LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

From Kathleen and Dan

Hickey: more concern about Catholic schooling

We have published a short xeroxed account of our troubles with the Catholic school system. The account begins with us getting our third child, Colleen, a "special needs" child, into school. The apparent approval and the actual delays, and the non-cooperation with parents, led us to realize that the reality of Special Education is different from the image found in its literature. This discovery therefore led us to take a closer look at the Fully Alive religion program. There is very explicit sexual material in it. We removed our children from the entire program. The school principal balked at this, but the director of education gave permission.

We found support for our action in the works of several well-known education experts and especially in Vatican documents. Then it was announced that AIDS: A Catholic Approach to HIV was coming to Catholic schools. The chairman of our school board had not heard of it nor even of the Fully Alive program! But the religious education consultant at the Office of Religious Education thought that both programs were wonderful, and that they follow the teaching of the Church, but said quite definitely that parental objections would not stop the AIDS program going ahead, though she said that the two programs were controversial. Apparently parents don't count when it is decided to teach controversial subjects to their children.

The editor-in-chief of Fully Alive told us that that program had been approved by Rome. I finally got the Vatican documents and discovered that all the things they tell parents to guard against have been let into our Catholic classrooms. People seem concerned with the government and outside forces taking away our school system. It is time to focus inward and face the fact that the destruction of the Catholic school system is happening from within. No "taking away" will be needed.

We have sent a copy of our publication to Cardinal Laghi of the Congregation for Catholic Education, and will send a copy to anyone requesting it, for $7.00 postpaid. Included will be a copy of Cardinal Laghi's letter to the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and also references to relevant articles in Catholic Insight. Our address: RR #1, Omemee, ON K0L 2W0.

Telephone:[phone],

e-mail: [e-mail]

From Rev. Bohdan Choly

re: 'Signs of Faith" (Dec. '98)

In Byzantine iconography, St. Joseph is often drawn separately, sitting alone or with a devil at his side tempting him. Traditionally the Icon of the Nativity depicts five different events, and one of these events presents the inner turmoil which St. Joseph underwent when he thought of putting Mary away quietly. It is possible that certain elements of this "multiple events tradition" of the Icon of the Nativity may have been taken up by Western European artist.

Apocryphal writings may have some fantastic elements in them, yet one must be careful not to assume that everything in the apocryphal writings is necessarily legendary. The Church remembers the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Joachim and Anna, as well as the Presentation of the Most Holy Lady in the Temple, not just because of the influence of certain apocryphal writings, but also because of a long liturgical and oral tradition. The article's assumption that only the Bible can provide us with true historical information about Jesus' time seems to reflect a rather strong Protestant-like pessimism about liturgical and oral tradition.

Brantford, ON

From Robert Dyment re: Cardinal Bernardin

Having just read the book review by Raymond J. de Souza in the December issue, I feel that I must comment on one statement, and that is the following: "Father Hamilton, hours away from death, was ordained into the same priesthood of Cardinals Cooke and Bernardin, which he will share with them for all eternity." I might agree with that statement as it relates to Cardinal Cooke, but as regards Cardinal Bernardin, permit me to express doubt about its veracity.

I am a subscriber to The Wanderer and a merely cursory reading of that publication provides evidence that Cardinal Bernardin was a thorn in the side of the Holy Father for many years and continued to be such right up until his death from cancer. He was on the opposite side of the fence from the pope and from Cardinal Cooke. He was a thoroughgoing modernist. While not presuming to judge Cardinal Bernardin, I am very reluctant to assign him a place in the celestial court, as your reviewer has done. To achieve such a status, he would have needed to repent of almost every official act he performed as Cardinal-Archbishop of Chicago.

Grimsby, ON

From Richard Hudon

re: the murder of abortionists

One day this fall, I asked a 16-year-old from a "broken home," an avid smoker who boasted of his cursing, smoking and drinking, "Do you think you were a human being before you were born?" His unequivocal and emphatic answer was: "Yes, of course,"

I then asked him: "Do you think that your mother should have had the right to have you killed or that some other person should have had the right to kill you before you were born?" Again, reason prevailed: "Of course not!" Adding: "Are you crazy? Or what!"

I continued: "Looking at all the difficulties which you have suffered, do you think that your mother should have aborted you?" To this he disdainfully and loudly responded: "Do you think I'm crazy? Of course not!"

There you have it, the sum total of all the refutations to all the rhetoric in favour of abortion. Does this have anything to do with the recent murder of an abortionist?

Is the willful killing of any human being excusable, be it of an abortionist or his victims? Surely not. Even if the abortionist is, in fact, a serial killer, a mass murderer, and possibly a genocidal maniac, it does not entitle anyone to take the law into his or her own hands and kill him. By definition, a person who kills, or who advocates the killing of, another human being cannot be called pro-life.

Gloucester, ON

From Winifride Prestwich

re: Girl Guides (Dec. '98, P 12)

The Girl Guide movement today is so far downhill that Guides of my generation could weep. I knew the movement was decaying from the top--I didn't know how far the corruption had spread.

Toronto, ON

From Wilson Shea re: Renew

Our diocese is beginning a Renew 2000 Program. Some parishioners are concerned as to where Renew 2000 comes from and where it will lead.

Tignish, PEI

Editor: The Renew Program began in the Archdiocese of Newark, NJ. about fifteen years ago and has spread to many dioceses in the United States and some in Canada. Though it had some good results, it also was controversial, and the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops published a critique of the Program. The Committee pointed out that the aims of Renew were good and that quite a bit of good had come out of it.

But they also pointed out four areas in which the Program was deficient. First, while it emphasized things which were common to Christians, it was mute on specifically Catholic teachings. Second, it lacked an emphasis on the Sacrament of Orders, and also on the importance of the magisterium in the Church. Third, it contained the danger of the privatization of religious truth because it shied away from "the objective content of revelation." Fourth, there was a preoccupation with the Eucharist as a meal and a trivialization of the Real Presence.

We do not know whether these objections have been listened to, and to what extent. Perhaps you could send us literature from your diocese?

From Bernard F. Pickles

re: Church in China

I enclose the Archdiocese of Kingston newspaper Journey for Dec. '98-Jan. '99, which printed my letter to them and, in answering it, the editor, Catherine Perkins, said that the Catholic Church is not persecuted in China. She also, by implication, denies that the one-child-per-family policy there has resulted in forcible abortions. I find this answer alarming.

Tweed, ON

Editor: Both the persecution of the Church and the one-child policy have been reported numerous times. On December 29, 1998 the National Post, for example, printed an article on how the one-child policy has created major imbalances within the population such as a shortage of marriageable women, leading to unrest and crime. A January 4, 1999, CWNS News release reports the torture and attempted sexual seduction of a priest arrested last November.

There are two Catholic churches in China. One was founded in 1980 at the close of the terrible persecutions under Mao Tse Tung (Mao Zedong). It (the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association) is ruled by the state and appoints bishops without reference to or approval of the Holy See. It controls all the major church buildings which have been returned by the State. It is not allowed to educate children or do social work.

The second one is the real Catholic Church, continuing from before the Communist terror with priests and bishops who recognize the authority of the Vatican and not that of the state.

In the past, we have brought a number of reports on its sufferings under Communist totalitarianism. Autonomous views, whether of religion or politics, are absolutely prohibited; whether they are actually persecuted in one or other region of this vast country depends on local circumstances and the central government. The total number of Catholics is not known, but the persecuted Church is estimated to have four million adherents; the "official" one may have just as many.

The one-child-per-family policy was adopted in China in 1972 on the advice of the International Planned Parenthood Association and is strictly applied. Pregnant women who already have one child may be--and are being--arrested and forcibly transported--sometimes in cages--to have an abortion performed against their will, no matter what the stage of the pregnancy, early or late.

From a subscriber re: Jan./Feb. 1999 issue

Please, no more orange ink on shiny paper!

David Dooley's book review was a complete forfeit for me--and no doubt for many others. I wonder what he said!

I love Catholic Insight and have subscribed to it for a number of friends and family. I was so disappointed not to be able to decipher the back cover of this recent issue. Could we have black on white so none of us will miss a word?!

God bless you in your work with this great publication.

Willowdale, ON

From Edgar Backburn re: Sacred Hosts

There is a recent development in some of our city churches with which I am not comfortable. It is the use of consecrated homemade bread for communion.

We are told that the new bread is more symbolic than the traditional hosts. But why such concern over symbolism when we have the Real Presence in the Eucharist?

There seem to be many more little broken crumbs from the new bread than there were from the old hosts. Some persons are careless and some of these little crumbs are lost. This is quite irreverent, and a denial of the progress in reverence achieved over centuries.

It seems too much emphasis is on the symbolic aspect of the meal rather than on the mystery of Christ's Sacrifice.

I would appreciate your comments.

Edmonton, AB

Fr. Somerville replies: The writer's points are well taken. Emphasis on the symbolism of the bread may well lead to the inference that this is only a symbol, and not the real Body of Christ. The writer does not describe the shape etc. of this bread used in his parish church. Be it remembered that, by Church law, "the bread, whether the small host or larger hosts to be broken into parts, is always (emphasis in original) to be made in the traditional shape"--and "unleavened" (Vatican, The "Third Instruction," Sept. 5, 1970, no. 5). This same reference and many others call for reverence in the breaking and receiving of the sacred hosts.

From Jake MacKenzie re: Natural law and contraception

The instructive article "Natural law denies contraception" (Dec. 1998) mentions the statement of our Holy Father that contraception "destroys the unity that should grow between husband and wife." What happens is that the use of contraceptive devices results in a lack of total giving of oneself to one's spouse in a most fundamental aspect of the relationship.

As a result, a habit of selfishness is developed. That habit of not giving, or "giving in," carries over to other aspects of married life, including minor ones.

Furthermore, marital intimacies are reduced to the sex level of love as described by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in These Are the Sacraments (p.127). He stated, "Sex love alone is directed toward another for the sake of pleasure which the other person gives the ego. The partner is regarded as one of the opposite sex, instead of as a person. The infatuation associated with it is nothing but the boundless desire of self-centeredness to express itself at all costs. Because it cares only for its own rapture and its own fulfillment, such love quickly turns to hate when no longer satisfied" (emphasis added).

London, ON

From Rodney Ramsden on Humanae vitae 

One of the oldest quotations in the Catholic Church is "You shall be judged as you judge others."

The bishops at Winnipeg, and, by inference, 50 per cent of all the world's bishops in 1968, have been judged and found guilty in the last few months. Not only in your magazine, but also in Catholic newspapers.

A commission on the family was set up by Pope John XXIII in 1962. This commission was increased in number to 68 by Pope Paul VI, and consisted of theologians, sociologists, historians, etc. As required by Vatican II, it was chaired by the Bishop of Rome.

I suggest that much research must be done about Vatican II, including the future role of the pope as Bishop of Rome; how a commission arrives at a result and how its decision can be overturned by anything other than an infallible document; and other relevant issues.

After two years of deliberation Pope Paul VI published his Humanae vitae. This encyclical was contrary to the Commission's vote of 64 to four (Editor: in favour of allowing contraception).

I submit that the bishops of the period had to choose between the Church as ratified by Vatican II and the Pope whose decision was contrary to that of the Church, and who did not have the help of the Holy Spirit. An impossible choice.

I hope that some of your learned readers will be doing some positive research before judging anyone in future. Better still, remember the Gospels. "The beam in your own eye." Give us some research, not guesswork.

Milton, ON