Robert Kearney@Robkearney1981
If many American Catholics now think that the U.S. Bishops have become "too political," I can assure you that they were much more radical back in the '80s.
Below is a 1982 article about the growing rift between many of the liberal, activist-minded bishops and their more conservative, Reagan-voting flock:
AMERICAN CATHOLICS SCORE BISHOPS (Part 1)
by Joan Diehl
Sixty-five Percent Say Shepherds Not Fulfilling Their Teaching Duties!
According to a recent nation-wide poll conducted by "Catholic Broadcasts, Inc., (see poll results elsewhere in this article) American Catholics are not too pleased with some of their bishops. A majority are especially unhappy about the political involvement of certain shepherds of the flock. One-third of the questions in the survey dealt specifically with nuclear armaments.
Among the 1,012 tallied respondents, the greatest opposition was to the policy of Seattle's Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen. He advocates the withholding of 50% of one's taxes to protest U. S. nuclear policies. Since the Navy's new Trident submarine is scheduled to be based near Seattle, the archbishop calls it "the Auschwitz of Puget Sound."
Another member of the hierarchy protesting nuclear weapons is Bishop Leroy Matthiesen of Amarillo, Texas. He has been trying to persuade Catholic workers in the local nuclear weapons assembly plant to quit their jobs.
Ever since the Vietnam war protesters marched around the Detroit chancery in 1965, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton has been an advocate of pacifism. In 1972, he established the U. S. chapter of Pax Christi, a Catholic anti-war group begun in Europe at the end of World War II. Not surprisingly, Bishops Hunthausen and Matthiesen are members.
Another anti-nuclear activist among the U.S. hierarchy is Washington's Archbishop James A. Hickey. He recently called for a freeze on nuclear weapons in a pastoral letter to 400,000 Catholics in the area.
According to a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal (June 9, 1982), "The Catholic Church is approaching what could become a major division over the morality of nuclear weapons."
Some of those responsible for designing and carrying out President Reagan's arms-control policy are Catholics. Edward L. Rowny, an active and prominent member in the Church will lead the delegation that takes up arms-control negotiations with the Russians. Mr. Rowny, despite several visits to Archbishop Hickey, feels he has gotten nowhere. His boss, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, also a Catholic, is said to be concerned.
Lay Catholics, opposed to their bishops' anti-nuclear activism, are forming groups to combat pacifism. Philip Lawler, director of studies at the Heritage Foundation, is starting a group to promote traditional Church teachings on war and peace.
New York's Terence Cardinal Cooke has made sure his 1,100 chaplains serving the armed forces know what the Church has always taught on this subject. Last December, he sent them a letter explaining the "just war" doctrine. The Church has taught, since about A.D. 400 that Catholics have "both the right and the duty to protect its people against unjust aggression." According to Cardinal Cooke, under this doctrine Catholics can command or serve nuclear weapons systems in good conscience as long as the nation is striving for nuclear arms limitation.
One young man, hoping to become a nuclear submariner, was unaware of this teaching when he joined the Navy. He was doing pretty well, in the Nuclear Propulsion School at Orlando, Florida, when he heard Bishop Thomas J. Grady say that nuclear weapons are "immoral." The trainee, along with another, went AWOL for 16 days. The brig was waiting for them when they returned. Now this potential submariner is seeking release from the Navy as a conscientious objector...
