The Bishops and the Bomb; Waging Peace in a Nuclear Age

Garden City, NY: Image Books [A Division of Doubleday & Company, Inc.], 1983. First Edition [stated]. Presumed first edition. Trade paperback. 283, [5] pages. Cover has some wear and soiling. Footnotes. Notes. Foreword by Theodore Hesburgh. Complete Test of Bishop's Pastoral Letter, The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response. Pencil erasure residue on fep. Castelli, a leading journalist, provides an unparalleled and closeup view of the lengthy debate, discussion, and dialogue that led to the issuance of the Pastoral Letter. The author was privy to the records and meetings of the committee chaired by Cardinal Berdardin. The author offers a rare insight into the nature of the American Catholic hierarchy dealing with internal dissent and pressure from external sources. Jim Castelli, author of The Bishops and the Bomb, says, "Bishops very often take positions that agree with the majority of American Catholics." In this instance, it is obvious that the pastoral was widely accepted because it represented American Catholic thinking well before it was issued. Castelli, who is coauthor with George Gallup, Jr. of The American Catholic People: Their Beliefs, Practices and Values and with Msgr. Joseph Gremillion of The Emerging Parish: The Notre Dame Study of Catholic Life Since Vatican II, points out that only one in three Catholics had even heard of the peace pastoral by 1987 but that this statistic, taken in isolation, is misleading. "The Notre Dame survey was conducted in 1983," Castelli says. "During that time there was a peak of publicity about the pastoral, which took a strong stand in favor of arms control and reduction and supported the concept of a bilateral U.S.-Soviet freeze. Gallup surveys have consistently found Catholics more supportive of the freeze than any other religious group in this country. Between 1982 and 1984, Catholic support fluctuated between 70 and 84 percent. But the Notre Dame study found that an incredible 92 percent of Catholics supported a bilateral freeze. The pastoral study dearly influenced that difference." When the pastoral appeared, the White House selected a Catholic writer to prepare a polite rebuttal. The major newspapers gave the bishops' document ample coverage but carried opinion columns authored by their equal-time conservative writers, some of whom are Catholics. The effect was to suggest that there were a lot of hawkish Catholic ethnics out there. Condition: Good.

Keywords: Nuclear Weapons, Atomic Bomb, Nuclear War, Peace, Catholics, Bishops, Pastoral Letter, Theodore Hesburgh, Morality, Just War, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Spiritual Guidance

ISBN: 0385187602

[Book #73817]

Price: $25.00

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