LETTERS.

Catholics need facts to vote their faith

THE AUGUST INTERVIEW WITH FATHER MICHAEL Baxter, C.S.C. ("In the world but not of it") was thought-provoking, although I was disappointed with at least one of his answers. Baxter claims that Catholics vote more for their party than for anything related to their faith. I think not.

What I see happening, at least here in this part of the country, is that devout Catholics are trying to vote their faith. Far too often, however, it does not extend beyond the abortion question. This is so true that some persons, writing letters to the local diocesan newspaper, claim that it is sinful to vote for anyone who is prochoice. So a candidate who claims to be prolife can get many Catholic votes from people who never realize that sometimes that candidate is also for the death penalty, for more spending on the military and less on the poor, and, more encroachment on the rights and needs of others in the world.

If Catholics do not vote their faith, it's probably because social justice aspects of their faith have not been articulated as clearly as the abortion issue has. What we really need are Catholic leaders in our churches who are willing to take on the hard questions such as war, poverty, hunger, the death penalty, and injustices committed by our country around the world, instead of merely encouraging personal piety and feel-good religion.

Lucy Fuchs
Brandon, Fla.

Baxter criticizes the 1983 pastoral letter on peace of the U.S. Catholic bishops. He claims, it (1) did not put out a distinctively Christian vision on war and peace; (2) failed to shape the minds of Catholic voters; and (3) did not have the intended impact on national policy leaders.

A careful sociological study by Father Andrew Greeley came to the conclusion that it had a more profound impact on Catholics in this country than any other pastoral statement ever made by the U.S. bishops. It and similar statements made by religious leaders in other countries helped bring the world back from the brink of nuclear disaster. So profound was the change in attitudes of national policy leaders that by the time of the Reykjavik conference in 1986, Gorbachev and Reagan came very close to the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The Challenge of Peace was influential, in part, because of the way in which it was prepared, which permitted and encouraged public discussion of it during the drafting process. As the person who suggested this procedure to Bishop Murphy and Cardinal Bernardin, I am proud to have had a small part in producing a document which may not have been what critics like Baxter would like to have seen, but which achieved far more than even its most ardent proponents had dared to hope for.

John N. Snell
Baltimore, Md.

In good company

"Who's working for peace now?" Robert Keeler answered that question brilliantly in the lead article of the August issue. Pax Christi USA is proud to be mentioned in the same article with great peacemakers and peace-seeking organizations such as Father Roy Bourgeois, Philip Berrigan, Elizabeth McAlister, the School of the Americas Watch, and Gordon Zahn (one of Pax Christi USA's Ambassadors of Peace), among others.

As outgoing national coordinator of Pax Christi USA, I was especially pleased that Keeler devoted so much of his article to Pax Christi USA's mission and some of its more recent initiatives. Thank you for a thought-provoking article.

Nancy Small,
Former National Coordinator, Pax Christi USA
Erie, Pa.

For it is in giving that we receive

While the title of the August Reader Survey by Mary Lynn Hendrickson ("What do you get out of Mass?") is understandable, I would rather ask, "What is it that we give to the Mass when we gather to celebrate it?"

If we take Jesus at his word and believe that we only keep what we give away, then this would apply when we gather for the Eucharist as well as at other times in our life. Thus, when we gather at the Eucharist, we must focus on "How can I help this assembly better celebrate this Eucharist?" All of this springs out of the conviction that the priest-presider is not the lone "celebrant" of the Eucharist, but that the entire assembly has gathered to celebrate the Eucharist.

We will turn the corner on well-celebrated Eucharists when we enable our assemblies first of all to realize they are the celebrants of the Eucharist, that each has a gift to bring to it, that each is responsible for the Eucharist they have gathered to celebrate. It is then that they (we) will get something out of the Mass.

Father James Friedel, O.S.A.
Olympia Fields, Ill.

While reading the August Reader Survey, I kept trying to picture a similar survey directed at Protestants or fundamentalists. Would there be responses like: "All that arm-waving makes my shoulders ache," "Let's cut the sermons down to an hour," or "Those tedious altar calls should be limited to every other week." Somehow I can't picture it.

I was amazed, too, at the number of references to post-Vatican II changes. Vatican II ended in 1965. Since then an entire generation has reached late middle age, and their children are in college. Yes, the Mass is in English now, and the priest faces the congregation--let's get over it, please.

There are also two precious miracles that Catholics should call to mind each week: (1) At this Mass the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ will become physically present. (2) Two thousand years ago Jesus told his followers to "Do this in remembrance of me." We have done just that.

Larry Hippler
Richland, Wash.

Give me Grandma's religion

I read Kathleen Chesto's article ("This is not your father's religion," August), and while I agreed with a few points, I took offense at most of what she had to say. Chesto's theories on why young people have increasingly fallen away from the church misses the mark by a long shot.

As a 22-year-old Catholic, I only started going to church when my grandfather passed away. My grandmother, unable to drive, asked me to take her. It became a Sunday ritual, from the time I turned 17 until her death this year.

Grandma preferred going to her old inner-city parish, where the interior was 19th-century Gothic, not 1980s suburban-modern. I loved it. Moreover, the Mass was said in Latin. The chants and the organ, and all the rituals that Chesto scoffs at as old-fashioned, really appealed to me. I liked the fact that I could surrender myself to the service, fall into my own meditation, and reflect and pray without having to participate in prescribed refrains and handshakes. I liked the elevation and sacredness of the Latin service.

The only thing I can say in agreement with Chesto is that, yes, her generation is to blame for the sinking attendance. In an attempt to make religion fit your views of soft, contemporary suburban culture, you took away an important element that attracts young people to religion--the idea of mysticism, sacredness, something higher.

Charles Zuneffi
Trenton, N.J.

A lesson and a blessing

I read with great interest the article "Borderline Christianity" by Moises Sandoval (June). Along with Father Stan Martinka of San Alfonso Mission, I too am involved with outreach in Juarez, Mexico. Southern Exposure is a nonprofit corporation that has enabled hundreds of North Americans to participate in immersion and house-building projects in Juarez.

Folks commit one week of their time, fund their transportation to El Paso, and a portion of the construction costs of a cinderblock house, and contribute their talent and love. These Christian missionaries are lodged and fed in the Southern Exposure house in Juarez (Casa de Esperanza) by the locals.

Thirty-seven houses have been constructed in the last year. The youngest missioner was 7 and the oldest 72. All the volunteers have been transformed. We are blessed to be part of developing those relationships while learning from the reality of the people of Ciudad Juarez.

Michael J. Howard
Arvada, Colo.