Facts, Fiction and Faith

The refutation by your reviewer Gerald O’Collins, S.J., (12/15) of the mass of misinformation in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is probably useful. But why do we need a distinguished scholar like Father O’Collins to refute a work of fiction? Fiction is just that, fiction. Why do we sense the need to refute Brown’s Code when we don’t take on the facts in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein or L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz or a thousand other imaginative pieces?

When Brown replies on his Web site to questions about how much of his novel is based on fact, he writes, The paintings, locations, historical documents, and organizations described in the novel all exist. Read his answer carefully. Places and articles are real. The book is a novel. Add only that a novel is fiction, which is literally not true.

Brown is an excellent writer despite his lack of basic character development. His Code is a page-turner thriller. For the development of his story, he dredges up every sort of half-truth, supposition and myth from the past 2,000 years.

What about those who may accept Brown’s fiction as truth? Many look for any and every justification for their prejudices or diminished faith. They jump at reports of the priest who fondles young boys, or of a cardinal who dies in the bed of his mistress or the reduction of the female to less than the male. Are any of these acts worse than God’s chosen Apostle who gave that kiss of affection as betrayal? These people may need a reminder that fiction is no more than fiction, no matter how it is written, how it is packaged, how it is hyped. Wishing fiction to be truth does not make it so.

What about the age-old allegations that Christ was in love with a woman or even married? We need to recall that Jesus was both human and divine. We believe that Christ was human like us in all matters except sin. Is it a sin for a man to love a woman, to be married? Surely our faith does not hinge on the celibacy of Christ.

Most of us in this day and age are blessed to have sufficient background and understanding to cope with the multitudinous challenges to our faith. Conspiracies, secret revelations, false doctrines, all pepper church history. But we do not allow them to degrade our gift of faith. Our theology is sacred and secure.

Brown’s novel is not to be missed, but to be enjoyed and accepted for what it is, fiction.

Rex Reynolds

Irresponsible

In the column Food for Terri Schiavo (ethics notebook, 11/24), John F. Kavanaugh, S.J., notes that some assertions made about Terri Schiavo’s actual condition seem to be irresponsible. We believe that some of his assertions are also irresponsible.

Without acknowledging that the Second District Court of Appeal, in Lakeland, Fla., published an opinion containing findings of fact about the Schiavo case, he opineson the basis of conversations with a swallowing expert at the Mayo clinicthat most patients on tube’ or peg’ feedings can, with care, swallow. From that conversation he concludes we should let volunteers spend time feeding Terri Schiavo to help her taste the sweet and cool. Nowhere in this scenario does Kavanaugh note that the court found with clear and convincing evidence that Terri Schiavounlike most patients being tube fedhas for 10 years been in a persistent vegetative state that has robbed her of most of her cerebrum and all but the most instinctive of neurological functions, with no hope of a medical cure.

Lest there be doubt of the extent of destruction to Terri Schiavo’s brain, the court writes, The only debate among the doctors is whether she has a small amount of isolated living tissue in her cerebral cortex or whether she has no living tissue in her cerebral cortex.

More irresponsible than his failure to comment on the Court of Appeal’s findings was Kavanaugh’s attack on the neurologist whom he quoted from a New York Times article as saying, There’s never been a shred of doubt that she is vegetative, and nothing’s going to change that. Kavanaugh advises that the physician might want to rein in his hubris. Kavanaugh also notes that this physician spent a mere 45 minutes examining Terri Schiavo while another physician, [who] after more than 25 hours with her, judged her not to be vegetative. Kavanaugh concluded from this evidence that the first doctor needs not only humility but also further training.

Ronald Cranford, M.D., the first physician, is perhaps the premier expert in the United States on patients in a persistent vegetative state. He is the neurologist who testified as an expert witness in such landmark PVS cases as those of Brophy and Cruzan. He has served on the American Academy of Neurology’s task force on PVS, chaired the Academy’s ethics committee, which set the norms and standards for treatment of patients in that condition, and served as a consultant to the U.S. president’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine. His statement in The New York Times is exactly the same conclusion to which the trial court came after reviewing the detailed medical evidence presented in the case.

Kavanaugh does not identify the physician who purportedly spent 25 hours with Terri Schiavo and pronounced her not vegetative. The Florida Court of Appeal identifies three physicians who so opined. The New York Times article identifies a fourth physician who had provided an affidavit that Terri Schiavo was not in a persistent vegetative condition. Only one of the four is trained in neurology. The Court of Appeal noted that even that physician’s proposed treatment vasodilation therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapyis worthless for patients like Terri Schiavo. In the court’s words, such treatment cannot replace dead tissue.

The trial court, after an extensive review of the medical evidence, concluded that the judgment of those physicians who believed Terri Schiavo was not in a permanent vegetative state was incorrect. That finding, as the Court of Appeal noted, was entered several years ago and has [four times] been affirmed by this court.

An essay entitled Brain Death, Pro-life and Catholic Confusion, co-authored by Dr. Cranford, which was published in America in 1982 (12/4/82), stressed the importance of clarity and precision of terminology with regard to such critically important issues as brain death and persistent vegetative condition. Its conclusion remains an imperative for those who provide ethical analysis or commentary on public policy: [O]ur task...is to be informed on developments in medicine, to consult widely and wisely in this area and to formulate positions that are both prudent and in accordance with [the reality of the human condition].

We believe that John Kavanaugh’s article fails to meet those standards.

John J. Paris, S.J.

False Problems?

Frederick W. Gluck’s article, Crisis Management in the Church (12/1), is flawed by several statements that are not supported by the available data.

The church’s traditional sources of revenues are drying up. Some weeks ago I finished writing a report that analyzed contributions to Sunday collections and diocesan annual appeals in the years 2001 and 2002. I found that Catholic household giving in the Sunday collections increased from $5.573 billion in 2001 to $5.846 billion for 2002, an increase of $273 million or 4.9 percent. This increase happened in the midst of high unemployment, a recession and the painful and lengthy revelation of the sexual abuse tragedy.

Catholic giving to diocesan annual appeals declined from $650 million in 2001 to about $635 million for 2002. About half of that national drop happened in Boston. The decline in the other 175 geographic dioceses averaged a more modest 1.1 percent, not surprising in a troubled economy.

The church’s ability to recruit has declined dramatically over the last 40 years. I happened to be working on church staffing data recently and found that the number of professional parish ministers increased from 54,055 in 1995 to 63,065 for 2002.

In addition, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, at Georgetown University, has reported that there are approximately 35,000 students in graduate programs of religious studies and religious education.

I think that we need to find some negative numbers before we can rightly declare a staffing crisis.

A number of other statements in the article mystified me. Mr. Gluck stated, for example, that the plant is rapidly becoming obsolete. Perhaps so, but I would like to see the data supporting such a statement. I am familiar with the current rebuilding program in Chicago, where the archdiocese raised in excess of $200 million to repair its buildings.

While discussions of management issues in the church can be fascinating, we should be careful that we are discussing solutions for problems that do in fact exist.

Joseph Claude Harris