| Author Quoted | William Du Bay |
| Title Quoted | Human Church |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1965/02/17 |
| Imprint | [S.l.] : [s.n.]. 1966 |
| Quotation | The book idea sounds fine. I am glad you are writing on war and peace. With the present mess in Vietnam the subject needs treatment, and it is very ambiguous indeed. It seems to me that what needs treatment is something more than nuclear weapons or total warfare, but above all the fact that now Catholic moralists are to a great extent accepting a completely pragmatic and unprincipled moral code in international affairs. There could be no clearer and more obvious example of immoral and aggressive action than the bombing of North Vietnam recently in reprisal for raids carried out by South Vietnamese rebels. The trouble is that the truth of the situation is consistently distorted, and it is to the interest of the Pentagon and the arms manufacturers to see that it is distorted because a bigger war is to their advantage. They are obviously not getting anywhere with the guerrilla kind "¦ "¦ You have to be careful that you don't handle the issue in such a way that it can be easily discredited by right-wing types. From that point of view, you have to be especially careful since they have got you typed. You are already a stereotype of the rebel priest, and that puts any cause you defend at a disadvantage since it will be prejudged every time. I would say be as objective and as straight as you can, and don't be unnecessarily provocative, in the interests of truth and peace "¦ |
| Quotation Source | The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns.; Selected and edited by William H. Shannon. / New York : Farrar Straus Giroux. 1985, p. 168 |
| Letter to | William Du Bay |
| Notes | |
| Link to Merton's Copy |
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