Connections

Jane Whitehead’s article “Charitable Intent” (Spring 2007) about Ken Hackett ’68, president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), was wonderful. On a BC alumni trip to El Salvador this past January, I met two other inspiring alumni, Dean Brackley, SJ, ’70 and Rick Jones ’86. The assassination in 1989 of six Jesuits and staff at the University of Central America (UCA) motivated both to go to El Salvador during the undeclared civil war. Fr. Brackley joined the UCA faculty and has assisted in carrying on the efforts of those Jesuits. Rick Jones served the poor through Catholic Relief Services; today he is the CRS director in El Salvador.

Please keep spotlighting our alumni who take up the work of social justice.

Liz Cremens JD ’74
Medford, Massachusetts

After the Asian tsunami in 2004, I was looking to donate to a charitable organization. As a Catholic, I naturally chose the CRS. When I found out that the president is a fellow BC alum, I was even more motivated.

Seong-Hoon Chung ’95
Boston, Massachusetts

The profile of Ken Hackett leads off with a discussion between Hackett and Catholic Relief’s director of staff safety and security, Lara Puglielli. I thought you might like to know that she is the daughter of Vincent G. Puglielli ’64.

Leanne Puglielli
Madison, Wisconsin

Worth knowing

Re “Know It All,” by Larry Wolff (Spring 2007): Giordano Bruno, the 16th-century astronomer, found himself in the hands of the Roman Inquisition not so much for “the ambition to know everything,” as Professor Wolff writes, as for the negative evaluation of one student, Zuane Mocenigo, the spoiled scion of a Venetian doge family. Mocenigo denounced Bruno with the words, “I invited you to teach me, and you have not.” (It is probable, though he never mentioned it to the Inquisition, that what Mocenigo wanted to learn from Bruno was magic.) According to evidence in the Vatican libraries, the Inquisition was ready to release Bruno “into the streets of Rome.” But a second letter of denunciation came from that former student, accusing Bruno of creating an unflattering depiction of the pope. The picture in question, in Cantus Circaeus, a lovely little volume, probably was not the insult Mocenigo claimed, but it was enough to keep Bruno in prison.

Alan Powers P’95
Fall River, Massachusetts

Counterpoint

Re “The Activist,” by Harold Hongju Koh (Spring 2007): As a Jesuit, Robert Drinan took an oath to support the pope, did he not? Yet he is reported to have worked with the Kennedys at their Cape Cod compound as they plotted strategy to subvert the dignity of human life from conception onward.

Ed Leslie ’55
Farmington, Michigan

Naming rights

What is the explanation for the term Linden Lane, which regularly appears in the magazine?

Bob McAndrew P’98
Scranton, Pennsylvania

Editor’s note: Linden Lane is the campus road that starts at the main gate on Commonwealth Avenue. Forty-three linden trees provide it shade and inspire the name.

Streams of conscience

Re “On Authority,” by James Carroll (Spring 2007): In a paper delivered shortly after Vatican II at Bellarmine School of Theology, John Courtney Murray, SJ, made it clear that the religious liberty proclaimed in the Council’s declaration on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae (of which he was the principal architect), was not based on freedom of conscience. Murray referred to the first schema (draft) as “a declaration of a theory of freedom of conscience” that “encountered an unresolved dispute” within the Council. While it was agreed that no one should be forced to act against conscience, there was disagreement that mere sincerity of conscience could oblige others to acknowledge complete freedom to act in accord with that conscience.

The second schema continued to maintain that men of sincere but erroneous conscience had a right to religious freedom. This also was rejected. Accordingly, the third and final schema took up the issue of religious freedom as a juridical concept—absence of coercion—recognizing that religious freedom is based on the dignity of the human person.

The declaration was unambiguous: “[Religious freedom] leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ.”

Raymond W. Belair ’70
New York, New York

Pius IX and Leo XIII cannot be blamed if they rejected pluralism because they felt it would promote confusion and misinterpretation among their flock (woefully evident in the years since Vatican II). Maybe it’s not so important to worry about non-Catholics as it is to worry about how we Catholics follow our own principles. Maybe those popes felt that only God could determine whether non-Catholics could enter heaven.

Matteo J. LoPreiato, MD, ’83
New Britain, Connecticut

I cannot help but feel that we as the American Church are trying to justify our loose discipline and devotion—and that the Church is being pushed into decline. Witness the diminishing number of vocations and the lackadaisical obedience to Catholic doctrine and directives, notably regarding contraception, premarital sex, abortion, and Mass attendance.

The world is indeed changing. Is not the Church above that?

Vito F. Tamboli ’56
St. Louis, Missouri

Lesson plans

I very much enjoyed the article on John McWilliams (”Better Late,” Spring 2007). I expect that it will stir alumni to consider new possibilities for lifelong education.

Timothy M. Sullivan ’00
Brookline, Massachusetts

Murphy’s gift

I met Fr. Francis Murphy (Letters, Spring 2007) in 1981. While visiting one of my roommates, he learned that I had recently lost my mother. After spending 20 minutes with him, I felt more comforted than at any other time in my grieving process. He was the most humble, selfless man I have ever met. He had friends everywhere.

Charles Hayes ’83
Fair Haven, New Jersey

Youngren’s class

It was a very sad surprise when I read of William Youngren’s passing, but I was soon comforted and laughing aloud at Ben Birnbaum’s description of him (”Crooked Timber,” Winter 2007). I took Youngren’s Wagner class as a senior. He seemed to get as much out of what his students had to say as he did out of lecturing on what he already knew—and his knowledge of the life and times of Richard Wagner was vast. This inspired many of us to do more reading and research than we normally would have—which for me is saying something, since all I wanted to do was practice my horn. I still have the papers I wrote for that class, because his comments were so extensive and thoughtful.

OK, maybe I’m a nerd for saving my papers, but you get my point—I loved that class.

Shelagh Abate ’97
New York, New York

The writer is principal French horn with the Vermont Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, and CityMusic Cleveland.

Classic Duhamel

Paul Doherty’s essay about P. Albert Duhamel (”Straight Arrow,” Winter 2007) was interesting and respectful but made him sound to me like a crotchety old man. My memories are of a French Canadian with a twinkle in his eye. There was the spring, for instance, when Dr. Dumanel advised us that Romeo and Juliet might not be good Lenten reading but did resonate with the passions of the season.

Our group of grad students would often run into Dr. Duhamel in the stacks at Bapst Library. We generated an urban myth that he spent his spare time writing his name on the call slips pasted into the books. He had beaten us to every volume there, it seemed.

Julie Sheehan Krejsa ’58
San Luis Obispo, California

Corrections and updates: In the Spring issue, the tuition figure of $35,150 given on page 4 was for 2007–08, not 2008–09. Also, the caption on page 27 of that issue misidentified the gentleman to the left of Ken Hackett in the top photo. He is Scott Campbell, Catholic Relief Service’s director in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. And because the last issue went to press before the women’s and coed dinghy sailing championships took place (“Strong to the Finish”), let it be known that Boston College’s coed team placed fifth in the nation at the regatta held in Annapolis, Maryland, and the women’s team placed seventh in their event, at Norfolk, Virginia.

BCM welcomes letters from readers. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and must be signed to be published. Our fax number is (617) 552–2441; our e-mail address is bcm@bc.edu.