Letters to the Editor.

From Hanna Sokolaski re Auschwitz and Poland

We would like to clarify a few matters about the Nazi German camps at Auschwitz (see our July/August, 1999 edition).

The main camp at Auschwitz was a concentration camp. It was built for Polish political prisoners and started operation in June 1940. Jews did not begin to arrive in great numbers until the death camp in nearby Birkenau (Auschwitz II) opened in March 1942. Historians at the State Museum estimate the total number of prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau to be about 1.3 million, of whom 1.1 million perished. Of the 1 million Jewish prisoners, approximately 960,000 were killed.

The main camp held some 400,000 prisoners. Poles numbered about 150,000, half of whom died.

Nearly one million people were put to death in Birkenau, almost all of them Jews. Only thirty per cent of the Jew were from Poland; the rest came from other European countries. The next largest groups of prisoners were 23,000 Gypsies, 15,000 Soviet POWs, and 25,000 of other nationalities.

The largest graveyard of Polish Jews is [not Auschwitz-Birkenau but] the Treblinka death camp.

The main camp at Auschwitz is the Poles' largest graveyard. To argue that Auschwitz should be viewed as a specifically Jewish memorial makes about as much sense to Poles as insisting that Remembrance Day be a tribute to fallen Soviet soldiers--after all, Canadian military losses pale in comparison. It ought to be recognized that Auschwitz can, and does, have multiple legitimate meanings. The loss of all lives is to be mourned equally, regardless of religion or nationality.

The papal cross which stands near, but outside, the main camp, is all that is left of the Carmelite convent that was established in an old theatre in 1984. The cross--erected for a Mass celebrated at Auschwitz by Pope John Paul IT--was later placed on the site where hundreds of Poles, including many priests, were executed.

The flurry of crosses that sprang up in the summer of 1998 was a grassroots response to assurances made by Krzysztof Sliwinski, Poland's special ambassador to the Jewish diaspora, that the papal cross would be removed. While Poland's Primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, rebuffed this statement, the local bishop remained silent, thus provoking uncertainty over the fate of the papal .cross. Its ultimate fate is still uncertain.

Mention was also made that Jews were killed in Poland after the war. The war did not end in Poland in May 1945. Jewish victims were a tiny fraction of the almost 100,000 Poles who were killed in the civil strife occasioned by the Soviet takeover.

Many Poles also suffered at the hands of Jews who figured prominently in the Stalinist security forces. Some of these henchmen are now living in the West, immune from prosecution. This topic has been thoroughly canvassed in Professor Tadeusz Piotrowski's monumental work, Poland's Holocaust (McFarland, 1998).

Canadian Polish Congress 

Toronto, ON

From Charles Blickstead re anti-Semitism

We owe so much to Our Lord Jesus and Judaism that I feel hurt every time I hear of the injustices...that are visited on the Jews by so-called Christians.

We read of our Holy Father and his efforts toward reconciliation with the Jews, but what do we hear from our church pulpits on the subject? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Are our Catholic priests afraid to speak out or are they forbidden to do so? Are they simply tongue-tied?

Anti-Semitism is a form of hatred which leaves a scar on the heart, on the mind and on the soul--a scarred heart suffers a pain which manifests itself in our daily lives and spills over to infect our relations with others.

Jesus was a Jew and our faith evolves from the teachings of that Jew. Further, when we receive the Holy Eucharist, we eat the Flesh and Blood of Jesus, a Jew. When we recite the Holy Rosary, we are asking a Jewish Lady to intercede for us with her son, a Jew.

To hate our fellowman is a sin and it is high time that we Catholic Christians wakened to the fact that, Jew and Gentile, we are all related through the love of our common Lord, Jesus Christ.

How can we be loved in heaven if we do not practise love on earth?

Montreal, PQ

From Tunen K. James in Africa

I would be very pleased if you could enter me in your mailing list for the above subscription. I am a Catholic and have nothing to offer. Yours faithfully, Tunen K. James.

Eldoret, Kenya

Editor: We have provided Mr. James with a subscription.

From Stephen Gray re trade unionism, the new religion

Parents send their children to independent schools because they want their children taught certain values. A Catholic school in Fort St. John has been closed by the diocesan bishop because the trade union which represents the teachers--the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union (BCGSEU)--had problems with a "Catholicity Clause" (Catholic Insight, July/August '99, p.24).

The Vancouver Sun of July 1, 1999, said, "Talks stalled over a 'Catholicity clause' requiring staff to act according to Catholic teachings both inside and outside the school." The Globe and Mail (July 13) states, "The union also wants an independent adjudicator, not the bishop, to resolve disputes over Catholic lifestyle issues such as divorce, sex outside marriage, and abortion."

The bishops are the teachers of faith and morals in the Catholic Church. Yet here we have the union saying "an independent adjudicator" should decide these moral issues!

The BCGSEU is affiliated with the B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFL) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC); both of these organizations support abortion, homosexuality, radical feminists, etc. It is hypocrisy of the union to suggest an "independent adjudicator" when the unions have already taken positions on these moral issues contrary to those of the Catholic Church.

Even if a "Catholicity clause" was signed and the union was in the Catholic school, some part of union dues would still go to support these controversial issues, through affliation fees to the BCFL and CLC.

One wonders if there is a union agenda regarding Catholic schools and others. First you get the union organized in the school. Then the union refuses to sign a "Catholicity clause." The union knows the bishop will close the school without the clause. Thus, the children will have to go into the public school system, which in turn will need more teachers. This will result in more union dues to help finance all the politically correct clauses of the unions.

Salvation Army

BCTV News (July 28) reported a dispute between the BCGSEU and the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army wants its employees to demonstrate a "Christian Lifestyle," to which the union objects. This news report went on to say that the Salvation Army might close down this operation rather than give in to the union.

A union official was quoted in the National Post, July 29, as saying, "This attitude [of the Salvation Army] is not only outrageous, it's unconscionable."

The question must be asked, "Why should a Catholic school, the Salvation Army, or any other institution have to agree to a trade union's version of morality?"

The time is long overdue in this country, for politicians to show some courage and take away the compulsory membership and compulsory financing of unions. Unions have become a threat to a free society.

In this province, trade unionism has become the new religion. Unions are dictating social, moral, and religious beliefs and union bosses are the new preachers. Compulsory membership in the union church ensures that the congregation pays its dues, and the hymn "Solidarity Forever" is resounding from the cathedrals of labour.

Chilliwack, B.C.

From Fr. Stephen Somerville re missals and missalettes

Further to the letter of Fr. Brendan McCarthy (July/Aug '99, p. 6) re the Novalis Canadian Missalette, I add that "Novalis cupidity" is not the only obstacle, although it seems true that Novalis wants us to throw away our missals so that we are always forced to buy more, and from them. If a number of pastors banded together and cancelled the throwaways until Novalis published a permanent (low price) undated missal, they might not wait long. The customer is always right if he is legion.

Another obstacle to decent permanent missals was the decision in the 1970s by the Canadian liturgical authority to change some of the translations in the Canadian edition of the Lectionary so as to render "unapproved" any foreign lectionary, and thereby force pastors to buy the edition published by the same authority. Some of the "presidential" (priest) chants in the altar missal were then changed for the same reason; that is, to ban the import of foreign altar missals and compel purchase of the Canadian edition. In consequence, American or British visitors to a Canadian church, for example, cannot sing the preface dialogue at Mass.

Canada, by the way, is the only Anglophone country I know that has the bishops publish their own liturgical books and compel the pastors and people to buy them. Other countries have a choice of competing professional publishers. One result is that Canada cannot market its own liturgical books abroad, by its own decision. They might not sell well in any case, being noted for editorial weakness and bias. "Free trade" might stimulate Canadian publishers to higher standards, as well as high profits. After all, other Canadian exporters do sell well abroad.

It is true we Canadians are presently stuck with the deplorable feminist Bible, the New Revised Standard Version. But the old Lectionaries, using the Jerusalem Bible translation are not forbidden or disallowed. I myself continue to use it. There is probably a missalette or leaflet in England with the same translation that could be imported or reprinted here by contract. Or perhaps from Australia. Could some publisher investigate?

Ignatius Press in San Francisco is presently working on a Lectionary using the faithful OLD Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. This could be a great breakthrough. It would far outshine the Jerusalem, the New American, and the feminist translations. The Canadian authority could arrange to be sole importer, so as to compensate for losses from the unfortunate feminist lectionary.

The above remarks may seem to cast aspersions of blame on the Canadian bishops. Largely, they are not at fault. The decisions were not discussed with live, full-conference debates, but taken by a liturgical committee and presented blandly so as to prevent challenge. This was years ago. Only recently are there signs that the Vatican authority is starting to exercise sufficient "policing" of the all-important translation of the Liturgy.

Meanwhile, one is compelled to admire the Latin-Mass constituency for their forthright eschewing of the flaw-ridden vernacular bag. They use the beautiful old Latin, and are free to publish a photocopied accurate translation.

About that elegant 1976 permanent Canadian Sunday Missal. It was indeed a thing of beauty. But it was gilt-edged, bulky, and pricey. It need not have been. Yes, I do sometimes get depressed by stubbornly enduring cheap liturgies-in book, in translation, in pop style, in unspiritual music, and more. But I am waiting in hope for that New Pentecost!

Queensville, ON

From Paul Smith re Fr. Ian Boyd, C.S.B.

Just received your September issue and I heartily concur with your praise of the Chesterton Review editor, Fr. Ian Boyd, C.S.B.

I was a student of Fr. Boyd's and enjoyed his class more than any other during my eight years at the University of Saskatchewan. Fr. Boyd knows more about Chesterton than Gilbert Keith himself did; so the conduct of the authorities at St. Thomas More College is contradictory.

But realistically, the end of Fr. Boyd's generous career at St. Thomas More College was to be expected. After all, the College brings in speakers such as Marcus Borg and his "New Age" Jesus, and feminist Edwina Gately, who was awarded the 1998 leadership award by the dissident group "Call to Action"; so why would a supporter of the Catholic Church be welcome?

I thank Fr. Boyd for his homilies, teaching, and allowing me to be his acolyte while at St. Thomas More College. I deeply regret his leaving Saskatoon, and congratulate Seton Hall University for their wisdom in welcoming this priest scholar.

Saskatoon, SK

From Aileen Sivell re Supreme Court

Newly named to Canada's Supreme Court, Madam Louise Arbour's early, domestic decisions were loaded with the subjectivity and ultra-feminist bias that in a more scrupulous milieu than ours would rule her ineligible. Instead, her radical opinions tickled the perverse streak in our autocratic Prime Minister, making her a perfect choice.

Such is the flawed state of justice in Canada the past 30 years that "miscarriages" are endemic. Repeated, often vindictive hassles, driven by matriarch, feminist, sexual agitators, while they have won cunning victories-by-default, have also left Lady Justice thoroughly battered and disrespected.

As well, held in contempt by Ottawa, by the overpaid, useless farce called Parliament (made so by an earlier leader), and by our Supreme Court "jester"--is the once-noble notion that all humans, regardless of sex, age, or status, are conceived, born and imbued with the God-decreed right to equality under the law. Ill and untreated by "specialists", Canadian jurisprudence has metastasized, fatally infecting the body politic. Justice Arbour's timing, therefore, makes her ideally suited to deliver le coup de grace. R.I.P.

Burlington, ON

From contributing editor Robert Eady re Cardinal Hume and Michael Coren

Reading the September, 1999, issue of Catholic Insight, I couldn't help but wonder where Catholics are headed these days.

In her obituary piece on Cardinal Basil Hume, Paula Adamick quoted him as having once told a British journalist that "in roughly half the churches I visit, the liturgy is not up to scratch, and in some, frankly deplorable". What did the Cardinal do about this sad state of affairs? Apparently nothing. "But for me to say anything," he told the same journalist, "would offend people so gravely that it would do more harm than good."

If Saint Paul had taken the same attitude when writing to the early Christian communities, many of which were in a state of disorder, would the Catholic Church have survived?

In a similar vein, it wasn't until 1990 that the Roman Curia finally realized that its dialogue with the Catholic colleges since Vatican II had been "unsatisfactory". Just recently, the radical feminist professor Mary Daly, was fired from the Jesuitrun Boston College because she wouldn't let men into her classroom. Teaching lesbian witchcraft and blaspheming Christ wasn't a problem, but reports of the professor exhibiting sexism finally got the college administration to act. How many young women lost their faith over the twenty-year period that Daly was preaching her rot? Why did so many well-educated U.S. Catholics tolerate such a deplorable mess for so long?

Finally, what could possibly be so "refreshing" about Michael Coren's "perspective"? It is true that the Toronto broadcaster and writer has been a positive influence in the Canadian media, but as Michael Mastromatteo said in his article, Mr. Coren now attends a Baptist church. If a Catholic like Mr. Coren joined a Baptist congregation thirty years ago, I think most Catholics would have said that he had embraced heresy. Now we read that Mr. Coren simply felt "convinced" it "was time to walk a different faith path."

If Catholicism isn't to become completely irrelevant to most people in the next few decades, today's Catholics will have to leam to stop being so tolerant of obvious error. We must show charity to our neighbour, whether Catholic or nonCatholic, but we must also show charity to Almighty God, Who founded our One, Holy and Apostolic Church.

Ottawa, ON

Action

Re: MaterCare, pp. 8-10

We ask our readers to pray that MaterCare ("Mater" is Latin for mother) may receive financing from CIDA. It needs $3 million. Also, MaterCare issues charitable tax receipts. Donations may be sent to:

MaterCare International (Canada)

8 Riverview Avenue

St. John's, Newfoundland

A1C 2S5