From Paul J. Morgan re the need for Catholics to return to Sunday Mass.

Tom Schuck's excellent letter regarding the ambivalence of various Catholic Bishops' Conferences (bureaucracies) when it comes to speaking out at election time on the really critical issues, abortion, sodomy, euthanasia, pornography, easy divorce, etc., etc., prompted me to write this letter. Like so many Catholic, pro-life, orthodox faithful, I have been constantly disappointed, even disillusioned, by the refusal of so many of our Episcopal leaders (?) to unequivocally proclaim the truth about these matters. Could it really be that they fear the threat of taxation of church properties and institutions? I realize this threat, if such is the case, represents a powerful stick with which to beat the Church. But are millions of pre-born lives the price they are willing to pay for immunity from such a threat? Surely no bishops worth their salt would capitulate to such duplicity. Would they? Yet, this appears to be the case in far too many instances. Not a word, with a few exceptions, is heard at election time, and hardly any other time, on the most blasphemous of all evils--the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of thousands of babies each and every year. God's creations, not man's.

As I see it, and the reason for penning these words, the bishops have painted themselves into a corner by their silence over the past 35 years. Now they dare not stand up for their beliefs, since permissive sexual activity and its deadly handmaiden, abortion, have decimated their (the bishops') constituency--the faithful at Mass on Sunday. In Canada and the United States, millions of Catholics have stopped 'practising' their faith. They don't go to Mass; so the bishop through his priests cannot 'teach' these millions. There's the problem.

Now, a solution. Starting yesterday, the bishops had better start reminding all Catholics of the obligation to attend Sunday Mass. That deliberately missing Sunday Mass is a mortal sin. Yes, they can still say that. They also can say that anyone who dies in a state of mortal sin will go to hell. He can tell them that the objective of all Catholics is to get their souls to Heaven and the best way to achieve this is by adherence to the Ten Commandments--not ten suggestions, by the way! Special emphasis needs to be placed on the command to 'keep holy the Sabbath day.'

Where do they start? At the beginning, of course. In the Catholic schools, starting today, teachers, especially principals, must be told of their responsibility for the young souls entrusted to their care. At every opportunity to speak in the public forum, our bishops should remind the faithful, lapsed or active, of what being a Catholic really means--that our faith is based on the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass. For only if, and when, all Catholics are back at Mass will they, the bishops, have the opportunity to mobilize their flocks, to lead them, en masse, in opposition to the secular humanistic liberalism so prevalent in today's world. As the Jesuits used to say, "Give us the children and we'll give you the saints."

It is the mandate of bishops to teach and guide the faithful in truth. They can never compromise--in season or out.

Omemee, ON