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WHERE'S THE FIRE ?

"In His Time: The Consequential Papacy of John Paul II" (Spring 2001) provided better perspective on the state of Catholic intellectuals than it did on JPII's papacy. Readers were "treated" to: a theologian unaware that no pope has the authority to alter a sacrament; a historian claiming Catholic doctrine changes "from one historical period to another"; and a Catholic journalist puzzled by the Vatican's refusal to support a revisionist version of Christ. Catholicism is based on revealed, immutable truths, and JPII has stood in loving, yet uncompromising, orthodoxy of these truths. While the intellectual relativists struggle with the message of objective truth, the youth (as evidenced by the Youth Day photo) are on fire with it. Thank God for JPII.

STEPHEN R. LANE '89
Doylestown, Pennsylvania



EQUAL TIME

Wow, golly, amazing. The editors of Boston College Magazine have acknowledged that intercollegiate sports do exist ("The Big Score," Spring 2001). It took a national championship in ice hockey to do it. For your information, Harvard Magazine regularly contains a section reviewing sports.

DICK TOBIN '52
Florham Park, New Jersey



Re the 2001 Frozen Four victories: Attending both games here in Albany was a dream come true for a local alum. Hey BC, thanks for the memories and thanks for continually making new ones.

PETER G. CRUMMEY '78
Albany, New York



While the men's hockey team deserved all seven pages, with full color photos, that they received, didn't our first NCAA champion in more than 50 years--Shannon Smith '01 on the indoor track at 3,000 meters--deserve more than 60-something words of small type in a margin ("For the Record," Spring 2001)?

MICHAEL MALEC
Department of Sociology



RED ALERT

Maureen Dezell's "Maiden Voyages" (Spring 2001) reminded me of my grandmother, aunts, and mother. It is telling, though, that Elizabeth Gurley Flynn [onetime chair of the U.S. Communist Party] was not mentioned.

EUGENE P. COYLE  PH.D. '69
Vallejo, California



PROMISE KEEPER

Your Winter issue was not the first time that I had heard about Fr. Francis Sweeney's meetings with T. S. Eliot ("Bard Watching"). More than 20 years ago, I spent the summer working for Francis at his Humanities Speakers Series office in McElroy Commons. He kept up a lively correspondence with speakers who had become friends during their visits to the campus. Francis dictated letters to Susan Sontag or Alec Guinness, and I typed them out on the electric typewriter.

I now confess that I spent my downtime reading through old files with titles such as "W. H. Auden" and "Robert Frost."

I also listened to Francis. Once, he offered to tell me a story about Eliot, but only if I swore myself to secrecy, because he hoped to write about it one day. I agreed and he told me about his lunch in New York with Eliot shortly before the poet's death. I particularly remember the part about Eliot's little bow to Francis as he said good-bye for the last time.

I am writing to let Francis know that I kept my promise.

JACK J. CROWE '82
Oak Park, Illinois



RETURNS

I presented "We Gather Together," by Meaghan Mulholland (Spring 2001) to a ninth grade student and asked him to respond. He got rather agitated and annoyed at the fact that thousands of intelligent, wealthy young adults would idly stand by and watch the Can Lady suffer through a demeaning process.

EILEEN TURO '99
Amenia, New York



It is difficult to imagine in this time of wealth for some that others are having to learn the art of survival for their daily bread. I commend Meaghan Mulholland for acknowledging what some will refuse to see. Her vision will help others to have a conscience.

JEANNE DIONNE MSW '98
South Harwich, Massachusetts


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