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Article: An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War that Came Between Us.
- Article from:
- The Washington Monthly
- Article date:
- July 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Washington Monthly Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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James Carroll Houghton Mifflin, $23.95 by Colman McCarthy
Current Catholic teaching--if I have this right--allows members of the flock a number of theological choices on the issue of people killing each other in armed governmental combat. If you believe in the "just war" theory, as did bishops on the German and French side in World War II, fine. If you are selective about favoring wars, fine again. If you are conscientiously against all wars always, in the manner of such Catholic pacifists as Dorothy Day and Daniel Berrigan, no problem here, either. It wasn't for nothing that James Joyce liked to say of the Catholic Church, "Here comes everybody."
The family ...