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Contributions to Reader's Forum should be limited to 250 words.
Letters must be signed and must include the writer's address and
phone number for verification purposes. All letters are subject
to editing.
Mail your letter to:
The Catholic Voice
2121 Harrison St., Suite 100
Oakland, CA 94612
FAX: (510) 893-4734
Email letters to:
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Clarification
Hedy Epstein, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor mentioned in the Jan.
11 story on the detention of some human rights workers in Cairo, Egypt,
was mistakenly identified as being from Oakland. She is a resident of
St. Louis, Missouri.
Higher standard of music
I respectfully disagree with Ray Galka’s (Forum, Jan. 11) characterization
of the music ministry at the Cathedral of Christ the Light. While sincere,
the tone of the letter was tempered badly, and I’m not sure of the
intent.
Times have changed in the Catholic Church and we’re hearing it at
the cathedral. Indeed, the cathedral’s new music director has brought
a new and higher standard of music ministry to the cathedral.
Be you for or against the changes to liturgical music (including Gregorian
chant), I believe that directing criticism, and especially public challenge,
at our director is misplaced and unjustified. This quality of music was
asked of our new director, and he deserves our support.
Also, please remember, the cathedral just hired its music director four
months ago. This delay caused unfortunate expectations and made for a
highly visible and painful transition. As a cathedral parishioner and
choir member, I would appeal to you to remember our mission to Gather
Good Together.
We have an amazing opportunity to glorify God and unite together as Catholics
at the Cathedral of Christ the Light. Let’s continue to work toward
realizing our faith and seeing it fulfilled in one another and applauding
those efforts publicly.
Wylie Linquist
Oakland
A hallmark of dissidence
I am continually blown away by the tone and the dissidence of the letters
in your publication. As a convert who takes my faith seriously and who
is grateful that I get to be a Catholic, I do not understand even printing
such letters, let alone letting such letters go without some kind of correction/instruction
into the truth of our faith.
Will you ever stand up for what the Church believes in or will you, as
a diocesan paper, continue to let dissidence (another word for “disobedience”)
be your hallmark?
I am currently a graduate student in theology and Scripture study with
Augustine Institute’s Distance Education program, and I have read
and studied in depth several Church documents and writings of the faithful.
It would be nice to have this kind of instruction in our paper, instead
of drivel written by dissidents, which only leads people away from the
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Suzanne Slupesky
Pleasanton
Making moral judgments
Several letters in the Jan. 25 Reader’s Forum have incorrect views
of what judgment means.
When the Lord forbade judging others, he was not condemning making judgments
about peoples’ behavior. He often criticized the behavior of those
who opposed him. Each of us has no choice but to make moral judgments
about behavior, both of ourselves and of others. Otherwise how could we
ever oppose evil?
If I see someone doing something clearly evil, I am obligated to make
a judgment that what the person is doing is evil. What I cannot say is,
“Therefore, that person is himself or herself evil.” To say
or think this would be judging in the sense forbidden by the Lord.
It is mandatory for us to “love the sinner and hate the sin.”
But our Lord asks each of us to “Go and sin no more.” The
very words Jesus spoke on the issue of sin seem to be forgotten when we
discuss sin today. Each of us is called more especially to avoid sin.
For those fighting same sex attraction the call is to abstinence. Excellent
resources like Courage are leading and succeeding in this area. So our
call is to love the sinner, but hate the sin. Even if that means telling
someone what they are doing is evil. Quite a simple concept when cooler
heads prevail.
Louis Renner
Antioch
Gratitude for Boys Choir
We wish to express deep gratitude to Steve Meyer, artistic director of
the Golden Gate Boys Choir and Bellringers, for enhancing the Walk for
Life Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco last month. This
impressive group of young men, under the direction of Mr. Meyer, helped
to bring the nearly full cathedral into a solemn appreciation of God’s
gift of the life that He has given us.
These skilled junior and senior high school boys skillfully rang and sang
throughout the Mass. When the Master Singer group sang the song about
how God sees the little children, I was moved to tears.
Our son, Christopher, has been a member of GGBC since the 5th grade and
is now a sophomore at St Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda. It
is as a result of his participation in the GGBC that we were exposed to
the Roman Catholic Church.
We were raised Baptist and Lutheran and have been deeply involved in a
Pentecostal church for the last 25 years. We are now in the process of
being reconciled to what we now realize is the true Church, the Church
that Jesus built upon St. Peter.
Thank you, Mr. Meyer and all past and present staff and board members,
for 21 years of dedication in teaching young men liturgical music as well
as patriotic and fun songs. Your work has played a huge part in bringing
our family across the Tiber and home to Rome.
Drs. PJ and Michael Dobbins
Alameda
Unfounded climate claims
So we now have not only Catholic leaders but the pope himself speaking
as authorities on climate science and lobbying for controls on carbon
emissions, especially in the “rich” countries.
Claims that climate change is accelerating are unfounded and self-serving
to various groups of people who have a vested interest in promoting visions
of catastrophe. There is general support for the assertion that the global
averaged temperature anomaly [GATA] has increased about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit
since the middle of the 19th century.
However, the quality of the data is poor, and during the past dozen years,
it has done little, even though annual global carbon emissions have increased
more than 25 percent during this time.
None of this was predicted by the computer models that the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] used to make their dire predictions of
rising temperatures, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, etc.
Since the relationship between carbon dioxide concentration and its effect
on global temperature is logarithmic rather than linear, a doubling of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would produce a temperature rise of about
2 degrees Fahrenheit. This is unlikely to be much to worry about.
The IGPCC model predicts much greater temperature increases because they
assume that increases in carbon dioxide will produce increases in water
vapor and clouds, which will amplify the effect. There are several papers
that not only challenge this assumption but suggest clouds and aerosols
[about which little is known] may cancel any effects produced by carbon
dioxide.
Claims that glaciers are melting because of greenhouse gas emissions also
are not supported by scientific evidence. Some 15,000 years ago, Yosemite
Valley was filled with ice. During the subsequent warming period, all
of the glacier melted, and human activity had nothing to do with this
ice melting. Today, there are about 99 small glaciers in the Sierra, all
of which are believed to have formed during the past 1,000 years.
Finally, in a recent paper published in “Nature,” researchers
found an informative outcrop in coastal Tanzania where the Eocene –
Oligocene transition is well preserved in assorted marine shells. The
Antarctic ice sheet first appears in this “transition.” From
a detailed analysis of the shells, they concluded the Antarctic ice sheet
began with an atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at least twice
today’s level and possibly much more.
Since neither the pope nor other leaders of the Catholic Church have any
understanding of physics or climate science, they would be well advised
to keep silent on the matter.
Donald F. Anthrop
Professor Emeritus
Environmental Studies
San Jose State University
Illegal immigration is a crime
In response to The Voice story, “Marin teens struggle after parents’
deportation to Guatemala” (Jan. 11), I say that if the parents entered
this country illegally, they committed a crime. They may not have committed
a hideous act, but a crime was committed none the less.
When these parents made the choice to enter the U.S. illegally, they made
a decision that they knew could some day hurt their family.
Yes, it is heartbreaking that the family was separated. I know we all
want the best for our children and would do almost anything to make sure
that their lives are better than ours. Does this make it o.k. to break
the law?
Please do not say that I do not understand. I am a mother. I am half-Mexican
(born in the U.S.). I work for Social Services and I see undocumented
families all the time. I do understand.
I say to the Mejia’s daughter, stay in school, get a good education,
make a good life for yourself and in 10 years bring your parents back,
legally.
Gina Gonzales
Via email
Letters to the editor provide a forum for readers to
engage in an open exchange of opinions and concerns in a climate of respect
and civil discourse. The opinions expressed are those of the writers,
and not necessarily of the Catholic Voice or the Diocese of Oakland. While
a full spectrum of opinions will sometimes include those which dissent
from Church teaching or contradict the natural moral law, it is hoped
that this forum will help our readers to understand better others’
thinking on critical issues facing the Church at this time.
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