Teaching Torture

This is in reply to Capt. Kevin McIver's letter to the editor (“School of the Americas”) in the Sept. 29 issue of the Register. Capt. McIver is Public Relations Officer for the U.S. Army School of the Americas.

In my naiveté I wanted to believe him but I have since learned his statements are not true. Areport published in TheWashington Post, Sept. 22, 1996, stated that “the U.S. Department of Defense has admitted training Latin American military leaders in the arts of torture, execution, blackmail and other forms of coercion from 1982-1991.”

Capt. McIver mentions “human rights” throughout his letter. These are brutal soldiers who come to Fort Benning and they are returned brutal soldiers with added training in torture and assassinations. The local people fear them: Aknock on the door at any time could mean abduction, torture and killing.

He says a small percentage have been accused of these crimes—that is, the small percentage who have been caught. That democracy has returned to Latin America is another one of his points. Is being ruled by a dictator who is kept in power by the military an example of democratic rule?

Why should our government be involved in such negative and murderous activity? Peace and justice and democracy are not promoted by such training. It's time for a congressional investigation and a closing of the School of the Americas.

Ruth O'Loughlin

Wooster, Ohio

Simply Hate

In the 1930s our family lived in an Irish Catholic neighborhood. As a pre-school child, I learned about anti-Semitism. Older girls (wearing their Catholic school uniforms) would chase us. They would call us “Christ killers” or worse. Their parents weren't much better.

My parents listened to Father Coughlin's radio broadcasts because they knew the neighbors who cursed at them were also listening. Probably like a black family watching a cross burning down the street, knowing their neighbors were under the white robes and hoods.

This Easter will mark my 15th year as a Catholic. I've learned about love and forgiveness through the Church, but I still can't understand centuries of Jewish hatred by Catholics and other Christians. When calling us “Christ killers,” didn't they understand that, in the garden, when Jesus wanted to let the cup pass by him, God wanted to express his love for us through the injustice and terror of the Cross. God wanted to show his closeness to us in our pain and separation and failure. The power of the resurrection is our unending hope in the midst of failure and death.

Ultra conservatives pine for the beautiful Latin Mass with its three mea culpas, but all the words and actions during that Mass didn't make Catholics better people. Father Coughlin spoke words of hate—period.

Dorothy Kushner

Orange, California

Not Contraception

An article (“British Church Leaders Hail New NFP Device”) in the Nov. 10-16 Register tells about a new natural family planning device that has gone on sale in England, called “Persona.” Twice in the article, Persona is compared with “other contraceptives.” This inaccuracy could lead to confusion. Natural family planning is not contraception. It involves some abstinence while contraception does the exact opposite.

Dorothy Stathis

Victoria, Texas

Cohabitation

I write to commend you for the article “At Long Last, Young Adults Get Serious Attention” by David Finnigan in your Nov. 10-16 issue. The article deals with “Sons and Daughters of the Light: APastoral Plan” that was approved by the bishops at their November meeting.

As a member of the steering committee for the writing of the pastoral plan, I also want to point out that a quotation attributed to me in the article is not accurate. It reads: “If you just take the issue of cohabitation and zero in on that, you're going up a one way street that's a dead end.” In response to Finnigan's question about cohabitation, I pointed out that the pastoral plan does not deal specifically with that issue but that it supposes and supports the teaching of the Church. Secondly, and more importantly, I pointed out that if the issue of cohabitation is raised in the context of marriage preparation, the priest or pastoral minister would need to sensitively present the authentic teaching of the Church to the couple.

Father Charles Hagan

Representative for Higher Education and Campus

Ministry

The United States Catholic Conference

Washington, D.C.

Roman Catholics?

Your Dec. 1-7 issue of the Register has me wondering why someone like Bill Murray, obviously uninformed as to why Congressman Robert Dornan (RCalif.) lost his bid for re-election, was given space for his comments (“A Leading Pro-Life Congressman Receives a Rude Awakening”).

To claim that the bishops identified abortion as the most important moral issue today is wrong. They placed welfare concerns first of all, with abortion mentioned hardly at all. American Catholics were led to believe that a continuance of big government was of greater importance than putting an end to the destruction of innocent human life.

If the words of Pope John Paul had been heeded, as they should have been, the outcome of the 1996 election would have been different; Dornan would have been reelected. I doubt that we should be called Roman Catholics when our leadership appears to ignore the Pope's leadership in matters of faith and morals.

Joan Herman

Albuquerque, New Mexico