a sine qua non of such sacramental/incarnational compassion, Catholic health care must include commitment to palliative and hospice-type care for the dying. Pessimists about the economic viability of Catholic health care should be reminded that it remains a fundamental form of witness to the healing mission of Jesus Christ.

With respect to James L. Conner's fine account of efforts to support managerial dedication with moral ideals in medical care, we also need renewed versions of the great "labor schools" to instruct those who lead unions of health-care workers that just as management needs to respond to patient-oriented concerns, labor leaders need to respond to the concerns of their members for insuring more compassionate care.

james f. bresnahan, s.j.

Chicago, Ill.

The writer is professor emeritus of medical ethics and humanities at Northwestern University Medical School.

Are HMOs DOA?

James L. Connor, S.J. ["How to Heal Managed Care," February 25] is onto a correct diagnosis of the HMO disease when he acknowledges that health care is not a business in any traditional sense. But his prescriptions for remedying the situation assume that the ethical and moral symptoms he describes reflect a malady amenable to healing. It may be, however, that the HMO disease is more "systemic" and is in fact DOA. It may be that health care and profit-taking are ethically and morally incompatible. What we need is a universal health-care system to replace private so-called insurance programs that restrict coverage with arbitrary regulations not related to a patient's welfare. Organized religion must work to increase public support for the adequate provision and just distribution of health-care resources, for prescription drugs, long-term care, treatment of catastrophic illness, and hospice programs.

vaile scott

River Forest, Ill.

Keep 'em Catholic

Clarke E. Cochran's February 25 article on Catholic hospitals ["Another Identity Crisis"] reminded me of the special care I received at Saint Francis Hospital in Roslyn, New York. Here are two examples:

I was checking in at dawn for surgery when a Brother John greeted me: "How about this: Here's an Old Roman going to pray for an Episcopalian being operated on by a Jewish surgeon." I replied, "Here I would hope we are all one." Brother John said, "Of course we are," and I went upstairs with a lighter heart.

Another year, I was lying in a corridor waiting for an angiogram, and feeling twitchy. A young nurse walked past, then turned and started to talk. "You'll get in soon," she said. "The process isn't as bad as some may have told you . You live in Port Washington? That's a nice town ." This sustained me through a time when I needed help. The nurse did not have to take time for me. She gave more than duty called for.

loring w. batten, iii

Port Washington, N.Y.

Observe, judge, act

Thanks to John Hill and Barry Hillenbrand for their illuminating profiles of Reynold Hillenbrand [March 10]. In the summer of 1955, I climbed the antique stairs of Saint Clement's social center in Chicago in search of an 8 p.m. meeting. I was curious about a lay apostolate movement I had read about, the Young Christian Workers. On the top floor I found the room; I was late and the meeting was winding down.

A severe looking priest up front was speaking very softly, only slightly louder than a confessional whisper. The seven to ten, twenty- something males in attendance were leaning on their folding chairs as far as gravity would allow. Hearing impaired and too proud to wear a hearing aid, I could make out nothing. Then everybody rose, recited a closing prayer by heart, the priest gave us a blessing, and he quickly exited-no small talk, no chitchat.

Although my ears heard nothing of what he said, some inner sense detected that a special dynamic was operating between listeners and speaker. The body language of the listeners, the quiet intensity of the speaker, whom I learned later was Reynold Hillenbrand, would draw me back.

Later, as YCW section president, I was privileged each week to prepare the social inquiry part of the meeting (observe, judge, act) with "Monsignor" (as he was referred to by members with a combination of respect and affection), whenever weather (his suburban parish being some thirty miles distant) or his health (migraines) permitted. Those twenty-minute prep sessions, no surprise, were a means of personal formation, and I count myself among those (as John Hill said so well) "whose lives he touched." I will always be grateful for the synthesis of work and worship he gave me: my lab bench became my altar and my research the daily offering.

Referring to the decline of monsignor's influence and YCW participation in the 1963 lunch-counter sit-ins, Hill writes that "Hillenbrand supported the plan, though it wasn't his idea." In my experience, none of the actions that members took arising from the social inquiry- integrating all-white beaches, helping to organize retail clerks, precinct work on behalf of candidates-were ever Hillenbrand's ideas. He was always respectful of the integrity of the observe, judge, act process. He did once point out, however, that painting the rectory basement was not social action.

charles feit

Skokie, Ill.

Holocaust ethics

Jewish scholar David Novick has reminded us of the difficulty anyone faces in drawing lessons from the Holocaust-including those drawn in Edward Gaffney's review of Harry James Cargas's Problems Unique to the Holocaust [March 10]. Humanity did not have to wait until the 1930s to discover painful moral dilemmas, and throwing out the rule book, especially the rules restricting the taking of human life, is about as perverse a response to the Holocaust as I can imagine. Not to judge others is always wise counsel, but I fail to see how it squares with Cargas's protest against Pope John Paul II's meeting with Kurt Waldheim.

philip e. devine

Providence, R.I.

The writer is professor of philosophy at Providence College.

Pilgrim's all

Like Eamon Duffy ["Confronting the Church's Past," January 14] I am very much moved by the phrase in the third eucharistic prayer that reminds us we are a pilgrim church on earth (ecclesia peregrinantem in terra). How can a devotee of Chaucer feel otherwise when the liturgy recalls what the church historically is-a parade of human beings fallible and peccable?

But, to me, the censure meted out by Duffy against the pope's statement that it is the children of the church, not the church itself, that have done evil, is based on a curial concept. The church is much more than the hierarchy; it is all of us pilgrims, including popes, cardinals, archbishops, and even permanent secretaries of the curia. We are all equally children of the church, members of the Mystical Body of Christ, and all of us sinners defile that body.

The pope was expressing shame in his apology, for the offenses of the historical church are very much the offenses against Holy Mother the church, wounded as she is whenever we fail her. Let us recognize that all of us-from popes to peasants-are sinners very much in need of atonement. That is what pilgrimage is all about.

marian burkhart

New York, N.Y.