October 1990

Graham Greene?

I sympathized with much of what James Prothero said in his guest column (Jul.-Aug.) on his move from evangelicalism to Anglicanism to Catholicism. I myself moved first into Anglicanism and later into Orthodoxy, for very similar reasons.

However, regarding his discussion of “milk and meat” in literature, has not Graham Greene very nearly abandoned his faith? If Greene is a Catholic author, then is Gide a Protestant author?

Mary M. Stolzenbach

Vienna, Virginia

Freedom for Cuba?

Regarding John Cort’s review-essay on liberation theology and Marxism (Jul.-Aug.): I am as uncomfortable as he is with dictatorships; too often they are self-perpetuating.

But should democracy be introduced in Cuba, with a free press? If so, Cuba will be returned to the bordellos and gambling dens — with desperate 13-year-old prostitutes.

If there is no food, no medical care, and no schooling, is it really a gift to be free to complain about this by making a speech in a public park? That was Cuba before 1959.

Nicholas Lococo

Forest Park, Illinois

What About God?

I was interested to learn in Fr. Jonathan Foster’s July-August article about “the primacy [American] religious have come to put on personal development and growth, at the expense of ministry.” Now, I am fairly sure that that is not true of American Jesuits, at least. Our problem, in the Society of Jesus, and I had hitherto believed it was a problem common to most apostolic religious, is that we have lately come to put too high a priority on ministry, even putting it above “the one thing alone that is needed” (Lk. 10:42).

To my mind, the crucial choice, insofar as one can speak of choosing between essentials, is not between self and ministry but between either or both of those and the important third element in the equation. With that in mind I read the article again. Surely it is significant that, in an article describing what the concerns of religious are and what they might be, Foster does not once mention God.

Michael C. McGuckian, S.J.

Limerick, Ireland