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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

February 1998 LETTERS

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Allyson Smith's front-page piece about Catholic-bashing on KGB radio ("There's a Group Called the Catholic League and They Hate Everybody," January) was of course disutrbing but not surprising. Every American bigot seems to have sensed that the Catholic Church is the last resource of politically allowable sacrilege. Now that our compassion-mongers have declared Jews, Indians, and blacks virtually untouchable (baseball teams such as the Indians and Braves may soon have to change their names, and usage of the dreaded N-word now ranks as a crime as heinous as blowing up a crowded federal building), what else can blabbermouths do but ridicule those at the bottom of the totem pole? And it was good of you to supply faces to those miscreant voices heard on the air. Your website photo of this unwholesome trio reminded me of Larry, Moe, and Curly of yesteryear, although the Stooges' faces were far more innocent and likable. How unlike them is the smugly arrogant look on the face of Dave Rickards.

There's an interesting connection between anti-Catholic radio and your pro-life piece ("They Just Avert Their Eyes," January). The Catholic Church's doctrinal opposition to abortion is more strongly stated than any other religious group, a fact not lost on the KGB radio stooges. To those doing their utmost at keeping the sexual revolution in high gear, Catholic intransigence on abortion is an outrage they cannot abide. The miscreants are keenly aware that recreational sex requires unquestioned allegiance to the moral legitimacy of abortion. This is why part of the libertine's code of conduct is (and I would bet anything it is Mr. Rickards' as well) enthusiastic affirmation to a woman's right to abortion.

Abortion allows the moral leper total freedom of conscience as he pursues his interests in using women. To keep his conscience at bay and his lust for promiscuity well satisfied, he must sustain a campaign of ridicule and hate-mongering against that which would expose him for the low-life he really is. If the audience loves it, then they occupy the same moral sinkhole.

And if people avert their eyes from vigilant pro-lifers, it is because they elicit shame from even the loosest conscience.

-- H.V. Nussey
North Park


TWO HUNDRED-SEVENTY EUCHARISTIC MINISTERS OUT OF 300 PEOPLE

Before I make a comment on Eucharistic ministers, I wish to commend Father Rich Simon's call to reverence ("We Might as Well Close the Church," January). I feel a resurgence to holiness, by taking back the sanctuary, replacing the table with an altar, and condemning the meal as St. Paul said in first Corinthians and bringing back the paschal sacrifice which we are required to believe in lest we be held in judgment.

The article concerning the abuse of Eucharistic ministers ("Too Many Extraordinary Ministers," January) did not go quite far enough. As I watched the Communion service one Sunday I noticed over 270 Eucharistic ministers out of 300 people coming up to receive Jesus. What I am talking about is that 90 percent of all the communicants took Jesus in their hands and proceeded to administer with unconsecrated hands to themselves. Yes, I believe the Eucharist should only be received via the mouth administered by only a priest or deacon. Canons 230 and 910 of the Code of Canon Law require that the appointment of the special ministers must be made by priests with the approval of the appropriate bishop. I've heard of a priest asking a member of the choir to distribute Jesus because the number of ministers present didn't meet his minimum.

My main point of contention is that not only are the priests guilty of the abuse concerning Eucharistic ministers but we are also culpable by appointing ourselves as Eucharistic ministers when we accept Jesus in our hands. Early Christians were martyred for believing in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist; would you be?

-- Jim Haddock
San Diego


WHAT A DISGRACE

It is quite obvious to me that the bishop and the administration at USD don't have the strength that true Faith brings to men. The gay community has tested them and they have caved in to the wicked pressure of those who won't be satisfied until they have pushed us all into "living" their deathstyle.

I'm writing, of course, about the appointment of Dr. Joseph Colombo as chairman of the religious studies department at USD ("USD to Appoint Homosexual Head of Religious Studies," December).

The Old Testament clearly shows God's rejection of their "lifestyle" (Genesis 19). In the New Testament, St. Paul reaffirms God's firm position, calling them "criminals" (I couldn't find this passage, but see I Corinthians 6,9).

When Dr. Colombo said, "I would choose to be gay again," in a sort of perverted version of the sacrament of Confirmation, he confirmed his initial choice made long ago. But Catholic Church leaders are not showing the strength that the sacrament is supposed to confer. They have caved in to a dark, shadowy threat of a "showdown of an unspecified nature." What a disgrace!

As a former student at USD, I'm now ashamed to say I attended school there.

-- Robert Manning
San Marcos


Correction

In "Not Many Acts as Egregious as This One" (December 1997), News Notes reported that California state attorney general Dan Lungren had requested the state Supreme Court to reconsider the parental consent law. Lungren did not make such a request. However, as a member of the Commission on Judicial Appointments, Lungren voted to confirm Ming Chin, who is pro-abortion, and Ron George, who was already on record as opposing parental consent. In September Chin and George both voted against the parental consent law.

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