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Included is a reply to Joseph G. Hill's criticism of his Commonweal article of February 9, 1962, two letters of 1965 in response to the Vietnam War, and one letter (not sent) regarding an article by Daniel Callahan and Church renewal dated March 1, 1967.
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
See also: Cold War Letters #49, published in Witness to Freedom, pp. 39-41.
If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
| # | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| | y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
| 1. |
1962/03/no? (#01) |
transcript from Merton |
I admit that living in a monastery, as I have done for many years now, I am not in an ideal position |
✓ |
[Cold War Letters #49, published in Commonweal 1962/04/20] defends freedom to speak against the threat of nuclear war - reasonable to believe that a preemptive first strike could become US strategy / statements by popes and bishops against such means - "Meditations on a dangerous book, the Bible"
«detailed view» |
| 2. |
1962/03/no? (#02) |
transcript from Hill, Joseph G. |
Father Merton's "Nuclear War and Christian Responsibility" [Feb. 9] leave me with one inescapable |
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[copy of Commonweal 76 (April 20, 1962), pp. 84; and Merton's reply pp. 84-85, same as Item #01 of this date]
«detailed view» |
| 3. |
1965/03/02 |
TAL[x] from Merton |
Reading the excellent article of James Douglass on "The Council and the Bomb" this Shrove Tuesday, |
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[as "Modern War" Commonweal 82: 62-63] questions rationale of bombing campaigns killing an extraordinary amount of civilians which may be political tools rather than tactical necessities - the bombing with conventional weapons of Dresden in the Second World War, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
«detailed view» |
| 4. |
1965/04/no (#01) |
TL[x] from Merton |
I must apologize for aiming another salvo in the direction of your editorial correspondence column, |
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Vietnam War / difference between active resistance to the war in Vietnam and the "pacifism of the weak", as others call it - moral problems with the war - possibility of World War III
«detailed view» |
| 5. |
1965/04/no (#02) |
TAL[x] from Merton |
I must apologize for aiming another salvo in the direction of your editorial correspondence column, |
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Vietnam War / difference between active resistance to the war in Vietnam and the "pacifism of the weak", as others call it - moral problems with the war - possibility of World War III
«detailed view» |
| 6. |
1967/03/01 |
TAL[x] from Merton |
My usual reaction to articles by Daniel Callahan is that I seldom quite know what he is talking |
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[see Section E.1, Manuscript Essays, for the original draft of this letter, which was not sent - regarding Daniel Callahan's article "Renewal Mess" and the predicament of the majority of Catholics, caught between very conservative and very radical Catholics, and who identify with neither]
«detailed view» |
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