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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

November 1998 LETTERS

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It is difficult to respond to Father Richard Perozich's letter "Call News Notes to Repentance" (September 1998) as regards to his friend Fr. White, as I do not have knowledge of the incident.

However, it seems to me News Notes has, over the years, followed his recommendations of exposing both the good and the bad that exists in our Catholic community, and has done so without interjecting personal opinion, either pro or con.

In his declaration of abuses that need exposing, I find the soul of a very worthy man of God. His concerns should be the concerns of all Catholics. His declaration, in the final paragraphs of his letter, of the need to expose the anti-Catholic activists and movements within our diocese, was a brave statement of his allegiance to God and His Church; and a true, protective concern for the souls of all Catholics. God bless you, Fr. Perozich.

-- Barbara E. Rodriguez
Oak Park


PUBLISHER'S NOTE

In response to letters from Father Richard Perozich in the September News Notes and from Celine McCoy in the October issue criticizing our coverage of Father Robert White's assignment, I maintain that the Father White case deserved reporting.

This was not a case of someone openly repenting gambling or drinking. Nor a case of someone who had committed sexual sins with someone of the same age. This was someone who solicited men "18 to 25, looking for a father figure."

Priestly pedophilia, especially in this diocese, has stained the priesthood and the Church and ruined lives of boys and young men. Reassigning a priest with such a predisposition without openly telling parishioners of St. Catherine Laboure seemed unjust, imprudent, and worth warning Catholic laity about. Does warning the public ruin Father White's life? Presumably not, if he is repentant; Americans, especially Catholics, in the 1990s are uncanny in their ability to forgive.

-- Jim Holman


SHEER LUNACY

Our eternal Father tells us every knee in heaven, on earth, and in hell shall bend to his son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Blessed Mother, who never had the least little fault or stain of sin, whose will from the very beginning of her life was always in perfect conformity with the will of God, prostrated herself in front of her divine son, from his very conception in her virginal womb. She, the all-perfect one, prostrated herself in front of Our Lord all the rest of her life and then in heaven.

The perfect angels in heaven prostrate themselves in front of Our Lord. The guardian angel of Portugal, when appearing to the three children of Fatima, Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco, to give them Holy Communion, left the chalice of Our Lord's blood and Our Lord suspended in the air while prostrating himself on the ground before Our Eucharistic Lord.

The prophets, apostles, saints, and just in heaven prostrate themselves in front of Our Lord Jesus Christ. But we, who are sinners and the vile dust of the earth, are told we can stand at the consecration ("Please Remain Standing," September), when the almighty and eternal God condescends to come down from the height and majesty of heaven to be with his pathetic children on earth. Can this be anything but sheer lunacy?!

If the eternal Father were to make himself visible at his son's holy sacrifice of the Mass, would anyone dare say to him, "No, I will not kneel in the presence of your beloved son"? If Our Lord were to show himself to us in all his majesty, glory, power, and might -- the way his mother, the angels, and saints see him -- what would you do? How would you act? Can you doubt you would be impelled to prostrate yourself in front of your God? Well, this is the very same God hidden in the most Blessed Sacrament on the altar.

It is our Catholic tradition to kneel at the coming of Our Lord. You could say it started with our Blessed Mother's prostrating herself before her divine son at his conception in her womb. St. Paul warns us to hold fast to the truth and to our sacred traditions. We must do this even if we are the very last person in our parish or even in the world doing so. This short little life we have here on earth is the test of where we will spend eternity. If we fail, it's eternal agony. If we pass, it's eternal bliss. Surely the easiest task we will ever have here on earth is to kneel in the presence of our beloved Lord and Savior, the cause of our joy.

-- Elizabeth M. DeCristofaro
Escondido


ACADEMY OF MARIOLOGY AT USD?

I would would like to throw my hat in the ring and offer a proposal to the University of San Diego. St. Maximilian Kolbe was considered by Pope John Paul II as the apostle of our difficult age and heir apparent to the mantle of St. Louis Marie DeMonfort in understanding the deeper mysteries of the Mother of God, especially under the title she claimed at Lourdes to St. Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception." Kolbe's basic discovery: Mary the Immaculata is the chief visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit's presence in the Church, the universal instrument of the Spirit's mission to unite all men to Christ our Savior. Our pope consecrated his pontificate to her, emblazoning it on his coat of arms, the very same consecration made by Kolbe: "Totus tuus!" "All yours, O Mary!" Kolbe's sacrifice of his life for another at Auschwitz cut short his dream to found a Marian academy where theologians would study Mary not only for the sake of simple, abstract truth, but also with a view to bringing souls to God. In Kolbe's own words:

"Who and what is the Immaculata? Who can understand her perfectly? Mary is the Mother of God, the Immaculate One, or better yet, the Immaculate Conception as she wishes to be known at Lourdes. We all understand what 'Mother' means; but 'Mother of God' is something that our reason and our limited intellect cannot really grasp. So, too, only God really understands what 'immaculate' means. 'Immaculate Conception' is an expression that abounds in the most consoling mysteries.

"If the Immaculata wills it, we shall found an Academy of Mariology in order to study, teach, and publish throughout the world what the mystery of the Immaculata really contains. We shall have an Academy delivering diplomas in Mariology. This is as yet a largely unexplored field; yet it is very necessary to work at it for the sake of its importance in everyday life, in the task of converting and sanctifying souls." (Letter to Fr. Anthony Vivoda, April 4, 1933)

What more suitable place for this Academy of Mariology than the university surrounding the Immaculata, the symbol in stone of her unique manifestation of the Holy Spirit's presence? Look inside the church and see how Bishop Buddy foresaw the role of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom depicted as the source and object of enlightenment for all the students who would come to this "fortress on the hill" from all over the world seeking her wisdom. The Immaculata was designed as a chapel for the students. Only those who are children at heart are open to the mysteries contained therein. (Many of those mysteries have been removed over the years by those who didn't understand, who were not "little ones.")

So, I challenge the university to be as farsighted and transcendent as its founders, Bishop Buddy and Mother Rosalie Hill, RSCJ, and work toward fulfilling their dream, which, from all they wrote and all the clues they left us, is the same as the dream of St. Maximilian Kolbe. Now is the time to be everything God wants us to be.

-- Rosemary Getty, OCDS
USD School of Law

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