LETTERS

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 26, 2001

Troubled by Legion

* I am writing in response to your article "Turmoil in Atlanta" (NCR, Nov. 3), and the letters concerning it (NCR, Dec. 15). Can there truly be so many supporters of the Legionaries of Christ among NCR readers? The number of responses and the common type of defense they present suggest that we have here another example of the kind of well organized, direct mail and telephone campaign in which the Legion specializes. I am grateful to NCR for publishing Gerald Renner's original article about this troubling organization. We should all beware of them.

VIRGINIA REINBURG Somerville, Mass.

Disillusionment

* Voices of conscience, including some American cardinals, need to rise up regarding Justice Ana America Rodriquez' ruling to not try former Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani and six generals in the killings of six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter on Nov. 16, 1989.

With escalating cynicism and disillusionment, especially in the recent failed voting process, the Vietnam debacle, Watergate and suspicions of U.S. Government involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, to name a few examples, so-called leaders seem to get away with murder, here with the backing of the oligarchy of El Salvador by the United States.

No one is above the law and the law of the Supreme Being: Thou shall not kill!

(Fr.) LAWRENCE M. VENTLINE Sterling Heights, Mich.

Election questions

* Perhaps the greatest asset of George W. Bush is that he is not intellectually captured by the adversarial mindset of legal prejudice as lawyers are. Which may mean that President-elect Bush might be inclined to serve public well-being rather than corporate consumerism.

Whether Democrat or Republican, legislators represent corporate (money) interest at the expense of the public. The attorneys of both parties are the priests of corporate consumerism, and two-party politics, advanced on adversarial law theory, preach the profit creed of consumerist theology. The profiteering bias of consumerist theology favors corporate rather than public well-being.

Perhaps a change in the voting by the Electoral College could mitigate the corporate bias. If, for example, votes of the Electoral College were by law apportioned to represent the preference of the public as indicated by their votes in the presidential election, a more truly democratic representation of public will and interest might result. In the election just finished, for example, had Ralph Nader received his proportionate share of Electoral College votes, he would have been in a position to affect the outcome, either by giving his votes to the candidate most inclined to issues he favored, or simply by not having his electoral votes given to either of the other candidates. The public might have been spared the perception that the election was stolen.

SYLVESTER L. STEFFEN New Hampton, Iowa

Guilt or innocence

* The Dec. 22 issue carries a letter from Rita Lucey wherein she says that the Florida State Supreme Court has overturned nearly three of four death sentences due to "trial errors." This may, in fact, be true. But one has to distinguish between trial errors and actual culpability when talking of the imposition of the death penalty. Justices may, and have, found trial errors that freed blatantly guilty persons. Such a situation may speak to problems with the administration of justice but says nothing of the actual guilt, innocence or culpability of the person convicted.

GORDON MILLS Austin, Texas

Assessing the archbishop

* Now that Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick has all but achieved his goal of becoming a cardinal and is leaving the Newark, N.J., archdiocese to become the archbishop of Washington, D.C., it seems appropriate that his tenure as archbishop should be assessed. It seems to me that the archbishop will be seen by church historians as a caretaker, as someone whose own ambition prevented him from being a powerful force in the church.

Time after time when faced with creative new ways to minister to the people's needs, the archbishop simply responded with a reiteration of the church's teaching. It made no difference to him that people might need new ways to experience the power of God. He was afraid to venture into territory which might have jeopardized his chance at attaining a seat at the right hand of Pope John Paul II. And so rather than leading the church of Newark into the future, Archbishop McCarrick chose to lead it into the past or to freeze it in time. The people of God deserve better than that.

With a bold and creative leader, the archdiocese of Newark could lead the country in ministries to the poor, the elderly, the young, to those suffering from incurable diseases. With a bold and creative leader, the archdiocese of Newark could extend the powerful healing hand of God to the divorced and remarried, to gays and lesbians, to those who feel lost and abandoned by the church.

My prayer is that the new archbishop will see his work here as satisfying, not as a stepping stone to a more prestigious position. I pray also for the priests who spend their days in the service of God and his people. May the new archbishop attend to their needs as well. This is an exciting moment for the people of the archdiocese. Let us pray that God's Spirit may find a place in our hearts and in the heart of the new archbishop.