Letters to the Editor.

Our warmest thanks

Two years ago we sent out a fund raising appeal on October 1st, the feast of St. Therese of the Little Flower. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the response: in four weeks, over $28,000 came in to either the Society for Catholic Life and Culture or directly to Catholic Insight. This allowed us to carry on with the publication of this magazine without undue anxiety over bills.

This year we sent out a similar letter, again on the feast of St. Therese, who had proven to be such a kind intercessor previously. We would have been delighted to receive the same response as our first campaign in 1997. But such was not the case: we received even more than anticipated. The donations are still coming in, covering the entire deficit for this year plus money left over for next year's budget.

Thank you, St. Therese of the Holy Child. Thank you readers who have shown such appreciation of Catholic Insight. I am sure the larger donations were meant also to cover those who can't afford to give. Yours was a vote of confidence in Catholic Insight. Pray that we may be able to continue to serve you.

Fr. Alphonse de Valk,c.s.b.

From Father Charles Mersereau re downsizing of parishes

I am writing to you about the "News in Brief" item, p. 26, Sept '99, called "Downsizing Parishes", which I believe has some incorrect information.

First, the statement that of three neigh-bouring parishes each has an English Mass--one of them only one kilometre--away is not correct. The nearest parish is almost three kilometres away.

Second, Bishop Andre Richard ordered a halt to the English Mass in the bilingual parish despite the protest of both English and French parishioners who got along admirably together, with Mass celebrated alternately in each language, and understood by both....

The Telegraph Journal is absolutely correct when it states that this was not a fight about language discrimination. It certainly was not. The English and the French were united in protesting the change (2400 against, in a petition, 13 only in favour).

Mr. Joe Leger of Bathurst wrote a marvelous article entitled, "We can find priests if we really want them." This appeared in the Moncton Times and Transcript.

I am an 80-year-old priest. It is all very bewildering to witness the opposition to Pope John Paul II who has so often advised, "Go after foreign priests," if we cannot find native ones.

Salisbury, N.B.

From Camille Goutier re education

Your September 1999 issue of Catholic Insight has four expertly written articles on the state of Catholic education in Canada and the United States. The notas-such Catholic school materials, mentioned in these articles as used in our schools, were developed through the offices of the Council of Bishops and approved by them. At the higher education levels, the authors describe how many Catholic colleges and universities are only nominally but not really Catholic because they are in open dissension with Vatican directives.

They say: "The result is such a decline in religious knowledge that an entire generation of young people may be said to have grown up not knowing the fundamentals of Catholic belief...."

What about the state of affairs in our Catholic parishes where all these uneducated young people are now working in parish pastoral councils? I would dare to say that the same confusion reigns in the liturgy of the new Mass with all the reforms that have occurred since Vatican II...since the presiding priests, educated in our Catholic schools, "have grown up not knowing the fundamentals of Catholic belief," and the truths of the Mass.

Joussard, AB

From Paul Smith re heaven and hell

Your October, 1999, News in Brief section discussed Pope John Paul's statements on hell, including his belief that hell is not a place, and no external punishment is imposed there by God.

I would most certainly agree that right now hell is not a place, because a soul is not matter, and only bodies which are matter occupy place. But right now is not the future, when there will be the Resurrection of the Dead and the Final Judgement.

At the Final Judgement everyone will have either a blessed body and soul, or a damned body and soul. The very truth is that the damned will have bodies, and the same bodies they had prior to the Resurrection (De Fide, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215 A.D.--Denz. #429). This proves that hell at the end of time will be a place. Where will that place be in the New Heaven and New Earth, which Vatican II speaks of so eloquently and with such hope (Gaudium et spes, #38-39)? We cannot answer that question.

With regard to hell containing external punishments from God, why couldn't a resurrected body be punished with some kind of physical pain? Why couldn't the damned souls of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbouring towns (see Jude 1:7), who are now suffering external fire, not suffer a physical fire after the Resurrection?

Saskatoon, SK

From J. K. MacKenzie

Regarding the statement that "the punishment in hell...is not physical" (News in Brief, Oct. '99), the following statements in Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine by the Most Rev. M. Sheehan, D.D. are most relevant:

"In Hell, God will employ a created thing to punish them. They will be tortured by a physical agency which the Sacred Scriptures call fire...the Fathers tell us it is not identical with the fire of this world...But that divine fire always lives by itself, and burns without nourishment. St. Ephraem and St. Basil declare that the fire of Hell...incessantly torments its victims without destroying them. St. Augustine says that, while not corporeal, it resembles a corporeal thing. Whatever be its nature, God has given it the power of acting on pure spirits and disembodied souls....We may be assured that 'fire,' the name given to it by Christ, conveys to us the best idea of its nature that we are capable of conceiving."

London, ON

From Hugh A. McDonald re harming the Church

I am very disappointed that you published "Bishop resigns because of scandal" (Catholic Insight, Oct. '99, p. 25). You don't help the Church in any way by doing so; you do the Church great harm. I am not defending the bishop. I want to protect the sincere faith of the people and the Church itself when I write you this. Please be more loyal to Christ. if one of His bishops has failed, don't harm the Mystical Body of Christ.

Sydney, N.S.

Editor: Homosexuality has made inroads among the Catholic clergy and is doing tremendous damage. To remain silent is to act like the proverbial ostrich. Now a second American bishop has been forced to resign within the last four months. See News in Brief under United States.

From Robert Hook re Malachi Martin

I thought you summarized well the controversy surrounding the life and career of Fr. Malachi Martin in your October issue. Among the scholars who refuse to give serious consideration to his writings are Karl Keating (Catholic apologist and author), Jeffrey Mirus, Ph.D. and Warren Carroll, Ph.D. (professors and cofounders of Christendom College), and Fr. James Schall, S.J. (professor and author). Fr. Schall rejected The Jesuits as history, stating: "...however good the yarn, it is too difficult to distinguish in it fact from fiction."

You mentioned the Society of St. Pius X. Martin publicly supported the Society at his website, going so far as to adopt as his own the 1982 Campos Profession of Falth, which rejected outright the 1969 Missal of Pope Paul VI, "whether in Latin or in the vernacular". He once stated in one of his taped interviews that the new Mass is invalid, without qualifying his statement. This and other statements from his writings would seem to indicate that he did not believe in the indefectibility of the Church; that is, that the Church cannot promulgate an invalid rite, and will never fail. As you said in your obituary, the gates of hell will never overcome it.

Saskatoon, SK

From Fr. Stephen Somerville

Your obituary of Fr. Malachi Martin (Oct. 1999, p. 25) fills out a helpful, concise picture of this brilliant Jesuit-trained priest: scholar, Church critic, and writer. At the end, it says, rather baldly, "Contrary to Fr. Martin's view Vatican II is not (emphasis added) the source...of our present difficulties, and instead of corrupting the Church, it confirms and strengthens her."

I am astonished at this bland and sweeping act of faith in "Vatican II" (the Council of 1962-65). I was ordained six years before it started, and I saw all the troubles start in the Church immediately after, even during, the Council. I saw them with increasing clarity and dismay as I grew older and, I hope, wiser. Dying religious orders, priests quitting, few vocations, a free-sexual revolution, sky-rocketing divorces, abortions, sterilizations, contraception, STDs, insensitivity to sin, rejection of Confession, side-line tabernacles, entertainer celebrants, feminists invading the Church, dissident theologians...the litany of disasters is all too well known.

Of course these things were likely to come upon the Church even had the Council not been convoked. The New World Order was in the making, is now well on its way, and it has no room for God, at least not for the true God in Jesus. It favours watered-down, privatized religion. But those religious disasters were incalculably hastened and facilitated by Vatican II. Not by all the documents of it. Not by everything the bishops said. By no means! But the movers and shakers at Vatican II (for example, Cardinal Suenens, Father Schillibeeckx) saw to the inclusion of many a broad, liberal, and ambiguous phrase here and there in many a document. These were later exaggerated and taken out of context by reforming "experts" and prelates, and used to revolutionize the Catholic Church, according to the alleged "spirit" or "thrust of Vatican II."

My specialty is liturgy and music. The degradation of the Church in this area is now so taken for granted that few recognize it as a degradation--the invasion of the holiest and most sacred realities outside heaven by brash pop music and gestures and attitudes. Not all pastors yield to this, certainly not totally. And the few Catholics who long for liturgy that is holy are steadily increasing, though still not a faithful remnant.

That which most truly "confirms and strengthens" the Church today is not Vatican II but the active, wise, nuanced and ardent teaching of the Church's chief pastor, Pope John Paul II. He constantly proposes the true interpretation of Vatican II, so as to undo or lessen the damage consequent upon the Council. In God's good time, there will be rebirth of the Holy Church, n new Pentecost, new evangelization, a new Advent. Then, and perhaps only then, will the prophetic dimension of Vatican II be clearly revealed.

Toronto, ON

Re new proposed liturgy(Nov. '99, pp. 7-8) From Harriet McEachen

An announcement in our September 1999 parish bulletin (St. Joseph's Parish, London) gave me great cause for concern. It explained that until the end of the year, a new translation of the Mass would be used as a pilot project, initiated by the Canadian bishops.

There was a four-page explanation of some of the changes and it was stated that the approval of Rome is awaited. I have informed both the pastor and the bishop that I would not be attending any of these Masses because it would cause me to feel anger and the anxiety of wondering if it was a valid Mass. With all of the problems there have been with translations lately, there is no reason to assume this translation would be accepted. However, the bishop assures me that this is in response to an initiative of the Holy See. He sent a copy of the directive of the Holy See, which asks conferences of bishops to pilot new texts before they receive final approval from the Holy See.

This is all leaving me to feel very very confused. Surely Rome would not allow people to be exposed to improper translations of the Mass, but would insist on trying out only approved translations. To do otherwise, it seems to me, would be like putting the cart before the horse, and in this case the parishioners are in the cart. Do we really need this new controversy in the Church? Will this aid in evangelizing? I think it will only add to the confusion.

London, ON

Editor: Some additional information:

1. The "pilot" project is supposed to end on December 31, 1999. Please check to see whether the experiment is over or whether it just continues.

2. All collects, prayers and prefaces have been rewritten, apparently using the ideologically-influenced I.C.E.L (International Commission of the English Language) version.

3. Comments may be sent to Ottawa (Sr. Donna Kelly, Dire ctress, Liturgical Commission, 90 Parent Ave., Ottawa ON, K1N 7B1, phone: [phone]).

4. For those unfamiliar with previous articles we refer you to our Website: www.catholicinsight.com. Here you will find the series of articles written by Fr. Stephen Somerville, under "Church controversies -- Liturgical lOther."

From Fr. Oliva Melancon, c.s.c. on the tabernacle 

With respect to the News in Brief item "Tabernacle should be clearly visible," (Nov '99, p.22), an evident manifestation of the lessening of faith in the Holy Eucharist is the location of the tabernacle in many of our churches. The presence of the Eucharistic Christ used to constitute the soul of the church, but now the tabernacle is often placed in a niche. In heaven Jesus is perpetually praised and adored by the angels and saints (Apoc 7:9-12).

This same praise and adoration are offered to Him in each tabernacle on earth, since Christ is not multiplied by His presence in many tabernacles. It is therefore urgent that our Church authorities give back to Christ, truly present in each tabernacle, the predominant location in our churches so that they may become again what they once were: the House of the Lord, a house of prayer.

Montreal, PQ

From John-Henry Westen re political leadership

With respect to your article, "Preston Manning on the record", Nov. 99, pp. 12-13, I, like the vast majority of social conservatives in Canada, was most impressed to hear official Opposition Leader Preston Manning's response to the Liberal Throne Speech. In it, the Reform leader mentioned the need for "defining the rights of the unborn" and went so far as to use the Holy Father's popular phrase "the sanctity of life." My enthusiasm was dampened, however, on receiving the press release of Reform Health critic Dr. Keith Martin on the same day Manning delivered his speech. The contrast was striking.

Martin's release commemorated the supposed birth of the world's six billionth citizen. He spouted the long-debunked alarmist Malthusean arguments. He said: "As the world's population continues to grow unchecked, we are threatening the long-term survival of all species on the planet, including our own." "Pollution and the depletion of non-renewable resources," he continued," "will potentially result in conflict." Encouraging population control, Martin said, "Canada must invest in equal access to the availability of safe, effective birth control to ensure long-term environmental sustainability." Soon "it will be too late to act once our resources have disappeared."

With his population control ideology, Martin is at odds with the majority of Reform supporters, small "c" conservatives. He also contradicts the real demographic forecasts which predict a declining world population. In his current position as health critic and his pending appointment to foreign affairs critic in January, Martin stands to grossly misrepresent the core of Reform supporters.

Bancroft, ON

Editor: See also "Manning contradicts Trudeau legacy", p. 10.

From Fr. Thomas McCarthy re Mass stipends

I am a subscriber to your Catholic Insight Magazine.

I am in dire need of Mass stipends to support my pastoral work regarding transportation by public bus.

Kindly publish or advertise my request for me. You may write to me at the following address:

Father Thomas C. McCarthy,

Post Office Box 1114,

Takoradi, Ghana,

West Africa.

Ghana, West Africa