LETTERS

National Catholic Reporter, March 30, 2001

Cardinal tradition

* Catholics in Europe and students of church history the world over are doubtless puzzled by statements in your last two issues that Mainz, Germany, is a diocese traditionally governed by a cardinal. Since the founding of the modern Mainz diocese in 1802, only one of its bishops, Hermann Volk, has raised to the sacred purple. Pope Paul VI created him a cardinal in 1973.

JEFF ZIEGLER Gaming, Austria

John L. Allen Jr. responds: Thanks to Jeff Ziegler for offering this historical note. Of course, for centuries before 1802 Mainz was one of the most important archdioceses in the Catholic world and was governed at one point by the famous Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545). But the point really is this: In modern times, when a pope makes a particular metropolitan archbishop a cardinal, he creates an expectation (and thus a tradition) that this person's successors will also be cardinals. Jeff Ziegler's puzzlement thus may reflect a common misunderstanding that traditions have to be hundreds of years old to count. In fact, traditions are born and die in Catholicism all the time, a fact of life in a living church.

Partial ministry

* I was very troubled when I read the article, "Ministry with gays and lesbians celebrates 15 years" (NCR, Feb. 16). Perhaps, that is because of my experience with the church, and its teaching on the homosexual person. The question I would like to have seen discussed is this: Are the various "Gay and Lesbian Outreach Ministries" truly ministries? What is a ministry, and does ministry imply that those who minister stand with those they minister to?

I am a practicing Roman Catholic, an active member of a parish, and I am also a gay man. If the basis of these ministries is not genuine love of neighbor, can they really be called ministries?

If the church is truly about gospel values in this ministry, the question must be asked what makes us so different in our civil rights movement that the church will not stand next to us? I was involved in the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s. There the church stood with those to whom it was ministering, and yet the church cannot stand with us in our civil rights movement. I am having difficulty understanding how you can only partially minister to us when we come into a church, but you appear not to be able to minister to us outside of the four walls of a church.

Have the ministries helped? Yes, they have. I do not doubt the good intentions or integrity of those individuals who are involved. Perhaps, the deeper question the leadership must ask is, are they hurting others by maintaining a closeted mentality in their ministry?

JOE MURRAY Chicago

* While it is nice that the Los Angeles archdiocese has had a ministry for lesbian and gay Catholics for 15 years, it still refuses to honor our relationships. The Los Angeles bishops provided $300,000 to support Proposition 22 last year. A ministry that "accepts" us with one hand but fights us with the other is not an honest or supportive ministry.

Members of Dignity/USA are lesbian and gay Catholics who are more prophetic and have a greater sense of their dignity and self-worth. We believe that we have a right to form intimate and life-giving relationships that include the human expression of our sexuality. When the church can truly support us as self-affirming gay and lesbian Catholics, then I will respect their attempt at ministry to us.

JOSEPH GENTILINI Columbus, Ohio

Call of God

* Derek Abrajano takes issue with women, ordination and baptism in his letter in the Feb. 9 issue, which criticized Eileen DiFranco's statement linking ordination and baptism (Letters, NCR, Jan. 21). While Mr. Abrajano calls this linking, "pure heresy," he nevertheless makes a profoundly true statement just four sentences later. "Be the person God has called you to be," he says. Yes indeed, that is precisely what Eileen DiFranco and thousands of women of the church are trying to do.

One very important fact seems to be neglected in all this controversy over the ordination of women -- God is calling women to the priesthood. God is doing the calling, and women are trying to answer. And God will continue to call, whether the church hierarchy likes it or not. We have ample evidence, of course, that the church hierarchy doesn't like it one bit. But that does not make the call of God any less authentic, or real, or living. Rather, it highlights the sinfulness of the church hierarchy in refusing to acknowledge this manifestation of God's presence and action among the people of God and in our world.

PATRICIA BOYCE Rochester, N.Y.

Collective punishment

* The closure of Palestinian villages is an outrage that needs to be reported by the media in the United States. The Israeli press has reported that the Israeli army bulldozed and destroyed all access roads to Palestinian towns and villages in the occupied territories. After the roads were destroyed, the army set down heavy concrete slabs to ensure that no vehicle could pass. These acts serve to completely isolate the Palestinian towns and villages -- cutting off access to medical care, jobs, schools, family and normalcy. The human rights organization B'Tselem has documented these acts, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow from Philadelphia wrote an eyewitness report about it.