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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

October 1999 LETTERS

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Just a little note to thank you for publishing James Hitchcock's article on the priesthood. (September News Notes"He Was the Last One I Would Have Expected"). He did such a great job of assessing all the factors that have influenced the situation as we have lived through it. There really is a lot of hope with the new candidates for the priesthood now. In fact it is amazing to experience their desire for what the priests of the 50's and early 60's lived. Deo Gratias. God's providence is always perfect!

Local Benedictine Nun

DON'T ROMANTICIZE

Another story about how great the pre-Vatican II Church was (James Hitchcock, "He Was the Last One I Would Have Expected"). If the Church of the 1950s was so wonderful, where did the horrible post-Vatican II Church come from? Not out of thin air. I've heard enough stories from priests who talk about how mechanically the Tridentine Mass was said, how Jansenist the climate of moral theology was (did I swallow toothpaste and break my pre-Communion fast?) that it makes me not want to romanticize any historical period.

Sure, we may not have had the external horrors of pedophile priests, clown Masses, but was the holiness we saw with long confession lines and large familes internalized? How could we ever be sure?

Harry Johnston
Mira Mesa

FROM A NEWS NOTES ADVERTISER

I have been sending ads in for about a year in the Free Boxes. I want to thank you again for running my ads. This E-mail is to let you know that as of last night I was allowed to release the news that the Vatican has authorized a Telephone Calling Card with a picture of Pope John Paul II and includes a message and signature as well. The card will be offered in the U.S. soon. The retail price is going to be $18.75 for 75 minutes of calling time. This is a Limited Edition card and might have a collectors value over time. I invite you to view my information on this card at web site http://www.rebates4you.com/insurance/pope.html. Thank you again for posting my ads.

Herb Cohen
Agent for card distributor.

IF THE DIOCESE APPROVES

How dare you criticize the nuns running La Providencia in Alpine [See The Labyrinth and New Age Nuns, September, 1999 News Notes].They have given up their lives to serve the Church; have you? We have enough free-lance critics within the Catholic Church in America. If the diocese has given its approval to the labyrinth (and it must have if this retreat house in listed in the diocesan directory), your role should not be to tear down the Body of Christ.

Lilian Hernandez
Chula Vista

TEMPTED TO BE HERMIT

I was very happy to read Mr. James McCoy's stories on Hollywood luring teenagers and the surprisingly wholsome Catholic masseuse (See R-Rated, September 1999, News Notes). Too often Catholic papers like yours lapse into the witchhunt of heretics (an easy job in the U.S. these days), or some kind of intra-Church squabble that we hoi polloi couldn't care less about.

The moral battles of today are outside the Church, on the sidewalks, where massage and new age gobbledygook are everywhere. I couldn't believe this young woman can survive surrounded by all the psychobabble.

I think pastors of Catholic churches should make their older churchgoing congregations sit through a teen raunch movie like American Pie to see what their kids are fed. It's a wonder any kid could remain celebate with that kind of cultural pressure.

I am sometimes tempted to become a hermit, or when I get married take my bride and any future children to the South Pole. But Mr. McCoy's stories remind me that, no, we have to stay here in the world that Christ was incarnated into and deal with individuals and concrete powers that confront us.

Best,
Lou Weston
San Diego

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