South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 39, Ed. 1 Friday, March 30, 1984 Page: 4 of 20
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Opinion
March 30, 1904 ■ 4
Viewpoint
Preaching
against the big
bomb not easy
By William G. Bilton
STC executive editor
Next weekend the diocesan Peace and Justice Commission is
sponsoring a symposium on the U.S. bishops’ war and peace
pastoral, The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our
Response.
While this symposium w.'U provide an opportunity for par-
ticipants to study the pastoral letter, it also serves as an example
and a reminder that an urgency about peace continues to live in
the American Church.
Bishops are condemning nuclear weapons and people are
listening.
Through our bishops the Second Vatican Council’s message
is reaching all corners of the Church in our country: “Any act
of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities
or of extensive areas along with then- population is a crime
against God and man himself "
Some Catholics, however, remain unconvinced. They are
devoted to the Church, but they also fed Christian love must be
realistic. They cannot understand how the bishops can base
their condemnation of nuclear war upon Christian iovt, if the
love of Jesus also demands that we protect our loved ones. Has
not our nuclear arsenal been our protection thus far, they ask.
The concern of these Catholics must be addressed. Love does
indeed demand realism just as it demands the foolish, the dif-
ficult and even crucifixion.
Can the bishops teach in the name of Jesus that v\ dismantle
our nuclear armaments and then lose to the comma.lists? Can
the U.S. follow the Christ-like-ideal of the bishops, if this
teaching is unrealistic and impractical?
T believe that the love of Jesus does demand nuclear disarma-
ment. I believe also that disarmament is realistic and practical.
It is nuclear w*» preparation that is unrealistic and naive.
Nuclear weapons are a result of hiding from reality in a lie.
Nuclear armaments are made possible by the big lie that the
world is divided into good countries and evil countries. In this
naive view of the world, one’s own country is good. It does not
want war, but it must protect itself from the cunning, evil
enemy. It is because the enemy is so evil that good people
should build and build and build nuclear arms.
This lie is attractive because it is true the enemy has some
evil.
What makes it a lie, however, is the refusal to see that people
are pretty much the same world over. We are all a mix of good
and evil. We all have dreams and hopes. We all can be driven to
fe^r others. We are all human.
If enough of us believe the lie that there are good countries
and evil countries, we build bombs. We refuse to regard the
enemy as people. We ban visits, discourage contacts, misinter-
pret motives. We refuse to see ourselves and our enemies as
similar. For example, we condemn killing in Afghanistan but
pay for it in El Salvador.
To preach Christ is not easy.
It is hard to preach against the big bomb; it is harder to
preach against the big lie.
But we must preach.
We must learn that the bomb we have i. like no other. We
must also learn that the enemies we target are very much like
ourselves in many aspects.
Catholic
Official newspaper of the Diocese of Corpus Christi,
Published 45 times a year. Subscriptions $7 annually.
Bishop Thomas J. Drury
Publisher Emeritus
Bishop Bene H. Gracida
Publisher
William G. Bilton
Executive Editor and General Manager
Salo Otero
Staff writer
Mary Turner
C ircula tion/A dvertisin g
Lana Laurel
Production
1200 Lantana St.
Corpus Christi, TX 78407
512/289-6501
.—. Second class postage
{&*] paid at Corpus Christi, TX
W (USPS - 540-8601)
ine Human aide
A walk into the past
By Father Eugene Hemrick
NC News Service
Before visiting New York City recently, I ask-
ed a good friend there, who is a priest, if I could
stay in his rectory. This in order to avoid the
hotel blahs.
"No problem," I was told. “If you don’t
mind taking the subway you can stay down at
Our Lady of the Rosary."
Subway? Maybe I should have stuck with a
hotel room, I thought. Who needs the morning
rush hour when you are already in a hassled state
of mind with business eonerns3
Little did I suspect the pleasant surprise that
awaited me.
Our Lady of the Rosary Church is at the tip of
lower Manhattan in the Battery. It is also the St.
Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine, where Elizabeth
and her family lived during the first part of the
19th century.
1 he priest I stayed with told me that at that
lime many of the Irish were fleeing oppression
and the vengeance of the Rising of 1798 against
their English landlords. When they arrived at the
quarantine station on Ellis Island, across the bay
from the shrine’s location, the immigrants were
often starving, sick and dying from living in the
filthy holds of ships.
One summer, when Elizabeth Seton saw the
horrible plight of the immigrants, she came home
and wrote her sister-in-law, "Rebecca, I cannot
sleep. The dying and the dead possess my mind.
Babies perishing at the empty breasts ot the ex-
piring mother."
Eighty years later Charlotte Grace O’Brien
took up residence in the same home where
Elizabeth had lived. When she saw the hard lot of
Irish women immigrants, who were vulnerable
to exploitation, Miss O’Brien set up a boarding
house. Through this effort hundreds of Irish
women were enabled to get a healthy start in the
United States.
As I listened to the history of the parish—a
parish where the very pillars outside the entrance
were once the masts of merchant ships—a bit of
the past seemed to come to life for me.
After our conversation, I walked along Battery
Park. In the distance I could see the Statue of
Liberty and Ellis Island. Suddenly my thoughts
began to wander back to what it must have been
like at the turn of the 20th century when my
grandparents immigrated to the United States.
What did it feel like to leave parents and friends
and venture to a new country3 What did they ex-
pect?
As I watched taxies and buses go by, 1 had to
wonder what sights and sounds my grandparents
experienced when they first set foot on American
soil. One story my mother tells is that grandpa
ended up with the wrong luggage, which contain-
ed diapers, baby bottles and baby clothes.
As I pondered the history that was bound up in
the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, I found
myself delightfully cast into the past, rediscover-
ing my roots.
This is the kind of experience that reminds me
of the value of roots. I often think that parents,
whenever possible, should entourage their
children to sit down with grandparents to explore
.. iamily’s roots. No doubt there will be some
skeletons in the closet. Be what they may, explor-
ing the past with someone who lived it is an up-
poi tunity no child with living grandparents
should pass up.
It is more precious than any history course
they will ever take.
Father Eugene Hemrick is director of
research for the Nationa' Conference of
Catholn Bishops.
Readers’
U
1
T| to
Forum
ill
5 Uo
Priesthood not
for women
I wish to make a public apology to the hierar-
chy of our Church from the deacons to the pope.
If we are to be a Bible-believing Church and I
believe that we are, then there’s no place for
women in the priesthood. Unless of course the
Holy Spirit guides otherwise at a future time.
My new stand is a result of much prayer, study
and reflection. In Genesis we are told that man
was created first and to him was given dominion
over the world. Woman was created as a
helpmate to man.
Jesus Christ was born, died on the cross and
rose to redeem all of mankind, but He didn’t
remove the Old Law: He fullfilled it.
Man, whether celibate or married, is sub-
missive to no one on earth but to God the
Creator. Woman as powerful as man, but second
in command, submits in celibacy to God or in
marriage to her husband. There is no power as
great than God Himself anywhere.
Sylvia Allen
Corpus Christi
Praise for bishop
I always enjoy reading the South Texas
Catholic.
While I normally give away the issues after
reading them, I kept your November 25, 1983
issue. The front page of that issue had a story and
headline "U.S. bishops take risks with new
pastoral style."
I kept this issue because I could see that in
months to come the realization of these risks
would become apparent. I believe such risks
must be taken.
Bishop Gracida has begun such risks and I
praise him for doing what is right. His actions
reflect peace, justice and compassion and faith in
God. He is showing us that as Catholics we must
take risks.
I believe the Holy Trinity is guiding the
bishop.
Mrs. Joseph R. de Leon, Sr.
Corpus Christi
Letters policy
The South Texas Catholic welcomes letters
from our readers. Letters should be brief and
to the point.
The newspaper reserves the right to edit all
letters for clarity and length. All letters must
be signed.
Send letters to the South Texas Catholic,
1200 Lantana, Corpus Christi, TX 78407.
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Bilton, William G. South Texas Catholic (Corpus Christi, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 39, Ed. 1 Friday, March 30, 1984, newspaper, March 30, 1984; Corpus Christi, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth840844/m1/4/: accessed April 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .