Holy Cross Magazine welcomes letters regarding the magazine's content. Letters intended for publication must be signed and may be edited for style, length and clarity. Opinions expressed in the letters section do not necessarily reflect the views of the administration or the editorial staff.

Letters to the Editor

“Flashback”

Seeing my picture standing next to Timothy Leary ’42 in the spring edition of Holy Cross Magazine brought back some memories of Tim. We were classmates; both of us lived on Fenwick, took many classes together and sat next to each other.

He was brilliant but very controversial. In our final exam in Latin, Fr. Hart said the exam would be from one of several passages. Tim went downtown, bought a “wiggle board,” and had a séance in his room. He went around and around and ended up on #6. The exam passage turned out to be #3. Tim had only studied passage #6 and flunked.

He was an enigma. Several times in religion class, he would say to Fr. Hart, “You have ‘scrups’ for scruples.” In 1938, that was pretty daring!

May his soul rest in peace.

Daniel F. O’Keeffe Sr., M.D., ’42
Glens Falls, N.Y.

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I looked in vain for any mention of Timothy Leary’s return to the Faith (spring ’07). I looked in vain equally for some expression of hope that he had returned.

If Will Durant, John Wayne and countless others return to the Faith just prior to death, Timothy Leary could also have been prepared to meet the Maker of all of us.  I don’t know for sure that he didn’t, but I do know it would have been good for Holy Cross alumni to be reminded that there is nothing more important.  

John F. McManus ’57
Wakefield, Mass.

“Road Signs”

While I found the article “Why the Jews?” (winter ’07) rather informative and interesting, I was dismayed to read the author’s politically correct reference to dating on Page 77, to wit: “CE” vs. the more universally used “AD.” Is this another slice off ages of custom/tradition to cater to the ungodly in our society? And, this in a supposedly Catholic college! For shame!

Louis F. Cumming ’60
La Jolla, Calif.

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Thomas Lee ’59 must have extraordinary faith in science. Consider the human eye, its complexity and the fact that it sees, or the brain, or for that matter, an evening sunset. To believe that these miracles happened by accident must take an unquestioning faith in science, particularly when his Catholic faith claims that God, the Father Almighty, is the Creator of heaven and earth.

In his brief article in Holy Cross Magazine (spring ’07), Lee protests again and again regarding the “overwhelming scientific evidence for evolution” and assures us that, although science “has by no means yet discovered all of evolution’s complicated pathways, these are being researched and unraveled at an increasing pace.” Lee gives us not a hint of any of the evidence nor does he suggest any of the research findings. As a matter of fact, the infamous “missing link” has never been found and every time in the past scientific research has announced its discovery, the discovery has turned out to be a sham. As he says, “It is a mistake to deny facts to prove any conclusion.” It would seem then to deny the evidence of intelligence behind creation in order to support an atheistic conclusion is also, to quote Lee again, “bad science and bad theology.”

I see no reason why not to take Genesis literally. It is no more fantastic than the idea that the seasons happen accidentally or that the genius of the human mind is the result of random selection. And, certainly, Brown University biochemist Kenneth Miller’s idea that God presides over evolution and “is one whose genius fashioned a fruitful world in which the process of continuing creation is woven into the fabric of matter itself” is essentially an argument for intelligent design.

The pit is that secular arbiters of educational content today forbid any mention of the possibility of intelligent design in the classroom primarily in order to keep the concept of “God” out of the schools. Bad science and bad theology. 

Daniel J. Gorman ’54
Winter Park, Fla.