LETTERS

Little Notes

Confessions
Talk About Movies
Roamin' Catholic
Follow Me




Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

November 1997 LETTERS

---

I was somewhat puzzled by your article featuring several misguided ex-Catholics recounting the same old, tired satanic excuses for leaving the true Christian Church ("The Bible Made Me Do It," October). I thought the name of the newspaper was News Notes for Lay Catholics. What's with the regular, Protestant attacks on the Church? Next we'll probably have to read an article on the reasons Martin Luther left the Church. Whose side are you people on, anway?

The assumption of the interviewees seems to be that the true Church may become something other than the true Church merely by the desires and whims of a few disgruntled malcontents. The Church is not a popularity contest or a do-it-yourself spirituality organization. The world turns, but Jesus Christ and His Church remain the same. If an individual is bored or disenchanted with the Church, it is usually because she has her own agenda and ego at work rather than the spirit of charity and searching for the truth through the Holy Spirit. Most of these people want to "feel good" rather than have the truth.

In any event, the Magisterium, with guidance from the Holy Spirit, will decide what is best for the Church on the large scale. Individuals can choose the method for expressing their spirituality within this flexible Church structure. If the malcontents want to make new rules and change doctrine, however, they should obtain positions in the Magisterium. Otherwise, good riddance.

-- Richard Vattuone
La Jolla


PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS WHO ATTACKED AND UNDERMINED THE FAITH

Why did News Notes publish under the misleading headline "The Bible Made Me Do It" (October) those stories of several people who have left the Catholic Faith? The crowning tragedy of their stories is that these people really do believe that the Bible made them do it.

I am delighted that these people have grown in their understanding of and commitment to Jesus. But the idea that "It all came together" as a Biblical message to reject the Catholic Faith simply demonstrates how much they still need to grow in understanding both the Bible and the Catholic Faith.

The truth is that ignorance of the Catholic Faith and ignorance of the Bible is what allowed these people to be deceived into their present belief that there is a conflict between the Bible and the Catholic Faith. Like Esau, they have sold their birthright through a failure to understand and recognize its value.

The aptness of Bishop Sheen's scathing remark about going to a secular university where you will have to fight for your faith, rather than to "Catholic" institutions where you will have your faith stolen from you ("Clips," October), is the scandal of our day. That remark almost sums up the story of my own life as a teenage convert to Catholicism until this present day. I cannot number all those Catholic priests and religious who attacked and undermined the Faith in countless subtle and deceitful ways during my journey of growth in God's Holy Catholic Faith.

Of course, there were also faithful priests, religious, and lay people who helped me on my journey. Many times have I thanked God for His gift of the Catholic Faith to me, and marveled at the glut of obstacles that arose since I squeaked into His Holy Church.

-- Jim Harris
Clairemont


I STAND BY MY EARLIER STATEMENT

I want to thank you for your generally fair and accurate reporting of my recent change in ministries [see "Deacon Now a Priest, His Wife Now a Deacon", October].

There is, however, one item I would like to correct for the record. When Mr. Zehnder contacted me in August, I did not deny I had left the Roman Church. In reply to his question, "Have you joined the 'African-American' Free Church?" I stated, "That is not accurate."

I am not aware of an "African-American Free Church" and I have certainly not joined it. Therefore, I stand by my earlier statement, which was not a denial of leaving the Roman Church, but rather a denial of joining a church of which I have no knowledge.

-- Rev. Jonathan P. Connor, Ph.D.
St. Thomas the Doubter Free Catholic Church
Downtown


NOT ONLY WEIRD BUT TOTALLY INSANE

I had never read your paper till I picked it up at Barnes & Noble today. I want to thank you for the superb article about supposedly brain-dead people ("Is Brain-Dead Really Dead?", October). Having had some experience in the field of neurology, I am grateful that this article will awaken many people.

Some of the articles in "Little Notes" about the homosexual sympathies of certain priests were hard to take. Father Waibel's remarks that heterosexual men cannot fall in love with Jesus Christ because they are "homophobic," and that Our Lord wants us to love Him in an erotic manner convinced me that Father Waibel is not only weird but he is also totally insane. Who let him out of the cage? [See Little Notes, October.]

I suppose having sprung from an ancestry in which we were Christian and Roman as early as the second half of the First Century should make me consider myself a superlative Christian. Centuries of ancestors who were priests, bishops, missionaries, nuns, etc. should make me feel proud. No. I am concerned not only about what is happening to the Roman Catholic Church but also to the evangelicals, charismatics, Episcopalians, and every other church in Christendom. The idea that there are two billion "Christians" is a farce. If there were 100 million real Christians, the world would be saved. The butchery called abortion, the contempt for everything that is holy, the hatred for life -- all of this indicates mass apostacy. News Notes is well-intentioned, but I hope that you can reconcile Catholics. Criticism is good and is needed. But we need to united all Christians against the pro-death culture. Somehow. out of this darkness, we can emerge into a higher plateau of light.

-- Michael Praetorius
San Diego


THESE CLEARLY REPRESENT HATE CRIMES

Twice recently I have encountered individuals expressing intense anti-Catholic sentiment. This occurred at the San Diego Mission de Alcala's Festival of the Bells, and again one week later at the Presidio. These activities included many families who had come to worship and also to provide their children with the opportunity to partake in joyous Catholic ceremonies. Instead, the impressionable young minds of our children were exposed to encounters with anti-Catholicism.

I feel that these clearly represent hate crimes according to California Penal Code 422.6:

"A HATE CRIME is an ACT, or threatened act BY ANY PERSON OR GROUP OF PERSONS to cause physical injury, EMOTIONAL SUFFERING, or property damage AGAINST THE PERSON or property of another individual or group which is or appears to be MOTIVATED, all or in part, BY race, RELIGION, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. These crimes include, but are not limited to threatening phone calls, hate mail, physical assaults, vandalism, cross burning, fire bombings, or DESTRUCTION OF OTHER RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS" (emphases mine).

Initially, I felt offended and attacked by these crusaders, but have since developed pity for such misdirected individuals. Rather than upholding honorable Christian behavior (i.e., the Golden Rule), they perpetrate hate and distolerance against others who are different from themselves. We must not permit their right to freedom of speech to impinge upon our freedom of religious practice.

These poor, wayward souls have demonstrated that they desperately need our prayers as well as God's guidance. We as Catholics have the responsibility of maintaining our faith and thereby behaving as role models of loving compassion for our neighbors whose paths have gone astray and no longer follow's Christ's teachings.

-- Patricia Short
San Diego


JESUS IN THE CENTER

Thank you for printing Marie Finn's entire letter ("Little Notes," September). I agree with her statement about putting Jesus in the center of our churches.

-- Margaret Schmidt
Rancho Bernardo

TOP