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Public relations victory
Regarding the front page article about the continuing violence in the
Middle East (Voice, June 7) I don’t understand why so many world
leaders are criticizing Israel rather than criticizing the activists for
what happened in the recent flotilla interception.
As of January 2009, over 8,600 rockets have been launched from Gaza into
Israeli cities (BBC News: 1/18/09), and, in an attempt to halt the flow
of weapons into Gaza, Israel imposed a blockade so that goods shipped
into Gaza would be inspected and prohibited items removed. Israel maintains
that needed items, including food and medicines, are transported daily
into Gaza (NYT: 6/9/10).
On May 31, some activists attempted to break the Israeli blockade. To
prevent weapons from being delivered to Gaza, Israel insisted on boarding
those ships to inspect the cargo. On one of the six ships, activists armed
with metal clubs, knives, body armor, and night vision goggles attacked
and overwhelmed the first few Israelis who landed on their ship. Predictable
deaths and injuries followed. Thus, the activists achieved their desired
public relations victory at the cost of death and injury.
Why are most world leaders criticizing Israel rather than the activists
who instigated the violence on one of the ships?
Patti Devlin
Lafayette
‘Reform’ creates division
I want to remind Tom Luce (Forum, June 7) that there are 1.6 billion Catholics
worldwide, the great majority of whom love the Church and the pope. The
Oakland Diocese and others who are calling for “reform” are
a tiny minority.
If you thoroughly research the New Testa-ment and early Church history,
you will find that Christ indeed gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter,
and the following popes, so there would be authority in the Church. Also,
each bishop has been ordained by the laying on of hands from the times
of the apostles forward, so theirs is legitimate authority as well. So
how would you advocate changing Christ’s plan?
The Protestant church has no authority and has split off so many times
that there are reputed to be between 20,000 and 30,000 denominations instead
of the One church Christ talked about in the Gospel of John. What Mr.
Luce is suggesting is that there would be thousands of little “popes”
running around saying their way is correct. What a horrible division.
As far as a married clergy, let’s look at this practically. My late
husband was a Protestant minister; I have since converted to the Catholic
faith. Being in the Protestant church, I know that their members are required
to tithe 10 percent of their gross income to support the preacher and
his family. These men have master’s degrees or doctorates, so they
deserve a good rate of pay, plus most churches supply their pastor with
a house and other benefits. Are Catholics willing to help pay for this,
instead of our wonderful consecrated priests who live in modest quarters
and are paid a small sum?
Plus, the married priest would have to neglect his family while caring
for a large congregation and being on call 24/7. Would that be a good
thing?
Anne Zadra
Livermore
Know the truth
Tom Luce (Forum, June 7) asks us to dialogue about the American Catholic
Council. Perhaps many of you know that the force behind this organization
is the group, Voice of the Faithful (VOTF).
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we know that something inside
us is attracted to the truth. That is the most wonderful thing about our
faith, and its most basic teaching — there is truth, and we can
know it. We should more accurately say, we can know Him — Christ.
Our Lord has revealed himself, and continues to reveal himself through
his Church, to whom he promised freedom from error in matters of faith
and morals. Otherwise, we would have no way to know truth, no way to know
good from evil.
Does Voice of the Faithful foster genuine dialogue or dissent ? We hear
so many conflicting voices, from fellow Catholics, from Religious, from
deacons, from priests, from theologians, and even some bishops. How can
we know the truth? There is only one answer. We must turn to the authentic
teaching of the one Church founded by Christ. Look to the official documents
of the Church. And look to The Catechism of the Catholic Church. Alongside
the Bible, that is the book that should be in every Catholic home. Like
the Bible, it should be read, studied and prayed.
We are fortunate to also have truly orthodox resources such as EWTN (TV,
radio, and Internet, including document library), and Catholics United
For the Faith, where you can get answers to all your faith questions!
Learn about VOTF at www.cuf.org/faithfacts/details_view.asp?ffID=184.
In the essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.
David Zarri
Concord
Heed Spirit in the laity
I have spent a goodly amount of time contemplating and praying on Father
Ron Schmit’s commentary on the Church today (Voice, May 10) and
the resultant pro and con letters which followed. There have been many
appeals for Church reform but few have been as well, and as respectfully,
presented as Father Schmit’s.
Differing opinions and views have been expressed within the Church as
far back as its very beginnings (Acts of the Apostles, Letters of St.
Paul, etc.). Jesus did not leave us with a detailed plan of growth, organization,
or development.
However, he did send and bless us with the gift of the Holy Spirit which
is poured forth onto all who have been baptized in his name. This gift
was not given just to the hierarchy or a chosen few, but to all who believe
and were baptized. The Holy Spirit was given to guide his Church, not
just the hierarchy.
The history of the Church contains numerous instances where it was the
laity which corrected and redirected the hierarchy to the truth. We may
be at another such watershed.
The time of “We are the Church (Vatican) who receive the truth and
know best, so shut up, listen, and do as you are told without discussion
or question” is long gone. This no longer flies in a Church of educated
and informed members. The more the Church hierarchy loses contact, trust,
and the respect of the laity the more members move away from the Church.
Unless the hierarchy recognizes that the laity are blessed by the Holy
Spirit and should be heeded, they are on a road of self destruction.
Clifford Wiesner
Concord
No place for intolerance
Doug Zeitz’s reaction (Forum, June 7) to Father Ron Schmit’s
commentary (Voice, May 10) and Zeitz’s detailing of “attacks
on the Mystical Body of Christ” were thinly veiled homophobia and
misogyny.
Mr. Zeitz misconstrued clergy child abuse as “homosexual abuse of
predominantly teenage young men.” He describes the preaching of
parish priests as clergy “seducing into homosexuality” our
youth. And the future for women in the priesthood is an impossibility
in his worldview.
The Mystical Body of Christ embraces all men and women of faith. Intolerance
is what again drives the nails into Christ’s hands and feet!
Jim Erickson
Via email
Homilies should teach
Studies show the dismal state of knowledge and appreciation among Catholics
of the great treasure of faith that they hold. The need for catechesis
and Pope John Paul’s New Evangelization is overwhelmingly apparent.
Since Vatican II, many homilies have been based on the readings of the
day. We have been subjected to way too many lectures on how to be a better
person, love of neighbor and social justice. Not to demean this, but I
contend it is part of the problem.
Before the Council, most homilies were designed to teach the Catholic
faith and morals. I remember many sermons on heaven, hell contraception,
confession, the Real Presence, etc. How often today do you hear a homilist
explain the fundamentals of Catholicism, the Mass, the Creed, the sacraments?
Where else can Catholics be catechized other than Sunday Mass?
We alone have Tradition, the Magisterium and accurate biblical interpretations
to rely on. Non-Catholics have only personal opinions and private interpretations
of the bible, no Tradition (unwritten teachings of Jesus) or Magisterial
teaching authority.
Father Ron Schmit (Voice, May 10) blames the “imperial” Church
structure, feels “sad and empty” and wants to change it, feeling
that the Council has been sidelined. Maybe he needs some “catechization.”
Or maybe false interpretations of the Council are the problem. I applaud
Bishop Cordileone for promulgating guidelines for catechist formation
in our diocese (Voice, May 24). Now it’s time to focus on homilies
and make more of them catechetical.
John Lewis
Brentwood
Answer Vatican II call
Father Ron Schmit’s excellent commentary, “The institutional
Church, again in a crucible, needs reform” (Voice, May 10) bears
further comment.
While Father Schmit states that the “laity has taken seriously the
call of Vatican II to be Church and that lay movements are mushrooming
all over the Church,” all Catholics should be asking why a deaf
ear is being given to the call.
So what is the laity to do? Let’s follow the exhortation of the
late Archbishop Fulton Sheen: “It is up to you, the people. You
have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church.”
Thus instructed, check out the American Catholic Council (http://americancatholiccouncil.org),
“a movement bringing together a network of individuals, organizations
and communities to consider the state and future of our Church. We believe
our Church is at a turning point in its history. We recall the promise
of the Second Vatican Council for a renaissance of the roles and responsibilities
of all the baptized through a radically inclusive and engaged relationship
between the Church and the world.”
The American Catholic Council is currently preparing for a national gathering
which is to take place in Detroit in June 2011. Start or join a local
assembly community network. It is our Church.
Rodger Powers, SFO
Jerry Fried
Via email
An ethical decision
The May 24th issue of The Voice picked up an article from Catholic News
Service about Sister Margaret Mc Bride, a nurse and senior hospital administrator
at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, who was “automatically
excommunicated” by the bishop.
She was on-call for the hospital Ethics Committee when a 27-year-old woman
was admitted. The patient was 11 weeks pregnant and so gravely ill with
pulmonary hypertension that she couldn’t be moved to another hospital.
The Ethics Committee met and concluded there was no way to keep the mother
from declining long enough for the fetus to be viable and that if they
did not allow the pregnancy to be terminated, the mother would almost
certainly die. Sister Margaret concurred in that decision. She was excommunicated
because “The mother’s life cannot be preferred over the child’s,”
according to the bishop’s communication office.
People are not excommunicated for killing in self-defense, for killing
in wartime, sometimes for killing the innocent. There are other instances
as well where the principle of double-effect comes into play. This is
not the same as “the end justifies the means.”
The intention here was to save the mother’s life. To achieve that,
the pregnancy was terminated. Was this an easy decision; a simple moral
dilemma? No, of course not! Would a more ethical choice have been to allow
the pregnancy to continue and result in the deaths of mother and child?
I doubt it.
The way this incident has been handled by the bishop seems completely
heavy-handed and punitive. The medical ethics director of the Diocese
of Phoenix suggests further that Sister. Margaret should be expelled from
her order.
This is a woman who has spent her life in service to others (She was one
of my students at Mercy High School in San Francisco years ago) and showed
courage in a difficult circumstance. Religious women and women in general
are subject often to decisions and judgments of a paternalistic hierarchy,
many of whom are far removed from the vineyard and grass roots of the
People of God.
We don’t hear that pedophile priests have been excommunicated and
few have been ousted from their communities. Sister Margaret has been
reassigned at the bishop’s request. It’s a sad story
Marilynne Homitz
Piedmont
Stop focus on nuns
When will the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops or individual bishops
remove their magnifying glasses focused on nuns on ethics committees (Voice,
May 24) and instead issue proclamations of excommunication on any Catholics
involved in such things as torture and especially modern warfare tactics
such as drone attacks?
Have you ever heard them do so? Not only are there fetuses inside their
murdered mothers’ wombs killed in these attacks, but scores of children
and other innocents.
Eartha Newsong
Orinda
Excommunication hurts all
Let us stop excommunicating each other. Our Church is wounded and all
we do is inflict more hurt.
Sister Margaret Mary McBride in Arizona made a courageous decision to
save a mother’s life (Voice, May 24). She was one of many brave
people on a panel who make hard medical and ethical decisions every day.
I happen to think she made the right decision; the bishop who excommunicated
her thinks she made the wrong decision. He is much more powerful than
a thousand people who think like I do—but our voices must be heard.
What is wrong here is that a moral principle that the bishop quoted “.
. . the end does not justify the means” did not respect the life
and love of the woman’s family in the brutal choice that had to
be made.
The voice, intellect, and understanding of women must have the respect
and the power to make decisions at all levels in our Church.
Lauren Rettagliata
Danville
Error corrected
A letter from me (Forum, May 24) under the heading “Faulty new translation”
contains an error. Father Michael Ryan’s article cited there appeared
in America magazine for Dec. 14, 2009, not Commonweal as I incorrectly
stated. It later appeared in a slightly different form in The Tablet.
I regret the error.
Michael J. Cassidy
Oakland
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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