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It's time once again for another broadcast of weekly from the Atlantic Monthly with Richard Piet Here now is Mr Piatt this week from The Atlantic Monthly It's America's Catholic bishops by Daniel Callaghan short of the pope himself there's no one who can challenge the Catholic bishop or leadership or power in the American church today and that's the view of the new Callahan a young Catholic journalist teacher and critic who examines that extraordinary influence and questions its pertinence to the humanistic concerns and convictions of a younger generation of priests and lay Catholics Mr Callahan is associate editor of Common Wheel and the author or editor of seven books including The New Church recently published by Scribner's and now his article entitled America's Catholic bishops the ecclesiastical condition of America is still in its infancy the will of the Bishop is the only law when a German American Benedictine monk wrote these words to live Vic the first of Bavaria in eight hundred fifty two he had good reason for his judgment within a few short decades after the founding of the American Catholic hierarchy in seventeen eighty nine the control of the bishops was complete they had quailed lay revolts brought their priests to heel and fixed the character of American Catholicism for many years to come speaking of his immigrant flock in the middle of the nineteenth century Archbishop John Hughes of New York put the matter bluntly I had to need them up in one Dode to be leavened by the spirit of Catholic faith in Catholic union. Needed they were and one though they became not until the Second Vatican Council did a new East begin to take hold by that time the immigrants were long dead and their children's children were beginning to resist the firm fingers of their spiritual bakers some in fact now want to change the whole recipe it's not a Catholic masses who require kneading but the bishops themselves Ironically it was the council which broke the unquestioned grip of the American bishops they went to Rome in one thousand nine hundred sixty two as comparatively Obs cure figures on the stage of world Catholicism they were known to come from the richest Catholic Church in the world and if you like Cardinal Spellman of New York and Cardinal MacIntyre of Los Angeles had an international reputation for financial genius beyond that no one knew much about the American bishops especially where they stood on such crucial issues as religious liberty ecumenism and the place of scripture in the church by the end of the Council in one thousand nine hundred sixty five however they had as a body made their mark in one critical vote after another they came down overwhelmingly on the side of the progressive majority that outcome proved they're capable of moving with the liberal tide in the eyes of those Catholics eager for change in the church that was their glory they showed they could move. This is no small matter in the American church today within his own diocese a bishop is close to being a sovereign lord he bears ultimate responsibility for the teaching of church doctrine the allocation of funds the construction of buildings in churches the assignment of clerical personnel and the spiritual well being of his people short of the pope himself there is no one who can challenge him for leadership or power the extent of this power can be gathered from a few elementary statistics that two hundred sixty American bishops control an empire of nearly fourteen thousand schools six hundred seminaries eighteen thousand parishes nine hundred fifty hospitals and two hundred sixty orphanages serving them are close to thirty six thousand diocesan priests twenty three thousand priest members of religious orders twelve thousand brothers one hundred eighty thousand nuns and thousands of lay employees no one has been able to determine the financial assets of the American church a closely guarded secret but a minimum reasonable estimate would exceed the ten billion dollar mark a major shift in the political or social stance of a bishop can have enormous church and community impact a decision by the bishops to close the parochial elementary schools and concentrate on secondary schools for instance would immediately have a profound effect on the public school system a decision already taken by many bishops to insert nondiscrimination clauses into diocesan building contracts can exert significant leverage on a local construction industry. A decision to allow nuns to expand their activities beyond education to say poverty work a move being pressed by many religious orders could make a great difference in civic poverty programs in short quite apart from any moral or spiritual influence the hard fact that the bishop controlled so much material wealth and so many priests brothers and nuns means that even the slightest hint thing of priorities and viewpoint will send shock waves through both church and community it's hardly surprising in this light that the evidence of new directions and hierarchical thinking which emerged during the council should have elicited such extraordinary interest especially among Catholics themselves but if the bishops showed they could move they also showed that they move much like the rest of mankind by first looking cautiously about to see where the rest of the herd is going and that was their own doing the price they paid for their moment of fame at the Council was the destruction of a deeply ingrained myth that the Catholic bishop is a wise Nippert and resplendent figure inevitably learned courageous and visionary not quite as a result of the intense public exposure they received the bishop came out of the council cut down to ordinary size they would henceforth be judged by a relentless kind of human logic since they voted progressively at the council they would be expected to act progressively once they got back home to their great distress and they discovered they would be openly criticized when they failed to put up or shut up is the suitably descriptive phrase here and that is of course an American not a Roman phrase. Since the council the bishops have not or shut up not quite put up this might have been expected the sheer size of the church hinders rapid change fruitful discussion and meaningful experimentation the bishops must cope with many priests who resist change who themselves have a vested interest in the old ways with religious orders as traditions and constitutions rule out rapid adaptations with countless lay people easily shocked by a sudden departure from the kind of polity and piety they grew up with as other administrators discovered long ago power in itself is not sufficient to bring about quick change entrenched institutions and bureaucracies within the church as much as outside have their own forms of passive resistance often fully as effective as outright revolt then to the bureaucracy of the church is by no means always an efficient bureaucracy few priests administrators are given specialized administrative education most remain only talented amateurs at best then a bishop has at his disposal very crude instruments of change Pope John twenty third reported remark about life in the Vatican I'm in a bag here could well be said by many bishops of their own diocese at the same time many bishops who might accept the idea of reform begin to balk when they see some of its implications unfold under their noses. They would have trouble enough if they had a single minded zeal to change policies and practices but few shows such as a year or more often their ambivalent hesitant and quick to panic especially when they feel their authority is being threatened even during the last triumphal years of the council some telltale cools with there for all to see in one thousand nine hundred sixty four and five for instance the Bishop of mobile Birmingham Thomas J. Toulon for bad priests and nuns to take part in the march on Selma they marched anyway Cardinal James McIntyre of Los Angeles silenced three of his priests for speaking on race problems from the pulpit Father Daniel Berrigan was ousted from New York by a judge who would disappear is for his public opposition to the Vietnamese war as rumor had it because of the displeasure of some members of the New York hierarchy Bishop Edward J. McGinn of Albany stepped on Father Bonaventure O'Brian a Franciscan from Sienna College for complaining too loudly about Negro slums in Albany Bishop Byrne R.J. toe Pell dressed down a group of Catholic journalists in one thousand nine hundred sixty five calling the previous year a year of shame the shame was that some Catholic newspapers had dared to criticize the bishops. The prize instance of repressive silliness came shortly after the close of the council after receiving obscure complaints from obscure persons Archbishop Carl J. over of Cincinnati ordered a local convent of nuns the Glen Mary sisters to get to bed by ten pm to have their reading matter approved in advance and to seize inviting lay people to eat with them yet in the aftermath of the council one diocese after another has slowly set about establishing clerical Senates to give priests a greater voice in diocesan affairs laymen have been added to school boards lay clerical commissions have been established to foster better relationships with Protestants and Jews if some bishops have silenced their priests for speaking out on social issues others have defended the right of their priests to do so. Four figures in particular symbolize the American bishops ambivalence Cardinal Joseph Ritter of St Louis Archbishop John P. Cody of Chicago Archbishop Philip in Hannan of New Orleans and Cardinal Francis Spelman of New York during the council cardinal written by his vigorous speeches and interventions almost became the darling of American Progressive's even before the last session ended he had set in motion ambitious widely praised plans for a strong follow up in his own archdiocese yet within the past eight months he has disciplined three of his priests each identified with liberal causes in St Louis in Chicago Archbishop Cody has won favor for retiring elderly in effect of pastors disfavor for his or for Terri in administrative manner retiring some of the pastors without prior notice or discussion praise for allowing his priests to form a consultative organization and blame for is ambiguous handling of the Chicago racial tensions as archbishop of New Orleans for them Hannan has gained the respect of local integration asked for his offer to help the public school system in the face of a growing segregationist private school system the same man horrified many during the council by his energetic efforts to induce the assembled fathers to endorse defensive nuclear warfare the Cardinal Spellman who was a major obstacle to the nationalistic Lee anti Jewish bishops of the Middle East during the Council debate on the Jews is the same Cardinal Spellman who has said concerning the Vietnamese War My country right or wrong. At first glance it's difficult to see a pattern here as a body the American hierarchy does not lend itself to easy labeling as liberal or conservative reactionary or progressive nor for that matter it is much easier to apply labels to most of the bishops individually only a handful have established any kind of public reputation for anything either within or without the Catholic Church Cardinal Spellman has made a name for himself over the years by his many public controversies his violent opposition to federal school bills which did not include parochial school aid and by his well publicized visits to American servicemen abroad Bishop Fulton Jaish e nd florid style gained him a large following as a popular writer and T.V. personality Cardinal Cushing of Boston has a name as an engaging sometimes baffling person. He's a lifetime member of the and double a C.P. active in Protestant Catholic discussions a close friend of the Kennedy families and he's also the cardinal who once warmly commended the founder of the John Birch Society when he later attacked the society and later still retracted his attack he only confirm the guess of many they act more on impulse than on coherent policy beyond the views of Liberty's like this it's doubtful that most non Catholics know much about the American bishops and probably a few Catholics who know more though the bishops are the unchallenged spiritual leaders of some forty six million Roman Catholics they turned out to be astonishingly in conspicuous as personalities to their own people than other special heroes nor notable villains neither inspiring leaders nor feared tyrants when they speak which is rarely it is usually in the language of undistinguished goodwill and fervent aspirations the late Archbishop Rummel of New Orleans was cursed by Catholic segregationist when he began integrating the Catholic schools during the mid fifty's more recently Archbishop Cody was vilified by some of his anti integration flock in suburban Chicago when Fulton Jaish e new was installed as Bishop of Rochester New York late in one thousand nine hundred sixty six he was met at the airport by nearly a thousand enthusiastic fans emotional displays of this kind at a pro or con are exceedingly rare on occasion of course the American bishops issued general statement sometimes in strong language. In November of one thousand nine hundred sixty six for instance they sharply denounced the increasing federal participation in birth control programs their statement occasioned bitter protest among many nun Catholics and a heated denial by a number of federal agencies of the bishop's charge that these programs are or would be coercive yet hardly anyone seemed to notice the limp response among American Catholics to the words of their supposed religious guides a few Catholics were outraged at the Bishop statement pointing out the total lack of evidence to back up their charge of coercion but most simply failed to respond in any way at all the bishops might as well have been talking to themselves possibly the only area in which they received enthusiastic support it in their dedication to the parochial school system this also happens though to be one of the few causes which they support with a full fledged publicity drive and systematic organisational work the same could hardly be said of their work for peace or the eradication of poverty to judge by the obsequious attention lavished upon bishops during Catholic ceremonial occasions the eager attempts to shake their hands or to kiss their rings or by the frequency with which their pictures appear in that I R C A newspaper's one might easily be led to imagine them as charismatic figures among their people it doesn't happen to work out that way the bishop theological in symbolic role as was dominant shepherd is not matched by their actual power to shape opinion or command a special loyalty on issues going beyond the narrowest matters of church law and ritual the hierarchy has shouted against federal and state birth control programs public opinion surveys show that nearly sixty percent of American Catholics favor such programs none of the strong appears couple statements favoring racial. Cities have managed to make the slightest dent in the adamantly white ethnic Catholic neighborhoods of Cicero Illinois they have called the run of a great must be said for peace in Vietnam but recent polls show more support for administration policy among Catholics than among any other religious groups the curious thing is that the bishops don't really seem to care they appear remarkably content to remain quiet the nine figureheads among those they're supposed to guide and inspire saving their major energies for administrative work well away from the public eye only a handful of Catholics could say where their own bishop stood on most issues they could probably guess he was against sin and in favor of goodness but how do they feel about this housing bill or that school integration bussing scheme or about napalming villages in South Vietnam or about what percentage of the American tax dollars should go to foreign aid now there's hardly a diocese in the country where one could come up with answers to such practical immediate important questions as these many Catholics would counted progress of their bishops took even the most outlandish positions on specific is used it would at least indicate signs of life the few bishops who do speak to concrete issues on occasion Archbishop Lou say in San Antonio supporting efforts to unionize migrant workers Archbishop McGuckin in San Francisco calling on Governor Brown in the last days of his term to commute death sentences a bishop Museo in Steubenville Ohio protesting against right to work laws are often lionized out of all proportion to the significance of their standard but when the normal course is to do nothing even the smallest action becomes news. It has not always been this way the first Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore saw immediately that the church in America would have to be different toward the end of the eighteenth century he wrote that the church as an institution in law in Europe had to become in the new nation merely another private corporation in a sense the whole history of the church in the United States has been the gracious accepting of that change a constant adaptation to that life in a new and secular environment unquote he did his part in making that adaptation possible giving unusual freedom to both laity and clergy in order that the internal life of the church could so far as possible reflect the American democratic temper others like Bishop England in Charleston Sheva recent Boston Hughes New York Ireland intern Pauline givens in Baltimore brought some degree of distinction to the church during the one nine hundred century the great century of immigrant growth yet outstanding bishops like these have been few and far between the system for appointing bishops is designed to ensure that only the safest possible priests have a chance to win the favor of Rome which makes all the choices. Through an elaborate secreted system of biennial recommendations the names of potential bishops are forwarded to the papacy by those currently holding of the present system laid down by Roman one thousand nine hundred sixteen specifies the type of priest most suitable for recommendation the candidates should be mature but not too old of good judgment tried in actual service of learning sound and above the ordinary devoted to the Holy See especially noted for rectitude and piety besides attention should be paid to the candidates executive ability financial condition character and state of health in a word the question is whether he has all the qualities which are required in an excellent pastor so that he may rule the people of God with success in edification. This is a perfect formula for what the bishops have by and large been solid respectable pious citizens accomplished administrators good with figures sound enough of mind in them to withstand the rigors of an endless round of ceremonial occasions and bureaucratic routine they live a long life the average age is sixty two the fact that all recommendations are channeled to Rome through the Apostolate delegate in Washington at present a reactionary edgy Geo than Yahtzee hardly helped matters his influence is thought to be heavily responsible for the conservative caste of those bishops appointed in recent years inevitably such a system ensures that few mavericks will slip through the tight meshed ecclesiastical net it's almost inconceivable that a priest who made a public name for himself as a picketer as an imaginative innovator as an opponent of corrupt politics as a known advocate of controversy old church or public policies would pass muster the bishops might well support such a priest and all these things they just wouldn't recommend him to Rome to be one of them not surprisingly those elevated to the of his capacity are often unknown at the outset to the great mass of Catholics they are as a rule drawn from deep within the administrative structure many in fact having spent much of their priestly lives doing office rather than pastoral work one needs a little insight into the sociology of large institutions to guess the net result those finally appointed as bishops are likely to be highly congenial to those already in office domesticated to traditional priorities and routines and out of touch with grassroots opinion especially lay opinion the rarity with which the bishops dispute each other publicly is a tribute to the homogenizing effectiveness of the recommendation and appointment procedure. Though the American people are divided on the Vietnamese war not one bishop has opposed it not one has appeared on a picket line not one has ever been accused of heresy or even more vaguely of being a radical whether of the right or left whether politically or theologically if you like bishops right in Pittsburgh primal in Manchester New Hampshire bustle in Pueblo Colorado Helm's wing in Kansas City Missouri and Cardinal Ritter in St Louis have come close on occasion to establishing themselves as heroes among the progressives but not one has ever quite made it primarily because of a sporadic and inconsistent record on the right Cardinals McIntyre and Spellman have come as close as an aide to heroic stature is reactionaries but of late even they have made some progressive gestures just enough to disappoint their followers and confuse some of their liberal opponents. The composite picture which emerges here is actually a familiar one it's a portrait of the managerial class in American business with ecclesiastical overtones those who reach the top do so because they have proved their loyalty their ability to stay in security within the bounds of the prevailing institutional wisdom and their adeptness it's a mounting one after another hurdle in the competitive apprentice system just as it is rare for an American company president to have an academic history the same is equally true in the hierarchy and it is just unimaginable that an American bishop would have a background in radical politics or social reform as it is for a president of General Motors with few exceptions the present bishops were trained exclusively in Catholic schools spent most of their working life exclusively in Catholic bureaucracies and find their close friends in predominantly ecclesiastical circles their consummate models of the successful American Organization Man bred by and for the hierarchical apparatus the first Bishop John Carroll was elected by his priests another early Bishop John England of Charleston a stablished a consultative Senate representative priests and laity bearing in mind the American businesses stablish meant try to guess what became of these Democratic innovations correct they died and almost overnight imagine what the response of the bishops was in the early days of the American church when the laity claim the right to have a say in a crazy assed ical policies and finances. Right again they set about stamping out such presumptuous demands more recently the slowness with which the American bishops have taken up the Council's demand for a greater lay voice in the church and the unwillingness of the bishops to consider open elections to choose their successors can best be compared with the perennial reaction in the American business community toward proposals that workers have a share in the rights and responsibilities of management in a word no and Eiseley put flattering No To be sure accompanied by token gestures of concern and respect but no Catholic in his right mind could fail to see where the power lies and where it will with only the smallest modifications continue to live a thousand gestures toward sharing have not added up to one important act of doing so to paraphrase Lord Acton all power perpetuates itself and absolute power perpetuates itself absolutely perhaps many of those who are not Catholics would prefer to think of the bishops in terms of the original form of act and phrase absolute power corrupts absolutely they may also wonder why there are not more movement afoot to throw the rascals out the answer is obvious enough they are not rascals they are mild men soft spoken full of goodwill conciliatory in their impulses their very lack of flamboyant personality their resolutely middle of the road piety and policy and they're in conspicuousness all tend to deflate even their sharpest critics. Beyond that the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of Roman Catholics retained a consistently good image of the bishops It's an image for stood by most of the Catholic press by priests and teaching nuns most of whom would never dare utter a public word of reproach or complaint and by a Catholic theology which presents the bishop as a semi deity Moreover most American Catholics are American enough to have an excess of admiration for managerial accomplishments the bishops have run a spectacular a successful church one able to raise prodigious amounts of money to build thousands of churches and schools to command an organization of fifty nine thousand priests and one hundred eighty thousand numbers and to bring their people from immigrant poverty to full political and social assimilation. The Bishop hardly did all of these things alone but they got much of the credit for it if something went wrong within the church it was rarely the bishops who were blamed when a former president of Fordham University wrote a biography of Cardinal Spellman a few years ago he made unmistakably clear that the cardinal had made it to the top because he had been shrewd in cultivating the patronage of popes skilled in making the right connections in Rome and adept in the cultivation of influential friends it was a portrait of unadorned likely the ethical ambition a classical American Catholic success story did the Catholics consider this kind of biographical treatment unflattering not at all the book was a bestseller and the cardinal more praise than ever how did the cardinal himself feel about the book signing it was after all an authorized official biography written by a close friend. That an inspiring group of bishops could elicit mild ethics and it's not really odd the very little different from other Catholics the charge frequently heard among Catholic intellectuals these days that the bishops are out of touch with their own people is only partially true they are indeed badly out of touch with intellectuals with young priests and laymen and with most of the theologians but they are constantly attuned to the great middle range of American Catholics those whose main interested in getting ahead and joining the fruits of affluence and living conventionally Catholic religious lives most bishops give these Catholics exactly what they want they reassure them that the council did not destroy that old time Catholicism of the Rosary innovators and Elgin says though it may have they exalt them about civil rights and the need for world peace just enough to bring to bear a gentle pressure but not enough to hit any middle class Catholic in the pocketbook or shake his patriotism. Above all they present an image of the church which exudes stability and wisdom in the face of a nation ravaged by L.S.D. pornography teenage sex parties crime in the streets and secularist materialism when a bishop departs from this crypt the Outrage of the people can be incredibly nasty if the American bishops have any genius than it lies in their ability to keep the overwhelming majority of Catholics happy they don't push their people beyond their most minimal moral civic and religious capacities and the people who thanked them with money and affectionate indifference were not for the intellectuals and activists an American bishop could live a fairly pleasant life these days but the latter are demanding of the bishops a far higher standard of outspoken leadership sensitivity to cultural and technological change intellectual and moral guts than the bishops seem able by temperament and training to reach or even aspire to this pressure is being applied in a way the bishops find particularly bothersome by public criticism and exposure and that really this kind of prodding irritates the bishops very few of whom have taken the trouble to attempt even talking at any length to those they consider some verses of legitimate authority and naturally to when the bishop respond with suspicion and hostility the charges against them are all the more strident play and sometimes unfairly delivered the few bishops who do take the trouble to talk with the more agitated reformers find that it doesn't take much to calm their intellectual critics just a modest show of interest and receptivity makes an immense difference Archbishop John F. Dearden of Detroit is unusually popular among Catholic intellectuals. This is not because he's been particularly dramatic in reforming his ism self an intellectual there's no special evidence to indicate it is a great virtue is that he shown he will talk to everyone and listen to them even if he doesn't do everything asked of him as one of the first bishops to bring together groups of priests laymen and nuns for extended open discussions he set a standard which few others have approached that this is not the general rule among the bishops is unfortunate for everyone concerned the bishops as much as the people yet so long as the majority of Catholics don't crave any dramatic reforms or bishops different from what they are used to the intellectuals and activists can probably be safely ignored in a daily round of church management since so many of the sharpest critics are laymen without money or a large popular following the margin of safety for the bishops is all the greater. They cannot so easily ignore the rising complaints of their own priests nor can they long remain unresponsive to recent figures showing a significant decline in the number of candidates for the priesthood the two trends are not unrelated one result of the council was to bring into the open the discontent of many priests with the law of celibacy with their almost total lack of rights and relationship with their bishop with the way their talents and desires are given short shrift in diocesan job assignments and with their subservience to pastors who are too often elderly paternalistic into radical more than a few priests have now begun to notice how limited their personal freedom is and to complain about it how could they have failed to notice this before they had received the type of seminary training designed to make them overlook such things and for that matter to make them bless their lack of rights as an incomparable way to holiness the council made them see otherwise and the harsh treatment received by priests like Father William to bear in Los Angeles and Father Daniel Berrigan in New York served only to dramatize their many grievances a survey made in one thousand nine hundred sixty six by an eminent jazz with sociologist father Joseph Victor revealed some pertinent data sixty two percent of American curage believe that I asked Ian priests should have freedom of choice between marriage and celibacy ninety percent want grievance committees to which they can bring complaints over fifty percent feel there is little or no communication between them and their bishops and some sixty percent judge that the bishop shows little personal interest in them thirty one percent would probably marry if permitted to do so and while ninety four percent favored a diocesan Senate of priest only twenty eight percent reported the existence of one in their diocese. It would be a mistake to see in these figures any evidence that there will be a mass defection from the priesthood but it is the kind of evidence which as it becomes more generally known effectively drives away a great number of potential priests leads many seminarians to quit before ordination and leaves many of those already priests a good deal less than enthusiastic about their work and role some bishops immediately complained about Father ficta survey calling it misleading and those surveyed unrepresentative few priests challenge his data I once spent an evening talking with a group of priests about the question of celibacy almost all expressed their unhappiness with the rigidity of the law the next day I met their bishop and mentioned my conversation with them he refused to believe I had heard any such talk and in that gentle kindly way bishops have delicately suggested that laymen like myself should stop stirring up trouble. Not long from now though he may believe it when he discovers one day he can't fill parish vacancies does not have enough manpower to cover educational social or military chaplains is and finds on his desk a pile of requests from his priests asking that they be allowed to return to the lay state if he is truly a child of the system which made him a bishop he will doubtless be tempted to explain away the fact before his eyes as symptomatic of wilderness creeping into the church as a sign of the corruption wrought by an unwise zeal for reform as the final pernicious result of meddlesome laymen and disloyal priests venting their hostility toward of polity he well might in other words interpret his troubles only as a sign of the essential wisdom of his intransigence and see his own God given duty as that of holding on to the good in the true in the face of the Anti Christ the attraction of the Stans with its flavor of holy martyrdom should not be underestimated. It was a favorite among the conservative minority at the Council as one vote after another went against them it could well spread among the American bishops as their difficulties melt. On the other hand the bishops may decide the time has come to look listen and change that they have gingerly but in so many ways taken some important steps toward change has to be underscored the election in November of a liberal Archbishop Dearden as president of the American Bishops Conference itself a major move in the direction of greater appears couple unity and organization was one of the steps the man he defeated Archbishop John J. Croll of Philadelphia had been until that time one of the rising young conservative stars the spreading establishment of priest inlay Senate permissiveness told seminary reform and growing ecumenical contacts are still other positive steps Bishop Fulton Jaish e never known as a liberal during his many years as executor of Bishop of New York has astonished everyone by the boldness of his moves as the new Bishop of Rochester surprises are still possible if the bishops are not yet fully alive neither are they quite dead they know the pressure is now on them and that it is growing no man in a position of authority easily gives up those habits of company loyalty defensiveness and isolation which got him the authority in the first place but that is precisely what the bishops are being called upon to outgrow no doubt many see this demand as posing a terrible dilemma yet it is hardly any more terrible than that felt by their critics Well how does one tell sincere hardworking well motivated men they may be wrong that they must run risks that gradual progress is not fast enough it still remains extraordinarily difficult to say these things charitably and productively in the American Catholic Church. But they are being said sometimes inaudible whispers sometimes an outraged screams how the bishops finally decide to respond in the months to come will more than anything else determine the future of the church in America at the moment the issue is in doubt America's Catholic bishops by Daniel Callahan. Selection this week from The Atlantic Monthly and if you'd like a copy of this article simply write a card to me or a letter pair of weekly from the Atlantic Monthly Richard Pyatt and as always thank you for your comments and your remarks. Thank you Mr Piatt that concludes today's broadcast weekly from the Atlantic Monthly with Richard Piet join us again next Friday at eleven am or eleven pm for another of these programs now in the time remaining before the news at eleven fifty five we listen to a portion of the valleys the Four Seasons as Leonard Bernstein conducts the members of the New York Philharmonic featuring violinist John. N A. O N A. O L. O L. U. U F O X. O X. O X. O X. O X. 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