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Not All Smart Priests Are Jesuits

By Margaret Steinfels
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1999, at 1:06 PM ET

Sorry to hear about Kung-phooey. But I suppose if you are always reorganizing your own religion, it is bound to free you to mess up other people's religions ("chien-lit " as General de Gaulle said to the students in '68).

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And if you will excuse an excess of fact-finding, part of my day job: Not all smart priests are Jesuits. The Reverend J. Bryan Hehir (who wrote Commonweal's "World Watch" column for many years) is a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, which, of course, includes Cambridge (which sounds like a pretty smug little place, except for the Henry David Thoreau memorial sunset last night).

But what's going up this morning in foggy New York? Probably no shuttles to Boston.

In the meantime, the news so far today: The Times is trying, as are we all, to get over la scandale. I would say they are in the post-trauma transference stage. And who is the object of that transference? You guessed it: Hillary (as in her for senator)--there on the front page, just above the fold, "First Lady Gives 'Careful Thought' to Senate Bid"; "Editorial Observer" Gail Collins gauges a Clinton-Giuliani race (including the not-great marriages media watch [have you got a file on that?]); and Maureen Dowd. On the same page, Feiffer is good on "Recovering Republicans." And in "Public Lives" (Section B, do you get it?) reports on prez mouthpieces Kendall and Ruff (back to their day jobs).

It is becoming clearer and clearer: Hillary Clinton would be pilloried if she runs. I have just fully grasped the insidious meaning of Senator Moynihan's remark about Hillary bringing her "Illinois-Arkansas enthusiasm to New York." Deadly. And Giuliani hasn't even started in. I say Andrew Cuomo. I'm sure his father comes along for free! How do we say that in English? Two for the price of one.

Well, off to get my ashes.